Southwest Advertising & Marketing Company

Free Online Marketing Training

by Admin on 04/16/2012 in All Articles, Helpful Online Tools, Marketing, SEO

Many companies today are overwhelmed with the prolific growth of social media and online marketing. Each year the percentage of companies outsourcing their internet marketing grows as do the dollars devoted to internet marketing. Larger companies now have departments dedicated to in-house internet advertising and marketing and small companies try to do a lot of this work themselves as well. The results tend to be mixed.

HubSpot is a marketing software company that measures marketing campaigns for companies through various analytics software also generates a lot of helpful free data, reports, tools and information regarding inbound internet marketing efforts related to SEO, blogging, social media, etc.

One of their tremendously useful tools is their free Inbound Marketing University. Registered users can complete 18 self paced courses, take an exam and receive certification. Some of the courses include Viral Marketing, Successful Blogging, Social and Mobile Marketing, Keyword Strategy and much more.

The information gained from these courses will empower you and your employees to develop effective online marketing campaigns. At the very least, you will become knowledgeable when outsourcing your campaigns.

With the vast amount of free information available through Inbound Marketing University and HubSpot users are sure to find useful resources to kick up their online marketing efforts.

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Crowdfunding: What is it, Where Do You Find It? Part Two

by Admin on 04/09/2012 in All Articles, Helpful Online Tools

One of our earlier blog posts titled Crowdfunding: What is it, Where Do You Find It? has been the most viewed posting on this blog. With that said, we thought it would be helpful to revisit this topic and offer more resources for you. With the continued limitations on small business lending, crowdfunding has really taken off.

Crowdfunding is a way to raise financial funds for artistic and entrepreneur ventures through the power of social networking. Individuals make donations to your projects. Besides the crowdfunding resources that were offered in the last post, RocketHub, IndieGogo and Kiva are other funding opportunities worth investigating for free money and/or loans.

Social lending aka P2P (peer to peer) lending has a for profit motive unlike crowdfunding. The most popular social lender in the U.S. today is Lending Club. It is predicted that in 2012 this organization will loan 550 million dollars by connecting borrowers with individual lenders. Prosper is another social lender that has had various legal problems with the government but continues to remain in business. Peerform is a new social lender with a business model slightly different then the above two lenders.

Angel Investors are individuals who act as venture capitalists often investing funds in start-ups. The Angel Resource Institute and Funding Post include links to angel investors nationwide and also offer other resources for companies seeking funding.

If you take the time to explore crowdfunding and social lending online, you will find helpful tips and information on how to pursue these funding opportunities.

Good luck!

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Why You Should Use Google to Generate QR Codes For Your URLs

by Admin on 04/02/2012 in All Articles, Helpful Online Tools, Marketing, Trends

Quick Response Codes are now popping up everywhere and it is easy to get creative in how QR codes can be used in all sorts of online marketing campaigns. When it comes to search engine optimization benefits there are limitations as search engines don’t yet read codes but eventually they most likely will.

QR codes are great tools to get businesses to think about their mobile device marketing strategies which have become the next level in online marketing. The majority of smart phone users are not yet in the habit of scanning QR codes but this is quickly changing as QR codes have a huge curiosity factor.

Here are some different types of QR codes and online code generators. There are also free QR campaign trackers.

However before you start experimenting with different types of QR marketing efforts it’s really important to incorporate Google in the process when creating QR codes for your URLs such as your website and blog. Google stores and tracks visitors through your created link for your QR code if you have a Google account. In time, Google may use this data in such a way that it might have an effect on your search engine rankings. Nevertheless, it does not hurt for Google to have your links especially since there are about 700,000 Android devices active every day!

Log into your Google account and go to http://goo.gl/ to shrink the URL for which you want to generate QR code. Paste the shortened URL into your browser and add .qr behind it. Example: http://goo.gl/1A1ax.qr. When you click enter on your keyboard you will get the QR code image. Save the image and then use in your marketing campaigns. You can also use the shortened URL and use to generate code at other sites. You can save QR code as a PNG image. Whether you use Google to generate the QR code is not important. What is important is that you use Google to create the shortened URL link which you will use to create your QR code.

Finally, if you use Google Chrome you can read various QR codes online after installing QReader.

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Add Pinterest to Your SEO Toolbox

by Admin on 03/27/2012 in All Articles, Helpful Online Tools, SEO

Pinterest launched in 2010 and has now become a hot social media tool which is being used by companies for online marketing through the organization and sharing of images and videos. Users have to be invited – once you have your account you can upload pins (images) to your board. Users then can comment on your pins and share on Twitter and Facebook.

The self promotion of nothing but your products and services is frowned upon. But just like with all other social media, as long as you follow the etiquette of interacting with the community and sharing images not just related to your company, the SEO benefits are worthwhile.

Create boards for your pins using your company name or city of your physical location. Interact with others by following them and liking their pins and boards. Also post comments on other boards and engage in discussions. When you choose to follow a board, the user is notified which motivates them to visit your board and posted links. The beauty of this is that if you are followed and your pins are re-pinned, then this doubles, quadruples, etc. eyeballs on your company.

Make sure to include keywords in your profile. Get the custom code for your pin board and embed on your other sites and blog. Create links within your image, Pinterest profile and link on your image page.

Pinterest has approximately 16 million indexed pages. Google has reported that Pinterest has now surpassed Flickr and other popular image sharing sites.

