The Impact of your Business Card

We don’t think twice when we pass out business cards.  It’s usually a means to an end and presumably a simple way for people to remember you.  Most likely, it’s a small rectangle with your company branding and contact info on it.  Sometimes you hand-write your cell phone, suggesting that someone has the personal privilege of calling you even more directly.

Does the impact of your business card really get people to call you after OR does your card join a stack of others at the bottom of someones desk drawer?  If you presume it’s the latter, don’t fret; most of our business cards probably fall into that category.

Thus, it’s time to make the impact of your business card interesting and truly memorable.  Then you will be making the most of what some refer to as “a tiny paper advertisement.”

Entrepreneur.com has thoughtfully explained 7 Ways to Make your Business Card Your Best Marketing Tool.   Read through and decide if your company cards are due for an upgrade to give the impact of your business card more traction!

 

10 Twitter Best Practices: Happy (Belated) Birthday Twitter

10 twitter best practices happy birthday

Last week was Twitter’s “birthday,” celebrating 7 years of tweets, re-tweets, and 140 character conversations.  It has changed the landscape of news, politics, and online interactions.  7 years ago, Tweet-ups didn’t exist.  Blog posts about Twitter best practices would have seemed like a foreign language.  As Marketing and Business professionals, we can experience a great deal of fulfillment in what amounts to a free social media site becoming an irreplaceable tool of the trade.

Although every business is still not on Twitter (seriously, sign up here,) there are important ways to leverage a professional account that help to accumulate a following.  Generate the notion of expertise through twitter best practices; exactly what your followers are looking for.

10 Twitter Best Practices:

1.  Branding

2.  Photo Size

3.  Messaging personalization

4.  Customer Service

5.  How to Hashtag

6.  Manage your Twitter persona

7.  Twitter contests

8.  Analytics

9.  Account maintenance

10.  Password protection

These 10 Twitter best practices really sum up the areas to manage on your Twitter account.  Want the details of how to actually achieve this?  Read the full article on Entrepreneur.com about the 10 Tips for Using Twitter! 

 

 

Key Steps to Marketing on Instagram

Instagram is proving so popular, how do you not find a way to make it a part of your business Marketing strategy?  Truly to be successful, you need to use this form of social media to it’s best advantage:  pictures or visual images.

Read the Entrepreneur.com Marketer’s Guide to Instagram because it provides good insight into how to further develop those strategies using the following methods:

1.)  Planning your content strategy

2.)  Post engaging images

3.)  Use the geo-location tool for optimum engagement

 

Marketing guide to instagram

 

Fiscal Cliff 2012- Preparing for Tax Changes

Taxes are an important aspect of business ownership to be up to date on.  Despite the fact that the “Bush-era Tax Cuts” get the most press, many additional tax changes are going to occur by January 2013 that could have a substantial impact on entrepreneurs.

 

The main ones to consider are:

1.) Payroll Tax Cut

2.) The Early Tax Deduction for Business Equipment

3.)  The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)

 

Entrepreneur.com provides a thorough analysis of the upcoming changes in the 3 aforementioned taxes that directly affect businesses.  You can read the full post HERE

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Tax Day 2012 Tips

Tax Day is fast approaching; April 17, 2012 to be exact.  It’s important to make sure that your business is on par with current tax code so you can file accordingly.

At BongoUS, we thought it helpful to compile a few great articles to shed some light on common filing snafus and potential tax credits your accountant might not have shown you!

 

Entrpreneur.com’s 4 Last Minute Ways to Save on your Taxes:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/223134

 

CBSMoneywatch.com’s The Hidden Cost of Telecommuters:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-57404945/beware-of-hidden-taxes-for-telecommuters/

 

FoxBusiness.com’s How the New Form 1009-K Works for Small Businesses

http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/finance-accounting/2012/03/23/how-new-form-10-k-works-for-small-business-owners/