Explore our small businesscategories at bizSugar.com.
Beyond visiting the “Hot Topics” and “Recently Submitted” sections on the Internet’s rapidly growing small business social media Website, you can use the tabs at the top of the page to explore anyone of our 26 subcategories.
Add value to the wealth and depth of information to be found here at bizSugar.com
Provide opportunity for members to find detailed information suited to their specific needs and network with other business owners who may occupy their niche
Customize resources including creation of 26 distinct feeds with small business information geared to each user’s specific needs and able to be shared on their Websites by copying and pasting a single code
Develop community no matter what your strength or niche, we hope our categories will provide a new home for those interested in submitting business links on very specific topics
Don’t just explore our categories but find a few niches to call your own. Then submit and comment on topics and niches near and dear to your heart and find an audience of others who feel the same.
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Remember, you don’t need to submit one of your own articles in order to benefit from the small business traffic the bizSugar community can generate.
So to review:
Share great content and other users who value your opinion will follow your profile link to find out more about you, your Website and where else they may be able to connect with you on the Web
Vote on stories and both the story submitter and other users will follow the link you leave back to your profile and may decide to visit your sites or share the links with others.
Comment on stories and if your comments are interesting and insightful showing someone who has read and thoroughly understood a subject, users will seek out your profile and the links back to your sites.
It’s a recipe for success both for regular contributors and members and the bizSugar community.
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Select the category most closely related to content on your site
Carefully set the size you wish the widget to appear
Then generate the widget code and cut and paste it into the HTML of your own Website
We hope the fresh regularly updated links from your new bizSugar widget will help enhance your small business blog or Website with niche content specific to your needs. Happy posting!
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I set up the list on Twitter a few months ago. Whenever I came across someone on Twitter I recognized from here at the BizSugar site, I’d add them. But adding to the List has been hit or miss — until today. Today I went through and added a bunch more people. But I know we are still missing many of you.
If you actively participate here on the BizSugar site, we want to include you as a “Friend” on the “Friends of BizSugar” Twitter list.
Here’s a short Q & A about the Friends list:
Q: How do you decide who goes on the Friends List?
A: If you have a Twitter account and we recognize you as someone who participates here at the site as a good BizSugar citizen, we’ll be happy to include you.
Q: What does it take to be a good BizSugar citizen?
A: Participate! Here are some ways you can participate — pick a couple of these and jump in:
Set up a profile here at BizSugar.
Submit small-business news, tips, blog posts or articles
Vote on other people’s submissions.
Leave a helpful comment.
Upload your photo (remember, it’s hard for people to network with a sugar-cube!)
Fill out your profile page.
Hit the retweet button here on the site and share another member’s blog post on Twitter.
(Please don’t spam the site with off-topic stuff. Make sure submissions are relevant and useful to small and midsize businesses.)
Q: I participate here at BizSugar.com, but I’m not on the Friends of BizSugar Twitter list. How do I get on the List?
A: There are two ways to ask to be included on the “Friends of BizSugar” Twitter list. Pick one of these two ways:
(1) Leave your Twitter handle in a comment to this post.
(2) Follow @BizSugar on Twitter. Send us a tweet or a DM to make sure we don’t overlook you. (Sometimes it takes us a while. We’re not ignoring you, we just might be busy. Give us a little nudge.)
We’ll monitor and add you to the List. Thanks, and happy tweeting!
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So you’ve joined the bizSugar small business community. You submit small business stories, vote for favorites and even comment on a post from time to time. That’s all great, but if you want to get the full benefit of being a thought leader in one of the Internet’s fastest growing small business communities, there are a few more things you might consider to get you there.
See below…
1. Add an Avatar
No, we’re not talking about the big budget science fiction movie. This is the little thumbnail image that represents you to the bizSugar community. By going to your profile and hitting modify, you’ll have an opportunity to upload your own smiling face and show the community who you really are.
2. Add URL and Info
Now tell us a bit more about you. Add some information, as much as you feel comfortable with, about where you’re from, what you do, how to contact you and maybe a link or two to make it easier to find you elsewhere on the Web.
3. Add some friends
As The Beatles once sang, we all get by with some help from them, so don’t forget to add friends to your profile. When you come across a post you really enjoy, click on the user name next to the submitter’s photo and you’ll be taken to his/her profile. Then click “Add…to my friends”. You can also check the list of people who have added you as a friend on your own profile.
Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Joining the bizSugar small business community’s Facebook fan page is simple and free either through the link in this post or on the fan page badge on our blog.
And there are many other features too. You can:
Watch a video on how and why to use bizSugar
Submit a story to our bizSugar community right from the Facebook fan page
Read more about what bizSugar is and how it can help you as a small business owner
Get an overview of the various features and sections of the bizSugar community including links to our stories and blog through the “Boxes” and “RSS/Blog” sections
Get top stories from the front page of bizSugar’s main social media site with direct links to top stories in the “news” tab
Please take some time and explore the new Facebook fan page, learn more about its features and recommend it to a Facebook friend or two. Connect and network with other members of the bizSugar community on Facebook today.
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We’ve got more exciting small business news from bizSugar.com, the Internet’s rapidly growing small business social media Website and online community.
The word is spreading fast about bizSugar.com. Recently, for example:
The Wall Streets Journal online recently mentioned bizSugar.com in an article on “Three Best Ways to Use Social Media“, mentioning regular bizSugar member and contributor John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing, who recommends up and coming communities like bizSugar as a social marketing alternative to larger social sites like Facebook and Twitter that may already be overcrowded.
The Wall Street Journal Small Biz podcast apparently also mentioned bizSugar as “a way to grow yr biz in 2010″ according to Heather Smith, a Brisbane, Australia-based business coach who tweeted the news recently. (Thanks, Heather!)
