A Quick Review of This Week's Small Business Tredns

We're hookin' you up with a few interesting articles we think you should be reading... Just keeping you in the know.

Twitter Tries to Widen Appeal to More Users  (Wall Street Journal)



The San Francisco company, which lets users broadcast and view short messages, wants to make it easier for new users to navigate the service and help longtime users find interesting content. (Read more)





Google’s Daily Deals Service Emerges to Take on Groupon (GigaOm)



The initial launch of the beta service is in Portland, Ore., while residents of New York City, San Francisco and Oakland, Calif. are also able to sign-up in advance upcoming launches of Offers in their cities. Users need to register through Google, then will receive regular e-mails alerting them to deals and coupons in their area worth 50 percent or more off. (Read more)





How to Use Video to Market Your Business (Entrepreneur)



The average Internet user watches an astounding 186 videos a month, according to comScore Inc., a global digital market measurement service. Video engages people in a way that photos and text alone can't. For small-business owners, using video in your marketing can bring faces, voices, personality and heart to your operation, while also demonstrating your authenticity. (Read more)

A Quick Review of This Week's Small Business Trends

For this week's news roundup, we've collected some interesting reports on small business trends and ideas... just doin' out best to keep you in the loop! 



Coupon services keep sprouting up, but will all of them make the cut? (Boston.com)



Consumers have long complained about telemarketers calling in the middle of dinner to pitch new vinyl siding or satellite TV. Now, businesses face a similar scourge: salespeople from Groupon, BuyWithMe, LivingSocial, and other coupon services eager to get them to offer deep discounts on products and services. (Read more)





Learn how to collect from slow payers (New York Times)



Small business owners know it is cash flow or die. While the recession officially ended in June 2009, many companies are still reeling. Credit can be hard to come by, and profits have not completely bounced back. On top of that, many customers are taking longer than ever to pay their bills. (Read more)





Small businesses look across borders to add markets (USA Today)



Commerce, along with the Small Business Administration and the Export-Import Bank, are making a big push to help small and midsize firms dramatically increase exports. (Read more)





8.8 million tablets in use at SMBs (InformationWeek)



There are nearly 9 million tablets in use at small and midsize businesses in the U.S., roughly half of which were purchased by employees as consumers and later brought into the office environment, according to new research conducted by Techaisle. (Read more)





Turn your house into a billboard, get free mortgage (CNNMoney.com)



Startup advertising firm Adzookie has latched on to a high-profile way to publicize itself: by turning homes into massive billboards. (Read more)





Have a fantastic weekend!

MerchantCircle Gets Serious about Improving Local Search and Site Quality

Chalk it up to the sweet smell of the Spring… Or maybe it's our excessive passion for building the very best tools for local business owners- either way, the MerchantCircle team is excited to share the details of our seasonal clean up.



As a free platform offering User Generated Content (UGC) opportunities, we know that we're sometimes subject to users posting low-quality content. In an effort to strengthen the network and provide the best experience for both our merchants and our consumer audiences, the MerchantCircle team has taken some serious strides to improve local search quality, and better connect local merchants with local customers.



Our community of over 1.6 million (really awesome) merchants provides the cornerstone for ensuring quality content. These guys know their stuff so they're now empowered to flag profiles and material that doesn't meet MerchantCircle expectations. 



Vice President of Product and Marketing, Darren Waddell remarked, "We recognize the asset we have in a community of intelligent, vocal, and passionate business owners. We wanted to give them input on what they see during their daily MerchantCircle engagements."

   

We've also recently rolled out a new Merchant Quality Score (MQS) program that will aid us in identifying low-quality content throughout the site. The system is comprised of multiple touch points in conjunction with scores to give an overall index to all User Generated Content generated on MerchantCircle. This proprietary algorithmic approach also ensures that spam or adult content can't make its way to MerchantCircle.



"The new algorithm is easily adaptable to catch both existing and new low-quality content, through a combination of intelligent filters and specific triggers that we have implemented throughout the site," said Director of Product Management, Dennis Hu. "We'll continue to roll out more protective features throughout MerchantCircle to leverage our user base and have our community help us ensure quality content creation." 



Today we also announced our partnership with search- quality leader Blekko, who will help us improve quality by providing a broad, third party perspective that only a search engine could deliver.



Additionally, MerchantCircle members will help curate Blekko's new "/small business" slashtag- offering helpful resources and top-notch sites that will add a needed merchant perspective to searches of this type.



The slashtag search for local businesses is now available in the MerchantCircle dashboard, alongside the new Bloglines RSS reader.  Both additions help local businesses find high quality local and business information



We're dedicated to creating the very best user experience and we're excited about these latest improvements. Thanks for being a part of the MerchantCircle family and for all the feedback that has helped us make MerchantCircle the largest online network of local business owners.

Another Review of Last Week's Small Business News

Baseball has started, March Madness has ended and spring has sprung here in MerchantCircle's hometown of Mountain View, California.  In case you were a bit distracted by ballgames and brilliant weather, here are a few interesting articles you might have missed...

