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GM Says Facebook Ads did not Pay Off?

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 at 4:12 am  
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facebook logo 0309 lg 59377844 300x225 GM Says Facebook Ads did not Pay Off?I heard this on Fox news. Greta Wire reported that Wall Street Journal said

that GM is stopping all Facebook ads as the ads did not convert well. Couple of questions came to my mind -How is GM measuring conversion? Just being me I guess, in social media sites conversion is a bit different than the regular offline media where every conversation is only one way. Here is the quote -

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General Motors Co. plans to stop advertising with Facebook Inc. after deciding that paid ads on the site have little impact on consumers’ car purchases, people with knowledge of the matter said.
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I read the article and to my understanding GM says that it has spent around 10million in advertising ads on Facebook but has not seen any results. I am not sure if I should feel sorry, or chuckle. Like most companies they too are missing what Social Media is about! GM is used to having flashy ads, and media buying but what they are missing is that you can’t buy people on Social media channels. Social media marketing is about the consumers and talking about the things they want to talk about. I am assuming that whomever is writing the checks at GM for Social Media advertising is wanting to see how many bought a car as a result of Facebook Advertising. You get people to like your page with advertising and after that you have to figure out what your fans or audience would like. Again when you plan a social media marketing campaign or Facebook marketing campaign one page does not fit the bill. What I mean is that you have different audiences who will buy or need a car. Have different persona’s and pages for them and different content for each persona. This is what I mean – Say for GM you could have a persona for a college graduate who is a male – his needs, taste, lifestyle, wants is different than a single mom with two kids who works two jobs. You can’t talk to them both the same way as you are sure to offend one of them. Yes this means cut down the advertising bills but hire more people to manage pages for each persona. Managing one Facebook page is a lot of work but for companies like GM it will be worth it. I have had clients who just want entertaining things on their Facebook page and they do not want any lead capture which is quite okay, while other clients want leads and engagement. Of course these are small companies with very limited budget. But what I have found is that customers ask questions, want resources on social media channels to compare as well learn about their options and when you direct them to the right person or the correct next step, they will convert to sales.

Now another question to ask is if a prospect has liked the page, saw your post via their friends news feed, went to your blog, called the dealership because of it- so did the lead come from a Social media site, or would you consider that as a walk in?

You cannot expect to make a profit as soon as you start a campaign either. Social media marketing is about building relationship and really making the best out of the relationship with your fans. To me, again I may be wrong as I don’t know all the details of GM’s marketing strategy, sounds like GM is throwing in the towel way too soon.

You hear stories like GM and then you hear stories of mom and pop wine shop went to sell millions in wine because of Social media, the difference is that communicating, engaging and most of all listening. Big companies have always done a one way communication and its a bit hard for them to actually stop and listen, listen and listen before they start selling. Don’t sell on social media sites jut reach out and help. Social media sites offer great opportunities for big companies to partner up and make a difference, but the sad truth is that the BIG companies offline are the small companies online and SMALL companies offline are the BIG companies online icon smile GM Says Facebook Ads did not Pay Off? .

 

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Offline Marketing Idea for Any Small Business

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 at 2:59 am  
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lap top billboard 300x234 Offline Marketing Idea for Any Small BusinessI just had to share this with you. In this economy everyone including business owners, or a sales person is trying to stretch their marketing dollars. I have not heard of lap-top billboards until recently. In the beginning, I dismissed the idea as it did not make sense to me, until Sunday that is. I was standing at Panera Bread in town and was waiting for my friend, I love people watching so I was watching everyone and everyone had a laptop. I remembered my new acquaintance Shea of laptop billboards. I thought, what a great idea. My laptop can be a walking billboard to my e-commerce store, my website, my blog and literally anything I want. It works better than a business card, as when people see it and if they are in need they are going to strike up a conversation with you. Think about warm leads. I wish this had come out when I was realtor ages ago.

Who can laptop billboard benefit?

