Posts Tagged ‘online marketing strategies’

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Can SEO and Social Media Be Friends to Create Online Marketing Success?

Monday, August 1st, 2011

Is traditional search methods becoming extinct thanks to social search? Is SEO sinking because of it?

What most people don’t realize is that social media and social search are just Internet marketing tools available to SEO professionals.

Search Engine Journal thinks SEO and social media shouldn’t compete against one another. They need to work together to create a more Online presence for companies.

According to Twitter, around 25% of all Tweets contain a URL. In March 2011, Twitter was seeing an average of 140 million Tweets per day.

When companies publish content on Twitter, they’re encouraging their network to both read the content and pass it along to their followers in the form of a reTweet.

SEO and Social Media Can Create Online Success Together

SEO and Social Media Can Create Online Success Together

Facebook works a little differently. It’s a misconception that the more “Likes” a company has on Facebook, the better. Although “Likes” are important, they’re becoming overpowered by the number of “Shares” a piece of content has.

Plenty of people “Like” a company page to receive coupons and discounts. Most of them will also unlike the page just as fast, and probably never return. But, when someone “Shares” content by posting it to their Facebook wall, they are displaying that info to their network. They believe it’s valuable in some way, whether it’s informative, or entertaining.

Social networks drive traffic. That’s a fact. If companies want to drive traffic to their blog, posting samples of each new post to Facebook, or LinkedIn, is a great way to do just that.

The point is to have the reader leave the social networking site, and visit the blog site.

SEO’s main goal is to drive targeted traffic. Social networking is about connecting with your audience on a personal level.

Social media and SEO professionals shouldn’t be fighting over whose method is more important to businesses and the Online world.

Both principles are more closely related than people think.

When SEO and social media marketing is combined, a much more powerful and comprehensive online marketing strategy is created.

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Posted in Business Social Networking, Online Social Networking, Social Media, Social Networking, social media marketing, social networking trends | No Comments »

Rev Up Your #Online #Marketing Program for 2011

Tuesday, November 30th, 2010

You have a Website, finally! Great. Now what? What about local targeted keywords also known as local SEO? You should know what SEO stands for, but just in case you don’t here it is once again SEO = search engine optimization. SEO is what sets you apart from your competitors – you know those Websites that consistently appear on the first few pages of Google?

Hmm, what other marketing strategies do you have in place? Nothing? What? Are you insane? Every business should have at least, a minimum of 10, YES 10, strategies to increase sales! If you only have 1 marketing strategy in place, you are soo far behind…no wonder your competitors are ahead.

Let’s do a quick review of what YOU really MUST do to gain a competitive edge regarding your online marketing strategy in 2011 (you better have a pen and paper ready to take notes or better yet – print this blog post).

1. Go Local - Small businesses need to have LOCAL SEO throughout their Website – add your target cities to your keywords such as Cleveland SEO, Cleveland limos. If your business only serves a certain area and not the whole state or country, then you need to localize your phrases. Search engines are recognizing local or geo-targeted key phrases even when your visitors aren’t.

2. Local Lists – Just like that cumbersome phone directory that is sitting on your shelf or at the back of your supplies closet, you know the one collecting dust? Local directories are replacing its paper counterpart. Ditch that thing (ok, well recycle it at least), and ignore the sales calls from those outdated local phone directories. Instead list your business with local directories – some are even free.

3. Stake Your Claim on Google – Google Maps is now Google Places, so stake your claim and let more people find you using Google Places aka maps. It’s somewhat tedious to fill out all the information, but I know you can do it!

4. Socially Engage – It doesn’t matter whether you love it or loathe it, social networking is driving consumers to and away from businesses. Do you part and get help on creating a business profile (and page) on every popular social network online for marketing purposes. Oh – and maintain it at least weekly! Don’t have the time? Then get one of your coworkers, employees or favorite niece to help you. If you really want to be competitive, then hire an online marketing firm (not a hosting or web development company). Online marketers tend be more savvy with the written word as well as socially adept when it comes to online social networks.

5. Let’s Get a Response – I know you have those testimonials sitting around somewhere in your office or email, they won’t do you any good there. Get the feedback you need by sending your customers/clients to quality review sites and giving you 2 thumbs up online! Amazon does it, you can too! Popular review sites such as Yelp and CitySearch, will surely get you noticed in the search engines – the more the merrier on this one online marketing technique.

There you go, you’ve got 5 really good online marketing strategies to improve your muscle and face your competitors! What are you waiting for? Get moving…go, go, go!

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Posted in Business Marketing Online, Local Internet Marketing | 3 Comments »

Being Prepared for Negative Publicity Should Be Part of Your Online Marketing Strategy

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

With the global connectivity of the Internet, rarely anything a company does goes unnoticed. Managing your online reputation is obviously important – you don’t want customers or other businesses to see you in a negative light. Even if managing your online reputation is easy under optimum circumstances, what do you do if a crisis arises, or you find you have negative reviews?

The best way to deal with this is to be prepared. If you’re prepared to handle negative situations before they arise, dealing with these issues will be much easier and less costly in the long run. And there’s no better time than now to start. With the speed that news is spread over the Internet, negative publicity can pop up seemingly without warning.

One of the most time consuming steps is to establish trust and credibility. If your company has a good reputation for being ethical, reliable, and responsible, then when a crisis arises, people will be more likely to listen to your side of the story. This does not come overnight, but maintaining a good rapport with customers and other businesses, as well as good PR and ethical business practices, can help you build this reputation over time.

Equally important is setting up a crisis team, who will be in charge of cleaning up any negative PR. This team should include an online media spokesperson, who will act as the voice of your company on your social media sites, blogs, and anywhere else online. Your team should also include advisers whom you can consult with before reacting to a crisis or bad reviews.

While negative press could pop up with lightning speed, your reaction to it shouldn’t be so hasty. Taking time to consult with others, and carefully think out your response can save a lot of headaches and having to deal with more bad publicity.

If you’re angered by a bad review, you may feel the need to strike back. While we’d like to think that people can hold their temper and act in a professional manner when dealing with business issues, this isn’t always the case. The best way to respond to a negative review is to apologize to the person for their bad experience and defend your business in a calm, respectful, and professional manner. If they happen to say something about your company that isn’t true, simply clear up the misconception with an explanation. An angry or disrespectful response will only make you and your company look worse than the negative review itself. Interacting with customers online in a professional manner, even disgruntled ones, can help build your reputation as a compassionate and professional company.

If your company is too small to have its one crisis or PR team, hiring an SEO firm or Public Relations professional can help you manage your online reputation. After all, you’ve put a lot of time in building your business, and your online marketing strategy. You don’t want to throw away all your hard work over one crisis or a bad piece of PR.

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Posted in Professional Search Engine Optimization, learn SEO | No Comments »

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