The bMighty Blog -- Sales/Marketing

Customer Service, the Web 2.0 Way

Posted by Naomi Grossman 12:37 PM ET | Jul 25, 2008

Are you still not convinced that using Web 2.0 tools to get in touch with your customers is incredibly effective? Check out Comcast's "digital care manager" whose sole job is to troll the Web responding to negative comments about the company. Yes, Comcast is a large enterprise but what this guy is doing is something your smaller business could do on a smaller scale.

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Business & E-Business | Internet/Web | Sales/Marketing

The Crowd Will Judge The Best PowerPoint Presentation

Posted by Benjamin Tomkins 05:09 PM ET | Jul 23, 2008

For modern business, the presentation has reached iconic status: we celebrate, debate, and decorate presentations -- elevate them to iconic status. Hyperbole? Perhaps, but how many contests do you see for spreadsheets or word processing? Flickering, projected images haunt our collective business conscious as we mouth the words "next slide" in unison. If you haven't thrown your latest, greatest presentation into the ring, you best hurry: the entry window for the World's Best Presentation Contest closes next week.

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Sales/Marketing

Boston-Area Startups, Get Your 15 Minutes

Posted by Naomi Grossman 09:50 AM ET | Jul 16, 2008

For smaller businesses, it's all about getting noticed. Well, if you're a Boston-area tech startup, here's your chance to get your 15 minutes in the spotlight. InformationWeek's Startup City TV crew is coming to the Bay State and they've got more spots to fill.

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Company Size: 1-49 | Internet/Web | Sales/Marketing | Strategy/Analysis/Biz Dev

Marketing 101: Add Video to Your Web Site

Posted by Naomi Grossman 11:53 AM ET | Jul 14, 2008

Online video -- when done well -- is an incredibly effective marketing tool. But you knew that already. But did you know that small and midsize businesses, can now more easily, and affordably, get in on the action?

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Sales/Marketing

Why Business Blogs Suck -- And How To Make Sure Yours Doesn't

Posted by Fredric Paul 04:28 PM ET | Jul 10, 2008

Business blogging can't that hard, right? After all, this Fredric Paul character does it, so it can't be rocket science. Well, maybe it's tougher than it looks. According to a new research report, most BtoB blogs are "dull," "drab", "unimaginative" "failures."

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Internet/Web | Sales/Marketing

Gauging The ROI For Online Video

Posted by Benjamin Tomkins 06:43 PM ET | Jun 17, 2008

Just because online video is new or cool or sexy or hot, doesn't mean it's a good use of scarce time and resources to promote your business, expand your client base, sell products and services, or instill customer loyalty. But that doesn't mean it's not either.

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Company Size: 1-49 | Internet/Web | Sales/Marketing

Online Advertising Outlook: Revenue Up, Revenue Down -- You Choose

Posted by Benjamin Tomkins 11:28 AM ET | Jun 12, 2008

The revenue figures for first quarter online advertising are in and depending upon your perspective, the glass is half full, half empty, or has a big crack in it. But that doesn't mean there's not money to be made.

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Company Size: 1-49 | Entrepreneurs | Internet/Web | Sales/Marketing

Web Conferencing Goes Open Source

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 11:02 AM ET | Jun 11, 2008

A few years ago, I put together a long article reviewing all of the major Web conferencing tools. It did not include any open-source options for a very simple reason: There weren't any. Today, however, it's a very different story.

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Cloud Computing | Hardware & Software | Internet/Web | Networking & Communications | Open Source | Sales/Marketing | Services

Don't Just Sell Your Company With Video, Sells Ads Too

Posted by Benjamin Tomkins 01:02 PM ET | Jun 10, 2008

Smart business leaders are always on the hunt for new ways to monetize assets. Now, there's an easy way to capture revenue from company-produced video -- that can be your advertising spots, your training sessions, heck even your elevator pitch.

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Company Size: 1-49 | Entrepreneurs | Sales/Marketing

How To Get Funders To Watch Your Elevator Pitch

Posted by Benjamin Tomkins 11:01 AM ET | Jun 6, 2008

Online video is hardly new -- if you're not posting videos to YouTube by now, odds are you've at least watched one. The evolution from intriguing novelty to valuable business tool is still underway, but startups and entrepreneurs now have more another outlet to connecting with the funding community without hitting the road.

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Company Size: 1-49 | Entrepreneurs | Internet/Web | Sales/Marketing

Texting For Dollars

Posted by Naomi Grossman 10:51 AM ET | Jun 2, 2008

Marketing is often where smaller businesses fall way short of their larger sized competitors. But there are ways for resourceful and creative smaller businesses to compensate: For instance, have you tried texting your customers? It's cheap and easy and it can get you the targeted attention your business craves.

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Mobile | Sales/Marketing

Women In Business Are A Hot Topic

Posted by Benjamin Tomkins 04:01 PM ET | May 28, 2008

Yesterday, on bMighty a businesswoman was front and center. Today, on SmallBizResource you'll find the third installment of Wednesday's Woman. A coincidence? Hardly. Women and business are hot and not likely to cool anytime soon.

