Tips for BloggersOne of the most difficult parts of blogging is actually getting started. You might ask yourself: “What do I have to say?” “Is it really that important?” “Who will actually read what I write?” The answers to these questions will never be revealed . . . if you don’t start blogging.

We’ve all heard about the benefits of generating fresh content that search engines love, link-worthy posts that get shared across the Web, and brand interaction that can only happen in the blogosphere . . . but what about coming up with ideas and writing good posts? Here are 10 tips to help make your first foray into blogging successful:

  1. Select appropriate topics. You can take a different perspective or provide better information than other blogs in your industry. Think about what topics a reader would find interesting, useful, or relevant about your industry. Don’t make your blog a sales pitch. Write about topics that can help your readers—such as various ways to use your product—or that can educate them about your industry. Use the opportunity to connect with your readers by showing that you know what you’re talking about when it comes to your industry.

    Don’t risk your reputation by posting controversial, personal, or hostile content—unless that’s part of your brand. The blog may be one of the first interactions a customer has with you. Make the interaction count by establishing trust and credibility through engaging or useful content.

  2. Consider length and style. It’s best to limit your entries to 150–250 words, as most Internet readers tend to skim. If your topic requires a more in-depth treatment, you can go beyond 250 words. Keep in mind that you can stretch a complicated topic across several posts, rather than stuffing it all into one entry.

    Most blog posts tend to be conversational and informal in tone, although certain industries may need to be more technical or informational. Just remember to give your posts personality. Think of your blog as a lobby for your brand. It has to feel welcoming and approachable, while still being able to convey all of the useful information visitors need.

  3. Format effectively. Because most online readers skim, format your post to make it easier to read. Break up text by using paragraphs, subheadings, quotations, bullet points, lists, images, video, or other elements to organize your information in a way that makes it easy and accessible for your readers. Be creative!

  4. Write engaging headlines. The headline is one of the most important pieces of a blog post. Just like your storefront attracts customers into your shop, a good headline will draw your visitors in. When writing headlines, remember not to shout at or market to readers. Instead, give them something short, sweet, and engaging. Entice them. Use active voice.

  5. Use links responsibly. Don’t use more than a few links in a blog post; otherwise, your post will appear like spam. Instead, link when necessary, and when it’s relevant to what you’re writing about. Try not to use the phrase “click here” as the anchor text when linking. Instead, use keywords that are relevant to your brand. That makes a link more understandable, and it can also help with search engine rankings.

  6. Include images. Images can make your post more attractive and—because they break up the text—easier to read. Include images that complement what you’re talking about in your post. Also, don’t forget to use image alt tags to provide search engines with information about the content of the images.

  7. Be consistent. Daily updates are ideal. When you post less than once a week, you risk losing your readers. Establish a posting schedule so that you keep the fresh content coming. The worst thing you could do is start blogging and then go missing. It becomes embarrassing when a reader comes to your blog only to find the last update is months old. If a company doesn’t care enough to update its blog regularly, what does that say about how it values its readers (or customers)?

  8. Proofread, edit, proofread again. There’s nothing worse than reading a blog post riddled with grammatical and spelling errors. It’s frustrating for the reader, and it looks unprofessional. Take time to proofread, edit, and proofread again.

  9. Respond to feedback. Blogs can be an excellent customer service tool because they create a more informal environment for customers to voice their thoughts or concerns. Be sure to take the time to respond and interact accordingly.

  10. Stay committed. Finally, stay committed to your blog. Make the effort to update regularly, develop good content, and be a thought leader in your industry. Practice writing. Read more. Comment and interact on other blogs in your industry. By being committed to making your blog successful, you’re already taking the first step toward having a blog that helps your brand, and ultimately, your business.

This article appeared in the January/February 2010 issue of eBiz Insider, the magazine for eCommerce professionals from Web.com.

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Facebook and Your Fan BaseIf your business has a presence on Facebook, then you’ve already taken the first step toward connecting with your current and potential customers on one of the most popular social networking sites to date. But to fully benefit from having a fan page on Facebook, you’ll need to actively engage your fans to maintain their interest and keep the momentum going for your business.

So how can you accomplish that? Let’s look at seven ways:

  1. Advertise your fan page. To get the most out of your page, you can’t rely on the mantra: “Build it and they will come.” You’ll need to get the message out to your current and potential customers by advertising your new Facebook page. At the very least, you should link to your fan page directly from your website, blog, Twitter page, or other online forum. You’ll want to make sure that the link is at the top of the right or left column on your website, especially in hot spots like the masthead. Including a Facebook icon is the best way to draw attention to your link.

