You’ve taken our introductory social media workshop; you’ve been using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter; you really, really want to know how to become more effective with these tools.

Join us on Friday, July 10th, 9am - 12pm,  at the Three Chimneys Inn in Durham, NH, where you will learn:

• How to effectively build your brand with social media
• Advanced techniques for marketing using social networks
• How to integrate content sharing sites into the mix
• How to start your own social community
• Tips on monitoring your brand and reputation on the social web
• How to outline your own social media strategy

Who should attend?

• You have a Facebook page but don’t know what to do with it.
• You’ve signed up for Twitter, but that’s all.
• You have a LinkedIn account but aren’t sure how to make it work for you.
• You’ve been using social networking for your business and aren’t sure if it’s working.
  

Does this sound like you? Register today!

About Your Instructor:

Patti Fousek is the proud owner of CreativeMind Search Marketing, LLC, a business which helps other businesses get found online through search engine optimization and social media strategies, consulting and training services.

Patti is a marketer & trainer by trade. She has over 15 years experience in marketing and training for such companies as Interim Technology, Bernard Hodes Advertising, HMG Search Marketing, and WGBH (the PBS station in Boston). In 2002, Patti discovered the world of SEO (and later Social Media) and hasn’t looked back .

Recently, the good folks over at Search Engine Roundtable released the results to their April 1st poll: “How Long Should it Take to Rank Well on Google?” Out of the over two-hundred respondents, the largest response was 3-6 months (35%), followed by 6-9 months (19%). In my experience, a well-optimized website will take approximately 3-6 months to rank well. A website that has not been optimized at all….never!

Three to six months for a site to rank well on Google may seem like a long time to the anxious website owner who really wants to prove their site a success. However, with millions upon millions of websites trying to rank on the first page of the SERPs (search engine results pages), it takes that amount of time for Google to revisit your web pages enough times to build up the trust factor. Also, Google looks at many different factors of a web page in order to give it high rankings in SERPs. And, those factors change all the time - which can seem to be a bit unfair to even the most diligent of webmasters.

Such factors that Google takes into account include:

• Age of the domain
• Use of keywords in the Title tag
• Relevancy of keywords in the body text
• Link popularity of the site (or web page in question)
• Anchor text used in inbound link
• Relevance of inbound links
• Quality of content & freshness of content

Google also looks at factors that may negatively affect a website. These factors include:

• Duplicate title/meta description tags
• Errors in site code which distracts search engine spiders
• Duplicate content of any kind
• Participation in link farms or link schemes
• Keyword stuffing (basically overusing keyword phrases)
• Keywords in Title do not match content
• Hidden keywords
• Disobeying any of Google rules (see Google’s webmaster guidelines)

One thing that I have learned in my many years of optimizing websites. A website is only as good as those who maintain it. I’ve also learned that once you get the hang of what Google likes, they change the rules. However, with all this said, it doesn’t matter how well a website ranks on Google. What matters is the visitor.

As a professional SEO who has done optimized a ton of websites for various industries - this is what I suggest.

• Have a plan - what do you want visitors to do when they land on your site
• Know your audience and produce well-written, useful content for them
• Make it easy for visitors to find what they are looking for - don’t hide important information
• Make your calls-to-action prominent and consistent
• Maintain your content - if a product or service changes, update your site accordingly

So instead of worrying how long it takes to rank well on Google. Start thinking about your visitor and what is important to them. Afterall, your in business to get business from humans, not search engines.

Not sure if your site meets Google’s (or Patti’s) guidelines. Contact us for a complimentary website review.

Here is some of what I told her:

You’re the Expert.
Blogging helps to position yourself and your company as the thought leader of your business.This is true regardless if you own a tiny shoe repair shop, or a mega-corporation.

Build Client Relationship
Blogs are a great way to receive feedback from your customers, provide tips, and gain insight into what your customers really want.

Find Employees
Daily readers of your blog pay attention to what you have to say. Chances are they enjoy reading your blog and look forward to your posts. What better way to attract some of those readers as loyal employees.

Rank High on Search Engines
Yes, blogs do help you achieve high keyword rankings on search engines. Blogs tend to get indexed much faster than websites do. Search engines, especially Google, enjoy fresh content. Blogs associated with your website are a great way to update content frequently.

