Social media is an invaluable tool for small businesses. The medium allows them to connect with consumers on a personal and interactive level. One of the major benefits of social networking is that it reduces marketing expenses and amount of finance investments. A well managed social media campaign can be far more successful than traditional marketing and is completely free.

Social media sites function as a large scale “word of mouth” connection between consumers. Positive reviews and recommendations by consumers is the most powerful tool available to small businesses and is a huge aspect of social networking.

The following guide will assist small businesses in developing a social networking campaign that will pull in consumers and increase company profits.

Yelp

Yelp is an excellent social networking site for local businesses. It allows companies to post their contact information as well as descriptions of products and services. Local users can comment and rate the quality of the business.

The more information a business adds to Yelp, the more likely their business page will show up in searches. Good reviews on Yelp encourage business and can increase profits.

Twitter

Twitter is an ideal social networking tool because it places small businesses in constant contact with consumers. Followers on Twitter can receive updates via a number of tools, including desktop icons and mobile phones.

The most successful businesses on Twitter offer a personal touch to their postings. It is best to use a voice that will appeal to the business’ target demographic. It’s also important that the postings include more than simple promotional material. Postings that are informative and entertaining will result in the highest number of followers.

Facebook

Small businesses can draw in new customers via facebook fan pages. The fan pages are by far the most customizable of the social networking options. Company’s can attach directions to their locations, coupons, product information, and virtually anything they desire.

The most successful fan pages are ones which encourage involvement. Frequently updating the status of the fan page with interesting and relevant information is one way to encourage consumers to purchase from the business.

Blogs

Blogs located on the company’s website encourages visits by consumers. Utilizing external social networking sites tends to drive traffic away from the company’s site and towards sites that are readily accessible like Twitter and Facebook. Placing an interesting and engaging blog on a company’s site will pull consumers towards information about the business which makes them much more likely to purchase products or services.

Company blogs should focus on providing engaging and relevant postings. How-to articles, fun facts, production information, and humorous postings are all excellent ways to pull viewers to a company blog. Optimizing search engine results is another excellent way to obtain more page views. This can be achieved by placing frequently searched words in the title of the blog and throughout the postings.

How to Increase Views and Followers

In order for a social networking campaign to be successful, small businesses must pull in large numbers of views and followers. This can be achieved a variety of ways, the most important of which is providing valuable and engaging content.

Offering contests or sweepstakes is an excellent way to pull in views and followers. If consumers believe that checking the sites often will result in free or discounted products, they are far more likely to become followers or frequent viewers.

Another way to pull in views is to connect the social networks to the business’ main site as well as to each other. This will allow viewers of one site to be drawn to all the others.

Provided to you by Victoria of Ratelines.com, a place to find the best money market rates.

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Benefits of Social Media for the Small Business

Yesterday I spoke on what exactly a sitemap is when it comes to your website and today I will go into detail on why exactly sitemap’s are truly needed. There are some things that websites do not necessarily need. A sitemap isn’t one. So the question is why exactly is a sitemap needed? A site map is not JUST for users but rather for search engine crawlers.

A crawler aka ‘bots’ if you didn’t know is something the search engines (Google / Yahoo / MSN / Ask / etc) send out on the web and…well, crawl your website. They look for relevant information – keywords / phrases and hundreds of other things. This is why SEO people are in demand (again, feel free to hit me up if you have any questions on it). These bots instead of going through every single page – which can be pretty long depending on the size – while having a sitemap will help speed along the process.

{click to enlarge}

So, why the big deal? Well, as seen to the left you are able to see if your website is ranking high on certain keywords/phrases as well if there are errors that might be found on the site. Google Webmaster allows An error could be something along the lines of a page that was published a year ago and you have deleted it since – it happens.

Why the black out outs?

The last thing I want to show off is one of my projects that is not 100% complete…plus, you never know the competition could be watching.

Nonetheless by being able to view this data it can gain new insights into not just those viewing your website but your customers.

Top Search Queries

How are people finding your site – did they search “niche product” or “product niche”? As simple as it would seem it opens up the doors between you and those finding your website.

Crawl Errors

Is there a problem with how bots are seeing your site? If so, this could be why your site isn’t getting indexed by them.

Links to your site

Whose linking to your site – which content is highly linkable. Helpful for updating your website.

Keywords

You have a niche on say knitting but your site’s keywords aren’t centered around yarn, stitching, and overall knitting. It’s time to change things…NOW!