Man I would say anyone can benefit from laptop billboard. Do you sell houses? I would have my website and a (800) to get a free report or optin. Better yet just to be on the extreme,I would probably have a QR code with something very intriguing and walk away for couple of minutes just to see what happens, that’s just me being me icon smile Offline Marketing Idea for Any Small Business .

Do you sell online – I would probably have the e-store and visit all the coffee shops in town and work from there.

People in insurance, tutors, restaurant owners, real estate sales anyone can use this to your benefit. You probably have heard of Big companies paying people to wear their t-shirt and walk around, or drive a car etc., Why? because they are sources for warm lead. So why can’t we as a sales person, or a small business owner do it? I wanted to share this because I think it is a great way to get warm lead and stretch your marketing dollars. By the way I am not getting anything either, just passing on the love of a treasure I found.

You can get the LapTop Billboard here – http://www.LaptopBillboards.com/

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Google Penguin Update – What did I do Wrong?

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 at 3:41 pm  
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google algo change 300x250 Google Penguin Update What did I do Wrong?The picture on the left is from a net marketing forum called warrior forum. I thought the picture pretty much summed up how most websites who got affected by Google’s recent Penguin update works. While thousands of marketers, affiliate marketers, webmasters have lost their rankings and sites to the most recent Google penguin update, I am enjoying the increase in rankings for my sites (knock on wood icon smile Google Penguin Update What did I do Wrong? ). I saw a dramatic increase in ranking when Google had the Panda update last year and in April of this year along with the most recent penguin update. The picture on the left points to new technique, loophole and a way to game Google. After every Google update I see a lot of marketers come out with a new internet marketing course that will guarantee you top rankings, or they found the ninja technique that will fool Google. Let me say one thing, the only thing or person that these marketers are fooling is themselves. If they could only put enough 10% of their energy that they are using to fool Google into following the webmaster guidelines set by Google and playing the game by the rules, there will no ups and downs.

One has to understand that Google’s main goal and focus is to give relevant and useful information to the people who are searching on Google. Imagine if its your business and others come and put crappy and spam signs on your office building, would you like it? Of course not, that’s exactly what black hat marketers  or those who found a BIG loop hole are doing to Google and Google is not going to sit by and let them do it. Every week hundreds of updates are being done to the algorithm and once in a while there is a big one that wipes out thousands of websites. There are some good sites that gets wiped out as well, which is a tragedy but usually they survive if the website has solid foundation.

Here is the link Google Webmaster Guidelines. Read it and follow it.

square dotted red Google Penguin Update What did I do Wrong?

If you feel that you were penalized wrongly, Google has a Penguin Feedback Form that you can fill out.

square dotted red Google Penguin Update What did I do Wrong?

Here are some things for you to consider if you are small business owner, so you will not fall as a victim to Google’s update’s

  • Don’t buy link packages. You may see on the internet companies selling link packages for $100, $1000 etc., Seriously? These links are from link farms that Google hates with everything it has, so please avoid it.
  • If Someone or a marketing company comes and says “I can get you to top page of Google guaranteed” Run the other direction. Even Matt Cutts can’t guarantee you that.
  • If someone tries to rank your company or your website without a bit of research into your industry, be weary.

As a Small Business Owner How Can You Protect Your Website from Future Updates like Google Penguin Update?

Here are some quick tips to help your internet marketing

  • If your website is new, do not build too many links at once.
  • Do Press- Release at least once a month to increase your visibility and buzz on the web. In the press-release always link back to your website with the keyword you are trying to rank and link with your business name back to your website.
  • Try writing a guest post on other websites or blogs. For example, if you are a home inspector or pest control ask Realtors in your area to see if you can guest blog on their blogs or website. Remember your post or article should be valuable to someone who is in need of advice. Don’t try to sell your services just give them information they need.
  • Write a FREE Report like “10 Things You Must Do Before Selling Your House”  or “5 Things that is Destroying your house” – you get the point. Ask your website visitors to opt-in if they would like to receive the FREE report. These are leads. Building your list is how you build your business.
  • Integrate Facebook Marketing with your blog.
  • Have a Twitter account and at least tweet once a day.
  • Make videos and post it on your YouTube channel. This is very important. Make short videos that are less than 5minutes. Do it with your iphone, or your laptop. Take videos of ” How To Do XXXX”. These are educational and you will build your audience’s trust.
  • Start building quality links.
  • Blog at least once a day about your industry or what is happening in your industry. Your blog will do the selling if you focus on providing valuable information to your audience to keep them coming back for more.

