Small Business Trends |
- 4 Sustainability Trends Among Retailers
- Spending Too Much Time on Twitter
- Google Makes Business Photos Self-Service
- Great Tales of Entrepreneurship
| 4 Sustainability Trends Among Retailers Posted: 31 Jan 2012 11:30 AM PST Retailers face major challenges when it comes to sustainability. They source products made all over the world. They use lots of energy to keep stores well lit and comfortable. They sells products that could one day end up in landfills. But a new report from the Retail Industry Leaders Association says many retailers are taking bold steps to reduce their environmental footprints. It looks at some of the green trends and points to some success stories. While the report drew its findings from interviews with 20 major retailers – from IKEA to PetSmart – these practices are likely to affect smaller retailers as well. Here’s a look at four trends: 1. Looking closer at supply chains. More retailers are evaluating the sustainability of their suppliers, including energy use, hazardous material, greenhouse gas emissions and water use. Some even require manufacturers to produce an annual report, so they can better gauge their total environmental footprint and be more transparent with their customers. Many big retailers are relying on third-party organizations, including The Sustainability Consortium and the Fair Factories Clearinghouse, to help them conduct supplier reviews. 2. Focusing on end of life. Some retailers are getting more active in help consumers responsibly dispose of their products — and that’s because if they don’t, it’s very likely the items will end up in landfills. Target Corp. offers recycling centers in its stores for plastic bags and aluminum, among other materials. The Gap in 2010 collected 360,000 units of denim to be repurposed into home insulation. 3. Educating consumers. Retailers have to be careful not to inundate consumers with sustainability information – especially in stores. But they're finding ways to make it more engaging and transparent. WalMart's Love, Earth Jewelry collection, for instance, allows people to trace their jewelry's journey "from mine to market." Whole Foods and IKEA created their own green labels. 4. Engaging employees. Retailers are actively asking their employees to help them lower their environmental footprint – and that's tough: Retailers tend to have high turnover rates, which means employees don't feel quite as engaged in the business. But some have been quite successful. Some, like Walgreen, are forming green teams of employees passionate about sustainability or hosting volunteer drives to help with local environmental nonprofit efforts. What other sustainability measures are you seeing among retailers?
From Small Business Trends      |
| Spending Too Much Time on Twitter Posted: 31 Jan 2012 08:30 AM PST Many of us love engaging with our customers, industry folks and like-minded individuals on Twitter. Some of us also believe that time spent on Twitter translates to more awareness for our brand, and thus more customers. But how do we measure if it's working? Or how much time is too much time? Here are some of the things that have worked for me: Measure Your Chatter About six months ago, I came across a tool called Buffer. It basically allowed me to store tweets that I thought were worth sharing, and shoot them out at pre-determined times. This allowed me to catch up on news for 15 minutes in the morning, and share my thoughts and other links over the next 8-10 hours without having to go to Twitter. The real value in Buffer is the analytics feature. When I logged into Buffer at the end of the day, after the tweets had been sent, it showed me how many people had clicked on them and who retweeted them. This allowed me to learn what was appreciated by my audience and what times of the day got the most clicks. Do Not Chase Followers A higher number of followers translate into having a larger audience for your words and thoughts – agreed. But you will grow a much more meaningful base of followers – if folks follow you for your tweets, as opposed to a reciprocal follow. In other words, stick to organic content that can benefit people in some way, instead of following people by the hundreds and expecting a follow back. There are two good tools that can help you clean the clutter and follow relevant folks aligned with your interests: 1. Manage Flitter allows you to see who in your follow list is not following you back, and who is not an active user. You can use this tool every couple weeks to assess what kind of news feed you want to receive. 2. Twellow is a proactive tool that allows you to search for people by interests, industries and professions. You can get lists of people with their Twitter descriptions and can add them if you like. Don't Annoy People Too many Tweets might not be a good thing. Imagine if you were following someone who was hogging your feed all hours of the day. You might lose more followers with excessive, irrelevant posts. Here are three little tricks that you can use to have more weight with your followers: 1. Five Tweet rule: If you have a several article links or other data to share, stick to around five tweets a day (at three hour intervals using Buffer). Your followers will not be overwhelmed and might look forward to your links on an ongoing basis. You can answer questions and engage in conversations in addition to these five tweets. 2. Ask a question: This is a genuine way of engaging with real people rather than throwing information at them. If you have the right follower base, asking questions is the best way of introducing yourself and vetting out who wishes to remain engaged with you – this might give you a few pointers as to who you should write to about your next product update. 3. Personal Critique: Whether it's a person or a brand, posting negative tweets on a consistent basis might alienate your followers. You might have a valid reason but don't get too personal with your attacks. Keep it professional and polite. There is some charm in moderation. I know it's easy to fire off seven words and hit enter, but try to resist it – until you have something meaningful to say. From Small Business Trends     |
