November 22nd, 2011 by brian@mannixmarketing.comcloseAuthor: brian@mannixmarketing.comName: Brian McGrath Email: brian@mannixmarketing.com Site:http://www.mannixmarketing.com About: Career that spans many aspects of marketing, including brand management, copywriting, campaign coordination and internet marketing, where he now helps clients maximize their presence on the internet. On the weekends you can find him fishing on the local lakes - even in the middle of winter. For some reason he enjoys ice fishing.See Authors Posts (37)
This Saturday, November 26th is the Second Annual Small Business Saturday. This is a day dedicated to supporting small businesses during the unofficial launch to the holiday shopping season. The Saturday following Black Friday is, after all, one of the busiest shopping days of the year. So if you are a small business, you will want to do what you can to take advantage of this national campaign!
To help you promote your small business there is a website with some nice marketing tools. SmallBusinessSaturday.com has tools that may be of use to your business including:
Printable signage to put in your store window
An email you can send to your client list promoting the day
Content for your Facebook Wall and Twitter Feed
The idea behind Small Business Saturday is that if each customer buys just 1 item from a small business, it will have an enormous impact on small business as a whole. And consumers do want to help small, local businesses for a number of reasons: local jobs, their local economy and the uniqueness of many local business products.
So take advantage of this nationally promoted day (you have seen the commercial, right?) and some of the promotional tools available to your small business to increase sales and traffic for your business. And once Saturday passes, start planning for next year’s Small Business Saturday to drive even more sales.
Are you on Twitter? (We are, follow us @mannixmarketing) If you’re not, I suggest you try it out. Many of you are probably rolling your eyes and asking yourself, “Why learn another social network?” or, “What can Twitter do that Facebook can’t?” In a nutshell, Twitter can easily connect you to industry experts, world news, and even your favorite celebrities, where Facebook connects you with people you know. There are some exceptions to this with the new subscribe feature on Facebook, but Twitter is still winning the game in this respect. You don’t have to have a mutual relationship on Twitter, you just pick who you want updates from, and you can tweet to anybody.
Consumers use Twitter for many different reasons. Some tweet to their favorite celebrities, asking questions that may be answered by the celebrity, or anyone else that views the tweet (most tweets are public). Some tweet to their favorite sports radio show, hoping to get mentioned on the air, or get a retweet. Some don’t tweet at all, and just follow their favorite accounts looking for breaking news stories, or updates on Kim Kardashian’s latest marriage. Corporations use Twitter to announce new products and/or updates for old products. Marketers tweet about upcoming events, or promote new products and services to their followers. There are many ways to utilize Twitter, and everybody does it differently.
So…what about Google Wallet?Is it creepy or cool? Is it the logical next step in the mobile march for dominance in the world of marketing, or is it just too far over the Google-wants-to-own-me line? We’re all comfortable with fun and useful mobile apps that give directions, tell us where to eat, shop, train for a marathon or count our calories. We can be served all the information, ads, coupons and suggestions our battery will allow. Now, with Google in our wallet, we can just give it over completely and surrender our personal and financial profiles to the internet giant. Really?
The recent video of the Google Bots (aka employees) filtering into stores wearing Google T-shirts and paying for customer purchases suggests a world of consumer ease…one tap shopping for everything from sodas to clothing. Too good to be true? It looks sort of like some strange sort of college sociology class doing an end of semester social experiment. Read the rest of this entry »
There has been a lot of buzz lately on the Google Wallet – the app that allows you to purchase items with a single tap of your phone. Is my information safe? Why should I use it? I’m here to set the record straight. Arguably one of the most advanced mobile-payment systems in the U.S. to date – this virtual wallet provides a number of benefits, is quick, simple, and 100% safe according to Google.
Google just picked up the tab for these customers so they could try it… does this frighten you?
Does this give new meaning to the question “Do you know what’s in your wallet?” Has Google once again edged their toe right over that line between presenting cutting edge technology and chiseling their way right into our personal lives, or is this just a sign of what’s to come?
Are you on 
