Below are simple steps to take to get started. As well as an overview of how you can more effectively leverage Facebook to reach your target audience and drive more business

Things Business Owners Can Do to Market More Effectively on Facebook. TODAY!

• Create a Facebook Page or Claim your Place
• Upload great images, graphics and videos to capture attention
• Update your page with daily deals, promos and business news.
• Create Facebook Events for Promotions and Special Occasions
• Utilize Contest and Voting Applications on your Facebook Page to engage your followers
• Go Big Time with Facebook Engagement Ads
• Integrate Facebook Connect on Your Website and link your internet hubs.
• Add links to your facebook page to your email signature, website, blog and newsletter to increase awareness and followers.
• Interact with your followers. Answer questions, start conversations, move the needle.

Facebook is made up of social human beings that talk, share, comment, update, etc, If you don’t engage with your followers they’ll stop paying attention. When you start a Facebook campaign, you’ll need to participate in discussions on your page and respond to followers concerns or questions. When customers discover that there are actually real people behind the page, they tend to come back for more.

Facebook has made it very easy to set up a page for your business. And with more business related functionality being added each year it’s imperative for you to get ahead of the competition. In the coming months we will publish more how-tos and overviews of other social media tools so stay tuned.

Most struggled to see value for their business and had a hard time utilizing these tools consistently and efficiently.

In an effort to help, we decided to profile one Social Media Website (Tool) per post in order to help you better understand how to utilize and get value from each resource. Over the next several months we will profile Facebook Pages, Twitter, Merchant Circle, Google Local, Yelp, Blog Platforms like WordPress, Tumbler, Blogger and several others as well as an overview of Social Media and SEO.

At the conclusion of the series will outline a “Social Media Plan” that will guide you thru a simple implementation of all tools and resources covered.

1. Facebook Pages for your business
2. Twitter Chatter and you clients
3. Local Business Page optimization
4. Customer Comments and the Web
5. Build a website for free in 24 hours
6. The NDMS Social Media Plan For Merchants

We hope that you enjoy this series and look forward to providing you more relevant content designed to help you grow your business.

Also known as automatic bill payment or direct payment, a recurring payments program enables your customers to automatically authorize a charge of the amount owed to a payment card, on a regular basis. Payments may be collected monthly, quarterly or at whatever interval the consumer and the service provider agree on; the billed amounts may be the same every time or vary from one payment to the next, such as with a phone bill.

Benefits

Recurring payments offer a simple, yet extremely powerful, customer service solution that has the potential to yield significant cost savings, improved cash flow and productivity.

Improving Cash Flow.

A recent study by Jupiter Research reported the traditional billing and payment method costs service providers more than $1 per transaction – including the expenses associated with preparing and printing paper bills and envelopes, postage and manually processing paper check payments. This same study found that electronic bill presentment and payment, including recurring payments, dramatically slashes those costs to roughly 40 cents per bill.

Recurring payments bring guaranteed payments in full and on time, improved cash flow and collection, and reduced exposure to bad checks and write-offs. Similarly, a recurring payments program delivers benefits to your customers, including:

Service industries have benefited from card acceptance, and consumers have overwhelmingly demonstrated a tendency to gravitate to those service providers who offer the greatest convenience, flexibility and choice.
In addition to significant cost savings and productivity gains, recurring payments can also offer a competitive advantage to companies. MasterCard research suggests that 29 percent of bill payers would switch providers if the option of paying bills automatically by payment card were offered, if all other factors were equal.

Recurring payments can also help strengthen customer loyalty and retention through the increased flexibility and convenience it affords consumers in paying their phone bills. Additionally, consumers enjoy the prospect of earning meaningful rewards for using a payment card. For example, in the current low-interest rate environment, consumers who use a payment card that offers a 1 percent rebate on purchases might see a better return on the payment of their phone bills than they would if they took the same amount and put it in a savings account.

For many merchants, a changing marketplace, competitive dynamics and increased consumer demand for value require innovative responses and new approaches to doing business. Also, increased consumer sophistication has diminished brand loyalty, which has led to intensified competition. By offering consumers expanded payment options, such as recurring payments, telecom companies are positioning themselves to generate significant cost savings, improve bottom-line results and reinforce customer loyalty with value-added service as well as competitive advantages.

