The most popular business articles during April

# 1. 9 Free Business Productivity Tools For Startups

Strapped for funding to keep your startup afloat? Maricel Rivera shares 9 free productivity tools worth checking out.

# 2.  Replace Email With Social Networking? 16 Reasons For And Against

Should you replace email with social?  Elaine Rogers uncovers the pros and cons of utilising social networking over traditional email.

# 3. 5 Changes Your Business can Make to Experience Exponential Growth

Growing business can be a big challenge! Joseph Oni shares some “little known” but powerful ways to take yours to the next level.

# 4. Types Of Marketing You NEED To Understand To Survive The Digital Age

Marketing has now evolved into a dizzying number of different branches. Read John Abrena on what you need to know about in our high-speed age of information.

# 5. The Importance Of Being Pinnable

Surprised by the amount of blog content that wasn’t ‘pinterest-ready’ - Lorna Sixsmith created a wonderful tutorial to help readers ensure their posts are pinnable.

# 6. What Not To Do On Pinterest

In her second Pinterest post, Lorna  goes on to describe how to ensure that you are following the correct pinetiquette.

# 7. 3 Ways To Generate Completely New Sales Leads

Every business needs a supply of new customers. In his first Tweak Your Biz post, Shane Burroughs describes 3 proven ways to generate new sales leads.

# 8. Your First Week as an Entrepreneur? Here’s What to Do

Drawing on his experience, Karol K‘s guide has some great suggestions on how to navigate your business start-up issues.

# 9. Is Using Outlook As CRM Healthy For Your Business?

Experts remain critical of using Outlook as a CRM. To help readers find the best customer management solution, Paul Anderson looks at both sides of the story.

# 10. Good Bye Search Engine Optimization, Hello User Optimization!

Search Engine Optimization has served us well but it’s people who buy products. Sandra Hennessy suggests it’s now time to convert our mindset from SEO to UO (User Optimization).

What  business advice did you read about this month?  Maybe you’d like to appear on this list for yourself? Here are 10 reasons to write for Tweak Your Biz in 2013

Thanks for reading,

Niall

Related: Top 10 Tweak Your Biz Articles: March, 2013

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The most popular business articles during March

# 1. 10 Top Social Media Monitoring & Analytics Tools

Is measuring social media ROI still proving to be a challenge?  Our March number 1, Melissa O Connor‘s first Tweak Your Biz post looks at 10 great social media monitoring and analytics tools.

# 2.  How The ‘New Pinterest Look’ Will Help Businesses

Have you seen the new look from Pinterest?  Lorna Sixsmith explains in detail what it means for your business.

# 3. Lean Startup Lean Canvas: Improving The Startup Success Rate

What is a lean start-up model and how can it impact upon the chances of your start-up becoming successful. Richie Bowden explains.

# 4. Making The Time: 4 Groups Worth Tuning-In To

There are are multiple groups that may need your attention but finding time can prove difficult. Kelly Gregorio suggests some simple tweaks so that you can attend to your every counterpoint.

# 5. How To Create Engaging Video Content: TOP 10 Tips

Creating engaging video content has not been without challenges for Elaine Rogers. She’s learned a lot in a short time and shares her top 10 insights with you.

# 6. Effective Strategies To Radiate Your Affiliate Marketing Success

Another first time contributor to Tweak Your Biz. Marketing consultant Kyle Kam describes how using effective strategies can radiate your success with affiliate marketing.

# 7. Are These Three Critical Threats Weeks Away From Sinking Your Business?

Janine Gilmour conducted research on over 300 failed small businesses and the results could come as a shock. Read how 3 very common problems can kill your business just as you’re thinking about scaling it up.

# 8. 10 Critical Tactics To Increase Blog Traffic For Your Business

There is no silver bullet to growing blog traffic. Read about the tactics I’ve used to grow a large audience here on Tweak Your Biz.

