Research published by analyst firm Access Markets International Partners shows that almost 70 percent of small and medium businesses actively use social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to promote their companies. But simply posting what your CEO had for lunch isn’t going to do much to help move your business forward. Smart companies are tactically using social media tools to increase their exposure to potential customers.

We’ve compiled ten of the most compelling reasons that you should consider using social media tools to promote your business.

1- Brand Recognition:

Using social media allows your company to reach the highest number of potential customers possible. Getting your name out there is incredibly important – studies have suggested that customers need to hear a company’s name at least seven times before they will gain the trust and respect needed to become a customer.

2- Brand Monitoring: Having a social media presence allows you to better understand what current and potential customers are saying about your product or services. Through active social media monitoring, you have the opportunity to address negative comments and correct false or inaccurate information about your brand.

3- Be Forward-Thinking: Your target audience is becoming savvier when it comes to the using social media sites in their daily lives. If you want to appear relevant and in-step with the latest advances in technology, your potential customers will want to see you on these sites as well.

4- Find New Customers Through Friends: You shouldn’t neglect your personal social media accounts as potential avenues to promote the activities of your business. Posting regular updates relating to your business and activities can remind your friends of what your company does and either to use your services or refer one of their friends.

5- Find New Customers Through a Company Profile: Your company profile is a great opportunity for you to post regular updates on your activities, but also about important news and trends in your industry. This will catch the attention of new customers interested in your industry and increase your reputation as an expert in the field. It’s critical to post regularly if you want to increase your followers or fans and convert them to potential leads.

6- Generate Site Traffic: By updating regularly on sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn with posts that link back to your site, you can create additional traffic to your site. Social media bookmarking tools like Digg, Stumbleupon and Slashdot can also generate additional traffic to your site if you create frequent articles and blog posts.

7- Links for SEO: Many social media bookmarking sites use NOFOLLOW tags that limit the outbound link value of posts made on their sites. There are still many leading social media sites that allow DOFOLLOW tags including Slashdot, Digg, Furl, Mixx and FriendFeed. However, you can see benefits from posting to social media bookmarking sites that use NOFOLLOW tags if people read your posts and link back to your Website.

8- Increased Search Engine Rankings: Social media profiles frequently rank highly with major search engines. Using brand names and keywords in your profiles can help you to generate traffic for your social media sites and company homepage.

9- Integrated Social Media Results in Search Engines: Search engines like Google and Microsoft Bing are increasingly interested in indexing and ranking posts and other information from social media sites. Videos from popular Internet sites like YouTube can also be optimized for indexing by the major search engines.

10- Niche Marketing: Social media allows you to reach very specific subsets of individuals based on their personal preferences and interests. You can create social media strategies based on reaching individual interests or even create unique social media profiles to target these audiences.

In the television show, The Big Bang Theory, on episode 18 of the second season, Penny has an idea of creating flower barrettes, which she calls Penny Blossoms. The flower barrettes were liked very much by other ladies and her coworkers; in one week, Penny made $156. As a result of her small success, she sees a market for her product and turns the idea of making flower barrettes to a business.

Sheldon, as the smart physicist, asks Penny how much profit she makes from selling each Penny Blossom. Penny estimates that she can make approximately 20 Penny Blossoms in a day and makes a profit of approximately fifty cents on each Penny Blossom. Sheldon does the math out loud and calculates that she would earn $10 a day or $2,600 a year.

Calculation for Profits
Daily Profit = 20 items/day x $.50/item = $10/day
Annual Profit = $10/day x 5 days/week x 52 weeks/year = $2,600/year

Calculation for Cost in Time
Time per Item = 12 mins and 17 secs = 737 secs
Time Per Item Per Hour = 1 hour = 60 mins = 3600 sec / 737 secs/item = 4.9 items/hour

Sheldon points out that Penny makes only $5.19 of profits in a day.
Sheldon: “There are children in the sneaker factor in Indonesia who out-earn you.”
Penny: “That can’t be right.”

Penny asks for a better idea and then Sheldon offers a more efficient approach.
Sheldon: “Are you familiar with the development that resulted from honorary blocks 1778 use of interchangeable blocks?”
Penny: Stares at him.
Sheldon: “The assembly line.”

A while later, Leonard and his friends join the business and Leonard creates a website for Penny’s business. Surprisingly, within a short time, the business receives a huge order of 1,000 Penny Blossom items and the order is requested for delivery by the next day. The gang works all night as a team and applies the principles of the assembly line, and at the end of the night they successfully make 1,000 Penny Blossoms, before the deadline.

The episode ends with Penny’s website getting another order of 1,000 Penny Blossoms right after they finish the first thousand batch. By then, the team is extremely exhausted from working overnight, except for Sheldon, who goes on a caffeine rush because of drinking coffee.

