WebProNews

Category: SmallBusinessUpdate

SmallBusinessUpdate

  • A Lot of Small Businesses Still Using IE Versions Microsoft Is Ending Support For

    Microsoft recently announced that it would stop supporting older versions of Internet Explorer, which means a lot of businesses are going to need to take action very soon.

    A survey from Manta finds that 61% of small business owners who use Internet Explorer are still using version 10 or older, which are those that Microsoft stops supporting on Tuesday.

    “With less than 24 hours until Microsoft discontinues technical support for IE 8, 9 and 10, it’s surprising that more small businesses aren’t upgrading to prevent security woes,” a Manta spokesperson tells WebProNews. “While Manta finds that the majority of SMBs (37%) are avid Chrome users, 34% use Internet Explorer – a good chunk of businesses now subject to malicious security attacks if they fail to update.”

    Microsoft said in a post on its website:

    Beginning January 12, 2016, only the most current version of Internet Explorer available for a supported operating system will receive technical supports and security updates. Internet Explorer 11 is the last version of Internet Explorer, and will continue to receive security updates, compatibility fixes, and technical support on Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10.

    Internet Explorer 11 offers improved security, increased performance, better backward compatibility, and support for the web standards that power today’s websites and services. Microsoft encourages customers to upgrade and stay up-to-date on the latest browser for a faster, more secure browsing experience.

    The company tells users to make sure to take action before January 12. Otherwise, you’re setting yourself up to be victim to malware and other exploitation of vulnerabilities.

    You can take a look at the Windows lifecycle FAQ sheet here.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Small Businesses On What Would Help Them Sell More Online

    Small Businesses On What Would Help Them Sell More Online

    A study recently released by Assurant Solutions finds that over 40% of small-to-midsize businesses say the reasons they have a hard time competing with larger e-tailers is a lack of product expansion opportunities and IT integration skillset.

    The survey polled 450 merchants across the United States in an effort to gauge the state of ecommerce for smaller businesses.

    “SMB merchants see great benefit in selling products and services through their web storefronts, but they readily admit to challenges that prevent them from selling more and competing with larger companies,” Assurant says. “In fact, roughly a third of those polled (34%) said that between 25% – 50% of their annual revenue comes from online sales. More than a third (35%) said their online sales have grown by 25% over the past five years.”

    56% are missing out on a chance to generate additional revenue by increasing their average order value, the survey finds. Less than 10% of online sales come from up-selling or cross-selling at the time of checkout for these merchants.

    Over 43% say they want to increase their up-sell and cross-sell opportunities, but can’t add organic products and services that fit the mold or they lack the internal IT skillset to integrate products into their ecommerce platform.

    “It’s clear that smaller merchants want to amplify their online sales potential, but many of them are unsure how to make it happen cost-effectively,” said Matthew Pufall, Director of Product for Assurant Product Protection.

    Over 26% of merchants said more complimentary product offerings would help them sell more products and services online. Another 26% said easier integration into partner platforms would do the trick.

    Over 15% said support services provided by partner providers would help, while over 27% said products and services that enable more revenue opportunities would. Nearly 5% said they’re not interested in selling more products online.

  • Here’s Who Small Businesses Are Voting For, According to Yelp

    Yelp recently released its first annual Small Business Pulse survey finding that most small businesses expect to have a good year in 2016. The company reached out to U.S. 900 small businesses, finding that 85% that are active on Yelp expect revenues to grow.

    You can read more about the findings and check out a related infographic here.

    Yelp is now sharing some additional findings from its survey, this time focusing on who small business owners plan to vote for in the Presidential Election.

    “While growth is always on the mind of small business owners, they are also important members of their local communities,” says Luther Lowe, Yelp’s VP of Public Policy. “In fact, besides the love for their jobs and the flexibility that owning a small business affords them, survey respondents also believe that making a difference in their local communities is a very important part of their success.”

    “With that in mind, we asked these small businesses about the 2016 presidential race to get an early read on their vote, but most importantly, to hear what actions they want to see the next president take,” he adds.

    Hillary Clinton just barely leads in Yelp’s survey at 19% with Donald Trump just behind at 18%. 16% said Bernie Sanders while 7% said Ben Carson, 5% said Marco Rubio, and 5% said Ted Cruz. Yelp notes that Hillary Clinton has a “substantial lead” with women business owners. Trump leads among men. Millennials businesses prefer Bernie Sanders, Yelp says.

    Still, more than 20% of those polled by Yelp are still undecided.

    Yelp says there were two major issues of concern among small business owners that stood out in the survey. 41% believe reducing regulatory burden on small businesses is a priority while 39% are concerned with the complexity of the tax code. 30% cited health care reform as a priority and 25% cited ensuring small businesses have access to capital.

    Yelp also analyzed phone calls made to small businesses on holidays. More on that here.

    Image via Yelp (Flickr)

  • Yelp Finds Small Businesses Expecting A Good Year

    Yelp Finds Small Businesses Expecting A Good Year

    Yelp has released some findings from its first annual Small Business Pulse survey, which reached out to 900 small businesses in an effort to learn more about their focus in 2016. According to the company there is a great deal of optimism among these businesses.

    It found that 85% of American small businesses active on Yelp expect revenues to grow, estimating a 26% increase next year.

    Are you optimistic about the coming year? Let us know in the comments.

