Top 4 Ways to be Found on the Web (Beginners)

You’ve worked hard on your business, putting in long hours, doing every job in your business – you’ve LIVED your business.  And as your business grew, you were smart and started delegating tasks to others that either you knew weren’t in your wheelhouse, were taking up too much of your precious time, or that you just didn’t want to do.

Maybe you’ve always had enough word-of-mouth referrals.  But lately you’ve noticed that you would like to have even more business.  You’re doing print advertising which is working great, but you realize that in today’s market you also need to be found on the web or your competitors will take your business.  Where do you start?

Following are the top ways to get found on the web:

1.  Have a website.

Seriously.  You need a website.  You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a website, either, unless you want lots of bells and whistles which we don’t have time to get into here.  But do yourself a huge favor – talk to a couple of different web designers before you make a decision, and ask the right questions.

2.  Social Media.

While there are plenty of social media sites out there, if you’re just starting out, you should stick to a few sites so you’re not overwhelmed at first.  And different sites are better for different businesses; find out where your customers or clients go the most.  If you have no idea, you should consult with a marketer.

Facebook

Create a business page to interact with people so they get to know you and your business.  There are over 1.23 billion monthly active Facebook users, a 16% increase year over year.  As of January 2014, there were 82,000,000 males and 96,000,000 females worldwide; 180,000,000 total in the US alone.  Post events, specials, tips – whatever you or the business does that’s noteworthy.

Twitter

Interact, retweet, post valuable tips and information – talk to people!  As of February 5, 2014, there were 241 million monthly active users, 184 million mobile monthly active users.  Twitter may or may not be for your business; but if you feel those numbers can’t be ignored, give it a try – and by try, you’ll need to try for at least 6 months to establish an audience.  You will need to get someone who knows Twitter to help you out if you’re new to Twitter; there are many unsaid ‘rules and regulations’ that you will need to follow if you want to be heard.

LinkedIn

Think of LinkedIn as your job interview while setting up your profile; create a separate business page, make sure you are using your keywords in your summary, join and participate in groups, post regularly.  There are 277 million LinkedIn users as of February 2014.  While it is very important for every business owner to have a profile in LinkedIn, there are some businesses that will really not benefit as much as others.  Retail businesses, for example, won’t benefit as much as a sales professional.

Instagram

Post pictures of your business, your products, your team.  Having gone from a trendy iOS-only app to a massive social network and with Facebook’s pocketbook behind it, it’s going to grow.  There are currently 150 million active monthly users in Instagram.

Google+

Post, +1, share, create a hangout.  Google+ can’t be ignored – because it’s Google.  It was reported that as of October 2013, there were 300 million monthly active users with 20 million unique mobile monthly users.  It’s interesting to note that 94% of the top 50 US law firms have a Google+ page.

Pinterest

Post pictures with comments, videos, items for sale, have people see who you are by your interests and likes.  Recent statistics show that Pinterest is now more popular than Twitter; women are more likely to use Pinterest than men.  Conversion rates are 50% higher on Pinterest than from other media sites.

YouTube

Post videos about items, tell stories, how-to videos.  There are 1 billion unique visitors monthly on YouTube with 100 hours of video uploaded every minute.  Videos don’t need to be professionally done; take clips on your smartphone, post and make sure the description is optimized!

3.  Blog.

Yes, you really should blog.  Repurpose articles from your newsletter in a more informal, discussion-based format, and you’ve got your blog post.  Writing not your thing?  Hiring a VA copywriter is a good option.  The real reason to blog?  To increase your website’s organic search rank for targeted keywords.  And you’ll need to keep blogging for it to work effectively; it’s a marathon, not a sprint!

4.  SEO.

Search engine optimization is what it’s all about.  I could write an entire article on this alone; but for now I’ll just say that you should find an SEO company that knows what they’re doing and takes the time to do it the right way.  It took me four years to find my SEO team, and it was well worth the wait.  But a few tips that will help without rolling out the big guns and $$’s, content is still king.  Social media, regular helpful content targeted at your audience, and keeping fresh content on your website will all help with your rankings.

