This Week in Small Business: Small biz loves Facebook, marketing automation, how the gig economy will shape 2016, and more
The gig economy, the experience economy and checking your list to see who has been naughty and nice are just a few of the useful topics covered in this week’s curated content.
Leadership, management and productivity
It looks like small business owners are pretty much loving Facebook as an advertising vehicle and are propelling the social media giant to equally giant profits.
Get up to speed on what the “loan constant” is, if you ever plan to sit across from a small business loan officer!
Are you giving your customers the experience they need or want? See how Kate Spade has revamped the luxury brand experience. And if you need a tool to help you innovate your customer experience, consider surveys.
You don’t want “another satisfied customer,” you want enthusiastic, emotionally connected customers, says the authors of this Harvard Business Review article.
Marketing and sales
Ho! Ho! Ho! It’s time to cut the naught and keep the nice contacts on your email list, says Matt Walker.
We learn about agile marketing. We learn about content marketing. In this article, agile marketing meets content marketing.
Rohit Arora points out three lessons small business owners can learn from Cyber Monday.
Might Instagram be the ideal marketing platform for your small business? Ema Linaker addresses that question in great detail.
With the price of today’s data plans, can your mobile customers even afford to see your ads?
If you might hire a direct marketing company to work with, make sure you read this article first.
Here are 10 simple tweaks you can make to your blogs to help you generate some sales.
Marketing automation is one way small businesses can adequately compete with large enterprises. Here are six automation tools that boost leads and conversions.
Entrepreneurship, startups and innovation
Big data isn’t just for big companies. Startups can use big data to understand their markets, products, and consumers better than ever before.
Even small business entrepreneurs need to care about cybersecurity. You can’t pretend that it won’t happen to you.
Politics, government and the economy
The emerging “gig economy” should be one of the major influences 2016. Sharon Florentine talks about what’s hot, and what’s not.
The “gig economy” looks at the worker side of things. The “experience economy” is changing consumerism. You may want to get in on it.