Why Am I Sad About Hollywood Video?

Seriously, I am kind of sad when I see all the Hollywood Video's closing down. Not sad enough to get up and go into the video store, however. I like to think if it were a local owned by some residents who knew me by name when I walked in I would still go to a video store, but I haven't seen one of those in years...at least not near my house.

I feel a loss, it is an era ending... I am thinking that my daughter may never know what it is like to go into a video store and argue in front of total strangers over the choice between a romantic chick flick or a shoot 'em up and then eventually settle on a comedy you can both agree on. Not even seven years old when she wants to watch a movie she asks me to download it or get it on demand.

As a small business owner I wonder what this means . . . It's not just Hollywood Video, but lots of long time well established businesses are unable to keep their doors open in this economy. Without such large overhead, maybe this is time for the small business to thrive!

I read some great tips online recently about operating in a difficult economy. To sum it up:

1) Reassess your business model: A simple reassessment can oftentimes lead to increased efficiency and revenue.

2) Invest in marketing, it may be even more important now!

3) Find ways to cut back the budget, there is almost always something that can go.

4) Keep positive!

Read the whole article!

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Take Advantage of FREE Marketing Tools: A Simple Guide To Getting Started With Facebook

Most social media marketing is free if you know how to use it. I have set this up with some basic tips that will allow you to harness the power of the social media for your business. Let's start with Facebook, tips for Twitter coming soon!

Do you already have a personal Facebook account? If not, set one up today for free! Not only is it a great way to connect with friends and family members it can do wonders for your business.

Once you have a Facebook account you are ready to begin setting up a page for your business. You can learn a lot about the best practices by a quick visit to Facebook Pages.

Now we are ready to get started with your new Facebook Page. You will need to decide what category you are in from Local Business to Public Figure, this will appear under your business name when people do a search on Facebook. Now you get to name your page , click on "Create Official Page" and you are done!



Once you have taken a moment to fill out information about your business and upload some photos start inviting people to be a fan of your page. This can be done quite simply choosing the "Suggest to Friends" option on the upper right hand corner. While this method will allow you to very quickly share a link to anyone you are already friends with on Facebook you might be surprised by how many people will choose to "ignore" this request. A personal message through Facebook with a link to your new page can be a lot more effective.

If you have at least 25 people who "like" your page you can customize the name of the page so the link isn't filled with a bunch of random numbers and spaces. For example, I changed the name of my page so the link was simply: http://www.facebook.com/threewhitedaisies. Naming your Facebook page isn't exactly intuitive, but once you know what to do it is very simple. Facebook has a page, of course, that will allow you to change your username.


Now you are really ready to do some marketing! Facebook has ways to advertise right on the site and it can be fairly affordable. Make sure you start adding links to your new Facebook page to your blog, Tweet about it, and add it to your signature line in your e-mail!

Post a link to your new Facebook page here as a comment and I will "like" it .. help you get enough fans!

Best of luck!