Business Column

 McCall Monarchs are on a mission to reach 100% PTA memberships! You can help us reach our goal. Memberships are just $5.00 and will go to support the million words campaign, school supplies, and even the local high school students with scholarships. In this economy who knew that $5.00 could go so far!

Once we reach our goal the Mayor of Acworth, Tommy Allegood along with the principal of McCall Primary, Thomas Farrell will eat bugs!

This post is about how to NOT use social media. For some tips on how to best use social media for business, please read, How to use Twitter for Business.

 Atlanta's small businesses are going back to the old way of doing business, with people they know.  Some of the most recent work we've received, the owners told me the fact that I am local had a big part in their decision.  The fact is, most people prefer doing business with people, not faceless corporations.  This helps explain the social media boom over the last couple of years.

Twitter, Vital for Business?

It seems everyone is talking about Twitter, and you keep hearing about how businesses need to be involved in social media, and no social media campaign is complete without Twitter.  With nearly 200 MILLION users, Twitter is a huge opportunity for businesses to engage customers and communicate with peers.  But, you don't have time to learn a new Web site, and you don't get why anyone cares about what you ate for lunch. 

Over the past couple of years, Google Analytics has risen to the top of of the Site Traffic Tracking game.  There have always been several ways to track your Web site traffic, ranging from the basic statistical data provided by most Web hosts and hit counters to more advanced server side software such as Urchin.  But Google Analytics brings some new features and advantages to this space.

A couple of advantages of Google Analytics over most Site Traffic reporting toools:

Why Use Social Media?

The hottest topic on the Web today is social media.  Popularity of sites such as Twitter and Facebook have captured the imagination of traditional media and marketers alike.  With Facebook's claimed 500+ million users and more daily page views than Google, it is a compelling platform for businesses to communicate with customers and attract new customers.