Small Business

The iPad and iPhone. Truthfully, they have changed the way we consume information, communicate, network, do business and socialize. If you want to stay up to date with what's happening in your social realm then you need to be using these top five social apps: Zite, Flipboard, Instapaper, Tweetbot, News.me.

The hackers are at it again. Over 6 million LinkedIn passwords were compromised this morning and leaked on to the Internet. Additionally, the same hacker is also looking for a new girlfriend or boyfriend and has compromised over 1.5 million passwords from eHarmony. It's tough finding love out there, even for hackers.

More and more people these days are wanting the freedom and satisfaction that comes with being your own boss and running your own business. But as romantic and inspiring as it may sound, going out on your own can prove to have some serious pitfalls. This is where the idea of the franchise fits in.

They have been busy little bees over there at Facebook lately! Two weeks ago was the Facebook IPO, last week they released the Pages Manager app and the Camera app, and now this week they are releasing some major features for Facebook pages.

Ron and Kandy VanPeursem have now made the transition over to Shift Digital; a result of a very productive merger between Mea Solutions and BizChangerz.

Ron and Kandy VanPeursem have now made the transition over to Shift Digital; a result of a very productive merger between Mea Solutions and BizChangerz.

Ron and Kandy VanPeursem have now made the transition over to Shift Digital; a result of a very productive merger between Mea Solutions and BizChangerz.

Ron and Kandy VanPeursem have now made the transition over to Shift Digital; a result of a very productive merger between Mea Solutions and BizChangerz.

I definitely did a happy dance when I learned about the new Scheduled Posts feature that Facebook is rolling out for pages that allows page administrators to post up to 6 months into the future. One of the trickiest things up until now for page administrators to manage was to be present on Facebook at the same time as their audience. Especially since time decay (a component of EdgeRank) helps to determine how many people will see your post.

Marketing is a hit or miss proposition in the world of the QSR industry and sometimes you're better off saving the money you'd spend on advertising campaigns and use it other worthwhile projects such as installing brand new storefront signs. At least you know you'd be getting your money's worth with the new signs compared to a marketing blitz for your QSR franchise if the campaign were to be deemed a dud.

I am loving the new Post Analytics feature that Facebook rolled out for Facebook Pages this week. I'm sure Facebook added it so that more people will buy Promoted Posts, but it is very helpful for page owners in a lot of ways. And what's great is the Post Analytics display in close to real time, so you immediately have a sense of how many people are seeing your message.

I was surprised at the advice the "old guy" on the panel, Jay Goltz of The Goltz Group, gave to this business owner. He essentially said to hand over the social media tasks for your business to a college intern, and seemed to imply that using social media for marketing is a waste of this business owner's time. Judging by his own website and social media presence (or lack thereof), he has taken his own advice.

It takes a bold and innovative thinker to own a QSR franchise, something we think most potential franchise owners are, and their creativity must always be challenged when determining what the next big QSR market trend is.

Did you know 11 Twitter accounts are created every second? That's over 1 million accounts per month. My last post was about the ultimate LinkedIn cheat sheet. Today, I'm sharing how you can create a fully optimized Twitter profile in a few simple steps. Don't worry, this won't hurt a bit!

Breaking News: Facebook is launching Facebook Camera, a new mobile app, that looks eerily similar to Instagram, the company that they recently purchased for $1 billion. Why would Facebook purchase Instagram and then launch their own similar application? I'm thinking they might have purchased Instagram prior to launching the app so they have a full monopoly on all camera applications, and to use their technology.

If you own a QSR franchise that isn't expected to compete with the McDonald's' or Dairy Queens' of the world then it might be time to motivate the troops by saying you're not afraid to take on your more heralded competition head on. This has been a successful strategy we've implemented with our franchise clients. The quick-service industry thrives on competition and if you don't have the stomach to compete with the multi-national corporations then you might be in the wrong industry.

LinkedIn is the social network for business professionals and networking. With 161 millions members to date, it's one of the most popular social networks to date. Are you using it to its fullest potential? While we hear a lot about Facebook and Twitter for lead generation, LinkedIn can be just as good, if not better, if you spend a little bit of time optimizing your profile.

From Google's perspective it is imperative for Google to provide the most relevant results based upon the user's query. And every update and major algorithm change is done with that concept in mind. That being said the old concepts of keyword density really do not hold to be true any longer.

There's a lot of buzz going on the social media sphere this week. Mark Zuckerberg got married, Facebook went public and Twitter rolled out bunch of updates. What does this all mean to you? Well if your name is Samantha Collier, you write a recap blog post of course!

iHospital explains some of Sprint's advantages over the competition. iHospital is the place to go for Mac Repair, iPad Repair, iPhone Repair and any Apple Repair. Come see us in Atlanta.