    To boost your advertising even further, try using Facebook ads, blog posts, or other messaging to communicate your page’s existence to future fans.

  2. Build your brand. You should mention your Facebook page on all of the elements in your marketing program. One of the quickest ways you can do this is to include a link in your email signature. You can also mention your Facebook page on any fulfillment materials, invoices, packing slips, company brochures, or business cards. To gain popularity, you’ll need to spread the news through every customer contact avenue that’s available to your business.

  3. Include your company information. On your Facebook fan page, there’s an Info tab that allows you to include information about your business. At a minimum, you should provide an overview of your company, information about your products or services, and a link to your website. But you don’t have to be constrained by the current categories. With a little creativity, you can expand on this part of your page and use it to drive conversion in other areas. For example, in the Company Overview section, you can place links to specific pages on your website, or you can add a sign-up form that lets people subscribe to your email newsletter. This area is also a great place to put links to your other social networking sites, such as Twitter.

  4. Create a landing page. One of the greatest aspects of Facebook’s fan page is the ability to create a landing page that leads into your “actual” page. Facebook provides an application called Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language), which allows you to use basic coding to create a small landing page that becomes the first thing people see when they come to your fan site.

    To install this tool, log in to Facebook and add Static FBML to your page. Once you’ve installed it, you can insert your code and adjust your settings on your wall so that people who aren’t yet your fans will land on this particular page first. To get the most out of this technique, you should provide a short description of your business and request that people become a fan of your page. I’ve known businesses that have used this technique and have been highly effective in converting visitors to fans.

  5. Provide engaging content. Having a Facebook fan page provides an ideal opportunity to interact with people. The more information you include on your page, the more inclined your fans will be to stay involved. But remember, interaction requires the efforts of both you and your visitors. And when your fans are more involved, they’re more likely to take advantage of special promotions you might be offering or to suggest your fan page to their friends.

    To encourage interaction, you can adjust your wall settings to allow your fans to post comments, links, or videos on your page, and you can host a miniforum by using the Discussions application. If you have videos on YouTube that are related to your products or services, you can educate your fans about your videos by using the Notes application. You can also import an RSS feed through this application, which is an excellent way to provide relevant content to your readers.

  6. Promote with offerings. Besides creating a landing page, you can use Static FBML to create coupons and rewards, promotional announcements, or even a little shopping area. If you can imagine it, you can create it. Start thinking of your Facebook page as an extension of your main website. If you publish an email newsletter, you can use the markup language to create a subscription form for sign-ups. If you use an email marketing program, you’ll need to put the code for your subscription form in FBML to create a tab on your page.

    Above all, make sure that you’re following the Facebook Pages Terms to avoid making mistakes that could inadvertently cause your Facebook fan page to be deactivated.

  7. Do your research. Facebook provides the Insights tool that allows you to view certain metrics about your fan base. It’s not extremely robust, but it does provide a snapshot on things such as the number of active fans you have in various age groups, the geographic breakdown of your fans, and the growth of your fan base over time. This is helpful information when you’re deciding which promotions to advertise to your fans or whether you should target your messaging to a specific age group.

    You should also research other businesses on Facebook to see what they’re doing to promote their page or to engage their fans. Pay attention to what features they’re using, what kind of content they frequently post for their fans, and what methods they use to interact with their visitors. There are a lot of successful Facebook fan pages that offer creative and effective ideas you can try on your own page.

Want to learn more? Follow us on Twitter and join us on Facebook.

Social Media and Your BusinessNo matter what social network you’re using to connect with your community, your customers, or other businesspeople in your industry, the most important thing to remember is that it’s a “social” network. That means there’s no “set it and forget it” approach. Social media is interactive, requiring efficient and effective response. Importantly, it proves more and more each day that personality and pizzazz can get you a lot of attention, perhaps more quickly and easily than any other marketing channel.

Although social media is often touted as “immediate marketing,” it takes a long-term approach to make it valuable, vibrant, and varied. Just like with any other relationship you want to cultivate, the results won’t happen overnight. Others need time to get to know you, and they need to see evidence of your commitment to the community—whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, or another venue in the social space—before they will actively keep you on their radar.

