When you are trying to grow your business, getting your products and services out in front of potential customers is crucial. Word-of-mouth advertising is certainly less expensive than the alternatives, and with the availability of the internet, online reviews are a great way to expand upon that. But how do you get satisfied customers to leave reviews? Read on to find out.

Key Takeaways:

• Trying to scale reviews is going to produce detectable trends.
• Reviews will come with engagement.
• Mention your online communities and integrate the mentions into the whole lifestyle, and the reviews will roll in naturally.

"Reviews are only valuable when they are honest and unbiased"

https://moz.com/blog/getting-reviews-the-right-way-for-local-businesses

While many of us claim at times to be a bit of a perfectionist, there are people who take it a little too far. Whether it be becoming instantly defensive when receiving negative feedback or being afraid to take risks for fear of failing, here are 9 ways to know that your perfectionism is out of control.

Key Takeaways:

• Perfectionism is considered to be a virtue to be praised, but in fact it can be damaging to one's mental health.
• Perfectionists may not be able to see if they have a problem with perfection. They may see perfection as desirable and view non-perfectionists as inferior.
• Ultimately, perfectionists need to be able to see themselves as having worth even when they are not perfect. There is more to self-esteem than one's comparative successes.

"Shifting your approach from perfectionism to optimalism is bound to make you happier and more productive. To beat perfectionism, you need to be the most authentic version of yourself you can be. This means pursuing the things you love, trusting that hard work will pay off, learning from your mistakes, and deriving satisfaction from within."

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/278787?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+entrepreneur%2Flatest+%28Entrepreneur%29

The blog post takes quite a long time to get to the pitch. It spends a lot of time trying to convince me I need something without telling me what they are offering to give me, which is kind of a waste of time and effort, especially when this is posted on hubspot, a known marketing website. I would love to see some stats or some more information other than a broad overview of what they have.

Key Takeaways:

• Having a compelling brand story is key.
• To stand out and rise in rank you must connect with your audience.
• Every business is different.

"Having a compelling brand story is key, but remember: your story is more complicated than just words."

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/branding-social-pr-toolkit

This article provides 3 great ways to use Twitter to attract customers to your business. Technology is not only for online businesses anymore, now brick and mortar businesses can use the benefits of social media to attract customers. Social media is one of the top ways to spread the word about a new or even well-established business. Read this article to find out more ways on how social media can benefit your business.

Key Takeaways:

• Build relationships with nearby businesses that compliment your goods or services
• Running targeted Twitter Ads will promote your business to the right audience
• Monitor and respond to all Tweets about your business, it will you let you build your reputation of good customer service

""A happy customer is a returning customer—or even better, an advocate for your brand. And with more customers using social media to discuss their buying decisions, it’s imperative that you are listening for these conversations and responding. ""

https://blog.twitter.com/2016/3-ways-to-use-twitter-to-drive-foot-traffic-to-your-business

If you ever wanted google maps to be better then you will be happy to find out that it is going to be. The author describes how google is adding a more interactive and in depth options, for both the viewer and the business owner, in relation destinations and shop searches. Another step forward for google and another helping of tech improvement for the rest of us.

Key Takeaways:

• Google Maps ads are changing to help local businesses become more visible.
• The ads are designed to give local businesses additional opportunities to feature their brands with the goal of increasing traffic, particularly when consumers are searching on a mobile device.
• In a recent blog post, Google explained that the primary goal of its Maps changes is to help marketers bring together the digital and physical universes, particularly because location searches on mobile devices have grown an astounding 50 percent more quickly than all other types of mobile searches.

"According to Google, its new Maps ads will help businesses increase their visibility at times when consumers are specifically searching for somewhere to shop or eat."

http://searchengineland.com/excited-googles-new-map-ads-254629?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed-main

Five very good and seemingly basic, but easily overlooked keys for live tweeting any event. I was impressed by the amount of thought that was placed into steps two and three. It's so easy now to get confused on hashtags if you didn't read it right. If I ever find myself live tweeting any event these will be steps I follow to a "T".

Key Takeaways:

• Live-tweeting can help businesses raise brand awareness, increase engagement, or draw attention to an event or campaign as it happens.
• To ensure you can act quickly and stay as relevant as possible while live-tweeting, you need to be prepared.
• Be selective about the quotes or insights you choose to tweet and only post high-quality photos and videos that your followers will find interesting.

"From breaking news about natural disasters to the finale of an epic television show, we live-tweet things so that we don’t feel like we’re experiencing them alone."

https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-live-tweet/

Joe Wadlington discusses how small businesses can leverage Twitter to increase their followers and a positively impact their bottom line. He cites specific examples of companies using Twitter and includes specific metrics, graphics, and embeds of the relevant Tweets. He illustrates, using real, easy-to-understand numbers, how Twitter can be an effective global tool and includes direct insights and strategy from small business leaders and managers on how to intelligently build brand awareness with the popular social platform.

Key Takeaways:

• Onnit got more Twitter followers and discovered brand ambassadors
• Matias Tombolini established himself as an influencer on Twitter
• Teman Nabati promoted their product to a new target demographic

""Teman Nabati ran a followers campaign targeting Indonesian professionals ages 25-35. The campaign beat their goal by attracting 42% more followers than planned.""

https://blog.twitter.com/2016/smbsuccess-see-successful-followers-campaigns

Twitter trends, whether they be hashtags or events, are a perfect time to market your relevant brand. By creating content that tailors,relates and reflects what you and your product believe in,you can use trending topics to the fullest. Here are three tips to help you get the best out of trending twitter topics.

Key Takeaways:

• Try to fashion tweets to fit your audience, rather than create a generalization or jumping on a bandwagon hashtag. Relate to your audience, so your audience may connect with you.
• Create tweets that connect to the happenings in the current world. Bridge what's happening in the world around your audience with your product, such as with trends like Pokémon GO or the presidential election.
• Create a conversation on Twitter to stir a buzz in the Twittersphere. Make sure your values stay present when looking to interact directly with consumers, as it is how you create an image for your brand.

"Instead of crafting Tweets that respond to every trending topic to gain visibility, think about a more focused approach. Your Tweets can be the bridge between what the world is talking about and the products or services your business has to offer."

https://blog.twitter.com/2016/tweettip-3-ways-to-tap-into-trending-topics-on-twitter

If your main goal is increasing email subscribers, then one of the first things you might consider doing is optimizing your top blog posts for subscriptions. This isn't super time-consuming and can give you a large boost of subscriptions that'll compound over time. Why? Because your top blog posts might be garnering a lot more traffic (from organic search and other sources) than your average blog post, and you can reap the benefits of that traffic by adding subscription CTAs -- if that's your main goal. Back in 2012, we were able to boost our newsletter subscribers by 128% in just three months' time. How? We simply added a new checkbox field to all our landing page forms so people could subscribe to our blog with just one click. In other words, when people filled out a form on a HubSpot landing page to get one of our gated offers (like an ebook), they could also opt in to receive emails about new content on the HubSpot Blog.

Key Takeaways:

• If your main goal is increasing email subscribers, then one of the first things you might consider doing is optimizing your top blog posts for subscriptions.
• Adding opt-in check boxes on your landing pages is an easy way to capture more subscribers
• One way to encourage subscription is to provide something extra for people who sign up for your emails

"While ebooks, whitepapers, and other lead gen content can be really effective parts of your inbound marketing playbook, the truth is, certain types of lead gen content are perceived as more valuable than others."

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/get-subscribers-blog-ideas

If you are new to blogging or just short on ideas on how to get more subscribers, Lindsay Kolowich has you covered in her article "How to Get Subscribers for Your Blog: 7 Fresh Ideas". Lindsay goes on to state that you can pour time and resources in to your blog and still not get significant business without the right ideas. You can read on to find out what ideas are suggested to get the most out of your blog post.

Key Takeaways:

• If your main goal is increasing email subscribers, then one of the first things you might consider doing is optimizing your top blog posts for subscriptions.
• Back in 2012, we were able to boost our newsletter subscribers by 128% in just three months' time. How? We simply added a new checkbox field to all our landing page forms so people could subscribe to our blog with just one click.
• One way to encourage subscription is to provide something extra for people who sign up for your emails -- something that's usually reserved for people who complete a much longer form.

"When it comes to growing and scaling your blog, there are three critical things you need to think about: how you're going to get new visitors to discover your blog, how you're going to convert those visitors into quality subscribers, and how you're going to leverage your most dedicated subscribers to share your content and attract new audiences."

http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/get-subscribers-blog-ideas