|
PR Tip of the Month:
Make Yelp Work for Your Business
Yelp is an online community for city-dwellers to find local businesses and events, write reviews and interact with other users. Founded in 2004, the website's self-proclaimed purpose is "to connect people with great local businesses." Anyone can become a user by signing up for a free account. At the end of 2010, Yelp had more than 39 million visitors
per month.
As a business owner, Yelp gives you a way to communicate with your local customers, post offers, photos, events and other information about your business. Worried about bad reviews? Of the 14 million reviews that have been posted to the site, 83% of them give a rating of 3 stars or higher out of 5. Listing your business on Yelp is free. To get started, visit biz.yelp.com
|
|
DJuana Carter Joins Black Twig
DJuana Carter recently joined the Black Twig team as an administrative specialist. Her responsibilities include providing administrative, project and executive support to assigned departments. She will also serve as the principle point of administrative contact and liaison for internal and external constituencies.
"Our recent growth and office expansion at Black Twig this year has allowed us to expand our internal staff," said Tom Geiser, Managing Partner of Black Twig. "We are excited to have DJuana join our team and look forward to Black Twig's continued success in 2011."
Formerly employed with The Missouri Partnership, Carter has demonstrated exceptional efficiency and commitment to her vocation.
|
|
Industry News & Trends
"10 Ways to Boost Creativity" from BNET.
"Is Your Email Marketing Ready for 2011?" from Entrepreneur.
"40 New Social Media Resources You May Have Missed" from Mashable.
|
|
About Black Twig Communications
Black Twig Communications is a full-service agency specializing in public relations, marketing, web development and creative services. Our management team offers more than 100 years of experience in the communications industry. Black Twig holds offices in St. Louis and New York. |
|
|
Greetings!
Welcome to this year's first edition of the Black Twig Report. Strengthen your business in 2011 with low-cost, high-impact marketing techniques. Imaginative use of business cards, crowdsourcing and mobile web browsing will impact your business while barely impacting your budget.
Business is growing and Black Twig is pleased to announce an additional administrative specialist has joined our staff. DJuana Carter, formerly of The Missouri Partnership, will assist the Black Twig staff on a variety of support projects. Happy New Year and I hope you enjoy the Black Twig Report.
Sincerely,
Tom Gatti
Partner
Business Development
|
|
Black Twig Offering Free Advice Line to Help Small Businesses Succeed in 2011
Got a question about stimulating business? Need some brainstorming for free? Call Black Twig's toll-free business advice line at 1-877-334-1877 to speak with one of our senior staff members. The call is free and confidential. There is no obligation to use our services, so there is no reason not to call an expert and ask what you can do to tackle a tough issue.
"We are prepared to give businesses some one-on-one assistance to help them improve their performance," said Tom Geiser, Managing Partner of Black Twig. "Our goal is simple. We have enjoyed a lot of success and we're happy to help struggling business people. We can share with them inexpensive and creative tools that will help their bottom line."
The advice line is open during regular business hours Monday through Friday.
 |
|
3 Business Resolutions for 2011
You don't have a lot of time in your day to brainstorm innovative new ways to market your business. Instead of sticking with the same old thing, keep yourself ahead of the curve this year by trying these three techniques for low-cost, high-impact results:
1. Make Your Business Cards More Useful
Sure, the point of giving someone your card is to give them your contact information, but why not utilize all the blank space on the back? Turn the back of your card into a coupon or special offer to generate more interest in your product or service. Or, add some notebook style lines to make that blank area into a place for someone to jot down quick notes about your company. Also, if you are a smartphone user, consider creating a digital version of your card. There are a number of services you can use to digitize your card. Start exploring with ScanBizCards, QR codes and Google Goggles.
2. Get Creative Ideas with Crowdsourcing
Combining the words "crowd" and "outsourcing," crowdsourcing refers to taking a task you might traditionally have an employee or agent do (think: vetting an idea for a new product, new website design, etc.) and outsourcing it to the general population. You can crowdsource through many of the online platforms you already use to promote your business: blogs, e-newsletters and social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Oftentimes, all participants want is a little recognition or the chance for their voice to be heard. Crowdsourcing can save you time and money while bringing in a host of new ideas you wouldn't have thought of on your own. Click here to read the original article on crowdsourcing by Jeff Howe.
3. Be Compatible with Mobile Browsing
If you want your customers to be able to access your website on-the-go, chances are you need to make some modifications so smartphone users can utilize your site as if they were on a computer. This recent article from Mashable has eight tools you can use to create a mobile-friendly version of your website. Judging by recent statistics from Morgan Stanley, you'll want to jump on this bandwagon sooner rather than later: given the current rates of change and adoption to mobile web browsing, surfing the Internet on your phone will out-pace browsing on a computer by 2015.
|
|
Featured Media Placements
Click on the media logos below to see some of our clients' featured news stories.
|
|
|
|
|
