SEO Tips for Small Business News: June 2012

Friday, June 29, 2012

How to Effectively Market on Mainstream Social Media

When you say social network people's minds immediately conjure up FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace or YouTube. They are most popular sites on the web, certainly some of the most visited as far used for researching companies, entertainment and information. If you are operating a business that caters to the people who frequent those sites, then by all means join them.

But do so with caution. Most of the people that use those sites are not just there to update their friends and family on the new baby or house. Many people use those sites to turn themselves into instant celebrities and post "unprofessional" comments and photos to gain attention. This is cute if you are still in arrested development and you want to only hang around with prepubescent high schoolers and college students.

So with that in mind, make sure that you are monitor your "fans" and "friends" since they will post all sorts of items that are not business like or business related on their pages and link to yours. This may get you links but it is also going to associate you with them and their lifestyle and antics. So if you'd rather not have people seeing your "party in Cancun" pics tagged on your friend's sites associated with your professional business then chose other social networks to utilize.

That's not to say don't put up your company's tagged, "tutorial" videos linked to your website on YouTube.com, by all means do it! YouTube.com is now the largest "search engine" on the planet. (Yes it's bigger than Google.) So definitely house your "how tos" and "tutorials" on there as long as they're tagged and have URLs leading to your website or specific pages on your site. It's a great organic traffic generator.

Another great traffic generator is to have a "company" fan page on Facebook. This is a nice way to have your visitors show support for your company, product or service. This also means that their networks will see they've become your friend and curiously check out your page too.

Let's talk Twitter. In order to use Twitter properly you'll need to create 120 character "teasers" that grab the attention of the Tweet peeps. The reason you want a max. 120 character teaser is that you will need to leave space for your "short URL" which should link either to an article on your website or blog or to the product page you are talking about in your teaser. Many short URLs can take up to 10 characters which leaves another 10 for anyone wanting to "re-tweet" your teaser. So nothing you've written gets cut off by the adding of the "re-tweet" link. Also place your short URL at the beginning of your message. In this way your short URL will be the first thing they see and not get cut off by the "re-tweet" URL which will automatically appear at the end when someone chooses to exercise that option.

In order to kill two birds with one tweet, simply add "#in" at the end of your 120 character tweet so it will appear on LinkedIn automatically.

Do not drop your Twitter visitors onto a "main home page" blindly. They'll leave. In order to effectively utilize Twitter with your "teasers" you are going to want to use a system like HootSuite.com or Tweetdeck to schedule your "teasers" for timely intervals. Schedule your teasers to go out on a specific interval over the period of a week. Ten a day is a good number as long as each "teaser" is different on that day. You can repeat the "teasers" throughout the week on different days or in different time slots; but don't make them repetitive. This make you look like you are trying to sell something and are spamming the Twitter peeps. Not good.

by I. Vitt Argent,
producer of Biz Talk with Dr. Ande
SEO Tips for Small Business
SEO Tips 4 SME Blog
author of, Dr. Ande's SMO Guides, Dr. Ande's Success Tips for Women in Small Business, & Dr. Ande's SEO Tips for Improved ROI

Monday, June 25, 2012

6 Reasons Your Online Business if Failing

Many people start a business with the best of intentions but they fail. It doesn't matter how good their idea is or whether they've done their research and they know it's a solutions that people want and can use. They are stuck in a rut and don't know where to turn or worse go out of business with no idea why.

Here are the 6 basic reasons most businesses fail (both online and offline).

1. Perfectionist. Holding out until everything is perfect will not gain you clients, customers or even make you money. There's no such thing as a perfect product (think Microsoft's cavalcade of Office products); there's no such thing as a perfect website (Keebler had 5 misspelled words on their homepage introduction in 2009); there's no such thing as the perfect time - remember the stock market has crashed how many times but GE and Hewlett Packard (both launched during the Great Depression) are still alive and thriving. Stop waiting for perfection. It won't come ever and procrastination only leads to depression, bitterness and being broke. Did we mention failure?

2. No Target Audience. How many times have you asked someone who their product is for and they say "everyone"? Really? Well not everyone is going to need your solution or want it. That's a simple fact. In fact you only need 12 good customers to make your business a success so try finding those 12 first by knowing what they're problems are and how your product solves them.

