Facebook Hashtags and Your Business

Love them or hate them, hashtags have become a big part of the way we communicate with each other online. And they’re only going to become more pervasive thanks to the latest changes being made to Facebook.

There had been rumblings about Facebook fully embracing hashtags on their platform for a while now. And really, people have already been using hashtags on the site for a while. Facebook is just giving hashtags greater functionality, by making them searchable and turning them into clickable links. Once clicked, a hashtag will not bring up a feed of posts that have been used with that hashtag. Facebook has already started rolling out the changes, but they won’t be in effect for all users right away. Facebook will begin rolling out the changes today, but they won’t be in effect for all users.

This new development can help businesses in several ways. First, while Facebook hasn’t announced this feature, it’s to be presumed that they will be offering advertising space in the trending hashtags section. This will give businesses a chance to engage and be noticed by potential customers while participating in timely discussions. And secondly, it will give businesses the opportunity to monitor popular conversations and produce related, engaging content.

It will take a while to see just how big of an impact hashtags will have on Facebook, so stay tuned for more info.

QR Codes and Your Business

QR code for the URL of the English Wikipedia Mobile main page

In the social media age a greater emphasis has been placed on interacting with customers as opposed to selling them on your products. One interesting way that people are doing this is with QR codes. If you’re not familiar with QR codes,which are also known as Quick Response Codes, they’re small postage stamp sized pieces of code which were initially developed in order to help track vehicles during the manufacturing process. But businesses outside the automotive industry have been using them for sometime now. They’ve become popular in the restaurant industry as a way to engage with customers, as restaurant pagers had before them. A recent Nation’s Restaurant News article provided five tips for getting the most out of QR codes. Continue »

3PRIME Joins Foursquare

Foursquare is a social networking service that allows you to “check-in” at various locations. You check-in using a mobile device–like a laptop or a cell phone. And every time someone checks in they receive points and sometimes badges. It’s a fun way for users to interact with their community and their friends–and also a great opportunity for local businesses to advertise. If you’re a restaurant or store and you’re interested in improving your local footprint, contact 3PRIME. We’re well versed in a wide range of local marketing techniques. Whether it’s Facebook, Google Local or Foursquare–3PRIME has the experience you need to get noticed.

And remember to visit the 3PRIME Foursquare Page.

Affordable niche in Google's Paywall for SmallBiz

Can Small Businesses Find an Affordable Niche in Google’s Paywall Service?

Discussion started over at SEW

Google always gives prominence first to paying customers (PPC above natural results) and second to what it deems are the most relevant results.

Let’s say that now when we produce valuable content on a client’s website, we have the opportunity to collect a fee. If a customer of Google’s paywall clicks and “accepts the charges”, supposedly we as the publisher of valuable information gain a dominant share of the fee.

This shows a great potential for businesses to invest more greatly in researching and publishing quality content. Of course it could also mean that writing a great headline could earn you the same fees rather than focus on the content behind the paywall…

Let’s look at it another way. I publish great content and offer it via RSS feed to other websites to increase my traffic. Will the paywall only be enacted if the visitor enters by Google referral?

Many questions certainly but I truly hope that Google succeeds in developing a working model for paid content. The dumbing down of literature and culture badly needs a buttress against the hammering of small opinions writ large.