Need Help Marketing?

More and more individuals and even more small businesses are venturing into Social Media. So how do you get started?

Well usually the first step is to reserve your online name just like you have a custom domain name for your company. Doing so will ensure your online branding remains the same across your websites, and into social media networks as well. But how do you know if your username is going to be available? This is where KnowEm Username Check comes in. KnowEm goes out and registers the username of your product, company or brand online across many social networks saving you the time and reserving your account for future use.

In their own words:

KnowEm allows you to check for the use of your brand, product, personal name or username instantly across over 340 popular and emerging social media websites. Grab your name before someone else does.

Quick Username Search

Put another way KnowEm is trying to help businesses to register their usernames on social websites in advance. Which is quite similar to what has been happening with domain names in the last couple of years. Having your domain names and variations of those domain names is important to prevent identify theft. Both in terms of your individual name as well as for your business.

An example of what your business profile might look like:

To date KnowEm has helped to register (reserve) 100,000 user profiles on behalf of their users.

Several pricing plans are available too for both initial registration to full registration and responding to the verification emails, etc.  Plans for both Individuals and Companies are available.

At the very least you should be checking for the availability of your desired brand name. Because you may want to use it in the future on Twitter or Facebook to add to your marketing plans, thereby extending your reach. KnowEm and similar services are definitely worth looking into if you are not familiar with social media and which websites to focus on.

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Despite social media hype, SMBs still prefer resource centers and email newsletters as sources of business management advice

A recent study conducted by Bredin Business Information (BBI) concluded that small businesses  are still responsive to their vendors’ business advice. So that got me thinking. How many email newsletters do I receive that contain good business advice? Versus a lot of marketing and promotional material. And what is a good balance of advice that should be in your company’s newsletter.

We are talking about How-To-Articles here that convey market knowledge to your newsletter audience and customers. It really made me think about how many How To Articles are sent in our company emails. And I came up a bit blank because newsletters usually include company announcements and case studies but nothing that are actionable in terms of a “How To” type article. Definitely something to consider for 2010 newsletter content submissions. I better get started writing now.

The other key takeaway was the mention of industry news and how Small Businesses prefer to receive this information from their vendors. After all that is the industry and business we are in. So something to think about for future newsworthy topics. In fact 86% of the responses indicated industry related content was of utmost important when hearing from your suppliers. After all your customers expect you to have the pulse on your industry and the new trends.

Read more about the key results in the press release.

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