As a business owner, you may have wondered — should my business be using social media? The answer is yes! Small business and social media are a natural fit. Most small business owners understand the importance of social media and its potential to increase sales. Hubspot reports that 92% of small business owners surveyed indicated that social media marketing was important and 80% said that using social media helped them increase traffic to their website. Social media provides an opportunity to not only reach a broad audience but also engage with them and build relationships. Keep in mind, however, that the use of social media platforms varies according to specific demographics, such as age, gender, and income level. In this post, we’ll take a look at five of the most popular social media platforms for small business marketing and how you can use them for marketing your brand.

Starting, running, and maintaining a retail business can be a rocky road. The hard truth is that only 47% of retail businesses survive longer than four years. The good news is, mistakes can be avoided if you learn from others’ mistakes!

If you’ve ever felt like now is the time to start your own business, you’re not alone. Even if it feels like you’ve done all your homework and are on solid financial footing, it’s tough to know when you’re ready to make the leap.

Lisa Tran of Tan Tan Cafe & Delicatessen is a former student and was kind enough to share feedback about her experience in the Getting Your Recipe to Market (GYRM) program. We thought it answered a lot of questions a lot of people might have, so we're posting her responses for you to read as well!

Leveraging social media as a marketing channel has become unavoidable, but they also require business owners and marketers to utilize them in the best way possible. That means much more than ensuring you have the best content and add value with images and video. Hashtags in social media marketing are critical for topic discovery, audience engagement, and much more. In today’s post, we’ll take a quick look at how to leverage hashtags for business, starting with answering the question, “What are hashtags?”

Differentiating your brand is imperative to thrive as a business in the long term. This tasks can seem impossible for a small business, especially if you’re in competition with a larger global brand or your product or service is available online. Globalization and the Internet have certainly made it harder to stand out from the competition, but there are still many ways to differentiate your brand.  

You’ve taken the time (and money) to post the job position, interview some great candidates, and pick the perfect person for the job, but the onboarding process of the new employee doesn’t stop there. A new employee needs to feel welcome and like they belong. Everyone is busy, but no one should be too busy to train a new employee and make them feel like they’re part of the team.

Retail stores often struggle to get the customer traffic necessary to thrive in an increasingly digital world.  It’s even more difficult for stores that aren’t located in a high-traffic area. While a good location definitely helps, it’s not the only way to drive traffic to retail stores.

If you love to cook, bake, or create a one-of-a-kind delectable that puts a smile on someone’s face when they eat it, then maybe you have considered selling your unique dish as a product. However, jumping into the business side of things to get your product to customers takes planning, knowledge, and resources. Before you turn your recipe into a product in the marketplace, first ask yourself these six questions:

Article originally posted on AARP Oregon on June 1, 2017.