Bloggertone, an international small business site, has begun a series of posts by bizSugar community member Cindy King who has been picking her favorite bizSugar links of the week and sharing them with visitors and members to that online community.
Naturally, as both membership and participation grows in our online community so do questions from our members. Please remember to contact us with any problems or concerns (or any feedback at all) and we will do our best to resolve issues and get back to you as early as possible.
Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Iranian Cyber War Against Twitter. Brought to us from blogger Willie Wee at Penn Olson, this link looks at an alleged hack into Twitter by person or persons unknown identifying themselves as members of the Iranian Cyber Army. The story highlights the new dangers faced by businesses large and small as they go global in a sometimes uncertain world.
Start An Affiliate Program to Increase Your Sales. A link to an article at Open Forum by Denise O’ Berry shows step by step process by which you can create your own affiliate marketing program allowing other businesses to sell your product to their customers.
How To Explain To Clients That They Are Wrong. The photos alone in this post at SmashingMagazine.com are enough to recommend it, but there is also a wealth of information about how to deal with the realities of dealing with clients on a day to day basis…especially ones with whom you disagree.
Customers Reduce Risk by Buying from Experts. Are YOU One? Sales coach Skip Anderson raises this question and the answers will doubtless be controversial. Is a salesperson an expert? Should he or she be? To what degree should an expert be selling products…outside of services or products strictly based on that expertise?
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset. Are great entrepreneur born or made? This post from FlyingSolo.com suggests innovation can be taught…and learned. Read the post and decide for yourself. Are entrepreneurship and innovation a state of mind?
What Free or Cost Effective Business Tools Did You Use This Year? This link to a post from fellow Bloggertone contributor Greg Fry is a great roundup for the year and the small business gadgets bursting on the scene. Fry shares his own top tools with links in his post and it would be worth the time of any gadget guru worth their salt to have a look.
Social Media Strategy: 6 Areas of Focus for 2010. Doyle Slayton’s take on the social media revolution is comprehensive and looks at the full range of social media channels. The post lays out a strategy in the shifting sands of the social media world that will hopefully lead to a new role for sales in 2010 and beyond.
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When voting on our small businessonline community here at bizSugar, remember some of the tips in the video below. Then browse some of our latest posts in the categories of “legal” tips and “technology”, both categories we are hoping to grow here at bizSugar.
Why Online Business Must Have Web Video.No, it’s not just because I took the time to shoot a nice video above. A smarter cookie then me (no less than search guru Bruce Clay) says perhaps as early as next year due to new universal search Websites without video will likely not even be found. Read more and watch the interview…
Setting Up a Small Business Computer Network.It’s not just for network administrators anymore. Now small business owners can and should join in the fun and this very informative article from ComputerWeekly.com shows you how. You get the opportunity to choose between a wired and wireless network and even look at the equipment you’ll need…
Small Business Contract Advice. There may have been a time when a handshake was good enough to seal a bargain but the world has changed. Even small business deal increasingly with larger enterprise and sometimes with partners across the country and around the world with whom they have never done business before. This article from BusinessTown.com shows you how to play it safe…
How to Create an eBook for Your Small Business.Seth Godin, the king of eBooks lately, gives a simple rundown of the bare bones eBook publishing process on Squidoo, the site he’s helped create and promote. Seth’s description may be a bit oversimplistic but it is a great place to start and demistifies the process of putting thias kind of thing together…
How to Produce a Webinar for Your Small Business. It’s an appealing prospect, setting up an opportunity to share your knowledge online live with a large group no matter where they or you might be individually located either to promote your business or increase your revenue. If you’ve been intimidated by the details of how to get started, this post at Flyte.biz may get you started. It includes not only technical details but ideas on marketing your first Webinar.
We’d appreciate if you’d visit the links and vote for the ones you think merit our community’s attention and enjoy the bizSugar community
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Fresh on the heels of last week’s announcement of Wayne Liew being appointed Moderator, we’re super excited to add another moderator to the BizSugar crew. (Hey, we get a spiffy new design and a software upgrade, and we’re on a moderator tear!)
John Sternal of Understanding Marketing joins us today as a Moderator. His role, like the other moderators, is to make sure the site is kept plum full with a wide variety of content from many small business sites. He’ll also work to keep it a happenin’ fun place here at BizSugar … and a great resource for everyone.
We’ve run into John in several places around the Web. One of the places he’s known for is the Tuesday night tweet chats on Twitter for small businesses, at #smbiz. We’ve participated in a number of the chats and got to know him through those. So when we kept bumping into him here at BizSugar, it just seemed natural to recruit him as a moderator. Luckily for us, he said “yes.”
John has been a member of BizSugar for about six months. He’s had 27 stories published to the home page — nice going, John!
I asked John to tell us a little about himself, in his own words. Here is what he said:
As a 15-year veteran of public relations I’ve been able to work with companies in nearly every industry as well as large corporations, small business and even entrepreneurial start-ups.
I’ve developed communication strategy for companies and served as the spokesperson for several companies and organizations.
I love to find creative ways to get small companies and unheard-of products into the news.
In addition to doing freelance PR, I’m the co-founder of UnderstandingMarketing.com, a Web resource that offers tips and advice that help small business owners do their own marketing and PR campaigns.
I’m also the co-founder of the #smbiz Twitter chats. Held each Tuesday from 8-9 pm ET, #smbiz helps small business owners and entrepreneurs network and receive advice on a variety of issues faced in running a small business.
John Sternal of Understanding Marketing joins us today as a Moderator. His role, like the other moderators, is to make sure the site is kept plum full with a wide variety of content from many small business sites. He’ll also work to keep it a happenin’ fun place here at BizSugar … and a great resource for everyone.
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