With the positive effects of social media marketing becoming more and more apparent, most small businesses have started working on a social media marketing strategy.

One of the main aims of social media marketing is to stay relevant to your audience. This might be harder for small businesses as they have more to juggle, in terms of handling tasks. Social media tools and apps can help reduce the stress of multi-tasking and keep your social media activities consistent. Below are social media tools for small business to help make your life as a social media marketer easier.

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Much has changed since 1994 when the U.S. government implemented an initiative to spend at least 5% of its contracting dollars on women-owned businesses. Today, women-owned businesses in the U.S. account for approximately 9.4 million companies and generate more than $1.5 trillion in revenue nationwide. Although it has taken more than two decades to reach its goal, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has announced that small businesses  that are majority owned by women earned $17.8 billion in federal contracting dollars, which amounts to about 5% of the $400 billion budget for federal contracts.

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To trust or not to trust. That is a question small and medium-sized business owners often find themselves asking when it comes to relying on certain brands for day to day business operations and other needs.
Keeping their interests in mind, Alignable, a Boston-based platform for local businesses, has launched the SMB Trust Index. It measures companies based on an assigned Net Promoter Score, submitted by contributors on the Alignable platform.

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For initial, up-front investment or a low-cost monthly subscription fee, there are great tech products and services that can save you money in the long run on common business expenses. Here are a few tips for small businesses with fewer than 10 employees.

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After almost two decades, the federal government for the first time has been able to meet its goal of awarding five percent (worth $17.8 billion) of all contracts to women-owned small businesses.

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Starting your own business is exciting, hectic, and frightening all at once. You are laying it all on the line, and your to-do list stretches seemingly for miles. Whether you are still in the planning stage, writing up a business plan, or ready to open for business and hit the ground running, it’s tough to do everything by yourself.

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Ninety-four percent of independent workers love the control that independence provides, but 67 percent say their top concern has to do with inconsistent income in their micro businesses.

This is according to a recent survey of more than 600 independent workers conducted by the folks behind Invoice2go, an invoice app that allows small businesses to create and send professional invoices from any device.

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Having a small online marketing team doesn’t mean your company can not scale content marketing initiatives. It means you must know what the best strategies are and have your team focus on a few they can do well.

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As someone that has worked for small technology-based businesses for years, I have come to learn some of the best habits of small business geniuses. While most business owners are unique and every business is different, there is one very important trait that is shared by the most successful ones: they track everything.

Tracking is one of the key pillars of a successful business. Without tracking, the business owner simply cannot know what works and what does not. It is also difficult to see where the inefficiencies are and how they can be improved upon.

The best way to become a data genius is to get into the habit of tracking everything when it comes to your business, and that includes the website, customers, and employees.

Since my experience mainly covers online and web businesses, most of the tips in this article will be relevant to those types of businesses. However, they can be modified and applied to just about any business.

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There are so many things you need to know about before opening your own business, and it can get pretty overwhelming at times. You need to take advantage of any resources you can find that will help you to get where you need to be, and operate a successful small business, from information on creating business plans to the actual daily operations. Some resources are very helpful, while some are just a waste of time. To help keep you from wasting your time on the not-so-great resources, here are our 9 favorites.

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Small business owners can now compete on an (almost) level playing field with big brands, all through applying the principles and use of content marketing. Regardless of the size of the business, the goal is the same: to use relevant content to attract qualified customers or clients.

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Brands are often associated with large businesses. However, a brand can be used effectively by small businesses as well to increase their profitability. Branding a new business is just as important as insuring your business and knowing when to hire an employee. Your business will not be maximizing its profitability if you are not building a strong brand.

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Global mobile traffic now represents roughly 60 percent of internet traffic, making mobile apps a must-have for businesses. But consumers today increasingly expect an Amazon-like experience online. Small businesses do not just need to build a mobile app, they need to build a great one.

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Content marketing is an important part of keeping a small business growing. It can help you to build credibility and authority, win you good positions in search engine results, and develop important relationships with your actual and potential customers.