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Why A Sitemap Is Needed

I don’t know how many times I have to drive this home but I am dead serious about this. If you have a website from a blog to e-commerce you must. MUST have Google Analytics and have you’re sitemap submitted to google (and various other search engines).

These two minor steps will open up huge doors for you and your brand. It will answer the questions:

How are people coming to my site?

• When they come to my site where are they going?

• What is the most popular page?

• What are my site’s keywords/phrases ranking?

• Where am I when it comes to competition?

By allowing yourself to answer these questions you will without a doubt increase your revenue. An example would be finding out what exactly is your most prominent page on your site and then optimizing it so users can see you are offering a new product or link to another portion of your site.

I will be doing a step-by-step on sitemaps this week and start on analytics next week. People need to be made aware of these things.

If you’d like a 1-on-1 feel free to use the contact form and I’d be more than happy to help you out.

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Analytics & Webmaster = Customers!

It has been quite some time since my last post. Since then I’ve been trying out The Google Wave and so far not too impressed with it. The possibilities I am but as it is still in “PREVIEW” stage still a downer. Too buggy.

Besides that I soft launched an encouragement site at MSSG.ME – this has taken off like crazy. I am surprised daily by the weekly emails I get regarding how people need to be uplifted and encouraged, on a daily basis. I say “soft launched” because I’m still developing it more.

I bought MSSG.ME a year ago for another purpose – a business I wanted to really start but since everything else in life has taken over and the domain was wasting away I felt like something needed to be done.

I’m always working with the ever-so-talented Sky 7th who amazes me with his lyrics. Trying to get a launch date of Christmas/New Years seems to be quite difficult but the movement never stops. We are wrapping up the editing of his second video off “Trouble On The Way” {which is free for download}. This following month we will be shooting MORE video’s which are still in development but I will say this. Get ready.

On the flip side I am working on a directory site that will blow some keywords out of the water. I will have about 75% up by Thanksgiving in time for Christmas shopping {online}. More on this as I develop it. I had to take a few days off after creating close to 1,150 pages…yeah, it’s like that.

While 2009 has been great the things that are set in motion for 2010 will be simply  AMAZING!

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Quick Status Update

Google Wave Screen Shot

I got the golden ticket much to my dismay. I immedetly clicked on the google wave invite link and looked around…nothing. As much as I viewed the video of the possibilities right now there is nothing you can really do.

Wait. Cancel that. Yes, yes there is but on one condition: connections. It’s all about being connected. In the early stage of “preview” (look at the snapshot – upper left hand side) – that’s what developers name a product BEFORE beta – BEFORE alpha. Preview. Simple but true and to the point. A quick over-view:

• The bots are still being developed.
• Extensions (plugins) are nice but not all released.
• Chrome is the best for viewing Google Wave.
• “with:public” is your best friend when you first get invited.
• The invites I sent out (w/ screen shots) have yet to be received. No clue on why.
• Expect delays…A LOT!

I’ve found that when you’re in a ‘public wave’ it will crash. Something will happen where too many people are trying to read / write / update / etc to the same wave the servers can’t handle it. It’s still new but still interesting.

Any other google wave users out there want to link up? Use my contact form to send me your email @googlewave.com address.

More updates as they come!

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Google Wave First Impression

Last week was an extremely long week – Katie was co-organizer for our church’s VBS (Vacation Bible School). It was her first and proved to be hugely successful with an average of over 140 children daily and saving over 40 of them. She was busy on that while I worked non-stop for my night class that I only have a few more weeks at.

I say all that to say this. Where do you put our time and effort in? Where do you try to be great in and how do you go about it?

As you know we have a 4 year old little man. He’s a awesome little guy and we are raising him the best we can. In the end I want him to be successful and happy. If he decides to be a hippy but happy. Then I’m good. If he decides to make millions and is happy. Then I’m good. In the end I want him to have three things in life:

1) A personal relationship with Jesus – I know I don’t speak A LOT about this on the blog because I try to steer from it since I try to focus on marketing in social media.

2) A loving family with a warm heart – that he pretty much already has but hope that can find someone like I did with his mother.

3) A passion in life. Once you find that passion either flipping burgers or running a fortune 500 company happiness is right behind it.

If he has those three things in life then I know he will be an outstanding man. This same thing I strive for daily and though we all fall short in one aspect or another I still get up dust off the slacks and keep on going.

How are you breeding your success?

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Breeding Success

While I’m not a ‘huge’ fan of Best Buy I am a die hard marketing fanatic (which my wife doesn’t like sometimes when I point out items online / tv / etc). In the last couple of weeks Best Buy released a marketing campaign geared towards the customer – on.their.network.