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Latest Online Consumer Trends

by Admin on 03/19/2012 in All Articles, Trends

General Statistics

Nearly two-thirds of consumers (61%) use search engines to help them in their product research decisions leading up to purchase. (eConsultancy)
53% of people on Twitter recommend companies and/or products in their Tweets, with 48% of them delivering on their intention to buy the product. (ROI Research for Performance)
90% of consumers online trust recommendations from people they know; 70% trust opinions of unknown users. (Econsultancy)
Online user reviews have the biggest influence on consumer electronics purchases, with 43.7 percent of purchases affected by word of mouth. (BIGresearch)
By 2014, 53% of total retail sales (online and offline) will be affected by the Web, as consumers increasingly use the Internet to research products before purchasing. (Forrester)
70% of online consumers said they use the Internet to research everyday grocery products. (Prospectiv)
69% of companies using Web 2.0 have gained measurable business benefits. (McKinsey Quarterly)
Consumers say not being able to speak to anyone to answer questions is their number one frustration with online shopping. (Opinion Research Point)
77% of eCommerce shoppers want help from real people online. (Retail Customer Experience)
92% shoppers have more confidence in info sought online vs. anything from a salesclerk or other source. (Wall Street Journal)
Online businesses lose as many as 67% of consumers due to a lack of online product information. (Allurent)
Two or more channels are used by 78% of consumers to browse, research and make purchases. Three or more channels for a single transaction are used by 30% of consumers. (ATG)
Mobile devices are used by 32% of consumers to browse or research products or services at least once a month.15% of consumers are completing transactions with their mobile devices monthly. (ATG)
Nearly 64% of respondents had watched a user-generated video review, and more than three-quarters of that group said it helped them make a purchase decision—either for or against a product or brand. 81.3% listed the ability to see the product in action as their favorite thing about video reviews. (Internet Retailer).
By 2013, nearly 155 million US Internet users will consume some form of user-created content, up from almost 116 million in 2008. (eMarketer)
New media contact with companies and brands fosters goodwill in a majority of users, with at least seven in 10 respondents reporting positive impressions, stronger connections and a greater willingness to engage with the company. (eMarketer)
Social networks and blogs are the fourth most popular online activities, beating personal email. 67% of global users visit member communities and 10% of all time spent on the internet is spent on social media sites. (Econsultancy)

Vehicle Purchases

Over 93% of consumers now go online to research new vehicle purchases (Hubspot)
Consumers visit third party auto websites for reassurance (Imedia Connection)
Online media is more influential than traditional media on vehicle purchases (Ad-ology Research)
Dealers now consider internet marketing to be more “cost efficient and targeted” over other sources (Autobytel)

Real Estate Purchases

Statistics from the National Association of Realtors (NAR)
80% of consumers did online research before they bought their last home
Internet consumers spend an average of 5.8 weeks researching online
Online consumers take 9.3 months until they list with a realtor
Online consumers take 16.7 months until they buy a home
Only 4-8% of online leads will close within 90 days

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Affiliate Marketing for Novices

by Admin on 03/12/2012 in All Articles, Helpful Online Tools, Sales

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is when companies enter into relationships with emarketers or existing customers and provide incentives to these affiliates when they bring new business or clients to the company.

Many large online merchants have affiliate programs. However affiliate marketing can be easily tailored to any size business.

Affiliate networks are online companies that act as intermediaries between the merchant and the affiliate. They set up the legal agreements, manage sales and track commissions. Some of the main affiliate networks include Share a Sale, LinkShare, PepperjamNetwork, ClickBank and Amazon.

If you are a retailer you might consider entering into an affiliate agreement with an affiliate network.

If you would like to earn a small extra income, you might consider becoming an affiliate marketer. One way to get your feet wet is to participate in Google AdSense. By allowing Google to place ads on your blog or website, you can earn commissions when your users take specific actions. Google has three types of payment options:

1. CPC – get paid each time user click on ad

2. CPM – get paid per 1,ooo impressions (1,00o users view page and don’t click on ad)

3. get paid every time user clicks on ad and takes specified action

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E-marketing Strategies for Novices

by Admin on 03/05/2012 in All Articles, Marketing, SEO

There are a multitude of online marketing strategies to consider which can get overwhelming. Here’s a breakdown of the main online emarketing efforts if your company is just getting into online marketing aka search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing (SMM). It should be emphasized that you don’t have to use all of these tools. What is more important is that whatever tools you do utilize; it is critical that you regularly participate in these marketing efforts. Regular means at least once a week.

Social media continues to dominate the online behaviors of consumers. Facebook, Twitter and business blogging are the most recommended social media tools for companies of any size.

Companies are redesigning their websites to move from a static web design to a content management system (CMS). Websites with static information that are not updated regularly will be ignored by search engine giants: Google, Yahoo and Bing. Call your web developer and have them install a CMS to your website. This will allow you to update your website at anytime minus the hourly web developing fees. You should be updating your website with news and information related to your company or general articles about products and services.

Email marketing has overtaken direct marketing. Email marketing efforts such as newsletters, coupons, and promotions are popular methods for keeping in contact with customers and developing new ones. Email marketing is cost effective and it works because campaigns are easily modified for select and targeted audiences.

Google’s pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns continue to grow. While these emarketing avenues are the most costly, they can now also be measured effectively through tools such as Google Analytics allowing businesses to be selective in choosing their pay-per-click campaigns.

Small businesses are discovering the power of online video marketing. Creating an online channel on YouTube is a great place to start one’s emarketing video campaign. Flickr is also a creative emarketing strategy allowing you to post photos related to your products and services.

Finally, Local Search Business Listing Management (LSBLM) is also important as most searches online are for local searches. Posting your company information with Google Places, Yahoo Local, and Yelp are good starters.

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Technorati Will Attract Readers to Your Blog

by Admin on 02/27/2012 in All Articles, Helpful Online Tools, SEO

Technorati works like a search engine such as Google or Yahoo but instead of indexing websites, it tracks blogs. When a user registers a blog on Technorati, a code is generated for the blog which is then used to tag content that is published on one’s blog. Technorati accesses blogs through their RSS feed and then indexes its content. Having a blog indexed in Technorati attracts readers who are also more likely to become subscribers.

Registered bloggers also have access to their blog’s rankings and other useful information.

Each year Technorati publishes “State of the Blogosphere” which follows the growth and trends of blogs. In their 2010 report, Technorati found that “40% [consumers] agree with bloggers’ views, and their trust in mainstream media is dropping.”

One can also read the annual report for useful tips on blogging. For example here is a partial list of the top 30 tags in 2011. These tags can be used to tailor your blog posts, titles and categories.

News
Business
Politics
Entertainment
Video
Sports
Music
Movies
Blog
Technology

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Online Dollars Continue to Grow

by Admin on 02/20/2012 in All Articles, Trends

While consumer and industry confidence levels are still below pre-recession levels, you would not know it based on online spending.

The use of Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter among others are predicted to grow exponentially this year among small retailers. These social media giants are increasingly creating innovative monetizing opportunities for small businesses. They are also vital when it comes to marketing and customer service.

