Congratulations to all the winning companies, thanks to our staff and a special thanks to all our NorthBay biz readers.
Welcome to the BEST Of the North Bay issue of NorthBay biz magazine. Inside, we reveal the 2015 winners of our annual readers poll, where you’ll get a glimpse of why these companies were voted the BEST in the North Bay. This year, our readers’ response was once again great. There were more than 2,300 ballots cast, which translated to more than 51,000 votes in the 39 different categories. More than 1,000 companies and individuals garnered votes, which underscores the depth and quality of the companies doing business in the North Bay. In many categories, the voting was close, and our congratulations go out to all the winners.
The awards celebration will take place May 14 at Vintners Inn. The evening wouldn’t be possible without the support of all our fine sponsors: University of San Francisco, Biagi Bros., Aita & Associates, Coldwell Banker, C.P.A. Valet, Clear Memories, Wine Country Embroidery and Vintners Inn. I’d like to thank them all, in advance, for their help in making it a night to remember.
Pouring their award-winning wines that night will be an assortment of Wine Country’s finest: Trecini Cellars, Balletto Vineyards, Selby Winery, Mauritson Wines, Mazzocco Winery, Breathless Wines, Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards, Graton Ridge Cellars, Dutcher Crossing Winery and Longboard Vineyards. The food complementing the award-winning wine promises to be a feast in its presentation, quality and variety, thanks to Percy Brandon and his outstanding staff at Vintners Inn.
Congratulations to all the winning companies, thanks to our staff and a special thanks to all our NorthBay biz readers, who took the time to vote for the BEST Of the North Bay. We’re looking forward to another outstanding and memorable event.
If you stop and think about it, every business, no matter how large it is today, started out as a small business. Small businesses are miraculous things often spawned by the inspiration of a single individual or a very small group. Yet, to a large degree, they collectively drive America’s economy—and their job is getting harder. The recently concluded Social Media Marketing World (#SMMW15) convention crammed session after session into how to successfully navigate and use the 21 different social platforms to market your business. (I’m still trying to figure out MySpace). Thanks to a post by Betsy Scuteri, here’s a list of 25 useful and fun stats gleaned from the convention that might provide some insights on how to best use your social media.
The Star of the Show: Mobile
1. 75% of people use their phone while sitting on the toilet.
2. More people own a mobile phone than a toothbrush.
3. 20% of adults have used their smart phone during sex.
4. People are more likely to return home for a forgotten smartphone than a wallet.
5. 78% of people have logged in to Facebook on their mobile phone in the last month.
6. 73% of Facebook’s net ad revenue comes from mobile.
The Reigning Social Media Champion: Facebook
7. The average Facebook user has the potential to see 1,500 to 15,000 potential stories any single day.
8. On Facebook, 15% of users have more than 500 friends.
9. Native video publishing on Facebook has gone up 360%.
Haters Need to Be Hugged (Haters are actually an asset in disguise.)
10. 71% of consumers who complain online do so as the result of failing traditional customer service.
11. By 2020, customer experience will overtake price as the key brand differentiator.
12. 55% of online complaints are on review sites like Yelp; 21% are on Facebook.
13. Responding to a complaint increases advocacy by 20% and not responding drops advocacy 43%.
14. 42% of people who complain about your company online expect a response.
15. 40% of complaints are actually addressed.
16. 39% of people expect a response in an hour (the average response time is about five hours).
Twitter, Pinterest and Everything Else
17. 7 to 12% of your followers will see any individual tweet.
18. People are 70% more likely to make a purchase based on a friend’s social media updates.
19. 90% of Fortune 500 companies aren’t using Facebook effectively.
20. The human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than decoding text.
21. 98% of pinners have tried something new that they saw on Pinterest.
22. Big media outlets’ average bounce rate is 80%.
23. The average attention of a tweet is one hour.
24. 57% of marketers are using video.
25. Only 2% of marketers use SnapChat; 4% are using Vine.
That’s it for now. Enjoy this special issue of NorthBay biz.
