Due to routine maintenance the KikScore website will be unavailable on 1/5/11 from 8:30PM to 10:30PM mountain time. Our apologies for any inconveniences that this causes.
We do not usually do this and we are probably breaking an unwritten rule for your own blog about sending readers to another site. But we do not really care because the article that our dear friend, Shashi B (the Swami!), recently wrote is worth a read for every small business, startup and entreperneur. The article is posted at one of our favorite sites, Small Business Trends that is run by the small business expert, Anita Campbell.
The reason why the article is so good is it deals with what is probably one of the most important marketing tools for a small business or startup: your website. The post is titled Top Website and Website Design Trends for 2011.
Please tell us what you think about the Swami’s post.
Most small business owners today are starting to recognize the power of managing their online presence. Having a Facebook page is an important part of managing that presence. But how can business owners gain popularity on Facebook?
Facebook users today have the option of selecting “likes”. A user can publicly press a “like” button to indicate that they “like” a brand or a company that they support. So how can you increase the number of users pressing that button to support your business? 
Here are a few tips to help make your company more popular on Facebook:
-Make sure your audience and former customers know that your company has a Facebook page. Obvious, I know. A recent study by DDB Worldwide and Opinionway Research made this concept even more clear and found that three-quarters of Facebook users worldwide decided to “like” a brand/company only after the company extended an invitation or advertised. In other words, your audience is not necessarily seeking your business out on Facebook. So make the first move! Also, make sure your Facebook page is mentioned on your company website and on your Twitter page, and on any other social media website you may have.
-Keep your audience entertained by posting interesting content regularly. If you post interesting articles or content, your Facebook fans will be more likely to share this information with their Facebook audience. This could ultimately bring more fans to your Facebook page and to your business.
-Encourage your audience not only by posting interesting content but by eliciting their feedback and then responding accordingly. Your fans will be more likely to submit feedback if they think you’re actually reading their feedback and responding to it.
-Reward your Facebook fans with special offers posted only through your Facebook page.
-Don’t overwhelm fans of your Facebook page with constant messages. After awhile, they may stop reading them or even remove your company as a “like”.
What are some other ways to boost your company’s Facebook popularity? What has worked for you? What hasn’t worked?
Just want to send a note to wish you all a happy new year from Kikscore. In the spirit of the new year, I’m sharing a few of my new year resolutions:
1. Eat less cheese – cheese is now being packaged in very mobile, snacky packaging. I’ve spent 2010 eating a half brick of cheese a week due to this development.
2. Stop caring about the Minnesota Sports teams – 4 sports teams, all of which are terribly disappointing. They are worse for me than all that cheese.
3. Fewer magazine subscriptions – through redeeming airline miles, I receive 6 different weekly magazines. I can’t keep up and I feel like I’m behind on my homework every time I get a new one in the mail.
I know I have other things to work on, but this is my start for 2011.
Did you know Google Chrome has an app store now? I switched back to Chrome(my uni webpages wouldn’t show up Opera) And noticed that there was a section for apps. I got a couple of drawing ones and they seem to be ok. PC World has an article about five good businesses apps.
So, out of all these which ones did you like the best and why? Or if it’s not on the list, what is it and why do you like it?
As 2010 winds down, we wanted to share with you a few posts that if you only have a few minutes on the KikScore blog we want you to read. As many of you know, we pride ourselves on publishing good content that covers small businesses, startups, entrepreneurship, while telling the first hand accounts of small business that sell online and trying at the same time to be a little humorous and even including some references to sports and pop culture.
So here are our greatest hits that we hope you check out:
1. Should Start up Companies and Small Business Release Their New Software Early or Wait Until Its Perfected? – This is our post that discusses the age old dilemma for startups on when is the right time to launch your product. We had some very personal experience on this issue. I am sure there are many startups that are facing this very issue right now so that is why it made our list.
2. Issues Escalation and Support Guidelines in a Startup Environment – This is a very detailed and thoughtful post about the process needed to approach the inevitable support issues that get escalated to your service department by your customers. The post frankly applies to many different types of businesses, from small, medium to large but is especially fitting for startups. It is a must read especially for software startups.
3. Lessons Learned for Small Business from Sandra Bullock’s Heartbreak – Everyone probably remembers the shocking news that came out this spring about Sandra Bullock’s husband Jesse James and his infidelity. This post is especially helpful to small businesses and startups that are looking to partner with other companies or use new vendors and contractors for key business operations. It gives key information and tips to help with conducting diligence before you make these important decisions. And we do this by tying it all back to Sandra Bullock and Jesse James marriage!
4. Our two posts on reviewing your business on Memorial Day (Check that BBQ and Your Business’ 2010 Goals) and Labor Day (5 Steps to Help Close 2010 Strong) – Every business should take the time to periodically conduct self-assessments to measure progress. These posts give detailed tips on conducting the self-assessment for your business at key times of the year and the Labor Day post also outlines concrete steps for taking the learnings from your analysis and acting on those learnings.
5. Building a Startup Company and Having a Family at the Same Time – Ever wonder how entrepreneurs, small businesses, startups balance work, life, family and crazy schedules. We all face this issue frankly and in this post we discuss tips on helping to find that work/family balance. To be honest, this is a post worth re-reading throughout the year to keep yourself grounded.
6. Manly Cupcakes and Tips on Finding, Understanding and Appealing to Your Target Market – This is a straighforward post that appeals to all businesses and startups. The reason why it is one of my favorite posts of the year is that every company should ask these key marketing and customer demographics questions about your product, customers and market. These questions and your answers to them will keep your business and startup more sharply focused and successful.
