Earlier this year I wrote about Groupon and explored if it’s really helping businesses grow. This has been a pretty hot issue lately and I know I’ve seen a few businesses in Portland close shop because Groupon wasn’t the best decision for them. Others have been abused by some LivingSocial or Groupon customers and swear to never use them again for their business.

Michael Koploy of SoftwareAdvice.com recently emailed me to share a blog post where he laid down guidelines for businesses who want to consider Groupon or similar online coupons as part of their marketing plan. You can read the entire blog post here. Keep reading below for some general tips on what to consider when using an Online Coupon Service .

How Groupon works: A Brief Review

Groupon’s big pull is it’s wide reach of users. There’s a ton of folks signed up to get Groupon’s newsletter everyday. If you are willing to offer a product or service 50-90% off, Groupon will help promote it. If not enough consumers purchase the deal, you got a day of free advertising at no cost, no strings attached. But if the deal does sell enough, Groupon takes 30-60% of the coupon revenue after credit card processing fees. Groupon will then make payments in 3 phases over 90 days.

Two things Groupon promotes to businesses: lots of advertising and new customers. But does it work for every business?

3 Things to pay attention to when thinking about partnering with Groupon:

1. You don’t need cash immediately. Groupon pays out in 3 phases, so be prepared to offer a product or service without full revenue for up to 90 days.

2. You don’t need repeat customers: Groupon promises to bring new customers to your business and do repeat business. Studies have shown that 36% pay beyond the Groupon deal and only 20% return to the business.

3. You can handle a crazy amount of customers. Having days where you are having to scramble to make everyone happy, Groupon customers and your regular customers can be a nightmare. See below for some example of typical Groupon customers.

Different types of Groupon users (taken from the http://thecustomercollective.com/inboundsales/49613/does-groupon-work-your-business)

• The Economical Buyer

The “Economical Buyer” springs into action the minute he logs on his computer in the morning. He looks for a deal at a restaurant or bar he has avoided because he is too cheap to pay full price.  The “Economical Buyer” is very unlikely to provide repeat business unless you are going to continue these drastic discounts off your products/services.

• The Penny Pincher

These buyers are obsessed with trying anything and everything they haven’t yet experienced in their city. They treat Groupon like a giant buffet offering hundreds of businesses for them to sample. Normally a small business would be happy to have Groupons sold to people that like trying new places. But “The Penny Pincher” never thinks twice about going back to someplace a second time, they’re too focused on lining up plans to visit the next 10 places that offer a deal.

• The Coup-o-halic

These folks look at Groupons as free money. “Wait, you mean I spend $10 and get $25? That’s like $15 free!” As a result, they buy every single deal that is offered. Hoarding these Groupons to use at the absolute best, most useful, cost-saving moment, they drastically alter their shopping and living behaviors for months at a time in order to live off the stockpiled deals they have accumulating around them.  These are the same type of people that would go to five different grocery stores for the weeks groceries just so they can get redeem that weeks coupons.

• Your Current Customers

This guy isn’t going to waste his time trying new places or buying Groupons he may or may not use. He knows what he likes and sticks to the same routine and establishments each week. He doesn’t get caught up in the hype of Groupons for new or trendy places, but he watches the offers like a hawk. The moment a Groupon is offered to a place he visits regularly, boom! He’s on it like white on rice, buying the maximum allowable number of Groupons. Then he smugly but awkwardly spends the next 8 weeks using a Groupon for his $30 bar tab at his local watering hole.

The bottom line is take a close look at your numbers and costs before doing a deal with Groupon or Living Social. Think about the type of new customers you want to attract and how much you are willing to sacrifice or pay for each one. Some businesses have successfully launched their own version of Groupon, offering discounts on package deals of food, massages, pet-washes, etc. They are announcing them to the current customers and clients and are seeing a better return on investment. There’s no middle man and they make more money overall.

Here’s a fun summary on the ones I find the most useful:

1) Wireless Bookmarks - need an easy way to keep track of all of your favorite links and not always have them be on the same computer or profile. You can login and see links anytime you want.

2) Mail Chimp – one of the easiest ways to get out a newsletter. Can’t beat how user-friendly their software is to use!

3) Flickr – it has it’s own social network. If you are an artist or photographer and aren’t on Flickr, you are missing out!

4) Skype – it’s amazing how much this has helped families businesses communicate for FREE. Have you tried their conference video calling yet?

5) More tools: I couldn’t leave out some favorites like Blinksale or Google Calendar. I use these tools almost daily! I love how Google Calendar is getting to have better integration on an iPhone as well!

It is no secret that the popularity of social media sites continues to grow. Smart online
businesses are taking advantage of the ability to sell through social media sites like
Facebook and Twitter. Even businesses that do not offer products can still leverage
social media to build brand awareness or increase the number of leads or sale for a
service.

