Social Media Marketing – What is it?

by Glenn on December 18, 2010

 

social media marketingWhen the internet was first developing, most of the information you could find about a product or business was published by the product creator on a business website. Consumers would search for information, find product details or specifications, and use that information to determine which product or service to purchase.

The internet has evolved over the past several years. Business websites are becoming more prominent but websites featuring user-generated content are becoming increasingly popular as well. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and many others are giving individuals and businesses a place to connect with their current and potential buyers. Social media can have a strong impact on the way a business grows online.

Exploring Social Media Marketing

 

When it comes to reaching out to our potential markets, most of us think of websites and print advertisements. We rarely, if ever, think about methods for making direct contact with our target markets. Social media marketing gives businesses the opportunity to add to the communications aspect of their marketing plans. Anyone with internet access can take advantage of social media networks to build connections and make information readily available to the public.

You’ll need to start your social media marketing campaign by choosing one or two of the most popular social media sites to focus on. There are dozens to choose from, but you should start with one or two and focus your efforts before adding others to your campaign. The most popular include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Delicious. After creating a profile on one of these sites, you’ll use it to make connections, to network with those interested in your product or services, to promote your products, and to gather customer feedback.

Why Social Media Marketing is Important

 

By now you’re probably wondering why you should invest your time on social media marketing sites – sites you likely thought were for recreational purposes. The benefits are many. They include a surge of backlinks and traffic to your website, both from your social media networks and from those who post on their on blogs and websites. By creating profiles on social media sites, you’ll have the opportunity to target your market by only connecting with people who have some sort of interest in what you have to offer, reducing the amount of time and money you spend trying to find a focused group to talk to.

Let’s not forget the most important benefit – customer feedback. By putting yourself on social media websites you will be opening yourself up to public criticism. While the majority of your contacts will likely praise what you do, those who have had bad experiences are likely to speak up as well. These instances will provide you with the opportunity to address concerns, both publicly and privately, and will enhance your customer relations.

Social media marketing is an incredible online tool that should not be overlooked. Aside from a time investment, you will find that working with social media sites is a low-cost alternative to traditional marketing methods.

Social Media Marketing – More info

Contact: Glenn Wallace at Webjutsu

 

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What is Search Engine Optimization?

by Glenn on December 17, 2010

You have a website and everyone keeps telling you that you need to take the time to optimize your website for the search engines. They’re throwing around terms like SEO and SEM and everything seems like a confusing mess. In order to have a successful website, or one that has online visibility, you do need to focus on SEO, or search engine optimization. But what exactly does that mean?

Exploring Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization, aka SEO, is the term that refers to the things you can do to improve your website’s visibility in the search engines. Search engine optimization techniques focus on increasing  the organic, or natural, traffic that you receive based on your ranking within the search engines. The goal of search engine optimization is to ensure your website appeals to search engine crawlers, or bots. The search engines will take note of your site and its content, categorizing it in a way that will allow it to show up in search results when certain keywords are typed.

Search engine optimization is achieved through a wide variety of methods. Many webmasters or SEO professionals will focus on proper keyword research, clarity in the setup of your website’s headers, tags, file names and descriptions, external backlinking, internal cross linking, and quality content creation.

While each search engine uses its own algorithm for determining the ranking of every website, it is possible to increase your rankings by making your site informative and visible via both on-page and off-page search engine marketing techniques. Sites that are designed with ease-of-use and quality information in mind tend to do better than those that built sloppily and without a solid plan.

Exploring Search Engine Marketing

Search engine marketing, or SEM, is similar to search engine optimization but focuses less on natural rankings and more on the actual promotion of a website. SEM techniques generally include natural SEO but almost always branches out to include contextual or paid search advertising.

Paid search advertising models became more prominent in the late 1990′s, after the search engines themselves became more popular. SEM focuses more on business-oriented websites and their overall online marketing strategies. Because many of the paid advertisements appear at the top of the search engines, the FTC in 2002 responded to complaints by clarifying that paid advertisements and website listings must be clearly denoted so that consumers do not confuse them with websites that have obtained high rankings naturally.

It really doesn’t matter what type of website you have, whether it’s personal or geared towards your business. Incorporating search engine optimization techniques into the creation and ongoing upkeep of your site will ensure you receive higher levels of traffic and, ultimately, greater success.

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The Benefits of Customizing Your Facebook Fan Page for Local Businesses

December 14, 2010

Creating a Facebook fan page for your business is absolutely free. The problem is that most pages look the same, with a “wall” for comments and places for photos. If you’re lucky, someone will start a conversation in the “discussions” tab, too. These pages are, simply put, somewhat boring. The most successful Facebook fan pages [...]

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The Benefits of Internet Marketing vs. Yellow-Page Advertising

December 6, 2010

While telephone directory printers still deliver their books door-to-door every year, spending money from your marketing budget to place an ad may not be as effective as it once was. The internet has taken on a huge role in the marketing of both online and offline businesses and now, regardless of the location, many businesses [...]

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The Benefits of Email Marketing

November 14, 2010

Having a website is a great way to build your business’s online presence. Once you start driving targeted traffic to your website, you’ll need to find ways to keep those who are interested coming back for more information. One of the most effective methods for keeping in touch with your potential buyers is through the [...]

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Should I Be Using Google AdWords?

April 3, 2010

Over the last decade the internet has become a global hub, an axis upon which the upon which the world turns. There are millions of businesses all over the world that would be suffering should the bell for the stock market exchange ring Monday morning and the internet not be fully operational. Hiding in the [...]

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