I’ve seen casual mentions ofGroupon for a while now, in a number of the blogs I read – but only the American ones. Phrases such as “I took advantage of a groupon for a spa day today” or “I can’t believe this photographer can afford to charge such a low groupon price” have become commonplace; and now they’re about to populate the blog posts – and conversation, no doubt – of Londoners too.

Groupon is one of those simple but brilliant Internet phenomena. A business puts up a special offer price, but that price is only honoured if the set number of people commit to it. As a business owner, you can see the benefit: you can attract new custom, get your place buzzing, and perhaps deal with folk who will go on to become loyal customers. Plus, as the service has plenty of subscribers, you’re getting your name known. Being able to set a minimum number means that you can do your maths and make sure you don’t lose too much on the deal.

Starting off in the States, the Internet company has now widened its net to our capital city – and presumably, if we Brits take to it, it’ll roll out to other major cities too. It could be time to drop by and see if Groupon might work for your business.

The news is full of comment on Facebook’s latest innovation. That familiar ‘like’ button has escaped the bounds of Facebook itself, and can now be found across the web on all sorts of other sites, from news providers to film directories to – of course – consumer product sites.

See this My Deco page for an example of how it could work (via Channel 4).

Most of the stories are concerned about inadvertent privacy lapses that this could bring about. Do you want the whole world to know about your choice of underwear, or your preferred pudding? If not, as a consumer, the choice is simple – just don’t press that ‘like’ button, however used you may be to doing so within the Facebook environment.

As a retailer, though, you may be wondering whether to integrate this feature. We’d say it seems to be a feature with a lot of benefits for business – it’s free word-of-mouth advertising, or “increased eyeballs” as the phrase has it. However, if you’re a cautious type, you may wish to wait until the hype has died down a bit, and then reassess.

(If you’re not so cautious, and you want in on this feature NOW, give us a call!)

We’ve proclaimed the benefits of social media many times: we’ve also warned small business owners to update their status with some degree of caution. With online services that you use in your own private life, it’s all too easy to lapse into an unprofessional tone on the business profile. Before you know it, you can besmirch your company’s good name, just like Habitat and Nestle, to name two recent cases.

That said, up until now, there has always been the safety net of time. As the weeks pass, your tweets and your Facebook updates disappear from the page, replaced by more recent messages. In the fast-moving online world, mistakes can be forgotten.

Or so we thought. This week, the library of Congress in the US has announced that it will be archiving every single public tweet, considering them to be a valuable historic record of public opinion. At the same time, Google unveiled its ‘live search’ timeline, which at the moment allows you to go back to February of this year – and soon will go back to the very day Twitter launched (21st March 2006, as it happens) – and search all public tweets.

Now that your tweets are saved for posterity, it makes sound sense to give thought to what you type, both on your business AND personal accounts. However, if you’re looking for consolation, it might be found in the fact that Twitter this month signed up its 100 millionth user. Finding your minor indiscretion in a sea of tweets that size… well, let’s just say it might be easier to find a needle in a haystack.

Is your customer base made up of more women than men? Many are: there are the obvious examples such as women’s clothes shops, beauticians and spas – and there are also those areas where, for some reason, women seem to do the final decision-making, like house-buying, grocery shopping, and kitchen fitting. Well, you will know your own customers best – have you noticed that they are predominantly female?

If so, you might be interested in research from the University of California which has found that women, more than men, value their online communities. Women, apparently, are more prone to forge relationships online, leading to lasting, valued friendships.

What does that mean for you? Well, a canny business owner who wants to target women would do well to remember that Facebook advertising allows you to segment by a number of factors, including gender. In other words, you can deliver your advertisements directly to the people most likely to need your services. And because women are online more, they are ripe for marketing.

If you don’t fancy paying for your advertising, don’t forget the massive value on setting up a Facebook page, which is free to do. By providing a space for customers to chat, comment, and even socialise, you might just find you’re tapping in to the ‘female effect’ anyway.

Clearly the big news this week has been the launch of Apple’s iPad in the States – we in the UK will have to wait a little longer, unless you are fortunate enough to be able to pop over there to buy one.

Already, Google is announcing specific iPad functionality (for its email product, gMail), and Yahoo has jumped right in with a tailor-made entertainment app.

If the big boys are sitting up and taking notice like this, what does it mean for smaller fry? Well, they undoubtedly see a future for the ‘tablet’ style of computer. It’s true that where Apple leads, others follow: just look at the host of touchscreen phones that came in the wake of the iPhone.

No need to redesign your website specifically for the iPad, though, we’d say. The iPhone itself made it easy to navigate through websites that hadn’t been optimised for small-screen viewing, with the ability to scroll around the screen and zoom in on specific areas. The iPad has the same functionality but a proportionally larger screen, making navigation even easier.

Word is, though, that this device (which it is largely envisaged will be used in the home) will greatly increase the popularity of the app (short for application). We’ve talked before on this blog about how a great app can bring users back to your site and improve customer loyalty. If that’s something you’ve considered in the past, you may wish to give it even more thought for the arrival of the iPad in Britain.