The power of social media is that it enables businesses of all sizes to play on the same
field and compete for the same customers. Anyone who would like to find easy ways to
sell online can do so very easily with the help of an ecommerce website and social media
marketing tools.

If you’re a small business looking to get started, but feel overwhelmed by the number of
options – then look no further. We’ll break it down for you in four easy steps.

1. Create an ecommerce website.

You have two main options: first, you can add a “shopping cart” to your existing website. This enables you to create online transactions. PayPal and Google Checkout are two very easy options. If you don’t have an ecommerce website or if yours currently needs an upgrade, do some research before you commit to buy. There are many ways to get an ecommerce website for free or for very little money. The most important question to ask an ecommerce website provider is if your new website can grow with your business? For example, if you have 10 products now, but hope to grow to 100, will your website be able to handle it? Will you be charged a much higher fee? What other charges could there be (e.g. hosting, bandwidth, images, SSL)?

2. Build a strong social brand by developing your ecommerce friendships online.

To build your social brand online you will need to establish a strong presence. One way to
do this is by developing a following online in the social media sites. Start engaging others
regularly in conversations and work in ways to talk about your business. The number
one mistake that businesses make is to simply “join” a social network versus “creating
a presence” on a social network. Know the strengths of each social media channel and
think about it as a marketing channel. Remember that social media is simply a way to
engage with your customers. You still have to close the sale.

3. Increase your social presence with help from your existing customers.

One great place to start is to leverage your existing user base. Tell your customers via newsletters,
blogs, and on your website that you’re on Facebook or Twitter and give them a reason to
follow you. These are people who are already interested in you and will probably help
you spread the word about your business. Simple offers like free shipping or customer
appreciation coupons really help to drive the message home. Make your customers your
best brand ambassadors.

4. Sell directly to your customers on social media channels.

While Facebook commerce or F-commerce is still relatively unproven, the possibility of selling to 700 million users can’t be ignored. Therefore, after you have started (because social media an ongoing strategy that never stops) steps 1-3, the next thing to think about is getting your Facebook fans to buy from you. By engaging others in conversation, befriending them and sharing with others people will begin to build up a trust in you and your ecommerce business. If you’re wondering about how to sell on Facebook, there are many providers who can help – many that are free.

5. Define your strategy and stick to them.

Too often small businesses want to hop on the “newest” social media channel. Keep in mind that this channel may not work for your business. The best way to succeed in social media is to stay focused on your end objectives and always calculate your return on investment. If you’re spending 10 hours a week on social media, how much is that worth per hour? Would that money have been better spent on paid search or a new web design? These are all things you should continuously evaluate because social media, but its very nature, is social. This can result in a huge time suck and you have a business to run.

Google+ could be a huge competition to Facebook, but one huge part that’s missing is Business Pages. Google+ claims they will release their own version later, but it in order for Google to compete, waiting to introduce it later may not benefit them at all.

Even though Google hasn’t set up a section for businesses to list their information, businesses are still doing it. Google stated they plan to run an experiment to test brand profiles in the next few months. In the test group, they will observe how users interact with commercial brands Profiles through various Google+ services like Circles. If you are a business interested in participating in this test should fill out this web form.

In the meantime they plan to take down “non-user profiles to help deter businesses from doing it. This hasn’t stopped businesses from setting them up, Mashable was one of the first to create a Google+ profle: . Ford Motor Company has also created a Google+ profile.

Word on the street is when the business profiles exist, they will function similar to Facebook Pages with Adwords and Analytic integration. They will be indexed, “followable” and posts/updates can be +1′d, just like the “like” button in Facebook. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

As a savvy business owner, you want to learn ways to save time and money. Here’s a great overview of some apps that will simplify your life!

1) Evernote

**is available for most smart phones, FREE

Why it’s cool: Captures your ideas, docs, photos, audio recording in one place.  Here’s a list of 21 ways to use it: http://christianpf.com/how-to-use-evernote-creative-uses/

Features: Geo location, Multi-language support

2) Vlingo

**available for most smart Phones, FREE

Why it’s cool: Voice interfacing technology lets you dictate texts and emails, look up contacts, and search web by voice.

Features: Google Maps &  Twitter Integration

3) Omni Invoice

**$4.99, iPhone only

Why it’s cool: Creates quotes and invoices, spans multiple products and services categories, can add discounts & tax exemptions, & tabs on delinquent payments.

Features: Contact integration & HTML templates

4) Poynt

**Works on the iPhone, Android, & Blackberry, FREE

Why it’s cool: Great for a traveling business person! Location Aware Yellow Pages, it identifies where you are and everything you need on the road: gas station, retailers, restaurants.

Features: Google Map directions, Address Book integration & Search Results

5) Inertrak

**iPhone only, $4.99

Why it’s cool: Task management tool designed for business owners to juggle projects. The app does calculates how each workday is spent, adding up the hourly billing for each client.