Always Remember “Content is KING” Online.

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Luckily, Google lists exactly what the quality guidelines are. In other words, Google tells you exactly what not to do.

There are 8 “specific guidelines”. They are (verbatim):

1. Avoid hidden text or hidden links.

2. Don’t use cloaking or sneaky redirects.

3. Don’t send automated queries to Google.

4. Don’t load pages with irrelevant keywords.

5. Don’t create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content.

6. Don’t create pages with malicious behavior, such as phishing or installing viruses, trojans, or other badware.

7. Avoid “doorway” pages created just for search engines, or other “cookie cutter” approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

8. If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.

Some of them are more black and white than others. For example, avoiding hidden text or hidden links seems like a pretty obvious thing. Just don’t do it. The duplicate content one is a little different. What does Google consider “substantially duplicate content”? How much is too much?

Beyond the specific guidelines, Google also lists 4 “basic principles”. These are:

1. Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines. Don’t deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users, which is commonly referred to as “cloaking.”

2. Avoid tricks intended to improve search engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is whether you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a website that competes with you. Another useful test is to ask, “Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?”

3. Don’t participate in link schemes designed to increase your site’s ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

4. Don’t use unauthorized computer programs to submit pages, check rankings, etc. Such programs consume computing resources and violate our Terms of Service. Google does not recommend the use of products such as WebPosition Gold™ that send automatic or programmatic queries to Google.

Google provides plenty more guidelines and elaboration on the quality guidelines in its help center.

Of course, none of this is new. It’s just that now Google has a better way to enforce them (or at least, it hopes it does).
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Got the above content from WebPro News. They said and quoted Google better than I could ever have done.

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Facebook Marketing – Must Do’s for Local Business Campaigns

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 at 6:24 pm  
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facebook like icon 300x279 Facebook Marketing Must Dos for Local Business CampaignsFacebook Marketing is Important – Agree?

Everyone has heard of Facebook and I am sure you have as well. If you are a local business owner, you are probably frustrated or even upset wondering what you are doing wrong.

Recently I was speaking to a local restaurant owner who was struggling to increase his business. I can tell that he was very proud of doing Facebook ads (Facebook marketing) and had spent over six-hundred dollars in getting new likes. My heart was crying out for him and so I asked why was he so happy that he spent so much money while he was struggling to meet his payroll budget. The answer was “My business is going to increase like everyone says it will”.  I did not want to make him feel bad but went on to say that just because you have “likes” does not mean that you are going to see over night success. The business owner had no plan to engage with his new likes and he did end up closing his store after a month. So if you are desperate social media marketing is not for you. Social Media or Facebook Marketing is Relationship Marketing. I can’t emphasize this enough. Some get it and most business owners don’t because they want immediate results. Before I go on to tell you how you can make your campaigns better, I would like for you to understand that relationship marketing takes time to build relationship with your “likers” and you should be willing to indulge them on their interests and not on your agenda or profit. So please before you pour money out into social media marketing please understand that it will take time and consistency for Facebook marketing or social media marketing to work for your business. You as business owner must be willing to cut losses in the beginning to make a profit later.

In this post you will find different ways that you can use Facebook to benefit your page and your business. If you do have questions do let me know as I am here to help.

Facebook Marketing is not about Likes

Yes you read it right. A while back we used to boast about the number of likes but now its more about the quality of likes and how your fans or customers interact with your page and posts. The best way for you to increase your quality like is when someone on your page interacts with your posts by liking them, commenting on your posts, and sharing your posts.