The main problem for most small businesses is producing content at a consistent rate. There is so much to do when you’re trying to get a new business off the ground or take a semi-established small company to the next level.

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Small businesses generally face harsher circumstances when it comes to planning and launching a marketing campaign. They have less revenue and capital, which means they’re more limited in the strategies they can pursue. They have fewer resources, which means their teams are smaller and less experienced. And they generally have less data and first-hand experience with which to strategize in the first place.

One of the best marketing strategies for small businesses is content marketing, due to its approachability and affordability, but creating a content marketing strategy can still be an intensive and intimidating process.

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Is your business protected from a data breach? The largest data theft in history:

1.2 billion internet user names and passwords compromised
420,000 websites impacted
Well-known national brands and small companies affected.
Here are ten things you can do to protect your business.

1. Secure sensitive customer, employee or patient data.

Store paper files and removable storage devices (such as thumb drives and CDs) containing sensitive information in a locked drawer, cabinet, safe or other secure container when not in use.
Restrict access to sensitive data to those who have a need to know. Give employees access to only the information they need to do their jobs - whether it's online or in paper form.

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With the ongoing move of smart phones towards near-ubiquity, much of society has come to take these do-all devices for granted. In overcoming the novelty of smart phones, many of us have lost our one-time sense of awe at this technology, and have ceased marveling at the effect it has had on the world around us. However, it is undeniable that smart phones have exerted a huge and multi-faceted impact on society, and continue to do so to this day.

The Advent of Access: How Smart Phones Have Changed the World

Running a business is complicated, which means there are some factors or tasks that tend to get overlooked. From basic concepts to more involved processes, members of our small business community have plenty of tips for dealing with those sometimes overlooked business tasks. See the full list of tips below.

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One of the most valuable possessions that you have is your reputation -- and it is important to guard it at all costs. Profits can be lost and regained, but rebuilding a damaged reputation -- that is far more difficult.

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A business that makes the decision to be environmentally-conscious will often promote goodwill among potential customers, while making the world a better place for future generations. Many businesses hesitate to adopt green practices because they fear it will hurt their bottom line and negatively impact profits. But many eco-conscious businesses discover that they can actually save money and bring in new customers who specifically patronize companies that actively make an effort to be environmentally friendly. Many customers may even be willing to pay a bit more for a product or service from a company that is green.

Businesses Going Green

It is common knowledge that targeting customers will result in a higher sales conversion than non-targeted, random traffic that just happens upon your website. In order to effectively target your customers, you need to know who and where they are. Customers come in all shapes and sizes, so how do you discern which customers are the best to target?

The following are tips to identify your best customers...

Tips to Identify Your Customers

You do not have to be an adult to start your own business. In fact, there are many different business opportunities that teens can use to get their entrepreneurial journeys started. Here are 50 business opportunities for teens.

50 Business Ideas for Teens

Look the part You may be trembling inside, but you want to appear strong and in control. How can you communicate confidence that you may or may not be feeling? Try following these simple tips.

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For small and local businesses, it can be hard to stand out against larger nationwide brands. However, content marketing can help your small business attract attention, and for relevant niches in your industry, too.

Content marketing is a marketing approach that involves creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to your prospective audience in the hopes of driving a consumer action, and it has numerous benefits for small businesses. It can give you the opportunity to not only expand your company, but also to build your reputation and establish a place as a trusted leader in the industry.

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Millennial business owners depend on social media for brand promotion more than any other medium.

Shocked, right? OK, probably not. But just how much Millennial business owners are using this relatively new media — or how much they don’t use traditional media — may come as a surprise.

New data (PDF) from Magisto shows that 68 percent of Millennial small business owners and entrepreneurs depend on social media channels for developing awareness of their own brands.

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With this tumultuous year behind us, I am fixing my mind on what's to come in 2017. Change is the only constant in life, and with a new administration about to take over--I am truly optimistic about next year since entrepreneurs seem to be looking forward to the potential changes that this new year might bring.

