Part 2 of a series

Social Media Marketing (SMM) has both advantages and drawbacks. While many SMM strategies are free and readily accessible to anyone willing to invest the time and effort, you have only so much control of peoples’ perception of you and your business once you put yourself “out there.”

One benefit of SMM is the potential viral nature of the spread of a message. We’ve all seen how a certain email joke or home video can rocket to superstardom apparently overnight, raising the question for entrepreneurs and established businesses: how do I become the next big thing?

Though there are those unlikely instances where some random tidbit hits global status, but most of us prefer to take a little more control over our positioning online. For some, the natural response to the overwhelming scale of the online world is to withdraw, but just because your company isn’t actively involved in social media doesn’t mean your customers and constituents aren’t. Following are a few hints to help guide your Social Media Marketing campaign.

Define Your Own Image – While the word-of-mouth nature of publicity online can cause a message to spread like wildfire it can also get similarly out of control if we don’t know how to manage it. Although we can’t control how people evaluate or recommend us, we can help ensure that our message is consistent and that it gets at the heart of what we are as a business.

There are networking sites such as Biznik, LinkedIn, Plaxo and Naymz where you can develop profiles for yourself, your company or product. Make sure that you’re presenting a common message in all cases, and take advantage of the options to tie in websites and personal pages from MySpace, Facebook and the like so people can easily learn more about you.

The more that people encounter a consistent and positive brand associated with your company, the more likely they are to entrust you with their business when the need arises. With Facebook for example, you can add HTML, Flash, or even Facebook applications to your pages to extend their functionality and the depth of experience users can have with your brand.

Pick Your “Friends” Carefully – Some people believe that the larger our circle of acquaintances are online, the better off we are. However, this is not necessarily the case. For example, for every legitimate “friend” request on social networking sites, there can be a handful of false profiles looking to use your profile as a billboard to promote their less-than-savory services.

If you automatically approve all new friend requests without screening them first, don’t be surprised if the next time you sign in you find questionable content posted in your comments sections. When possible, always set public comments and images so that you have to approve them before they appear.

Many people find that swapping links with other websites is a great way to get your website in front of more folks, but keep in mind that any links you post on your site or personal pages will be associated with you. It’s better to be discriminating about the affiliate partners you choose than simply to play the numbers and link with anything and anyone who asks you to.

Establish Your Expertise – “Group” sites like Yahoo Groups, MSN Groups, Google Groups and AOL Groups are excellent ways to create dialogue with people of similar interests. You can do a quick search on each group site to find existing groups that align with your business interests. Join the groups, introduce yourself, ask substantive questions and offer thoughtful comments and advice to others. In time, you will build a reputation as someone who not only knows what they are talking about, but who is willing to share your knowledge to benefit others.

Can’t find a group that meets your needs? You can also easily start your own group and invite people to the conversation. However, take the time to consider the audience you are attempting to attract. Are you trying to network with other business owners, or directly with consumers? Are you more invested in building rapport and trust, or in promoting a product?

It only takes a few bad experiences for word to get around that you’re little more than another opportunist, trying to exploit the open networks online solely for personal gain. But if you invest in others, the social collateral you can build in return can be invaluable for your long-term business.

There are always stories of overnight phenomena where people rise from obscurity to fame in a matter of days or hours. However, such a meteoric rise is not only rare, but it also is unpredictable. Rather than gambling your online reputation on a sensational message or by spamming strangers, the best approach is to deal with people the same way you would in person: with respect, over time and with their needs and interest at the top of your mind. It’s a more gradual build, but the benefits of a solid professional reputation are worth the careful effort.

Part 1 of a Series

Some people mistakenly assume that “Public Relations” has only to do with mitigating bad press. However, when we consider the concept of public relations in a broader context, we see the value in developing and implementing an ongoing strategy for handling our company’s public image. All businesses, whether they are sole proprietorships or publicly-held corporations, need to ensure that their public image is consistent, positive and appropriate for their industry. Public relations involve many levels, including the image we present not only to customers, but also to vendors and even employees.

