PSPINC Official Company Blog

Bloguru’s Twitter Integration Changes

8月

16日

Earlier this year, Twitter started charging third parties for API usage, which caused many websites to remove Twitter from their website. API stands for Application Programming Interface and lets developers integrate existing software systems into new applications. Usually, websites use APIs to share information or carry out diverse tasks. With Twitter’s new API changes, many websites have removed Twitter integration. Now, Bloguru has done the same.

It is, however, worth noting that our team is investigating a new API for our users in hopes of enhancing and upgrading the overall experience for our Bloguru users. If you’d still like to share your blog posts with your Twitter followers, copy your post’s URL and paste it into a new tweet.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#api #blog #bloguru #business #businesstools #developer #development #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #marketingtools #pspinc #smallbusiness #socialmedia #technology #twitter #twitterapi #web #webdeveloper #webdevelopment #website #webtools

Data Collection: Privacy Concerns and Regulation

8月

15日

Collecting data has become standard today as marketers use it to better promote their products. Efforts to better personalize ads have proven to be immensely successful, to the point of it becoming an expectation. But many aren’t fully aware of how much data companies collect on users, or how much gets passed around between third parties. And there isn’t much regulation on how much they can collect or what they can or can’t do with that data, which is how we got to where we are today.

With cybercrime only increasing in recent years, users want to make sure their data is safe. Generally, the more data you collect, the more personalized the ads will be. For marketers, more data collection makes up for better ads. But the increase in hacks has been too much for people to ignore. And it’s only revealed how easy it has become for criminals to hack people and how vulnerable their information can be. So, it only makes sense that many are asking for lawmakers to add more regulations when it comes to data collection and consumer privacy.

Current State of Data Collection

Advertisers everywhere have been digitally collecting data from customers for years now. But there are two major concerns over the amount of data companies collect: privacy and potential leaks. Most users don’t know how much of their data gets collected, nor do they know what they’ll do with it. That’s for a reason; companies prefer keeping their data practices discreet, especially for data they have no immediate use for. While this data they’re not immediately using may not be valuable today, companies argue it could be someday. At the federal level, there is no specific legislation that protects users’ data. But the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has the power to protect customers from unfair or deceptive data collection practices. And they do so by enforcing federal privacy and data protection regulations.

The lack of regulations at the national level hasn’t stopped individual states from enacting some privacy laws of their own. Specifically, California, Nevada, and Maine have more comprehensive laws compared to those from other states. These privacy laws include the right of consent for their personal information, the right to request companies and third parties to delete their information, and the right to opt out of companies collecting or selling their data to third parties. On the other side of things, companies have stricter guidelines because of these laws, which include disclosing the kinds of information they’re collecting, what they intend to use that data for, and publicizing the identity of third parties, among other restrictions.

What This Means Now

Data collection practices have improved over the years as people learn more about how to keep their information safe from cybercrime. And with users demanding more transparency, more companies are complying by sharing more about their data collection practice. But it hasn’t reached the point of creating federal privacy laws; they are still only at the state level. Because of that, companies can still use, share, or sell any data they collect from customers without notifying them in most states. There also aren’t any national laws about notifying users about breached data due to leaks or other data exposures, nor are there any about third parties further selling users’ data.

In the last few years, people have realized that they aren’t as protected online as they thought. And it has just strengthened the need and desire for privacy laws at the federal level. This is a growing attitude businesses should be aware of, and the hope is, is that it will inspire more companies to be more transparent about how they collect and use customer data.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #cybersecurity #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #security #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 180 “Free Online Business Tools”

8月

10日

Getting a formal education is important, and it’s a belief many people hold. But would it surprise you to learn that 33% of entrepreneurs listed high school as their highest level of education? According to the National Business Capital and Services, over half of small business owners in 2020 believe hands-on experience is more important than formal education. But with the amount of content out there today teaching people about how to run and market a business, it isn’t that surprising.

