After a long day at work, do you ever wish you could instantly know what local places are having the best happy hours? San Diego entrepreneur Noel Churchill has created an app specifically for this purpose. According to a recent article in the San Diego Union Tribune, “Happy Hour Finder” is a new iPhone app designed to provide users with happy hour locations, information on specials, hours, addresses, and directions. These details can be useful in finding the best deals because many happy hours start at different times or are limited to certain days of the week.

Churchill partnered with hundreds of local bars and restaurants to produce the app. As Churchill says, ‘We are a local business working hard to promote other local businesses.”

The app also now works across the United States, having secured participating restaurants and bars throughout the country. “Happy Hour Finder” is available on the App Store. Best of all, it is free for users because it generates money through paid advertisers.

Read the full article for more on the “Happy Hour Finder,” or check out a demo on Churchill’s site.

Not too long ago, when a person had a complaint against a business they would pick up the phone and dial a 1-800 number and speak to a company representative. Today it is more common for these people to turn to social networks to voice their opinions. Consequently, customer-service issues are being addressed on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and other social media channels, and this can pose a problem for companies that are not prepared.

The San Diego Union Tribune recently published an article addressing this issue. The article points out that companies need to realize brand-related conversations, both good and bad, are happening online, and they need to ask themselves whether they should join those conversations or not.  According to Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler, co-authors of Empowered, “consumers create 256 billion impressions on one another each year by talking about products and services within social networks. And these conversations have influence.”

It is imperative that businesses realize when a person makes a complaint on a blog or Facebook, the complaint will not only affect the purchasing decisions of that individual, but also the decisions of people in that person’s network. Therefore, businesses can no longer wait for people to call their customer service centers before addressing an issue.  They must be ready to address the issue on a one-on-one level with consumers. Empowered provides 6 tips to help businesses understand online brand conversations and how to integrate customer service with them.

First, staff should be trained on the tools and philosophies of social media and customer service. Anyone can send a tweet or post a status update on Facebook, but understanding how to combine social media and a customer-centric philosophy is much more important.

Second, a company should have a policy in place for dealing with social media. Guidelines that reflect a company’s code of ethics and brand promises help employees when they must engage in social media. Such guidelines can protect both the company and its employees.

When interacting online, tone and content are also very important. Online responses must be authentic. While it is important to have guidelines for employees to follow, it is also important that each customer interaction be unique. The foundation may exist in a policy manual, but every interaction should be somewhat unique. Additionally, humility truly is a virtue in social media. If a company has made a mistake, the message should be “we are sorry”. Owning up to a mistake can go a long way in building customer trust. Of course, it is also always a good idea to thank customers for their opinions as well. As the article states, “a happy customer is your greatest endorsement.”

Finally, the single most important bit of information comes from the article title. Company representatives must be empowered to make a difference. It is not enough to simply address a complaint. Issues must be resolved. Providing real solutions to customer problems builds trust and brand loyalty with all consumers.

Read the full article for more.

According to a recent article in the San Diego Union Tribune, visitors to Coronado Island (San Diego, CA) will soon see new additions to popular points of interest. Coronado officials are testing the effectiveness of QR codes on tourists’ and residents’ interest in local landmarks. QR codes are used by anyone with a smartphone and a QR code reader app. They are designed to “point” a user to a specific website that provides information about the specified object. In this case, when someone uses their smartphone to take a photo of the QR code for a particular landmark, the browser on their smartphone displays a website that provides more details about the landmark.

The Coronado QR codes are currently in place for the Coronado Tennis Center, Rotary Plaza, and the Glorietta Bay Promenade. The QR code at the Coronado Tennis Center (which is under currently construction) directs phone users to a website that describes the work being done, how much it is expected to cost, and the expected completion date. The Rotary Plaza QR code directs users to a site that advertises their free Wi-Fi.

City Manager Tom Blair decided to bring QR codes to Coronado after attending a presentation on their uses. If the test proves successful, the city hopes to expand this marketing tool to include other places throughout the San Diego area.

QR codes have been in use in Japan for almost a decade, but surprisingly they have not been popular in the U.S. until recently. Target is actually one of the first U.S. retailers to begin incorporating QR codes their business by using them in sales catalogs to provide customers with more information about products and toys.

Read the full article for more.

A recent article by Social Media Examiner discusses the difference between simply engaging in social behavior and becoming a social business. Almost everyone knows that friends, fans, and followers are important in social media; and maintaining a transparent, two-way communication with those followers is fundamental to increasing your social equity. In fact, most companies that engage in social media are successful in maintaining that two-way communication, but there is another challenge that is rarely discussed. For a business to truly succeed in social media, they must become a social business.

A social business is one that does more than simply converse with its followers. As the article states, “A social business deals with the internal transformation of an organization and addresses key factors such as organizational dynamics, culture, internal communications, governance, training, employee activation and much more.” Social Media Examiner goes on to describe three pillars that comprise a social business: People, Governance, and Technology.