    “Yelp small businesses have a clear message heading into 2016: the recovery is over — it’s time to grow, baby, grow!” says Yelp’s Morgan Remmers. “As the economy continues to improve and new digital tools emerge to connect with existing customers and reach new ones, small businesses are poised for a great 2016.”

    The company surveyed businesses from “nearly every” industry including food service, health and medical services, retail, and home services. Restaurant small businesses are most optimistic with 92% expecting increased revenues. Startups predict 48% growth on average over the coming year, according to Yelp.

    “While there is a clear measure of confidence in the year ahead, there is no question that small businesses face plenty of challenges too,” says Remmers. “Developing effective growth strategies and rising above competition are top of mind; specifically, attracting and retaining customers (60%), managing a limited marketing budget (32%), and competition from larger businesses (30%).”

    According to Yelp, digital marketing “levels the playing field,” and that includes “feedback economy” platforms like Yelp.

    “Businesses and consumers can now directly engage, bringing together an online community that crosses geographic, economic and social barriers – and giving business owners the digital tools and confidence they need to stay competitive,” says Remmers.

    According to the survey, 85% of small businesses think digital marketing has directly helped them grow their consumer base, and 91% use digital marketing tools. 75% use social media platforms while 48% use consumer review platforms. 48% use search engine advertising.

    79% think digital tools let them provide a more personal touch in their communities and address individual customer needs, Yelp says.

    Here’s an infographic highlighting some of Yelp’s major findings:

    As a small business owner, where do you land on the outlook for 2016. Do you share the optimism? Do you consider digital marketing, and in particular, services like Yelp to be critical to leveling the playing field? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    Images via Yelp, Yelp (Flickr)

  • GoDaddy Launches Partner Program For WordPress Plugin Developers

    GoDaddy Launches Partner Program For WordPress Plugin Developers

    GoDaddy launched a new WordPress Plugin Partner Program to help with the discovery and use of plugins in the WordPress community.

    The company announced thew news at WordCamp U.S. on Friday.

    “With 40,000+ plugins available, it can be difficult for developers to have their plugin rise above the noise. GoDaddy’s program boosts visibility of the best WordPress plugins, giving authors a chance to drive downloads, and making it easier for small businesses and web developers to find a plugin that meets their needs,” a spokesperson for GoDaddy tells WebProNews.

    When plugin authors become GoDaddy-verified partners, they get access to exclusive, on-demand support and a direct line of communication to the company’s customer service. They also get platform-tuning assistance to allow the plugins to maintain a “high quality user experience” on GoDaddy’s platform.

    “We’re thrilled to be a part of the WordCamp US conference and celebrations this week, and to announce our Plugin Partnership Program, the first of its kind to market,” said Jeff King, SVP & GM Hosting, Security, GoDaddy. “Through new relationships fostered by this program, we hope to help authors stand out among the over 40,000 plugins and roughly 10,000 themes in the rapidly growing and expansive ecosystem, raise the bar for plugins, drive more downloads and delight customers with quality offerings.”

    Verified partners also get referrals from integrated GoDaddy placements, which the company says will help boost downloads and activity.

    Partners will receive a badge to display on their website.

    Images via GoDaddy

  • Jelani Maraj: Nicki Minaj’s Brother Charged With Rape of 12-Year-Old

    Jelani Maraj is the brother of Nicki Minaj. He is also at the center of a scandal that is not likely to go away any time soon.

    On Thursday, Jelani Maraj was charged with raping a 12-year-old.

    Page Six reports that Maraj was arraigned on first-degree rape and freed on $100,000 bail. It’s not known whether Nicki Minaj posted bail for her brother or not.

    It was just this past August that Jelani Maraj married Jacqueline Robinson in a service at the Coral House on Milburn Lake in Baldwin, New York. Nicki Minaj foot the bill for the lavish wedding and reception.

    Minaj posted a photo of herself with Jelani Maraj on Instagram on his wedding day.

    “Jelani, I love u more than you’ll ever comprehend,” she captioned it.

    A photo posted by Nicki Minaj (@nickiminaj) on

    Do you expect Nicki Minaj will be shelling out even more money than the $30,000 she spent on Jaleni Maraj’s wedding? Will she be footing the bill for her brother’s legal defense?

    Nicki has yet to comment on the rape allegations against her brother. It is likely even more details will hit the press in the coming days.

    Might these rape allegations cause a problem between Jelani Maraj and his famous sister?

  • Chris Christie: Do Terrorism Fears Have Something To Do With Surge In Polls?

    Chris Christie has seen a surprise surge in popularity since his intense focus on New Hampshire in the last couple of months.

    In the latest Public Policy Polling (PPP) report, Chris Christie has skyrocketed from three percent support from likely Republican voters to an astonishing 10 percent.

    That puts Chris Christie in fourth place behind Marco Rubio, third, Ted Cruz, second, and Donald Trump in first place.

    The question now is, are Chris Christie’s polling numbers shooting up because of his heavy campaigning in New Hampshire or is his campaign experiencing a boost from recent terror events?

    The terror attacks in Paris last month and this week’s mass shooting in California could possibly have a positive effect on Chris Christie’s campaign.

    Great crowd at our 34th New Hampshire town hall in Stratham this morning.

    A photo posted by Governor Chris Christie (@chrischristie) on

    It seems these attacks have Republicans a little nervous and a little more serious in their thoughts about who the next president should be.

    Chris Christie recently received a highly-contested endorsement from the New Hampshire Union Leader in addition to his climbing poll numbers.