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Stuck in Smallsville (Portfolio.com)



American women are launching new companies at 1.5 times the national rate, but most of these queen bees are not growing their companies beyond 100 employees or $1 million in revenues, a new survey from American Express finds.  (Read More)





Why You Need to Start Branding ASAP (Fox Business)



When starting a new business, brand establishment tends to take a back seat to hiring the right people, attracting customers and generating sales, but maybe it shouldn’t. (Read More)





Getting Money Into the Hands of Small Businesses (WSJ)



The recession's grip on small-business owners has loosened, but unemployment remains stubbornly high and access to credit is still tight. (Read More)





Fast-changing pace of local advertising (Media Life Magazine)



Online local advertising has resumed its hot pace after a short blip during the recession. In fact, according to a report from Borrell Associates, the local ad tracking firm, the internet is on pace to surpass newspapers as the No. 1 source of local advertising revenue by 2015. This is a landmark prediction, as newspapers have always been No. 1. (Read More)





APRIL FOOL'S: 10 Favorite Fake-Outs (Business Insider)



Scanning news feeds on April Fool's Day is a bit like traveling down Alice's rabbit hole.



It's hard to tell reality from wishful thinking, spiteful revenge, and random hallucinations of people who spend too much time looking at their computers. That said, once you sort the fact from the fancy, it's fun to look back at the best pranks of the day. (Read More)

A little Review of Last Week's Small Business News

Here's a few articles that you might have missed. Catch up quickly! It's already Monday... who knows what exciting small business news will make headlines this week! 



Burned by Daily-Deal Craze, Small Businesses Get Savvy (WSJ)



Many businesses felt burned after their early experiences with Groupon. Now the small retailers that form the base of its business have become savvier about working with Groupon and other social coupon companies. (Read more)





Made in USA Gives Small Business an Edge (Business Week)



As labor and shipping costs in Asia increase, small stateside apparel makers are able to flaunt their domestic addresses. (Read more)



San Francisco Yellow Pages Ban Heads to a Vote (WSJ Blog)



San Francisco’s Land Use Committee this week unanimously approved a proposal to ban unsolicited deliveries of the Yellow Pages, a move local small-business owners say will deny them an important outlet for advertising and marketing. (Read more)





Small Business Owners Still Don't Get Search Marketing (Media Post)



Search marketing -- an intent-driven approach driving the highest returns -- should come as an easy decision for small businesses, but many still don't understand the benefits and the pitfalls. (Read more)





Smaller Walmart stores: A threat to local businesses?



Walmart announced plans to introduce hundreds of new smaller stores. Should small business owners be worried? (Read more)

Hey Thanks!

We're happy to report that in a recent customer satisfaction survey, 89% of our merchants said they'd recommend MerchantCircle to other business owners. (Thank you!)



We love hearing that! And, it's only getting better….



The MerchantCircle team is crazy passionate about local business merchants and creating the very best user experience possible. We've been diggin' in to our site, looking for ways to improve and we've got some screen shots to share. Check out the mock-ups of the soon-to-be-released merchant profile pages. And leave some feedback for our design team. We'd love your input!



In our last Merchant Confidence Index Survey, we learned that about 50% of our merchants are using smart phones. So… we're building an iPhone app. MerchantCircle in the palm of your hand! (Sounds pretty good to us.) Want to weigh in on those designs? Check out our work so far in the MerchantCircle forums!



Our "Merchant Success First" motto continues to drive the products we build and the improvements we make. If you've got suggestions or idea, we want to hear from you! The forums are a great place to sound off while getting connected to other local business owners.



We very much believe in the power of small business and we love providing a platform that helps local merchants connect to local customers. Thank you for your confidence in us, and for all your thoughts, comments and ideas that help us make a better MerchantCircle for you!



Cheers!

Local Online Week-in-Review. (The news you might have missed!)

We know you always mean to read everything that pops into your Bloglines feed, your Twitter page, and your email inbox. But just in case your week got crazy, we've got you covered.

Bing Announces Live Deals - Available on Your Desktop and Phone (SearchEngineWatch)



What's always hot on the web? No matter where you are or how small a city it, what are users usually looking for? The answer is coupons.



Bing is entering the coupon market by aggregating other coupon listings from many different networks. With over 200,000 deals in 14,000 cities and town all over the United States, since Bing has partenered with Dealmap to provide deals from Groupon, Restraurant.com, and Living Social, they are able to provide a valuable service right out of the gate. (Read more)



Higher Gas Prices Have Impact on Small Businesses (USA Today)



When watching news about the turmoil in the Middle East, you probably weren't thinking, "How's this going to affect my small business?"



But take a look at the gas pump, and you'll see. (Read more)



Small Businesses Ramp Up Jobs (CNNMoney)



Small businesses have ramped up their hiring in recent months, fueled by a recovering economy and more optimistic business owners.



That's a far cry from little more than a year ago, when the sector was losing thousands upon thousands of jobs each month. (Read More)