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Helping Local Entrepreneurs Find Success

Small Business Week 2016 is over and we’re happy to announce that the SCORE Small Business Summit Tulsa 2016 was a huge success! We got great feedback from presenters and attendees and already have requests to bring the summit back next year! Skynet Solutions partnered with SCORE to collectively collaborate with multiple other local and state sponsors to offer Tulsa area small business and prospective small business owners an unprecedented networking and learning opportunity. This action packed small business summit was a great opportunity for small business owners and prospective small business owners from around the Tulsa area to network with and hear presentations from influential local business leaders and get personalized business consulting in a variety of areas. We had about 100 local entrepreneurs, small business owners and prospective small business owners who all came out to network with and hear presentations from speakers with The Small Business Administration, Constant Contact, Tulsa Economic Development Corporation, the Tulsa chapter of SCORE, Skynet Solutions and REI Women’s Business Center. These awesome speakers presented on a variety of topics including email marketing, small business taxes, bookkeeping for small businesses, social media marketing, how to create a business plan, small business structuring, search engine optimization principles and much, much more! The number one question most small business owners have is about marketing and how they can best utilize marketing principles to drive their business. This event brought together a variety of marketing experts and mentors to talk to small business owners about different marketing tactics and how they work so business owners can see what will be most successful for their business. The great part of this event was that it allowed entrepreneurs to talk directly with the people they need to know to get their business off the ground or take it to the next level. Unlike some other industry events we’ve been to which have so-called “experts” with no real world experience explaining how business owners should secure loans or incarnate to get the best tax benefits, the SCORE Small Business Summit was full of industry experts who could give sound advice to curious business owners. If someone wanted to know what documents they would need to secure a small business loan, there was a lender there for them to ask directly. If someone wanted to know what was the best use of their marketing budget, there were social media and email marketing experts there for them to consult with. National Small Business Week Every year since 1963, the President of the United States has issued a proclamation announcing National Small Business Week, which recognizes the critical contributions of America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners. Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, creating about two-thirds of all the new jobs creating in the United States each year. About 50 percent of Americans in the workforce own or are employed by a small business. This year, National Small Business Week was from May 1-7 and as part of this, Tulsa SCORE organized a day full of discussion, networking and other opportunities that benefitted the local small business community. The event was designed by small business owners, for small business owners to equip them with the information and tools they need to make their small business as successful as possible. The Tulsa area has increasingly been recognized as one of the best places in the country to start a business. We want to continue to help foster this business-friendly environment by working together with the local business community to provide entrepreneurs with the resources they need to be successful. To learn more about the events that Skynet Solutions participates in and hosts, you can keep up with our blog, follow us on social media or give us a call. In the meantime, you can always get in touch with the experts at Skynet Solutions for help with your online business listing, website development, marketing or anything else you need to help make your business succeed. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2016 your business’s best year yet. You can fill out our online contact formon our website to get started today. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+and LinkedIn!

