Small Businesses and the U.S. Economy

Most people know that small businesses are important to our economy, but may not know just how incredibly important they are. Take a look at these stats to put things into perspective…

1. A small business is any business with fewer than 500 employees. There are nearly 28 million small businesses and over 75% of those businesses are sole-proprietors. (source: SBA.gov)

2. Small businesses are a huge force in the economy. They account for 99% of U.S. employer...

National Small Business Week, sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Association, begins today. Small business week is especially meaningful to Berry as we have been working with small businesses around the country for more than 100 years. We wouldn't be where we are today without all of the wonderful small businesses throughout the U.S. We are proud to have helped hundreds of thousands of businesses grow as we have transformed from a provider of Yellow Pages to a full-service provider of online...

Do you remember when the # symbol was just a button on your telephone?

I do, and you probably do too. For the longest time, I referred to the pound sign as the "number symbol." You'd see the symbol when a business' phone number or fax number was listed (e.g. phone #: 555-5555). The pound sign is also used by automated phone systems (voicemail, customer service lines, etc.). While the symbol is still used in these ways, it's much much more prevalent in the social media world today. And it goes by...

In both my work and personal life I am very active in the digital world. Digital advertising can be a very powerful tool if managed properly and there are many benefits that a properly managed digital advertising program can yield. Like it or not, potential customers are using the internet and making decisions based on digital advertising. Yes, even the ones that already know you are shopping online and checking to see if you have a website. Below I've outlined some great digital marketing...

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a link to TIME Magazine's 50 Best Websites 2013. The websites that made the list were separated in categories. After looking at some of the sites under the "Social" and "Web Tools," I noticed a few helpful sites for small businesses that you might not be familiar with.

First, from the Social section, we have RebelMouse. 

If you've ever wanted to combine all your businesses social content in one place, RebelMouse is a great option.

RebelMouse is a service that...

Small businesses have always had to struggle with maintaining a good name in their marketplace. If someone has a bad experience with your company, they’ll tell 10 people but will only tell two of the great interactions. 

In our connected world, people hide behind screens and keyboards to blast your company with a horrible review, telling hundreds in an instant how awful you are. There is no accountability either, no authority checking to see if the review is accurate or mean-spirited. Oftentimes,...

It’s been just a month since our last update on new Facebook features and they’ve already made more changes. While it’s really great that Facebook continues to improve, it can be a little hard to keep up with everything they are up to. In case you missed the updates, here’s an overview of the latest Facebook release and features and how they will impact your small business.

Facebook Replies

The Facebook replies feature is a simple change, but one of the best ones that I’ve seen in a long time. At...

According to Twitter, there are 400 million Tweets a day and 200 million active users. But to those not utilizing it, the question is often how or why would it help a business. As Twitter continues to be a main platform for social media, the objective of today’s blog is to educate you about some of the compelling small business uses of Twitter. To get started with an account, I would recommend spending some time on Twitter’s support page to learn how to use it and the important terms and policies...

As I think any small business owner will agree with – the customer is the most important component of any small business. Without loyal customers or clients or patients, no company can maintain a long-term successful business. But what makes successful businesses stand apart from the rest? How can you make sure your business is set up to win customers and keep them?

1. Evaluate Your Business

The first thing any business should do is evaluate what it is like to be a customer of your business. Do...

If you've ever voted on American Idol or received special offers from Redbox on your mobile phone, then you're already familiar with short codes. Short codes are special telephone numbers that can be used to address SMS (text) and MMS (multimedia) messages. Often times you are instructed a to text a command word to the short code which is then handled by an automated program. This program can do things like record your votes, sign you up for special deals, or collect your donation to a charity.

N...

We’re very excited to have officially hit the one year mark with the Berry Blog. The blog was launched in April 2012 as a resource for small businesses to learn more about advertising. We know that the number of marketing options, ranging from print solutions such as Yellow Pages advertising to digital solutions including SEM and SEO, can be overwhelming. We hope that the Berry Blog has become a trusted resource to help you stay up-to-date on how to most effectively promote your business. In...

CRM Associates has once again conducted their study of year‐over‐year print Yellow Pages call volumes. The study is based on over 35,000 ads that remained the same size in the same heading from 2011 to 2012. The analysis found that on average, advertisers received an increase of 8% in the number of calls received. This follows the trend in increased calls that has been seen since 2009. While calls increased overall in 2012, they were especially strong in smaller markets. Only markets with...

YP.com publishes a great Local Insights digital report each quarter that is full of valuable stats on how consumers are searching for small businesses across the YP.com network. The report is focused on identifying emerging trends in local advertising by analyzing YP.com's vast search database.

The quarterly report highlights the performance of the YP.com ad network, top search categories, top growth categories, local search by U.S. geography and detailed search data for featured...

We’ve come to expect that just as soon as we get used to Facebook’s newest features and layout that there will be changes coming. This has been a busy year so far for Facebook as they’ve announced several changes that are in the works. We want to make sure you stay in the loop, so here’s a summary of the changes and what they mean for your small business marketing plans.

News Feed Gets a Makeover

Facebook’s biggest announcement this month was the new look for its news feed that it plans to begin...

There is no more enduring or powerful source of new business than referral. Let me say it again. As a business you simply cannot have a more motivated prospect arrive at your doorstep than someone sent there by a raving fan. Business people know this, but it’s surprising how inconsistently they act in deliberate ways to nurture and develop referrals. I’ll get to the basic things all businesses should do to promote referrals in a bit. With all this talk about reviews though, it probably makes...

Bee, bee bumble bee, I see something you don’t see and the image is ... all about your business. 

In today’s culture consumers expect visual communication and therefore small- and medium-sized businesses must follow suit. With the announcement last week of the release of the new look for Facebook Timeline, users will have the option to filter and see only photos from friends and pages they like. Visual marketing is more important now than ever before.

Wikipedia refers to the concept of “visual...

Courtesy of InternetServiceProviders.org, the following graphic is a not-so-subtle reminder that the web is an enormous universe that dominates personal interaction and makes businesses hum. We all know it is big, but when quantified like this, it is mind-boggling. Here are a few noteworthy stats of what is occurring right now on the Internet.

• 1,622 tweets per second
• 694,445 Google searches per minute
• 99 years worth of YouTube videos posted each day

Specifically, when looking at implications for...

As social beings, we like to talk. As a small business owner, you would like to stay in business, and to do so, you'll need to make our chatty nature work to your advantage. You want your customers talking for you, and one of the best places to do that is on the internet. Below are some ways you can get people talking.

What's Your Story? - People love a good story, and you should be telling yours. You probably won't get much traction from telling people how you started your business, as...

It has become popular to refer to the Yellow Pages as a relic of the past, but do you know the facts? In this three part series we’ll de-bunk three commons myths about the Yellow Pages.

Myth #1 – Consumers Only Use the Internet to Find Local Businesses

Myth #2  – Only “Older People” use the Yellow Pages

Myth #3 – Yellow Pages Advertising Won’t Make Your Phone Ring

Given the common misconception that very few people use the Yellow Pages, it’s easy to understand why a small business owner might...

Winters in Anchorage, AK can be long and cold, but that doesn't mean that they have to be boring. Our team took a break from creating advertising programs for small businesses to get in on the latest dance video craze - the Harlem Shake. We hope you enjoy our rendition!

What's your favorite office rendition of the Harlem Shake?