3. Marketing First. Okay this goes along with having no defined target audience. Seriously who are you marketing to? That's like the dog that chases every car that passes on a street. Sooner or later it's either going to get hit (hopefully not) or pass out in the yard from exhaustion (hopefully). But it won't catch a car or know what to do with one when it does?

4. Waiting to Attract Clients. Okay, so you put out your shingle, bought the business cards and had the flyers printed up. You have a nice new office or sign in your yard or on your house (wherever you're working from) but you have no clients. Why? Because you didn't put the word out before doing all of this about your company. You didn't "advertise" your service amongst your peers, family and friends so they'll help you by spreading the word to people who need a referral to someone like you. Don't wait until after you've hung out the shingle to start letting people know about your business or service. That's too late.

This is not the same as marketing first. When you put the feelers out with your peers, family and friends you are asking them to send you referrals and telling them what solutions you provide. You are asking them to send you people that have problems that your solutions will work for. That means you have defined your audience and you know whom to ask them to send you.

5. Selling Before Serving. Okay people want solutions to their problems which means they want service. It's that simple. Don't sell them on your service; talk to them and find out the lay of the land. What is their specific problem, ask them for details and then find out if they are willing to or are open to receiving the solutions you provide. They may accept your help of service or they may not but at least you didn't try to attack them like a used car salesmen putting them off.

Once you find out their circumstances you may be able to negotiate an arrangement even if you do it on speck for them in exchange for referrals and a testimonial. It's still a way to get your name known and generate clients. The referrals can be "in lieu" of payment as discounts you take off for each one that signs up for your service based upon the initial person's recommendation. So they don't have to know why you did it for them for free they might believe that it's a good thing that they can help others out who are in a position to pay.

6. Not Selling at All. Okay do you need to read this? Do you need to hear it? You know you've heard it before...If you are not selling you're not in business. That's the cold hard truth. Whether you fancy being a sales person or not; you are. You have been your whole life only know your life and livelihood depend on it. The next time you tell yourself you are not a salesperson remember the first time you had to convince your spouse to go on that first date or to convince your boss to give you that promotion. Sure looks and performance help but big deal; remember everyone that was vying for your spouse's attention were probably attractive etc. or for your promotion had just as much hard work. You had to sell to get what you wanted.

Now do it again only do it like your "life" depends on it.

by I. Vitt Argent,
producer of Biz Talk with Dr. Ande
SEO Tips for Small Business
SEO Tips 4 SME Blog
author of, Dr. Ande's Success Tips for Women in Small Business, Dr. Ande's SEO Tips for Improved ROI & 65 Success Tips for Affiliate Marketers

Thursday, June 21, 2012

3 Ways to Promote Yourself at Meetings

Business networking is an art and a delicate one. You must not be too pushy but at the same time be assertive to let others know about you and your business or services. Try these 3 tips to better market yourself at your next event.

1. Dress Accordingly. Base your wardrobe to your networking function on where you are meeting, what time the meeting takes place, how long the meeting will last, whom you are meeting, and the image and message you are trying to convey.

You will dress differently for a night meeting with executives and their wives versus morning coffee klatches with self-employed company owners. You will definitely dress differently for women's associations that work with children as opposed to environmentalists in the field. Remember you always want to be professional but comfortable.

2. Always Leave Marketing Material. That doesn't mean liter the event with brochures, it does mean make your business cards available to those who ask for them. If there is a place for them on the "registration table" by all means leave a few. There's also no harm in dropping one or two into a raffle bowl or the "free lunch" container on the counter of the business you are having the meeting at if there is one.

3. Don't forget to promote yourself. That may sound silly but there are many times when people attend networking meetings and spend time "talking with" other people there but they do not ever mention what they do. That's completely different than telling someone the name of your business. When someone asks you, promote what you do and how you provide solutions for clients or customer problems; don't tell them your job title. So what you've a EVP, big deal what makes you so special and how can you solve my problems or my clients' problems. You being an EVP has no bearing on the service you or your company provides.

Remembering these 3 little tips can help you become more comfortable at networking events as well as even find more clients or customers for your business or service.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

http://ow.ly/auqSi Join Dr. Ande on the Tony Gambone Radio Show, June 6th, 1PM PST/3PMCST/4PMEST. Get your SEO & SMO questions answered live