    It’s possible, according to Union Leader publisher Joe McQuaid, that people are deciding that perhaps they want a president with a little more experience running the show.

    He said, “Gov. Christie is right for these dangerous times. He has prosecuted terrorists and dealt admirably with major disasters.”

    What do you think is behind Chris Christie’s surging poll numbers? Is he who you would vote for to be the next president?

  • Yelp Findings Suggest A Great Week For Small Businesses

    Last week, Yelp released findings from a Harris Interactive poll it commissioned to gain insight into consumers’ holiday plans when it comes to local businesses. It found that 64% of Americans plan to patronize local independent retailers, and that 7 in 10 Americans age 18-34 plan to do so – more than any other age group.

    As a small business, are you expecting a fruitful week/month? Let us know in the comments.

    Local hoppers, it found, plan to unload $258 at local businesses on average, totaling $40 billion.

    Yelp suggests there’s a lot for small businesses to gain right now, and that the insights can help local retailers attract more customers.

    When asked what motivates them to support small businesses in their city, Yelp says, the majority of those likely to patronize local businesses said they do so to find unique gifts (67%). 55% said they like supporting the local economy, and 44% said it’s just convenient. People aren’t just looking at retail to get gifts this year, Yelp says, adding that it found that over half of Americans (53%) plan to get experience-based gifts at local businesses.

    This includes gift certificates for eating establishments (34%), theater or cinema tickets (18%) and salon and spa services (17%).

    Yelp pointed to the findings as motivation to “drive more eyeballs to your Yelp page.” The company cited Nielsen data saying that 82% of Yelp users go to the site intending to get a product or service and that 89% of those who do, do so within a week.

    More of Yelp’s findings are highlighted in the following infographic.

    Now, Yelp is sharing a list of the top 20 cities for local small business retail this year.

    Yelp says it’s “thrilled that so many Americans plan to support their local economies” by unloading a “big chunk of change on Main Street.”

    “We culled through millions of Yelp reviews to find out which cities in the U.S. are the best for finding gifts,” it says.

    To determine the list, Yelp created a gifting rating system for each city by looking at reviews mentioning the word ‘gift’ at businesses. It then ranked cities based on the rating system and included up to two cities per state.

    The top 10 cities, according to Yelp, are as follows:

    1. Philadelphia, PA

    2. Honolulu, HI

    3. Seattle, WA

    4. Oakland, CA

    5. Portland, OR

    6. Oklahoma City, OK

    7. New Orleans, LA

    8. Burbank, CA

    9. Brooklyn, NY

    10. Denver, CO

    Yelp released its Q3 financials late last month, beating Wall Street expectations. The company revealed that its cumulative reviews grew 35% year over year reaching 90 million. Local advertising accounts grew 37% year over year to about 104,200.

    “Consumers are increasingly discovering our app, which represents approximately 70% of engagement across our entire ecosystem,” said CEO Jeremy Stoppelman. “We believe that our highly engaging app, combined with our native local advertising products that generate high ROI for our customers, strongly positions us to capture the large market…”

    According to data for September cited by the company, Yelp was one of the top 25 mobile web and app properties. Yelp’s page views grew nearly 40% year over year with 70% coming from its mobile app.

    If Yelp’s findings are indicative of consumers’ plans, this week in particular should be a great one for small business owners.

    Do you expect it to be a great period for small businesses? Let us know in the comments.

    Image via Yelp

  • Yahoo Directory, Yahoo Small Business Are No More

    Yahoo Directory, Yahoo Small Business Are No More

    What was at one time the premiere way to find things on the Internet has completely gone away.

    Yahoo announced in September of last year that it was shutting down Yahoo Directory (among other products). In late December, it was killed and began redirecting to Yahoo Small Business.

    But now even Yahoo Small Business is gone.

    Yahoo announced over the summer that Yahoo Small Business was being rebranded as Luminate, which would belong to a new company called Aabaco Small Business, LC, which was at the time owned by Yahoo, but would become owned by Aabaco Holdings, inc. as Aabaco was spun off from Yahoo to shareholders. The spinoff was announced in an SEC filing for Yahoo’s spinoff of its stake in Alibaba Group. Yahoo, by the way, is now facing pressure to not spin that off.

    As Barry Scwhartz points out today, dir.yahoo.com, which had been redirecting to Yahoo Small Business is now redirecting to aabacossmallbusiness.com, which looks like this:

    Screen Shot 2015-11-20 at 2.12.20 PM

    Yep, this is what once was the main way many people navigated the web has become.

    Images via Wikimedia Commons, Aabaco Small Business

  • Obama Announces 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit In Silicon Valley

    President Obama just announced the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit, which will take place in Silicon Valley next year. A date wasn’t given, but you can sign up for updates at GES2016.org.

    “Everywhere I go across America and around the world, I hear from people – especially young people – who are ready to start something of their own, to lift up people’s lives and shape their own destinies,” he said. “That’s entrepreneurship – that spark of prosperity that creates new jobs and new businesses, new ways to deliver basic services, and new ways of seeing the world.”

    “That’s why, since 2010, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit has brought together the best innovators, thinkers, social entrepreneurs, and investors to a different region of the world — from the United States to Sub-Saharan Africa. And I’ve seen firsthand what a difference it can make for entrepreneurs, especially for women and people from marginalized communities, to connect with each other and get feedback on their ideas, to build the networks that can help turn their dream for a business or program or app, into reality.”