In addition to educational content, there are also numerous online tools that are free for users everywhere to use. Even college-educated professionals use them because as great as having a formal education is, the reality is is that business is constantly evolving. Some of our favorite free online business tools include Google Analytics, Pexels, and Canva. Google Analytics tells us how our website is performing, Pexels is a great source for royalty-free photos to use, and Canva makes it easier to design marketing materials like social media posts and more.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#b2b #blog #business #businesstips #canva #design #digitalmarketing #google #googleanalytics #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #pexels #pspinc #sales #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web #webdesign #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 179 “Simplify Your Products”

8月

3日

When creating a new product for your business, it’s important to make sure it’s easy for customers to use. The last thing you want your customer to experience is not knowing how to use your product or abandoning the sign-up process midway. It may give people a negative opinion of your product and perhaps even your company. Even if you think it’s self-explanatory, sometimes you just need to go through the entire process yourself. Then you can see if there’s anything that could be even remotely difficult for users. And it’s even more important to let employees that haven’t built the product try it out. What may be easy for your product developers isn’t necessarily easy for everyone else.

When we created our password manager, Pass Wizard, we had to reassess and rework the overall signup process. We had done all this promotional work, but we weren’t getting the results we were looking for. After going through it again, we realized we could make the overall onboarding process easier. So, that’s exactly what we did. After that, we marketed the product again, and we saw the difference; sign-ups for Pass Wizard increased and now we can happily say we have over 1,000 users! So, if your product isn’t selling as much as you’d like or expect it to, examine the checkout process and take another look at your product’s usability. You might find something that could use some tweaking.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #customerservice #cybersecurity #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #newsletter #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #smallbusiness #tech #technology #webdesign #webdevelopment #webtools

Sell Directly on Social Media with Social Shopping

8月

1日

The world of shopping online changed drastically when Instagram implemented a buy button in 2015. The next year, brands could tag products with a price tag in their images. Then, Facebook followed shortly afterward by launching Marketplace in 2018. And TikTok started testing TikTok Shop in November of last year.

However, reports are that TikTok is gearing up to launch TikTok Shop Shopping Center, which will become their e-commerce platform, taking TikTok Shop a step further. Rather than just buying directly from videos, lives, and creator profile bios, TikTok Shop Shopping Center won’t just be a marketplace for other retailers to sell merchandise, but a retailer itself. The details are still not entirely clear, but if successful, it could shake up social shopping as we know it.

Benefits of Social Shopping

friends standing with shopping bags on street and looking at phone

Not only are there billions of active social media users, but they’re also spending more and more time on social media. As of 2022, users spend an average of 151 minutes a day on social media, which is up from 147 from the previous year. And social commerce generated about $724 billion USD in 2022. Both according to Statista. Directly selling on social media just further expands your overall reach to more potential customers. And since social shopping makes so much in revenue, we know how successful businesses can be on it.

Social media, as a whole, is great for obtaining social proof. Especially since many customers look at things like reviews and use those to base their decisions on whether they’ll buy something. Making your products available to users on social media just makes it possible for more feedback, reviews, and recommendations for your business. It also makes it easier for users to convert to paying customers because they don’t have to leave the app to purchase. So, regardless of how TikTok’s upcoming TikTok Shop Shopping Center changes things, it’s safe to say social shopping is here to stay.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #app #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #facebook #facebookmarketplace #instagram #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #mobile #sales #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #tiktok #twitter #web

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 178 “Create Temporary Menus with ImaMenu”

7月

27日

Recently, we noticed more website traffic for our free menu builder, ImaMenu, and saw it was going toward a customer’s menu site. Except it wasn’t what we expected; the menu wasn’t just your average restaurant menu, but it was instead the restaurant’s secret menu, which generally includes dishes restaurants can make but chose not to advertise. And it just reminded us how incredibly creative people can be.

ImaMenu can be used for much more than we ever intended it to. It doesn’t have to just stop at just a secret menu; you can create seasonal or other types of temporary menus, perfect for restaurants that love to take advantage of seasonal products. Or you can use it to use up a limited supply of a certain ingredient or create a menu for an event. ImaMenu makes it easy and free to create a temporary online menu. You can even add pictures to better entice your customers! Just sign up for free to get started.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #food #imamenu #marketing #menu #mobile #pspinc #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #restaurant #searchengineoptimization #smallbusiness #tech #technology #web #webtools

Everything You Need to Know About Press Releases

7月

25日

A press release is an official statement an organization sends out to news media. Then, the hope is that the media will report on that statement to spread the word about a new product or big change in your organization, be it a new product or new CEO. And it'll also generate more buzz and excitement for your company and new product. You should follow a specific format for press releases. They are not written in the same way as blog posts, which are usually more casual. After assembling a press release, organizations send it out to the media to publish. Namely publications, blogs, and press release distributors. The more it’s distributed and the bigger the media publication, the more exposure your company gets.

