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Posted on Fri, 02/17/2012 - 10:30 PM by
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Long have we small business owners been accustomed to figuring things out ourselves, whether we’ve got the skills to do them or not. For me, HTML, photo editing and a dabble of design come to mind. In the past, we didn’t have the tools we needed (nor the tools that big companies and big budgets can buy) to help us on our way to growing our businesses.
Now we’ve got a deluge of help: from daily deal sites ready to help us get more foot traffic to social media page creators that require no technical expertise, we’re armed with tools that attempt to make our work easier. Fanminder, which originally began in 2009 as a tool to help business owners connect with customers through mobile messaging, recently launched its Version 2.0 to include social media and templates to help small business owners reach their customers — wherever they are. See screenshot above showing new social features. “[Version] 2.0 fills in a big, unmet merchant need to take all those Facebook fans, email lists, mobile lists and Twitter followers and figure out what content actually motivates them to get them to come back to the store to buy something again,” says Paul Rosenfeld, Co-Founder and CEO of Fanminder. What It Does Fanminder users can create special offers, mobile coupons and giveaways and distribute them through mobile messaging, social media or email. Fanminder strives to help users create their offers in two minutes or less by offering a gallery of templates to use. There are templates for holidays, special events and typical customer communications that can be modified by the user. “We’ve always known how much owners want to look bigger than they are, look more professional,” explains Rosenfeld. The professionally designed templates help small business owners give the appearance of being larger, yet at a fraction of the cost of hiring a designer to create them. And speaking of pricing: there’s no fee to create custom Facebook Pages, create mobile coupons, or send text offers to up to 100 fans. Beyond that, monthly packages start at $50 a month. From Online to In Store Something many small businesses have been struggling with is translating social media traffic to foot traffic in a brick-and-mortar store. We fought to get social media followers, and now that we have a surge of them, many of us don’t know how to get customers in person. “That social media momentum has created consumers who spend an enormous amount of their online time on Facebook,” said Rosenfeld, “Merchants need to go where their customers are and our mission is to bring those customers back into the store. $1 Million Backing to Address the Trend This effort to converge the information and campaigns related to all your customers and social media followers has become a major movement among technology providers. We’ve seen it with email marketing services and CRM providers. Fanminder is an example of the mobile marketers who see this as a key step in their evolution. Fanminder recently announced that it had received $1Million in backing from Keith Rabois, COO of Square and a brain trust of six former Intuit executives including Peter Karpas, the former CMO of Intuit and current VP of Marketing at PayPal; Cary Rosenzweig, the former General Manager of Intuit Payroll Services and current CEO of IMVU; and Steve Grey, the former Director, Strategy of Intuit Merchant Services and current Executive Director of 58. Fanminder Throws in a Dash of Social and Raises $1Million MORE NEWS FROM SMALL BUSINESS TRENDSBarnes & Noble Nook Tablet for Small Business Owners“Tablet computers are for kids and gamers” is the prevailing sentiment that I hear from small business owners. The logic is that a tiny handheld computer won’t really help you get your work done. Even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg dissed the iPad by stating it is not a mobile device. But despite a myriad of less-than-positive commentary, tablets are a big part of the near-term business future. Small Businesses Pay More For Health Care CoverageIn a 2009 study by the White House, small businesses pay 18% more in premiums for health coverage than their big box competitors per employee. As a small business owner are you surprised by this statistic? Creating Google Alerts Directly in Google AnalyticsA few weeks back I wrote about the powerful new metrics that small business owners can glean from the new Social reports within Google Analytics. And since that post, even more neat features have been released to help business owners learn more about not only what’s happening on their site, but what’s happening off of it, as well. Nominations Are Open for the Small Business Influencer Awards!Does a special person or company come to mind when you think of someone or something important in the world of small business? Perhaps you think of a client of yours. Or maybe a favorite vendor or supplier, or a software app that has transformed your small business or made it more profitable. Or perhaps you think of a favorite journalist who covers issues important to small businesses. G8 Leaders Call for Growth: Six Things You Can DoLeaders the world over including those at this week’s G8 Summit are calling for economic growth, not just budget tightening, in an effort to combat world market instability and speed recovery. But for all the talk in policy circles, this growth will ultimately come from the private sector and especially here in the U.S., from small to medium sized businesses that create many of the jobs and employ many of the workers already in our economy. Here’s a look at the economic growth G8 leaders are calling for and six things you can do to promote growth in your business today. RELATED SMALL BUSINESS NEWSHow Low Can Facebook Stock Go? And What Route Will It Take to Get There?Facebook ended Tuesday, its third day of trading at $31 per share -- $7 less than where it launched on Friday.... Mayan Doom or Time to Buy?According to ancient Mayan prognosticators our world should be coming to an end sometime around Christmas. If you’re sitting in Greece or JP Morgan’s bond-lending group, the end might seem like it’s already here. And off the Peruvian coast, wildlife is literally dropping from the sky.&... When 'I'm Too Sexy' Lawsuit Settles, Will IRS Win Too?This is a great country, one of equal opportunity and more. Where else could you find the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) handling a complaint alleging religious and gender discrimination occurring in a lingerie warehouse?... Want to Hangout With the SBA Chief? Join UsAs part of National Small Business Week, we'll be moderating a live chat with SBA chief Karen Mills and winners of the SBA's video contest Wednesday in a Google+ hangout. ... Private Equity Investments: A Question Of Supply And DemandThe PE investment picture as 2012 began looked very much like the one that prevailed two years ago as the industry was clawing its way back from the depths of the downturn. But as we discuss in Bain & Company’s Global Private Equity Report 2012, conditions today are more favorable for PE deal ... |
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