    “This week, innovators around the world are marking Global Entrepreneurship Week. I’m calling on the private sector, foundations, investors, and universities to help us increase opportunities for all entrepreneurs, no matter who they are, where they’re from, or what they look like. And I’m pleased to announce that next year, the United States will once again host the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. This time, in the birthplace of modern innovation, Silicon Valley.”

    This will be the 7th installment in the series, which in addition to the U.S. has been hosted by Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Morocco, and Kenya.

  • Elizabeth Banks Got Jokes, Takes Jab At Bill Cosby On ‘SNL’

    Elizabeth Banks did a tremendous job on her first Saturday Night Live hosting job. Banks kicked off the November 14 episode with a song and dance number in a glamorous black ball gown and followed it up with three strong sketches for the night: “Black Jeopardy,” “High School Theatre Show,” and “First got Horny 2 U”.

    The Hunger Games star immediately displayed her wit when she poked fun at her extra-frilly attire for the evening, which is quite a departure from the simpler cocktail dresses and pantsuits that most celebrity hosts wear. “I hope I look okay, I just came from the gym,” Banks quipped.

    Soon after she started her monologue, Banks surprised the audience as she took off the lacey Romona Keveza strapless gown to reveal a much sexier black mini dress she wore underneath. With Elizabeth Banks appearing to the show, SNL was able to make up for the critically-dismal Donald Trump episode of last week.

    In “Black Jeopardy” segment, Banks plays Allison, a know-it-all type of girl who is actually quite incapable of giving correct answers. She starred alongside Sasheer Zamata who played Keeley and Jay Pharaoh who played Amir. The three contestants had to answer three categories: “Who Try’Na,” “What Happened Was,” and “I Don’t know You.” The best part was when Elizabeth Banks dropped subtle hints about the Bill Cosby scandal.

    “After everything he did, he try’na act like he don’t owe us an explanation,” she said but the correct answer was “Who is Tom Brady.”

    Watch Elizabeth Banks Star In A Typical High School Theater Show

    The Pitch Perfect actress also played a high school student in the sketch, “High School Theatre Show,” while she channeled her inner ’90s pop band singer in “First Got Horny 2 U.” Elizabeth Banks and the rest of the SNL women – Aidy Bryant, Cecily Strong, Kate McKinnon, and Vanessa Bayer – did a wonderful job in recreating the era of boy bands and girl bands.

  • Facebook Tips To Prepare For Small Business Saturday

    Facebook Tips To Prepare For Small Business Saturday

    Black Friday is coming, but between that and Cyber Monday is Small Business Saturday, and small businesses throughout the U.S. stand to gain plenty if they prepare.

    Facebook, which has gone out of its way to offer small businesses more and more tools and features over the past year or so (despite the decline of organic reach for most pages), is offering businesses some tips on how to do so.

    Do you think Facebook is becoming a better tool for small businesses? Discuss.

    In a nutshell, the tips boil down to using the right call-to-action button, monitoring local insights, trying out local awareness ads, turning on page messaging, and setting up a saved reply.

    Call-To-Action Buttons

    The call-to-action options include things like Call Now, Send Message, and Contact Us. Obviously, you’ll want to pick one that caters to your specific goal, but that’s likely something you’re already doing.

    Local Insights

    “Local insights is a new section within Page insights that tells businesses about the aggregate demographics and trends associated with the people in their neighborhood,” says Facebook in a blog post. “The new dashboard even tells local businesses what time of day the most people are in the neighborhood. Ahead of Small Business Saturday, evaluate local insights to better understand when people in your neighborhood are out and about so you can open and staff your store accordingly.”

    Local Awareness Ads

    Local Awareness Ads were first introduced over a year ago. These let businesses find new customers by showing ads to groups of people who are near the business’s neighborhood. The company announced improvements last week enabling businesses with multiple locations to create local ads for each store and giving them more insight into the groups of people near their stores.

    Ads feature dynamic copy that can change based on location.

    “New updates to local awareness ads allow businesses using Locations for Pages—a tool for connecting and managing business Pages with multiple store locations—to use information from each of their Pages to add dynamic ad copy, links and call-to-action buttons to their ads, so each ad is localized for its corresponding store,” Facebook recently said.

    “For example, if a cafe with multiple locations in the Bay Area decides to run local awareness ads, they could choose to automatically populate the city name in their ad copy, depending on where the people seeing the ad are,” it explained. “So, people in Menlo Park would see ‘Join us for lunch in Menlo Park,’ while people in San Francisco would see ‘Join us for lunch in San Francisco.’ Call-to-action buttons are also dynamic, so when someone clicks on the ‘Call Now’ or ‘Get Directions’ button, they’re connected to the store currently closest to them. This helps advertisers spend more efficiently, since they’re only connecting with people likely to visit the store and the information they share is hyper-local and relevant.”

    With new insights, businesses can discover their neighborhood’s busiest days of the week and times of day sot hey know when people are most likely to visit the store. This may not apply so much to Small Business Saturday when small businesses are top of mind, but it’s still helpful to know on a regular basis. Businesses can see aggregate demographics of people nearby, including age, gender, tourist, and local residents.

    A couple months ago, Facebook recommended using Local Awareness Ads to: encourage people to go to your store; increase local brand awareness; help specific stores meet their sales targets; tell people about new store locations and grand openings; get the right people to your event; tell people in the area about things happening now; build buzz by rallying local communities; and spread the word about local promotions.

    More on these use cases here.