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Marketing

SCORE Small Business Summit Tulsa 2016

We are excited to announce that Skynet Solutions is partnering with SCORE to collectively collaborate with local and state sponsors to offer Tulsa area small business and prospective small business owners an unprecedented networking and learning opportunity. As a part of National Small Business Week, SCORE and Skynet Solutions are putting on the SCORE Small Business Summit Tulsa 2016! This action packed small business summit will be an opportunity for small business owners and prospective small business owners from around the Tulsa area to network with and hear presentations from influential local business leaders and get personalized business consulting in any area of their business that needs improvement, from marketing and bookkeeping to taxes and incorporation. This will be an all-day event on Tuesday, May 3, with dozens of sessions from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is going to be held in downtown Tulsa at 36 Degrees North. This is shaping up to be the biggest event ever held at 36 Degrees North, Tulsa’s basecamp for entrepreneurs, and was created by small business owners, specifically for small business owners to tell them exactly what they need to know to be as successful as possible. The event is structured in a way that makes it easy for working people to make it to many of the events without having to disrupt their workday. Whether you are a longtime small business owner or are just now looking to start the business you’ve always been dreaming about, there’s something of value and interest at this summit for everyone. You’ll have the opportunity to talk directly with the people you need to talk with to secure a business loan, get tax advice, start a non-profit, figure out how to structure your business and more! Best of all, the summit is completely free. We encourage everyone to register (we’ve had a lot of interest from entrepreneurs around the Tulsa area) to make sure you are able to make it to all the sessions you want to go to at your preferred time. Here are some examples of the great mentors and speakers that will be available to you at the summit, as well as a new of the seminar topics. Network with and hear speakers from: The Small Business Administration Constant Contact Tulsa Economic Development Corporation Tulsa SCORE Skynet Solutions REI Women’s Business Center Seminar topics include: Bookkeeping for Small Businesses Email Marketing How to Create a Business Plan Search Engine Optimization Small Business Structuring Social Media Marketing Small Business Taxes And much more! Every year since 1963, the President of the United States has issued a proclamation announcing National Small Business Week, which recognizes the critical contributions of America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners. This year, National Small Business Week is May 1-7 and as part of this, Tulsa SCORE has organized a day full of discussion, network and other opportunities to benefit the local small business community. The number one question small businesses’ have is about marketing and how they can best utilize marketing principles to drive their business. This event brings together a variety of marketing experts to talk to small business owners about different marketing tactics and how they work so business owners can see what will be most successful for their business. You can visit the SCORE Small Business Summit Tulsa 2016 event page to register, get more information, get driving directions to the event, contact information and to see the full schedule of events. We hope to see you there on Tuesday, May 3! To learn more about the events that Skynet Solutions participates in and hosts, you can keep up with our blog, follow us on social media or give us a call. In the meantime, you can always get in touch with the experts at Skynet Solutions for help with your online business listing, website development, marketing or anything else you need to help make your business succeed. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2016 your business’s best year yet. You can fill out our online contact form on our website to get started today. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!

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Marketing

How to Handle a Social Media Crisis

Business people with stress and worries in office

Big or small, all companies on social media go through a crisis at some point. Whether it’s a problem with your company itself that ends up manifesting on social media or a careless employee posting a questionable tweet to what they thought was their personal account, few brands make it through completely unscathed in the digital age. When you’re confronted with a social media crisis, it’s important to act quickly and decisively to address the concerns of your customers so they don’t lose their trust in you. Here are the steps to take when confronted with a crisis so you can work it out in a way that is consistent with your brand: Identify the crisis and its source:before you act, you have to know what you’re up against. Was this something that went wrong internally (like that careless employee who intended to tweet to their work account but didn’t), or is this something external that is just now being brought up on social media (such as a major defect with your product that customers are noticing and taking to social media to discuss). Is this a crisis or not:everyone gets negative reviews on Facebook or has a mean tweet sent out about their business once-in-a-while. That does not a social media crisis make. It is a social media crisis if it is a departure from the norm (you usually get one or two negative Facebook reviews in a month and you’ve gotten 50 in the past hour) and it has the potential to impact whether or not people will use your business. Talk to your social media manager: hopefully they were the one who alerted you to this issue in the first place, otherwise you might need to start looking for someone new. Ask them how this issue came to their attention, how long it has been happening, if anything like this or with this customer has happened in the past and if/how they have responded to this incident. Then work together to develop an acknowledgement post, an internal investigation of the incident and an apology to your customers. Acknowledge that something happened: you don’t have to know all the facts or who was responsible to know that something went wrong and customers are upset. Create a post—on the platform where the issue originated—letting your customers and fans know that you are aware there has been a problem and you are looking into it. Figure out what happened: figure out what happened and quickly. Trace the problem back to its source, find out who or what (if anyone) was at fault and then decide what action needs to be taken internally (does someone need to be fired, do employees need some kind of additional training, does the method of manufacturing your product need to change) to make sure this never happens again. Be thorough, but also try to be quick. The longer customers go without hearing from you, the more rumors will start to circulate. To delete or not to delete: many social media crises are caused by inflammatory comments posted by disgruntled employees looking to embarrass a former boss or workplace or careless employees who think they’re posting to their personal account. It is up to you to decide whether or not to delete this post. But remember, by then someone will have already screenshotted it and there is no way to get rid of that. So don’t try and pretend like the post never happened. Say you’re sorry:and mean it. There’s not much the American public can’t forgive with a sincere apology. Explain how this problem came about, how it has been handled within the company and how you are taking steps internally to make sure nothing of this nature ever occurs again. Then immediately get to work putting those plans in place. Customers will forgive just about anything once. But if the same thing happens twice, it will be much harder to gain their trust back. In the meantime, you can always call the experts at Skynet Solutions for all of your social media and marketing needs. We have an expert team that can build you a social media strategy that will work on any platform or any combination of platforms that you choose for your business. Whether you’re targeting specific customers or just want to spread the word about your new business, we can handle it. We also have a talented development team who can build you anything from an e-Commerce website to custom software. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2016 your business’s best year yet. To get in touch with us, you can fill out the online contact form on our website. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedInfor more information about our services, updates from our blog and marketing tips and tricks.

