Be Proactively Reactive

Building platforms for conversations to take place about your business, products and services also allows you to monitor and be a part of the conversations that are already taking place.

By monitoring what people are saying, you have an opportunity to join in on the conversation to help convert prospects to customers. You also have the opportunity to discover potential issues before or as they arise, so that you can proactively react to these issues.

Benefits of Adding Social Media in Your Marketing Mix

Integrating social media into your marketing mix is just one additional tool that allows you to turn existing customers into repeat ones, but it is a powerful one.

Check out some of the benefits you get from including social media marketing:

1. Social media extends your reach to attract new customers
2. It allows you to extend your sales force without increasing your marketing budget
3. Social media marketing gives you an opportunity to effectively react to conversations about your business
4. And, to get your marketing messages out there
5. You can use social media to build up referrals as a way to boost Business, whether your company is business to business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C) focused.

Social Media Networks

With a dizzying amount of social media networks that exist, and new ones popping up every day, it can be a confusing task to choose which ones you should be focusing on for your business – especially, if you are a newbie to using social media.

Keep it simple by focusing on the primary social media networks, like:

• Facebook
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• FourSquare
• Twitter

Each one of the social media networks has the same purpose, which is to help promote and market your business through online communication. Each one also has its own unique set of advantages or tools that make it different from the other social networks.

Facebook

Facebook is the number one social media website on the Internet. Facebook has more than 800 million registered users; these users spend one-third of their Internet time on the site, with roughly half visiting the site every day. This equates to people spending about 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook, Facebook allows its users to connect with friends, family members, co-workers and other people they know. But, do not let this fool you into thinking Facebook is just for staying in contact on a personal level.



• The average user is connected to 60 pages, groups and events
• About 7 out of 10 Internet marketers are using the Facebook “Like” button on their business website and business content or plan to implement it in the near future
• Over 700,000 local businesses have active pages
• The top three reasons people connect with a brand on Facebook is: (1) To learn about new products (35%); (2) To receive coupons and discount offers (37%); (3) To advise people they know what products/services they support (41%)
• 30 billion pieces of content, which include web links, news, blog posts and more are shared on Facebook every month

The moral of the story is that large pools of your ideal clients on Facebook, and they are using it often, most of them on a daily basis. You can leverage this as a way to communicate with your existing customers, as well as reaching entirely new audiences.

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing social media website. Companies upload how-to, advice, tips and tricks videos that pertain to their industries, promoting their businesses in the process. The videos do not have to be professionally shot and edited. In fact, the majority of the videos on YouTube are amateur videos.

Even as an amateur, you can use computer-editing software to easily add a banner along the bottom or top of your video to promote your business, or simply mention your business contact information in the video.

If you are wondering why you should bother, take a look at the numbers:

• In one year, the number of advertisers on YouTube increased by 1000%
• 20 million YouTube videos also get uploaded to Facebook each month
• There are over 2 billion views on YouTube daily
• Every minute, 24 hours’ worth of video content is uploaded to YouTube
• 9 billion video streams are served on YouTube monthly

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has more than 50 million members worldwide, with approximately 1 million more members joining every month. LinkedIn focuses more on professional social networking than either Facebook or YouTube.

As such, LinkedIn allows each user to upload information about their professional background, including their current company and position. LinkedIn has sharing tools and groups, similar to Facebook, but, again, the focus is strictly business-focused.



LinkedIn is similar to a real live networking event at a hotel meeting or ballroom, but instead it is done with an online networking site. Many professionals use LinkedIn to find businesses to outsource to or professionals for a temporary project. The advantage here is that users can see highlights from your company’s professional past, connect directly to members of your staff and see recommendations.

Need another reason?

• LinkedIn has more than 365,000 company profiles
• More than 12 million small-business professionals are members of LinkedIn

FourSquare

FourSquare is one of the most innovative social media tools because it targets the mobile society—people that are always on the go, always on their cell phones—but still want to share with other people where they are and what they are doing.



As an added bonus, users of FourSquare get special discounts, coupons and deals when they use mobile devices to “check-in” to a business location.

In other words, if you have a brick-and-mortar store, you would use FourSquare to encourage customers to help you spread word-of-mouth advertising by offering those who check-in at one of your locations a special deal, coupon or offer.

For example, an iPhone user walks into your clothing store and hits the check-in button on FourSquare. Immediately, the customer receives a coupon on his or her smartphone to save 20% off any purchase they make from your store that day. FourSquare can also tell customers what sales and specials you have going on in the store as well.

Another innovative part of FourSquare is that it can lure new customers into your store if they are near your store. Assume your clothing store is in a retail shopping strip mall. FourSquare uses geo-targeting to locate the user of the cell phone to identify where the cell phone user is and sends them alerts of all of the stores that are offering specials or deals.

Even if the person was there to visit another store, knowing they will receive a 20% off coupon for shopping in your clothing store may draw them in to look around and entice them to make a purchase.

Approximately 3 million people are checking-in on FourSquare.

FourSquare primarily offers four types of programs:


1. Check-in Specials: These are special offers that are received when the user checks-in at your business location.

2. Mayor Specials: A mayor is someone that reaches a status for sharing and recruiting others to use FourSquare to check-in at location. As a loyalty reward program, mayors receive special deals that regular members do not.

3. Frequency-based Specials: Frequent shoppers are rewarded with special discounts. This is similar to any loyalty program, similar to the old punch card system, except it is a loyalty reward program that takes place online and on mobile devices.

4. Wildcard Specials: These are just random specials that run on FourSquare as members check-in to specific location.

FourSquare is an especially effective tool for location-based businesses, but Internet-only businesses have also been able to put the tools available online to good use for word-of-mouth advertising, rewarding loyal customers, drawing in new customers and staying in touch with existing customers.

Twitter

Twitter claims to have 190 million users and that more than 100 million Tweets flying around the “Twitter-sphere” on a daily basis




The most interesting thing about Twitter is that it limits what you have to say or share, which is known as a “Tweet”, to 140 characters – not 140 letters,140 total characters, including spaces and punctuation.

In other words, it keeps to the “KISS” rule, Keep it Short and Simple.

For businesses, Twitter is an effective way to share quick snippets of information, like a promotion, appointment cancellation or quick tip.

Almost all business Tweets should include a link, where your Twitter followers can go to obtain additional information on the Tweet. To save on characters, most social media experts suggest that Twitter users use a URL shortening tool, which shortens the length of the URL shared.

This way, you won’t eat up too many of your 140 characters.

How Social Media Plays a Role in Business

To put it simply, social media is one of the myriad of marketing tools you should be using to get in front of current clients as a draw to bring in repeat business. You should also use social media to get in front of new or prospective clients and boost your business.

When you use social media as part of your business, you are creating a persona for the business. You are demonstrating there is a real person (or people) behind the business—people who care and want to be there for their clients.

The proof is in the numbers:

• By November 2007, social networking usage (time) surpassed email usage
• By July 2009, the number of social networking users had surpassed the number of email users
• Social networking accounts for 50% of all mobile Internet traffic
• Over 800 million people have social media accounts

The Role Social Media Plays in Society

For a moment, forget that social media marketing takes place in an online world. Think back to the type of oldf ashioned, word-of-mouth marketing that has been taking place since the beginning of time.

For example, when you need to buy a new vacuum, you probably ask your family members, friends and even co-workers what kind of vacuum they have and their experience with the vacuum.



While the information they provide to you may not be the only factor you consider in making your vacuum purchase, receiving a recommendation from someone you know may be the deciding factor on which vacuum you buy.

Social media plays the same word-of-mouth role, however, the reach is much broader because you are not only reaching the lady who lives around the corner, you’re also reaching everyone that is her “friend” or “follower” on her social networks.

To give you an example of the impact this can have, the average Facebook user has 144 friends. Assume Client A buys your vacuum and raves about it on her Facebook page.

Right off the bat, you have reached 144 additional customers without doing anything. You have not spent one penny or exerted any energy. The buyer of the vacuum is the only one who put forth any effort by posting her comment on her Facebook page.

Now, the 144 people that news of the vacuum cleaner has reached also have their own set of friends. Assume each of the 144 friends also have 144 friends. With just one posting on a Facebook page, you can easily get in front of tens of thousands of people as the word spreads (approximately 20,736 from the 144 friends from the original poster and the 144 friends of those 144 people).