Features: Detailed product view & desktop integration

6) Linked In

**iPhone, Blackberry, and Palm, FREE

Why it’s cool: Helps you stay connected, access the social network online, real status updates and messaging tools.

Features: Search and Invites.

7) Appbox Pro

**iPhone, 99cents

Why it’s cool: All in one alarm clock, flashlight, currency convertor, loan calculator, random generator. Also does Google services such as News, Docs, Calendar and Reader. I think this is my favorite app right now, so many uses!

Features: Fun Icons & Background to choose from!

Since I wrote a blog post regarding WordPress E-commerce Plugins, I’ve been asked by multiple folks on what are some security strategies when using Wordpress. I did a little research and asked some Wordpress experts I work with to find the answers. I tried not to get too technical about the details and give just an overview. Please feel free to contact me or the Wordpress experts below if you’d like help securing your website!

1) Samuel Hulick, a Portland web developer,  recommended that changing the administrative account, usually the default is “admin”. Making the username from “admin” to  something more unique can help buffer against hacking.

2) Doron Orenstein, a Los Angeles web developer,  recommended changing the prefix of the tables in the database. Usually they begin with “wp” such as “wp_options” so it would be good to replace them with “$tsg33f56_options” instead. Using a prefix that isn’t standard.

3) Doron recommended this plugin: – WP Security Scan. It will scan your website for security vulnerabilities such as passwords, database security and more.

4) Limiting access. Know who has access to your site, what their permissions are, and what their activity is.

5) Keeping backups of the database and files on a regular basis can help restore problems down the road. This is just good practice to do before updating Wordpress and it’s plugins. Sometimes you can run into compatibility issues with a theme and updated plugins. It’s nice to be able to restore your website to a “working” mode once you find a solution and stop it from breaking.

6) Make sure your password is secure too – use lowercase and uppercase letters as well as numbers.

7) Make sure you are running a current version of Wordpress. Many times the new versions include security fixes.

For a more detailed, technical overview, visit: http://www.problogdesign.com/wordpress/11-best-ways-to-improve-wordpress-security/

It’s actually pretty easy, just login into LinkedIn and they sync up your Twitter account to your LinkedIn account. They also ask if you want all of your tweets on LinkedIn or just certain ones – you are able to sort out which tweets you want by adding a tag (#ln).

It’s that easy. Here’s some steps to help walk you through it

Threadless is a community-centered online apparel store that began in 2000. The business is primarily based on community voting – members of the community submit t-shirt designs online – which, by the way, are some amazing pieces of art.  The designs are put out to a public vote. A percentage of the submitted designs are selected for printing and are sold through their online store. Winning designs receive prizes of cash and store credit.

Their marketing ranges from traditional – holding a “scary designs” contests for Halloween or using social media tools like Facebook,  dedicating themselves to interact with their customers and attract new ones. Here’s some of the ideas they have been cooking up:

• Fans can add items to their cart directly within the Threadless Facebook Page. After choosing your size and clicking “Add to cart,” you’re then directed to Threadless.com where you review your order or return to the Facebook Page and continue shopping.

• Under their tab “New Tees”, you are able to browse the new items of the week. You can post a comment about a t-shirt which then posts to your Wall and News Feed.

• Every Thursday, the company posts hourly videos, giving away prizes by spining on the prize wheel to random fans. Its like a short talk show with prizes and no celebrity guests.

Here’s another profile of Threadless with more examples of how they use Facebook . Who wouldn’t want to go and hang out on their Facebook Fan page? Sounds like fun

For example, if there are people who you’d like to follow, but don’t want them in your main twitter stream, you can add them to a list and then check up on tweets. It’s a win-win solution and helps you consoldate information.

Your lists can either be public or private. One of the easiest ways to create a list is to go through the people who are following you and with the dropdown next to their profile, mark which list you’d like to add them to. Lists are limited to 500 people and each user can have up to 20 lists.

Lists can be made up of:

1) Your peers or colleagues. I find it’s hard to keep track of my peers and it would be nice to have all of them in a list. Maybe they will start talking with each other too.

2) Twitter information folks you follow that provide useful tip, resources, information? Why not throw those guys together in a list. It’s a great way to share that prime knowledge and give credit to the thought leaders you are reading.

3)Specialty Lists – Want to keep a list of all your food carts you are following? Lists are perfect for those.

4)Employees – Get your employees tweeting with each other through Twitter      by creating a list for them

5)Targeted marketing & research – it’s good to keep up with the latest news of business trends and companies you’d like to track.

http://mashable.com/2009/11/02/twitter-lists-guide/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/catherine-ventura/new-twitter-lists-open-ho_b_346523.html

http://thenextweb.com/2009/10/16/twitter-lists-work/