    For Small Business Saturday, Facebook suggests utilizing the “Get Directions” call-to-action on Local Awareness Ads.

    Page Messaging

    Facebook announced Page Messaging back in the summer giving customers more ways to send private messages to businesses and ways for Page admins to manage and respond to them. People can send messages to a Page from a Local Awareness Ad. They’ll see a buton that says “Send Message” from which they can initiate a private conversation in a Messenger window that appears.

    For Pages, the incoming messages include an attachment that shows the ad that prompted the message. Once the user initiates the conversation, the business can respond as they like.

    Businesses can also now respond privately to public comments on their Pages. When the business responds privately, the comment shows a note that the business responded privately so it doesn’t look like you’re just ignoring it. Users do have an option to block private messages from businesses.

    Facebook recently released a guide to Page Messaging, which you might want to take a look at. It basically has five best practices, but of course elaborates on each of them: Turn on messaging when you’re ready; write the way you’d speak to someone in person; be helpful and to the point; limit saved replies to frequently asked questions; and respond to sensitive questions.

    “Small Business Saturday is all about connecting local businesses to the people in their area and vice versa,” Facebook says. “To offer your customers personal and convenient ways to connect with your business ahead of Small Business Saturday, consider turning on Pages messaging, so people can reach out with questions about the event or about your business in general. Then be sure to thank them for supporting your local business and let them know about your Small Business Saturday participation.”

    Saved Replies

    Finally, Facebook recommends setting up a saved reply for Small Business Saturday.

    Saved Replies also emerged this past summer as a way for Page admins to utilize canned responses to help them more easily address messages. We’ve seen study after study show how bad businesses are at customer service on social media, and this feature should go a long way in helping with that. Saved replies at least tell someone who has sent a message that the business is acknowledging them in some way.

    Facebook suggests using them for frequently asked questions. For example, if you’re getting a lot of questions about your Small Business Saturday events, you can set one up that thanks them for their support and shares relevant event info, such as store hours, in-store offers, etc.

    Are you planning a Small Business Saturday event? Do you expect Facebook to play a role in helping get people interested? Let us know in the comments.

    Image via Small Business Saturday (Facebook)

  • Daisy Ridley In Tears Over New “The Force Awakens” Trailer

    Daisy Ridley is only one of the promising new young actors in the new Star Wars movie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

    Anyone who watched the highly anticipated new trailer on Monday night now knows that Daisy Ridley is on the road to be an absolute stand out in the field.

    Daisy Ridley joins some Hollywood heavy-hitters for the new Star Wars movie, and from what we can tell, is just as blown away about what the movie has become.

    For the pleasure of all those following the movie’s progress, Daisy Ridley and fellow newcomer John Boyega posted their reactions to the new trailer to Instagram.

    It was so, so great. In fact, one might say that Daisy Ridley and John Boyega’s reactions were likely similar to many a super fan.

    In case you haven’t seen it yet, here it is in all it’s glory:

    This is just so much fun:

    What did you think about the new trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Did you have a similar reaction?

  • Facebook Puts Together Some Tools For Small Businesses

    Earlier this year, Facebook replaced its Preferred Marketing Developer program with its Marketing Partners Program, adding a new structure to make it easier for businesses to find partners based on specific needs.

    Would would you like to see made available through Facebook’s marketing partner program? Discuss.

    Late last week, the company added a new small business section, which it intends to expand to offer more and more small business solutions as time goes on.

    For now, there are two partners listed for small businesses: AdRoll and Constant Contact. The former helps businesses with retargeting and the latter lets you convert emails into Facebook ads.

    “AdRoll’s solution for advertising on Facebook gives you full-funnel, cross-device access to all native Facebook ad units. You can retarget your existing audiences, as well as reach new, high-quality audiences across desktop and mobile,” the tool’s page in the Marketing Partners directory explains.

    According to that, you can use the tool to drive conversions by retargeting your site visitors and CRM lists across devices on Facebook, and personalize creative by tailoring Facebook campaigns to each customer’s “unique browsing behavior” with dynamic creative.

    It can also be used to find new audiences, reaching “qualified prospects” on the social network that are similar to your “highest-quality” website visitors.

    They also suggest using this to promote app installs by targeting customers who have visited your desktop or mobile site and encouraging them to download your app.

    Constant Contact has this to say in its section of the Marketing Partners directory: “We know the power email has to connect you with your current customers. And with the rising importance of Social Media to expand your reach to a new audience, we developed a way to combine the power of both: Constant Contact’s Facebook Advertising tool.”

    “With our advertising tool, you can easily convert a Constant Contact email into a highly targeted, mobile-optimized digital ad on Facebook in minutes, right from your Constant Contact account,” it adds. “You can target a new audience with similar traits and interests as your existing customers, making it more likely that those who see your ad are interested in your product/service. You can also know what’s working by tracking views, clicks and more directly from your Constant Contact account.”

    Facebook’s expansion of small business-oriented marketing partners is likely to prove increasingly important to its offerings. Last month, the company announced that its active advertiser count had grown 25% in 7 months.

    Marketing Land spoke with Steve Irvine, the global head of the Facebook Marketing Partner program, who said that most of these active advertisers are small businesses. The publication’s Ginny Marvin reports:

    And with just 5.5 percent of the 45 million businesses that use Facebook Pages actively advertising, there’s obvious room for growth. “We have a strong belief that there is a lot of opportunity to extend relationships with SMBs,” said Irvine.

