Last week we shared the second in the video series that we’re calling “A Day in the Tech Life”. The series has a simple premise. We visit small businesses and ask them to describe how they use technology to run their businesses. And in some cases, they tell us why they choose not to use…
There are lots of surveys about the importance of local business reviews. The latest (registration required) comes from Uberall (n=300 SMBs) and is focused on business owner attitudes about reviews and review acquisition. According to the findings, “more than 90% of SMBs think online reviews are important.” Here’s the distribution: Very important — 54% Moderately…
Our latest Above the Cloud forecast features an interview with SOCi Chief Marketing Officer Monica Ho, who lead a recent project to sift through more than 50,000 pages for 16,000 locations for 163 franchise brands to answer a simple question, “What does successful localized social marketing look like?” The result is the recently released 2019…
As part of our recently released Modern Commerce Monitor™️, we developed something we call the Cloud-Based Services Buyer Index. The index offers a measurement of the characteristics that typify a small business moving into the cloud vs. a business that is more resistant to the shift. We’ve said many times that the generational shift taking…
Ad revenue growth is slowing. The major forecasting firms have revised their global growth predictions for 2019 downward compared to 2018. Consensus estimates put digital ad revenues at or near 50% this year. And local revenues (including traditional media) are expected to reach $149 billion according to BIA Advisory Services (formerly BIA/Kelsey). Zenith, part of…
Last week we shared the first in the video series that we’re calling “A Day in the Tech Life”. The premise is simple. We visit small businesses and ask them to describe how they use technology to run their businesses. And in some cases, they tell us why they choose not to use any software…
A recent survey of 1,200 US small business owners and decision-makers from Backlinko found high expectations of SEO providers and widespread dissatisfaction — only 30% would recommend their current providers. There was also evidence some confusion about SEO services and what they can accomplish. The findings showed that the average monthly spend on SEO services…
We recently shared an article on the cloud accounting firm Xero’s plans to focus its growth efforts on North America, where it sees more upside than in its home markets of Australia and New Zealand. One nugget (sourced to the Small Business Administration) cited in the article was that small businesses that adopt cloud technology…
New Zealand-based cloud accounting giant Xero sees ample opportunity to bring more U.S. and Canadian SMBs into the cloud, according to an article published this week on the financial news site Benzinga. Xero’s premise, expressed by Xero CEO Steve Vamos to Benzinga at the recent Xerocon event in San Diego, is that SMB cloud accounting…
Yesterday in New York, along with SOCi, I presented the findings of the first Localized Social Marketing Benchmark Report (LSM Benchmark Report). The study involved an analysis of the state of local and social marketing for 163 top franchise brands. It sought do three things: Understand whether a relationship exists between LSM performance and real-world…