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U.S. small businesses are wrapping up 2016 with stronger sales and improved profitability.

Businesses with less than $10 million in annual revenues have experienced, on average, 7.3 percent annual sales growth during 2016, according to a financial statement analysis by Sageworks, a financial information company. That represents the fifth consecutive year that sales have grown more than 7 percent.

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To make lives easier, Moore offers the following legal tips to help small and medium-sized business owners.

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How Can Small Business Owners Build their Online Presence Using Pinterest?

Pinterest is not just an image sharing site. Small businesses can take advantage of the platform to market their goods and services to over 100 million online visitors. Here is how.

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Are you starting a business for the first time? It can be challenging to step out of your comfort zone and go head to head with competitors, manage customer orders and deliver a desirable product. Putting in the right amount of market research goes without saying. But how do you increase your chances of success when starting a business? Check out these 6 ways here.

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Steven Mnuchin, Trumps candidate to run the Treasury Department, has stated that comprehensive tax reform will be an immediate priority of Trumps administration, and that his focus as Treasury Secretary will be stimulating economic growth and creating jobs through tax reform.

But how will this affect small businesses and their owners?

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How do you stay on top of the latest trends in your field?

I read a lot of blogs. I stay on top of Google Webmaster Central Blog, Search Engine Land and Moz Blog are ones that I read. I network with colleagues in the field to see what they’re doing, what they’re hearing and learn from them. There are a few SEO and social media marketing meet-ups in town that I attend.

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Small businesses are an integral part of our economy. Every business aims to solve a problem and create value in doing so. This is particularly true of small businesses. They provide a service or product that meets local needs and can fulfill requirements for larger businesses.

The benefits of small businesses are numerous, but often they can have difficulty creating, sharing, and establishing their message. Entrepreneurs, startups, and freelancers watch their budgets carefully, and expenses outside of delivering the product are kept to a minimum. That means marketing budgets get shaved first.

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More targeted marketing was one of the biggest contributions enterprises welcomed when big data first hit. Big data allowed brands to create elaborate, yet personalized campaigns that evolved to become increasingly effective as salesmen and marketers learned how to actually use all of the data they now had access to. But now, big data has become so broad and complex it has outgrown its ability to provide tangible results without the translation of an IT department.

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Sometimes budget limits small businesses from executing their marketing ideas, but not every successful strategy requires a lot of money. Here are six outside the box ways to market your small business that are both inexpensive and effective.

1. Get personal.

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When it comes to retirement and succession planning, a recent Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index survey suggests that business owners are not necessarily as prepared as they ought to be. Seventy percent of business owners surveyed say they do not have a formal written plan in place outlining what they will do with their business if they decide to retire or can no longer continue working.

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In a technology climate riddled with ransomware and other threats, there’s no room for complacency.

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A social media presence is considered a necessity and not a luxury.

Having a presence on social media has become an absolute must for almost all business ventures.

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It is generally assumed that millennials are seeking jobs in coastal cities — New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles.

But new data from Indeed.com shows that millennials looking to work for small businesses are actually narrowing their searches toward inland cities.

Cities Where Millennials Want to Work for Small Businesses
In fact, when identifying metro areas where millennials are most often looking for work at small businesses. Oklahoma City topped the job board’s list, not L.A. or New York.

This is the latest crop of data looking at generational trends among job seekers.

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Whenever we create digital content, we reference other web pages, either for further reading or to give a credit. In most cases, we link out in order to create better content and provide the reader with more information on the subject.

But did you know that links can provide further value for your business? If you approach it strategically, linking out can actually bring leads and business contacts.

How to Link From Your Content to Build Leads and Connections

Businesses are incredibly difficult ventures to start. More than half of all businesses fail within five years of starting, according to statistics gathered in 2016. While this is far better than the traditional belief that half fail within a single year of starting, it is still clearly a challenge to start and continue running a small business.