While social media can be a bit intimidating for the newcomer, it’s actually one of the few marketing opportunities that let you get your feet wet while you’re trying to figure out the right formula for putting “yourself” into your marketing efforts. That personality part of social media is what causes many business owners to shy away from it, and their apprehension is understandable. For years, business owners have been trained against doing just that. It used to be that a business had a personality all its own. So now, when they’re expected to inject their own personality into the mix, some business owners will crouch in a corner of inactivity or resort to automatic replies.

But social media need not be scary. Why? Because the fusion of personality and business lets you live and breathe and socialize in a “community” that was never possible before. Here are just a few of the new and awesome opportunities it brings:

  • Have a supplements shop? You can ask your customers to tweet their vote for the next flavor of your signature energy drink.
  • Sell environmentally friendly products or services? You can engage in a conversation on a green industry blog about the proper methods for installing solar panels.
  • Is your store known for having the latest and greatest electronics? You can reward your Facebook fans by offering them a special discount on your latest tech gadget.

And along with those new opportunities comes a new set of rules for conduct and etiquette. While you’re busy typing your feedback and sharing “yourself” online, it’s important to remember that you’re still representing your “business.” What you say and how you interact in the social sphere are just as important as what you say and how you interact in your bicycle shop or in your booth at the local farmers market.

Your social presence should be respectful and in line with the character of your business. For example, unless your business takes a public stance on political or religious issues, you’d want to steer clear of such topics and focus on subject matter that’s less controversial. Use logic when deciding what to do and say. Want to share your opinion on an election? “American Idol” will usually work better than something more, shall we say, Presidential?

What are some of the other don’ts for a business engaged in social media? Here’s a sampling:

  • Don’t send automated direct messages on Twitter. This impersonal approach prevents you from building relationships with your followers.
  • Don’t neglect to add comments on your Facebook wall, or to properly address concerns (or compliments) left there by others. If you’re not actively engaged, your fans will abandon ship . . . and set sail elsewhere!
  • Don’t treat every interaction as a sales pitch. People will see through your efforts very quickly.
  • Don’t treat your blog as a replica of your website and expect that people want to read endless posts that are nothing more than advertisements.

It’s also important to avoid letting your ego get in the way when you’re responding or sharing. Before you post any content online, it’s always a good policy to take a step back and carefully read what you’ve written to make sure that nothing could be misconstrued or considered “too much.” Don’t think of it as censoring yourself—think of it as being smart. Smart and, well . . . social!

Want to learn more? Follow us on Twitter and join us on Facebook.

Engaging Fans on FacebookFor the business owner who doesn’t have the time to dabble in social media, Facebook has always been a solid set-it-and-forget-it solution. It’s easy to create a Facebook page for a business and then populate it with a few photos, some contact information, and other general info . . . and then leave it. The page is an effective passive strategy—it’s there waiting to be found, and you might even get a few visits to your website from Facebook each month.

But there’s something you should know. Set-it-and-forget-it is not going to make for instant popularity. If you have loftier goals for using social media, that level of performance can be disappointing. Popular Facebook pages—the kind with hundreds of thousands of fans—tend to be built around companies, products, or public figures with a high degree of offline popularity or to experience large, time-sensitive booms in fan population (like the recent spate of “I bet this [random object] can get more fans than [random celebrity]” pages or the “Tautology Club” group based on a joke in the webcomic “xkcd”). For pages that don’t have that level of global popularity to rely on, building a Facebook following that you can activate or convert takes more work and a focus on creating engagement with your fans.

“Engagement” may be the new social media buzzword of 2010—just like “conversation” was last year—but its buzzworthiness is well earned, and its prominence signals a sea of change in the way some people look at how social media can be used to market a business or brand. Instead of a direct marketing channel, social media has become a key tool in customer relations—from answering product questions to providing concierge services. If you have a Facebook page, how are you using it to engage your fans? If you’re not, think about how your business can benefit from a stronger relationship with your most loyal customers.

