Although marketing through social networks has grown tremendously over the last several years, classic SEO (search engine optimization) is still important. It's also fairly straightforward if you do the proper market research. Follow these SEO best practices and you'll see a nice boost in your organic (non-paid) traffic.

Imagine being a Redskin and getting your hands on the Dallas Cowboy playbook before the season begins; or being Target and getting the inside scoop on the marketing strategy of Walmart. In this day and age, understanding your competition, and particularly the marketing strategy your competition is pursuing, is far more critical than many companies realize.

You've scraped along as best you can on your own dime, and you’ve done the proper market research to prepare for your pitch. Now it’s time to deliver the presentation. The problem is that angel investors and venture capital firms (VCs) might watch 100 presentations before they pick one company to fund: you've got one shot to really impress them. At FindTheBest, we've received two successful rounds of funding, totaling around $17 million.

In the process, we've been turned down dozens of times as well. Here are five things we've learned about pitching investors, based on market research principles and feedback we've received from VCs.

1. Show you're solving a big problem

Social media and market research are natural dance partners. Just imagine how much data you've compiled on people's favorite relationship tip of the day or random nugget of baseless knowledge over time.  After all, social media provides advanced capabilities for segmentation. Once you eliminate the white noise, there is very rich data on consumer opinion and brand equity to extract and analyze.  

There's a common perception that Latino Americans are the next generation of great U.S. consumers. That notion, however, isn't entirely true and marketers who cling to this "consumers of tomorrow" mindset will surely miss out on developing important connections within the influential Latino market today. Though marketing to Latinos is a minefield of complexities--including sensitivities surrounding the use of labels such as Hispanic etc., it's clear that one of the most effective ways to reach Latino consumers is through social media. 

With virtually unrivaled buying power and an ever-growing presence in the U.S. economy, Latin Americans have been a formidable consumer segment for years. The financial services industry, in particular, has benefited from the Hispanic population as Latino consumers have been one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dreary picture for issuers of credit cards. Level of acculturation is one of the biggest factors determining use of financial services by Latino Americans.

Successful product management is the perfect combination of aligning product capabilities with consumer demands.  As a manager, you are under a perpetual pressure cooker.  Skillfully managing each stage of the development lifecycle and avoiding product management mistakes are top priorities.  I reflect on my previous experience as a product manager for a non-profit's social media platform.  Long hours, beta testing, user groups, and stress balls filled my days.  Ultimately, the efforts were successful and the platform is an integral part of association's membership base.

For an increasing number of American women, marriage in the 21st century exists as more of a "capstone" rather than a "cornerstone". In essence, marriage has become something women do after they've accomplished their educational, professional, and financial goals, instead of serving as the foundation for their foray into full-fledged adulthood as was often the case with women in generations past.

When Steve Blank spoke at FindTheBest last week, he made one thing very clear, “Startups are not smaller versions of big corporations.” Yet, many entrepreneurs still try to shape their ventures to imitate the practices of corporations. To Blank, this methodology was always quite frustrating. From his 21 years of experience with 8 high technology companies, he has learned how to develop successful startups and how to mitigate failure. His involvement in the startup realm has made Steve a thought leader on entrepreneurship.

Fortunately for future entrepreneurs, Steve has retired from building companies to share his startup wisdom with others. He's a professor at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Columbia, where he helps undergraduate and graduate students turn their ideas into feasible ventures. If you are not a student at one of those universities, you can learn from Steve’s book The Four Steps to the Epiphany. This book explains why startups cannot pretend to be small corporations because they require entirely different strategies for success. This new style of developing a startup is referred to as the Lean Startup method and has three key points.

3 Key Points of the Lean Startup

Small businesses that operate in local markets often shy away from competing online, preferring to focus on the traditional methods of conducting business. In the United States, an astounding 15 million businesses do not have a website, that’s 58% of all US businesses (Weebly, 2013). This may seem counterintuitive considering how much of commerce is carried out online. However, it is actually a testament to how technically behind many of America’s small businesses truly are.

Moreover, Weebly reported that 56% of consumers do not trust a business without a website. Ironically, by sticking to traditional methods of commerce, businesses are actually losing credibility. Small businesses must get online immediately if they want to be able to compete. But simply having a website isn’t enough. Once a small business has a website, they have to make sure it is search engine optimized.