Facebook Marketing is about Sharing:

So now you may have the question as to “how can I make someone interact with my post?” the answer is very simple ask them to like it if they like the post or share it if they find it useful. Why? because when someone likes your post or comments on your post, their friends get that in their news feeds and their friends will visit your page. If you have useful information then you will get new likes.

Facebook Marketing is Not About Selling

Last week I was on Facebook and came across a feed from a buddy of mine that said ( I am paraphrasing) “I am on Twitter and I have to start blogging as they say that I have to get in Social Media, but all I want is to sell some houses” again I am paraphrasing. You cannot expect to sell right away or make money right away as soon as you jump into the social media band wagon. You might get lucky and make some sells but it rare. If you are looking to make a quick profit Social Media is not for you.

I have a realtor in Florida who gets 80% of his clients from Facebook. He did not do this overnight. He has built great relationship with the people who has like his page. He sort after them took interest in their everyday happening, their life, their kids etc and now he is reaping the rewards of his relationships with them. Two years ago he did not get a single lead from Facebook. He did not give up , he kept on making his relationship with the local friends and fans stronger and now he gets leads from Facebook. Everyone looks up to him as a real estate expert and not just as  another sales person. He said he makes more money in referral commissions than ever before. As his fans who has relatives, and friends in other states refer him to their friends and family. This is the power of Facebook marketing if you give it time, has the right attitude, accept short term loss for long term gain.

Facebook Marketing is about Sharing Useful Information:

If you are a restaurant owner share videos, pictures, recipes etc that your customers will like and share. Don’t be afraid about sharing recipes. I have had restaurant clients say “we can’t do that as we will lose customers” on the contrary it will only make them trust you, love you and depend on you.

If you are doctor or a medical practice share useful information or videos. For every eight or ten quote posts, funny picture post, post one post on Facebook about whats happening in your practice, health tips from your blog, video about a topic, or just your patient’s after picture. I have had some doctors who are afraid to post useful information about their practice or they just want to be like their competition. The goal here is for your patients and your patients friend’s to trust you as the expert in your niche and at the same time show you are also human. Doctors must make sure that you follow HIPPA rules and regulations. Don’t use the patients full name even if you are responding to comments. Don’t tag your patients. You can read more of HIPPA laws by visiting their site.

Take Facebook Marketing to Real Life

Most often I see local businesses stop building relationships, it does not go beyond the internet. You are a local business, you will be successful if your business exists in the real world so strategize ( made the word up icon smile Facebook Marketing Must Dos for Local Business Campaigns ) different ways that you can take your customers from Facebook to your restaurant or your Office. So you have increased the frequency of your posting on Facebook and have increased your likes response to your posts – Now What? Use mobile marketing or e-mail marketing to bring people into your restaurant or your practice. For restaurants Mobile Marketing is awesome ( I will do a post about mobile marketing for restaurants soon). When people come to Facebook have a way of capturing their information their name, phone number, e-mail etc. I love Facebook but I like being in control after all its my business. Facebook is FREE and if they change rules or become like MySpace or even worse if you customers move from Facebook to Pinterest or other social media sites, how are you going to get their attention? so make sure you have a way to always provide value to your fans, customers in the real world. That is how you can build your business.

When your customers are at your location ask them to check-In to your location on Facebook. You can  give an incentive like a price break or a FREE item that your customer would consider valuable. Why is this important? It is important because when they check-in all their friends and family can see that they came to see you and you will become their trusted source when they have a need. This is FREE Marketing but if your customers has to do that give them a small push by asking all your employees to ask your customers to check in and be proactive about this.

Have a fan of the week or fan of the month  and give something to your customers that they will share on their page. Ask them to come in to receive the gift, take a picture and post it on Facebook.