# 9. Essential Mac Apps Part 3: The Finale

This series from Connor Keppel about essential apps for your Mac is proving extremely popular. Have you read the others yet?

# 10. 3 Ways To Make Your Press Release Stand Out From The Crowd

Nowadays, journalists are inundated with a daily deluge of press releases. Having experienced both sides, Gerald Heneghan‘s first post describes 3 ways to make your press release stand out.

There will be more great business content coming your way next month. In the meantime, have a read of our 10 reasons to write for Tweak Your Biz in 2013, then maybe you’d like to appear on this list yourself? 

Thanks for reading,

Niall

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Key News:

1.  The Irish Government’s National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP) and the €70m Energy Efficiency Fund. The fund will deliver up to 675 jobs for every €10m that’s spent on financing energy efficiency initiatives in the public and private sectors.
2. Enterprise Ireland reports 3 Irish companies operating in the clean-tech & manufacturing areas have signed contracts to the value of €1.5m with three French companies.The contracts also support 18 jobs in Ireland.
3. Plans are being developed by Eirgrid and the French Transmission System Operator, RTE, for an electricity interconnector between Ireland and mainland Europe. These plans will help meet future energy demands and develop infrastructure facilitating the export of surplus renewable energy generated locally to mainland Europe

Thought Leaders Present Industry Topics at the Better Building Conference

There’s hope if you are in the sector and looking to learn more from these game changers. The most well attended building and architectural event in Ireland  is coming soon to the Croke Park Conference Centre in Dublin and there’s an opportunity to win Free tickets. It delivers updates on the very latest green building developments and innovations.  This year’s conference has over 40 speakers presenting in four parallel streams, covering topics such as green real estate, passive house standard, innovations and green materials.

How to Enter the Draw for Free Tickets

Simply complete the short Construction Industry Outlook survey at www.betterbuilding.ie for your chance to win free tickets or get a refund on the ones you may have already bought.

What The Better Building Conference Provides

Better Building, Ireland’s largest construction and property conference, is to be held on Wednesday 24 April 2013 in Croke Park, sponsored by Ecocem, the low carbon cement provider. The theme of the conference, now in its second year, is Leading Environmental Innovation in Europe and it is one of Ireland’s Gathering Events. The Event provides :

1. A One-stop Industry gathering – Better Building brings together the entire property and construction industry to look at the opportunities and challenges for greening the built environment.
2. Opportunities to network  – lunch, all coffee breaks and a post conference drinks reception are all included in the price of your ticket.
3. Great Educational Content - Industry thought leaders will be presenting key seminars at this Sustainable Building event organised in partnership with Key bodies Enterprise Ireland  and the Irish Green Building Council, Cultivate and the Sustainable Building Show.

Networking Opportunities at The Better Building Conference

Topics at The Better Building Conference include:

Retrofit Road maps to 2050

• Europe has to deliver 80% cuts in Carbon emissions by 2050. How much of this can this be delivered through retrofits?  Presentations will be made of examples of best practice from around Europe.

Passive House

• Ireland is leading the way in the global market in Passive House expertise, with a high standard of both passive house designers and products available here.  Presentations will be made showcasing exciting new projects and exploring the potential export markets.

Closing the Performance Gap

• Why do so many buildings, which are designed to be energy efficient, fail to perform as such in practice?  How do we close the gap between design and performance? Presentations will also cover the importance of res killing the labour force, particularly within the trades.

Urban Resilience

• What does it mean to build resilience in urban communities?  Speakers will explore the role played by energy networks, collaborative consumption and governance and discuss how the adoption of resilience thinking into strategic planning requires a flexible, cross-disciplinary and joined-up approach at all scales.

The Green Building Market

• Property Economists discuss the connection between energy efficiency and sustainability with the value premium and how this can drive better building and retrofits. This includes recent evidence from Ireland of the effect of BER rating on the value of property.