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Marketing

11 Apps Every Marketing Pro Needs

Alushta, Russia - October 25, 2014: New phone iPhone 6 Space Gray with apps on screen lies on the table. iPhone 6 was created and developed by the Apple inc.

As every marketing and social media professional knows, managing a successful marketing campaign is a 24/7 job. No matter what kind of campaign you’re running, you need these 11 apps to keep you organized, connected and ahead of the curve, no matter where you are: Hootsuite/Buffer/Sprout Social:whichever social media scheduling tool your company uses, make sure you have the app so you can schedule social media posts anytime and anywhere. You can also follow up on already posted posts to see their reach and respond to any comments. Mention:this is one of the best social listening tools available and should be a staple for every social media marketer. Mention tracks your brand’s—you guessed it—mentions all over the web from blog and social media posts to website content and anywhere else you show up based on preset keywords you select. It’s a great way to stay on top of what customers, competitors and leaders in your industry are saying about your brand and how your name is getting out there. MailChimp:we love MailChimp for email management and running email campaigns and the mobile app makes it easy to manage email lists, view statistics and edit campaigns from anywhere. Evernote:if you don’t have Evernote yet, it’s time to take the plunge. It’s basically the ultimate to-do list which automatically syncs between all your devices. You can take a note on your tablet while you’re at home and it’ll show up on your work desktop, your smartphone, anywhere you need it. You can also save pictures of a hand-written note or list and Evernote will extrapolate the relevant information from it. If you upgrade to Pro or Premium, you can also store emails, voice memos and access your info offline. GoToMeeting:this is a great way to stay connected with your office and with clients while you’re on the go and to meet with clients who are far away. GoToMeeting not only allows multiple people to conference from multiple locations, but it also allows you to share screen so you can see each other’s presentations. Nimble:this contact-managing app integrates your connections on social media to your phone’s contact list. It will suggest new social media accounts for you to friend or follow based on your contacts and will also add more detail to each of your contact’s listings in your phone based on their social media profiles. News:pick your favorite news source, whether it’s Mashable or The New York Times or BuzzFeed and download their app. Check it routinely to keep on top of the day’s big stories and find interesting things to share that are relevant to your audience. WiFi Finder:when you’re in a time crunch and you need to find a place to get work done, this app will show you where the nearest free (and paid) WiFi networks are to your current location. Eventbrite:if your company hosts any kind of event or conference, Eventbrite is an easy way to manage registration and track attendees. It also makes it easy for people who come to your events to register and find information like time, location and directions. Google AdWords:Google released a Google AdWords app last year that allows you to manage pay-per-click campaigns from your phone. We won’t say it makes AdWords fun, but it is nice to be able to check your campaigns from anywhere. Official Apps for Social Media Sites:this one should be a no-brainer, but we’ll add it in anyway. You should download the official app for every type of social media site you manage. There are apps for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube, Snapchat, Tumblr, Vine and literally every other social media network in existence. If your social media accounts are getting too tangled for you to manage, you can always call the experts at Skynet Solutions for all of your social media and marketing needs. We also have a talented development team who can build you anything from a basic website to custom software. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2016 your business’s best year yet. To get in touch with us, you can fill out the online contact form on our website. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.