If you are doing a drive, attending an event post that on Facebook as this will give them an inside look of who you are and what your business stands for in the local community. The more you attend events that supports the local community, the more you are letting your fans on Facebook know about it, the more support your business will get from local citizens. Educate your staff about the importance of being proactive. Don’t be shy to post the signs in every room, check out area, windows and walls of your business asking your customers to like your Facebook Page. If Mark Zuckerberg’s (founder of Facebook) father who is a dentist in New York has signs everywhere (not just in the bathroom like most dentist in town does) prompting his patients to like his page, I think we should do it as well.

icon smile Facebook Marketing Must Dos for Local Business Campaigns I am going to stop before I turn this post into a book icon smile Facebook Marketing Must Dos for Local Business Campaigns . I just want you as a local business owner to succeed and not fail. If you have questions please ask them in the comment section. If you like the post share it with other business owners. Social media marketing for businesses is more like FREE marketing.

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Mistakes to Avoid in Social Media Marketing – Lessons Learned from the Big Companies

Thursday, April 26th, 2012 at 5:28 am  
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No You Don’t Have to Make This Social Media Marketing Mistakes!

head scratch Mistakes to Avoid in Social Media Marketing Lessons Learned from the Big CompaniesSocial Media Marketing is the buzz in every event. I read a post written by Ernan Roman on Huffington post and I wanted to share my take on his post. It is true that some big brands have made the biggest blunder on social media, that makes you think “what were they thinking?” and then there are this other big companies who make the mistake of not using social media before they spend millions in product development and marketing only to realize that Oops I did it again mistake icon smile Mistakes to Avoid in Social Media Marketing Lessons Learned from the Big Companies . Personally I would rather make a mistake by being proactive not stupid than not being proactive at all.

So I applaud companies like Domino’s Pizza, The Gap, Nestle, GoDaddy etc., for using the resources they have to build a relationship with their customers. Making a facebook post mistake or twitter mistake just goes to show that we are human and are prone to make mistakes. Some may agree with me and some may not, but thats okay. I am not saying yes go ahead and make mindless mistakes while micro blogging that will cost your company thousands in bran name repair nor am I saying to post something that is a BIG No No that will get your fans engaged in a negative way on your page. I just want to applaud the companies that have taken a step out of traditional marketing but have taken the step to a marketing that says “Its not about us but about you the customer” a marketing that says “its okay if we are not making profit while building relationship with you the customer but you are more valuable than our short term profits”.

So what should You do to avoid this BIG blunder in your social media marketing campaigns?

Ernan Ronan points out four main objectives that you can focus on in your social media marketing campaigns

  • Choose one of the social media channels ( facebook, twitter, Google plus, Youtube) is beneficial or getting more interaction with your customers and focus on that channel in the beginning. Also delegate one person who will be solely responsible for it.
  • Listen to who is talking about you online. You can set up a google alert, listen in on facebook or twitter.
  • Have your super customers on your side at all times
  • If you do make a social media marketing blunder, acknowledge the mistake and take action.

You can read more about the article “social media marketing blunders” here

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Protect Your WordPress Site From Hackers

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 at 2:57 pm  
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stop Protect Your Wordpress Site From HackersProtect your WordPress site. It is better to be proactive than reactive when it comes to your website’s security. I am speaking this from my own experience. Here is the short version of my story. I have approximately over 50 WordPress sites that I run which brings me a steady income. This blogs range from costumes to baby products. The income lasted until December 2011 when I started noticing that the traffic to my sites were decreasing tremendously. Most of my sites rank #1 on Google search so I get about 90% of the traffic. December is a busy month for me being the mother of two toddlers so I did not pay much attention to the traffic, until Google blacklisted my sites and the hosting said they will not host my sites as my sites have been hijacked, some sites has SQL injection, hidden iframes in my code. I was in a panicked state. I thought common “who would do that to me?”- well hackers would and they stole my traffic. Lesson learned but its too late as I lost my earnings and took me a while to get on the good side of Uncle Google. So if you are doing any sort blogging with your own hosting, here are some tips so you won’t loose revenue, trust of Google and your visitors. It takes months to recover from such an attack.

Word of Warning: Don’t have too many plugins as they will reduce the performance of your blog. Some plugins run on demand and others may run all the time.