Today, many businesses as well as consumers are looking for ways to make paying bills more convenient. And, chances are, many of them are your customers. Recurring payments—when your customer authorizes you to bill a card account monthly, quarterly, or annually—can give them the convenience they want. Payment amounts can be fixed or fluctuate and payment agreements can exist indefinitely, providing the easiest way to ensure timely payment. This also brings a host of benefits for you, including a significant competitive advantage.

Benefits to Merchants

Benefits to Cardholders

For more information on how your business can benefit from our expertise in recurring billing services and other alternative payment methods feel free to contact one of our industry experts today.

NDMS Introduces PAYware Mobile from VeriFone.  Accept credit card payments wherever your business takes you. Now there’s nothing standing between you and the sale. Expand your customer base, reduce transaction fees and break down barriers to business growth with the simple swipe of a card. With PAYware Mobile, credit card processing is as mobile as your iPhone.

4 Things you should know about the PAYware Mobile App and Device for iPhone

Swap meets, street fairs, antique shows, mobile detailing, on-site consultants, taxi cab drivers, tour guides, home repair, small cafes, door-to-door sales, or virtually any other type of business can benefit by offering the convenience of accepting credit cards on the spot and the peace of mind of getting instant authorizations. With the built in card reader your charges qualify for better rates and a lower risk of  chargebacks and fraud

The hardware and software solution is available today and is available free to those who sign up for an NDMS ePay Mobile secure gateway service agreement. For more information on how your business can benefit from accepting credit cards and other alternative payment methods using your iPhone, Android or Blackberry smartphone feel free to contact one of our industry experts today.

If your business is not accepting credit cards today you may be losing revenue and the loyalty of potential new clients.

Credit Card Acceptance benefits for your business

• Expand distribution by supporting additional sales channels like your, eCommerce, direct mail and phone orders.
• Increase sales by attracting new and repeat business by providing customers an easy way to pay using credit.
• Enhance security and reduce risk, Safer than cash or checks, debit card/ Credit Card processing reduces your risk of bounced payments.
• Speed & efficiency -  Quickly and securely process credit card payments with high-speed Internet connectivity  or  Smart Phone Payment Apps

Some Basic Credit Card Stats Total cards in circulation in U.S. (Through year-end 2009)

• Visa credit: 270.1 million, down 11 percent (Source: Visa.com)
• Visa debit: 382 million, up 18 percent (Source: Visa.com)
• MasterCard credit: 203 million, down 22 percent (Source: MasterCard.com)
• MasterCard debit: 125 million, up 1 percent (Source: MasterCard.com
• American Express credit: 48.9 million, down 9 percent (Source: AmericanExpress.com)
• Discover credit: 54.4 million, down 6 percent (Source: Discover.com)

TOTAL CREDIT CARDS: 576.4 million
TOTAL DEBIT CARDS: 507 million

For more information on how your business can benefit from accepting credit cards and other alternative payment methods feel free to contact one of our industry experts today.

Some say that this will help consumers save time by having them spend less time processing the transaction. Typically in the U.S. no signature is required for purchases under $25. Some research out there already indicates that consumers spend more money due to the ease in payment with small transactions. However others are skeptical and worry about the security of banking this way. Will the added convenience ended hurting consumers in the end? Here’s your go-to guide for contactless payment safety.

These special credit and debit cards are embedded with a chip and an antenna that allows consumers to wave their card over a reader at the checkout. These cards use RFID, which ensures secure payments.  RFID is radio-frequency identification. This tracking device allows credit companies to track sales no mater where you might be. Contactless Payment Systems include a variety of security features. These machines run over the same chip and PIN network as normal credit and debit card transactions, therefore have the same fraud protection guarantees. There is a expense limit on a single transaction and a card may only be used a certain amount of times before the consumer is asked to enter their PIN. Merchants should follow all the same safety precautions as they would with any standard transaction and if they suspect any fraudulent activity its always best to ask for back up identification. These systems are safe, but using common sense is always good practice.