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Marketing

5 Steps of Writing Evergreen Content

Evergreen Content Message, Evergreen Background and text Evergreen Content

It’s basically the Holy Grail of blogging—creating evergreen content that can drive traffic to your site continually and be just as relevant in six months as it was on the day you posted it. These articles move beyond what’s trending right now and speak to the constants in your industry whether that is marketing or agriculture or software design or interior decorating. While flashy, topical posts might bring in clicks here and there, it’s evergreen content that builds a loyal following behind your brand. Here are five steps to creating evergreen content for your company’s blog: What is Evergreen: you know your industry better than anyone, so start by thinking about what you read, the brands you admire and what sources you reference when you’re looking for information relevant to your industry. You gravitate to these for a reason and if you look closely you’ll probably find that they’re great examples or sources of evergreen content. Examine them closely for topic and content and periodically check back in to see if they are updated over time. This will give you a guide to work off of. After all, you have to know what evergreen is before you can write it. Already Evergreen: that being said, whether it was intentional or not, odds are you’ve already written some posts that would be considered evergreen. If you’ve written any kind of how to guide, glossary of industry phrases or index of industry resources or written anything entitled “7 steps to…” or something along those lines, you’ve created evergreen content. Congratulations! If you have some of these already, use them as a guide for future evergreen posts. If you haven’t written anything like this yet, consider these some starter ideas. Updatable or Timeless: as HubSpot points out, there are really two kinds of evergreen content. The first kind is content written on a subject that will truly never change. An example of this is, “Five Steps to Making the Perfect Grilled Cheese.” The second kind is content written on a topic that will likely always be relevant, but might need to be updated periodically. An example of this is “Why You Should Update to the Latest Version of Windows.” The first one will always be relevant; grilled cheese is grilled cheese and a good recipe will stand the test of time. The second one will continue to be relevant as long as it is updated each time a new version of Windows comes out. Maintain It: just because content is evergreen doesn’t mean it doesn’t need a little sprucing up every now and again. Every tree needs trimming to stay healthy. As we mentioned in the last point, some topics will always be relevant, they just need to be periodically updated so that they can be as relevant as possible. So make sure you’re periodically going back through articles and updating anything that has gotten a little behind the times. Once you’ve updated, repost these blogs so they appear at the top of your feed and re-share them on your social media accounts. Make it Long: one more thing that evergreen posts tend to have in common? They are often longer than other posts. While the ideal content length for a blog post is about 700 words, a good evergreen post can go well beyond that. Evergreen content is, by nature, explanatory and in depth. So, while your followers won’t thank you for writing a novel, don’t be afraid to really dive into a topic and save the surface-skimming posts for your quick-hit, fleeting topics. If you need any help keeping up with your blogging requirements or updating your content, call the content creation experts at Skynet Solutions. We can write interesting, fresh content for any industry or business, as well as handling your social media and other marketing needs. Whether you’re targeting specific customers or just want to get the word out about your new business, we can handle it. We also have a talented development team who can build you anything from a basic website to custom software. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2016 your business’s best year yet. You can fill out our online contact form on our website. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!