Steps to Make Your WordPress Site Secure

Back Up your WordPress Site Regularly:

Back up your wordpress database regularly. A great plugin is “WP-DBManager”. The best way to do is run a DB backup and then backing up all your files.

Scan Your Files:

I use the plugins “AntiVirus” or “WordPress Expolit Scanner“. You can use one or the other. These plugings will scan your files everyday to see if there are any iframe code embedded or SQL injections. You will receive a e-mail with the code it found. After I installed the plugins I was surprised to see how many attempts were made a day to inject the malicious code into my site.

Change Your Password:

I agree with you that we get lazy sometimes and are comfortable with the same password but it is important that you change your password at least every 90days. I pick a word and usually convert the letters to numbers and symbols making it hard for others to guess.

Change Your Login From Admin

Most of the time the default login name is admin. Go to users and add new users and make the new username to be the admin. If possible delete the admin or reduce the admin to a subscriber.

Rename WordPress Database Tables:

I use the pluging “WP Security Scan”. Make sure that you have backed up your database.

Hide Plugins Folder Content:

The easiest way to hide the content is to create a blank document called “index.html” withing your plugins directory.

Use SSH instead of FTP:

I have not used SSH but this is what Hightech Dad advices

use SFTP if you like having a GUI for your file management. SSH is a bit more secure (another topic completely) and will let you shut down the FTP service and port (something you should do).

Don’t Let Search Engines index your WordPress Folders:

use robots.text file and include the following line – Disallow: /wp-*. I use the plugin PcRobots.txt. So far I love it.

Protect Your Login Page:

This means that you can stop someone or a software from trying to login over and over again to figure out your password. I use the plugin “Login Lockdown” and I love it. The default is 5 times then it will not let you login for 24hrs but I have set mine 1 which means the first time someone tries and fail my blog locks down for 24hrs. I made mine 1 as I lost over 50 money making sites but you can leave yours at default.

Monitor Changes to Your WordPress Files:

I love this plugin “WordPress File Monitor” – this takes snapshot of the files and directories and will send you an alert if anything changes.

Check Your WordPress Files Permission:

If you have shared hosting most of the permissions are already configured for you. If you don have shared hosting then you should restrict files and folders to 755 or 644. Click here to get more wordpress permission and security recommendations that you can use as well.

WordPress Firewall:

This plugin “WordPress Firewall Plugin” is very useful.

Hide Your WordPress Version:

This is very important as most hackers will try to hack sites that are not updated, so hiding your wordpress version will prevent your site from being visible to them. I am not good in codes so I use a plugin called “Secure WordPress”.

Scan Your WordPress Blog:

“WP-Scanner” scan your WordPress blog for vulnerabilities.

paint green Protect Your Wordpress Site From Hackers

List Of WordPress Plugins & Links

Hope this helps you to protect your wordpress blog or site. If you have any questions let me know I am more than happy to help or direct you to the right source.

 

Thanks to Mike who helped me recover my sites icon smile Protect Your Wordpress Site From Hackers

 

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Do You Use SEO or PPC?

Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 at 4:16 am  
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I came across the industry report released by Social media examiner couple of days ago and was pleasantly surprised. Did you know that most social media marketers use seo rather than PPC (Pay Per Click ads)? I am guilty of that, I would rather do proper seo on site and offsite than pay money for ads that does not last long. You could use PPC to get immediate results but not for the long term.

Search engine land did a brief on the report and stated that..

When asked what other marketing channels they use, search engine optimization (SEO) was the No. 2 response behind e-mail marketing. Paid search — or “online ads” as the survey called it — was far down the list at number six. Sixty-five percent of social media marketers say they use SEO, compared to only 38 percent who use paid search advertising.

B2B social marketers were slightly more likely to do SEO (67 percent) than their B2C counterparts (62 percent).

social media report 1 300x130 Do You Use SEO or PPC?

Source: SearchEngineLand

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Is Social Media Marketing a Savior for Failing Local Businesses?

