It has been estimated that an average person spends half an hour to one hour per day on various social media platforms, which amounts to almost two weeks in the course of the year.

This statement should provide enough incentive for businesses to get hold of the utilities of social media marketing; though at the same time it is necessary to consider that social media management is extremely tedious and time consuming. While maintaining the busy life of a small business owner, dedicating time as well as resources to advertise business on social media can prove to be costly.

Yet it is extremely necessary for small businesses to ensure social marketing to gain on various factors like developing connections or creating more promotional opportunities for customers to ensure advantage of business

Consider these four reasons given below as to why you should be using social media marketing for your small business: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/social-media-marketing-4-reasons-small-business-invest-01705099#jMzMGG2ZBxxrD10z.99

Cyber securities are becoming a concern even for small enterprises today. Enterprises are investing a lot of money to resolve this issue. Here are three themes that can affect banks, small business and the economy-: 1. Tackling Evolving Cyber Security Risks - Small businesses are the most credulous target for the cyber attackers. They should keep data private, check the bank account regularly, develop enforceable security policies & protocols, and participate in action plans so that employees know what to do at the time of the rift. 2. Prioritizing Small Business Growth in a Post-Crisis Era -  Small business needs to raise their interest rates as expected the Federal Reserve increased rates by 25 basis points on Dec16 for more competition & structure plans to secure funding for future growth.
3. Continuing to Play by the Rules -  The regulatory environment will have to keep expanding its range. Growth comes the unavoidable growing points, as banks, and business deals with high regulated, low interest rate for more competition, more partnership and more technology.
To know more, please read the article by Frank Sorrentino (contributor in Forbes): http://www.forbes.com/sites/franksorrentino/2016/01/12/cyber-security-small-business-and-the-2015-trends-that-will-matter-more-in-2016/#761765904708

Time and money are the two determining parameters for small businesses. Entrepreneurs often have to fulfil many roles and handle over some responsibilities in exchange for welcoming in others. HR tech lightens this burden. In small businesses, huge workloads are handled by a few individuals. Hence embracing technology is rewarding, using HR tech lessens time spent on administrative tasks and costs too. Small businesses look for technology which is cost effective, and can be applied by effective small teams. Data and records help in deciding the process confirmation, as successful projects must be repeated.HR technologies are the bridge of efficiency and cost reduction. To know more: http://www.business2community.com/small-business/why-are-more-small-businesses-turning-to-hr-tech-01272723

Banks lose money with small business loans because of high operating costs cannot make up profit from the net interest spread. Components determining costs of a $100,000 loan are origination, underwriting, loan review, operations, monitoring and collections, and compliance. Locking in a loss and reversing a loss are vital strategies, to reinvent internal cost structures. Management can effectively turn around the situation by:
1. Evaluating the profitability on more holistic basis
2. Increase cross sales
3. Process improvement, by simplifying processes.
4. Outsource or partner on lending, by allowing alternative financiers help reduce cost and increase productivity.
To know more: https://www.bai.org/bankingstrategies/Strategy/Small-Business-Banking/Making-Small-Business-Loans-Profitably?cclass=pointOfView

There is huge amount of data and searching for ways to use that data can seem terrifying. Although very little of this data is useful, more and more can be extracted for useful patterns and information. This portion of the useful data is called “Big Data”. For now Big Data is a good way for any company to gain advantage but in the coming ten years use of Big Data will be inevitable. Cloud computing and things like Hadoop and NoSQL provide data analyzing tools to several businesses and entrepreneurs to help analyze the right data sets. Experts on Big Data give some useful tips on how to use this technology.
Know the problem you are trying to solve.
The better way to think about the use of Big Data is to consider it as a tool to solve challenges. Once the problem is identified the data can be used to find a solution.
Start small and grow.
It is a good idea to run a trial analysis and see if it solves the problem. If it doesn’t then you haven’t risked much and if it’s a success you will come out with useful data.
Choose the right data.
 Although it can be difficult to find data, data should be combined from different places to obtain the most useful ones.
Move Fast.
Big Data is not only about analyzing information but also acting on it in real time so that all parts of the company is moving towards a common target and can make the most out of the available data.
Read More at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemontgomery/2015/05/07/small-businesses-shouldnt-fear-big-data/

Predictive Analytics is making its entry into the toolbox of small companies. Predictive Analysis is a three-part formula- analysis of past performance of situation under consideration, understanding the present and applying the past to present to predict the future. For small businesses, it can be applied for customer retention, target marketing, demand forecasting, and overall marketing. However, it is crucial to ascertain the purpose for using Predictive Analysis, as the technology may not necessarily be right for every company or for every situation in the small business sector. Read more at: http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/News/Marketing/can-predictive-analytics-help-your-small-business.html

A business plan is a written description of a business's future, a document that tells us what to do, how to do and also tells us where we stand.

And a marketing plan lays out the marketing strategies of the business. If efficiently executed, it brings benefits to the business. Megan Totka, Chief Editor, ChamberofCommerce.com, in her article at business2community.com, has shared five ways to lay the foundation for a solid marketing plan for a small business. They are:

1. Define your objectives.
2. Create a customer profile.
3. Figure out what triggers consumers to buy.
4. Establish a timeline.
5. Identify where customers find details about your products and/or services.