Adding to this trend is the popularity of smart phones and the use of apps which are being used to distribute discounts, coupons and information about sales. According to ComScore about 91 million of Americans now own a smart phone. In addition ComScore reports that downloaded applications are used by 44.9% of subscribers and browsers are used by 44.4% smart phone users. Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 2.1% to 33% of mobile subscribers.

According to IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, search engine advertising, online display advertising and online video advertising have seen significant year-over-year increases. Google garners the greatest share of the search engine market at 63%, followed by Yahoo and Bing at 19% and 13% respectively. Several hundred million Google searches are made each day. Technorati estimates that there are about 200 million blogs and millions more readers.

The number one question in the old days was “can you be found online?” But that train has left the station a while back. Companies must now ask themselves:

Do you have authority online?

How do you engage your customer online?

How do you manage your reputation online?

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Spring Marketing Ideas

by Admin on 02/13/2012 in All Articles, Marketing

With spring right around the corner here are some themed marketing ideas sure to please and attract new and returning clientele.

1. Purchase herb seeds and staple your business card, flier, or coupon. Use as a give-away. Companies such as Botanical Paperworks print paper products that can be planted to grow various plants and flowers!

Online Alternative: offer free seed samples with online purchases.

2. Sponsor an Easter egg decorating contest or an Easter egg hunt.

Online Alternative: organize an online photo egg decorating contest through Flickr, Facebook, You Tube, blog or website.

3. Hold a silent auction with products and services donated from your networking partners. Donate proceeds to a local non-profit organization or scholarship fund.

Online Alternative: organize an online auction through Paypal.

4. Host a professional speaker or educational event related to your products or services.

Online Alternative: upload video on Youtube or podcast on your website.

5. Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, Spring Break, Daylight Savings Time, April Fool’s Day, Baseball, College Basketball, Easter, Passover, Mother’s Day and Memorial Day with a discount for each event or have a drawing for each special day.

Online Alternative: incorporate your discounts in your online marketing efforts.

6. Take your business out to the streets by participating at your local swap meet, farmer’s market, car show, or other outdoor events to attract new clientele.

Online Alternative: search for websites for the above local events and offer to do a link exchange.

Important Reminder

Don’t forget to write a short online press release announcing your promotion and another press release after the promotion summarizing the event. Search Google for: “free online press release websites.”

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Kickstarter Crowdfunds 46% Approved Projects!

by Admin on 02/10/2012 in All Articles, Trends

Kickstarter is a social media company that helps start-ups raise revenue through crowdsourcing. While asking for and receiving funding from strangers may seem like a difficult undertaking consider Kickstarter stats from 2011. With these success rates getting your project funded may not be as daunting as you might imagine.

In 2011 Kickstarter approved 27,086 projects and of these close to 46% got funded. This is slightly higher then its 43% rate in 2010 and a significant increase of 11,130 approved projects in 2010!!

In 2011 Kickstarter crowdfunded almost 100 million dollars or $99,344,382. This is also a significant jump from approximately 28 million in 2010.

in 2011 Kickstarter had over 30 million visitors up from approximately 8 million in 2010.

The most popular crowdfunded projects were related to entertainment pursuits; in the areas of film, documentaries, videos as well as iPhone accessories.

So how does Kickstarter work? Entrepreneurs post their projects with a set financial goal and people (crowd) make donations (funding) in any dollar amounts of their choice. IndieGoGo.com is another option for start-ups to post their projects.

Source: Business Insider

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Publishing Documents as Part of an Online Marketing Strategy

by Admin on 02/06/2012 in All Articles, Helpful Online Tools, Marketing, SEO

Scribd is an open source online publishing website. Users can upload and share original documents and writings in various formats such as PDF, Word and PowerPoint, among others. Authored work is read by Scribd subscribers.

What makes Scribd a valuable online marketing tool is that every word is indexed for search engine optimization.

Your company probably has presentations, brochures, and newsletters that can be uploaded to Scribd for public viewing and reading. You can also create unique documents representing your company such as a collection of testimonials and client success letters, photo diaries, and company history and future projections.

Scribd reports having more than 50 million users and it hosts more than tens of millions of documents. Scribd’s documents are embedded more than 10 million times across the web and more than 1.8 million searches are conducted on Scribd’s website everyday.

With these numbers, you should not ignore document sharing as an effective online marketing strategy.

Other sources for you to publish your documents with SEO benefits include Docstoc, edocr, WePapers, and Issu.

Happy uploading!

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What Do People Say About Apple’s Siri?

by Admin on 02/01/2012 in Just for Fun

Here’s a humorous look at Siri. According to Business Insider, Apple sold 37 million units of the new generation of iPhones in the last quarter of 2011. So how do people rate Siri? Click on the link to watch:

Apple Siri Video

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Continued Successes of Business Blogs

by Admin on 01/30/2012 in All Articles, SEO, Trends

Companies that have created and maintained their own business blogs are familiar with the time consumption and difficulties of developing regular and relevant content. In fact, few blogs survive past one year, unless they are outsourced to professional content developers.

While it’s easy to give up on a business blog, those who are able to continue with their efforts are often rewarded with tremendous rewards.

TopRank recently conducted a study of business bloggers to gauge their attitudes and behaviors regarding blogging. Here is a summary of the findings.

The number one benefit to business blogging is search engine optimization with up to 90% of business bloggers reporting to have met their SEO goals. Over half see results within three months and over 90% bloggers have significant results within a year. Some of the rewards of business blogging include increased internet traffic, inbound links, sales, referrals, leads and website ranking.

The majority of businesses that make the choice to not start a business blog cite the lack of resources as the main reason. However over 90% of respondents view blogs as remaining in popularity for at least the next few years.

It is clear that business blogs have many benefits but are difficult to sustain. This is probably why business blog management services such are becoming increasingly sought after. Due to the time constraints, many professional and non-automated services can only take on a limited number of clients.

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#1 SEO Strategy Includes Google

by Admin on 01/23/2012 in All Articles, SEO, Trends

Last year the big news in the Google-Facebook rivalry was that Facebook had overtaken Google in searches. While companies can no longer ignore the social power of this online giant, Google may still be the king of the hill.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch recently found that when it comes to purchasing decisions, Google rules. They asked 418 consumers under the age 18: “when you are interested in making an online purchase of some kind, what is your first step most often?