The first pillar, people, deals with an organization’s most important asset, its employees. The first step in evolving into a social business is getting your internal communications network established. In order to be more than just social, you must manage your organizational dynamics and get your internal teams to communicate. Successful communication with your consumers begins inside your business.

The second pillar, governance, is simply how your organization manages the communication set up in pillar one. Training, social media guidelines and policies are imperative for organizations in order to maintain consistency. Governing laws that surround your businesses’ social media protect a company and empower its employees.

The third pillar, technology, establishes how your business will facilitate internal communication. Businesses must be willing to invest in the right channels if they want to truly be a social business. Using external tools such as Hootsuite, Sprinklr, or Radian6 can also be useful if your business deals with multiple social media accounts.

Being a social business requires much more than just social engagement. It takes understanding and participation from everyone behind the scenes, policies and governances to control how people communicate, and the proper tools to manage your social networks.

Read the full article for more on becoming a social business and great statistics on the interactions between businesses and consumers.

Breaking into social media for the first time can prove difficult, and most companies will have questions about what to do to be successful.Hubspot recently published an article that attempts to answer some of these frequent questions that concern how to develop a successful initial social media strategy.

One of these most common questions about social media is “Can social media be anti-social? Non-social? Too-social?” The answers are both yes and no. Social media is no different than other human groups in some sense. For example, you can be in a crowd of people and choose to sit quietly or make the decision to interact with others. Simply being in the crowd does not mean you are social. Such is the same with social media.

Of course, just as you can be anti-social in real life scenarios, you can also do so in social media environments. If you disregard established social media etiquette, speak negatively, or talk about yourself too much, you are certain to have people avoid you.

So the overall answer to social media interaction is to take an active role, but remember to stay positive and helpful. As Hubspot points out, you really can’t be too social in social media, as long as you act responsibly.

Read the full article for more common social media questions and a great presentation by Dan Zarrella.

In the realm of social media there are two types of people: followers and influencers. A follower is someone who “friends” or likes your brand, yet rarely does anything else. An influencer, on the other hand, is someone who actively takes part in discussions and reviews, thereby spreading your brand message. Generally, influencers are a very small percentage of your followers. One study shows that only about 1% of followers are actually influencers (on average). However, as the old adage goes, “it’s quality, not quantity, that counts.” In fact, that 1% generates approximately 20% of all traffic to your website. Therefore, it’s more important to identify and target those specific members of your audience who are influencers, rather than amassing thousands of followers and trying to persuade all of them. In fact, targeting your influencers eventually reaches a great percentage of your other followers.

But how do you engage with that select number of people who are influencers? It is easy to send out a message about your company to all of your followers, but it is more difficult to create a successful marketing campaign targeted to a select group of people. A recent article published by Fresh Networks provides a list of things to consider before engaging with your target influencers.

The first thing a business needs to do is to get to know their influencers. Listening to the conversations taking place in blogs, forums, and social media platforms is a great way to learn what your influencers are saying about you. This information can help you define the correct content and tone when you are ready to engage your influencers.

The next step is figuring out the right arena in which to engage your influencers. Instead of trying to engage every one of your influencers, the better approach is to target the most important conversations taking place. If a conversation about your brand isn’t relevant or appropriate for the topic you want to address, it’s best to ignore that conversation and move on to another. Essentially, it’s best not to waste time and resources on conversations that aren’t on point.

Another important item is the relationship with your influencers. A company must build a solid relationship with its influencers. Every interaction must be seen as a way to strengthen that relationship because influencers have a key position in your market. They both speak to and represent your target audience.

Of course, it’s also important to make sure the interaction is not a sales pitch. Your influencers understand you have a commercial interest in them, so it’s not necessary to bombard them with sales. Instead, widen the conversation beyond your brand, product, or company.

Finally, it’s important to be realistic with your expectations. In reaching out to your influencers, you are trying to engage and affect them, not control them. You may not see the immediate results you want, but that does not mean your efforts aren’t working. Just like real life relationships, online relationships take time to develop.

Read the full article for more.

Bnet.com recently published an article by Donna Fenn and Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite, in which they discussed the potential dangers of Twitter. Fenn points out that Twitter can be a free-for-all where things can quickly go bad, even for companies like McDonalds. Despite all good intentions, at some point in time, it is nearly inevitable that someone will tweet something negative. Holmes points out, however, that certain steps can be taken to help reduce the chance of this happening.

Holmes suggests new Twitter users begin by “taking off their seller’s hat.” He advises: “Your followers will be much more receptive of your promotions if you set yourself up as a news source and an opinion leader in your market, instead of a sales person.” He goes on to say “You should think of Twitter as nine parts fun, interesting, engaging information and one part soft marketing. People tune out to self-promotional messaging.”

Another suggestion is to “close the floodgates.” Being mindful of how often you tweet can decrease your chances of generating a negative comment or being blocked. Flooding the Twitter stream can irritate followers making them less likely to follow you or acknowledge your tweets. If you have a lot of say, consider using a Twitter platform such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to schedule your tweets throughout the day.