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Marketing

Social Media Hacks: Getting Your Business on Instagram

Instagram page
Alushta, Russia - October 28, 2014: Woman holding a iPhone 6 Space Gray with social networking service Instagram on the screen. iPhone 6 was created and developed by the Apple inc.

When Instagram was released in 2010, the photo and video-sharing app rapidly took off with teens and young 20-somethings. Initially, it was seen as a platform for teens to share selfies. By the time it was acquired by Facebook less than two years later, it had 100 million active users worldwide and was valued at $1 billion. It has only continued to grow since then and now boasts over 400 million active, monthly users. It has one of the largest and most engaged audiences of any social media network with the average user spending 21 minutes a day using the app. With the majority of its users in the coveted millennial age group and an even split between male and female users, it’s a marketing platform you can’t afford to overlook. Here are some tips for setting your business up on Instagram and hitting the ground running: Create Your Strategy: if this is your first social media account, you’ll have to start from scratch; if you have others, you can adapt those strategies to your Instagram account. Make sure you have a clear goal, whether that be brand awareness, website clicks or whatever you want it to be, and center all your posts around that. Make sure all your posts are consistent to your brand’s feel, your message and the rest of your social media accounts. Learn from Example: Instagram provides “case studies” of about 80 companies who have been extremely successful on the app. Find some that are similar to your business and look at what they did to become so successful. Sign Up: there is no separate sign up for businesses on Instagram like there is on Pinterest or Facebook, but they do have an Instagram for Business page that explains how to get the most out of your account, so make sure to read it. Use your company name as your account name and your company logo as your profile picture. If you use other names or pictures, it could be really confusing for customers who are used to seeing that name and logo associated with your business. Let People Know: let people know you’re now on Instagram. Put a button on your home page, share a link from your other social media accounts and write a blog post about it (side note: if you don’t have a blog, you should. And there’s no time like the present to start). Find People to Follow: spend some time searching and finding customers, competitors, suppliers and other industry leaders to follow. Also make sure to follow accounts of other prominent members of your community—like popular sports teams, schools or local news outlets—they provide great posts to share and if you interact with these accounts, people might recognize your name and follow you as well. Once you find people to follow, make sure to engage! Like their photos, comment on them and generally be active. Social media interaction is a two-way street; you want your followers to be active with you, so you need to be active with them, too. Start Posting: when you’re starting out and getting adjusted to the platform, it might be helpful to have a posting schedule to make sure you don’t forget about it. Check and see what times of day are good to post and stick to it. Whether it’s every day at noon or once at 10 a.m. and once at 5 p.m., do some research and create a schedule for you and your employees. Make sure your images are high-quality, cleanly-edited photos or videos and tag your location and any people who appear in the photo (if they’re customers, make sure to ask permission first). Instagram also allows you to use a variety of filters on your photos, but unless your business has a creative, edge vibe, try to ease into these. As you use the account more and see what your customers like and respond to, you’ll start to see what works better for your particular audience and you can tailor your posts to that. Write Captions: believe it or not, one of the most important parts of a good Instagram post is a great caption. Yes, Instagram is a visual platform and your image has to be interesting enough to make the user stop scrolling. But often it’s the caption, not the image, that leads to a conversion for a business. A great caption is difficult to write but the rule of thumb is it should be two sentences or less, include a brief description and call to action, and direct customers to where they can purchase or order. Hashtags are also very important on Instagram so make sure to find hashtags that are relevant to your customers and your industry and jump on them. In the meantime, you can always call the experts at Skynet Solutions for all of your social media and marketing needs. We have an expert team that can build you a social media strategy that will work on any platform or any combination of platforms that you choose for your business. Whether you’re targeting specific customers or just want to spread the word about your new business, we can handle it. We also have a talented development team who can build you anything from an e-Commerce website to custom software. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2016 your business’s best year yet. To get in touch with us, you can fill out the online contact form on our website. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn for more information about our services, updates from our blog and marketing tips and tricks.

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