What is Social Media?

Before we go deep into the benefits that using social media can have on your business, let us first talk about the true definition of what social media is.

Social media: A place online where people connect with other people and businesses. Social media provides a platform for businesses to start and participate in conversations with their existing and potential customers.

You, as a business owner, need to think of social media from a business point of view. Whether your target audience is consumers or other businesses, social media networks are where you can find existing and new business. Plus, not only can you reach your target audience through these networks, you can find them in large numbers and in one place.

Further, the social media platform forms a circle of trust, so it adds credibility and trustworthiness to your business when:

• One of your existing customers talks about how great your business product or service is, or how it solved an issue they were having
• You share information about your products, services or industry that speak to resolving a specific problem your ideal customers are having
• You respond to a complaint or an issue that a customer is talking about having with your business
• You can monitor and quickly respond to the good and the bad conversations that are taking place about your business
• You offer followers and friends on your social media networks special offers that nobody else receives

Google Campaign - Step Twenty One

STEP 21

Some people are going to find this whole course a little overwhelming. Especially if they are attempting to rank for a very powerful and competitive keyword. Luckily you are not alone, you have options. You can always "outsource."

So what can you outsource?

You can outsource a number of activities that can help you save a lot of time, some of the things you can outsource that we talked about are...

On site SEO (search engine optimization, i.e. title tags etc...)
Article Writing
Profile Backlinking
Directory Submissions

Our company offers you all in one solutions or specific solutions. We can handle all of the steps we have mentioned. The choice to outsource is yours, you have to weigh the time you spend doing this yourself versus how much that time is worth. If you have the money, it is a good idea to consider outsourcing, so you can focus on other money making strategies.

Our company comes highly recommended, here are just two of the comments on our Google places Page:



Call Us Today at 888-778-5450 and let us Help Grow Your Business. OR Go to our website and see the many ways we can help you.

www.WestCoastMktg.com
Some people are going to find this whole course a little overwhelming. Especially if they are attempting to rank for a very powerful and competitive keyword. Luckily you are not alone, you have options. You can always "outsource."

Google Campaign - Step Twenty

Step 20

This is the 20th lesson of our journey, and I think it is time to look back on what we have discussed. I want to use this time to share a checklist, how much of this list have you actually done?

1. Brainstorm what potential customers search for.
2. Use Google adwords to refine list.
3. Localize those terms.
4. Change title tags.
5. Change description tags.
6. Change image names.
7. Add privacy policy.
8. Add Google analytics.
9. Add Google webmaster tools
10. Add an XML site map and submit it to Google
11. Activate your business on Google Places
12. Add a blog to your website, or start an offsite one.
13. Add a blog post for each of your keywords (titled with the keyword).
14. Read general overview of backlinks.
15. Approach your friends and ask for backlinks.
16. Submit your website to web directories. Start with DMOZ.
17. Create high quality Profile links at the websites we suggested.
18. Submit an article that includes your backlink in the article resource box, at Ezine Articles.
19. Join and use the Five suggested Social Networking websites

If you have already done all of these steps, then your website has a great chance of being near the top of Google for your local search terms. Now it will depend on the size of the area you are targeting. For example, Toronto, NY and Chicago are tough local areas to crack of course. But if you are in a small or medium sized town you will be seeing results already.

The key to this list is to repeatedly do any steps that make sense. You do NOT want to change title and description tags repeatedly, but anything after Step 13 is best done thru repetition.

The two major keys to remember is to produce web content and anchor text rich backlinks as often as possible.

Keep this checklist handy and set a goal to check off every step!

Google Campaign - Step Nineteen

STEP 19

The internet is currently being swept up in an explosion of social interaction. Social based sites like Facebook are driving the trend. When you have a website it is a good idea to tap into some of these sources. I want to look at a couple you should be using, and why they help.

Facebook Fan Page (www.facebook.com) - A ton of people use Facebook. Millions in fact. If you are under 30 then a majority of people you know probably use it. The younger you get the higher the ratio gets as well. You want a facebook fan page because you tap directly into all that traffic. People can easily share your business fan page to their "friends" and these "friends" can share to their "friends". Another bonus is you can share your website link to these people as well. Lastly, your Facebook fan page will have a lot of power in Google's eyes and it might rank on the search engines by itself. Try to get a keyword into your Facebook Fan Page title!

If you want to invest money, Facebook also offers a great advertising opportunity. You can purchase ads on the Facebook network that you can target to people in any geographical area, and base it on any of their "likes. For example you can target it to people in Canada who are 18-35 and interested in weight loss.

Twitter (www.twitter.com)- I also think all local business should have a Twitter account. Twitter is another super popular social site. It is a great place to get up to the minute information. To really tap into Twitter, you need to devote time to it and for most small business owners, that is impossible. Still it can be great for networking and as it grows in popularity it may become a must have for any business.

It allows you to keep track of anyone talking about you or your business in real time. You can also respond instantly to people who have questions about your general area of business. Monitor what people are saying about your competition and instantly woo the ones who complain.

Lastly, Twitter is now showing up in Google searches. Quite often when you search for current events, a Twitter feed will pop up above all of the Google results. As search engines begin the shift to social based searches, you will want to be active on these type of sites!

Digg (www.digg.com) - Digg is a social bookmarking site. At it's most basic level it is a place for people to share interesting links. You are going to want to create an account here and submit all of your webpages to Digg. Even if this doesn't result in traffic, it can give you a boost in your Google rankings. If you have a blog you should submit every post you make to Digg once you publish, this will help Google find your new content quickly.

Connotea (www.connotea.org) - Connotea is another bookmarking site. You can store all of your favorite websites here. Why not start with your own? Create an account here and link to each of your webpages. Connotea will create links that have your title tags as your anchor text. If you changed your title tags like suggested in an earlier lesson, you are set. Instant anchor text rich backlinks to your website. Again, if you have a blog submit each post here as you publish.

Mixx (www.mixx.com) - Mixx is yet another bookmarking site that will provide you with a solid backlink to your website (and blog posts). Just like Digg and Connotea, join and submit your website. Use keywords in the "title" field.

These five sites are a great way to get started in the social media world. You can be assured of a steady stream of web traffic if you are active on all of them. If you don't have time to manage these yourself, think about educating one of your tech savvy staff. Staff will often be motivated by these type of jobs if they are already active on these sites.

Google Campaign - Step Eighteen

Step Eighteen

We have been talking about how to generate backlinks to your website . A very easy way to get some more backlinks to your website is through article submission sites. There are a lot of article submission sites out there and more popping up everyday. For the purpose of this lesson I will be talking specifically about one:

http://www.ezinearticles.com

***NOTE***If you want to tap into even more article submission sites you can check out this list: http://www.vretoolbar.com/articles/directories.php The process for these sites will be quite similar to the process for I explain below.

Ezine articles is the most popular article submission site on the internet. This process for getting backlinks only requires one thing - an article. You need to have a 250 word (minimum) article to submit to the site. For the most effectiveness, the article should be based around the keywords you have chosen for your website.

The general process is simple (the website will guide you more thoroughly).

1. Visit www.ezinearticles.com
2. Create a free account
3. Submit Your Article

You can include links to your site in two ways. First, you can add one to the body of the article (if it makes sense to be there). Make sure this link is near the bottom of the article (one of ezines many rules).

Secondly, every article you post comes with a resource box. This box is for you to do as you wish (within reason). It is a great chance for you to "sell" yourself or business with some catchy copy. You can also add an anchor text link in the resource box.

If you don't feel comfortable writing your own articles there are many online options. One example is Fiverr.com where you can pay someone $5 to write you an article (and in some cases more than one article)! There is no reason not to take advantage of the backlinks that article submissions provide.

Google Campaign - Step Seventeen

STEP 17

One of the more popular ways to get backlinks these days are through user profiles on websites. There are no lack of sites that offer free user profiles. Another benefit is that many of these profiles are connected to powerful web pages, so Google will view a link from them, more favorably.