This is something I’ve been trying to tell people almost daily – you can’t force people to come to your site. You just can’t do it. Unless it offers something fantastic (in the eyes of the customers – NOT YOU) then they will not come. In turn Best Buy decides to go TO the customer and react quickly and be in tune to the consumers need.

The plan: twitter. It’s quite simple but difficult at the same time. Follow @Twelpforce and ask them a question on any product Best Buy might have and they will give you a contact (best buy contact) that will help you. The marketing campaign on television is pretty amusing and in honesty sucks you in.

Simple yet thought provoking. In a time when we supposedly “need” answers now (see KGB text your questions) now you can do so via twitter when it comes to electronics. Way to go Barry Judge – hopefully this will help in deciding a Sr. Media Manager.

In the end this is GREAT brand management – you are not only making sure your brand is taken care of you are funneling it FROM the consumer.

What are your thoughts on this?

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Best Buy Goes Next Level Customer Support

It’s not hard to determine the ‘exact’ reasons why companies can’t grasp the ideals of what “social media” is truly all about. If you’re involved in twitter (@drivenmg) then you’ll notice a companies “brand” when you tweet about one of their products/services with an automatic response.

This.is.WRONG!

The key to taking over social media for businesses is this: BE REAL!

I don’t know how much more in-depth I can be. This is me being honest. I can’t tell you how many times I tweeted about poor customer service for a company and I get the @drivenmg “what can we do to help” response.

#1 - READ THE TWEET! Respond accordingly.

The purpose of Twitter and what social media is about overall is the “social” portion. Companies tend to grab the “media” part and think of marketing. That is the wrong mentality. I’m not insisting that these companies look at it as customer service related but in reality in these times people want to feel connected with brands.

The days of Fortune 500 companies distancing themselves from the common man are long gone. The 6 degree’s of separation don’t exist – the rules have changed and we all need to adapt if we want to grow both personally and professionally.

You want to see your growth change in a matter of minutes and you own a business? You search.twitter.com for your brand / name and respond accordingly. Don’t start promoting your products / services. If someone tweets you about a show/movie that you have discussed you liked – then respond to that.

Guess what – you just connected with that person and now you have moved up in their mind over other brands. This translates to increase in brand awareness and sales overall.

Check out more @ Driven Media Group Blog

Why Most Companies Fail In Social Media

Is that right? Yep, you guessed it people the big wig’s over at Best Buy need your help to write a job description for a “Senior Manager, Emerging Media Marketing role”. If you saw my previous post regarding Best Buy vs. Dell the big deal was the “250 twitter followers“.

Barry Judge, Best Buy’s CMO, writes over on his blog:

We’d like you, (yes all of you), to help us write the job description for our Sr Manager of Emerging Media Marketing job.

We’d also like you all to help us pick the best description.

Then goes into detail just what he expects from people and specific guidelines.

My question is this: was this whole thing a ploy to get more people interested in the brand? Circuit City is gone so was Best Buy far behind?

I see the commercials with “real” stories of employee’s helping customers…I wish I could say the same in my area. When I ordered something online and went to pick it up “express” it took over 30 min’s to pull paperwork and to get the items (CD’s and DVD’s). Isolated incident but nonetheless add in the negative press Geek Squad has received from their lack of knowledge (again, knowing from 1st hand experience).

What say you? Marketing ploy or Best Buy is really at a lose?

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Write Best Buy’s Job Description

Throwing Money Away In Business

I remember when I first really got into the web. I loved how people connected – the eRelationships that formed and developed all behind the screen. It was from here that I wanted to get into online marketing and overall media development. Yet, I find it interesting that more businesses are not aware of the internet yet rely heavily on it.

We need to be adaptive to the times and while a business might not ‘understand’ the structure of the net – they use it in their intranet and finding customers themselves.

Why can’t it work in reversal?

How do you want to be found online and what information do you want potential customers to see? The point is a lot of the companies – from small to large – have no clue about this and rather hire someone else to do the work and not try to understand it.

This is your money! This is your business! Why wouldn’t you want to know whats going on?

Be aware and informative. Ask questions and who cares if it’s stupid – yes, there is such a thing as a stupid question – even if you get ridiculed at least you’ll have a direction…and stop wasting money. In all honesty I love it when a client ask questions because it shows that they are really interested  in that project and I’m able to hopefully show them something new.

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Money and Business Where Do They Go?