Tag Archives: Social media

Does Social Media Marketing Work For Small Business?

After a interesting conversation on my Google Plus page based on the question has anyone seen any direct sales results based on their Social Media programs, I came up with the following conclusions about Local companies and how they can use Social Media. You can see the conversation here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/105942183030635544624/posts?cfem=1

Social Media does not in and by itself create sales, what it does do is add value to all your other methods of marketing.  It’s like adding high octane gas to your marketing tank, or 4 hour energy 24 hours a day for your branding, or super vitamins for your marketing program.

Social media is not advertising

Social media is just one piece in a businesses P.R. and Branding

Social media is reputation management.

PR is making the Public aware of your brand and company. Social media plays the biggest roll in this.

On average a new customer will see your message 7 to 11 times before buying. Social media is one – three of these touches.

You can not quantify directly the role of reputation in your sales. You can however use correlation, and then it is clear, selling a known brand out performs the same exact service/product under an unknown brand.  Today Social Media plays a large role in your reputation.

Social Media does not in and by itself create sales, what it does do is add value to all your other methods of marketing.  It’s like adding high octane gas to your marketing tank, or 4 hour energy 24 hours a day for your branding, or super vitamins for your marketing program.

Those are the main points I would make to any small business thinking of using social media.

 

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Search Engine and Social Media Marketing in Denver

SEO and Social Media in Denver

Social Media is hard for many small businesses to understand. I’m not talking about how it works, or what it is, I am talking about its value as a business tool. Search Engine Optimization on the other hand, is pretty straight forward. If your site is ranked higher on Google, more people will call you.

White hat seo symbolizes good ethic techniques...
White hat seo symbolizes good ethic techniques in search engine marketing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The reason we have a love hate relationship with social media is it’s not advertising, and we are use to thinking in terms of return on investment when we promote our services. I would use the term branding when it comes to using social media, and branding, up until recently has been the domain of the largest of large companies.  Branding also has traditional had a very high price tag.

I recently was reading a research study on how new prospects actually found a business. The premise was very few new customers just make a keyword search, click on your site and call.  The vast majority of people had  contact or visibility into the company they ultimately bought from in 3 or more places.  The search was just the last place.

It’s nothing new. Marketing your business is not done through one path. The most successful small and medium businesses understand this, and use every option available for there budget. Social media, with out a question falls into this.  It’s not expensive, and you can laser target your prospects. You want a  potential customer to see you every where they look!

One of our clients is currently one of the fastest growing B2C services in the state, if not country.  We never use one path, we use a minimum of four at all times.

So what ‘Paths” should you use to reach new clients or customers?

Here is a list. What you pick depends on your industry, but first, always start with a very well thought out targeted prospect list!  Who are your prospects, where are your prospects, how do they find companies like yours?

  • Search Engine Marketing (Includes SEO, Local SEO, and PPC programs)
  • Customer referral programs
  • Direct mail ( To very specific targeted prospects)
  • Radio and TV
  • Trade Shows

    First page of a 1928 direct mail marketing adv...
    First page of a 1928 direct mail marketing advertisement for seafood products from Frank E. Davis Fish Company. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
  • Cross selling
  • Yard and truck signs (B2C)
  • Networking (B2B)
  • Awards
  • Print advertising

And many more. I assume some of you are saying and thinking you have tried many of these and they “don’t work”. Well, you’re right, unless they have been exceptionally well thought out, and targeted, then they probably won’t work.  A branding campaign needs a great deal of thought, experience and great execution, and nothing replaces experience, nothing.  That’s one of the reasons we constantly survey and review what advertising and promotion does work for our clients and other businesses across the country.

If you need help with your companies branding, we have the experience to safely navigate the way.  Call us for a free consultation at 303 500 3053 Ext 1.

 

 

 

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Inbound Marketing Doesn’t work

Inbound Marketing Doesn’t work…. for many small and medium businesses.

Had an interesting discussion with a business owner this week that I have known for over 15 years. He recently invested a bunch of energy and money into a new data center and is putting together his marketing/sales strategies. Having been in the industry for 20 years, it was a logical move, and he wanted to discuss SEO and other search engine marketing systems.

