By : TASHA CUNNINGHAM
Source : http://www.miamiherald.com
Category : Small Business Grant
Small business owners are a bit more optimistic about the future, but they still worry about what it holds for them.
Optimism of small U.S. businesses rose to its highest level in more than four years this month, according to the National Federation of Independent Business’ small-business optimism index. The index rose 0.4 point to 94.3 from 93.9 in January. The federation reports that the February figure was its sixth consecutive monthly increase and its strongest level since December 2007.
Yet small businesses continue to look for ways to stretch their marketing dollars by getting more exposure for less cost. To that end, BizBytes has compiled a list of 10 tools small business owners can use to get free publicity online. More publicity + more exposure = more customers.
• LinkedIn Search: This is a highly effective way of finding journalists who may be interested in writing about your products or services. Use keywords like reporter, journalist or producer and enter a word that represents what your business does. You can also save up to five searches on LinkedIn so that you can be notified when new people who match your criteria join LinkedIn. Use the contacts you glean from your search to craft engaging pitches that will result in free publicity for your business.
• Regator: This site aggregates the best blog posts from around the Internet, many written by experienced journalists. Use the site to find blog posts about topics related to your business. Then, reach out to the authors of those posts to tell them about your company, offer to write a guest post on your industry or just to say hello. The important thing is making that contact and exposing your product or service to a member of the media who may find that information useful either now or in the future; www.regator.com.
• MuckRack: This is a Twitter directory that tracks journalists based on the media outlet they work for. You can find out what journalists are tweeting about, look through their Twitter feeds and monitor what they’re saying about you, your competitor or your industry. MuckRack offers a free 30-day trial and then monthly plans after that. It’s worth checking out; www.muckrack.com.
• MerchantCircle.com: This site allows you to register a free membership, create a page for your business and create custom coupons free. You can even create your own business blog on the site; www.merchantcircle.com.
• Journalists on Facebook: This page is Facebook’s attempt to gather journalists in one place on the social networking platform. Browse the page to see what journalists are talking about on Facebook and to find out which ones write about topics related to your small business; http://www.facebook.com/journalists.
• iNewswire: This site is great for distributing press releases free. As a small business, it can get pricey to send out releases through paid distribution services. But with free services like iNewswire, you can get your release out there without breaking the bank; www.inewswire.com.
• Contact Any Celebrity: This is an interesting, out-of-the-box site that puts you in touch with celebrities for endorsements, charity events and other promotions. The service is used by the likes of Amazon, ABC, Brown University, Microsoft and MTV. With a database of more than 60,000 celebrities and a free trial for just $1, it’s worth exploring; www.contactanycelebrity.com.
• BizSugar.com: This a social bookmarking and networking site for small business owners and managers that allows you to submit, share and vote for the best business articles on the Internet. You can submit articles about your business or industry free. You can also network online with other small business owners who may be interested in partnering on a promotion or just finding out more about what you do; www.bizsugar.com.
• TribePro: This site allows you to syndicate your content free; it will be shared by other members of the “Tribe.” Remember that quality content is king and if you continue to produce it, you can be assured of increased traffic to your business website and thousands of back-links across multiple social networks; www.tribepro.com.
• Join.me: One innovative way to get free publicity for your business is to host a webinar about a topic related to your industry. You’d think a webinar would be costly, but it’s not. Join.me, which allows you to share your computer screen, make presentations to multiple people and host webinars online, is free for 14 days and less than $20 a month if you opt for the pro version of their service; www.join.me.
Source : http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/18/2696816/10-tools-to-help-small-business.html