    With these new partnerships, Facebook can meet SMB customers in marketing platforms they are already using.

    Greg Sterling (also at Marketing Land) now reports that more small business partners are on the way and that Irvine said specific criteria for becoming part of the program include having “significant SMB customer relationships” in place and they must be technology driven with an SMB support infrastructure in place.

    What small business products would you like to see add integrations through Facebook’s partner program? Share your thoughts in the comments.

  • Halloween Ideas? Instagram Has Some

    Halloween Ideas? Instagram Has Some

    The Halloween season is upon us, and people are looking for all kinds of ways to celebrate, whether it be with costumes, movies, decorations, or food. Everyone knows that Pinterest is a great pace to find Halloween ideas in any of these categories, but have you thought of scoping out Instagram?

    Thanks to recently added search capabilities, looking for Halloween ideas on Instagram has never been easier. A simple hashtag search of #HalloweenIdeas yields over 22,000 posts as of the time of this writing, but you really don’t have to limit your searching to that.

    Want some Halloween ideas for your fingernails? Covered.

    Glow in the dark nails by @narmai ?? Song: "Dance Macabre" by Kevin MacLeod

    A video posted by Nails Videos (@nailsvideos) on

    Halloween Ideas For homemade sweets? Of course Instagram has your back.

    Halloween Ideas for makeup? Instagram is as good a place as any.

    Tutorial of previous post! ?? Press Play ??? #Repost @tinakpromua with @repostapp. ・・・ new tutorial on my FAVORITE FAVORITE clown makeup Halloween look ?? Details- Face- @makeupforeverofficial ultra HD foundation, @wolfefaceartfx based face paint, @elfcosmetics black liquid liner, @sephora black liquid liner, @maccosmetics mineralized skin finish in lightscapade Eyes & brows- @anastasiabeverlyhills dipbrow pomade in Ebony, artist palette was key for this look**, @morphebrushes 35N palette for the purple shades, same liquid liners no gels or creams used at all. Lips- @anastasiabeverlyhills liquid lipstick in Midnight Neckpiece all face paint, and @nyxcosmetics wonder pencils to stencil the drawing Contacts- @camoeyes.com_ #universodamaquiagem #universodamaquiagem_oficial #halloweenmakeup #HalloweenCostume #halloween #halloweenideas

    A video posted by Universo da Maquiagem (@universodamaquiagem_oficial) on

    There’s plenty more where all of that came from.

  • GoDaddy CEO Talks Controversies, What Company Is Doing For Small Businesses

    Few Internet companies have drawn the amount of controversy that GoDaddy has over the years. If you look at its Wikipedia page, you’ll find a huge section specifically dedicated to its controversies with that section having 10 of its own sub-sections.

    It goes without saying that people have a lot of questions for CEO Blake Irving, and Irving took to reddit to answer many of them. In fact, he answered some tough ones that many execs probably would have ignored. It’s clear that he’s trying to put the controversies in the past and make GoDaddy a more respected brand, particularly among small businesses.

    Has GoDaddy improved its image in your mind since Irving has taken over? Let us know in the comments.

    Irving has been CEO since 2013 having taken the reins after a lot of the aforementioned controversy, and has been focused on moves to pivot the company away from that. Irving hosted a reddit AMA, telling the audience, “In my 2½ years at GoDaddy, we’ve made considerable progress in bringing big technology to small business around the world—and in being a voice for progress in closing the gender gap in tech.”

    He added that he’s “passionate about building technology that changes the world for the better.”

    While you can read about each of them in more depth here, the controversies surrounding the company throughout the years include backing SOPA (which led to a boycott), suspension of Seclists.org and purchase of No Daddy, the shutdown of RateMyCop.com, the deletion of FamilyAlbum.com, implementation of a selective DNS blackout policy, former CEO Bob Parsons’ killing of an elephant, the halting of registration of China domains, a major service outage in 2012, among others.

    That’s not to mention all the sexually charged ads the company has run over the year, which have seen their own share of backlash. In fact, in the AMA, his response to a question about that got more upvotes than any others. He was asked if “using overtly sexual advertisements” has been helpful for the brand, he responded:

    The old ads helped GoDaddy build massive brand awareness in the US. They weren’t helpful to our reputation as an egalitarian provider of services though, and they didn’t do enough to tell people what we actually do. One of the first things I did at GoDaddy was pivot the advertising to reflect what we did and who we did it for. When 58% of small businesses in the US are run by women you should reflect the great work they do as small businesses. That’s what we’ve done with our ads over the past two years.

    On “support for SOPA/CISPA,” Irving said:

    That was before my time and the company got it wrong, and we learned from it. The damage to the companies reputation had already been done, of course, but it won’t happen again. CISPA never made it off the ground so there was really no position to take, but GoDaddy didn’t support the direction. I personally never supported SOPA nor CISPA.

    On leaving motorsports marketing, he said:

    We’ve gone into 37 countries and 17 languages in the past 20 months and will continue to broaden our offerings internationally. We needed to broaden our marketing spend beyond the US. NASCAR and Indy car are not as well known outside of the US. We have very precise metrics on how these perform outside of the US and inside the US.

    He also said Danica Patrick is a “stud,” and has “a hell of a strong handshake.”

    On the future of the new gTLDs:

    We’re seeing steady increases in awareness and the first instances of big global brands using the names (like abc.xyz and brand TLDs like home.barclays). We expect this to continue to drive new gTLD sales over time. For the foreseeable future, COM will likely remain the most desired name in the US and outside. It’s universally recognizable around the world. Either way, our goal is to provide the best choices available for each customer and the new gTLDs make getting the perfect name for you much more likely.

    That’s really just the tip of the iceberg. He left over 65 responses, and really didn’t do much dodging of difficult questions. Among the other topics he got into were gender diversity at the company and affirmative action hiring.

    Much of the conversation was about how GoDaddy is catering to small businesses. In fact, just last week, they launched some new tools for GoDaddy Online Store.

    Irving says that while domainers are an important part of the domain ecosystem, small businesses and personal websites are the large majority of the market. On what’s next for the company, he said:

    Ultimately, I’d like to see GoDaddy with only one product: business success…and all of our existing products would become features of that singular experience. We’re moving down that path of giving individuals and small and growing businesses a super simple entry to a digital presence, and unique insights about their day-to-day operations, marketing and customers. Imagine giving small businesses the same analytical capabilities that very large enterprises utilize today but oh so much more simple. I love the notion of democratizing big data to empower individuals, entrepreneurs and small business owners. We’ve made a ton of progress toward that vision with our new global platform and the data science that comes with it—and you’ll see a lot more on this theme in the next year or so.

    This isn’t the first time Irving has done an AMA. Here’s one he did last year.

    What do you think about Ivring’s responses? Do you like the direction the company is taking? Do you (or would you) use their services? Discuss in the comments.

    Image via Blake Irving (Twitter)

  • Yahoo Small Business Gets Name and Ownership Change

    Yahoo Small Business Gets Name and Ownership Change

    Yahoo announced that Yahoo Small Business is being rebranded as Luminate, and will belong to a new company called Aabaco Small Business, LLC, which is currently owned by Yahoo, but will become owned by Aabaco Holdings, Inc. when Aabaco is spun off from Yahoo to its shareholders. The spin-off was announced last month when Yahoo announced its SEC filing for spinning off its remaining stake in Alibaba Group.

    Yahoo Small Business says the move will lead to a “sharper focus” on small business. It says it plans to make key investments in infrastructure and organization to improve and broaden its small business solutions. This, it adds, will lead to more support and more ways ways for customers to grow their businesses.

    As Search Engine Roundtable points out, Yahoo has been emailing Yahoo Small Business customers about the change.

    The terms of service and privacy policy are getting updated as a result of the changes.

    The company tells business owners, “For now, please review the new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy which will become effective when the spin-off is completed. We’ve simplified everything, made it 100% focused on small business services, and replaced old names with new. In some cases, you may need to make minor changes (like if you have a domain hosted by a company other than Yahoo), and we will be communicating those instructions separately. Once the spin-off is complete, you will also be asked to create a new ID and password to access your services.”

    Customers will need to keep their Yahoo accounts so they can can continue to access other Yahoo products and services including personal email accounts.

    “Business Mail will continue to be powered by Yahoo Mail,” the company says. “The functionality you have today will either remain the same or see improvements. You will have access to past emails sent and retain your sub-account email addresses as you have already set them up. We also anticipate no changes to the way you access your business email mailboxes.”

    The separation is expected to happen in Q4. It includes Yahoo Small Business India and Yahoo Small Business Canada.

    There are no planned price changes associated with the spin-off.

    Image via Yahoo Small Business

  • Communication App Slack Just Got Better For Communication

    Communication App Slack Just Got Better For Communication

    Team communication tool Slack just got better at team communication. It’s a minor adjustment, but one that make things a lot less annoying for people on the receiving end of broadly targeted messages.

    In Slack, a user can type “@everyone” when they want to direct a message at the entire team. Now they can type “@here” to direct a message specifically to those who are online. That means you don’t have to bother EVERYONE even if they’re not working or…you know, sleeping.

    Users seem to appreciate the addition.

    Another new feature is the ability to type /mute to mute and unmute a channel.

    Last week, the company announced emoji reactions, which enable you to share what you think about things with a thumbs up, a smiley face wearing sunglasses, a pile of feces, etc. More on all of that here.

    Via TheNextWeb

  • Little Caesars Pretzel Pizza Is Back (And This Time It Has Company)

    Little Caesars Pretzel Pizza Is Back (And This Time It Has Company)

    Earlier this year, we reported that Little Caesars would bring back its popular pretzel crust pizza this summer after being tipped by a source within the company. The pizza chain has now confirmed our scoop.

    The company announced that not only is the pizza back from June 29 to August 30, but it is accompanied by a new spinoff – Cheese-n-Pretzel Dipppers. From the announcement:

    When first introduced last fall, the Soft Pretzel Crust Pepperoni Pizza was scheduled to be available from September 1 – October 26, 2014, but was extended twice through the end of February due to demand. After Little Caesars removed the pretzel pizza from its menu in February, it was inundated on social media and with phone calls, emails, and even online petitions by pretzel-loving customers.

    “The Soft Pretzel Crust Pepperoni Pizza has an enthusiastic fan base,” said Ed Gleich, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing for Little Caesars. “We’re grateful for the response, which most definitely contributed to our decision to bring back the pizza and introduce the new CHEESE-N-PRETZEL DIPPERS nationwide.”

    The dippers are described as ” 16 savory pieces of buttery, salty, toasted, soft pretzel bites served with a side of warm, creamy cheddar cheese dip.”