One of the greatest advantages of online PR is that we have a unique opportunity to bypass the traditional media filters used to determine the few stories that make it to the public. Now, with web portals like Yahoo and Google, along with “vertical sites,” which actually pull several websites of common interest together, you can go directly to the media source. The biggest challenge becomes, however, how you ensure that your message rises to the top. After all, people can only identify you as an expert in your field if they know you exist!

The quality of your public relations plan can be the difference between success and failure, but how do we begin, and how do we know how well it’s working? Following are a few simple steps to follow when creating your professional public relations plan:

Step 1 – Hit Your Target: Your business needs to have a public relations plan, just as it has a business plan and a marketing plan. In today’s information-saturated market, sending out a few press releases a year to the local paper doesn’t qualify as a viable PR plan. With the benefit of the Internet, news about your services and achievements can be distributed nationally, and even globally, as well as to local media outlets. Newspapers, ezines, blogs, business and social networking sites all can help you get your message to the public for little or no cost. However, be careful to not waste your time with a shotgun-blast approach to publicity. Taking the time to identify your target markets, and recognizing which media outlets are most likely to connect with that target, can save you time and headaches in the long-term.

Step 2 – Become a Virtual Networking Guru: Online Public Relations involves connecting with people in a personal way that is more effective than advertising alone ever could be.

• Social Networking sites: Free sites such as MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo and others allow you to set up a profile, keep it current and get to know other like-minded people.
• Newsgroups and message boards: Do an Internet search for your type of business. Find out where people are “hanging out” online. Spend your time on the busiest boards for maximum exposure. You have to be ready to invest your time and resources in others too; don’t just advertise. Give advice, seek advice, and get to know your fellow posters, and they’ll come to see you as a valuable business partner.
• Referral and affiliate programs: Offer tangible incentives to people who bring business your way. It’s good business etiquette to spend as much time thanking and recognizing people as you spend asking them for something. Always recognize when a lead comes from an associate, and make it worth their while to do it again.

Step 3 – Be an expert in your field: Having knowledge that others need makes people come to you, which is always better then you going to them! How do you become an expert? You’ll have to come back next month to find out. Read Part two of Online Public Relations in the April Issue.

I was typing in the Pottery Barn URL today - http://www.potterbarn.com/ - and thought - shouldn’t they own the mispellings (no pun intended!)  of their own domains?

“What are you doing?”  This is the question Twitter
asks.  Friends, Family and Co-Workers can stay in touch using
Twitter.  You can find specific people and keep track of them, or follow
the Public Timeline.  Either way it is a truly unique tool for communicating.
Twitter was started in March of 2006 in San Francisco where it caught fire and
became its own phenomenon.

How does this affect you as a business owner?  Twitter
is fast becoming the new “water cooler”.  Your employees and co-workers
can chat about what was on TV last night and how the weather looks for the
coming weeks.  They can do this if they work virtually or in offices that
are across the country from each other. It fosters a sense of community.
In the long run a sense of community contributes to talent retention and a
higher rate of employee satisfaction.  What about the down time?
Isn’t this taking away from work time?  Not really.  People are going
to talk and socialize at work no matter what.  This is just a new medium
that I believe will replace other mediums and not actually increase the amount
of time that people spend on non-work activities. 

Twitter has created a new knowledge network.  You and
your employees have instant access to experts across the country.  If you
have a question there will be an answer usually in just minutes.  You are
able to reach out beyond the circle of who you know.  It is much faster
than searching the internet and the answer can be expanded on and grows as
necessary.  By using Twitter you have now added virtual headcount that can
work as a think tank.  It moves from just answering “What are you doing?”
to “What do you need?” or “How can I help?”

How can you work this into your business?  Many are
starting to use Twitter as a backend communication tool for websites and
blogs.  Readers are able to get instant feedback on their thoughts and
questions.  This keeps people coming back.  Businesses are also
looking into using it as a crisis warning system.  It can alert many
people at one time of a major event.  Do you need something tested?
This is also a great way to have unbiased beta testing completed.  Think
viral marketing; think of how many people you can reach via Twitter.  It
isn’t about spamming, it’s about reaching out and becoming part of a community
where you can communicate with untold amounts of people.   

