Facebook & Google Plus: Which Do YOU Think is Better?

Posted on July 15, 2011March 11, 2014

So the battle has begun and there are ALOT of opinions as to what Google’s Social network Google + will do to FaceBook. I happen to be very “Pro-Google”, and though I have seen many of their products come and go over the years, I am particularly impressed by some of the things built into the initial launch of Google Plus.

Now on a personal level I know that FaceBook is, and probably will remain for quite some time, the main player in the areas where they shine as far as social sharing. I also know that for the next few months it will be normal for users of FaceBook to defend (to the bitter end) why FaceBook is so great and how some of the things Google Plus is being recognized for may be “simple UI enhancements” that FaceBook could easily do to remain on top.

After using Google+, I have already found several things I plan on leveraging daily.
Especially Google Circles and Google+ Hangout.

I will be delving into these tools and their usage personally, and professionally, in future posts. Right now, I’m more interested in YOUR take-aways.

Let the battle rage on!

In the end, it’s for our (the users) benefit right? Or maybe it’s all about the data gathered and advertising opportunities. Who knows for sure.

Local Marketing Online: Part 10: Optimized Web Design

Posted on May 31, 2011

A successful local marketing campaign is designed not only to attract your targeted audience but to convert them to customers. At some point in the process all potential and existing customers will visit your website. It is the most powerful online representative of your business – your virtual sales force working for you 24/7/365 to provide information, answer questions, solve some problems, and sell. A professional website is designed to greet, inform, assist, educate and motivate targeted site visitors that:

You have what they need
You provide quality products, services, information, care
You are professional
You are a trusted provider
Your business is sound and going to still be there in a week, month, year, etc.
You are customer-centric and will serve them the way they expect and need
You can answer their questions/concerns to their satisfaction
You are their best choice

That is a lot to accomplish when you are not speaking directly with a person and responding to specific questions and concerns. But your website must accomplish these challenges to the satisfaction of every site visitor who is a potential customer.

In the simplest of terms, the goal of your website is two-fold:

Help existing and potential customers to get what they need from you by fulfilling the above listed items
Help the search engines to get their users what they need by making it easy for them to scan, index and serve your optimized web pages as the most relevant results corresponding to the terms searched (i.e.: help them to do what they do with the highest standard of quality)

An optimized website refers to more than just search engine optimization. Yes, you do need to ensure that your web pages have content highly focused on the terms for which you want them to be delivered in a search engine result. As I explained in Part 2: Search & Social Media, the search terms you select must be the result of your comprehensive keyword research and development because they will be the foundation upon which your online authority will be built across multiple online platforms. They must accurately correspond to your content as well as the language used by your targeted audience groups to search for what you offer.

To recap, search engines aggregate information about your company from a wide variety of online sources, including blogs, social media, web listings, and so forth, looking for a confirmation of your identity and authority for the terms represented by your content. The terms you use in your optimization campaign for your website will be the same ones you use to confirm your identity and authority elsewhere online. Why is this important? Consider the two-fold goal of your website. You are trying to help customers and the search engines get what they want from you. So you must optimize for both. It starts with keywords but it doesn’t end there. Keeping the expectations and needs of both targeted site visitors and the search engines in mind, you must also plan, develop, and implement:

Relevant, highly focused content including text, images, meta data, title tags, urls and hyperlinks (internal, external, anchor, inline, crosslinks with web pages on different sites, attachments)
Ease of access, ease of use including graphical interface, navigation structure, design and programming code
Intelligent architecture that allows for expansion and further optimization
Relationship with all relevant off-site content

Optimized web design may be the most important component of your local marketing campaign because it is your virtual office or showroom ultimately designed to convert your targeted site visitors.

Think of yor website as the house and your marketing efforts as invitations to the party you are having at your house.

It makes no sense to invite people until you are properly prepared.

Thank you for reading my Local Marketing Online series. My objective is to always provide you with practical, easy-to-follow business development tips. Please feel free to share any comments, questions, or experiences. And please share the posts with your friends and colleagues.

Read the Series:

So You Say You Already Have a .Com? (Infographic)

Posted on May 26, 2011

It’s rarely disputed that a business should have a website, but unfortunately simply “having” a website doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a “good” website.

Like it or not, your site is a 24 / 7 / 365 representation of your business. If someone visits your site, whether it be directly or via Search, your site is the equivalent of them walking into your office. What they see, and feel, will dictate their initial reaction to your company as it relates to them.