    The dippers will run you $3.49. Unfortunately for consumers, the pizza’s price has been raised by a dollar to $7. It’s till not a bad deal for a large pizza (and one that far exceeds the quality of the chain’s popular $5 Hot-N-Ready in this writer’s opinion), but it does slightly hit a major appeal factor – the pizza’s affordability. Either way, it’s still less than the $8 deep dish.

    The official end date for the pretzel-crust pizza is August 30, but as we saw before, the company has been willing to extend dates in the past if the demand is there.

    Image via Little Caesars

  • Eva Lovia Is Not Just an Astronaut Porn Star, She’s an Entrepreneur

    Eva Lovia is an interesting item. Sure, she’s a porn star. But Eva Lovia is also a hot trending topic, passing other porn stars like Alexis Texas, Asa Akira, Lisa Ann, and Sasha Grey — usually high-ranking in search engines — by a country mile lately.

    Eva Lovia has gotten lots of attention due to a well-publicized campaign from Pornhub. The outrageously famous Internet porn site has announced plans to send two porn stars and a six-person crew into space to film a porn video. What is more, they have enlisted Eva Lovia and Johnny Sins to help them promote this project in a crowdfunding scheme that would make Donald Trump proud.

    The Indiegogo campaign aims to raise $3.4 million, which Pornhub figures is enough to get them to suborbital space on some carrier yet to be determined, shoot the film, and make it available to their adoring public. The project is called #sexploration.

    Getting attention from the straight community has sure made a difference in their fundraising efforts. They have raised over $18,000 as of this writing, which is only one percent of the goal they intend to reach, but that amount came courtesy of over 900 people in just three days.

    With Eva Lovia as the face of the campaign, the company has high hopes of getting the money. They tout her as having universal appeal because of her mixed-heritage looks. “Mixing up her American, Japanese and Spanish blood, she’s like a world tour of wanking material,: their site proclaims.

    Lovia was born in South Carolina, but her ethnicity is often listed as “Eurasian.” She’s 26 years old, and has only been “in the business” for two years. But she is staying busy, even on her feet.

    Eva Lovia also has her fingers in other income streams. She has launched a product with Digital Productions called “D*ck Bib,” which also is running a crowdfunding campaign via Indiegogo.

    She recently announced a Fleshlight model based on her “specifications.”

    But the project that is gaining her so much attention lately is definitely the spacefaring porn plans. The Indiegogo campaign has a similar perk structure for donors that other normal campaigns have. Their perk slot have nicknames. The highest three are Apollo 69, Black Hole, and Uranus, respectively.

    $1 gets you a certificate.
    $10 gets you a day-early viewing of the video
    $20 gets a video chat with Eva Lovia and Johnny Sins
    $25 gets an HD copy of the video
    $50 gets a one-week subscription to Johnny Sins website
    $100 gets a swag bag and t-shirts
    $200 gets a hand-signed copy of the video
    $500 gets a signed photo of Eva Lovia and Johnny Sins, plus a shoutout during filming, shown in the blooper reel
    $1000 gets a phone call from Johnny Sins or Eva Lovia
    $5000 gets a private lunch date with Eva Lovia or Johnny Sins
    $10,000 gets to in to the launch party and your name in the credits
    $20,000 you get to map out a scene, including positions, dialogue, etc.
    $30,000 gets your branding on the space suits in the film
    $50,000 you get props (real props) from the spacefaring film set
    $150,000 you get one of the two spacesuits worn by Eva Lovia or Johnny Sins

  • Etsy Expands Entrepreneur Program

    Etsy Expands Entrepreneur Program

    A couple years ago, Etsy partnered with the city of Rockford, Illinois to develop an entrepreneur training program for the “Etsy economy”. It’s called the Etsy Craft Entrepreneurship Program.

    In 2015, Etsy is a public company, and the program is in many more locations now, including Dallas; Watsonville, California; Chattanooga; Albany; Newark, New York City; Albuquerque; St. Petersburg; Oldham, UK; Poole, UK; Madison; Detroit; Austin; and Santa Fe.

    Now it’s expanding into five new cities: Cookeville, Tennessee; Hazard, Kentucky; Atlantic City; Cleveland; and Ft. Lauderdale. That brings the total to 19 cities.

    “As Etsy celebrates its tenth anniversary this June, it’s a perfect time to reflect on all the ways our seller community has helped make Etsy what it is today,” says Etsy’s Graham Ashcraft. “In particular, it’s incredible to see so many sellers connecting with their communities and helping Etsy’s Craft Entrepreneurship program continue to expand. By sharing their experiences of starting and running their Etsy shops, seasoned sellers have helped more than 550 creative individuals from underserved communities move forward on their own entrepreneurial journeys.”

    “Teaching gives you such an appreciation for where you’ve been and where you ended up, for where you’ve found yourself as a seller and for all the mistakes you made along the way. It gives you such a sense of pride to learn from those mistakes, to be able to share your experience, and to encourage new sellers to put themselves out there,” said Craft Entrepreneurship teacher, Becky Garcia, of dirtsastudio.

    In Cookeville, the program will be offered at the Small Business Development Center at Tennessee Tech University. In Hazard it will be at Hazard Community and Technical College. In Atlantic City it will be offered via the Small Business Development Center at Stockton College. In Cleveland, it will be held at the Public Library. It will also be held at Broward County Library in Ft. Lauderdale.

    Etsy continues to look for new partners and teachers for the program as the year progresses. If you know of a potential organization in your city, you can let the company know here.

    Image via Etsy