Website Promotion is not Voodoo

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about over-saturating the market with online business communication. While in the last post we gave you tips on how to tell if you are indeed over-saturating the market, we promised we’d do a follow up with some steps to take to help avoid it and to put out effective online marketing messages.

I can’t fight this feeling any longer. I need to profess my love of Google Maps. Our relationship was a tumultuous one, but she won me over in the end. Living in New Orleans, where some street signs are still missing from their respective corners, Google maps was a saving grace. They also recently started to include bike routes, which guides bikers through the least traffic-laden areas. Though this feature still needs some work, I think it’ll be a great asset to this ever-expanding program.

Imagine you just pulled into the mall parking lot with your three antsy children who are complaining that they are hungry, need to go to the potty and want to go to the Disney Store… Amidst all of the chaos of getting them out of the mini van and making sure you have your purse (and your sanity), you accidentally lock your keys in the car.  And, the car is still running.  This is so not what you needed!  But, fortunately, you have your smart phone in your purse!  You quickly log onto the internet and search for “locksmith.”  You come across the first listing – A company called 911 Super Ultra Emergency Locksmiths.  You get them on the phone and they are in the mall parking lot within minutes to save you!

Yelp is intended as a review site where users can write and read reviews for local businesses to help make informed buying decisions. It’s a powerful tool in that users trust the real opinions and feedback from their friends and neighbors. Yelp’s user-driven reviews allow everyone to add in their opinions of products and services at local clubs, restaurants, and businesses in all forms.

There is obvious value to a small business owner in getting users to leave positive reviews. The question is how much should a business pay for a review? No, no, no … I’m joking. The question really is how do you encourage customers to leave Yelp reviews naturally and organically without abusing the intent of the site?

While many companies are still figuring out Facebook and Twitter as a means of local business marketing, a whole new social media is beginning to break into the mainstream. While the underlying idea is to keep you connected, just as other social media networks, foursquare takes it to the next level.

It’s also similar to other outlets in such ways that you connect to people you know by adding them as a “friend,” but past that, this new location-based app sets itself apart by integrating the service into everyday activities, being primarily mobile-based, and serving as a “tap and go” app, with which it  doesn’t take much longer to interact than it does to send a text message to a friend letting them know where you’re having your coffee.

I am all about receiving e-mail marketing from eCommerce sites that I am interested in.  Seriously – my personal e-mail inbox has 2,445 unread messages – I sign up for everything With that said, you have to say something enticing for me to open your e-mail.  And, for some reason, today I opened an e-mail from a local small business that seriously frustrated me.  The guilty party will remain nameless.

You need to watch out! I was just reading the Google Lat Long Blog and they’re telling people to edit YOUR Google business listing.

This is really, really, bad. Look at this picture. I didn’t want to steal the image from the Google blog post so I made my own which shows a business listing on Google in grave danger.

Your Google business listing is in danger!

We’ve talked in the past about the importance of claiming your Google. It’s critical. Do it now!

One of the questions we hear from pretty much every client is “Should we be on Facebook?” “Do I need to Twitter? Tweet? Twit?” or, if they are already on it, they ask how they can make better use of Twitter or Facebook for business purposes.

For a small business to be successful using social media, a small business must be an active participant in and on that social media platform, whatever it may be. Since Facebook is the most widely used social media outlet with more than 400 million members, and has the greatest variety of uses, we’ll illustrate how you can use it to your advantage. It may seem we talk about Facebook a lot on here, but that’s because people are interested in it, and want to know how to approach it.

UPDATE: At the suggestion of Terri Troncale I want to invite submissions for non-profits as well. Please, please – fans, recommend your favorites! I’m really happy to have the businesses self-submit but I want to get rid of these iTunes cards

Also, my original limitation on location was because of driving distance to http://socialsouth.org. Please submit anyone, anywhere using Social Media to drive sales, membership, contributions, or any trackable outcome.

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Twitter Bird - Tweet, Tweet, Tweet

Let’s get one thing straight right here: I’m not above buying your love. (Just ask David)

I want to apologize for any juvenile references to follow — my 40th birthday is ~ 6 weeks away and this may be part of my mid-life crisis.

Or as my friend Michael, a New Orleans commercial insurance agent, says: “go Google yourself”!

Surely you realize Dr. Elders didn’t really say that. But, what she did say is alleged to have gotten her fired. For those who don’t remember, Joycelyn Elders was fired by Bill Clinton in the 90’s because she said things that, while true, could have used a little more finesse. That said, she was talking about AIDS which clearly warrants a direct approach.