Even though it’s easy to dismiss them when there are multitudes of easier and cheaper ways to spread the word, press releases are still necessary. You can and should still post about your company news in blog and social media posts. But press releases provide an added layer of credibility and professionalism among customers and other business professionals. It’s not enough to just post about your company. You want other publications, especially those that are well respected in the business industry, to post about it, too.

How to Write a Press Release

With press releases, the general idea when writing one is to put all the important information first and then everything else afterward. In other words, you use what’s called the inverted pyramid technique. In the first paragraph, make sure to answer the five W’s and one H: who, what, where, when, why, and how. The first paragraph of a press release is also generally short, only consisting of the first two sentences. And it should include all the important factual information that goes right at the beginning. After that comes the rest of the information, starting with the most important information and ending with any additional but not necessary facts about the overall news. But, in addition to the order of how it’s written, press releases also have one very important characteristic; they are factual.

In a blog post and/or social media post, you can add as much of your opinion as you’d like. You can’t do the same in a press release. Therefore, you can’t call your company or product the “best” or add any other opinionated description. The only times you can add an opinion is if someone you’re quoting uses it. But when adding quotes, you want them to either come from someone high up in your organization or from a customer. If you want to include both, the company quote should always come first, and the customer quote can come later. Lastly, it’s also standard to add a company bio that tells readers more about who your company is and who they should contact for any additional questions.

Spreading the Word

man holding microphone while talking to another man

After writing a press release, it can’t just go on your website or your blog. So, it begs the question of where it should go if not your website. The answer is that there are a few different ways to go about distributing your press release to the appropriate audiences. First, the easiest way is to send it through a press release distributor like PR Newswire or eReleases. From there, using their connections, press release distributors issue it to their contacts and connections. And it ranges from various blogs to online publications. But another approach would be to do a media pitch.

A media pitch consists of reaching out to a reporter directly to gain exposure to your company and its news. If you have a relationship with a reporter, a media pitch is where you can use that to your advantage because the content is more aimed toward the reporter. For example, if your company’s switching to more sustainable packaging, you’ll want to find a reporter that typically writes about similar topics like climate change, sustainable practices in business, and more. But regardless, press releases are still relevant, but it follows a very specific format. While sharing a blog post or social post is much easier and cheaper, it doesn’t replace the publicity and credibility a press release does. And that’s exactly why companies, both big and small, still create them.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #journalism #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #media #mediapitch #news #pressrelease #pressreleases #reporter #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 177 “Marketing Your Website”

7月

20日

Creating a beautifully designed website can be great for business, but marketing your business shouldn’t stop there. You also need to make sure people know it exists. To do that, you can market your site by updating your site content and sharing the link to social media. Just because you have a great site, it doesn’t mean it always will be. There are plenty of obviously outdated websites still up online because the site owner never updated their site.

Other than updating antiquated website designs, the site’s content also needs to be updated. Not just to display relevant and correct information, but also to help with search engine optimization (SEO). In addition to that, marketing your site with social media can be a great way to spread the word. But promoting your business and site effectively is not always an easy feat. For more help with marketing your business, reach out to our expert marketing team.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #google #marketing #newsletter #pspincwhatsnewnewsletter #sales #searchengineoptimization #seo #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #web #webdesign #websites #webtools

Grow Your Business with Social Media

7月

18日

Social media marketing is an invaluable asset to include in your digital marketing plan. It’s an easy but effective way to grow your business online. Most entrepreneurs today know how vital it can be to their business. But it’s what you do with social media that can make a real difference in how effective it can be. It’s not as simple as creating profiles on social media platforms; it’s about what you post.