We are now one step closer to the web becoming fully
organic, a living thing, which is part of who we are- constantly changing and
updating.  This is a very exciting time!

Keyword Meta Tag

The keyword Meta tag is probably the most important.  This is where you would formulate a list of words that are directly related to your website.  When someone types in a search term that fits your keywords your website could be one of the ones in the search engines listings.  Typing in a group of words in the keyword Meta tag isn’t as simple as that.  There is a methodology to generating appropriate and good keywords that are suitable for your website.  Let’s take a look at a few things to keep in mind.

1. Don’t use keywords that are not relevant to your website.  Your keywords should consist of words that specifically describe what your website is all about. So if your website is geared towards web design, you should not use keywords relative to cookbooks.  Sounds like common sense.  However, you’d be surprised at how many websites use keywords that have nothing to do with their website.

2. You want to use keywords that are found in the body of your website.  This increases the relevancy of your keywords.  This does not mean that you should have lines of keywords imbedded into your website.  Rather you should choose the words that are a part of the natural flow of your content.  With that being said, it might serve you better to write the content of your website prior to identifying the appropriate keywords.

3. Generally, there are four areas to consider when incorporating your keywords in the Meta tag and the body of your website.  These are density, frequency, prominence, and proximity. 

a. Density refers to the number of times keywords appear versus all the words within the website.  For example, if you have 500 words on a webpage and 250 are a particular keyword or keyword phase you would have a density of 50% which is way too high.  Keyword density for each keyword or phrase should typically be between 2% - 6%. 

b. Frequency refers to how often a keyword appears in the webpage.  It is believed that the more a keyword appears the more relevant search engines see your webpage for that keyword.  However, keep in mind that you do not want too high of a density.  So if you want to use the same keyword over and over again make sure to have plenty of content surrounding the keyword. 

c. Prominence refers to where the keyword(s) are found in the webpage.  To achieve this remember to use your keywords in your title, description, at the beginning of the webpage, and the beginning of sentences. 

d. Proximity refers to how close keywords are to each other.  For example, consider the following two sentences:

  “We design web sites”
  “We specialize in web design”
    If the keyword used in the search engines were “web design”, the second sentence would be a better choice as it has the keywords web and design right next to each other.

There are many free tools on the internet that you can use to determine if your Meta tags past the test.  Simply go to your favorite search engine and type in “free keyword analyzer” and see how you measure up.

Do your Website’s Meta Tags Stand the Test Part 1
 
Every well designed website should have Meta tags.  You might be asking yourself, “What are meta tags”? The short answer is Meta tags are a set of tags placed in the HTML header of your website to provide information to search engines about your website.  You got it; the keyword here is search engines.  As stated in a previous article, it is vital that you ensure your website is listed in the major search engines.  Let’s take this one step further and dissect the two major types of Meta tags.

Description Meta Tag

The description Meta tag is where you want to tell the search engines what your website is all about.  You can think of the description Meta tag as the first impression of your website.  When someone types in a search term in the search engines and your website is listed as matching that search term, the first thing they will see is the title and description of your website.  If your description is not compelling enough your website may be overlooked time and time again.  The end result would mean less traffic for you.  So, let’s take a look at what makes a good description:

1. First and foremost, your description must be relevant to your website.  It should convey in a few words what your targeted audience should expect to get out of using your website.  Your description should directly relate to both the title and the body content of your website.  With that being said, every page on your website may not necessarily have the same description.

2. Although you want to make sure to use your main keywords in the description Meta tag, you do not want the description to be a complete reiteration of your keywords.  The description should be full complete sentences making sure to be careful of any grammatical errors.  Remember, the goal is to communicate to real people the essence of your website.  To do so you must speak (“write”) plain ole English.

3. Your description does not have to be really long to get your point across.  The typical description is approximately 15 – 25 words long.  This is equivalent to about 2 – 3 short sentences.  Although there hasn’t been an official word on what the description length needs to be, keep in mind there is only so much space available for your description in the search engine listings.

This list may not be all inclusive.  However, it’s a great start.  To get a better fill of does and don’ts, search the internet using keywords relevant to your website and take a look at what the descriptions look like.

Read more on Keyword Meta Tags

This goes right along with customer service. You would need to use a CRM tool to implement such an important part of your marketing plan. Zoho is a great CRM tool we recommend to our clients.  You should keep track of all the orders placed by your customers as well as abandoned shopping carts by your prospects. You can then use this information to send targeted marketing pieces, via e-mail or snail mail, that directly relate to the interests of your customers. This is a very intricate part of running your online business. Your best customers are the ones you satisfied in the past.

It’s a good idea to make sure your website can be found in the major search engines - Google, Yahoo, MSN. Competition is stiff so it’s very important that you have the appropriate meta tags in the heading of your website to ensure the search engines index your website properly. In addition to submitting your website to search engines, you should also consider Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. This type of marketing will greatly increase your chances of being found in the search engines. If you don’t know much about PPC campaigns, don’t worry, we can help you out with that.

You can have all the traffic in the world to your website.  However, if your customer service is poor you will not convert very many visitors into customers.  It’s a good idea to have an excellent customer relationship management tool (CRM) to manage your customers and prospects.  It is also very important to stay in touch with your customers.  The worst thing you can do is make a sale from someone and they never hear from you again.  This is a part of good customer service. Developing a monthly newsletter would be an excellent way of keeping in contact with your customers and prospects. iContact is a great email marketing tool.
      
      

In middle school I read “The Bridges of Madison County” in Spanish.  At the time, I probably understood (hopefully) at least half of what I read.  If I attempted to read it again, it would be as if I was reading the instruction manual on how to rebuild a car engine.  No matter how hard I try, I just wouldn’t understand it without a lot of research, practice, and patience. 

Small businesses approaching web marketing may also be faced, like a deer in headlights, without knowing and understanding what to do.  With over 150 million people surfing the net each day, it is vital that any business (small or large) confront the headlights coming at them directly and aggressively.

Making your website noticeable is like finding the needle in the haystack.  There are so many ways to get started and keep it going, it is often overwhelming.

Let’s break it down into some simple steps for you:

- Why do you need a website?  Are you looking to drive sales, drive leads, or recruit team members?

- Who is your target market?  Figure out who you are trying to reach and make sure your copy and message are appropriate.  If you’re targeting prospects, have information to support the buying process.  If it is to serve current clients have a FAQ page that can be used as a resource. If you are trying to reach new clients, the information should sell them on the benefits of why they need to buy or work with you.

- How much do you have budgeted for Internet Marketing?  With a conversion rate of 1 – 2 %, research online with Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing to determine how many clicks your site might get.  Then use basic ROI calculations and you have yourself a figure.

- Build your website.  Hire an expert to help you. There are plenty of options to meet your needs. Check with your current email or web hosting provider. Companies like gWave can also provide you with a website proposal.

- Promote.  Engage in online promotions through pay per click advertising, search engine placement, email marketing or even Facebook!

- Measure.  Do you know how many website visitors you get a month? If not, now’s the time to sign up for a free web traffic account with Google Analytics.

- Follow up and make sure you haves someone assigned to stay on top of your online marketing strategy..

  With that being said, here are 7 ways to drive traffic to your site:

• Build a strong business foundation. Design a business plan, marketing plan, and Internet marketing strategy that reinforce your business goals.
• Brand your company.  Be consistent and make sure you use the same logo, colors, and motto throughout the website and marketing materials.
• Your business and website need to convey trust.  Build trust through servicing your customers online or through your newsletter.
• Add  “recommend this site” or “add to my favorites/bookmark.”
• Search engines look for certain things - titles, headings, Meta tags - so it is crucial to make sure your site is "search engine friendly.”
• Title Tags - should be 60 characters and include some keywords
• Header Tags – are numbered from 1 – 7. They should be used for each title
• Meta Tags – add no more than 15 – 21 keywords. Submit your site to industry specific directories.
• Submit your site to industry specific directories.
• Start permission based marketing. Build a relationship with your clients. Make it easy for them to contact you and to subscribe to updates or a newsletter.  If you are updating articles, make sure you submit them to article banks.

  So now, sit back, re-read the article, and know that it is not as scary as it seems.  With proper research and help, your website can easily be the needle found in the haystack.