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Entrepreneurs | Sales/Marketing | Women in Business | bMighty

Is Microsoft About to Change How Search Gets Done?

Posted by Naomi Grossman 11:43 AM ET | May 22, 2008

Microsoft has offered to pay consumers who use its Livesearch engine to find and buy stuff. For smaller businesses, the important question is this: Is this going to change how search gets done?

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Business & E-Business | Internet/Web | Retail | Sales/Marketing

Top 10 Small Business Marketing Frustrations

Posted by Fredric Paul 09:11 PM ET | May 20, 2008

Did you know there is something called the 2008 U.S. Small Business Marketing Frustration Survey? Neither did I 'till it turned up in my Inbox. Apparently, the biggest issue is the inability to consistently follow up with prospects.

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Sales/Marketing

MOLI's Multitasking Approach to Social Networking for Smaller Business

Posted by Benjamin Tomkins 09:00 PM ET | May 20, 2008

With today's launch of a small business center, MOLI has set its sights on some the people least likely have a distinction between work and personal life: those in smaller businesses.

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Business & E-Business | Company Size: 1-49 | Entrepreneurs | Internet/Web | Professional/Creative Services | Sales/Marketing

Facebook Just Might Be the Smaller Business' Best Marketing Tool

Posted by Naomi Grossman 11:13 AM ET | May 20, 2008

If you are among those who firmly believe that Facebook offers nothing to business but a way for their employees to waste time, you are not alone. But as the social networking tool grows in popularity, it seems increasingly likely that it could be redefining the whole concept of marketing.

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Hardware & Software | Networking & Communications | Sales/Marketing

Still Laughing at Twitter? You Might Be Laughing All the Way Past the Bank

Posted by Naomi Grossman 10:59 AM ET | May 16, 2008

Of all the social networking services, who would have thought Twitter, with its mini messages being sent with an immediacy that often belies that content, would be touted as a useful business tool? Smaller businesses, you might not want to pass this one by.

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Business & E-Business | Mobile | Sales/Marketing

It's All About the Keywords

Posted by Naomi Grossman 10:26 AM ET | May 15, 2008

Search engine marketing is one of the most effective ways to get customers and clients to your Web site. But if your site isn't popping up high on those searches, there is almost always one thing you're doing wrong: It all comes down to choosing the right keywords.

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Business & E-Business | Internet/Web | Sales/Marketing

Should Smaller Businesses Twitter? Some Say Yes

Posted by Naomi Grossman 11:13 AM ET | May 13, 2008

Social networking has met its match in Twitter, whose dedicated users are fixated on SMS-ing or IM-ing their "tweets" in the small space allotted by the messaging service. But what can a smaller business do with the 140 character limit to generate business? Apparently, a lot.

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Mobile | Networking & Communications | Sales/Marketing

Stamp Costs Are Up. E-Mail Costs Are Not

Posted by Naomi Grossman 11:33 AM ET | May 12, 2008

The US Postal Service is increasing the costs of stamps again. It'll now cost you 42 cents to mail a letter -- and you'll have to dig deeper to mail other items also. But the price of sending an e-mail hasn't changed.

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Hardware & Software | Sales/Marketing

Web Text: They're Not Reading Much So Keep it Short

Posted by Naomi Grossman 11:29 AM ET | May 8, 2008

Recent research into the reading habits of the average Internet user reveals what we've all long suspected: those visitors to your site are not reading much. The lesson for smaller businesses is obvious: Tighten up that copy and remember to make those words that you put up there count.

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Business & E-Business | Internet/Web | Sales/Marketing

Web 2.0: Videos Can Give Smaller Businesses an Edge

Posted by Naomi Grossman 11:41 AM ET | May 5, 2008

On the Internet, nobody knows youýre a dog, goes the famous New Yorker cartoon. Nobody has to know youýre a smaller business either ý and videos are one of the most effective ways to look bigger and impress the search engines, if you do it right.

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Business & E-Business | Sales/Marketing

Seething Booth Envy at Interop

Posted by Benjamin Tomkins 08:37 PM ET | May 1, 2008

The surreal world of trade show meshes effortlessly with Las Vegas' disposable facades. With more than 500 tech businesses shoehorning their brands into artificially constrained spaces, jealously of all kinds oozes through the partition walls over booth size, location, and entertainment spectacle; size matters, but it all comes to down to the realtor's mantra of location, location, location.

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Sales/Marketing

Interop Swag Wars

Posted by Benjamin Tomkins 10:13 AM ET | Apr 30, 2008

As at any trade show, there are new products, new services, metric tons of backgrounders, spec sheets, and brochures, buzzwords, and cadres of corporate clans marching along in matching polo shirts. But with all that eye candy to spin your head every stroll across the show floor, it's the take home swag that keeps on giving.

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Sales/Marketing

Web 2.0 Expo: How To Build A Wiki That Doesn't Suck

Posted by Fredric Paul 07:14 PM ET | Apr 26, 2008

"The Web is littered with dead wikis," admits SocialText CEO Eugene Lee. Here's how to make sure your wiki doesn't add to the junkpile.

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HR | IT | Internet/Web | Management | Messaging | Professional/Creative Services | Sales/Marketing