| Google Makes Business Photos Self-Service Posted: 31 Jan 2012 06:00 AM PST Back in May we told you about Google Business Photos, an effort by Google to pair small business owners up with professional photographers to take high-quality images of their business for their Google Places profile. At the time the program was only available in select cities so we encouraged SMBs not to wait for Google and to take their own photos. Today we tell you that if you didn't listen to us, you're in luck because Google just made the whole program self-service. So if you do want a professional photographer to come take photos of your business, here's your chance. Because of the success of the original pilot, Google has created a new Business Photos Web site so that small business owners can find a "trust photographer" in their area. SMBs can get started by finding a photographer from Google's list and then both parties work out a time and price on their own. Within days your photos will then be available on Google's properties. Google has essentially taken itself out of the equation and is now playing match-matcher between SMBs and photographers. A few things worth noting about the program: In its FAQ, Google does disclose that these photos may be used outside of just your Google Places profile, including possible Google Maps integration. By allowing a Google "trusted photographer" to take your business photos, you license the photos to Google to use. This probably isn't an issue for most SMBs who want their photos out there, but something to keep in mind for certain businesses. If you want full rights to your pictures, you may want to hire your own photographer and not go through Google. Something else to keep in mind is you won't have the ability to review the photos before they go live on your Google Place page. Again, from the Google FAQ:
However, if you find a major issue, you can ask Google to blur some areas of the panoramic images. You can also ask to have all panoramas removed, but they're unable to take down individual ones, which may be a bummer. Months after our original post, I still think small business owners are better off finding their own photographer rather than looping Google into the process. By doing your own legwork you can potentially find a photographer you can barter services with (allowing you to get the photos for free) and you get full control over how many photos are taken, which are used, and how they're used. Maybe I'm just paranoid but I don't see the value of bringing Google into the equation. However, if you're interested, Trusted Photographers is currently available in 14 US cities (Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Francisco/Bay Area, Seattle and Washington, DC.), as well as in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and France. Happy photo taking. From Small Business Trends     |
| Great Tales of Entrepreneurship Posted: 31 Jan 2012 02:30 AM PST The tales of great entrepreneurs are what inspire us. They let us know what is possible and press us toward what seems impossible. Here are some incredible stories of real life smaller and bigger businesses that grew from nothing. Enjoy! GrowthGreat tales of entrepreneurship. If you’re seeking inspiring stories of entrepreneurs who rose from nothing through sweat and sacrifice to build meaningful and valuable companies, look no further. These tales tell the true story of what small business can do and become and why small has become the new big. Yahoo! Finance Telling your story. Telling your company’s story and the story of your product or service is an important part of marketing your company. But it’s even better when you can get someone else to do it for you. One camera company did just that with an army of fans who are changing the world. Inc.com SharingWhat’s your Pinterest? It’s a new way of looking at social media that’s sweeping the Web, and it makes Facebook look so yesterday. If you really want to understand what Pinterest is all about, start creating a digital bulletin board around your business. Crows Feet Cupcakes and Cellulite Giving is the new marketing. If you’ve always thought business was about getting something back for every bit of giving you do, it may be time to rethink that strategy. Here’s a look at how lending a helping hand can be the best branding for your business. New Horizons 123 EventsTelling your story in book form. Another way to tell your small business story may be in book form. Do you have something truly unique to say that you believe could help other small business people just like you? Join our Twitter chat today to learn how to get started. Small Business Trends Nominate your small business favorites. It’s the final day to nominate your favorite title in the 2012 Small Business Book Awards. Nomination ends officially Midnight Pacific time January 31. Please drop by and nominate your favorite title while there’s still time. Small Business Trends OnlineContent that really helps your marketing. An important part of marketing your products and services effectively these days has to do with your ability to create interesting and enlightening content for your community with a sense of what it takes to optimize that content for search engines. Noobpreneur Internet marketing requires patience. One reason that online marketing for your product or service is so difficult, is that SEO is not an exact science. You may want to think about this the next time an online marketer makes extravagant claims. Brick Marketing Blog ToolsA whole new way of marketing. If you haven’t been using QR code to market your products or services, you’ve missed an emerging new market opening many new opportunities that may not have occurred to you before. Crack the code to marketing success here. The Small Business Playbook What kind of newsletter service do you use? As important as your social media channel might be, it’s vital to keep in touch with members of your community via newsletters too. In this post, two possible newsletter services are compared. Ryan Hanley From Small Business Trends     |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Small Business News, Tips, Advice - Small Business Trends To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu