7MainStreet.com Local Business Blog

Tools to help You Communicate with Remote Employees

7MainStreet.com — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:57:49 +0000

In this day and age there are many jobs that can be done remotely. You may have pinpointed some of these positions in your business and now allow people to work from home. There are many benefits to having an off-site workforce. One is that you can reduce your spend on utilities. Less employees in the office means less resources being used such as electricity and water. If you’ve been able to move enough employees off-site you may even be able to move into smaller offices and cut costs there.

The downside to having employees work remotely is that it can create a lack of communication. Luckily, there are many tools you can use to make sure that no communication is lost between your on-site and remote employees and many of them are Free.

Skype – Skype is a free service with paid-for premium upgrades that offers a multitude of great communication benefits. You can text chat with with people, video conference and even make phone calls. Skype will also allow you to do screen sharing so that you can use your computer to show presentations with a group in real time. Learn more…

AOL Instant Messenger – This is a long time standard among chat tools. One of the first and still one of the best. While it doesn’t offer as much as Skype, what it does offer it does very well and fast. Mainly what it does is chat, but in many cases that may be all you need. The program has a very small footprint so you can keep it open at all times without sacrificing too much screen real estate. Learn more…

Google+ – Although Google+ is really a social networking platform, it offers a great video conferencing feature called “Hang Outs” which is a great way to hold “face-to-face” meetings among several employees. Google+ also offers a friend segmenting tool called “Circles” which means your employees can keep their business contacts completely separate from their friends and family. Learn more…

Google Talk – Like AOL, Google Talk is primarily a text chatting tool. It, too, has a very small screen footprint and is great for fast paced chatting. Google Talk also works from within Gmail, so if you’re logged into your Gmail account you don’t even need the local software. Learn more…

The Importance of Reputation Management Online

7MainStreet.com — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 20:27:20 +0000

The Internet is a social place, and even if your company does not have a well developed web presence of its own, your customers and potential customers are building one for you. They are doing this by talking to their friends on Facebook and Twitter about their experiences with your company. They may even be blogging about it or submitting detailed reviews to websites like ResellerRatings.com and 7MainStreet.com.

This information people are spreading could be positive, or it could be negative. In some cases, it might be completely false. It is not unthinkable that even your competitors might be spreading negative information about your company!

Even if you aren’t actively participating in social media (and you should, of course) you ought to at least check popular social media sites for mentions of your company so that you can address any issues or negative reports you find. This is called Reputation management.

The simplest way to do this is to do a Google search for your business name. This will return any website where your company has been mentioned. However, if you have the time you should check each social media site individually. The ones you should check on a regular basis are:

Facebook

Twitter

MySpace

YouTube (Yes, people will make videos about your business!)

7 Things Your Product Pages Must Have

7MainStreet.com — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 17:49:05 +0000

If you are selling your products online with 7MainStreet or other avenues, then you must take care that your product pages are well done. There are many elements of a product page that should be addressed in order for your product page to get traffic and convert.

1) Images

You should provide as many images of your product as you possibly can, and from as many angles as possible. Additionally, you should provide “view larger” options so that people can see your products in greater detail.

2) Unique Description

Your product description must be detailed and unique. It is likely that you are selling the same products, or types of products, as someone else. When you take the time to write unique content, it shows that you really know your product. Your description of the product is different from all the other sellers out there. Also, it’s great for SEO. Search engines love unique content, so your benefit is two-fold.

3) Video

Providing video is not always feasible, but if you have the ability to produce a short video explaining and/or demonstrating your product then you’ve just increased your chances of a conversion by 55 percent. The Internet is in a video age. People EXPECT video now, and are far more likely to watch a video about a product than read it’s description if the option is available. In other words, if you have a video and your competitor doesn’t…you’ll get the sale.

4) Optimized Meta Tags

Making sure your meta tags, especially the TITLE and DESCRIPTION, are properly optimized is vital to helping your product pages rank well in search engines. As with your product descriptions, you want this to be completely unique to your site. This will help you stand out to search engines and visitors.

5) Reviews

The online world is social and people crave the input of others when they are shopping. Offering reviews is a great way to turn your product pages into a social experience. Also, it is (here comes a surprise) loved by search engines! When you give people the option to leave reviews on your products, it lets them be your content producers. Your product pages will have completely unique content that search engines value.

6) Related Products

Displaying related products is a great way to upsell your customer while they are still in the shopping mindset. There are almost always related products you can offer that really do add value to your customer’s purchase. If you sell fishing rods, then display lures on your fishing rod pages. If you sell sunglasses, then display lens cleaning materials on your sunglasses product pages.

7) Social Sharing Buttons

Not only do people value reviews left by your previous customers, they also value the input of their friends. Social sharing buttons offers customers a quick and easy way to post your products to Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites where they can ask their friends opinions or brag about their new purchases.

7 Ways to Make the Best Use of Twitter

7MainStreet.com — Tue, 31 May 2011 17:58:07 +0000

Twitter is a great way for your local business to stay in touch with existing customers and a great way to get your brand in front of new potential customers. But maintaining an active Twitter account does take some work to be useful. Here are 7 tips to help you make the best out of your business’s Twitter account:

1) Tweet Regularly
You don’t have to tweet every five minutes, but you should tweet several times a day and with some consistency. Tweets go by very quickly, so to get the best response you make sure that you are tweeting often. There are tools out there such as Hootsuite which will let you schedule tweets in advance. This way you don’t have to stay glued to your Twitter account all day. Simply write up 10 or more tweets in the morning and schedule them to go out throughout the day.

2) Retweet Other’s Tweets
Part of being involved, and just “there” on Twitter is retweeting other’s Tweets. Naturally you’ll want to retweet any tweets that are about your business specifically, as this will expand its reach, but you should also retweet anything you personally find useful or entertaining.

3) Follow Wisely
Who you follow says a lot about the type of company you are. Take care to follow other people and businesses who appear trustworthy, and don’t just follow back everyone who follows you. Many people who follow are possible spammers just trying to gain access to your audience.

4) Comment
Make sure you comment on other tweets that you have found useful. This shows that you are genuinely part of the community and not simply there to spout out your marketing messages. They will likely show their appreciation down the road by remember your brand when the time comes for them to need your services.

5) Personal Direct Messages to New Followers
There are plenty of tools out there that will automatically send a direct message to those who follow you, but it is much nicer and more memorable if you take the time to write each person individually to thank them for their follow.

6) Thanks for Retweets
When someone retweets one of your posts, thank them. They are helping you market your brand by re-sharing your tweets. That’s free advertising. Show your gratitude and not only will they be more likely to re-tweet in the future, but others who see your thanks will too.

7) Don’t Spam
Although your goal on Twitter is to build awareness of your brand and be there to interacting with existing and potential customers, don’t use all of your Tweets to talk about your business. Remember that Twitter is a social gathering, not a shopping mall. People will remember you more for interacting with them socially, not for constantly selling to them.

Why Your Business Should be Using Social Media

7MainStreet.com — Thu, 26 May 2011 21:46:21 +0000

A few years ago it was hard to convince business owners that they needed to be using Social Media, because the need wasn’t very clear. Today, it’s pretty much a requirement. Social Media has been so widely adopted by the masses that to not leverage it for business is to ignore a huge segment of the population. This is a bad move for businesses of any size.

If you are business who has been reluctant to adopt Social Media, or you work for a company who has been reluctant to adopt Social Media, here are several good reasons for getting involved in Social Media.

Advertising

Social Media websites collect a lot of data about their users. This has raised some privacy issues, but what this means for you as a business, is that you can advertise to very targeted demographics. If you sell pet supplies, for example, you can segment out people who have or like pages – or even a certain type of pet – and advertise only to them.

Customer Service

Many consumers will do a business search Social Media platforms, like Facebook, when they have questions about products or services. If your company does not have a Facebook presence, then you’re missing out on chances to interact with existing and potential customers.

Reputation Management

You may not be active in Social Media, but your customers are…and they are talking about you. If you have a customer who feels s that your company has in some way wronged them, or not met their needs, they can easily shout their negative opinions and business reviews about you to their friends and the world. However, if you do have a Social Media presence, then you have an opportunity to be aware of when this happens, and to work to remedy the situation, thereby saving or enhancing your reputation.

Market Research

Being actively engaged with people in Social Media gives you an opportunity to learn from them. This allows you to better refine your brand messaging and possible discover new products and services you can offer to meet existing and potential customers’ needs.

Although Social Media can be a great business tool, you should keep in mind that people do not partake in Social Media to be marketed too. To most people, Social Media is a way to “hang out” online, so don’t get carried away with your marketing messages, you’re likely to turn people off. Engage with them in other, fun, entertaining ways, not only as a business.

7 Little Perks That Can Make Your Business a Great Place to Work

7MainStreet.com — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:47:13 +0000

Your employees should enjoy coming to work. When they do, you’ll find that they are more productive and genuinely care more about the outcome of their projects and the business as a whole. Making your workplace not only a comfortable, but an enjoyable place to spend eight hours of the day will go a long way toward maintaining a happy staff.

Here are seven small perks you can provide your employees that will make their working environment a bit more enjoyable.

1) Coffee

Almost everyone likes coffee. Many people NEED coffee, or so they say. Providing your staff free coffee in the break room provides them a great way to start their morning. Also, they don’t have to worry about making coffee for themselves at home, which could lead to them running late and coming in stressed out.

2) Vending Machines

As with coffee, offering your employees a snack and/or soda machine is a great way to keep their energy levels up and to keep them from having to leave to grab a quick snack. Not that you want to keep them caged up all day, but that taking a trip away from the office can be a time consuming hassle!

The good thing about vending machines is, not only do they cost you no money, but they can actually make you money. Many vending machine companies will give you a small cut of what the machines take it.

3) Newspapers / Magazines / Books

Providing reading material in your break room gives employees a good way to relax on their breaks or lunch. Allowing employees to focus on non-work related information lets their minds recharge and provides a good mental breather.

4) Internet Access

People spend much of their time online these days, and with good reason. Many people now do all of their important personal paperwork online and handle many other personal affairs. Providing employees access to the internet for personal use can bring a peace of mind to them during the workday. Naturally, you don’t want your employees to be surfing the net all day and not getting any work done. There are many programs out there that allow you block certain websites from being visited from work computers. Instead of giving everyone Internet access at their work computers, you could provide a single computer in the break room for personal use. Or even designate a small computer area with several computers.

5) Paid Breaks

Employees need a few small breaks throughout the day to keep from getting burned out. These breaks should be paid breaks. If you allow your employees to take a couple of 15 minute breaks during the day, don’t make them clock out for those breaks. The benefit you get from them being able to “recharge their batteries” or perhaps handle a personal issue that might be distracting them, is worth it in the long run.

6) Recreation

Giving your employees something fun and physical to do during breaks or lunch is a great way to encourage communication and build team cohesion. Putting a ping pong or foosball table in the break room is a great and fun way to spend a break that your employees will appreciate.

7) Work from Home

Affording your employees the ability to work remotely is a good way to take an otherwise lost day in some cases and getting some business use out of it. For instance, an employee may be “coming down” with something and unable to come into the office, but if they are able to work from home, they can salvage some of their time at home.

7 FREE Online Business Tools

7MainStreet.com — Tue, 24 May 2011 20:36:56 +0000

There many great things about the Internet, not all of them involving videos about cats doing silly things. There are many FREE downloadable and Internet hosted services that you can use for your business. Here’s a list of some of the best:

1) Open Office

Open Office is a full suite of productivity tools. It is essentially an open source version of Microsoft Office, and even allows you to open MS Office documents. It comes complete with a Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation Builder and even a drawing program.

Check it out here: http://www.openoffice.org/

2) Dropbox

Dropbox provides a virtual shared drive where you and your team can save and access files, and access them from anywhere. You can install the Dropbox folder software on any computer. Once you save a document to that folder, it automatically syncs with your online Dropbox account, making it available from your online account. Now, someone else with a Dropbox folder on their computer – with your account credentials – can easily access the same document. You can set up a free account that comes with 2 Gigabytes of storage.

Check it out here: http://www.dropbox.com/

3) Prezi

Prezi is a surprisingly easy to use tool for creating stunning animated presentations. Why make static and flat presentations in Power Point when you can really grab someone’s attention with a dynamic and moving presentation? Prezi lets you create such a presentation and then easily embed it on your website or share via email or social networks.

Check it out: http://prezi.com/

4) Skype

Skype is an online communications tool that lets you chat, talk and even video chat for free with other people who have Skype installed. You can even download apps for your smartphone that let you use Skype when mobile. A great way to save money on communications is to simply make sure that all of your team have Skype accounts set up.

Check it out: http://www.skype.com/

5) YouSendIt

Need to send a file too large to attach in an email? Perhaps to someone who is not a member of your Dropbox account? Then you can use YouSendIt. YouSendIt lets you upload large files to their website, and then you can simply email someone a link to where it can be downloaded.

Check it out: https://www.yousendit.com/

6) WordPress

Your company needs a blog. These days every company needs a blog. It’s a great way to get word out about your company and to discuss news such as new product launches. At WordPress you can easily setup a blog and have it completely launched within minutes.

Check it out: http://wordpress.com/

7) MailChimp

MailChimp offers a VERY nice FREE email marketing solution! You can save up to 2,000 emails in your database and send up to 12,000 emails per month. On top of that, they offer all sorts of email building tools, list management tools, and list building tools. MailChimp is a great solution for email marketing, especially if you are new to it.

Check it out: http://mailchimp.com/

Top 7 Places Where you Must Claim Your Brand Online

7MainStreet.com — Mon, 23 May 2011 21:12:47 +0000

As part of your overall brand strategy, you should secure your brand name on every social website you possibly can. These keeps others from setting up accounts as your brand and then trying to sell it back to you, or worse using it to smear your name. Being the brand owner, you do have some legal recourse to force people to stop such things, but you can avoid the headache altogether by claiming your name first.

There are hundreds of social media sites on the Internet, but there are a select few that are so popular that you MUST claim your name there. And, of course, you should actually be using the popular social media sties to engage and interact with people.

1) Facebook

Facebook is undoubtedly the most popular place on the web. Just last year it’s traffic numbers eclipsed Google’s, and with over 500 million registered users it is larger than many countries. Being such a well-trafficked and visible online destination, you definitely need to establish your brand here.

2) Twitter

Like Facebook, Twitter is a beloved online “hangout” where people like to share status updates. It’s also a great place for businesses to get word out about their brand and offering.

3) YouTube

YouTube is the largest video sharing website on the Internet and not all of its videos are cute kittens doing cute things. Some videos can be pretty unsavory. It could be very bad for your reputation for someone to set up an account with your brand name and then start “favoriting” and promoting questionable videos.

4) Flickr

Flickr.com is a huge community of people sharing and commenting on photography. Not only should you claim your brand for the reasons previously mentioned, but it’s yet another way to get word – or images – out about your brand.

5) Digg

Digg is a social bookmarking website. In much the same way as you bookmark websites you like in your browser toolbar, Digg lets you save bookmarks – and share bookmarks – to an online account. This way you can access your bookmarks from anywhere.

6) LinkedIn

You DEFINITELY should claim your business on LinkedIn.com. LinkedIn is much like Facebook, except that it is geared to the professional world. Business set up company accounts and people set up resume accounts. As a business owner you can even use LinkedIn as a tool for seeking out new employees.

7) 7MainStreet

Of course, it goes without saying that you should claim you brand on 7MainStreet.com. 7MainStreet.com is the fastest growing mega business directory on the web. It offers businesses a way to network with other business owners and consumers, and allows consumers a way to shop locally online.

7 Best Things to do in San Francisco, CA

7MainStreet.com — Thu, 19 May 2011 19:12:25 +0000

Explore the great city of San Francisco and what it has to offer. With many things to do and many things to see. From the Golden Gate Bridge to Chinatown! Here are the 7 Best Things to do in San Francisco.

1. Golden Gate Bridge

San Francisco’s main attraction and also one of the most photographed sights in the world. Spans as the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. Many options to choose from to how to view the bridge: Driving, Walking, Biking, and Hiking.

2. Haight Ashbury Street

The history of the 60’s hippie counterculture and rock and roll lifestyle still remains in Haight Street. Many eclectic hippie head shops, record stores, restaurants, bars, clothing boutiques, music venues and many more. Great, unique street that is diverse with many people and is great for people watching.

3. Napa Valley

Enjoy a great wine tasting experience into the Wine Country. The Napa Valley offers many tours through the winery and many wine tasting packages. Taste and learn about the best of the best wine varietals.

4. Lombard Street

The “crookedest street” in San Francisco. Beautiful, steep hilly one way street with hairpin turns running along between beautiful Victorian mansions. With many scenic views to see from a top such as the fisherman’s wharf.

5. Fisherman’s Wharf

Popular tourist attraction in San Francisco. Overabundance of great fresh seafood and restaurants that is proximity of the northern waterfront area of San Francisco from Ghirardelli Square and Van Ness Avenue. With many other attractions such as street performers, view of the Alcatraz and running along the cable cars. If you want the best of the best seafood in town, come to the Fisherman’s Wharf.

6. Golden Gate Park

City’s park preserve as a place to play, relax and grow culturally. Home to many recreation activities, museums, and gardens. With many attractions inside the park like boating on Stow Lake, Bird Almanac, and watching the bison.

Main attractions: Conservatory of Flowers, California Academy of Sciences, Japanese Tea garden, and The M.H. De Young Museum.

7. Chinatown

Largest and oldest Chinatown in the U.S. with the largest Chinese community outside of Asia. Best of Chinese restaurants, shops and the overall culture of the area. With many great architectural temples to see and visit. They offer tours to explain the history and must go to places in Chinatown while riding cable cars! Free walking tours are available weekly.

7 Ways to Maintain Productivity

7MainStreet.com — Wed, 18 May 2011 21:06:40 +0000

Productivity is hard to maintain. For instance, I really don’t want to be writing this article. I’d much rather be doing something non-productive like playing Angry Birds on my iPhone or converting potato chips into fat molecules. But I must produce! If I don’t, then you loyal readers might miss out on some great business advice. So here are a few pointers on how to maintain productivity.

1) Don’t be productive

That sounds incredibly dumb and you must think I’m joking. Well, I’m not, so your laughter really hurts my feelings. What I mean is that it is very hard to remain productive for long periods of time. Take a break for a minute or two if you are reaching a burn out point. Often times a short breather is all it takes to regain focus and jump back into a project with renewed vigor.

2) Keep your eye on the prize

Stay focused on the end goal. You may not enjoy the task at hand, but typically whatever you’re doing now is part of a large project with later rewards. Knowing there is a light at the end of the tunnel – usually a profitable light – can help you maintain productivity.

3) Talk it out

Sometimes it’s hard to get going on a project if you are left to your own devices. Corner one of your friends and start talking to them about it. They will probably be very interested in whatever it is you’re doing, especially if it relates in some way to what they are currently working on. If not, then it is refreshing for both of you to hear about projects going on elsewhere in the company. They may even have new ideas you hadn’t thought of. Talking with a co-worker about a project is a great way to spur creativity and productivity.

4) Make a list

Make a list of the tasks you need to complete to reach your end goal. There is something very satisfying about striking of a completed task from a list. This feeling alone can be a huge motivator toward staying productive. When you cross a task off of your list you may get a rush comparable to that of slaying a mighty dragon or scoring particularly well on Angry Birds.

5) Work smart not hard

This is virtually impossible for politicians to do, but should be mastered by anyone in business. What this means is to plan. Logically map out everything that needs to be done and how each task affects other tasks and the end goal of the project. Doing this can make a project go much more smoothly and, therefore, wrap up more quickly. Spending hours putting out fires that could have been avoided is not productive.

6) Listen to music

Music is a great way to distract the parts of your brain not directly tied to your project so that they don’t distract you. Playing music in the background has a great way of smoothing out mental clutter. Instead of having 10% of your brain focused on the project and the other 90% constantly harassing you with thoughts like “when can I play Angry Birds again?” “Did I remember to TiVo the Dukes of Hazzard?” “I wish I had a jetpack!” Instead, those parts of your brain will be lulled by music, so that the remaining parts of your brain can be productive.

7) Set hard deadlines

If you know a project MUST be completed by a specific time, then you will be more motivated to complete it. Even if this deadline only exists in your head, it can be a motivating factor. You remember when you were a kid and your mom wanted you to clean you your filthy, pig sty of a room, she would say something like “Make a game out of it. See how much junk you can pick up in an hour, then try to beat it!” That hour deadline was really a motivator!