***NOTE*** One way Google values websites is by using it's "Google PageRank (PR)." Installing the Google toolbar will let you see a webpages Google PageRank (PR). I won't get into PR fully, but basically it is an overview of the quality and quantity of links pointing towards a certain page. Google ranks sites on a scale of 0-10, with ten being the highest rank. The higher the PR of a website, the more valuable a link will be from that site.

You can find many websites that are a high PR (6+) that offer profiles to users. The profiles may be PR 0 themselves, but since they are connected to a high PR site, they are more valuable.

The key is how to find these profile sites. There are such a wide variety of these kind of sites, that no one method will encompass all of them. Your best bet is to keep your eyes open for high PR sites and see if they offer a user profile.

Most of these profiles will either have specific fields to fill out your links (like web directories) or else you will have to use the code we talked about in earlier lessons and post it in a space like an "about me" box.

To find these sites you can also do google searches for "free profile backlinks" and there are some good lists available on tech blogs. You can also purchase packets of these links from a service like Angela's Backlinks, which costs about $5 a month.

You might consider signing up for this free service: http://www.paulieciara.com/ freeweeklybacklinks/ This service sends you 5-6 sites to get profile links from every month (usually). They include helpful pictures to teach you how to get the backlinks. That is the KEY! You can only really learn how to find and create these links by doing it.

Google Campaign - Step Sixteen

Step Sixteen

Alright, so last lesson I had you "begging friends and family for backlinks. If you felt comfortable doing that you should have a few inbound links to your website so far. Great start! Let's move on to something that takes a little less social interaction though -- Online directories.

At one time, directories use to be pretty powerful when it came to search engines. They aren't as powerful as they once were, but they do still hold some weight. Also, when dealing with local search terms, you shouldn't have a lot of competition so this step might be enough to get you to the top of Google. Another bonus, there are probably thousands of these free directories online.

When it comes to directories there are two big dogs:

DMOZ (http://www.dmoz.org): This is the most powerful directory available. The first step to any backlinking campaign should include a submission to DMOZ. Just follow their posted instructions (to the letter, they are picky). The frustrating part is it can take months for DMOZ to approve your submission. Don't panic and resubmit too many times, check every 3 months and resubmit then if your link hasn't been approved.

The Yahoo Directory: This is separate from the Yahoo search results, it is another powerful directory. It does entail a cost though. It is the only paid directory I will suggest to you, and the only one I would personally pay for. It is a very powerful link, and if you are investing in a Google campaign it is a great place to start.

You can find hundreds of other directories by searching things like "Free webdirectories" on Google. To get you started here is a great list:

http://www.addurl.nu/

When you are submitting to these directories they will usually ask for the "title" of your link. This will be your anchor text, so you should be using your chosen keywords.

***NOTE*** Some directories will require a reciprocal link, you can ignore these ones. Also do not pay for these directories, they are low quality links that aren't worth the money.


This is a great first step, and can easily be outsourced to friends or family.

Google Campaign - Step 15

 

Step Fifteen

 

This is the first lesson about where to get backlinks, this is one of the simplest methods...ask your friends, family and business contacts!

Anyone you know who has a website may have a spot for a backlink. It can not hurt to ask.

***NOTE*** One for one link trades are not very effective, if your friends/family won't link to your site without you reciprocating, then try to offer them something other than a link back to their site. If you trade one for one links, they almost cancel out in Google's eyes. You can still do it of course, but if you can get a backlink without reciprocating, do it!

Just start with your family - any of your kids have blogs? What about your extended family? Once you have exhausted that route, move on to friends and then eventually business contacts. It couldn't be simpler to ask people, just email them...

Hey Joe,
Ted here, hope all is well! I am just contacting you because I was curious if you would mind linking to my website? I am just trying to expand my web presence. It would be super helpful if the link could say "Toronto Landscaping" as well. If you need the code for that, I have it handy here:


<a href="”http://www.yoursite.com”">Toronto Landscaping</a>

You can just copy and paste that into the code of your site anywhere! I appreciate the link and if there is anything you need just let me know.
Ted

That is just an example, but it shows how easy it is to ask. Even if only a few people help you out, it can make a big difference.

If you don't feel comfortable doing that though, don't worry, future lessons will look at some ways you can get backlinks on your own!

Google Campaign - Step 14

Step Fourteen The following few steps will be the most effective steps in getting your website to the top of Google for your local search terms . There are two terms you will hear a lot and you need to know...

Backlinks: Backlinks are the number one most important factor when you want your website to get to the top of Google searches. In the simplest terms, backlinks are links on the internet that point back to your site.

Anchor Text: Anchor text is the actual text of the link. For example, if you notice on a website you can click on certain words and be taken to another site, those words are the "anchor text". Commonly, you might see the words "Click Here" and when you click them you are taken to another site. The "Click Here" is the anchor text in that case. This is important and you will see why later.

Google loves backlinks, and it is widely believed that they are the single best way to get your site to the top of Google. If a site has a lot of other sites linking to it then that site is powerful in Google's eyes, why else would there be so many other sites linking to it?

Developing backlinks should be the majority of your Google search engine optimization. The key is to use anchor text properly! You want your keywords to be the anchor text. If you want to get to the top of Google for "Toronto Landscaping" then you want as many links as possible with that as the anchor text.

Future lessons will tell you how to build these links, but sometimes you may be required to use some HTML OR BBcode. The code is very simple though, and it is worth memorizing:

HTML

<a href=”http://www.yoursite.com”>ANCHOR TEXT aka KEYWORD</a>

BBcode
[url=”http://www.yoursite.com”]ANCHOR TEXT aka KEYWORD[/a]

On a high level that is really it. Create backlinks with your keywords as the Anchor Text. That is the most effective way to climb to the top of Google. Future lessons will let you know where to get them!

Google Campaign - Step 13

Step Thirteen

Alright in the last lesson we talked about the ways you can incorporate a blog into your site. If you aren't interested in blogging, then you can ignore this lesson. The future lessons will get you back on the track on how to promote your traditional site. This lesson is how people can best use their blog to attract customers. These tips work whether the blog is on your main site, or hosted elsewhere (wordpress.com for example).

The key to a blog is updating it properly. I will discuss two techniques you can use.

1. Brand yourself as an expert. Use your blog to answer questions about your industry. Think of a huge list of questions people might have about your service or product. Each question can be one "post" on your blog. You might even start to rank in Google for these questions, attracting potential leads when they search for answers.

2. Use your original keywords. Remember you made a huge list of local search terms in one of the first steps? You used some of these keywords on your website already but you probably a have a large list remaining. Here is where you can use them. Each keyword is the title of your post!

***NOTE*** If using Wordpress.com set your permalinks (in settings menu) to Custom: /%postname%/ . This will ensure that the URL of each of your posts has the post title in the address. Which means, you will also have keywords in your URL. A definite bonus in Google's eyes.

Now you can make a post a day, or a week or whatever. They key is to stay active and somewhat regular. No huge delays in between posts. Once you have a huge list of questions to answer, in combination with your existing keyword list, start making posts. You can even make a bunch of small posts one day, and schedule them to show up on your blog at future dates.

As for the posts themselves, I think you can keep it simple. I would suggest to aim for +250 words. You can add a picture if you want, but it isn't necessary. If your blog is offsite, remember to include a link to your main website.

In conclusion: The best bet is a website built with WordPress. The second best option is to have your blog offsite but linking to your site. Make regular blog posts using keyword terms and industry specific news/questions. Keep the posts in the 250 word range.

Google Campaign - Step 12

Step Twelve

Alright, this step is pretty huge. I don't expect everyone to take it but it can make a big difference both in terms of website functionality and search engine rankings.

Your website really should have a blog . This is a big step and it can be accomplished a couple of ways.

1. You can build your entire site using WordPress . This is the ultimate choice because WordPress offers you so many benefits. Google loves it. It is a blogging platform by nature and you can update your website using the WordPress back office, which is as simple as using a word processing program. Lastly, you can use "plugins" to accomplish many of the tasks from earlier lessons.

Now that said - this is a high level choice with a cost and time commitment you may not be able to handle right now. That is fine, there is an alternative. If you ever do commit to a site redesign or a new website, consider WordPress as the platform, but until then...

