Understanding the Superstitious is Smart Business

Friday the 13th is associated with many elements of superstition; black cats, spilled salt, broken mirrors...but business performance? Many would say no - but in fact, a reported 9 percent of Americans are superstitious about the ominous calendar day and studies show that $800 million to $900 million in business revenue is lost on days like today.

We know that baseball players are superstitious about their favorite bat or pair of socks but business men and women have their own 'lucky' traditions. Whether it's that favorite suit for an interview or reading their horoscope before selling stock - it may seem irrational but according to Stuart Vyse, professor of psychology at Connecticut College, these actions are understandable, especially in times of economic uncertainty.

Taking a Vacation from Your Business

It's summer time! It's hot and the kids are out of school which means its prime time for a vacation right? If you are a business owner or entrepreneur, taking a vacation from your business might be well deserved but tricky...even downright near impossible. But we believe in vacations and we believe in you so here's 5 ways to get a break from your business without sending it into a downward spiral.

1. Split Week Trips
Many self employed business owners complain that taking a whole week off adds more stress to the vacation because they are constantly checking email and voicemail. The solution might be splitting your time off between two weeks. For example: Taking off Thursday and Friday of one week and then Monday and Tuesday of the next. Most business owners can manage taking two business days off in a week because you have three days to cushion the blow. Use your first set of work days to prepare to be gone and then use the next week to catch up. This 'illusion' will also look better to vendors and clients because it doesn't 'feel' like you were gone very long.

Educate Your Customer - A Failsafe Marketing Strategy

It's a less publicized strategy but educating your customer is an effective marketing tool that should be a part of any business marketing plan. Marketing is an essential element of running a successful business and the key is to do it better than your competition. When creating your marketing strategy - especially for a small business - every dollar spent needs to produce!

Education is Your Foundation

Although many marketing guru's might spout that ROI and target audience are the main focus in your business strategy - educating your customer should be your centerpiece. Educating your client is one of the best ways to increase sales and turn one time sales into long lasting loyal customers. Many times, when people are considering buying a product - they know little about it which makes them less likely to buy on impulse. They don't know if the price is realistic, if the product is reliable, if the quality is an industry standard - this kind of uncertainty makes a customer feel uncomfortable about the purchase.

Social Media Snapshot: Twitter for Business

According to Twitter.com...."It took Twitter three years, two months and one day to reach our first billion Tweets. Today, there are over a billion Tweets sent every three days. These Tweets represent conversations related to almost any topic imaginable."

That's a lot of people talking!

So How will this help you?
• The conversations happening on Twitter offer businesses a wealth of information about current and potential customers.
• You can quickly and easily see what people are saying about your brand, your product, your competitors and industry in a few clicks. It's like having the world's largest focus group at your fingertips!
• It's REAL-TIME interaction - you can watch it happen or you can jump in there and get your brand involved in the marketplace...at NO COST!

What you NEED to KNOW...
There are a couple of things you should familiarize yourself with to safely navigate the Twitter universe...

140 CHARACTERS - its a magic number...and it's the maximum length for all tweets (aka messages)

MENTION - Precede a Twitter username with an @ symbol and they will be notified that you have mentioned them in your tweet. (Example: "We love our new client @susanjones")

RETWEET - When you want to share a tweet - click the retweet button below it to send it out to your followers. Again, people are notified when you retweet which helps establish camaraderie.

MESSAGE - Think of this as something similar to email. Privately tweet a message to a user with a DM or direct message.

HASHTAG - Hashtags (like Mentions with the @ symbol) involve a # symbol before a word or phrase (no spaces). Think of a hashtag as the them of your tweet. Users can click on a hashtag to find other tweets with the SAME hashtag. (Example: " Now offering an #extendedsale of 50% off")

Twitter is on the GO!
You might have noticed a lot of people walking around with these things called smart phones...no? Well mobile technology is a MAJOR craze that is changing how people connect with businesses. This means you NEED to be accessible in the mobile universe. One of the easiest ways is TWITTER!

• Twitter's mobile aplications make it easy for people to connect and read your tweets from their smart phone, tablet or blackberry.
• People can subscribe to INSTANTLY receive your tweets to their phone - very cool!
• Tweet from ANYWHERE - this means you can get your information out without sitting at your desk computer.

Need a Widget?
Twitter offers follow buttons and widgets that allow for live streaming of tweets right on your website. Once you place them on your site - you don't have to do a thing! Visitors will see what is happening right from your site on your twitter feed. This is great if you want to tweet during a live event or sale.

Promote your Tweets, Trends or Yourself
Twitter offers several options for advertising on Twitter. This is recent option for businesses so we recommend getting more familiar with Twitter advertising directly. Click here to check out their site.

Conclusion
If you're still not convinced that Twitter is a viable social media platform for your business - we have one final point to make. Twitter is all about REAL-TIME information which is something that search engines (Like Google, Bing, Yahoo & more) really LOVE! This means search engines will prioritize results from a website like Twitter over normal websites. Don't you want a piece of that action?

Qlixite will setup and manage your Twitter account for you