Do you own a blog? What has your experience been?

During the presentation I spoke about the benefits of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Following the presentation, I have received lots of Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections, but only two new Twitter followers. Many of the survey responses were also super positive, but I did see one comment over and over. “I just don’t understand the benefits to Twitter.”

Well, as a small business owner, I have found Twitter to be very helpful as far as growing my business. Not only have I received increased traffic to my website, but I have also learned a lot from those that I follow.

For example:

• @smallbiztrends (Anita Campbell, CEO of an online community) tweets include small business marketing tips, product info and other tidbits to help small business grow and more.
• @SmallBizTools tweets include advice, tips, and tools for entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small business owners.
• @mainebusiness (Carl V. Natale, content producer for MaineBusiness.com) tweets about lots of useful tips to improve your business. From marketing to social media, to business growth and taxes - he covers it all)

Others to follow include:

@WSJSmallBiz

@MarketingProfs

@thebrandbuilder

@PRmaine

@BeckyMcCray

@smallbusiness

@PaulDunay

@andybeal

@digg_technews

And, of course, yours truly @PattiFousek

Just remember…. Not only can you learn from those you follow on Twitter, but your followers can learn from you too. And… it’s fun.

In today’s tough economic times it’s more important than ever to have a strong web presence. Why? Well, businesses and consumers spend more time researching a product or service before making that crucial buying decision. Consumers today choose to do business with, or buy a product from, companies they trust, and those that offer value.

Fresh website content helps increase keyword rankings on the SERPS (search engine results pages) and builds inbound links. However, beneficial fresh content will also build targeted traffic and customer acquisition too.

Here are 5 simple tips for adding fresh, and beneficial, content to your website.

1. Start a useful blog. It’s a well-known fact that blogs attract links and traffic, but a useful blog will also attract customers. Write value-added posts that give potential clients a reason to choose you over your competitors.
2. Create social responsible news. Many businesses have a News section of their site where they post their latest press releases - which is great. However, take it one step further by posting your “social responsible” news to your site as well. Has your company donated money to a charity, or organized a volunteer effort? Has your company joined the “green” revolution? Put it on your site.
3. Add tip lists or how-to articles. Whether your company offers dog sweaters or project collaboration software, there is always a helpful tip or a useful how-to to share. Free advice is not only valuable; it will be remembered by your audience as well. If your visitors find your tips helpful, they’ll be sure to share it with their friends or business associates. Make it easy for them by adding an “email this article” link.
4. Solicit customer testimonials, reviews or case studies. Your customers are your most important asset. Ask for testimonials or reviews and post them on your site. Better yet, if your product or service helped a client solve a problem, write a case study. People like to do business with companies that have happy clients.
5. Interview an expert in your field (even if it’s a competitor). With the birth of social media, collaboration has become part of the norm. Interviewing an expert in your niche not only gives your clients useful information, but also boosts your credibility as well.

Give visitors a reason to come back to your website over and over. Afterall, beneficial content sells in tough times, and in good.

Tell us what you think. Leave a comment.

As a search marketing specialist, I read LOTS of online publications, some of which are Pulitzer Prize worthy - in my opinion anyway. I read through the 14 possible Pulitzer Prizes for online journalists. In the SEM industry, two categories in particular sound promising:

9. For distinguished commentary, in print or online or both, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

10. For distinguished criticism, in print or online or both, Ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

I’m sure we all can think of a few online journalists that would qualify for these categories. My favorites include Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal and Maki of DoshDosh.

Who do you think is Pulitzer Prize worthy? Leave me a comment with your votes.

During the seminar Kathleen Soldati, Director of Marketing at The Music Hall (also a co-presenter), brought up a great point. Companies that continued to advertise and market themselves during the Great Depression still strive today. Examples include Proctor and Gamble, Chevrolet, and Camel Cigarettes.

What does this mean for your business? Keep marketing!

When times get rough, the first impulse is to cut the marketing budget. Not only must companies, large and small, not cut their marketing budget, but they need to invest more effort and budget into marketing in order to get past tough times.