Luckily, there are some simple things you can do to increase engagement with your customers on Facebook:

  • Update regularly. The best way to stay fresh in your fans’ consciousness is to make sure the page gets updated regularly. Link your blog or your Twitter feed to the page if you need to, but set a goal of posting something to your page at least a few times each week. For better results, try to keep track of what time your fans are most active (at least the ones with public timelines) and aim to schedule your own updates for those times. Conventional wisdom is that Facebook has the most activity on weekends. To that end, you can use a social media management app like HootSuite to schedule posts when you’re out of the office.
  • Monitor activity. Although Facebook has recently started sending weekly email updates to page admins, tracking activity on a Facebook page is still not as easy as it should be. No notifications get sent when new comments or wall posts appear on the page, so that means tracking them manually. And you do have to track them, because responding to those comments in a timely manner is an important part of keeping fans engaged. The simple act of replying to questions and comments can earn added loyalty and positive word of mouth from a user.
  • Promote yourself. Filling your page’s timeline with spam is bad, but it’s okay to encourage fans to visit your website or to read your blog or buy a hot new product. In fact, feel free to do this about 10%–15% of the time, as long as it comes across as organic and authentic. This kind of promotion works both ways—name-drop the Facebook page in your email advertising or place a link to the page on your store’s “thank you” page. In addition to passively linking from your homepage or blog, these links will get served to your audience when they’re already at a point of high engagement.
  • Incentivize. People love getting free stuff. To increase engagement, hold a contest among your fans—one that’s easy to participate in. Circulate a Facebook-only coupon to reward that audience (and after the fact, let it slip to the rest of your customers that they missed out by not being a fan).
  • Solicit. Sometimes the key to better engagement is asking for it. Let your fans know you’re ready to interact with them. Ask for feedback on specific items.

With 400 million active users and growing, Facebook can be a daunting landscape. Your business is unlikely to have the same fan count as Coca-Cola™ or the Pope, but numbers aren’t what makes a social media effort effective. The real metric you should be monitoring is engagement, however you choose to define it (number of interactions, clickthrough on shared links, conversion rate of links to sales pages, number of mentions, percent of positive sentiment in comments about your brand—any can be a valid measuring stick depending on your goals and strategy). Strive to improve that month over month, and you’ll begin to see the dividends.

This article was published in the March/April 2010 issue of eBiz Insider, the magazine for eCommerce professionals from Web.com.

Want to learn more? Follow us on Twitter and join us on Facebook.

Facebook Fan Box on Your WebsiteMany small businesses are exploring the use of Facebook for their business. If you’re using Facebook, then adding a “Become a Fan” box to your website is one of the best ways to announce to your customers that you’re on Facebook.

With a fan box, people can sign up to receive your Facebook updates right from your home page. This not only gives you the opportunity to generate more fans, but given the popularity of Facebook, it also conveys that your business is up-to-date, or “au courant.” Having a Facebook fan page is definitely a smart move for your brand.

So if you’d like to add a fan box to your website’s home page, just follow these basic steps:

  1. Log in to your Facebook fan page. On the left side, near the top, there’s a link that says “Edit Page.” Click on that link.
  2. On the edit page, midway down the page on the right-hand side, there’s a heading that says “Promote your page.” Below that heading, there’s a link that says “Promote with a Fan Box.” Click on that link.

  3. This takes you to a page called “Fan Box Widget.” The first option is to “Select your Page.” Your fan page should already be selected, unless you have more than one fan page. There are three “include” options that you can choose for your fan box:

    • If you select the “stream” option, the box will include the stream of comments on your wall. (Note: This option will make the box bigger.)
    • If you choose the “fans” option, your fans will be included in the box. (Note: This option will make the box bigger.)
    • The third option will include the “facebook logo,” and I definitely recommend this choice.
  4. The second option on the “Fan Box Widget” page is to “Choose where to add the widget.” To add the widget to your website, select “Other.” The code that you need for doing so will be generated, and it will appear in the field below. You’ll also see a preview of your fan box on the right-hand side. If you want to change any of your choices, you can select or deselect them and then re-click the “Other” button. At that point, your code and the preview will refresh.
  5. Finally, you need to select the code in the field, copy it (hit Ctrl+C or use the browser copy function), and then paste it (hit Ctrl+V or use the browser paste function) in the HTML code on the home page of your website.

If you’re a Web.com eWorks! XL® customer, you can send this code to our modifications team by completing the Modifications Submission Form, and they’ll be happy to insert it onto your website. If you’re a do-it-yourself website or hosting customer, you can paste this code in the HTML code on your website.

P.S. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

 

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If you want to learn more about Google Analytics to keep track of how much traffic your website is getting, and what that’s worth to you, we recommend Michael Miller’s Sam’s Teach Yourself Google Analytics in 10 Minutes.