A final suggestion is to “monitor your Twitter account.” “You’ve got two ears and one mouth,” says Holmes. “So listen to the conversations that people are having.” Know what your followers are saying about your brand, your competitors, and key topics that are related. Interact with the people that are following and retweeting you, and make sure to thank them for their retweets and comments.

Read the full article for more tips on how you can avoid a Twitter meltdown.

Toprankblog.com recently published an article that asked businesses two very important questions: “How would you rate your content marketing efforts?” and “How well are you incorporating SEO and Social Media?”

They posed the first question because many businesses simply do not fully understand the concept of content marketing. In answer to this, Odden provides a very simple definition: “Content marketing = aligning customer and brand objectives through content.” This means that content is the connecting force between a business and its consumers. In fact, it is becoming increasingly common for consumers to perform online searches, conduct product research, and even ask social networks for advice before making a purchase. Therefore, it is imperative that businesses understand the importance of content creation.

Odden provides a simple example. “Imagine a consumer using Google to search for “light bulbs” and finding an article entitled, “5 Ways to Save Money with Light Bulbs” written by XYZ light bulbs. The consumer reads the article, then reads the reviews written by other consumers, and finally and moves on to purchase. After the purchase, she shares on Facebook and/or Twitter that she’s found a great place to buy bulk, energy efficient light bulbs.” In this case, it’s easy to see how content connects the consumer to the business and to other consumers. It illustrates why good content is key to a successful business, especially online.

Odden offers 10 ways that businesses can become better at content management. One of the most important ways in which a business can be more effective at content marketing is by setting achievable goals. Understanding the entire content marketing process and identifying milestones can help avoid major problems. Other ways to optimize content marketing include defining keywords (identifying the keywords that represent demand for a specific product), providing SEO keyword glossaries for a content creator, and connecting with consumers through online social networks.

It’s clear that when it comes to effective content marketing, content is everything. Check out the full article for more of Odden’s tips, as well as a presentation on content marketing optimization.

Two big problems exist with current printer ink cartridges: they are expensive and environmentally unfriendly. Consider how many wasted pages you throw away each week. For every page you throw away you are not only wasting money, but also wasting ink which will lead to more ink cartridges in landfills. Several steps can be taken to lengthen the life of your ink cartridge such as selective printing, using the “Print” tabs on websites, and previewing your page before printing to make sure you are satisfied; but is that enough?

According to a one company in the Netherlands, no. Ecofont has recently developed a new type of font that will reduce the amount of ink necessary for printing. What makes these fonts unique is that they are “perforated.” Tiny “punch holes” are placed in every character reducing ink and toner use by 25%; and depending on the size of the font, the holes are relatively invisible to the naked eye. This reduction in ink use will not only make your cartridge last longer, but will also save you money and reduce the amount of discarded cartridges.

Ecofont is planning to release 15 different font styles in the near future, but right now you can download a free sample of one type, Vera Sans Regular, from their website.

As you may know, consumer relationship management (CRM) is a hot topic. What you may not be familiar with, however, is how CRM is changing. CRM has always been about keeping the customer happy and coming back for more, but technology advancements and the boom in social networking use are forcing CRM to evolve into a much different process - known as Social CRM.

Social Media Examiner recently published an article titled “What is Social CRM”. This article discusses the evolution of Social CRM

and how it differs from traditional CRM. According to the authors, traditional CRM was based on a pipeline system in which companies would collect data and information they could enter into a system to help better target customers. The customer had very little part in the process because there was no relationship between the company and its consumers.

Social CRM, however, is entirely based on relationships and has become more of a public relations process than a sales tool. As the article illustrates, “In most organizations, PR departments manage the social presence of brands and handle the customer engagement.” Instead of the customer being the end result of the CRM process, the customer becomes the focal point. Companies and brands now work hand in hand with consumers to “solve business problems, empower customers to shape their own experiences and build customer relationships, which will hopefully turn into customer advocates.” It is not a new process, but simply an evolution of traditional CRM.

So why has CRM evolved? According to one study, 93% of Americans want brands to have a presence on social networking sites, and 60% of Americans regularly interact with brands on those sites. Another study found that “before deciding whether to purchase recommended products or services, more than four out of five consumers (81%) will go online to verify those recommendations, specifically through researching product/service information (61%), reading user reviews (55%) or searching ratings websites (43%).”

Research shows that consumers are changing with the advancement of social media. A problem arises when companies are forced to keep up with this change, but they don’t understand it or don’t value social media. Social CRM is a strategy, and understanding that strategy can have a major impact on a business’s success.

Social Media Examiner sums up the article with a quote from the Gartner Newsroom. “By 2010, more than half of companies that have established an online community will fail to manage it as an agent of change, ultimately eroding customer value. Rushing into social computing initiatives without clearly defined benefits for both the company and the customer will be the biggest cause of failure.”

Don’t be one of these failures. Read the full article for more on Social CRM and how it can affect your business.