2. You create an offsite blog and link to it from your website (vice versa you link to your site from the blog). This is a simple solution and can be done quickly and free! You can do a Google search on "free blogs" and get a ton of results. I strongly suggest WordPress.com though. You can enjoy some of the benefits from the above and If you do ever move your website to a WordPress platform you will be familiar with the back office. Just visit Wordpress.com (or blogging site of your preference) and follow the on screen directions to create your blog.

***NOTE***If you are asked for the title of your blog and web address, use your favorite keywords from the list you created in early lessons!

The basic idea of a blog is an online journal. You make "posts" (daily, weekly or whatever) about your business. Blogs are important because they allow you to create and produce content quickly. The more content you have on your website, the more powerful Google views that site.

For example your website grows by another webpage every time you make a post. So instead of your website having five pages, if you made a post every day your blog would have well over 360 pages by then end of the year. A 360 page site is more powerful than a five page site in Google's opinion.

So the goal now is to either build a website that natively supports a blog, or create one off site and link to your site. The next lesson will deal with how to use the blog, then we will end the blog talk and the rest of the lessons will be applicable to traditional sites as well.

Google Campaign - Step 11

STEP ELEVEN

This next step is a big one. This step is bigger than search results placement -it is a must for every business out there, even those that don't want to dominate the local search terms.

Google has a local business center that allows users to basically get a profile of their business integrated into Google Maps. This step is a big one for local businesses. You definitely want your business coming up on Google Maps. It will help people with directions, be seen by anyone searching Google Maps and it could help in the search engines. Have you ever searched for something on Google and instead of the normal results, a map pops up showing you all of the local businesses that match your search? You want to be on that list! Best part is it is free and easy.

***NOTE*** Google Local Business Center is now known as Google Places.

To get started visit:
www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter (or you can visit www.google.com/places and click on add new business)

Once again you get to flex your mighty Google Account, use the account you created for previous steps to log in once you visit the above link. Click on Add a New Business.

The next page you are prompted to enter your country and phone number. You should enter your business number here to see if Google already has your business listed. If it does, then you can follow the on screen directions to edit and verify your business.

If your business doesn't exist you will get a form to fill out. Take your time and fill out the form as best as you can. Make sure to include a link to your website . I also like including a couple of pictures, it does make a difference. Give as much information as you are comfortable with. The more you fill out, the better your listing will look. Once you are done, click submit.

The next step requires you to verify your business. This is done in one of three ways. Phone call to business phone number, text to listed cell phone number or a post card. The first two are nearly instant, the post card takes a week or so. All three methods result in a PIN number you need to enter in the back office of your Google Places account. Once you have verified your listing it will be published and you are done a very effective step. You will now show up in Google maps searches, and possibly google search results.

Google Campaign - Step 10

STEP TEN

I was gonna mention this point near the end, but since we just set up the Google Webmaster Tools account lets move on to XML Sitemaps.

An XML Sitemap is a file that lists all of the URL's of your website. This file will allow search engines to quickly find any new pages you add (or posts if you have a blog).

The first thing you have to do is actually create the XML file. If you use WordPress for your website (more on this later, always recommended) there is a plugin called "Google XML-Sitemaps". This plugin will handle XML Sitemap creation and submission. It is highly recommended. For those of us with traditional websites, read on...

Creating an XML Sitemap from scratch is not really fun, especially if you have tons of pages. There are lots of XML Sitemap Generators out there, you just have to search for them. The one I most recently used was:

http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

You can use this one, or find your own. Once you have found one just follow the onscreen directions to create your sitemap. On the above site, you will get a link to download your xml file. Once you have done that, you will have to upload that document to your website. You can do this yourself via FTP, or your website's backend. You can also get your web designer to do it. If you upload the file to your public_html folder, then the link to the sitemap will be www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml (or whatever you titled it, keep it simple with sitemap.xml though).

Once you have your sitemap URL it is time to go back to Webmaster Tools! Log into your account and then under the Site Configuration tab will be a Sitemaps link. Click that link and you will see a "Submit a Sitemap" button. Click that button and add the URL of your sitemap. You are done!

Google Campaign - Step 9

STEP NINE

Last lesson, we discussed Google Analytics. Google doesn't just offer analytics, it also offers another free web service called Google Webmaster Tools. Similar to Analytics, this also offers website owners some cool features on top of a potential rankings boost.

Using Google Webmaster tools allows you to do things like:

★ Submit Sitemaps (more in future lessons)
★ Find external links to your website
★ Analyze your Title and Description tags (helps eliminate duplicate ones)
★ Navigation Diagnostics - Will let you know of dead links on your website, or pages that Google can not see

For our purposes, the real benefit to this is a potential boost in your search engine results. Setting up Webmaster Tools is a snap - especially if you did the last step (Analytics).

You need to start by visiting:

http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools

You can use your current Google Account to access Webmaster Tools. It is recommended you use the same account that you used to set up Analytics (I will explain later).

Once you have accessed and logged in to Webmaster Tools. You will see a button that says "Add A Site" click this button and add your website URL. Once you have done that you will be taken to a verification screen. There you will see a piece of code you can add to the area of your webpage.

Are you sick of dealing with website code? Well, if you set up Google Analytics with the same account you are using now, you will be able to verify using that code you have already added. Look for that option and choose it.

If everything goes smoothly you will now have a verified Webmaster Tools account. Once your data populates you can check out the different options available to you now. Google has a great knowledge base with answers to just about any question you may have.

Google Campaign For You

STEP EIGHT

The entire goal of this course is to get your site on the first page of Google for your search terms (keywords). The higher the better. Thats the reason we don't leave a stone unturned. If there is something that might help us get there, we need to take a shot.

Google provides a number of free tools for the webmaster. One of the most important is Google Analytics. This tool allows you to keep track of your web traffic. You can monitor how many people visit your site and how they got there (amongst dozens of other measurables). If that was the only benefit it would still be well worth it. These lessons are concerned about Google search rankings though, how does this fit?

Well it is the opinion of many people that Google lends some weight to sites that use their website services. In my opinion, this makes it a complete "no brainer".

You can monitor your websites traffic AND possibly boost the status of your site in the eyes of the almighty Google. Win win.

To set up Google analytics follow these steps:

1. You will need a Google Account, you can get one form Google.com if you don't already have one. If you have gmail, you have a google account.

2. Then you need to visit: https://www.google.com/analytics/ and there will be a big "access analytics" button, click it. You will have to enter your Google account information.

3. You will be prompted to enter things such as your URL, country and time zone. Do that and hit continue. You will be prompted to enter some personal information, enter that and hit continue again.

4. Next step you will read and agree to Analytics terms and services.

5. Now that is done, you will get the "Google tracking Code". This code will need to go into your website code (yes code again, hopefully you are comfortable with this or have a good web designer). Just enter the code provided onto the bottom of the pages you want to track, right before the tag.

6. In 24 hours you will begin to receive updates on your web traffic! Simple as that.

For more detailed instructions (including pics) visit:

http://www.flyteblog.com/flyte/2008/12/setting-up-google-analytics-a-stepbystepguide.html

Doing a Successful Google Campaign

STEP SIX

OK, maybe the proverb is a bit of an exaggeration. A picture isn't really worth a thousand keywords, but it can certainly help if you name your images properly.

You can do this yourself if you know how (it depends on what system you are using for your website) or once again you can ask your web designer. I hope you don't have an absentee web designer because that is a common online problem!

Anyways, renaming your pictures has a couple benefits:

Google will be visiting your site. Google has "robots (software that ranks websites)" that check out your site. The thing is, these robots don't see pictures or colors etc... They only see text. So they don't see your pictures, but they do see the name of the pictures. It certainly can't hurt if Google sees more instances of your keywords on your site!

Another reason to rename images is that Google has a great image search. Your images can show up in these searches and lead to web traffic.

For this next step rename all of the images on your website. This can be a bit of a process and the step isn't integral but if you want a boost in your rankings, give it a try.

If you have too many images, or don't want to start this process, keep it in mind moving forward. When you add new images start titling them with your keywords.

STEP SEVEN

This is a lesson that a lot of people have no idea about.

I was lucky enough to have a personal friend get the chance to join a mastermind group at Google's Canadian office in Toronto.