We like the book because it starts out at the very most basic first steps — creating an account and installing the code on your website — through analyzing traffic sources and top content, to setting up goals and funnels, creating campaign codes, and even tracking ecommerce traffic.

We especially like this last chapter, because it explains how to find out where your ecommerce traffic is coming from, and what they bought. If you’ve got an ecommerce site, this is crucial, because you need to know which of your marketing channels you can ignore and which ones you should put more energy and time into.

The information is very easy to understand, and the language simple. The book is written for the beginning user who has never used Google Analytics before. It’s for the user who wants to start using Google Analytics, and grow in their knowledge and experience. The book keeps up with the user and grows with you, showing you new ideas and tricks along the way. The concepts become
more difficult, but they build on knowledge and information from previous chapters.

If there’s just one book that will help you understand Google Analytics — and there really only needs to be one; it’s not that hard — then Sam’s Teach Yourself Google Analytics in 10 Minutes by Michael Miller is it.

If you want to learn more about Google Analytics to keep track of how much traffic your website is getting, and what that’s worth to you, we recommend Michael Miller’s Sam’s Teach Yourself Google Analytics in 10 Minutes.

We like the book because it starts out at the very most basic first steps — creating an account and installing the code on your website — through analyzing traffic sources and top content, to setting up goals and funnels, creating campaign codes, and even tracking ecommerce traffic.

We especially like this last chapter, because it explains how to find out where your ecommerce traffic is coming from, and what they bought. If you’ve got an ecommerce site, this is crucial, because you need to know which of your marketing channels you can ignore and which ones you should put more energy and time into.

The information is very easy to understand, and the language simple. The book is written for the beginning user who has never used Google Analytics before. It’s for the user who wants to start using Google Analytics, and grow in their knowledge and experience. The book keeps up with the user and grows with you, showing you new ideas and tricks along the way. The concepts become
more difficult, but they build on knowledge and information from previous chapters.

If there’s just one book that will help you understand Google Analytics — and there really only needs to be one; it’s not that hard — then Sam’s Teach Yourself Google Analytics in 10 Minutes by Michael Miller is it.

Experts say the difference between who you are now and who you will be in five years will depend on the books you read and >the people you know. We can actually give you some advice on both of those areas, starting with four great books on small business marketing and networking.

Crush It, Gary Vaynerchuk

If there was ever a book on helping people find their passion and pursuing it, it’s Crush It. Gary tells how he got started by following his passion, and turned a $1 million family liquor store into a $50 million wine business and media empire. It’s an exciting book, so don’t read it before you go to bed.

Corporate Blogging for Dummies, Douglas Karr and Chantelle Flannery

Blogging is the ideal way to show customers what you do and how well you do it. It also helps you improve your search engine ranking. This is the book when it comes to blogging. Anyone who’s ever wondered if they need a business blog (hint: you do), should read this comprehensive book.

No Bullshit Social Media, Jason Falls and Erik Deckers

Many companies are still afraid of of social media marketing, thinking it’s a fad or that it’s only for young people. This book makes a plain, no BS business case for why businesses should do it, and helps them figure out strategies and places to use it.

Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi

The definitive book on networking and meeting people face to face. It doesn’t matter how much effort you put into your online life, it’s an empty shell without personal connections. Get to know people in your industry, people in allied industries, potential clients, actual clients.

You’re at your very first networking group at your local Chamber of Commerce or business networking event. Your first thought is that it’s more like a high school dance than anything else.

Numerous couples are talking to each other, a few people are talking in groups, and you’re standing with several people on the sidelines look around for someone to talk to, hoping someone will make the first move so you don’t have to.

But don’t worry. Networking in a group can be easy. Here are five important steps to take to make your first group event a success:

  1. You only have to meet a few people. You’re not there to meet everyone in the room, or even half of them. If you can meet four people during the entire event, you’re doing pretty well.
  2. Ask basic questions: What’s your name? What do you do? What made you get into that? Do you still have all your fingers? (Just checking to see if you’re still reading.) Keep a few infrequently asked questions in your pocket, in case the conversation slows down, but otherwise stick with the standards.
  3. Listen more than you talk. The key to being seen as a great conversationalist is to listen more, and talk less. Let them do most of the talking.
  4. Give out business cards only when asked. The goal is not to see how many business cards you can get rid of. Rather, you want to see how many quality contacts — people you want to meet with again — you can make. Giving away business cards is not a measure of networking success.
  5. Schedule a time to meet for coffee or lunch. You’re not going to strike up a lifelong friendship in 10 minutes, so don’t try. Rather, just get an idea about whether you want to meet this person later for an hour. If you like them, invite them for coffee, and get to know them better. That’s your time to develop that deeper relationship.

The great thing about social networking is that you can create significant relationships with people right from your computer. But make no mistake, an online relationship is no substitute for an offline one.

Meeting your online business connections face-to-face can greatly help your professional growth, as well as your company’s.

There’s an old saying that people buy from people they like. The same is true for referring opportunities and even clients to people — people will only do it for you if they like and trust you. (And the reverse is certainly true.) If you have trusted relationships with people, they’ll help you. If you don’t, they won’t.

To get to know these people, a coffee or lunch meeting is always the best. Find a coffee shop that’s conveniently located to both of you, and meet for an hour.

The point is not to sell to the other person (or let them sell to you). In fact, the best networkers rarely talk about themselves. They let the other person do the talking, and then see if they can find ways to help them. Ask them about how they got started in their business, where they worked in the past, what do they enjoy most about their job now.

But don’t limit it to just talk about work. Talk about your families and your hobbies. Talk about where you grew up, and what high school was like. Talk about that funny thing you both shared on Twitter. Just talk about the things people normally talk about.

We’ve talked about networking and mentoring this week, so it’s only fitting that our book of the week is every networker’s bible, Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. We even discussed this book briefly in our Four Best Small Business Marketing Books post earlier this week.

The book, which was published in 2005, is considered by many to be one of the best books on networking and establishing relationships that can be very valuable to helping one grow professionally.

The three best networking lessons anyone can learn and apply from the book are:

1. Figure out who can help you professionally, both by name and job type. That is, do you want to meet an editor at a publishing house, or a professional speaker? Do you know of a particular person you would like to meet? Next, figure out a way you can meet them face to face. Do you know someone who can introduce you? Or are you bold enough to just reach out yourself?

2. Spend more time listening, rather than telling them all about yourself. People who listen more than talk are often thought of as being good conversationalists. (Go figure.)

3. Stay in touch with more ways to help. This is the key to successful networking: get help by helping others first. If you can connect people with resources, opportunities, and even other people who can help them achieve their goals, you’ll reap the benefits later.

While this is a good book to read, it’s even better to listen to, so check out the audiobook version, and listen to it in the car or on your MP3 player or iPhone.

One of the secrets of any successful businessperson is that they did not get to where they were on their own; they had mentors who helped guide them throughout their career path, whether they were climbing the corporate ladder or starting their own business.

As a business owner, you need to find mentors to help you reach your own potential, to guide you through the pitfalls and over the barriers, and to give you advice to avoid the problems they faced as they were in your position.

The best place to find mentors is at outside networking events, rather than looking online. We talk a lot on this blog about online networking as a way to find valuable connections, but it’s the offline events where you’ll make the best connections.

Look for someone who is older and more experienced, and either works in your industry, or used to. Meet with them at least once a month, if not every two weeks, to discuss the issues that arise in your business, and seek their advice in dealing with them.

Pay attention to the stories they tell, ask for introductions to the people they know, and read any of the books or blogs they suggest. These people were successful for a reason, and their reading habits is one of those reasons. You can benefit from the same knowledge by reading some of the same books and authors.

Do you think sales is a mind game? You’re right. Read Monika Jansen’s series, How to Use Psychology to Boost Sales, Part 1 and How to Use Psychology to Boost Sales, Part 2, and learn how to win at the sales game.

Expanding your sales internationally is a great way to grow your business. Read Monika Jansen’s tips to learn How to Get Started With a Global Marketing Strategy.

Is your business website doing all it should to spur sales? If not, check out Maria Valdez Haubrich’s Your 3-Step Plan for a Business Website That Drives Sales.

Email marketing is still a top tool for small business. To make your emails even more effective, read Rieva Lesonsky’s post Why Your Emails Must Be Mobile-Optimized.

Speaking of mobile, make sure you’re on top of mobile payment and m-commerce trends by checking out Rieva Lesonsky’s Mobile Commerce, Mobile Payments: What’s the Future?

Then learn about the hottest mobile market in Rieva Lesonsky’s post Who’s Got Smartphones and Apps? Gen Y.

Taking the home-based office deduction just got easier. Read Karen Axelton’s post Good News for Home-Based Business: IRS Simplifies Home Office Deduction to learn more.

Online guerilla marketing takes advantage of using tools and tactics that other, usually larger companies are not so willing to try. Guerilla marketing uses unconventional tactics to promote a product or idea. So online guerilla marketing uses those unconventional tactics via social media.

“Conventional” tactics are traditional “spray-and-pray” advertisements. They’re everywhere. That means we need something people will find useful, and put it in the places where they already are.

Blogging

Blogging has been around since the mid-90s, but you would be surprised at the number of companies that still aren’t using it. Start a company blog to talk about frequently asked questions, customer service issues, solve problems your clients have, and keep them informed about industry trends and changes.

Twitter

Connect with people on Twitter and answer those same questions and problems from your blog. If you can answer someone in 140 characters or less, do so. If not, steer them toward the appropriate blog post. But never, ever tell people to buy your products. Instead, just help people out as much as you can. They’ll buy from you once they trust you.

Google+

This is the most guerilla of them all. Google+ may not be the raging success that the search giant hoped it would be, but people are on it. And because it’s not so big, that means your competition isn’t on it, but you may have a few customers who are. Best of all, content shared on Google+ shows up in the search engine results. If you want to improve your own search results, share your blog posts and other interesting articles to Google+.

 

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Pinterest is an online pin board where users share, or “pin,” photos of things they like, so their other friends can see them. You can organize your photos into different boards — things I want, organization, weight loss motivation, recipes to try, travel planning, childhood memories — and browse other people’s boards to get inspiration from them.

We’ve seen boards dedicated to fitness, home decorating, wedding planning, healthy eating, favorite desserts, skin care tips, you name it. Then, as the pinners are surfing the web, and they discover a photo of something they like, they pin it, add it to their appropriate board, and write a suitable description that explains what they liked about it.

There are a few cool things about Pinterest that make this more than just a bulletin board though. For one thing, whenever someone clicks your pinned photo, they’re taken to the original website where you found it, like, say, a book page at Amazon.com. (Idea: Create a birthday wish list board and pin the photos of items you want.)

Another possibility is to use Pinterest to promote items you sell. Pin photos to your store’s “Items We Carry” board, and put up the photos of new products. If you have an affiliate sales account (i.e. you sell someone’s product from someone else’s site, and get a commission), you can even post photos from those sites, and then sell those products.

Of course, you don’t want to post only sales photos. People come to social media to escape advertising, not be bombarded with it. Use your sales items sparingly, mixed in with your fun and interesting “pins.”

If you use social media at all, you may have heard of Klout.

Klout is the tool that measures a person’s social media influence — their “clout” — online. It’s a number, on a 100 point scale, that shows how successful they are at getting other people to click a link in a Tweet, respond to a Facebook status update, comment on an Instagram photo, or even retweet another tweet. It’s primarily a Twitter measurement tool, but covers a lot of social media.

If you want to see whether someone making a complaint or compliment has a lot of influence, check Klout to see how much sway they hold in the online world. If they have a score over 50, that’s pretty good — it’s in the upper 80th percentile of scores. An average score is around 10 – 20.

While you don’t want to ignore people with low Klout scores, you do want to reach out to people with high scores. Those are the people who most likely have a few thousand followers, they interact with them on a regular basis, and they can at least do some effective word of mouth marketing.

These are the people who will tweet, “Just had a great lunch at @StevesNYPizza,” which can then be seen by all their followers. And while that may not be enough to get rampaging hordes of people breaking down your door, it’s at least enough to make an impact and bring in a couple new people. Get enough people in your community to tweet about your restaurant, as well as talking to you on Twitter about things going on in your community, and you’ll start catching the eyes of people who are looking for somewhere for lunch.

It’s a good idea for home services professionals to keep an eye on their online reputation. You should know what people are saying about you, good or bad, and be prepared to help solve any problems that appear online.

The best way to keep track of what people are saying about you is to do a basic Google search for your name and one for your company name (log in to your Gmail or Google account first). Add in your city or coverage area, plus your service offering, and see what comes up. Next, open a separate browser without signing in to Google, and do the same search.

The second search is the “objective” Google search results — it’s what Google will show for people who don’t know you. What you found during the first search is what Google wants to show you, because they know what you would like to see.