There are currently billions of social media users worldwide. That only increases the number of potential customers and adds to brand awareness. It’s relatively inexpensive, and it gives you the opportunity to:

· Build your brand
· Grow your community online
· Increase website traffic
· Engage with your online audience
· Learn more about your customers
· Discover where to improve your overall business strategy

9 Social Media Marketing Tips

1. Create SMART Objectives

We’ve talked about SMART objectives here before, but when you do create them, make sure they align and inform your overall strategy. Every business’s objectives will be different, depending on the size of your business. Making sure your objectives are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely will help you grow your business sustainably.

2. Add relevant keywords to your social copy

Hashtags can be great, but they’re not the only thing social media algorithms parse for. They also look for relevant keywords in social media captions. Marketers still debate if hashtags are even effective marketing-wise on social media. For some, it helps increase overall exposure, for others, they don’t report any discernable difference. But adding relevant keywords to your captions will make it more likely that your posts will end up on someone’s For You or Explore page.

3. Target users

The great part about sponsored social posts is that you can easily target the right users to see your content. And finding the right users makes it much more likely they’ll purchase from you because it’ll show for users that are actually interested in what you’re trying to sell. While you can try to sell your products to everyone, the reality is that not everyone wants or needs what you’re offering. Plus, if you’re trying to sell to everyone, your ads end up being vague and uninspired, which won’t convince anyone to buy from you.

4. Focus on brand intent

Social media’s a great way to promote your products. But if all your posts are promotional, your business comes off sounding like a pushy salesperson. And no one likes that. Instead, focus on creating and curating content that shows people what your brand cares about. It won’t just give potential customers a better idea of what your company stands for, but it also results in a much more interested audience.

5. Market on multiple social media platforms

There are multiple major social platforms out there, and marketers alike use more than just one. Each one has something different to bring to the table, including a different audience. So, use that to your advantage! You can tailor your approach toward each platform, taking advantage of the best types of content, posting times, and posting frequencies.

6. Create an editorial calendar

To make it easier, you can plan content in advance with an editorial calendar. On it, add specifics like images, captions, hashtags (if you’re using them), links, and whatever else you want to add to your social posts. But remember, you don’t have to stick to what you have; it’s also encouraged to post something spontaneous sometimes. Especially since sometimes they perform better than what you already have planned.

7. Optimize your posting frequency

When marketing on social media, it’s not just about what you post, it’s about when. There are plenty of sources out there that recommend what times and days of the week work best for reach and engagement. But what works for others won’t necessarily work for you. So, try testing out different times and different days to see what works best for each platform. That way, you’ll get the most out of your social media marketing efforts for your business.

8. Create paid social ads

The way social media algorithms work is mysterious, but the one thing we know for sure is that paid social posts are guaranteed to get seen by more users. So, if you’re having problems with increasing overall reach, invest in paid social ads. Or you can boost or promote an already well-performing post. Regardless, research shows sponsored posts perform better on social media. Just don’t focus all your efforts on it; organic social posts still help tell your brand story online.

9. Interact with your audience online

Lastly, interacting with your followers and potential customers should be a vital part of your marketing plan. Engagement on social media is highly valued by each platform’s algorithm, so replying, reacting, and reposting other users’ content will increase your profile’s overall exposure. And it’ll encourage other users to do the same.

Marketing on social media isn’t always easy, especially since best practices are continually evolving. So, reach out to our team, who are experts in helping small businesses grow online.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#advertising #app #b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #businesstools #digitalmarketing #facebook #google #instagram #marketing #marketingdigital #marketingtips #seo #smallbusiness #socialmedia #tech #technology #twitter #web #websites #webtools

What’s New Newsletter Vol. 176 “Different Types of Web Hosting”

7月

13日

Last week, we talked about having high-quality web hosting for your website. There are three different types of web hosting: shared, dedicated, and VPS. Shared hosting is usually what you’ll start with when starting your website as it’s the most basic, cost-effective form of web hosting. But for higher levels of isolation, security, performance, and control, dedicated hosting is the better choice.

Lastly, there’s VPS hosting, which is a cross between shared and dedicated web hosting. VPS stands for Virtual Private Hosting and is a single, virtual machine on a piece of physical hardware shared with other virtual machines. But unlike other hosting options, it gives you more control over your website with dedicated resources. That’s why we offer a dedicated VPS here at PSPINC. We customize every VPS to suit our customers’ needs, so contact us for details and pricing. To learn more about different types of web hosting, watch our YouTube video that breaks down each type in detail!

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.