He said it was a lot of stuff he already knew - basically the lessons you have already learned and will learn in the future. He was disappointed he didn't get any new insights...except one that is.

Apparently, Google recognizes if your website has a privacy policy. I am not sure how much it matters, they didn't discuss the weight they give it, but if it matters to Google, it matters to us!

For this step, simply add a privacy policy to your website. You can add it anyway you want. You can add it as a page in your nav, or as a link in your footer. Just have the link actually say "Privacy Policy" and make sure it links to a good privacy policy.

Here is a sample Privacy Policy. You can use all of this policy or just choose the parts of it that make sense to your website: http://surfsafety.net/sample2.html

Successful Google Campaign

STEP FOUR

 

The thinking and brainstorming is over! Now we start getting into the actual steps it takes to get your website to dominate Google for local search terms. It is time to take your list of local search terms and put in work. So what exactly are you going to be doing?

Well you, or someone who controls your website is going to be editing your TITLE TAGS. The title tag is a piece of code on your webpage, it tells the search engines what the title of your website is. When you are surfing the net, you know the words at the very top of your internet browser? That is the title tag.

There are many ways to edit the title tags but it all depends on what system your website was built with. We can't possibly go over each system, but we can give you a general idea.

You first need to access the code for your web pages. You can do that however you normally do, or you can ask your web designer to do it. You want to find this code:

<title>Whatever Your Website is Titled</title>

This code will usually be found at the top of the web page in the area. All you have to do is put your keywords in between them. Start with your most searched term for the homepage title and go from there. Name each page a different keyword for maximum effect. Even if you only have five pages, nameeach one a different local search term.

If you have a company blog this method is even easier, but we will go into that in future steps.

Hopefully you have a good web designer and they can handle this for you. A good web designer should know how to change a page's title tags.

The reason we do this step first is because, the title tag is the first thing that the search engines see on your website. That definitely counts! In some smaller towns, this change alone can get you to the first page of Google.

***NOTE*** To fit more keywords in, you can use a couple per page. Just remember to keep your title tag to about 70 characters in length, because Google will only show so much in their search results.

STEP FIVE

In the last lesson we talked about changing the title tags on each of your pages. We discussed how you will have to figure out how to access the code of your website, or ask your web designer to do it.

There is one more tag you should be changing and it is the META Description Tag.

This tag adds a description to each page. It is another chance to use some great local keywords. When you create a description you are basically creating a small advertisement for your website. This description will show up when your site comes up in Google searches.

A typical Google search result will look like this:

Your Title Tag
Then right under will be your description like this.

I suggest trying to get your keywords into the description tag. Match the keywords in the description tag to the title tag you used. Keep the description less than 160 characters (including spaces) because that is all Google can display.

Here is an example of a title tag and description:

Toronto Ontario Landscaping
If you are looking for the best Toronto Ontario Landscaping, then you found them!
Check out our website for more info.

The key is to include your keyword from your title tag but to make it look natural. This is basically an 160 character ad for your website. Each page that has a unique title tag should have a unique description.

To change your description you have to access your website code (or get someone to do it) again. In the samearea look for:

<meta name="Description" content="***">

 Replace the stars with your 160 character description.

How-To's For A Successful Google Campaign PT. 2

STEP THREE

In the last step we used Google Adwords to sort a list of keywords in order of how much they are searched. We kept this list general (not local) because we wanted to have enough search results to properly rank them. In this next step, we quickly localize these terms.

Take your list of top ten searched terms and simply add your city to the front of them, and to the end of them. If you are a Landscaper, and "Landscaping" was your keyword, then it becomes:

"* your city* landscaping"
"landscaping *your city*"

Now you have local search terms.

If you live in a small city, you might want to include other nearby cities you service in your terms. You can also think about including your county (or township etc...) in the keywords.

Once you add the city/county to the front AND back of each keyword you should have a large list of great local search terms!

***NOTE*** The reason we add them to the back of the term as well is to make sure we catch the people searching for "landscaping in *your city". Google ignores the "in" (and other similar small words) so we don't have to worry about that.

If you don't want to manually create your list you can use a free service:

http://www.keywordlizard.com

This website will allow you to put all of your keywords in box A, then your city(or cities) into box B. You can then automatically add the cities to the front and back of each word using their online tool.

How-To's For A Successful Google Campaign

STEP ONE

The first step to any successful Google campaign is research.

The very first thing you should do is create a list of terms that describes your product or service. For this part, don't think locally. Just think about general terms that people could use to find your business in Google.

A couple of examples might make this easier.

You own a landscaping company: Landscaping, landscaper, yard work, gardener, gardening etc...

You own a day spa: Spa,day spa, hairdressers, massage, pedicures etc...

Take this time now to make a list of as many "keywords" you can think of. All of these terms you come up with, will be known as keywords from now on. Try to make this list as long as you can, and make sure to keep a copy of it because you will need it later.

If you are feeling stuck, just think about the services or products that your company offers. That is the perfect place to start when thinking about keywords.

***NOTE*** Remember no local terms yet. Don't include your city or area in the terms you are currently brainstorming.

STEP TWO

Last time we talked you were working on a list of keywords, terms that people would use to find your business online. By now you should have a pretty good list. Let's take that list and expand it.

I want to introduce you to the Google adwords tool. This tool will give you an approximation on how many times your terms are searched per month (plus a bunch of other information). First step is to visit:

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

You will be brought to a page where you can enter your keywords. You can add them all line by line into the box that is titled "Word or Phrase". You can leave the website field blank.

Underneath the box where you enter your keywords, is a check box. Check this if you want to limit the results to only terms that include the keywords you have entered. If you have a big list you can check this, if you struggled to think about keywords, leave this box unchecked and it might come up with some great ideas you didn't even think of.

Once you have your list entered and the box checked (or not), enter the security code and click search. Once you do that you will get a list of keywords. Click on "local monthly searches". This will sort the keywords by how many searches they get in your country. These numbers will be pretty high.

***NOTE***This is why we didn't include any local search terms. Many times these terms won't even show up in the rankings, even though they are getting searched. It really depends on the size of your local area.

Now that you have this list in order of local searches, make a note of the top ten or so terms. In fact, export the whole list as a CSV (or other) file. You will be able to make use of this later on. Just click on "download" it can be found at the top left of the keyword list.

QR Codes

QR Codes are a mobile tool people are becoming familiar with and they deserve some explanation. The QR Code is a barcode that was developed in Japan and is commonly used in much of the world. QR stands for Quick Response. You mustwe have a QR scanner on your smartphone, you can scan the code on this page.

The difference between a regular barcode and the QR code is that the QR Code stores data which can be read digitally. The QR code is read by scanners in stores or using the camera and a QR code reader (available free) which are installed on your smartphone.

A QR Code can be used to provide a link to a web page, a coupon or details on a new product and can be printed on anything – even t-shirts! The uses for a QR Code are endless.

QR Codes are used extensively outside of the U.S. and are beginning to catch on here, too. I’m already seeing them in print advertising in magazines, on store windows, in some directories and on other websites. You can add them to any print advertising such as business cards, to videos, and to anything else you can think of. When scanned, it will provide a text message, take someone directly to your website or link to whatever else you decide to send them to.

In Japan, McDonald’s includes QR codes on their product packaging (Happy Meal boxes, sandwich wrappers). Magazines are incorporating QR codes into their print advertising. Can you think of how you might use a QR Code?

Someone who is familiar with QR Codes will appreciate using them. If someone is not familiar with QR Codes, they’ll ask about them when they’re in your store – opening up lines of communication.

QR Codes are a great tool for inviting a consumer to opt-in to your list, in exchange for something of value (coupon, sales events, link to a download).

You’ll be seeing more and more QR Codes and you’ll be using them yourself in your mobile marketing campaigns.

QR Code Pros
• Free and Easy to make
• Provides a Matrix Barcode readable by Smart Phones
• Use on marketing materials, business window
• When scanned, customer sees whatever info you include, your website link, hours, contact info…

QR Code Cons
• Only 28% of consumers have a smart phone
• Consumer must have a QR code reader app downloaded
• Just delivers information, no call to action

Mobile Marketing Tools

Okay. It works. You think it’s worth considering using mobile marketing.