Green Procurement

• Presentations will be made on the progress for implementing the Green Public Procurement policy throughout local and national government procurement.  Also examples of leading edge case studies of Green Procurement from the private sector will be explored.

Measuring Embodied Carbon in Materials

• Embodied energy is becoming increasingly important as operational energy is lowered. How do we measure the embodied energy of materials used in buildings?

Retrofit

• The RIAI will chair this session and give information on practical examples of deep retrofit, particularly looking at the hard cases.  Speakers will deliver case studies of conservation/listed buildings and non-domestic buildings.

Reducing Water and Waste

• The introduction of water charges will see a new attitude to how we use water.  Presentations will explore which are the technologies that can help to reduce water usage.

Thought Leaders in the Better Building Conference

Speakers At The Better Building Conference include:

• James Drinkwater is a Senior Policy Advisor at the World Green Building Council
• Paul King is the CEO of the UK-Green Building Council.
• Philip Lowe Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy since 2010.
• Ronan Lyons is an economist, based at Balliol College Oxford and is author of the quarterly Daft.ie Report
• Thomas Mueller is a Founding Director of the Canada Green Building Council

For more on Better Building 2013 including details on the early bird rate (full price ticket is €180) head to www.betterbuilding.ie to register. Group discounts are also available.

Do you work in the Industry and would like to know more about specific Sustainable Building Issues not covered here? Tell us what the key sustainable  building challenges are in your sector.

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The most popular business articles during February

# 1. Twitter For Business: The Ultimate Guide

Want to find out how to use Twitter for your business? Then this monster guide from our editor, Sian Phillips, is a must read!

# 2.  Five Simple Steps To Run Successful Competitions On Facebook

A lot of businesses are continuing to break the rules when running Facebook competitions. If you don’t want to be one, follow the five steps provided by Aoife Rigney.

# 3. 3 Actions To Improve Your Website TODAY

Well done to Ben Milleare on getting into our top 10 with his first post. Read about 3 simple website improvements you can make, without needing special skills or having to pay a web developer.

# 4. The 10 Steps In Developing A Strategic Social Media Plan For Your Business

Quantifying an ROI from social media is only possible after you’ve developed a strategic plan. Check out my 10 steps to ensure you don’t waste time or money on tactics that might not work.

# 5. Essential Mac Apps & Software – Part 2 – Mac Means Business

In his first part of this series, Connor Keppel talked about basic apps and software to improve the Mac experience. Part two continues on that theme, but focuses on business productivity and browsing.

# 6. 5 Things That Clients Want You To Stop Doing

Congratulations to another first time Tweak Your Biz contributor. Gregg Schwartz‘s post highlights how sales people may be unwittingly annoying clients, with off-putting call tactics and poor professionalism. Ouch!

#7. Why Cold Calling Is A Waste Of Time (And What You Should Be Doing Instead)

But are cold-calls still an effective way of generating new sales leads? Not according to Sarah Ryan who provides businesses with 3 inbound marketing alternatives.

# 8. Use The Right Social Media For Your Crowdsourced Projects

Various social media sites garner different kinds of demographics. Tara Hornor explains why this is important if you want your crowd-sourcing projects to get feedback and input from your ideal customers.

# 9. Top 5 Reasons Your Company Should Have A Facebook Page

This second post on Facebook, and second from Sarah Ryan looks at ’5 main reasons for having a company Facebook page’.

# 10. Garrendenny Lane Closing: What Lorna Did Next

Long time Tweak Your Biz contributor, and entrepreneur Lorna Sixsmith, recently made the decision to close her profitable, Garrendenny Lane business. Sian Phillips interviewed Lorna to find out why?

There will be more great business articles coming your way during March. In the meantime, did you have a favorite article or writer? Or perhaps, you’d like to appear on this list for yourself!

Thanks for reading,

Niall

Did you like this article?  

