Cbeyond SMB Expert Tips:

The growth of social media has provided easily-accessible, widespread avenues to discuss the good and bad of businesses. As a result, it has become more critical for companies to monitor social media sites to check the pulse of their customers.

In doing so, businesses can identify problems faster and show they are responsive and mindful to resolving issues their customers face. Ultimately, how a business responds publicly through social media can carry a great impact than any other marketing effort.

Author, radio host and small business expert Mark Deo reveals the social media tools every business should use to monitor and respond to social media activity, and shares tips to help businesses craft the perfect response to change customer perception online.

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Communication is a foundation of effective leadership in today’s business environment. While many business leaders view these tactics as second-nature, it can be difficult with the rigors of the day to ensure you are asking the right questions, listening in a fully-focused manner and synchronizing your gestures with your meaning in every conversation. Unfortunately, one misinterpreted word or action can create unintended headaches.

Author, radio host and small business expert Mark Deo reveals the four most common communication pitfalls that plague even the most successful leaders, and shares practical tactics to ensure communication at all levels is functional, intelligent and seamless.

Many small businesses have a difficult task in staying ahead of popular developments in their industries.

According to a recent American Express Open Forum, contributing writer Annie Mueller believes small businesses can devise successful marketing strategies to avoid this predicament. Companies should set their own standards and not follow what everyone else is doing to stand out from the crowd.

“Instead, take a step back and a look around,” said Mueller. “Figure out what people aren’t doing. Figure out what need isn’t being met. Figure out what wagon is empty, but is still heading in the right direction, and grab the reins on that one.”

Other ways small businesses can achieve in a competitive market is to offer improved customer service, set the bar higher in all aspects of the company, be innovative and creative and don’t quit in the face of competition, according to Mueller.

Anita Campbell, CEO and founder of Small Business Trends, recently told Forbes’ Dan Schawbel that small businesses can also stand out from their competition by developing mobile applications, composing their own book or adding artistic photography to their websites and postcards.

For small businesses and ecommerce companies, the mobile subscribers market is a thriving industry and an opportunity to reach more consumers.

According to a recent ecommerce-guide.com report, marketing expert Jeff Judge offered several tips to establish a successful mobile marketing campaign. Judge encourages companies to decide what they want to achieve from their strategy and deliver a simple message.

Since many consumers pay to use text messaging each month, companies are advised not to send too many messages at a time. Judge said the information should include a promotion or contest entry, according to ecommerce-guide.com.

To grow their mobile customer base, Judge said organizations should advertise their mobile subscription service through their website, newsletter and anywhere they do business, the report stated.

A recent Technorati report revealed that 4.6 billion own a mobile phone, compared to 4.2 billion who have a toothbrush. This market is the perfect platform for small businesses to market through.

“Mobile phones, and in particular the smartphones, can and should play a huge role in the local area marketing of small business,” said Technorati’s Quentin Aisbett. “Most of the options available are really affordable and much more effective than traditional advertising mediums.”

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To say social media has fundamentally changed the way marketers conduct business would be an understatement. Today, nearly 60 percent of U.S. online users are involved in social media in some capacity. Much as it does for customers, social media additionally creates great opportunity for businesses to expand and enhance their online presence. Building a corporate social media profile requires a little work up front, and continued updating and monitoring afterwards.

Author, radio host and small business expert Mark Deo reveals eight opportunities for small businesses to expand their social media reach, and why being “socially enabled” can win over new customers.

Social media can be an important marketing platform for small businesses, but many companies may not have the comprehensive strategy to maximize its potential.

According to a recent Business Insider report, there are certain tips to help small businesses avoid social media marketing mistakes.

“The problem [with social media] is that many users that jump onto these tools are doing very little thinking about their strategies,” said the report. “If you’re a small business owner, you cannot afford to touch these social tools without a strategy.”

Although social media allows small businesses to share an abundance of items, every social activity should revolve around their company brand. According to the report, social media marketing can be implemented quickly, but a proper strategy can make it a successful one.

A recent Noobpreneur.com report indicated that social media is the modern marketing tool for companies. According to the news provider, small businesses can use the platform to help grow their company and increase their staff because of the advertising outreach it offers to find new talent.

Social media may be a valuable marketing tool for small businesses, but companies cannot simply use the platform without a proper game plan.

According to PostMedia News’ Andrew Duffy, small businesses must map out a strategy or they may actually do more harm than good.  Marketing expert Mhairi Petrovic agreed, saying that although 60 percent of North American companies use social media, few utilize the platform successfully.

“Take a step back and understand who you are trying to reach and why are you using these technologies,” said Petrovic. “Is it to build traffic to a website? Communicate with an existing network? Or reach a new audience? It’s important to understand these things before you start.”

One dangerous situation small businesses may find themselves in is if they establish a Facebook or Twitter presence too quickly and are slow to respond to consumers, said Duffy.

To help boost social media marketing success, small businesses can use free tools to lower their costs and increase their outreach. According to a recent Miami Herald report, Polly.IM, Timely.is and CrowdBooster are low-cost tools to help manage social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Before the introduction of social media, small businesses often had trouble competing with larger companies and their deeper marketing pockets.

According to a recent Business Insider report, there are several social media tools that can help small businesses increase their profits and compete with bigger companies. HootSuite allows organizations to manage up to five social networks at a time for free.

WildFire is another useful social media tool. The platform lets small businesses offer discounts, promotions and contests through their social presence. According to the report, companies can also manage marketing campaign performance using Klout, which uses a unique algorithm to determine the effectiveness.

“For a small business, new and improved online marketing tools only makes it easier to increase your social media hustle and cash flow in a 24/7 universe,” said the Business Insider report.

Social media not only lets companies expand their brand, but also lower their costs. By establishing a presence on Facebook and Twitter, a local bar owner in Indiana reduced his marketing budget by $500,000, according to a FoxBusiness report.

Customer loyalty is key for any company and the introduction of social media has allowed consumers to follow their favorite businesses like never before.

According to a recent Small Business Trends report, if not properly used, social media marketing may actually harm small businesses. If a company promises their consumers special perks or promotions and do not deliver, it could be a detriment to customer loyalty.

“If someone called your store with a question, left you a message, and you never called them back, you’d understand why they might get angry and never return,” said Small Business Trends’ Lisa Barone. “You’d probably recognize that ignoring them wasn’t the way to build customer loyalty or increase satisfaction. Well, the same thing happens when you ignore them in social media.”

Barone also said that small businesses should avoid inconsistency, not responding to comments and sending out irrelevant social media messages that may seem like the company does not care about their consumers, according to Barone.

Although simple to use and launch in many respects, a crucial aspect of any successful social media marketing campaign is diligent planning from the beginning, according to a Forbes report.

Although some companies may not have a social media presence, experts believe the medium is an essential marketing tool, especially for small businesses.

According to a recent Noobpreneur.com report, social media marketing is considered an “essential” platform for small businesses. By using websites such as Facebook and Twitter, companies can broaden their brand awareness and interact with consumers on a greater level.

Social media is also useful for growing a small business and increasing their staff, the report said.

“Many online recruitment companies use live feeds on social media channels to advertise new vacancies to fans and followers, although a live job feed on your profile won’t be necessary for you (unless you’ve had a sudden growth spurt) you can still use social media to source a valuable new recruit,” said the report.

According to a recent Miami Herald report, there are several free tools that can help small businesses take advantage of social media. Polly.IM helps monitor customer responses and Timely.is allows companies determine when people are most active on social media websites and writes Tweets in advance to meet the demand.