How do you do it?
First, you need to decide which strategy you’ll be using to get your message out and then you can craft your message to fit the strategy.

There are several mobile marketing strategies/tools you can use to reach your customers on their mobile devices and we’ll list them here. It’s beyond the scope of this report to go into extreme detail for each. Your mobile marketing consultant will be able to help you make the right choices for your business.

Mobile Text Marketing (SMS)
SMS stands for Short Message Service, also known as text messages. Most cell phones are capable of sending and receiving text messages. You’re limited to 140 characters and that is enough to get a short message out, link to a website or send out a coupon.

We’ve already talked about the great open rates and conversion rates for text messages. This is the # 1 strategy to implement, even if it’s your only Mobile Marketing strategy.

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)
In addition to sending text, you can also send audio, pictures and video in an MMS message. You can get quite creative here with your marketing message and distribute it easily through phones. Does not work on majority of non smart phones.

Mobile E-Mail
Despite the increase in popularity of text messaging, emails are still a good way to get a message out. You’ll observe people checking their emails all day long, in a variety of locations, because they have their mobile phones with them. This is an affordable and acceptable way to market via mobile.

Mobile Internet Sites
The increase in smartphones which have the ability to surf the web means that your website should be formatted to be mobile friendly. People on the go tend to search for basic information, such as phone numbers, addresses, and hours of operation. They’re trying to make quick decisions and do not usually have the time to read a complicated website when on the go. You need to make sure you have appropriate, easily findable information on your mobile friendly website.

Mobile Applications
Mobile applications are computer programs that are installed on mobile phones. They are used to provide capabilities, such as looking at a checking account balance or playing a game. Applications can also include your marketing message. They can be a great way to get your message out.

Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
With all the capabilities available on the mobile phones of today, we might forget that their primary purpose is to make and receive voice phone calls. IVR technology allows us to send and receive voice calls from people without having a live person answer the phone at your end.


Mobile Social Media
Social media has been a driving force in the growth of smart phones. It’s very easy for folks to participate in social media conversations throughout the day using their phones. You can take advantage of this trend by incorporating a mobile social media strategy in your marketing.



Mobile Advertising
Mobile phones present a great opportunity to advertise to a broad potential customer base, in addition to your targeted customer base. Google, recognizing the importance of the mobile industry, recently bought AdMob, a mobile advertising platform. You know if Google thinks it’s important, we should also pay attention.

Mobile advertising involves placing ads in mobile applications, on websites, and in text messages, to name a few.

Mobile Commerce
It is possible to arrange for an immediate purchase of not only digital downloadable products, but also of retail products using your mobile phone. Your mobile phone can literally be used as a digital wallet using bar code scanners and mobile point of sale systems. You’ll want to consider setting up a mobile commerce program, if you sell any products which can be downloaded or shipped out.

Proximity Marketing
Mobile phones are capable of showing the exact geo-location of the person using the phone. This capability can be used to target buyers in specific geographic locations with messages appropriate to their location (e.g. mall stores offering coupons to mall shoppers or restaurants texting a 2 for 1 dinner special to those in their vicinity). This type of marketing is receiving attention because of the potential for timing the promotions as needed (e.g. slow day for a restaurant or clearance sale in a store).

The geo-location capabilities of phones are a great reason to focus on local internet marketing for your business. You definitely want your mobile website to be found when consumers are searching for a local business to go to. You also want to invite consumers to communicate with you, when they find your website because of your great local web presence.

A local internet marketing consultant can help you with your local internet marketing program.

Mobile-Enabled Traditional Media
Mobile marketing can only be done with the express permission of your customer. You can use traditional media to invite them to opt-in to your list. An example of this would be a sign in your store window or near the cash register inviting the customer to text to a number which will respond with a coupon code or scan a QR code which will take them to a web page where they can opt-in.

QR Codes
QR Codes will be explained in the next section.

It All Sounds Good – But Are They Using Mobile to Buy? (Show Me The Money!)

According to a report posted by eMarketer , mobile phone use related to buying activities increased significantly in 2010, with an even greater increase during the last quarter - the 2010 holiday shopping season.

Consumers checked their phones for coupons and sales, shared good deals with friends and did comparison shopping using their phones.

Smartphone Activities Performed During the Holidays According to US Spmartphone Owners, Dec 2010

Emailed or texted someone to tell them about experience at store
Looked for discounts, deals, coupons or discount codes
Did comparison pricing
Browsed for products
Researched specific products you were thinking of purchasing
Found Store Locations

0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0%

Source GfK Roper

Who Needs Mobile Marketing?

First, let me say that not every business needs mobile marketing. If you do not have an advertising budget that can handle small experimentation losses from using a new technology you¡¦re not familiar with, you do not need to be doing mobile marketing at this time.

On the other hand, if you engage the services of a mobile marketing expert who can help to mitigate any such potential losses, you should certainly consider using mobile marketing. In addition, you should not consider using mobile marketing if your product or service focuses primarily on a target demographic that would not be using mobile phones.
Many businesses, however, do have products or services that are ideal candidates for marketing using mobile.

Retail, for instance is a niche which benefits a great deal from mobile marketing. Anyone with a retail business should definitely take advantage of mobile advertising strategies, or you'll be behind the 8 ball.

The mobile marketing opportunities for most businesses and other organizations like Realtors, promoters/event coordinators, churches and schools are endless!

There are many other business niches that can benefit greatly from mobile text marketing and they include, but are not limited to:

• Travel
• Nonprofits
• Sports
• Legal
• Food and beverage
• Healthcare
• Education
• Consumer electronics
• Apparel and accessories
• Automotive
• Arts and entertainment
• Consumer packaged goods
• Education
• Financial Services
• Government
• Home furnishings
• Media/publishing
• Politics
• Real estate -- Imagine never filling the info box again


Imagine the benefits of offering coupons, recipes, surveys/feedback campaigns, fan clubs, loyalty clubs, movie times, ticket sales, class schedules, details of a property for sale, last minute travel deals, sales, store events, donation sites, emergency alerts, new publications by a favorite author or musician, health tips, carry-out or delivery ordering, theater locations.

Clearly, the list can go on and on. You can modify many of the offline promotions you are already doing to make them work on mobile. You can also create and execute new promotions that do not work offline. There are no limits to using your creativity with mobile text marketing!

Examples Of How You Can Use Text Marketing

Just a Few of the Many Business Increasing Their Sales With Text Message Marketing:

It’s beyond the scope of this guide to discuss in detail all the ways your business can market using mobile, but a mobile marketing consultant is able to help you plan your marketing campaigns.

You can also go to our website and see many examples of how your business could benefit from mobile text marketing.

http://SimplyTextMarketing.com

We’ve found Mobile Text Marketing will deliver the best ROI and is the most affordable way to market to this huge audience. Text Marketing out performs even the best mobile website which requires a smart phone to view and therefore only reaches 28%.

Mobile Marketing Trends

Mobile marketing is experiencing tremendous growth globally. It is estimated that by 2012, 10 trillion text messages will be sent and delivered to mobile phones.

Mobile marketing is a very accepted marketing strategy in most parts of the world. Japan was one of the first countries to embrace it, with Europe and other areas following. The United States has been lagging behind and is just now starting to take a serious look at this strategy.

Why is mobile marketing so important to consider using? Statistics tell the story and you’ll be amazed!



As the world’s population approaches 7 billion, the number of cell phone subscriptions continues to grow and is expected to have reached 5 billion by the end of 2010. This is over 70% of the world’s population!

In the U.S. alone, over 250 million Americans carry mobile phones – more than 80% of the nation’s population. In fact, over 20% of U.S. households are “mobile only.”

Now, if you subtract the very young population and the very elderly population (who are not likely to use mobile phones) from the total population, you can see that almost everyone else has a mobile phone – everyone who has purchasing power. This is huge!

On the other hand, there are less than 2 billion internet users globally. Which size population would you rather aim your arrows at: 2 billion or 5 billion?

In some parts of the world, the mobile phone is the only connection to the rest of the world. There are few PCs and few land lines. Furthermore, with the onset of the smartphones, mobile phones are becoming the connection to the World Wide Web – like a computer carried by people everywhere they go.



• About 1.3 billion internet users use email.