The results? Close to 40% respondents answered Google and less than 5% chose Facebook.

In 2012 there are predictions that Google might even overtake Microsoft in market capitalization and Androids might overtake Apple’s iOS.

What do these data points suggest? Your online marketing strategies must keep Google in the forefront. This includes the utilization of online sources that are ranked high on Google.
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Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-google-is-still-much-bigger-than-facebook-for-purchasing-decisions-2011-6

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Local Online Marketing Strategy: Keywords for 2012

by Admin on 01/22/2012 in All Articles, SEO, Trends

As you prepare, evaluate and create your online marketing strategy for this year, incorporate these issues into your campaigns and keywords.

2012 London Olympics (7.27.12-8.12.12): Olympics Special Promotion and everything related to the Olympics. Search for all of the various keyword combos such as schedule, opening ceremonies, closing ceremonies, Olympic images, Summer Olympics, etc. and localize with your name, products, and services.

Presidential Elections (11.6.12): Republican primaries, debates, primary schedule, election schedule, Democratic convention (Charlotte, NC), Republican convention (Tampa, FL), etc. and localize with your name, products and services.

Mayan End Times Prophecy: Mayan end of the world date (12.21.2012), doomsday, Mayan calendar, end of the world countdown, apocalypse, etc. and localize with your name, products and services.

These Will Also Be Big

Year of the Dragon

Leap Year (February)

100 Year Anniversary of the Titanic (4.15.1912)

Friday 13th (three Friday the 13ths, each 13 weeks apart)

Facebook IPO (set for May)

Apple TV

Health Care (June Supreme Court Decisions)

Euro Crisis

European Football Championship (June)

Have Fun!!

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What is Hyper-Local?

by Admin on 01/09/2012 in All Articles, Helpful Online Tools, Trends

Hyper-Local which is also known as community media, refers to media sources that connect people and groups in small communities. These media sources serve a purpose not met by the larger or mainstream media outlets.

For example, online podcasts connect people around a topic or issue not covered by commercial and public radio. Other hyper-local examples may include online business blogs, forums, community campaigns through Ning or Facebook.

Groupon, Living Social and FourSquare are monetizing online local consumerism.

There are also online communities dedicated to financial lending such as The Social Lending Club and Kiva among others.

Meet-Up is an example of hyper-local networking connecting groups of people in local areas based on common interests and topics.

How can you utilize hyper-local to target your local marketing efforts? Here is a source for more information on how to hyper-local your company click here. Check it out!

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Codeacademy Offers Coding Classes for Free

by Admin on 01/06/2012 in All Articles, Helpful Online Tools

Codeacademy, a startup that uses interactive online lessons to turn anyone into a computer programmer, has signed up 97,000 students in less than 48 hours for its New Year’s resolution class, called Code Year. That’s more than twice as many students as were enrolled in the 150 U.S. computer science undergraduate programs that the Computer Research Association surveyed last year.

Anyone who adds their email address to the class list will receive new programming lessons in an email each week. All Codeacademy users already have access to these free lessons, which turn learning JavaScript into a game and will soon expand to other programming languages. The class emails will serve as reminders and guidance, putting individual lessons together in a cohesive curriculum.

“One of the biggest complaints we get is that people will learn one lesson and then say, ‘what’s next?’ or ‘where do I get to go from here?’,” Codeacademy founder Zach Sims tells Mashable about the startup’s self-directed learning format.

The New Year’s resolution class answers those questions and makes the program even more appealing in the process. In its first 72 hours after launching this summer, Codeacademy signed up 200,000 people for coding lessons. Now it’s signing them up for a year-long commitment at a similar rate.

When those who have signed up get their first email on Monday, they’ll be starting their computer science education with at least 97,000 classmates. So far Codeacademy hasn’t announced any features that might let those classmates interact with each other, but it seems like a fine opportunity to add social incentives to the learning motivation it has so far maintained with game mechanics.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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B2B Companies are Blogging!!

by Admin on 01/01/2012 in All Articles, SEO, Trends

According to a report by Aggregage, 2011 was an important year for the development of business blogs for business-to-business companies. Aggregage interviewed a number of influential B2B bloggers and found some key information that companies should take the time to investigate further. For starters, common thinking points to business-to-consumer companies as the trend setters in online marketing with B2B companies lagging or even sidestepping this mode of marketing. But according to Aggregage, B2B companies that have not launched a business blog are sorely “behind the curve.”

The advantages of company blogs are numerous but with the waning of traditional advertising and the increase in social media and internet usage in general, blogs are not only cost effective but essential for companies regardless of product or service. Blogs play an important role in a company’s search engine ranking as Google, Yahoo and others rate websites and blogs based on regularly updated new content.

Yet, fewer than 50% of companies have an established blog and most likely even fewer update their blogs consistently. But that’s changing as the experts head the warning: “get moving now.” However, blogging is not easy as content has to be targeted and offer value to the readers. As Aggregage points out, “the challenge to this is in finding blog contributors who understand conversational marketing and customer service.” The type of marketing most effective with blogging is the “soft sale.” Blogs that offer solutions, knowhow and opportunities for interaction without pushing the product are the most successful in this arena. As another expert put it succinctly, “if your business doesn’t have a blog and isn’t publishing content, everyday is a missed opportunity.”

For the full report click here: http://www.aggregage.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/B2B-Blogging-Trends-in-2011.pdf

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Classified Online Marketing

by Admin on 12/01/2011 in All Articles, Marketing, SEO

Read any article pertaining to online marketing and it is a sure bet that most of them will include business blogging, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on the list. However in general, it is less likely that these same suggestions and tips will include classified online marketing as an important online marketing tool.

Not only do top classified websites get a ton of traffic but most are free and they get crawled by search engines constantly, so your classified ad has a good chance of being ranked higher by Google and Yahoo than your website.

Determine whether your website or company offers a product or service. Write and develop catchy, short, and informative classifieds. Include a link to your “capture” website or blog and provide visible contact information. If you get stuck, google: writing effective classified ads.

Next, research free classified websites related to your niche. Be careful about spamming – do not over post, make sure to create multiple classifieds (affects Google’s policies regarding original content) and follow each site’s rules and guidelines.

Craig’s List – With over 4 billion hits per month your classified will receive views. The trick is to repost every 3-4 days in different geographic areas and even in different categories and have a descriptive title. Some categories require authentication and one can usually post three different ads at the same time without catching attention. Use graphics within your space.

E-Bay Classifieds – free with no sales fees

Here’s an article with the top 20 classified websites according to Alexa rank.

Online classifieds are short lived and therefore are best utilized for special promotions if you don’t have time to continually re-post your classified ads.

Create a system for capturing your leads to be used later for other online marketing opportunities. The best way to capture leads is through free giveaways, newsletters and discounts.

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The Power of Social Media

by Admin on 10/01/2011 in All Articles, Trends

No one has to be reminded that social media has become entrenched in society at large and our everyday lives. Yet, every once in a while it is fun to look at user related statistics and to imagine how our lives, consumer behaviors and marketing trends are being shaped now and into the future. HubSpot recently posted 13 Mind-Bending Social Media Marketing Statistics and some of this data can be used to evaluate your social media marketing strategies.

Here are some of the main statistical data from HubSpot that caught our attention:

1.4 million new blog posts are created every day – do you have a blog and update it with regular content? New content is the number #1 strategy for getting noticed by search engines.

There are more than 5 billion photos on Flickr – a picture is worth a 1,000 words especially when it has a link that can be embedded to other social media sites.

45 million people view SlideShare presentations each month – free to use and upload!

$3.08 billion will be spent to advertise on social networking sites in 2011, a 55 percent increase over 2010 – your social media marketing strategy can be 100% free or for much less than you think.

The average American internet user watches 30 minutes of video online per day – the average internet user is probably one of your customers or clients.

43 percent of all online consumers are social media fans or followers – do you imagine this number will go up, down or remain the same; one, two or five years from now? Does your business plan reflect this?

While this information may sound overwhelming – remember that only a miniscule fraction of this pie will yield you continuing results. Search through previous posts in our Archives for more information on how to utilize some of the sites mentioned in the above statistics.

We welcome your comments how your marketing plan accounts this data!

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How to Repackage Your Popular Blog Posts

by Admin on 09/01/2011 in All Articles, Content Creation

Often the popularity of blog posts can be measured by the amount of comments and overall discussions. However, once a few months have passed new readers seldom search and read older articles. So how do bloggers keep their most helpful and popular material from the past in the forefront to ensure the flow of conversation and visitors?

The answer is to repackage some of the content from past popular posts into new original and more relevant information. By using updated examples, statistics and tips while still maintaining the overall message from previous posts, new readers are continually exposed to your best of the best.

Another method is to create a category titled: Popular Posts and re-categorize your best and most read articles.

Still, many readers love lists and titling a post Our Top Ten Most Popular Posts for 2011 or Our Top Ten All Time Popular Articles allows you to briefly summarize and then direct readers to the original archived articles. Or, how about giving your regular readers an opportunity to vote on their favorite post and then publishing the results with links to the archives in a new article.

Examining the themes and patterns of comments and then writing a new article addressing those comments allows you to repackage older posts while taking into account and demonstrating your commitment to reader feedback and discussions. This will surely motivate your readers to write more comments on your blog and to also bookmark your blog in social media sites.

The hard work that you put into your blog should not be fleeting. Yes, there will be posts that probably are only meant to remain in the time frame they were written. Yet there are those posts that are timeless and taking advantage of these tips and tricks will ensure that your content continues to be appreciated by your constantly changing and new subscribers and users.

Do you have other suggestions on how to repackage previous popular articles? Feel free to post your suggestions in the comment box below.

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Press Releases Increase Online Presence

by Admin on 08/01/2011 in All Articles, Content Creation, Helpful Online Tools, SEO

Here are top reasons why any small business needs to create and publish free online press releases on a regular basis.

1. Easy way to promote your company online

2. Increase your search engine ranking

3. Gain new customers and clients

4. Announce and recognize your accomplishments

5. Advertise your marketing campaigns

A press release can be as short as a paragraph or as long as a couple of pages. They do not require as much detail as an online article or newsletter. What makes a great press release is usually the title and the short description or teaser. While blog and other content articles rely more on informing the reader with useful information, a press release is geared toward making announcements such as milestones and goal attainment and any other newsworthy events, sales and other campaigns.

Here are a few examples:

ABC Company Announces It’s Summer Specials Online

ABC Company Serves its 1,000^th Customer

ABC Company Set to Launch New Product

ABC Company Participates in Community Fundraiser

ABC Company Launches Redesign of Website

ABC Company Receives Award

There are a number of paid and free online press release companies. The most popular paid online service is PR Newswire and PR Web. If you’re going to write numerous press releases with the intent to increase your online presence, we recommend PR Log. By writing one short press release a month, you will increase your online presence exponentially! All of these websites have both sample and how to tips to writing effective press releases.

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Publish White Papers and Slide Presentations

by Admin on 07/01/2011 in All Articles, Content Creation, Helpful Online Tools, SEO

There comes a time when content creators and bloggers have created enough content to publish a comprehensive white paper. Bundling your blog content into a series of white papers and uploading onto popular websites will yield a different audience of potential readers, users and customers.

If you’re not yet ready to publish a report then compiling your content into slide presentations will also allow you to increase your search engine ranking and readers. Both techniques are recommended.

Here are a few websites where you can publish your collections. Most of these websites will also allow you to link to your favorite social media accounts such as facebook and twitter.

Scribd is by far the most popular social reading and document repository website. The company reports over 50 million users each month and you can upload your content in various formats.

SlideShare is another popular repository for both documents and slide presentations. They also claim over 50 million monthly visitors. The website allows for the upload of documents, PDFs, videos and webinars.

Docstock markets itself as a document repository for legal, business, financial, technical, and educational content.

Issuu distinguishes itself from the competition by allowing readers to view content like a printed document. This website is great for compiling your newsletters into a magazine like feel and experience.

Here are a few other less popular but still worthwhile document sharing websites to consider: SlideBoom, Empressr, Yudu, Edocr, and Calameo. Don’t forget to check out GoogleDocs not just for document sharing but collaboration.