As with any new prospect I wanted to see how he was selling his services today, and to whom. During that piece of the discussion, he asked me is outside sales and cold calling, dead. (For some history… my sales experience started in outside sales, after a few months as a telemarketer, and at one point I managed a sales force of over 650 sales professional, and a few amateurs, and today my company manages outside sales programs for several businesses, so the question caught me a little off guard.

I can completely understand the question. Everything you hear today is about Inbound Marketing, Social Media, SEO, and anything Internet related.  Tom Hopkins and the gang of “sales trainers” that use to dominate the sales scene are either retired or selling books on the Internet.  Internet type marketing now dominates the small business thought process.

Inbound Marketing works!

But I am here to tell you, outside sales is alive and well, and very large successful companies still use out side sales as the foundation of the revenue generating process, but the out side sales process has changed in a few decades. Buyers are far more educated because of the internet, and in many cases more price aware because of the economy.

That’s why Inbound marketing can make a lot of sense. If your prospects are looking for your service on line, then … YES be an inbound marketing fanatic.


Inbound Marketing Doesn’t work!

Inbound Marketing Disclosed: Behind the Scenes

There are many type companies that their sales are relationship, and referral based, and their customers do not use the internet to find and purchase their offering. The fact that only about 5-7 companies per service type in a local area are really going to generate significant traffic from an Internet marketing program also is pretty much no brainier when it comes to how much revenue is actually provided by In bound marketing in an industry type. Inbound marketing is a very limited crowded over financed space.

Cold calling and out side sales does work!

Let me give you an example. A commercial contractor does not find customers on the Internet. They find new customers through face to face contact. We did research of buyers in the commercial construction industry and found the largest commonality for making a purchase from a new vendor (and we spoke to over 100 buyers in the market) was…. they had looked the company they bought from in the eye, and had a face to face meeting of one sort or another to start the process. Read that statement again, a face to face encounter to START the sales process.

Companies that had made a phone call to get on a bid list, or sent information had almost no chance. Companies that actively worked on getting in front of new prospects were the winners. That contact was overwhelmingly through an outside sales type tactic.

One of our clients is positioned number 1 – 3 for just about every keyword you can imagine a prospect would use in their city for commercial construction.  They bill over 4 million dollars a year. How much from the Internet in 2011? Nothing. Did they get bids from the Internet, yes, a few, did any close? No.

Second example.

We did sales coaching and  SEO for one of the largest residential paint contractors in the state. They have incredible rankings throughout the metro area for most house painting terms.  They do as much business through leads on the internet as many paint contractors do in 5 years. Is this their number one source of sales? Nope. There number one source of sales is the 50 outside direct door to door sales people they put on the street every year for 5 months or so.

The fact is Inbound marketing should be a piece of your marketing strategy, and maybe a large piece, if you have a service your prospects look for on the Internet. But out side sales and business development still may be the number one tactic your company should use. That’s why we provide both Inbound Marketing and Business development, because every business is different.

Call me if you want to discuss which is the better option for your marketing. http:www.salesjumpstart.net

 

 

 

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SEO and Social Media

SEO and Social Media.

We all know that social media has to be taken into account when you are trying to promote your web site and brand. The question is, what social media really makes an impact on your sites ranking?  There are lots of studies about this, but the vast majority really don’t look at it through a local prospective.

Our Social Media Test (Facebook shares)

Social Media Cafe

So a few months ago we decided to try and improve a new clients ranking through using only the one social signal we feel is the most important for SEO, that being, Face Book shares. It should be noted the site did have some back links to the homepage, but there had been no new back links in months.

Share our Facebook comment will ya?

We asked lots of local friends who had face book pages to share a post or two from our client’s facebook page. That resulted in 29 different shares. Not much if you are Coca Cola, but a significant amount for a local company. The results were interesting.

Rankings improved with Facebook Shares!

The rankings went from third page on Google for the major key word , to 9th position first page. Now, the keyword would be considered a mid level competitive keyword, so that type of progress isn’t mind blowing, but it is significant.

SEO + Social Media = The new P.R.

Just another case that demonstrates how SEO is becoming more related to P.R.  than ever. The fact is you don’t need social media to have a well ranked site (I am speaking local sites here), but it sure seems to help. No doubt that will continue and become stronger.

That is also one of the reasons we developed www.metasocialweb.com (as a partner). It allows business owners to help other businesses while they get more followers and shares.

Look for more of this

I predict we will see more and more of these type services in the next year as the SEO and Social Media communities start to realize they are very related, like it or not.

If we can help you with your sites rankings and P.R.  call me at 303 500 3053 ext 1.

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How Your Blog Helps Your Sites Ranking.

How Your Blog Helps Your Sites Ranking.

There is so much buzz on the internet about how writing a blog can help your sites ranking on search engines. All of this is true, but, I don’t see bloggers explaining really why a blog helps your sites traffic and ranking, and without that information, you will have limited results. In fact, you will probably end up, as so many bloggers do, with three of four months of twice a week blogs and then the great void. Nothing for months, notta, a silent voice in the mass structure of the digital word, speaking to no one, having no purpose, aimless and alone…

But be of good cheer! (Wow am I weird today) Must be the holiday thing…

Your blog may help bring traffic to your web site through these means.

  • Google likes fresh content. But this alone won’t do much for you.
  • Good content is picked up by other sites, giving you a link from their site. Google and search engines base a lot of your rankings on how many sites link back to your site. This is far more important than just adding fresh content. You can add fresh content (new blogs) until the proverbial cows come home, (proverbial cows sounds like a really odd name for a football team in India). But it won’t do much until other sites link to it or use it with a link.
  • (Sorry lost my train of thought as my 5 year old daughter just walked in and announced she had found the elf on a shelf this morning, you know, they magical move every night, and she gets really excited when she finds them)
  • You can tweet and add your blog to your social media. That’s a good link and good mention for the search engines! It also gives you something to say on your social media which is clearly a problem for many of us. I can hear the thought process as we all think, what should I post on facebook today? The weather? My recent IRS audit results? Another discount offer? Oh gawd how I HATE this. A blog is a great thing to post. And, it gives your web site a little love from the search engines.
  • Search engines seem to love word press. (That’s the platform many blogs are written on.)
  • I hate to sound all SEOie here, but really, use your important keywords in the title of the blog, and use the categories and all that stuff built into your blog. I don’t use any seo plug in, but I don’t think they hurt.
  • And finally… your blog will help your traffic and ranking only if your web site, and then blog, have a good SEO ranking, A blog will help you build some ranking, but having a domain that already has links to it is really important! Work on getting links to your main site.

So there you are.

    1. Write good content that others will link to (there are a million blogs and articles on how to write good content on line, clearly I haven’t read many)
    2. Post it on your social media pages
    3. Use word press
    4. Use keywords in your title
    5. Work on getting your domain ranked before your blog.

If we can help you with getting your site ranking moving the right direction, please call me. Our starter SEO program may be an affordable and great way to jump start your site visits and get your blog noticed. http://www.salesjumpstart.net/weboptimizersstarterSEO.html

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Social Media Denver

I asked Lisa Michaud, President of a Denver based Social Media company to write a blog for us on what small and medium business owners should know and do in Social Media. It’s a great post for all business owners interested in utilizing social media to grow their relationships and business.

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Set It and Forget it? Not true in Social Media Marketing

So often when I am working with clients on their social media efforts, they comment “Well, I haven’t really looked at it lately.” I am always a bit amazed. While social media can drain time from your business if not done strategically, not looking at your social channels can also leave money on the table. One of the most important strategic exercises you can engage with daily is commenting on your channels and other people’s postings.

Just as a refresher, social media is not just about pipeline development. The overall goal for social marketing is to build relationships with your customers, clients, prospects, partners and vendors in order to:

  1. Increase revenue through direct communication to target audience
  2. Increase profit through deeper relationships with current clients = client retention and brand ambassadors
  3. Increased Brand recognition – Viral marketing effect
  4. Brand monitoring – understand what your market place is saying about you and/or your industry
  5. Marketing research – ask questions to understand your market place needs
  6. Pipeline development – create new clients through viral marketing & brand ambassadors.
  7. Ensure that you remain relevant and live within your industry
  8. Asset to company – ready to sell or find investors? Built in marketplace
  9. Generate site traffic – keywording, SEO links are incorporated into some social sites (LI, TW, FB)

Keep the pulse on the conversations daily or at least weekly to show your audience that you care about your network. If you don’t look at it, neither will your audience.

Lisa Michaud

President

The Startup Launcher

Social Media Systems Designed to Empower Your Voice

www.thestartuplauncher.com

 

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Social Media Company in Denver

Infographic on how Social Media are being used...
Image via Wikipedia

Social Media, Sales and SEO Go Together.

My One Call in partnership with www.metasocialweb.com is now making your Social Media easy.
It’s all about getting new customers! Let our staff do your social media, for only $ 199.00 a month*.  Add SEO at an incredible price of $279.00* a month for both.

We run your twitter campaigns

With our partner www.Meta Social Web.com we make Twitter easy and your company will be promoted by a large community of local businesses.

Multiply weekly tweets and interactions.  Good for promoting and good for your web site ranking too! It’s your account, so jump in as much or as little as you like.  No fake followers, just real local businesses and people who want to support your business.

 

We run your Face Book campaigns
We Post interesting information about your company and your community.  Growing your Face Book like’s will increase your branding and help with your web site rankings. And with our service your new likes will come from the local area, and be actual prospects for your service. We take care of the basics, so you can take care of your business, and participate as much you like. 

Search Engine Optimization to get More traffic (prospects) to your web Site.

We have been successfully getting client sites ranked highly in local searched for 5 years.  Adding our back linking services to your program can have great results and bring more prospects to your site. Today, SEO, Social Media, and Sales all work together. That’s why Internet Marketing is exploding.

Adding links every month from high quality sites is the key to increasing your rankings! We are researching and finding new sites every week where we can add your company information to increase traffic to your site. Adding your company to www.MetaSocialWeb.com will also give you valuable links and opportunities to promote your business with Twitter, Face book, Google Plus  and all the major players

Call us today at 303 500 3053 ext 1 to get more information, or contact us here

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SEO, Social Media, and P.R. in Denver

Starbucks on Briggate
Image via Wikipedia

A company’s Social Media program is in intent, very similar to the reasons they  may employe search engine optimization programs. Both bring visibility to their web site, and web properties. Both are promotional devices.

Good SEO and Social media is nothing more than great P.R.  So to really understand either, a business needs to understand P.R. first.

I am not a P.R. expert.  What I do understand about it, is it’s all about making your business stand out, and attractive to your target market, and therefore you have to start with the well thought out process of knowing who your target market is, and what they want.

Notice the word want, not need in the above sentence. The number one mistake you can make is talking about what your prospects need. Frankly, a lot of what you think your prospects need, is really boring. Do you see Chevrolet promoting the most basic form of automobile transportation possible?  Nope, they promote the flash people want.  You should do the same.

So, your first two tasks in Social Media and SEO  need to be:

  • Who are my people?
  • Want do they want?

If you are a bagel shop (I use this because I once owned three of them) you can promote what your prospects need,  that being breakfast. ” Come get breakfast at Mike’s Bagel and coffee”

Or what they want.

“Come enjoy a freshly baked all natural bagel of your choice, served hot in 3 minutes or less. for less than $1.00”

Now you want to promote your coffee and espresso sales. Add this banner in your store.

“Turn in any used Star Bucks coffee cup, and get a free espresso”

And then, there is the simple premise that different gets noticed, and noticed is what you want to be.

Different: ” Our employees wear Pajamas on Tuesdays because…Tuesdays are PJ mornings at Mike’s Bagels.  Wear your pajamas and your bagel and Coffee is free!

How does this have any thing to do with Social Media?  Well, you just found what you can be promoting on your face book, Web Site and twitter properties.

Your people are the people that drive past your shop every morning and stop somewhere for coffee or breakfast.  The same cars going through the Starbucks or McDonald drive thru, could be in your store. Target your promotions to the zip codes that use the streets that go close to your Bagel Shop.  Send a coupon or welcome postcard to the zip codes that are clearly moving past your store on the way to work/school/ where ever, each morning. Don’t send to zips or area’s past your store in the main direction of traffic (Unless you are promoting Dinner).  On the postcard or letter, have your Face Book address,  and they can get their free stuff and see your current cool promotions there.

How does all this tie into SEO?  Simple, the more social followers you have, and tweats about your site, the more your sites rankings will improve.  Not only that, but if your Pajama Tuesdays takes off, people will start searching for Pajama Tuesdays and your site (which mentions it of course) will come up very highly for the term.

So I have just defined the basics of my social media strategy for Mike’s Bagels.   Start with the P.R.  and the rest will follow.

We would love to hear what great “Promotional” idea’s you have seen on social media for local businesses.


 

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SEO and Google’s new 1+ service

Social Media Landscape

 

Google 1+

So Google is rolling out its latest version of social media. But something is different with this try.  It may really work!  And if it does, SEO will change forever  and ever and ever. Really.

I am not going to go into what the Google 1+ is. A thousand SEO’s and Social media blogs have already done that in the first 3 hours of the Google announcement.  You can read the Google you tube on it here -> (Good Stuff)

So, as Google rolls out this new Social media system, where you can give a plus (like a face book like) to any of your search results, and your Google network will see those, and the site’s you and others like will be elevated (one can assume) in the search engine results The SEO factor that is clearly and with out question the most important is the one thing that never changes. Great content.

You can do all the back linking, on site tweaking , meta description re working, navigational assessing, you tube professing, and none of it will beat driving traffic to your site by having amazing, interesting, unusually engaging, fun and sharable (I think I made that word up) content.

Because Google is moving towards the individual and their social network (google profile required) being the SEO.  So even though some businesses have spent a huge amount of time and energy on all the SEO tactics in the SEO Moz, SEObook and all the other universes, it all comes down to this.

 

Be Interesting.

Like I said in any earlier blog. Search engine optimization is easy! It was a popularity contest for Google’s attention. Now its a popularity contest for your attention.

How to be Interesting. Well, just look at what catches peoples attention,  and then go look at your on line stuff. Would it catch your neighbors attention?

A good example:

The blender company that did the video’s on how its blenders can blend anything including a I-phone.  I watched it, I told my wife and friends about it, and when we want a really great blender I will most likely go there again. www.willitblend.com/videos.aspx?type=unsafe&video=iphone4

That’s Interesting! (and Funny, and engaging)

Now I see national sites doing a lot more research, fun, and great content than local sites.  The reasons don’t need to be stated. But…I will any way… resources. Time, money, talent, cash flow. all that. But we in the Local world, that being those of us, which is the VAST majority of us, who work, play, sell, and buy primarily in our own little towns, villages and cities,  must start doing something that we are not all that good at. Yes. Be Interesting !

Future SEO =  finding and developing Interested and engaging web properties and spaces.  Content and Marketing creatives rejoice. Your time has come in the SEO world.

 

 

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Social Media Search Optimization in Denver

eSocialMediaShop Top Keywords 2010

Social Media Search Optimization

The new field of social media search optimization is as of yet, still very undefined.  I think it’s the continued merging of your web site and your social media properties.

In the beginning you used your web site to drive people to your face book.  Now most social media uses their Social media (Twitter, Linked in, and Face book) to move people to one of their web properties depending on the message they are trying to deliver.

I think SEO (search Engine Optimization) ties into the overall strategy. Having your web site highly ranked and more visible (more targeted traffic) will bring more people or prospects to your Face book.  I think you should see a somewhat equal flow between the two.  In addition to that, if you add your blog into the social media mix, its success will have a lot to do with your web sites ranking as well.

So, I see the world of Social media promotion and SEO becoming very much partners in Marketing a business.

Any one using SEO to boast their Social Media?  Remember Google has started adding some Social media mentions in your search results.

 

 

 

 



 

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