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012 at 8:08 pm  
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social media marketing

 

 

Social Media Marketing

SocialMediaSitesPic 300x276 Is Social Media Marketing a Savior for Failing Local Businesses?

We all have heard of stories of how one tweet or one Facebook post has made a huge difference in a company’s revenue or even have restored the business to its glory days. It is absolutely true that social media marketing can do wonders for local businesses when done right. If a business is local there are some things that you as a business owner must know before launching social media marketing.

Social Media Marketing Cannot Make up For Bad Location!

If your business is in a bad location that your local customers will not frequent, you might not see huge or dramatic results with your social media marketing. One way to make the most is to think creatively -  may be you can do delivery and meet customers where they are!

If you are a restaurant owner and you are in a street with no proper lighting or if your restaurant is not close to residential neighborhoods, you might think about just delivery nights. Social media marketing will work for your bad location only if you are willing to think outside the box.

Social Media Marketing will Not Make Up for Bad Customer Service!

It really does not matter what you think of your product or your service. If your customers think your customer service sucks then it really does suck. So stop bragging and blaming the customer for being hard headed and see how you can rectify the solution. I have seen some of my consulting clients who go into a panic mode when they see a bad comment on their Facebook page and they either delete it or make it impossible for the customers to post anything on the page. This is a very bad idea! Social media marketing is about being social to your customers and turning the focus on your customers and not on your business. Address the issue – see how you can rectify the bad situation into a good one so their friends can see how much you value your customers.

For each person that like your post on Facebook your business is getting exposed to at least 130 people! That is FREE advertising. 1 LIKE = 130 people seeing your business. You do the math!

Social Media Marketing will Not Make Up For a Bad Product!

You may think your product is so wonderful and it’s worth a ton, but if your customer thinks its crap – trust me it’s crap ( excuse my language). Social media marketing is great to do testing. So if you are ever thinking of launching a new product just ask your customers and do not be afraid of what your customers will say – Be thankful that they are being honest if they say they don’t like it as they are saving you a ton of money.

For restaurant owners change your menu if you have a items on the menu that suck or just ask your customers on your page to tell you what they would like to see on the menu.

 

Social Media Marketing will Not Work If it’s All About You & Your Brand!

I hear, “But what about my business?” You are on Facebook or any other social media sites to connect with your customers on their terms and not on yours, so forget the “I” , “My” “My Brand” and listen to your customers. Socialize with them and get to know them, their day, their like and dislikes. Companies and brands that do succeed with social media marketing are companies that puts their customers first.

 

Social Media Marketing will Not work if you are not Consistent!

Social media marketing will definitely not work if you are not consistent. Like anything else in life “consistency is key”. What I mean by this is posting everyday, liking your customer’s comments, responding to your customers comments etc. This is very important especially when you ask  your fans or customers a question. Hang around a while to respond to their responses. Amy Porterfield, best describes it this way – how would you feel if someone calls you up and asks you “How are you today” and you answer them and there is no response on the other end or worst if they just hang up. That is exactly what you are doing, when you do not respond to your customers. This only makes them less interactive with your business page and eventually you will not appear in their news feeds. So interact and engage with your customers and make them your Super Fans!

If you liked the blog post do share it on Facebook or tweet it so others can be helped as well.

Until Next Post

- Blossom icon smile Is Social Media Marketing a Savior for Failing Local Businesses?

 

 

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Must Have Facebook Plugins To Grow Your Page

Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 at 3:50 pm  
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“Build it, they will come” does not work that well in Facebook fan pages, otherwise every business or person that has a Facebook page would have been tremendously successful in generating traffic to their website, business and thus increasing their revenue.

Several days ago I came across a article written by Andrea Vahl that talked about some of the plugins that we can use to get the visibility we need or encourage our fans to interact with our page. I use some of them and I do not use some of them for my own reasons, but I thought I would list the plugins for you so you can use them, test them to get the best out of your fan page. Here are the plugins….

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Facebook Plugin #1 – Fan of the Week!

fan ofthe week pic2 251x300 Must Have Facebook Plugins To Grow Your PageFan of the week facebook plugin is FREE for the basic version. You can get the plugin here – http://apps.facebook.com/fanofthe/ .