• About 3 billion cell phone users use text messaging.

• More Text Messages per mobile phone than phone calls

• By the end of 2010, 6.5 trillion text messages will have been sent.

• The global mobile advertising market will be valued at over $16 billion by 2011. Source: M:Metrics, Common Short Codes: Cracking the Mobile Marketing Code

So.. what do all these numbers mean?

Basically, mobile phones are quickly becoming the preferred way to communicate with a consumer, over the personal computer.

Surveys show that email use on PCs is decreasing at the same time that text messaging on cell phones is increasing at a huge rate. Advertisers are recognizing this trend and are planning on putting more and more advertising dollars into the mobile market.

Mobile phones are here to stay. Mobile phone use is growing exponentially and is already bigger than PC use. Marketing to cell phone users, using different marketing tools, is definitely one of the keys to your future business growth.

Small Business Guide Mobile Marketing Pt. II

What is Mobile Marketing?

According to the Mobile Marketing Association, mobile marketing is “a set of practices that enable organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.” Kim Dushinski, a mobile marketing expert, enhances this description: “Mobile marketing is businesses COMMUNICATING with consumers on their mobile phones with their explicit permission at the right time, at the right place while providing relevant value.”

The key to both of these definitions is that businesses are communicating with consumers – this is not a one-way message or a push marketing campaign. You are inviting consumers to initiate contact with you by calling or texting you (known as “opting-in”), giving you permission to communicate with them.

You, in return, will be providing something of value to them. This may be based on the knowledge you’ve acquired about your customers and that is the exciting aspect of this type of marketing. Customers have requested your response and that response will be received with anticipation, often resulting in action.A Word of Caution: Mobile Marketing is a NO SPAM Zone!
You do NOT want to send unwanted messages to anyone!

“Mobile marketing is using mobile devices as the method to distribute your marketing message”.

It is just one tool in your arsenal of marketing strategies. While mobile marketing is a very powerful tool, it should be used in addition to the other marketing techniques you’re already using.

You never want to count on just one marketing strategy to get your message out. Be clear on whom you’re marketing to, and where they go to get information about what you have to offer, then make sure you’re marketing in those places.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has found. According to the United Nations-run organization, a whopping 6.1 trillion text messages will be sent by the end of 2010. That figure, which has tripled in the past three years, means people around the globe are sending 200,000 text messages every second.

Small Business Guide - Mobile Marketing

Okay, let’s face it! Mobile phones are here to stay!

They have gone from the brick-sized version that weighed as much, to the stylish, chic version that fits in any pocket and goes with you everywhere. You literally will not leave home without it! In fact, you will turn around and go back home for it. Mobile phones are everywhere and now a vital part of our lives!

Mobile Marketing, a new marketing trend, is the result of the growth in the use of mobile phones and other mobile devices.
I have written this guide for the business owner who is ready to take advantage of this new marketing trend that is set to take off like a rocket. Mobile marketing is for the business owner who wants to be ahead of the trend - instead of trailing it long after it’s been around for years and used successfully by others.

If you own a salon, a coffee shop, an auto repair shop, a pizza shop or any other local business, you know that a regular paying customer is worth more to you than a customer you have to acquire. You may not, however, have any way of keeping track of your customers – who they are, how many of them you have, what they buy when they come in to your shop and therefore, you haven’t been marketing directly to them.

You do your marketing the old-fashioned shotgun way – blast the market with advertising, hoping you’re aiming at the right potential customers who need your product or service.

In this report, we are going to focus on laser targeting your marketing to your local customer base in an affordable, very effective way ¡V using mobile text message marketing.

We will cover the following topics:
• Mobile devices
• What mobile marketing is and what mobile marketing is not.
• Trends in mobile marketing
• Why you, as a business owner, should be very concerned about mobile marketing.
• Who needs mobile marketing
• Mobile friendly websites
• Mobile marketing tools

What is a Mobile Device?
A mobile device is a wireless-enabled computing or communications device that will maintain its function while on the move. It travels with you anywhere you go.

Mobile devices include two basic types of devices: phones and non-phone mobile-enabled devices.

The feature phone is the basic mobile device we’re all familiar with. Feature phones make up about 75% of mobile phones and it is important to realize that. These phones are limited in their capabilities and therefore they place limits on the strategies that can be used to market to them. We can reach customers who carry feature phones using text messaging (SMS), multi-media messaging (MMS), voice and limited mobile internet.

The smartphone is a newer device which combines the functionality of a phone with features we usually associate with a personal computer, such as the internet and email. Most of these phones also have a camera.

This is an exciting category to market to, but it’s important to remember that since smartphones represent only 28% of the market, feature phones are still the majority of phones being used. We want to remember the majority of phones have a more limited access when we create our marketing campaigns.

The connected device is the third category we want to know about. This device is not a phone and includes iPads, e-readers (Kindle, Nook) and portable gaming devices. We are able to market to these devices as well.



IDC.com – July 14, 2010- Smartphones, or Mobile devices, will soon become the dominant computing platform for humanity and supplant the PC.

Replies And Twitter Applications

You can reply to someone's Tweet simply by putting the @symbol in front of their name. This makes the tweet stand out to them as it appears in their reply column or page instead of in the general Tweetstream. It is a very useful way of starting conversations with people in order to build relationships. Simply comment on one of their tweets.

Retweeting
People appreciate retweets and it is a good way to get noticed by others. All you do is put RT in front of the @username. If other people retweet your tweets, make it a habit to thank them. It's common courtesy. Simply tweet @username Thanks for RT :-) and send.

You could even have a contest for customers that retweet your specials.

Useful Twitter Applications for Small Businesses

Twellow
Twellow, at http://www.twellow.com is another great way of finding people to interact with. People here are categorized into all different areas and you can search for those with similar interests to your own.
The main page shows you all the categories, which then have sub categories as well. You just click on a category and the list of people in that area are displayed.

You don't have to be registered with Twellow to be displayed, but at the time of writing there were nearly two million people showing on the site, so you will have plenty to choose from. By all means though, register yourself and set up a profile so others can find you.

When you click on a category, Twellow displays a list of people in that category and they are ordered by the number of followers they have. If you are already logged into Twitter via the web, you will be able to follow people directly from the screens where the profiles are displayed.

Mr Tweet
Mr Tweet at www.mrtweet.net is another way of gaining new followers. All you have to do is follow Mr Tweet on Twitter and your tweets will be monitored for content and then you will get a Direct Message from “him”.
You then go to the site and login and you will get a list of suggested people. You will also get a list of people who are following you that you aren't following so you can then follow them if you choose.
It's a really nifty little site and worth registering at.

Grader
Grader is on Twitter as @grader, but also online at http://twitter.grader.com/ and is a site of some interest. As you get going on Twitter, you can get “ranked” by Grader on a score out of 100. It is based on some secret algorithm apparently so people can't game the system.

Apart from that aspect of Grader, you can have a look at who the top Tweeple are in a particular area or even by topic using the search function.

When you use the search function, it will list the Tweeple by their score in descending order. For example, if you search for “gardening” on Grader, you will get a list of all the top 100 people interested in gardening on Twitter. You can see their “bio” from their Twitter account and if you click on their Grader score, it will take you to their Twitter account from where you can follow them. Naturally, you must already be logged in to Twitter yourself to follow anyone.

Listorious
Listorious has the best Twitter people search on the web so you can find anyone by topic, region or profession -- powered by data from the tens of thousands of list curators.

Formulists
Formulists is a list creation and management tool that allows users to effortlessly generate dynamic and personalized Twitter lists that continuously self-update. Formulists offers a broad range of stock lists that can help users both manage and expand their Twitter network.

Tweetworks
Tweetworks is a Twitter application that makes it easy to find and participate in relevant conversations. Enjoy fully threaded conversations, join and create groups on any topic imaginable, and share media with single-click tagging.

TweetDeck
TweetDeck is a personal browser for Twitter and other social media applications. The desktop application makes it easy to organize lists and followers. TweetDeck is also available for iPhone and other mobile devices.

Followfriday
Followfriday is one the most popular hashtags on Twitter. In this format it is a way to get recommendations of who to follow. Followfriday.com has generated a ranking based on these recommendations which makes it easier to follow the most recommended users.