My portion of the presentation included a segment on Website Marketing. Highlights from the presentation include:

• 70% of internet users search online to find a local service
• 39% of internet users only click on the results found on the first page
• Your target market no longer uses the Yellow Pages or newspapers to find you
• Your website is a vital marketing tool
• Local businesses – even brick-and-mortar establishments – need an online presence
• Have 5 Seconds to make a positive first impression
• Could lose business if not found high on search results pages

What else did we talk about?

• It’s important to know your audience. In order to succeed in any marketing campaign, you must first know who your audience is and what they want and need
• Choose your keywords wisely. Avoid company jargon or very broad terms
• Create useful, well-written content on your website. Give visitors a reason to visit
• Focus on the visitor and not on search engines

To learn more about how you can use online marketing to survive a tough economy, contact Patti Fousek for a free, non-obligation, consultation.

So, what’s the big deal about Chrome? Well, I’m sure Microsoft is shaking in its boots worrying that Chrome will make Internet Explorer obsolete. Will that happen? I doubt it. Also, faithful users of Mozilla’s Firefox may decide to switch to Chrome if Google offers similar plug-ins and downloads. But what really makes Chrome special? According to Google’s press announcement yesterday, Chrome’s features include:

• Clean design and simple to use
  
• Each tab runs independently making Chrome faster and more responsive
• Enhanced security features
• “Fill in the blank” feature remembers where you’ve visited
• Thumbnails of your top sites
  
• Shortcuts to downloaded files appear at the bottom of the page - no more searching for your downloads in files (personally happy about this one)
• Drag and drop downloaded files to location of choice (again, happy about this one)
• Instant bookmarks, and more…
  
• Completely open-source and not tied to Google search or any other Google application

During the press conference, Google stressed that Chrome is completely open-source and is not related to Google Search or any other Google application. Google also said they will continue to work closely with Mozilla and also commended Mozilla for “re-igniting browser technology advancements.”

What does the future hold for Chrome? We’ll soon find out. I’m sure news of Chrome will not die off too soon.

As for me, I’ll give Chrome a shot. But it will take a lot to convince me to switch completley from Firefox.

Why does this happen? Most times it’s either A. your website is not optimized so it’s virtually invisible on the internet; or, B. there are no calls-to-action on the site. We’ll talk about SEO another time, today, let’s explore the almighty “call-to-action”.

What is a Call-to-Action?

Simply put, a call-to-action is the end result you want from your visitor. Many business owners don’t clearly define their website goals before the design process begins. This is a huge mistake that can cost even more of your already stretched budget to fix after the fact.

Before jumping into the design, ask yourself “what do I want my visitors to do when they land on my website?”

Some examples of a call-to-action are:

• Fill out a contact form
• Subscribe to a newsletter
• Register for an event
• Download a white paper
• Subscribe to your blog

Whatever the action is, the steps leading to that action also need to be very clear. Wording and color of a call-to-action are just as important as the placement. Make the action clear, visible, and enticing. Avoid phrases like: “click here”, “read more”, and “more”. Think about how many websites you have visited that have such lame action phrases. Do you ever click on them? Probably not.

Messaging Your Call-to-Action

The message in the call-to-action needs to be clear and simple, but not boring. Some examples of this include:

• Buy Now, Save 50%
• Receive SEO Tips Weekly
• Read Our Gardening Articles
• Download Software Whitepapers
• Get Started Now
• Free Instant Quote

Grab your audiences attention. Make the action appealing. The visitor has landed on your site for a  reason, make it easy for them to make the desired action.

Conclusion

A website needs to be more than just a pretty picture. Think about what you want your visitors to do on your webiste. Then, make it easy for them to do so. You’ll be happy you did.

Aaron Wall is my favorite SEO guru. His blog is always chock-full of great information - and I just love reading it. Well, today, as I was scanningmy inbox, I came across a link to a new keyword ranking tool: http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/. I saw the words “seobook” and “firefox” and just had to click.

The Rank Checker will check how your keywords rank on Google, Yahoo, and MSN Live Search - nationally or internationally. The tool also has an export to CVS feature which makes tracking monthly rankings very easy.

Thank you to Aaron Wall and Firefox for collaborating to make a great, and VERY useful tool.