If you have a website great! But is it bringing you leads you convert to sales?

Local Marketing Online: Part 9: Mobile Marketing

Posted on May 26, 2011

With the rise in the US mobile subscriber market to 234 million users and more than 69.5 million of them accessing the internet and other communication services via their Smartphones like iPhone, Android and Blackberry devices, mobile marketing has opened up local marketing opportunities for many businesses.

Mobile phones have become a way of life. There is actually about three times more mobile phone users now than there are internet users. According to comScore’s latest report on the US mobile subscriber market, almost 70% of US mobile subscribers use text messaging compared to the less than 40% using mobile browsers to search.

The point is that more and more people are relying on their mobile phones and other mobile devices to search, find, and communicate. Google is aware of this fact and has initiated a direct mail marketing campaign to tote the benefits of its local marketing programs such as AdWords on Google Maps and sponsored Boost ads highlighting an advertiser’s Google Profiles page in search results.

Whether it is tailored text messages triggered by user behavior or sponsored ads in one of the many search engine marketing programs, mobile marketing focuses on users who are currently in your city or region or are searching for information about your city or region. In effect, it’s like standing in front of your store and waving people to come in except that you already know they want what your offer and you can reach more of them.

Just as I discussed in Part 8: Pay Per Click Integration, before you initiate a mobile marketing campaign you need to have the other aspects of your local marketing campaign in place and ready to receive your targeted local audience. You must have at least begun to strategically develop your online identity and authority so that the information about your company and what it offers is readily available online to those who need more information, want to read a review to learn what others think about you, or visit your website first.

In Part 10 of the Local Marketing Online series I will talk about optimized website design and why it is central to your online local marketing strategy.

Read the Series:

Local Marketing Online: Part 8: Pay Per Click Integration

Posted on May 13, 2011

Contrary to misguided belief, pay per click is not a ‘get rich quick’ local marketing opportunity. That’s not to say you can’t make money but the first thing you need to understand about pay per click search engine marketing programs is that they must be properly set-up and managed for them to fulfill your revenue-generating ambitions and provide you with lasting return-on-investment.

In this part of the series I will explain how pay per click search engine marketing programs can be thoughtfully integrated into your overall strategy to provide you with impactful results that work together with all your online local marketing initiatives to develop opportunities.

Branding is a big part of local marketing. Whether you offer a product, service, or information, you need to develop and reinforce your brand in the local areas you serve so your targeted audience groups think of you when they need what you offer. Online branding means appearing in the top search engine results for the terms related to what you offer. Achieving top listing positions organically for those all-important terms takes time and an on-going commitment to the objective. Although pay per click search engine marketing programs, such as Google’s AdWords, will not directly affect your organic listing results or the development of your online authority, they do provide you with a quick way to get in front of your targeted audience groups while your organic ranking campaign is underway.

Let me give you an example. One of my clients is a local service provider serving several counties in the Carolinas. As part of an overall strategy that involved the launch of a newly designed optimized website, development of social media, claiming listings in Google Places and other web directories, generating online reviews, and a targeted email marketing campaign, we set-up and managed a pay per click AdWords campaign that focused on the principle services and products the company offers.

The objective of the campaign was two-fold: first to attract new customers to the targeted services and secondly, to reinforce and /or expand the reach of the brand. Organic listing results take time to develop but a well-managed AdWords campaign, for example, helps you to start building your targeted audience right away by providing you with a quick way to learn about and respond to their interest in what you offer.

A well-run pay per click search engine marketing campaign is like having a neon sign that flashes every time users search for what you offer. They may not respond to the ad immediately. But now they know you exist and they have your company name “branded” in their thoughts. Before they reach out to you they may try to find more information online about your company, such as a review on Angie’s List or a shopping site. They will likely visit your website and they may even hope to find information about you on third-party blogs or social media sites. You can start to see how having the other elements of your local marketing strategy in place before you initiate a pay per click campaign is critical to your overall success.

Pay per click search engine marketing programs work best when integrated with a local marketing strategy that covers all the bases concerning how and where potential new business acquires information about your company before deciding to do business with you. It all starts with branding – letting them know you exist and keeping you foremost in their thoughts. From there, you have to use the variety of platforms available to establish your identity and develop your online authority in order to reap the long-term benefits that help you to meet your revenue-generating goals over the long haul.

In Part 9 of the Local Marketing Online series I will talk about the significance of the rise in popularity of Smartphones and the opportunities provided by mobile marketing.

Read the Series: