The Inc. Magazine has a great article on all the ways that social media is beneficial to business in their efforts to market better, increase web site traffic, improve SEO and generate more leads. While the original article was published in 2010, the points made are even truer today than they were 2 years ago.

Visit the Inc.com web site to read the full article on how social media positively impacts the bottom line.

Just when marketers had finally figured out the best ways to utilize Page Tabs on Facebook business pages, along comes Facebook to throw a monkey wrench into things. As of March 30, 2012, all Facebook fan pages were converted to the new Timeline look – like it or not. Until then, page owners could preview the new look and figure out all they need to do in order to take full advantage of the new features.

At the same time, Business Page admins have had to accept the loss of things like the beloved Default Landing Tab which many marketers had used as a Facebook “home page” showing an overview of the company or organization and encouraging users to Like the page while there.

Here are the main elements to consider with Timeline-based Facebook Business Pages:

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We’ve compiled a list of business directory web sites on which you can list your business on for free. The benefit of adding a listing to sites like this is that it increases your SEO by giving your site better link “popularity” – a key element that Google takes into account when determining rankings for particular keywords.

A lot of the sites we’ve included are relevant to Canadian or Vancouver-based businesses, but you can easily find sites specific to your area by doing a Google search for terms like “free business directory” and the name of your city.

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We’ve seen companies of all shapes and sizes across a wide spectrum of industries. In spite of their differences, all share a common goal – to market in a way that most effectively speaks to the target audience.

Right now, you may be thinking, “Wow, these guys are masters of the obvious!”, but not all is as it seems, Grasshopper, so please bear with us…

Like everyone on our fair planet, clients have their own thoughts, opinions and preferences about any and everything from politics and religion to car brands, vacation spots, and even their ever-so-personal, paragraph-long designer coffee order. We, too, are guilty of producing more than our fair share of strong opinions. Fortunately, like lawyers and professional critics, we chose a career that pays us for unleashing them on unsuspecting passersby…

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If you manage a service-based business, you’re certainly aware of how ineffective some traditional product-based marketing approaches can be in promoting your company. The fact is, if you provide a service rather than a product, it can be downright detrimental to your company’s reputation and the perceived value of your service to use product-based marketing techniques.

Service businesses differ from tangible-goods companies in many ways. Many service companies focus their marketing efforts on the goal of instilling the proper perceived value of the service – the customer must feel – must KNOW – that their life will be made easier, better or richer in some way from using the service.  Since the customer, in many cases, won’t walk out of your office with a tangible product in-hand, this emotional connection is an imperative element in service marketing. The (sometimes) unfortunate reality is that service providers have to work many times harder than their product-offering counterparts to persuade the consumer of the service’s intrinsic value.

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You may hear many creative types express that they feel working on “corporate” projects is boring, limiting and stuffy. However, the more restrictive a project’s guidelines, the greater the challenge to turn out some great work. Let’s face it. Anyone can make sports, cars and video games look cool in print or on the web.

But, the real test of a firm’s creative capabilities is the ability to make more mundane subject matter engaging to the target audience. Presentation plays a crucial role in forming the impression your piece has on a viewer and color, placement, size and texture can all influence them to take a closer look.

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A little free press can go a long way in helping get the word out about your business. Networking in Vancouver has a great article on their web site that is a summary of a presentation given by a PR expert that helps break down the process of getting free publicity for your company into three easy steps:

1. Know Your Angle
2. Know Your Target
3. Pick Up the Phone

Be sure to visit the Networking in Vancouver to read the full article and check out more great content and business networking opportunities.

If you’re anything like us, your e-mail in-box can get pretty full, pretty quickly. Just when you think you’ve tamed the torrent of incoming messages, you open your mailbox to see it full once again. At times, it can seem like a never-ending battle of wills.

Over the past week, we decided to take determined action to reduce our volume of e-mail, a lot of which consisted of newsletters and mailing lists we signed up for over the years. While a lot of the lists still provide interesting content, the fact of the matter is that many times, the messages would simply be deleted without opening them. So, why keep receiving them only to have to take the time to send them to the trash folder?

One way to manage the clutter of a business e-mail box is to create a separate e-mail account specifically for subscriptions to newsletters and signing up for accounts on various sites. We decided to do this as one part of a two-pronged approach for the accounts we wanted to keep and the newsletters we wanted to continue to receive – all while keeping those messages separate from more important business-related correspondence. The other step would simply be to unsubscribe from the lists we weren’t reading any longer. Sensible (and easy) enough, or so you would think…

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You may have seen these strange-looking boxes popping up more and more in magazines, and newspapers, web sites, business cards, signs and retail store displays. They are called QR codes, which stands for “Quick Response”.

While they may seem like a new invention, QR codes have actually been around since 1994, primarily used in Asia and Japan, where they were invented.

QR codes allow a smart phone user to scan the code with an app installed on their phone – Red Laser is our app of choice – and be given an option to view a specified URL or save contact information embedded in the code. This frees the user from having to manually type in a web site address or contact information, which makes them more likely to view the information embedded in the code.

Another part of the QR code’s allure is the mystery of what’s behind the code. Will it be a video, photo, web site or someone’s contact information? Scan the code to find out!

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Facebook has quickly become a force to be reckoned with on the Internet. And, for businesses who use social media to market themselves, Facebook is often a big focus in those efforts.

Everyone knows that people like a good deal (and freebies, especially!), so why not incorporate one into your social marketing efforts? Facebook is now offering their Deals to businesses with Facebook Places pages. It could be something as small as a free cup of coffee, a reusable shopping bag or something more extravagant. Get creative!

Find out more about how you can offer a special incentive to people who visit and “check in” at your place of business by watching the walkthrough video on Facebook.