These are the Top 4 ways to be found on the web; there are many more.  Take the time to learn your business’ demographics, research what social media sites will be best for your business, keep your website fresh, blog, implement SEO and your business will thrive on the web.

 

Personal Touch Concierge Service, LLC

info@ptconciergeservice.com

http://www.ptconciergeservice.com

 

Social Media – Love It or Hate It – It’s Here to Stay

Whether you love social media or hate it, you’re going to have to learn to not only live with it, but to effectively utilize it for your business.

Those of you who hate it probably have not had any success with it and, I’m going to go out on a limb here, have probably not approached it as a marketing tool. I would be quite wealthy right now if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard, “My (niece/daughter/insert relative here) is “on” social media – I’m going to let them handle it.” If they’ve taken marketing courses and have researched your business, put together a social media plan and are going to be diligent in posting, connecting and reviewing analytics, that should work for you. But if that’s not what’s going to happen, you need to find someone who will do that, or you’re just wasting your money, precious time promoting your business and – worst of all – possibly doing damage to your online reputation.

Working Social Media

Depending upon your business, you may be the best person to be on social media for your business. If you have the time, your business must be running itself pretty much, and may I offer a huge “Congratulations!” to you. But if you’re like most business owners, you really don’t have time to do one more thing. Or maybe you have a little time, but not really enough to utilize social media to its full potential.

Best way? Hire someone who knows what they’re doing to come up with an appropriate plan, will manage it for you, but have you integrate into it as much as you’re able.

Time Management

I recommend coming up with a plan for the best time of the day for you to work on your social media and then stick to it. Maybe it’s before you start your day, mid-day – whatever works for you. Stick to your plan; don’t allow it to become a time suck! Plan out what you’re going to say, find the perfect picture to go with it, and make sure you respond to any comments on your posts! You can use a tool like HootSuite to make your life easier by pre-scheduling posts and tweets, but that is not enough. You need to interact with people – it’s all about the community in social media. And remember: manners and social media etiquette is VERY important. There IS such a thing as bad publicity in social media.

Find Your Audience

Who is your target audience? Take the time to do some analytics and find and cater to them. Never underestimate the power of Google Analytics and finding the keywords that matter for your business.

Engage Your Audience

Why should people follow you? Tell them your story. Give them something interesting to read! Think about what you want them to learn about you. Ask them questions; get them to engage – and make sure you respond to all questions and comments! Don’t be discouraged if you don’t get immediate responses to your questions. In this world of instant gratification, it takes time to establish an on-line presence. I heard this comment recently, and I couldn’t agree more: Marketing is not an ATM. And that is true whether it’s conventional marketing or social media marketing.

Offers, Giveaways, Events

Like it or not, statistics show that people want stuff for free. So figure out what it is that you can easily give your customers and clients – it could be an eBook on tips having to do with your business, or a coupon for a free [widget] or a percentage off on an item or service. Plan an event and promote it with social media; set up an EventBrite or some such other event tool and talk it up on your sites.

Be Consistent with Good Content

And here we are back to the beginning – post regularly. If you are not able to, don’t just disappear – get help! Know what you’re doing and where you’re headed with your posts. Set clear objectives for your efforts and always have an end goal. The talent comes in when you are able to weave “social” into marketing without sounding self-promotional, because the one thing that I can guarantee is that will not work.

Pictures!

In 1921, the phrase “One look is worth a thousand words” was written in an article published by Frank R. Barnard in Printer’s Ink, commending the effectiveness of graphics in advertising. Although we’ve come a long way from 1921, this phrase is never more true. Posting pictures to go along with your written posts will grab people’s attention, and since you’ve got approximately 2.5 seconds to catch someone’s eye, choose well!

And proving that theory, in comes Pinterest! If you haven’t checked out the site yet, you are missing out. Pinterest is fun and a feast for the eye – an absolute win-win for business owners! Post pictures and link them back to your website or blog. Again – do not be self-promotional by going on and on about your product – let the picture do the talking! And have a good website to bring them back to.

With proper planning and execution, you can join more than a billion people who are utilizing social media to get their word out and in front of the people they want to!

 

 Nickey Hollenbach

Personal Touch Concierge Service, LLC

info@ptconciergeservice.com

http://www.ptconciergeservice.com