A couple of weeks ago, Google Streetview finally rolled out for most places across the UK. It was a cue for us all to virtually ‘walk’ down the same roads we actually traverse every day in real life – well, it’s the novelty factor, isn’t it?

Since then, we’ve all been finding ways in which it will make our lives easier: checking out holiday destinations, ‘visiting’ houses for sale, and casing out new neighbourhoods before visiting them.

One thing we’ve noticed is how information from Google maps dovetails neatly with its 3D incarnation. Thus, if your premises are marked on Google Maps, they will also be on Streetview. Yes, another reason to make sure your shopfront is looking spruce!

More seriously, it’s also another reason to make sure your Google Maps listing is also looking spruce. We’ve mentioned before how listings can now include photographs, opening times, and user reviews. With each new innovation, Google will see more visitors. This recent launch will have had users flocking to see their towns – and, quite possibly, your listing. Time to get it in order!

As a small business owner, it makes sense to outsource certain work. If you need a new shop frontage, you call a sign-maker; if your electrics are on the blink, you find an electrician. The chances are that you also paid out for a website.

If your website provider was like most, this was a one-off transaction. You paid a set amount; they built your site and that was the end of it. For many businesses, this seems fine. You have an online presence; customers can find your contact details and that is enough.

Stop to consider for a while, though, and it doesn’t take much to realise that your website could be doing so much more for you. With a little expertise, you could be optimising it for the search engines, ensuring that it comes out near the top in the searches most likely to bring you solid customers.

You could be finding new customers and engaging with existing ones on social media like Facebook and Twitter. And, if your business merits it, you could be updating your website regularly to keep customers returning for special promotions, or goods tied in to festive occasions.

These things all take time and expertise – and that’s why many small businesses will simply put up with a small, static website that does nothing more than sit there. The good news is, it’s relatively easy to get ahead of your competitors, even if you don’t have that time or the required knowledge. The trick is to outsource.

Take a look at our managed internet services for small businesses page and you will see that an active internet profile can be yours at a very reasonable price. We believe it will pay for itself.

Has anyone ever told you you need a CMS? For many of us, the only answer to that would be a blank face as we tried to take in one more piece of jargon.

Yet, CMS might just be the three most important initials you will come across, if you are trying to start up or run a small business. All the more so, if you understand the importance of having an online presence, but not how to go about it.

When you discover that they stand for Content Management System, you might begin to see the benefit. Effectively, a CMS is a system that allows even the least web-savvy among us to log in and make changes to a website. The interface tends to be extremely simple, so that little web knowledge is required, instead leaving the user time to think more about content and how best to present the business.

If you foresee that your website will need to change frequently – as you add new stock, say, or because of changing circumstances – a CMS is the easiest way forward. And because we understand that small businesses often run to very tight margins, we offer a very economical CMS package. What’s more, it even has a blog thrown in, so you can key into the cutting edge of social media.

Best of all, next time someone asks you if you have a CMS, you can look them straight in the eye and say ‘yes’.

How we love seeing the incredulous looks on our customers’ – and competitors’ – faces when we tell them that we offer free website design!

Not much is free in this day and age: bus travel for old age pensioners, the kind of newspapers you get handed at stations, and the samples they hand out at supermarkets spring to mind, but, in general, we live in a society where anything free is treated with a great deal of mistrust.

Well, it’s certainly true that most things have a hidden price. Some might say that our incredible free websites offer comes with strings attached. In a way, we agree – but they are very small strings, and the important thing is that we have laid them all out for you to see for yourself. At the foot of our free websites offer page you will see a small section titled ‘What’s the catch?’.

Personally, we don’t think there’s much of a catch at all – but we like to be transparent. Now you can decide for yourself whether this is a free lunch, or whether there is, as the saying tells us, really no such thing. Meanwhile, if your start-up business needs a website, you know where to come.

BIA/Kelsey, a US advisory service, recently commissioned research into the usage of the Internet for local shopping – and the results were interesting.

Here are some of their findings, and our thoughts:

• 90 percent of users use search engines … and the other 10% are liars? Seriously, though, this is no surprise. We know that almost all web usage will start with a search. It’s just one more compelling reason why your site needs optimisation to compete.
• 48 percent use Internet Yellow Pages – indicating that while the Internet is becoming more and more of a handy tool, many users still prefer to find information online, and then call or make a visit. Or do they? It’s also possible that many businesses do not have that crucial online presence that would allow for the convenience of dropping you an email. That would also allow you to respond at a time that’s convenient to you, unlike a phone call. Take a look at your website. Does it allow for online interaction? Would your customers need to resort to the Yellow Pages?
• 42 percent use comparison shopping sites – so it’s worth ensuring that you are included in these increasingly-used online directories. Not sure how? Give us a ring; we can help.
• 58 percent of respondents report using an online coupon when shopping for products or services in their local area in the past year – Now there’s something to think about. Typically, online shoppers are looking for a bargain – and your overheads are less than when advertising in print or broadcast media, so why not share some of those savings with your customers?
• 19 percent of respondents report making an appointment online in the past six months (e.g., business appointment, health-care appointment, auto service or personal service such as a beauty shop) – again, worth thinking about. If you don’t have this functionality on your website, the chances are your customers would welcome it – and it’s also something we can build for you, so drop us an email!