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Finding Statistics For Your Content

by Admin on 06/01/2011 in All Articles, Content Creation

Creating interesting content related to your niche often requires expertise but also access to the latest statistics. The government spends millions of dollars each year conducting research and collecting data that is available to the public. Here are a few of our favorite government and other websites to mine for helpful and interesting statistics to assist you in producing unique and interesting content for your readers. Make sure that when using content, information and data to always cite your source and/or provide a link.

U.S. Census publishes statistics and data related to people and households, geographic information, business and industry, economic indicators and other special topics. You can use data to incorporate into your short tweets. For example click on the link to find the latest U.S. population.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has anything and everything related to the economy including trends and future forecasts. Look up information related to your industry.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has anything and everything related to health and illness in the U.S. Look up information that you can pass to your customers through your tweets and newsletters.

FBI website offers valuable information and tips related to the latest scams and fraudulent activities. They also offer links to the most requested services including the sex offender registry.

The U.S. Debt Clock – insert this link into your blog or website and you are guaranteed visitors as people are often fascinated with the overwhelming amount of data available here.

The Pew Research Center offers press releases on numerous social topics that you can incorporate into your content including internet and technology, social and demographic trends. These topics often make great forum discussions for your blog or tweets.

CIA World Factbook has information on global issues and all 266 world countries or entities. This website is great for those that create trivia for newsletters as factoids often attract readers.

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Finding Helpful E-Marketing Tips

by Admin on 05/01/2011 in All Articles, Helpful Online Tools, Marketing

Here are a few of our favorite places on the web that offer white papers, research studies and resources to help you run successful e-marketing projects. Make sure that when using content, information and data to always cite your source and/or provide a link.

Hub Spot sells marketing software to help users generate leads and create successful social media marketing campaigns. They also offer numerous free white papers to help you get inspired about your own marketing efforts. Most of their white papers are designed to pitch their products however you will also walk away with some free and solid advice.

comScore measures online consumer behaviors for customers. Through their vast market and metrics knowledge they also publish statistics, data, white papers and a helpful blog that any small business that cannot afford their services can find useful.

ClickZ offers information, news, advice and resources for interactive marketers. Under their stats and tools section they offer free marketing and ROI conversion calculators. They also have an extensive white paper library and offer webinars.

MediaPost publishes news and in-depth posts for advertising and marketing professionals. They also have extensive research reports and resources.

iMedia Connection bills itself as a website that connects the marketing community. There is a vast array of social media and online marketing information and resources including marketing techniques, blogs, podcasts, statistics and data.

JD Power and Associates which is a marketing research company for widely known corporations and products also has an extensive library offering white papers, special reports and webcasts created by their analysts and researchers related to online marketing. They have some excellent information regarding future online trends and consumer behaviors.

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Five Social Media Resources for Beginners

by Admin on 04/01/2011 in All Articles, Content Creation, Helpful Online Tools, Marketing

Here are five of our favorite websites and blogs that cover social media and offer great resources, tips, and information for bloggers and content creators.

Blog World covers a variety of topics and information related to social media such blogging, video content production, technology, and trends. They also sponsor the annual World Blog Expo.

Mashable is a social networking blog that features news and analysis of trends related to current social media and web culture. This is a great resource for content ideas that are popular searches. Mashable reports receiving over 40 million page view each month.

Web Pro News offers tips and resources for business owners, web developers and IT professionals in the areas of web development and social media. Readers can sign up for e-newsletter, watch videos, and gain access to top notch SEO information and know how.

Site-Reference offers easy to understand information and valuable tools for business owners who manage their own websites, blogs, and other online content. Readers can sign up for e-newsletter, submit questions and articles, view videos and participate in forums. This website will not disappoint when it comes to providing users with relevant information, tips and resources.

Technorati is the internet search engine for blogs. It is also a good resource for content ideas and examining the content of popular blogs. The site lists the top 100 blogs. It also publishes an annual report on the state of the blogosphere which offers helpful information for bloggers and content creators in general.

Do you have your own to go to websites and blogs for the latest resources, tips and trends in social media? Share them here with our users!

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Mastering Local Online Searches

by Admin on 03/01/2011 in All Articles, Helpful Online Tools, SEO

The competition on the internet is getting fierce. Small business don’t have much of a chance against corporations that spend millions to have a dominant online presence. But actually this type of thinking is misleading. Consider these findings. Eight-six percent of online searches are local. This means that consumers are no longer utilizing traditional advertising sources. Yet, 90% of these local online searches then result in offline consumer behaviors and another 61% result in a purchase within 200 miles of one’s home or work (Kelsey Group and TMP Directional Marketing).

Small businesses should not be concerned with competing with the big boys as long as they focus their online marketing on mastering their local market. After all, why compete on a national level when they only have one or several locations? Even for businesses selling their goods online, local marketing is the key to internet domination. Corporations focus their attention on the big picture, allowing smaller companies to pick the low hanging fruit.

So how does one become king of the mole hill? Here are five resources to get you started.

Google Places

Google reports that 1 out of 5 searches are related to location. By signing up your company with Google Places, you can create free and detailed listings along with promotions, photos, and other unique information about your products and services. What makes Google Places valuable is that it comes with analytics allowing you to study patterns and trends of your internet traffic. For example, you have access to information about what people searched for to find you. This is gold because you can then tailor your other marketing efforts to these keywords.

Yahoo Local and Bing Local Listing

Yahoo and Bing offer a similar service with free basic listings and paid enhanced listings. While Google Places is much robust, the point is to dominate the local market keeping in mind that thousands of people in your local communities also use these other search engines.

Citisearch, Insiderpages , Yelp.com, Local.com, and Zoominfo.com

All of these websites offer free basic local listings.

Phone Books Online

Here are the most popular phone book directories online. They include YellowPages.com, Infospace.com, superpages.com, switchboard.com, and yellowbook.com.

Mapquest

Dun and Bradstreet

Check to see if your business is listed with Dun and Bradstreet and if not apply for your DUNS listing which will get you listed in the directory.

Press Releases

Our favorite free press release website is PR Log. Regularly upload your press releases for free and watch your search engine ratings rise. Make sure to title your press releases that will help you dominate your local search engine market. For example: Boston Plumber Announces Spring Special or Orlando Pizza Launches New Pizza.

YouTube

Create a few YouTube videos with titles that will help you master your local community. For example: Boston Plumber Information or Orlando Pizza Specials.