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The most popular business articles during January

# 1.  Mobile Marketing Trends For 2013

Well done to Dawn Altnam who contributed our most popular January post (with only her 2nd TYB effort too!). In it, she focuses on the phenomenon of mobile marketing and the trends we’ll need to be aware of, in 2013.

# 2.  Why Wall Street Loves “The Art of War” – A 13 Point Plan To Mastering Business Strategy

Sun Tzu‘s “The Art of War” has been one of the texts cited regularly as a source of razor sharp strategic business thinking. Elish Bul-Godley brilliantly spells out and step-by-step, its 13 gems of strategic thinking.

# 3. Growing Blog Traffic: 100K Uniques P/M And 10 Lessons Learnt Along The Way

Tweak Your Biz got 100K unique visits last December. I describe what it has taken to manage a blog to delivering this level of traffic.

# 4. Design Your Small Business So It Runs Without You

Wishful thinking? Absolutely not! Elli St.George Godfrey describes how you can use your CEO Mindset to design a business, that will run without you!

# 5. New Years Resolutions – 5 Reasons Why They Fail

Elaine Rogers suggests it’s time for some perspective on New Years Resolutions. It’s not too late to read her 5 reasons why they fail.

# 6. TweakYourBiz TV Exclusive Interview With Kingsley Aikins Of Diaspora Matters

A quarter of a billion dollars was raised for Ireland during Kingsley Aikins’ twenty one years with the Worldwide Ireland Funds. Fiona Ashe interviews Kingsley (for Tweak Your Biz TV) to find out how he did it? 

# 7. Online Promotion for Small Business – 5 Cheap Methods to Try

Karol K is is a freelance blogger and writer and makes our January top 10 with his very 1st TYB post. It  includes some great advice on online promotion for small business, and without breaking the bank!

# 8. Essential Mac Apps & Software – Part 1 

From skeptic to convert , Connor Keppel recommends his essential mac apps and software in this, the first, of a two-part series.

# 9. Common Accounting Mistakes That Can Cause Serious Trouble

Accounting may be easy when you know how – and luckily for us, Helen Cousins is an expert! Make sure you read her common accounting mistakes that can cause serious trouble.

# 10. Using Crowdsourcing Marketing For Your Brand

Tara Hornor shares some of the best ways to leverage crowdsourcing for your marketing and engage both potential and current customers.

Some great reads in there, did you have a favorite? Or what other business articles have you read lately that impressed you?

Thanks for reading,

Niall

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Connect:                        

On signing the sponsorship deal, our CEO, Anita Campbell said “Sage is a great company and their commitment to small enterprises is evident in the Sage One product designed from the ground up with small businesses and start-ups in mind. It’s a delight to welcome them.”

Beatrice Whelan, the Social Media and Content Specialist of Sage Ireland said “I’m delighted that we were able to start 2013 with content sponsorship on TweakYourBiz.com. It is a great way to allow our content to work harder for us and attract new readers to the Sage blog. I believe that content sponsorship will be a big trend in 2013 and on certain sites it will start to supersede traditional display advertising. It also allows us to give value to the readers of Tweak Your Biz and show our support for both Tweak Your Biz and the wider small business community. It is a credit to Tweak Your Biz that they were able to offer us this innovative way of gaining visibility on their website.”

We look forward to a continued successful relationship between Tweak Your Biz and Sage Ireland.

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Connect:                       

Included for one lucky business is:

• Completely unique and custom designed eCommerce website
• Social media accounts setup and design
• Email marketing template design
• Keyword research
• Extensive on-page SEO and SEO consultancy/training
• Google analytics, webmaster tools setup
• Inbound marketing strategy
• Blog/social media/email marketing automation integration
• 6 months of on-going consultation to help ensure success
• Hosting, support & website maintenance

Lime Canvas

Lime Canvas is a web design and digital marketing company born of the merger of Web Sales Marketing and Gravitational FX. They produce effective websites that help their clients get found online, increase traffic to their websites, generate more leads and help the bottom line grow.

For full competition details go here:
http://www.limecanvas.com/win-an-ecommerce-store-worth-10000-euro/

or check them out on social:

Twitter: @limecanvas

Facebook: http://fb.me/LimeCanvas

Google+: Google+

Sian Phillips

Sian is a wonderful example of someone who has grown with us, a superb contributor, who writes great content and always supports the team. She has played an active part in developing this community from the very start. I’m confident that she will go on to make a great TweakYourBiz Managing Editor.

TweakYourBiz Friends

TweakYourBiz was something I managed, in between my other projects. It has helped me to develop my personal brand and continues to provide me with some outstanding opportunities.

That said, the greatest value is has given me is the people I’ve met along the way. Many I now consider my friends, so I’m a little sad to be finishing as Editor.

lunch with the team

Thanks to Fred, Facundo and our initial group of bloggers – many are still with us today! Without your collective belief, content and support – we would never have got going!

Thanks to Cindy King, now Managing Editor with Social Media Examiner. Cindy’s support and advice was critical during the early days.

To Anita Campbell, our CEO – Anita is an exceptional small business leader and online expert, and her experience is now evident across the site.

And to everyone who has contributed. Be it! Writing an article, leaving a comment, or sharing our content. We celebrate the big successes but it’s the smaller steps along the way that get us there.

The final word

I’ll leave the final word to your new TweakYourBiz Managing Editor

“I am over the moon that Niall and Anita have the confidence in me to become the Managing Editor of TweakYourBiz.com.

Niall first asked me to write for Bloggertone when it started 3 years ago and I can honestly say that it has been a huge confidence boost for me and a brilliant learning curve for my writing.

It has opened doors for me I’d never have believed a couple of years ago. Being involved in the TYB community has been fantastic and I’ve learnt so much about networking, Social Media, blogs and much much more from the professionals that write here.

I am really looking forward to this new adventure and so glad that I will have all the TYB community backing me up as always. Niall and Anita (and Fred and Facundo previously) have done such an amazing job with TweakYourBiz.com. It really is an honour to be involved.  I know Niall’s are huge footsteps to follow in – I’ll do my best in my size 8 wellies” – Sian Phillips

Good luck, Sian! but you won’t need it

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The Winners

• The winner with the most votes, that met all the contest eligibility requirements, is BlogPreneurs with the post “42 Dazzling Tips To Rock Your Business with Blogging & Social Media.”
• Second and third place in the contest went to the best comment on a post in our contest and the author of the blog post on which it appeared. In this case, second place goes to Kimberly721 for her comment on the blog post “17 Ways to Rock Your Biz…from the Experts” by blogger SmallBizDiamonds. Here is Kimberly’s winning comment:
  

  “Lots of great feedback from small business influencers and experts! The underlying theme is to make more connections. The internet can help fuel these connections through sites such as BizSugar, social media and blogs. Thanks for putting these together!”

  This makes the third place winner Ashley Neal, blogger at SmallBizDiamonds for creating the post upon which the comment was made.

• Fourth place winner is Cendrine Marrouat with her post “Make Your Brand Irresistible Online with These 10 Tips“
• Fifth place goes to BizSugar member Francisco Perez with his post on the finer points of promoting a blog, “12 Things You Should Do After Writing A Blog Post.”

Thank You

We’d like to thank all the contributors and those who have left comments for their energy and enthusiasm, and of course, the whole BizSugar community for voting and supporting the contest.

Contest winners will be contacted soon about prizes. Be sure to stay tuned for more behind the scenes on our popular Rock Your Biz contest comming soon on the BizSugar blog!

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A showcase of new products and services in Irish Sustainable Building, Renewable Energy and Water Conservation sectors

Retrofit, Renovate, Refurbish: all key buzzwords inhabiting the new economic reality facing our construction industry here in Ireland. Following on from the success of the Better Building Conference last April, The Sustainable Building & Retrofit Show 9^th– 10^th November 2012, will take place at Industries Hall, RDS, Dublin showcasing products and services in the building, renovation and retrofit sector. Over 3,500 buyers spanning the industry are expected to visit.

