KACHARAGADLA

Somethings work regardless what your business is. Sometimes the most valuable advice comes from your fellow entrepreneurs, not the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. At Facebook, we know that behind every business is a person, and behind every person is a story – with insights and advice to share. That’s why we created the Small Business Council which consists of entrepreneurs who share a common belief in the importance of serving their customers, their communities, and each other. Each year we meet with our U.S. Small Business Council members to hear from small businesses across a variety of industries, sizes and geographies. Earlier this year I had the pleasure of meeting our newest 2017 Small Business Council members to learn from them and help them support their communities and fellow businesses. Here are a few of my favorite tips directly from the Small Business Council members past and present: Learn from and connect with other businesses. “Visit your competitio

In a changing internet environment, new generic top level domains are on the rise. Here's how to snag one that'll make an impression. Domain names have been at the forefront of the digital experience for 20 years. They provide the real estate for businesses to build their online presence and provide doorways for their customers to find them. Now more than ever, choosing which domain names to own is a complicated and critical task for startups and seasoned businesses alike. This complexity can be attributed to the fact that most dictionary words in .com have been taken: According to the latest figures from Verisign,  close to 130 million  .com domain names are already registered. To add to the confusion, the internet space now has hundreds of new generic top-level domains, also called gTLDs. As we broaden from .com, .org, .net and .co.uk to .art, .blog, .google and .walmart, we open the doors to many new opportunities. Transforming cyberspace New gTLDs are in

Making your website appealing to your audience is pretty much the same as making it more appealing to Google. Once you have mastered getting traffic to your website you must learn how to engage those people to keep them on the site longer, improving your time on site and bounce rates.  This is important not only to engage and convert an audience, but these statistics also make your website search engine-lovable. Make your website load faster. This is one of the most crucial web metrics these days. Google takes into consideration the speed of your website when ranking search results, so if it takes too long to load, your website won’t be shown as high in search results as it would have otherwise. Visitors will bounce if the site takes forever to load. They won't wait around to find out if you have the best, most useful information your website. It’s annoying to watch a video that buffers all the time or images that take so long to load, they keep messing up the w

Do your homework to ensure the chosen influencer is consistent with your brand's look, feel and tone. Before you can agree on your collaboration terms, you need to find the right   influencer . This means doing your homework to ensure the chosen influencer is consistent with your brand's look, feel and tone. You can start by learning what other companies are doing. Research your competitors and look at other brands that aren't necessarily competition, but share a similar demographic. Lastly, analyze the performance of your current posts and establish which ones are doing best and explore why. Once you've done your homework, get to learning! Ensure you and your marketing team know about the latest tools available on various social media platforms. Look at how several companies use them and implement this into your social media marketing plan. Now that you know what works best for your industry and brand, you can create the brief for your  influencer marketi

Social proof is critical when creating influence and trust. Can I trust you? If I can trust you, I'll share a little secret with you. I want to buy from you! Of course, if I can't trust your business, I'm going to buy from a company that shows me I can trust them more than you. This is the subconscious mind of your customers whispering to their conscious brain while visiting your website and deciding who is going to win their hard-earned money today. It's harder than ever to earn the trust of a would-be customer, and the competition is only becoming more intense. With the entrepreneur being the new rockstar, starting your own business is almost as cool as being the lead singer or guitarist in a band -- almost. As a result, new businesses are opening their doors every day and looking to take your customers away from you. With such fierce competition, how do you stand out in a competitive marketplace? One key strategy to focus on is to leverage the power

It's what every consumer should hear whenever and wherever they encounter your product or service. Each day, consumers are bombarded with a cacophony of brands. Taglines and slogans shout from TV, radio and the Internet; they vie for attention on store shelves and billboards. It can be difficult for consumers to make sense of the noise, and it can be even more difficult for brands to be heard. Brands with strong, consistent voices are able to stand out from competitors and connect with   consumers . Your brand's voice is what every consumer should hear whenever and wherever they encounter your product or service. It is the voice that drives all content, from marketing materials to   social media   and customer service. Who are you talking to? One of the first steps to shaping your brand voice is to identify the voice of your audience. If you're like many companies and have more than one core target audience, select an individual within each segment. Create p