To understand them in detail, please visit the following link:

http://www.business2community.com/small-business/5-steps-to-a-small-business-marketing-plan-01236176

According to Andre Lavoie, small business has to perform various tasks like accounting, marketing, the managing workforce, recruiting, operations, etc. Small businesses don’t have a separate HR department, so they ignore many HR tasks like making job analysis before recruiting, employee handbook, etc.  In a 2013 Career Builder Survey, it was found that the wrong hiring cost is more than $50,000. In a small business, due to less attractive job description they can't afford to hire the right candidate for their company. To help small business, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) also has guidelines to differentiate between employee and contractors.

Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245008

Software as a Service (SaaS) and subscription cloud-based software are becoming popular nowadays. But, small businesses should ask these following questions before selecting any cloud based software: which ones are the best for business? what is the cost? and are they better than the solutions you have now? Logan Roberts (Strategy Manager at Entech, an IT Consulting and Managed Services Provider), writes in the article link about cloud software a small business should consider: http://www.business2community.com/tech-gadgets/4-cloud-options-small-businesses-consider-01130318

Nowadays, Twitter has become an important channel to sell products and services and is very effective for Business-to-Consumer (B2C) companies. A report by eConsultancy revealed that, Twitter has a conversion rate of 2.17% while other social networks such as Facebook have 0.80% and LinkedIn has 0.74% when used by B2C businesses. According to Ray Wang (Marketing Coordinator at SmarttBut), there are three important tactics which are to be kept in mind while using Twitter. To know more about the Twitter tactics, follow: http://www.smallbusinessbc.ca/growing-a-business/how-discover-potential-customers-using-twitter

Today companies have vast amounts of informations available to carry business moves. The General Mills and IBMs of the world now are using complicated-and expensive-Business Intelligence (BI) systems that can combine data together from a multiple operating systems and generate best reports that highlight not only what has occured and what is happening, but also what will probably happen. Can Small Business Benefit From Business Intelligence Software?

• It can help a small business compete with larger competitors or enhance market share.

• Vendors are getting experienced at making software that’s affordable.

• BI vendors are starting to educate a younger crowd. 

• The cloud now puts non-IT users in the driver’s seat. 

• Before investing in BI tools, one must know what answers they are looking for.

• Forget about using BI software if one don’t have access to best operational data.

• BI is increasingly going mobile. 

 Read more at:

http://www.inc.com/articles/201109/business-intelligence-software-for-small-business.html

It is important for every business to allocate resource and budget appropriately in each department of the organization. But things get difficult for small or start-up businesses because initially small business runs out of both money and resources. It often happens that management allocate maximum budget for marketing. In an article by David Holland (CEO of branding and marketing firm Data Source), offers three marketing strategies to help small businesses save money. For more details please visit Nicole Fallon’s article link: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6236-money-saving-marketing-tips.html

The term big data refers to large amount of customer information gathered from social media, which helps companies to improve sales and services by analyzing those data. But unfortunately small businesses have limitations while analyzing big data. Also the huge volume of data may be confusing for small organization and some time they don't know where to begin. Social platform gathers information which can be important for organisations. Hence tools provided by Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, are a good start as they offer low start-up investment as per Evan Greenberg, CEO of marketing and communications firm Allscope Media. To read more about how big data can help businesses to think outside the box, follow Nicole Fallon's article in this link: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6190-smb-big-data-tips.html

A recent report suggested that small businesses are not concentrating on their online presence. Researchers said that 70 percent of small businesses spent less than one hour per week maintaining their online presence. On the other hand only 51% spend time on social media once a month or less. Small business owners are also not concentrating on their website to improve sale. This article tells us details about the different ways small business owners can give their online presence a boost in order to increase visibility, generate interest and capture any buzz. Read more at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6419-bolstering-small-business-online-presence.html

HipLogiq, a technology marketing company, developed a platform that allows small businesses to target conversations on Twitter and collect more responses than they could by attempting to facilitate engagement on their own. The software filters conversations on Twitter and identifies potential customers through keyword performance technology.

To read more, visit the following link: http://www.contactcenterworld.com/view/contact-center-news/software-helps-businesses-increase-customer-engagement-on-social-media.aspx

Big Data! While you are reading the two words and also this blog, you may be not aware that you already have Big Data right in front of you.

Many small businesses think Big Data to be very expensive to analyze. But, let me tell you one thing – we are analyzing Big Data freely for years! Sounds unbelievable right? Okay, so here’s the thing.

Nowadays, social media has become a great means of communication for every business. Many of them have their page on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, profiles on Twitter, etc. The social media platform can provide valuable insights about their products or services and also about their target customers. With low investments, you can get to know your customers’ behavior, know their demographics and much more. But seeing large volumes of data can make you puzzled.

Nicole Fallon from Business News Daily writes about some tips to get you started. Read them at http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6190-smb-big-data-tips.html