(We’re telling you this so you don’t do a Google search and think that you’re winning at Google.)

You need to know how your name is being used online, because what you found during the objective search is what other people will find when they search for you.

And since, like every other home services professional, you need a good reputation and word-of-mouth referrals, you need to know what people are saying about you. But you also don’t want to spend 15 minutes every day doing this search, scrolling through 100 results to find anything new.

This is where Google Alerts come in handy.

Google Alerts will monitor the Internet, look for saved keyword terms, and email it to you every day. It will help you find new pages, and find some of your most unexpected pages and mentions. Tomorrow we’ll teach you exactly how to set up your Google Alerts.

This week we revisited the restaurant business, and how to use some social media tools to their
advantage, deal with customer complaints, and improve customer satisfaction.

On Monday, we looked at how restaurants can use Pinterest, Instagram, and
Foursquare as ways people can share photos of their dining experience at your restaurant. They
can pin photos from your website, share their own Instagram photos, and leave photos on their
Foursquare checkins.

We talked about getting people to leave positive reviews for you on Tuesday,
on different social networks like Yelp, UrbanSpoon, and even on Foursquare. Just ask them through
a table tent, or even leaving a QR code to your Yelp page, asking for love-it-or-hate-it feedback.

Wednesday was about how to deal with negative feedback on these sites,
including never to fight back, but to apologize instead, and offer to fix the problem. That way, other
people get to see how well you treat everyone, including the complainers.

Of course, you can’t monitor social media all day long. You have a restaurant to run. So
Thursday was about how to set up Google Alerts to keep track of what other
people are saying about you on social media.

Restaurants have a whole slew of tools available to them to help them market and promote their
business. They can even take advantage of the word-of-mouth marketing on behalf of their
customers telling their friends about the experience they had at your restaurant. Why not put that to
work for you?

Yesterday, we talked about how to get people to leave positive reviews about your restaurant.
We also suggested a method of showing people how to get directly to your Yelp page to leave a
comment while they’re sitting there in the restaurant. Admittedly, that’s a risk, because if someone
has a complaint, you’ve just made it easier for them.

Even if they waited until they got home to leave an angry comment, the damage has been done. So
how do you combat those negative reviews? Here are three steps you can take:

  • First, never, ever become combative. Even if the review says awful
    things, never retaliate in anger, use sneaky, underhanded tactics, or file a complaint with the service.
    That will make you seem like a petty bully, and only confirm the complaint.
  • Instead, apologize for the problems. Nothing is more disarming to an
    angry person than to receive an apology from the person they’re yelling at. They realize they were
    heard, and that they’re dealing with a real person.
  • Make it right. The person’s complaint is out there for everyone to see, and
    you can’t remove it. What you can do is let people see how you solve the problem. Ask for a chance
    to make it right, and offer a free replacement meal. This shows potential visitors that you care about
    your customers, even the angry ones. They think, “they helped someone who was angry; they’ll
    probably do a good job for me.”

If the other person continues to rant, even after your apology and generous offer, then you look
like the good guy, and the complainer looks like a whiny brat who just wants the attention. In either
case, you’ve controlled the damage and look like a good guy after all.

Restaurants using social media to promote their business can take it to the next level by adding a few
new tools to their promotional toolbox, namely Pinterest, Instagram, and Foursquare.

Pinterest

Pinterest lets people share photos of things they find online and want people to know about,
whether on mobile phones or laptops. People find pictures on websites, pin them to their boards,
and share them on Facebook or the Pinterest app. You can put photos of your food and restaurants
online, and encourage visitors to pin the food to their boards. When users click the photos of your
food, they’ll be taken to your site.

Instagram

While Pinterest lets people pin photos of things they find, Instagram lets people take photos of
things with their mobile phones and share them, whether it’s food, collectibles, or even stuff their
kids are doing. Encourage customers to take Instagram photos of their meals and share them with
friends, which promotes your restaurant.

Foursquare

Foursquare started out as an app that would let people check in to a place and connect with friends,
but it’s turning into a review site where users can leave comments about what they like and don’t
like about a restaurant. Encourage your customers to leave photos of the food and decor on your
Foursquare page. As more people turn to Foursquare for recommendations, they actually get to see
what they’ll be eating.

These social media tools can help people share what they like best about your restaurant with their
Facebook and Twitter friends, which will help your word-of-mouth-marketing efforts to promote
your restaurant to new customers.

 

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