Fans love to be recognized – its the simple fact that makes them feel that you are listening to what they have to say. The app keeps track of your fans activity on your page and automatically does the “shout message” to the fan. The basic messaging free. The paid version lets you post custom message  to your fan rewarding theme even more.

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This app even adds a tab “fan of the Week” on your Facebook page. The plugin also posts automatically every week at the same time on your page, so make sure you set the time and the day that you want the plugin to post ( only available in paid version).

 

They are also coming with “Top Fans” like Bookshaka. You can try it out now after you install the fan of the week app.

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Facebook Plugin #2 – Bookshaka

fb plugin bookshaka 300x142 Must Have Facebook Plugins To Grow Your PageBookshaka plugin displays the top fans of the week depending on the interaction like comments and likes. Bookshaka gives points to your fans as well. If you are a local business  owner you can be very creative and reward your fans with special discounts or gifts or even give gift certificates to one of your local businesses and support your local community as well. There is a paid version as well which will let you access the insights and much more. You can get this plugin here - http://www.booshaka.com/ .

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Facebook Plugin #3 – You Tube

facebook plugin youtube 300x162 Must Have Facebook Plugins To Grow Your Page

YouTube is the second largest search engine and drives traffic to your website and to your business. Adding the YouTube app is beneficial especially if you have a business YouTube account. Many small businesses hesitate to set up a YouTube account and share videos, but it is vital to your business as your consumers are changing and so does the way you reach out to your consumer should change.

I would always share You tube videos on Facebook than uploading the videos to facebook directly.

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Facebook Plugin # 4 – Livestream

fb plugin livestream 300x133 Must Have Facebook Plugins To Grow Your Page

If you are a speaker, trainer or launch info products online, this is a great Facebook plugin that you can use for facebook marketing your webinar etc. The plugin has a chat feature that makes the video events much more efficient  as you can interact with your audience. You can also record the events for later viewing.

You can get the Livestream Plugin here - http://apps.facebook.com/livestream/

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Facebook Plugin #5 – Contact Me

Make it easy for people to get in touch with you on Facebook by having a contact form app on your page. With this Contact form you can add fields like name, phone number, email, questions,  and customize it. I prefer this over Constant Contact or Aweber for couple of reasons – Reason #1 – Its FREE Reason Number it is simple to implement. So if you are a small business this is a great way to build your list.

fb plugin contactme 300x167 Must Have Facebook Plugins To Grow Your Page

When you click get started it will take you to their facebook page, just click “Go To App” and it will take you to a page where you can install the app.

Click here to get the app – http://www.facebook.com/contactforms

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Facebook Plugin #6 – Scribd for Pages

Scribd is a document sharing site online where you can upload PDF, doc, XLS, jpg and PPT files and share. Scribd for pages makes it easy to share document to your Facebook community. When you upload the document your fans will be able to view the document right on the tab and download the document if they wanted to download the files.

fb pugin scribd 300x140 Must Have Facebook Plugins To Grow Your Page

You can get the app here – http://apps.facebook.com/involver_epdmxwnq/

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Facebook Plugin # 7 – Ecwid to Sell Products

When people are in Facebook, it is a good thing to keep them in Facebook to go through your sales process than take them out of Facebook. Statistics have shown that people or fans do not convert to sales when you take them out of Facebook. I use Lujure which is a bit expensive for my online stores but ecwid is a great alternative. So if you are selling products or books this will make it easy for you to sell to your customers, family or friends.

fb plugin ecwid 300x286 Must Have Facebook Plugins To Grow Your Page

I found this video that Ryan Gielen made about setting up ecwid that will help you in case you need instructions.

you can get the app here - www.ecwid.com

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I hope that you find this blog post useful and I strongly urge you to implement what you read to see the results in your social media campaigns for your business. Until Next Post icon smile Must Have Facebook Plugins To Grow Your Page Blossom

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