Google Search
I searched for “Penny Blossoms” on Google and interestingly enough, I found that the Penny Blossoms website really exists. The checkout process does not work, but the flower barrettes are there. Take a look at the colorful website. http://www.pennyblossoms.com/

Moral of the Story
The moral of the story is that when you have a business idea, the business process must be scalable. Penny can only produce 4 items in an hour by hand. She was limited by her slow manual process. With help from Sheldon, Penny applies the principle of the assembly line and is able to produce more items per hour than before. Hence, when the process of manufacturing the products becomes more efficient, production increases. And as you know, the more you produce, the more you can sell and the more profits you can earn. Thus, when you have a business idea and you want to be successful, think big.

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Business Idea
The idea is to allow the customer to pay with a debit card and have the payment processed instantly on the spot. The goal is to speed up the payment transaction time and implement a central payment processing system for taxis. The user will have an option to select an additional amount for tips. For security purposes, the user will have to punch in a pin number to approve the payment.

Debit Card Interface
The machines will have numeral keys zero to nine, a pre-defined 10%, 15%, and an ‘Other’ tip button, an ‘Enter’, and a ‘Cancel’ button. The pre-defined tip buttons are set for the customer’s convenience.

Implementation
There will be two debit card readers in the taxi, one in the front passenger seat and one at the back seats. The readers are linked to the taxi meters. The card readers will sync with a central server on a pre-determined period to keep the local card reader database up to date. The sync process can be done with wires or over a wireless network.

Scenario
Customer enters a taxi. The taxi travels from Point A to Point B. Before arriving Point B, the customer swipes his/her debit card on the machine. The machine now has the card number stored. Once the taxi reaches the destination, the total fare is displayed to the customer. The customer enters the tip amount by pressing the pre-defined 10% button and then enter his/her pin number to approve the transaction. The payment is processed instantly and the customer leaves the cab. No bills, no coins, no hassle.

Benefits
The debit cards will save time for both the customer and the taxi driver, plus speed up traffic. The taxi drivers in New York City frequently double park on busy streets and block traffic. The debit card system can help speed up the payment transaction times and allow the cab to move with traffic sooner.

Tracking
The machine will also log detailed information and the information can be access via a website. The taxi driver will be able to get reports on how many customers have ridden over the past day, week, or month, as well as fare earned, average fare, etc. The customers can also get similar reports on his/her number of cab rides over the past week, month, or year, as well as the amount spent, average cost, etc. The website will also allow customers to refill their debit card balance.

Additional Features
The taxi payment system can be integrated with credit card systems to allow more types of payments. This also makes payments more convenient for customers who do not have taxi debit cards.

In some countries, companies have what they call a power nap. Employees can nap for around fifteen minutes during lunch break and the nap helps them refresh themselves. The nap time may be short but it is potent. Fifteen minutes can help go a long way.

In the city that never sleeps, New Yorkers are often derived of rest, which means people often has less sleep than necessary. Insufficient sleep causes fatigue, tiredness, hallucination, and increases chances of mistakes at work.

Business Model
My idea is to create a comfortable environment with nap stations where people can lie down and take a nap. The napping stations will have a variety of “sleep” music and a “smart” alarm to wake the person. The “sleep” music will help relax the person’s mind and body, help remove the stress and ease the person to a soft gentle rest, and when the sleep time is over, the “smart”  alarm will wake the person with small vibrations or soft music.

Scenario
John is very tired at work and did not get enough sleep last night. During his lunch break, he walks over to City Naps and picks a Nap Station. He sets the alarm for fifteen minutes and lies down for a nap. The soft music helps him ease into his sleep. Fifteen minutes later, the alarm sounds gently and wakes him up. John feels recharged and returns back to work.

Business Implementation
This business would require a lot of retail space and equipment. The price for each Nap Station use has to be priced low enough to attract customers.

Update:
I did a search on Google and saw that someone else has already implemented this business idea. It’s called MetroNaps (http://www.metronaps.com).

In business, everything comes down to money. And where there’s money, there’s human conflict. I have heard many stories where families members get together to start a business and end up in nasty fights, which tears apart family relationships. My mother told me about a story of two sisters who nearly killed each other. Their business went sour and one of the sisters thought the other one took the money. So, believing the other sister had betrayed her, she almost burned down the other sister’s apartment. These stories sound extreme, but I have heard several of these and they were people I have met before when I was younger. And some of them were my relatives.

Certainly, there are success stories. When there are profits and no conflicts, there are happy faces. But what if things don’t go well? What if your best friend/relative does not like the way you run the business and associates that negativity in your relationship. Here’s a question to ask before starting a business with a close friend or relative. Is it worth putting the close relationship at stake?

Every thought of picking up garbage from the streets and wish you can turn it into cash? Well, this guy brought his dream to reality. He picks up trash from the streets of New York City, wraps them up, and sells them on the Internet. It costs $50 for a sealed transparent box of trash and over 700 cubes has been sold in 19 countries.

It’s an idea that takes virtually no start up fees. The products are free – straight out of the trash. The biggest onus is on marketing. An attractive web design is important. I would think finding customers would be hard, but they seem to be doing a pretty good job.

Pros: Super low cost.
Cons: Who would pay for garbage? (I pass by NYC garbage everyday.)