Make the most of Small Business Saturday with offers from big businesses around the country! Here’s an offer from online technology giant Google:

Google Tools to Create Professional-Quality Videos

Google and American Express are partnering to offer small businesses My Business Story, a tool to create and post free videos online about their businesses. Google research has shown that companies who effectively leverage video can expect better customer engagement and retention: online video boosts brand recall by 50 percent and likeability by 26 percent. With the free My Business Story tool, small business owners can create personalized, professional-quality videos for YouTube, social networks, business websites and more. This tool will be available in mid-October.

In any economic climate, one of the few things business owners can control is their beliefs. Regardless of the scenario, today’s most successful professionals do not sacrifice their own values when making key decisions. Beliefs are based on thought, and for business owners to succeed, they must think and make judgments to answer several key questions about the current and future state of their companies.

Author, radio host and small business expert Mark Deo shares the most practical ways business owners can ensure their beliefs are accounted for in the decision-making process, and shares the three questions every business owner should ask in any situation.

In former Internet lives, building your company’s online presence through search engine optimization (SEO) required extensive layout, phrase and tag development and link directories. Today, local profiling and content have triggered geo-targeting and changed the nature of SEO. Building an online presence for your company has never been easier. With enhanced SEO technology, along with numerous review sites and internal outlets to provide fresh contents, companies have several avenues for customer interaction at the tips of their fingers.

Author, radio host and small business expert Mark Deo reveals strategies to help businesses develop their online presence through grassroots activities, and how starting small can help promote your efforts to the world.

With the ease of making purchases at the click of a button, online shopping is more popular than ever among today’s consumers. A recent study found that 78 percent of Americans research purchases online, and 66 percent use the internet as their most common source for buying and selling. The growth of e-commerce creates great opportunity for businesses to reach their target audiences and drive activity beyond what is possible in a physical store. To meet this demand, those same businesses must ensure their website is properly equipped to process and deliver online orders.

Author, radio host and small business expert Mark Deo reveals the three essential items every business needs to conduct successful e-commerce, and shares additional tools and tips to help simplify online shopping for your customers.

As many consumers nowadays have mobile phones at their fingertips, small businesses have another opportunity to target their audience in a new fashion.

According to a recent ZDNet report, small businesses often focus on mobile devices as a productivity device and miss the marketing opportunity. For example, location-based services, which use a person’s whereabouts to generate relevant recommendations or travel information, continue to gain popularity among consumers.

“Location-based services help make that spend even more focused by helping advertisers serve up their information with search results or on location-stimulated web browsers, which is exactly the reason they are so controversial,” said ZDNet’s Heather Clancy.

Citing a study conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project in which nearly 30 percent of Americans use some form of mobile or social network location application, small businesses are encouraged to get on board location-based marketing, added Clancy.

For small businesses to truly succeed with mobile marketing, proper planning for long-term goals should be implemented rather than for short-term financial gains, according to a Bloomberg BusinessWeek report.

Small businesses that lack an online presence should act now before they fall farther behind their competition.

According to a recent Small Business Trends report, there are several tips small businesses can consider to improve the most important section on their website – the business home page. The news provider’s Lisa Barone believes small businesses should tell consumers who, what, when, where, why and how their companies operate concisely.

Barone also asserts that small businesses should use their homepage to direct users to what their site is about, whether it’s to view a blog or its products. A business homepage may also be more successful if it’s less cluttered and more direct.

Small businesses must also create a home page that offers contact information, including where the company is located, so consumers can reach them in a timely manner. Although companies may be tempted to use their competitor’s website as a starting point, Barone believes this is the wrong approach.

“Using your competitor’s text as a ‘guide’ or straight-out copying lines from their home page isn’t going to help you convey your site’s brand message,” said Barone.

Any new technology that is effective and doesn’t put a strain on the budgets of small businesses offers greater opportunity for success, and tablet devices are meeting this description to a “T.”

According to a recent report by the Street, small businesses in several industries are using tablets to boost their productivity, increase their brand awareness and expand their marketing practices. Salons and fashion boutiques, for example, can present videos and slideshows of their products and designs using tablets, while some restaurants are creating digital menus and wine lists with the table.

Venissimo Cheese, which has four cheese shops in California, uses a tablet to execute its marketing strategy.

“It’s much more effective, flexible and impactful than a printed piece of paper,” Gina Freize, founder and owner of Venissimo Cheese, told the Street. “All our key videos and class slideshows are stored [on a tablet] and used to demonstrate what we do and what we are about.”

Small businesses not taking advantage of new technologies, including tablets, may want to do so to keep up with their rivals. According to a study by research firm IDC, U.S. small businesses are expected to spend $125 billion on emerging technologies in 2011.

Cloud computing has emerged as one of the “next big things” behind business growth. According to a recent Gartner survey, worldwide cloud adoption is expanding at a pace of roughly 17 percent per year. But is the cloud the best fit for your business to store data and run applications? And what benefits and risks exist from implementing cloud services?

Author, radio host and small business expert Mark Deo explains the basics every business should know regarding the cloud, and shares the potential pros and cons to consider when evaluating if and how cloud computing fits into future plans.

With the economy still recovering, small businesses with tight budgets are feeling the pinch across the country.

According to a recent Noobpreneur.com report, the most valuable skills small businesses can possess during these economic hardships is the ability to tread water and wait for the economy to pick up again.

What worked several years ago when the country wasn’t dealing with the recession may not work today. One small business may be able to adapt their spending and operations to stay afloat for the next year, while another small business can do it for several years.

“One day the economy will improve and the vast majority of businesses will benefit (rise) from this improved situation,” said Noobpreneur.com’s Scott Messinger.

Small businesses that sell products in their stores may want to establish an online presence to grow their companies during a recession. According to a separate Noobpreneur.com report, small businesses that adopt an e-commerce model are likely to expand their brand for many reasons, including being more accessible to consumers, operating at lower costs than traditional brick-and-mortar stores and promoting customer loyalty.

Innovation is one of the most common buzzwords in marketing today. How many times have you heard that a company now offers “the most innovative product on the market,” or a competitor is a “leader in innovation”? As the term becomes more prominent, what does it truly mean to innovate your business? And how can you build upon your current offerings to capture the attention of new audiences?

Author, radio host and small business expert Mark Deo reveals four basic innovation strategies businesses can use to expand their offerings and develop a memorable and attractive brand for widespread prospects.