Happn.in
For each Happn.in city, there is a current list of local Twitter trends Happn.in pulls out useful information from the noise, specifically, local information.

TwitPic
Use your phone, computer or email to post pictures directly to Twitter with TwitPic.

HootSuite
HootSuite is a social media dashboard where you can monitor keywords, manage multiple Twitter, and other social medial application profiles, schedule messages, and measure your success
Twaitter
Schedule twitter posts and manage posting calendars with Twaitter. Set up recurring twitter messages and write bulk messages.

Advanced Tweeting Tips
Once you're all set up, you can get into some advanced Tweeting tips and applications that can really power your Business Twitter usage up.

Twitter Backgrounds
We discussed earlier about setting up your Twitter background so that it didn't just look like the default Twitter page. Leaving it like that shows a lack of care on your part. You need to distinguish your business from the crowd and attract more followers, or at the very least impresses people with your professionalism.
Now if you're a bit of a Photo software whiz, then you can do your own background, full of bells and whistles and load it up to your Twitter profile. But if you're not, or you just want to save time, then you can contact me to speak about any aspect of your Twitter or Internet Marketing strategy. My contact info is at the end of this report.

Twitterfeed
Twitterfeed at http://www.twitterfeed.com is also a very handy tool. What Twitterfeed does is that you can set up your blog to feed directly to your Twitter account.

So every time you make a blog post, it gets tweeted automatically on your behalf. You can use this in conjunction with Tweetlater with the first post coming through Twitterfeed and then subsequent ones at times you specify via Tweetlater.

Your Twitter Karma
Your Twitter Karma at http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/ is a really useful site for having a look at your followers and who you are following. It's great for seeing your account from a followers/following perspective.

Your Tweets

Promote products and services
One of the simplest ways to effectively use Twitter as an online marketing tool is to tell followers about what you do and who you are. Tweets should be informative and not overly promotional.

Use casual and friendly language and don't think of Twitter as a bulletin board, but as a way to have a conversation with your customers. Your first goal should not be to sell, but rather to get people interested in your services and products. So be helpful, listen and give your followers relevant and useful information.



Examples are from Jade Teahouse (@JadeTeahouse), Portland, Oregon whose social media marketing campaign allowed them to become one of Portland's most popular lunch destinations within a year of launching, and Emerson Salon in Seattle (@emersonsalon), a hair salon with one of the highest number of followers within the hair salon list. Currently over 14,000 followers.

Create talk in the local community
Before the Tupelo restaurant in Boston even opened their doors, the word spread among their followers on Twitter (@tupelo02139), where they posted updates on everything from inspections to paint choices. On opening night the place was packed.

At least half of the restaurant goers were there because of Twitter according to co-owner and twitterer Jean Deaderik. A write-up in The Boston Globe described how restaurants, including Tupelo, were using Twitter as an online marketing tool. Local businesses can achieve such buzz by sharing sneak peeks of projects and events that are in development.



Offer special discounts and promotions
Use Twitter to broadcast special discounts and promotions, an available appointment or table at a restaurant. Luna Park Kitchen & Cocktails (@lunaparksf) in San Francisco shares tweets with a secret password to entice customers in with 50% off their meal, and True Massage (@truemassage), also in San Francisco, used twitter to announce available appointments.

According to this New York Times article, True Massage often fills its bookings within a few hours of posting. On the other side of the country, in New Orleans, a wholesome pizza restaurant called Naked Pizza (@NakedPizza) decided to track sales driven by Twitter at the cash register and found that one Twitter promotion resulted in a 15% increase in sales that day.



Give great customer service and listen to feedback
Respond to complaints and feedback. When Ramon DeLeon, a Chicago Domino's franchisee, read a twitter post complaining about the late delivery of a Domino's pizza, he and the general manager of the store recorded a video apologizing for their lack of customer service and gave the twitterer a free pizza. Successfully turning an angry customer into an ambassador proves that customer service is equally important online as in the store.

Spread positive endorsement and answer questions and comments directed at you. Use the retweet function to repost an efficacious message from a customer and take the relationship into the real world. Retweeting positive messages is a great way to spread word-of-mouth advertising and build a memorable brand. Berry Chill (@YogiJones), a Chicago based frozen yogurt shop does this well.



With your customer's permission, sharing a picture through TwitPic of a customer enjoying a milkshake, or their newly painted house, is a useful way to integrate multimedia, showcase your business and build a community. More on TwitPic below.

Use Twitter as a focus group. Dechutes Brewery (@DeschutesBeer) in Oregon will often post new creations and ask for feedback from their followers.



Another good way of starting out tweeting is with quotes. Do a search for some quotes of interest and tweet these. Personal development ones are great and also quotes by famous people.

Here's one I just found in the Tweetstream as an example: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." — Aristotle. There are thousands of these all over the internet that you can use.
Another good idea with your tweeting is to keep religion and politics out of them. These subjects can only alienate followers and you can lose them.

Getting Started With Twitter?

Setting up your business on Twitter can be easy, but there are a few things that you should be aware of when organizing your account. This can apply even if you already have an existing account too, so consider these tips and it can improve your entire Twittter experience.

The first thing to do if you don't have an account is go to http://www.twitter.com which is the home page of Twitter. You will be asked to either login or register. If you don't have an account, then of course you will need to register. So let's go through the registration process and explain it all here.

Registration
You will probably want to register your business name, but make sure you use your own name in the sign up process so you are identifiable and connected with the business name you register. The concepts and reasons for operating under each type of registration will be discussed later.
The next screen will ask if you want to add any of your friends from the popular web based email programs. You may want to do this if you have a customer list started or get your account seeded with the friends and family in your contact list.

Your Business Profile
First things first: Write an engaging profile. The business profile should include location, telephone, email and website address if available. Remember, this is about building relationships with customers, not a corporate information sheet. Keep it simple and easy, but share your personality.

You have 160 characters here to “sell” yourself. Take some time over it and do it well. Don't simply enter a bunch of keywords as they appear totally uninteresting to people, although they may get you found. Use keywords by all means, but start your Bio with the words “I help” and then describe the product or services you provide. Using my Local Internet Marketing Business as an example:

-I help small businesses get more customers by making them findable on the online when local consumers are looking for their products or services.

Now that description is only 143 characters, so you could still get some more keywords in the profile.

Picture Tab
This is really important. When you open this page you will see the small avatar on the screen which is the default for Twitter. If you want new followers, putting a company logo or photo of business is imperative.
But just put something so you can be identified in the Tweetstream by your followers. The graphic is often more important than your name when people are scanning Tweets and you will stand out for yours.

Design Tab
Here you can change the background of your Twitter page from the default. Twitter provides a number of alternatives that you can select or you can upload your own background. You can also change all the colors if you wish.
Again, whatever you do, just change it so you are not running the default. It shows you have taken some time setting up your account.

This one component of your presence on Twitter that is worth doing well.


If you need help managing your Twitter or any Internet Marketing for your business you can find my contact information at the end of this report.

How To Ensure You Benefit From The Panda Update

The Google panda update is a new version of Google.s algorithm that is designed to avoid poor content reaching the top pages of search results. Poor content is identified in many ways but most obviously, it should not be copied from somewhere else on the web.

When designing the algorithm Google wanted to detect signals that a user might interpret as poor quality. Naturally their algorithm is confidential – but according to their feedback (extracted from the Google Webmaster Blog), the questions they are dealing with algorithmically are like these:

Would you trust the information presented in this article? Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it shallower in nature? Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?

• Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?

• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?

• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?

• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?

• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?

• How much quality control is done on content?

• Does the article describe both sides of a story?

• Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?

• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don't get as much attention or care?

• Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?

• For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?

• Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?

• Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?

• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?

• Is this the sort of page you.d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?

• Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?

• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?

• Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?

• Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?Would users complain when they see pages from this site?

The most obvious and worst thing you can do is copy or duplicate content as its the easiest thing to detect on a search engine and it (the search engine) will always rank the original content higher.

What this means for you – is that its very important that your press release is published on your website first. That way Google will see you as the source of quality content and not the one of the press outlets.

Google will automatically give you the credit of the origin of the content and provide your press release page higher rankings and traffic.