7. How Do You Judge a Website? – This post is important for every business because it frames the way potential customers, leads, partners and even investors get their first online impression of your business. It is a valuable post that businesses can come back to in order to remind them that no matter what you do, these key features of your website will drive the way key influencers view you, your business, your website and your product.
We hope you enjoyed all of our posts this year and we look forward to a great year of content in 2011.
We would love to hear your favorite posts as well as any feedback on our content. Also let us know if you want us to cover any particular topic and we would be happy to consider writing on a certain subject, especially if it helps the small business, startup and entrepreneur community.
Just a quick holiday note to wish our customers, partners and supporters a Merry Christmas. As Raj mentioned in his post earlier this week, we’ve had a great year — growing our business and launching two new products. All of it couldn’t be done without your support.
Wishing you and your family a fun and safe Christmas!
Mike
With only 1 shopping day left before Christmas, I hope you have all of your shopping done with by now but if you haven’t you should really go to the stores with your smartphone and a few trusty applications loaded so that you can make the most informed decision possible.
As the Wall Street Journal indicated in this article, only 5.6% of all shoppers on Black Friday used a smartphone to compare prices while in the store but this number represents a 50 fold increase from a year ago. I have actually used a couple different applications while in stores to compare prices and on more than one occasion have actually left the store to purchase the product online because it was considerably cheaper.
Some of the most popular smartphone applications that will allow Shoppers to scan barcodes in the store and instantly show them the cheapest price available online or in a bricks and mortar location are theFind and Google Shopper. Consumers can download these applications for free and within seconds can search for lowest price for any given product.
Stores are quickly becoming aware that shoppers have this new found ability to instantly compare prices and are trying to adapt in order to take advantage of or at least cope with the results but I don’t think that they are changing quickly enough in my opinion. I am still waiting for the day when I can show the Best Buy store manager a price I found online on my smartphone and have him or her match that price in their store. Today they will not even consider doing that unless the store I am comparing their price to also has a bricks and mortar location. I find this policy to be outdated and ridiculous and hopefully the coming widespread use of comparison shopping using smartphone applications will open these company’s eyes and make them change these archaic policies.
Have you ever tried to get a bricks and mortar store to match a price you found online for the same product? What were your results?
Well not really, but the recent hacking of Gwaker and Silverpop Systems Inc sure reminds me of moose battling for leader of the herd. Apparently two different groups of hackers hacked both companies. According to this, the attention given to the attention to the hacking of Wkileaks has started a competition to see who’s the best hacker. The hackers who hacked Silverpop, stole email addresses and may start spamming the inboxes of the stolen addresses. Apparently one of Silverpop’s clients was DeviantArt. That’s not good. I post my artwork on that site! According to DeviantArt’s statement(here), they have stopped hosting information on Silverpop servers. Funny, I don’t remember them sending me an email about this….But, that’s not really worrisome. What’s worrisome is that the hackers may have gotten McDonalds customer’s postal addresses and their telephone numbers. Wallgreens customers also had their email addresses stolen. Those customers may get emails asking for sensitive information from people claiming to be from another company or Wallgreens itself. Luckily no personal or medical information was stolen. So who’s the top hacker? The article didn’t say, but I think it wasn’t any of these folks would be the top hacker. Although it does make me wonder about the companies security….
Who do you think should be the top hacker and what can we do to stop them?
As 2010 rolls toward a quick end, we at KikScore wanted to take this time to do something that so many people sometime neglect to do. That is to say some important thank yous. 2010 has been a year of huge successes and new beginnings for us at KikScore. That success is attributable to many factors, but much of our achievements are a result of a core set of folks including our customers, friends, colleagues, partners and advisors.
KikScore’s 2010
First a little about our 2010. We launched our core product, KikScore, to help small businesses use their trackrecord of success and reliability to show that trackrecord to shoppers that they should be trusted. Then quickly thereafter and based on feedback we received from the community, we launched another new product for small business that do not sell online, but market their services such as consultants, contractors, servicers. That new product allows these servicers to take their prior trackrecord and their strong history of dependability and show potential clients and leads that they are trustworthy. Yes, that was two new products in less than a year!
Beyond the new products, KikScore gained quick and significant customer acceptance with a surge in signups in 2010 by small businesses all over the world. That acceptance was driven by a host of factors, just one being the number of key partnerships we launched throughout 2010. We were busy launching partnerships and jointly sponsored events throughout the year that focused on our small business customer needs. It was a blast to connect with so many small businesses, bloggers and members of the media throughout the year….the coverage was flattering too! We even spoke at some great small business focused webinars and conferences. Thanks Anita Campbell for your recommendation and introductions for us to speak about security and small business!
A Special Thank You
So we get to the main point of the post after some “horn blowing” by me. Ok, I was just setting some context for visitors that are new to the site!!! We want to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of our friends and supporters that helped us out this year. There are too many to name each one here individually by name, but a few we really do need to have to thank including the one and only Swami Shashi B, Jill Foster, Shonali Burke, Eric A, Jason K, Harry L, Roy D, Rick Juneja, Neel K, Joe K, Steven Fisher, and so many, many more. These are just a few great folks that helped us out. On top of them, we have to thank our many partners, but most importantly our friends in Calgary at Shopster.
A special, special thank you goes out to all of our customers. We really appreciate each and every one of you. Even the customers that did not stay with us, we learned from you. But more importantly a thank you to all of the customers that took precious time out of their busy days to send us comments, feedback or your appreciative notes about our service and what we are doing for small businesses. Also thanks to all of those customers that gave us some great small business interviews on this blog.
Ok, not really last but thanks to each of our families, the new additions to our families and loved ones that supported us throughout this year! Your patience during our late nights and long weekends of work on KikScore is truly appreciated. We could not do any of this without you!
© 2010 Interactive Security Group