6 Things Your Small Business Needs to Spend More Money On

Have you procrastinated about setting up a tax-advantaged retirement plan for your small business? If the answer is yes, you are not alone. Even so, this is not a good situation. You are paying extra income taxes every year that you could easily avoid. However, you still have time to set things right and line yourself up for major tax savings for this year and beyond. This column explains the basics about your tax-smart retirement plan options.

When you cut through all the technical details, you’ll discover that tax-advantaged retirement plans come in two basic varieties:

Defined-contribution plans, which come in several different flavors.
Defined benefit pension plans.

How to choose a retirement plan for your small business

After five straight months of declining or flat readings in small business optimism, Julys update from the NFIB showed a big turnaround. With economists expecting the headline index to come in at a level of 103.5, the actual reading came in at 105.2. This puts the index back within a point of its cycle high and indicates that despite a lack of progress in DC, small business owners are seeing improved conditions on the ground.

Small Business Confidence Bounces Back

The topic of emotional intelligence (EQ) continues to dominate leadership conversations. Rightly so. However, in a Harvard Business Review (HBR) article that highlighted research by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis (experts on the topic), EQ is only the beginning.

Whereas EQ has an emphasis on individual psychology, there is a more relationship-based version called social intelligence. Social Intelligence, as defined by Goleman and Boyatizis, is a set of interpersonal competencies built on specific neural circuits and responses that inspire others to be effective. In other words, based on neuroscience and biology, there are certain leadership behaviors that elicit positive emotional responses in your team members.

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly evolving technology sector. As the popularity of connected devices increases with consumers, the number of entrants into the market grows. But rapid growth and iteration have had some unintended consequences in the IoT space, especially when it comes to usability.

IoT More Friendly

Even though I’m learning and growing daily, life is still challenging. The more I learn, grow and become better, new challenges present themselves to me.

I am learning, over and over again, that being challenged, making mistakes and not knowing what I am doing is part of life. And there is nothing wrong with that.

To Be Successful, Be Patient With Your Imperfections

The tools, platforms and methods you use to grow your business are constantly changing. So you need to keep up with all the latest updates and trends. Members of the online small business community have some great insights about these changing tools and trends, ranging from social media algorithms to augmented reality. Read on for some helpful tips.

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Last summer, Square began offering loans to non-Square merchants with the help of a restaurant software partner called Upserve. Now, the payments and financial services company has created a formal partnership program with the long-term goal of reaching millions more.
Square Capital is launching the partnership platform with BigCommerce, an e-commerce software company that is letting Square make loan offers to its tens of thousands of small business clients.

Square is also extending loan offers to restaurants that work with its own delivery service, Caviar, but which do not already process payments through Square.

Taken together, these new partnerships give Jack Dorseys company a way to jumpstart further expansion of its lending program, which has already extended $1.8 billion in funds to more than 140,000 businesses since its launch three-plus years ago.

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Amazon Business Prime Shipping is a paid annual membership program, which enables registered multi-user business customers to take advantage of unlimited fast and free shipping. The program is currently available for Amazon Business customers in the United States and Germany.
Small businesses are often faced with the challenge of sharing passwords for authorizing procurement and shipping tasks. With Business Prime Shipping everyone in a business account automatically gets Business Prime Shipping.

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Recently, I was asked to take over an existing project. And, like most people, my first inclination was to feel completely intimidated and overwhelmed.

This assignment -- along with its longstanding processes and its related team members -- was all brand new to me. And, if that wasn't enough to have me breathing into a paper bag, managing this project also required me to branch out and exercise some skills that I had previously left untapped.

My chest gets tight at the very thought. Can you relate? Being asked to take on a new work endeavor is a great thing (hey, you must be doing something right!). But, it can also plant plenty of seeds of self-doubt.

Fortunately, this recent experience opened my eyes to some better, more productive things you can do when you're tasked with a new project -- aside from just panicking.

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