Other

Get your business posted on local directory websites such as the Chamber of Commerce, Better Business Bureau, or newspaper directories.

Once you get picked up by these free local search engine favorites, your efforts will pay dividends. It is important to conduct a search for your company every couple of weeks to manage your online reputation. Your search should include your company name and location.

Please post your comments regarding your success with these sources!

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Writer’s Block: Five Tips for Creating New Content

by Admin on 02/01/2011 in All Articles, Content Creation, Helpful Online Tools

When writing content one can generally use two approaches. One way is to write content in the spur of the moment while the second way is to plan ahead. Since creating new and regular content is a main reason people give up on activities such as blogging, Twitter and article submissions, here are a five tips that can be used for either of the two approaches to writing.

Anticipate big events one to three months ahead by searching dates for holidays, sports, movies, conferences, conventions, concerts, political events, etc. Make a list of big events occurring each month. For example in the month of April 2011 we have the NCAA championships, Easter, April Fool Day, the IRS deadline has been extended to 4/18, Julian Assange biography (wikileaks) is set to be released, etc. It took just a couple minutes to both think of major annual events, look up the dates and search for April 2011 news in January when this article was written. We can assume that these big events will be trending during the month of April and therefore we can prepare article entries in January for April release.
For in the moment writing styles use three Google resources to find trending keywords. Google trends http://www.google.com/trends, Google Insight http://www.google.com/insights/search/# , Google keyword search http://www.google.com/sktool/#
Got to http://mashable.com/ for trending stories related to social media.
Search Twitter trends, Facebook trends and Youtube trends for trending content on these popular social networking sites.
Sign up for industry newsletters related to your profession, service and industry for more content ideas that you can use for present and future articles.

So now that you have done research which only takes just a few minutes to find, how can you use this information to personalize to your product or service? It’s not as difficult as you may think and most likely will get your creative juices flowing.

Let’s say the baseball season this year officially starts on 3/31/11. You know this NOT because you are a baseball fan but because you saw it on Wikipedia when searching for sporting events in April. Reading further, the season is set to start earlier than normal. It can be assumed that toward the end of March baseball and keywords related to baseball will be trending on the internet – EVERYWHERE. So what does the baseball season have to do with let’s assume for example purposes that you sell something completely unrelated to baseball such as veterinary insurance services.

Going to Google keyword search we find that pet insurance and pet insurance compared are the popular keyword searches. Next and this is the fun part: search Yahoo or Google for: pet insurance and baseball. Scrolling through the top ten searches yields information about the Bo Obama Baseball Card; Bo being the Obama’s family dog. Try it! Search for baseball and x (insert your product or service) or how about April Fool’s Day and your service?

So how about writing a blog entry about the early start of the baseball season using the open source information from Wikipedia and relating it to the Bo Obama baseball card with a link to the White House baseball card photo itself. Baseball fans will surely enjoy a peak at the baseball card with Bo’s stats and at the end of the post you can insert information about your pet insurance. Pet insurance is the last thing baseball fans may have on their minds but you can see the natural progression in thinking: baseball season to Bo’s baseball card to pet insurance. Here’s a couple of other ideas – dogs tearing and swallowing baseballs or being hit by a baseball during a game of fetch…both natural connections to the topic of pet insurance during the start of the baseball season. – Ahh…the dog days of summer…

You also need to insert an opening sentence related to your keywords and this can be something as simple as: Pet insurance is the last thing on the minds of baseball fans as this baseball season is set to get an early start .

Your article can then be repackaged into your other social media efforts. For example on your Twitter account on 3/31/11 you can post: Baseball season starts. Check out Bo Obama’s stats. Do your pet’s stats warrant pet insurance? http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/bo_baseball.pdf

Have fun!

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Six Great Ways to Republish Your Online Content

by Admin on 12/01/2010 in All Articles, Marketing, SEO

Creating new online content consistently is the key to search engine optimization but it is time consuming and sometimes your creative juices just need a break. Republishing content in different formats and venues is smart but can also help you stay productive when time or inspiration is lacking.

Here are five suggestions to help you distribute your online content and also contribute to your online reputation as an expert in your field. What these websites have in common is that they may rank higher than your own website. Your content can potentially be viewed by thousands. Your content may be used by others which is great for building back links.

1. Article Submission Websites – Submit your content to free article websites.

2. White Paper Submission Websites – Create a pdf file report and submit to free white paper directories.

3. Press Release – Rework your content into a newsworthy item and post on free press release websites.

4. Slideshare – Rework your content into a power point file and submit to free slide hosting websites.

5. Squidoo - Create a lens (single webpage) and post summaries of your content with plenty of links.

6. E-books – Combine your previous content by categories and organize into a short e-book. Post on free e-book submission websites.

Share with us your suggestion regarding innovative techniques to republishing online content.

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Crowdfunding: What is it, Where Do You Find It?

by Admin on 11/02/2010 in All Articles, Helpful Online Tools

Crowdfunding is a term for collective or public fundraising for a cause and is becoming an increasingly popular method for entrepreneurs, start-up companies and all sorts of other ventures to raise seed money. However with financing regulatory laws, crowd funding must be framed and conceptualized as “fundraising for creative work.”

The term “crowdsourcing” was coined by Jeff Howe who wrote a book about this social media related phenomenon. He defines the term as “the process by which the power of the many can be leveraged to accomplish feats that were once the province of the specialized few.” An immensely successful crowdsourcing business is cameesa.com which uses the public to both design t-shirts and then fund them.

Here are a few other crowdfunding resources that small businesses can check out:

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Boost Your Sales with Very Simple Online Videos

by Admin on 10/01/2010 in All Articles, Helpful Online Tools, Sales

Creating multimedia has never been simpler. It seems like everyone has a video on YouTube.

But the easiest way to create online videos is to use screenshot software. For example Scate Ignite, Jing, Camtasia Relay, ScreenFlow and SnapzProX (for Apple) and Screenr (for Twitter) are some of the lower cost or free programs that are simple to learn and use.

