One of the fastest growing online properties is the "deal of the day" website known as Groupon.  Within 2 years of operation, Groupon already has 40 million subscribers, and they generate close to $500 million in revenue. 

CEO Andrew Mason has said that Groupon is the "savior of small business", and based on some of their results, it's easy to see why.  Recently, Groupon launched their first national deal in partnership with The Gap, and sold over 441,000 "groupons" (the name given to their coupons), generating more $11 million!  Pretty impressive!

Although national deals may become more prominent on Groupon, their mainstay remains local "bricks and mortar" businesses.  Groupon offers discounts to group buyers of a particular item.  The level of discount and the length of the redemption period are set by the seller of the item, and revenue is generated when each groupon is sold.  However, given that Groupon typically splits the revenue generated with their small business partners, some question whether there's value in leveraging it as a sales incentive.  Care must be taken if you sell products that have low margins, as you could end up losing money on every deal you sell.  Similarly, if you don't have the ability to handle a large influx of customers, a Groupon deal could be problematic if it generates a response higher than originally forecasted.

But if you view Groupon as a vehicle to drive an awareness campaign  for your small business - it's pure genius.  When compared to the cost and efficacy of a yellow pages or local newspaper ad, Groupon looks like a bargain.  There's no out of pocket or up front cost - you get paid for each groupon sold.  Additionally, not every groupon sold will be redeemed by the buyer - traditional coupon redemption rates usually top out around 30%, so it's a safe bet groupons will follow a similar trend.  If you keep the redemption period short enough, you may well end up making money on the deal, all while raising awareness for your business in ways traditional advertising could never do.

Facebook recently announced that small businesses now have access to analytics which allow them to see per-post impressions and feedback for posted stories.  Previously, this capability was restrcited to pages with over 10,000 fans or more.

Clearly, Facebook wants a larger piece of the SMB pie, an area that as of now has been the domain of Google.  Chalk this up as another "shot across the bow" in the looming battle between these giants.  The best thing is - you benefit as a result, and improving the insight into your business is critical if your goal is to thrive in a highly competitive, fragmented market segment.

There seems to be some debate as to whether Facebook is a viable platform for marketing your company -especially if you are a business-to-business company (B2B).  While most "experts" agree there is value, most companies - big and small - have not been able to harness the power and potential Facebook could bring.

Each and every person on Facebook could be a buyer, decision maker, or advocate for your brand.  How you engage them over Facebook is another subject - albeit an important subject - for a later post, but with over 500 million users, Facebook ranks as one of the largest communities in the world.  As Facebook is so proud to point out, if they were a country, they would rank as the world's 3rd largest!  As a small business owner, that's really, really, really, REALLY hard to ignore.

Want some perspective?  Facebook created something they call a "social graph" where they plotted the number of friendships between cities around the world.  They basically took a blank sheet of paper and plotted the points accordingly (ok, I am simplifying somewhat, but you get the idea).

Look at what they ended up with - a pretty accurate representation of the continents around the world.  Now imagine getting your business in front of that crowd.

The creation of this blog was borne out of a challenge I issued - to myself!  The challenge was - how quickly could I set up a blog by myself?

You might ask why I would  issue such a strange challenge - I'll tell you why.  But first, a little information about me:  I've spent over 20 years in Marketing and Product Management, mostly in the technology industry.  The particular market segment I've focused on is the small and medium-sized business market (SMB), and it's a segment I am very passionate about.  The SMB segment has unique challenges that no other businesses face, and I have always tried my best to understand those challenges, and offer ways to address them.  It's fair to say that small businesses are the economic engine that drives the world's economy.  Don't believe me?  I bet you didn't know that 98% of all businesses worldwide are classified as having less than 20 employees!