Supported by:

• Cultivate,
• The Construction Industry Federation of Ireland and
• The Chartered Institute of Building in Ireland,
• Construct Ireland Magazine

The 2012 Show highlights the direction the industry is now taking, with sustainable and quality retrofitting proving to be the way forward…

“Ernst & Young recently issued a Cleantech Ireland report, which estimates the clean-tech sector alone has huge potential for the country. By 2020, Ernst & Young said the clean-tech sector in Ireland could create nearly 80,000 direct and indirect jobs through specific national schemes, such as retrofitting, renewable energy and construction and boost GDP by €3.9bn.” Source: Silicon Republic 05.07.2012

Purchasers and specifiers visiting this B2B trade event will comprise Building Contractors, Architects, Planners, Quantity Surveyors, Engineers and  Local Authorities through to Plumbers, Joiners, Building contractors, Surveyors as well as serious Self Builders.

Location:

The event will take place in the RDS, an easily accessible venue in the heart of Capital City Dublin. It is located close to Dublin’s city centre via various transport links.

What’s on:

• Visitors to the Sustainable Building & Retrofit Show will find an array of new products, services and contacts in construction materials & services, water conservation, renewable energy, insulation, and plumbing.
• A free seminar curated by Cultivate will provide an educational snapshot of the sector’s new developments. Other show features will be announced closer to the date.
• Suppliers, wholesalers and manufacturers will be presented with a one-stop  face-to-face networking opportunity that allows them to launch and demonstrate new products, make new contacts, keep abreast of competition or revisit existing relationships.

Comments from exhibitors at the last Sustainable Building & Retrofit Show:

• “In a recession it is easy to cut back on marketing.  With an industry specific event like the Sustainable Building Show attracting targeted customers, it is possible to generate profitable business.  This we are delighted to say we achieved beyond our expectations” “Based on our enquiries…I think that the stand paid for itself in the first TWO Hours of the Show” Douglas Gordon, Quest Utility Services

• “Great venue, well organised.  Good quality of customer genuinely interested in sustainable building solutions”   Tim Burgees, Brick Sales (Porotherm Ireland)

•  “Great interest in energy conservation and the green agenda at the Show” Tim Kennedy, Aerobord

•  “Good communications with specifiers and company directors and decision makers” Frank Hughes, J B Deco

 Contact the organisers

Victor Dunne via email,  victor[at]exhibitionsireland.com or call at 00353-1-2888821  to :

• Book a space & checkout the walk -on packages
• Get an update on who’s attending
• Participate through sponsorship.
• Or Register to attend

Connect  with The Irish Sustainable Building & Retrofit Show online via:

1. Website: www.sustainablebuildingshow.com
2. Facebook IrishSustainablebuilding
3. Tweet: @SustainableShow
4. Linkedin: Sustainable Building & Retrofit Show

 How much?

• Online registration will be available shortly.
• FREE registration at the door for trade visitors
•  Tickets for non-trade €15.00
• Students (construction related): €5

ABOUT THE COMPANY: Member of the AEO, IEOA & Winner of the Irish Event Industry Awards: Best Business Exhibition 2009, Finalist in the Best Business Exhibition 2010;  Irish Services has been in the exhibitions business for 40 yrs hosting other Trade events in Ireland such as The Irish Building exhibition, Irish Spring & Autumn Furniture & Home Accessories Trade Fair, Irish Sustainable Building Show, & The Wood & UPVC Machinery Show. We are a subsidiary of Montgomery Exhibitions a Global UK based Exhibitions co. spanning over a century in the Business www.montex.co.uk

Irish Services
13, Rock Hill, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland
TEL +353 (0) 1 2888821
FAX +353 (0) 1 2883127

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