Is Facebook Messenger part of your social media marketing plan?
It should be, especially if the first stat in this week’s article from Larry Kim is to be believed. In it, he says that companies using Messenger are seeing an 80% engagement rate. That’s right … 80%!
Experts Talk Facebook Messenger Marketing
My guest this week on This Week in Small Business, John “Colderice” Lawson definitely believes that number. He’s a Facebook marketing expert and we dug deeper on this article and how Messenger benefits small businesses, and why, to lead off this week’s show.
“Anything that comes across your phone with a notification usually gets engagement. That’s why Facebook Messenger is the a-ha moment in marketing,” John says.
Be sure to check out the show to see how you should be using Messenger to connect with customers.
We then started talking about Due.com’s recent post on lessons from the most recent Amazon Prime Day. We’ve been talking about Amazon a lot lately, so we kept this brief but John says a lesson we can all learn from this is simple: “Keep on truckin’,” John says.
He’s referencing the unprecedented outages that hobbled the Amazon website, especially at the start of Prime Day. If you’ve got a project or a big even in the works and something goes awry, just keep going forward.
John talks about what Amazon did amid the media hysteria. He says, “What they did is that they acknowledged it and kept on with their program.”
We wrapped up this latest This Week in Small Business by going over the most recent data from UpWork revealing the most in-demand freelance skills right now. Watch John try to figure out what’s #1 on the list right now.
Check out the rest of the week in small business news on Small Business Trends by checking out the roundup below.
And be sure to get notified about future episodes of This Week in Small Business by subscribing to the Small Business Trends YouTube channel.
Economy
Wow! African American Small Business Ownership Up 400% in a Year, Survey Reveals
The number of African American small business owners in the United States has increased by a staggering 400% in just a year. This was the finding of a survey from the small business financing company, Guidant Financial. The State of a Small Business survey interviewed more than 2,600 small business owners and entrepreneurs, both male and female.
Senate Passes National Defense Spending Plan with Key Provisions for Small Businesses
The 2019 defense budget was just approved for $716 billion, and some key provisions were added to support small businesses as they work with the Department of Defense.
54% Working in the Gig Economy Say It Takes Too Long to Get Paid
Gig economy workers and freelancers make up an increasingly larger percentage of today’s workforce. But when it comes to getting paid, a new survey from Bill.com says 54% of them feel it takes too long. Freelancers Are Not Being Paid Fast Enough The freelance workforce is a connected demographic using digital technology to work, play, shop and carryout financial transactions.
Management
5 Ways to Promote Your Small Business’s Values – Without Getting Political
As transparency becomes increasingly important in business, more and more consumers prefer businesses with values that support their own beliefs and causes.
Marketing Tips
Small Missouri Brewery Offends Hindu Group with Depiction of Lord Ganesha
Hindus protested a Missouri Brewery’s use of their deity Lord Ganesha’s image to promote its new IPA, prompting the company to apologize and remove it. Springfield Brewing Company Offended Hindus Springfield Brewing Company unveiled a new IPA beer with a label depicting Lord Ganesha holding a beer.
Small Business Operations
Zoho Mail Celebrates 10 Years – and 10 Million Business Users
Zoho Mail is celebrating its tenth birthday. During the last decade, the ad-free business email account has evolved from a “bare-bones communication tool”, to a collaboration platform that is rich in features to meet the needs of small businesses.
Want a Thriving Farm or Food Business? Food Safety Modernization Act Rules You MUST Know
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was originally signed into law back in 2011 to limit the risk of foodborne diseases. But this is the year that some of its rules go into effect for small farms and food handling facilities. Food Safety Modernization Act So in order to comply with the law, here’s an explanation to help you understand the different parts of the law.
Flock Offers Some Small Businesses Free Pro Service as Competition with Slack Heats Up
Flock is offering a whole year of Flock Pro for free to teams on HipChat and Stride after they were acquired by Slack. Not only did Slack buy both companies from Atlassian, but it is shutting them down. Flock vs Slack There is a battle brewing in the real-time, chat-based communications market as more of today’s workforce choose to work remotely and look for efficient collaborative tools.
Technology Trends
Meemim Retires its Free Knowledge Management Platform for Business Users
Meemim will retire its free knowledge management platform in February of 2019, leaving users just under seven months to find a different provider. The Meemin Knowledge Management service was created to give users a single place to share knowledge and information with teams and within an organization.
7 Accounts and Pieces of Information Small Businesses Should Most Fear Getting Hacked
In 2016, hackers breached half of the 28 million small businesses across the United States. No business is small enough to be immune to the growing threat of cyberattacks and the detrimental effects such breaches can have on operations.
New Epson Document Scanners Designed for Small Business Receipt and Invoice Management
More businesses are going paperless, but until everyone does, printing and scanning devices will be part of the office. These two document scanners from Epson have been designed so small businesses and home users can easily digitize financial documents to organize and share them. Epson is launching the WorkForce ES-300WR and ES-500WR along with its ScanSmart Accounting Edition software.
HP Engage Creates Suite for Retail and Hospitality Small Businesses
HP recently unveiled the HP Engage portfolio specifically designed for small businesses in the retail and hospitality spaces working in today’s constantly evolving environment. The new suite includes advances in security for modular system platforms and a new mobile point of sale (mPOS) system that includes the ability to transact sales on the fly.
Stripe Partner Program Allows Small Businesses to Customize Their Digital Payment Systems
The launch of the Stripe Partner Program has been designed to allow users of the platform to create and deploy payment systems along with new revenue stream opportunities. Stripe has been growing at a rapid pace since it was founded in 2011. The growth is fueled by $450 million in VC funding and by widespread adoption around the world.
Zoho One Overhaul Aims to Help Small Businesses Benefit from AI and Machine Learning
Zoho One recently announced a major overhaul of its flagship applications suite. The big changes include a mobile app, analytics that blend data from apps across the suite, implementation of the Zia conversational AI-powered assistant and a new Search feature that corrals information. The free concierge is available to subscribers.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 Offers Small Businesses Portability – for a Price
When it comes to creating the perfect mobile computing and communicating device, hardware manufacturers must often choose between portability and power. The new Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 looks to blur those lines so you can make it your next truly portable all in one device.
New Smartphone from Verizon Offers Small Business Owners 5G Upgrade Potential
Why is the availability of the new moto z3 so important for Verizon? Because this phone gives the carrier the first 5G-upgradable phone in the world. And while 5G testing and network availability have been announced by several carries, everyone is still waiting for 5G capable devices. The moto z3 will be available exclusively through Verizon.