ICYMI: Tools for Entrepreneurs, Fake Yelp Reviews, Pros and Cons of Social Media Platforms and More

Getting a business started is hard enough for entrepreneurs, we’ll help make the process a little easier with Neil Patel’s 10 tools that you need before you get started. Additionally, this week we’ll take a dip into the world of online reviews, specifically how Yelp is weeding out the fake reviews, it’s popularity and pitfalls from CBS News. Finally, HubSpot will highlight the pros and cons of social media marketing in popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. All these articles and much more in this week’s recap of top trending articles.

Plus additional tips, tricks and tools you can immediately implement into your social media marketing.

To read the full story, click the headline of each article.

10 Tools That You Need to Use Before You Start Your Next Business

by Neil Patel
QUICKSPROUT

Starting a new business takes a ton of work.

Even with your initial passion, it’s never an easy undertaking.

There are a great number of things that you need to research, plan out, get created, etc. before you “launch.”

And you’ll always be wondering, “Did I forget anything?”

What I’ve put together here is a list of great tools that you’ll want to know about, and possibly use, before you start your next business.

They cover the most important and common things you’ll need to address.

These tools will help you do them faster, cheaper, and/or better than you would be able to do otherwise.

Wherever possible, I’ve given you both a free and paid version to choose from.

How Yelp is weeding out fake reviews

By CBS News

A March day got off to a bad start for Scott Willis and his mother with a minor car accident, but got worse when he went to a local care clinic called First Choice Emergency Room for treatment of his bruises.

“It was just a really bad experience for us,” Willis recalled.

Especially, after he received a postcard a week later, telling him if he gave the clinic a rating of three stars or better on Yelp, Facebook or Google, they would give him a Starbucks gift card in return.

“I was really disgusted at that point,” Willis said. “Those are people that should be caring for your well-being and your needs, not worried about what type of reviews they’re going to get.”

It’s the kind of thing companies like Yelp, that rely on having authentic reviews, are worried about. A 2015 study by marketing research company Mintel found nearly 70 percent of Americans seek out others’ opinions online before making a purchase, but only 59 percent trust the recommendations.

“If you are unfairly manipulating your reputation to appear a better business than you are, we think that’s unfair and that disadvantages consumers,” Yelp’s Ian MacBean said.

The Pros & Cons of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Other Social Networks [Infographic]

By Lindsay Kolowich
HubSpot

Nowadays, social media is one of the main channels used by companies to reach their target audiences. But with so many different social networks available, how do you choose which will work best for you?

It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.
For example, recent research has shown that teens and millennials are moving away from Facebook and into other social networks like Instagram and Snapchat. So if you’re primarily targeting teens, you may want to focus your resources on building a stronger presence on those networks.

To learn more about each social network’s strengths and weaknesses, check out the infographic below from Visage. It’ll cover the key stats, pros, and cons for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Snapchat. Acknowledging these can help you create and publish the most engaging content possible on the networks that work for you.

For Social Media Marketers, Facebook Produces the Best ROI

By eMarketer

Nearly all social media marketers worldwide believe Facebook produces the best ROI and is essential to social media marketing success, a March 2016 survey revealed.

Social Media Platforms that Produce the Best ROI According to Social Media Marketers Worldwide, March 2016 (% of respondents)

Social Fresh, Firebrand Group and Simply Measured surveyed 551 social media marketers worldwide and asked them to choose up to three social media platforms that they thought produced the best ROI. Almost all (95.8%) of social media marketers worldwide said Facebook did.

Additionally, nearly two-thirds (63.5%) of respondents said Twitter produced the best ROI, and 40.1% of social media marketers said Instagram did.

Surprisingly, only 2.1% of social media marketers said Snapchat produced the best ROI.

What’s not surprising, however, is that marketers are continually turning to Facebook for their marketing efforts. The social media company continues the grow and is steadily adding new revenue streams.

Instagram has started testing its version of Facebook Pages

By Tim Peterson
Marketingland

Facebook owns Instagram. In case you had forgotten that, Instagram is becoming increasingly more like Facebook. It’s started selling ads the same way Facebook does. It’s going to start testing an algorithmic feed just like Facebook’s. And now it’s started testing business profiles that are similar to Facebook’s Pages.

A couple of months after Instagram said it was building profile pages specifically designed for businesses, content marketing firm Later has posted screen shots of them to its blog. An Instagram spokesperson declined to comment on the screen shots specifically but said in an email: “We are testing new business tools coming to Instagram in a few months.”