Here’s How It Works (more…)

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Using Pets to Market Your Business Online

by Admin on 09/01/2010 in All Articles, Helpful Online Tools, Marketing

Bow-wow. According to the American Pet Products Association recent survey (2010), 62% of U.S. households or 71.4 million homes own a pet. Approximately $47.7 billion will be spent on pets this year alone. “Big name companies including like Paul Mitchell, Omaha Steaks, Origins, Harley Davidson and Old Navy are now offering lines of pet products ranging from dog shampoo, pet attire, and name-brand toys to gourmet treats and food” (APPA).

With pets having such a significant social impact, it is easy for non pet related companies to take advantage of the tremendous marketing opportunities. First you need to get yourself connected.

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10 Acts of Online Goodwill Heap Rewards

by Admin on 08/01/2010 in All Articles, Marketing, SEO

“The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.” – Margaret Young

Online marketing is social media engagement and with the constantly changing technology, the web is changing from the broad such search engine navigation to the micro – user targeted smart phone apps. User generated content is another engagement social media marketing tool.

While there are countless articles about how to engage users, there are not so many about the benefits of helping others to succeed.

Consider how the following suggestions may actually reap subtle rewards for your online marketing efforts.

Write a referral/recommendation for a member of your LinkedIn network
Click the Like button in Facebook
Post a positive comment for YouTube videos posted by users in your community
Post a positive rating review on Yahoo Local in your community
Post a positive rating review On Google Maps for a local business
Join a forum related to your industry and start a conversation
E-mail a compliment to one of your vendors or vendor representatives
Visit a social bookmarking site and post a positive comment (Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit)
Offer a solution based comment in the online user area of your local newspaper
Offer a solution at Ask Yahoo or WikiAnswers

If you were to choose five of these acts of online goodwill and repeat every week using your business profile, how long do you think it would take before others took note? Just five simple acts of good can reap benefits not realized using traditional online efforts.

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Create Online Content With Company Documents

by Admin on 07/01/2010 in All Articles, Content Creation

Content in the online world is king. It is important in the world of social media, which includes business blogging, Facebook, Twitter and much more.

Companies that are able to churn out quality content turn words and images into cash and profits. Content comes in various formats such as entertainment, education controversy, social responsibility, etc. Gone are the days of 30 second spots, mailers and display advertisements. Today, marketing is much more complex. Online marketing is an unrestricted canvas where the sky is the limit. But the excitement of endless possibilities can quickly wane with the realization that Google’s appetite for new content is immense and steadfast. Marketing online is a marathon and not a sprint.

With that in mind, one of the major frustrations for companies engaging in online marketing is producing value content on a consistent basis. But with a little bit of an imagination, creating new content does not have to be challenging. Existing company literature can be repacked. Here are a few examples.

Business Plan – From the mission statement, business organization, strengths, policies to market research data, this is a gold mine for enlightening the public about various aspects of your company. Examples: article about some of the laws that govern your industry, what is the story behind the name of the company? What are some of the demographics of your customer base?
Brochures and fliers – These are often meant to educate about various aspects of company products and/or service and can very easily be converted into short and simple yet informative articles. Examples: How often should a car be serviced at your car dealership, how has the product changed in recent years, what are the newest innovations, what is the best time to visit the showroom and why?
Coupons, Specials and Contests – Past promotional campaigns can be opportunities to reflect on the history of the company, its unique customer base and content can be developed giving readers an insight into select decision processes. Examples: What happens to unsold inventory? A biography of a contest winner or a summary of a promotional event.
Menus, Inventory and Product Descriptors – readers will appreciate understanding product development and the connection to the distribution channels. Examples: How does this work? What is the history of this? How long before?
Display Advertisements – An image or a graphic inspires thoughts and emotions that can be turned into content. Examples: The company location can inspire an article about geographical changes in the local area, articles about how to take care of purchase, description of warranties, or a pre-sale announcement.

Successful content online is designed to engage the reader and also allow them to feel as though they are part of the company. By sharing inside information and also making connections to issues and subjects that extend past the company, readers will appreciate the selflessness and reward it with their wallets and word of mouth.

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How to Repackage Your Social Media Marketing

by Admin on 06/01/2010 in All Articles, Content Creation, Marketing

A survey showed that over half of business respondents reported that they devote six or more hours per week to social media marketing and one in three invest 11 or more hours weekly. This same survey also found that Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and business blogging are the most used social media marketing tools. Creating an online presence for companies today is very important. Maintaining an online presence can become overwhelming.

Outsourcing social media marketing can be helpful in easing the strain. However, these services can get costly and there’s a risk that the personal touch will be lost between the company and public.

Southwest Advertising and Marketing Company recommends that you outsource at least one of your business blogs by having us create an off-domain blog for you. Next, repackage the content that is developed for you into your other social media tools.

Twitter

Let’s say your weekly blog post developed by us is about “summer driving tips.” You can take the most important points of the post and repackage into a number of tweets:

Tweet Monday: Summer road trips! Recommended tire pressure can be found on your driver or glove compartment doors. Schedule a pre-trip service appointment with us.

Tweet Wednesday: Temperatures in parked cars can rise by 5o degrees in 10 minutes. Never leave children or pets unattended.

Tweet Friday: Thermal shock is when air conditioning blows on a hot windshield turning dings into dangerous cracks. Contact us to fix your windshield dings.

Facebook

Copy and paste the weekly blog article into your Facebook wall.

Next, turn the topic of the blog post into a Facebook discussion. Examples: What are the best summer road trip tunes? What is your favorite summer road trip? What do you do to prepare your car for a summer road trip? A discussion engages your Facebook users and allows you to gain insights into their consumer behaviors and thinking!

LinkedIn

You can use the weekly blog post topics to network with like minded professionals on LinkedIn and request to do a link exchange on your respective websites. Create a Community Resources page on your website for your link exchange program. When other industry related websites link to your website, this increases your search engine ranking. Example: for the summer driving topic, you might exchange links with a local auto insurance company, gas station, bed and breakfast, among others.

Newsletter

Copy and paste blog post into your e-mail newsletter and incorporate coupons and specials that are tied into the topic of the post. Example: Pre-trip maintenance service coupon.

Other

Weekly blog article topics can be incorporated into your direct marketing efforts such as newspaper advertisements, fliers and other promotions.

As you can see, the possibilities are endless with a little bit of an imagination. Southwest Advertising and Marketing Company will create your business blog content for a cost-effective monthly fee allowing you to save time and money while expanding your social media marketing.

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