Web Marketing: Social Media and SEO

The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics have been billed as the legacy for President Putin as he promised these games were a showcase of what the Russian people can do.  In case you missed it, the first week of tweets, comments, and reports were focused largely on the hotel issues that many members of the media encountered.  These issues ranged from uncompleted rooms, to missing doorhandles, to missing reservations.  The media took to social media using the hash tag #sochiproblems, which went viral.  It was certainly not the message the Games organizers were wanting to spread.  Even the Huffington Post got in on the action with this headline, Sochi Olympics 2014: 15 Epic Hotel Fail In The 'Russian Riviera.'

This month we have already looked at Search Engine Optimization(SEO) from the Entrepreneur and Technician point of view. You should already have a result statement and a basic knowledge of SEO. Today we encourage you to put on your Manager hat. It's time to take that basic knowledge and begin to develop the plan for how you will implement basic SEO techniques in your business.

As described in the E-Myth Revisited, the Manager is the "planner" of work. There are three basic elements that you need to consider as you plan your SEO work:

Don't worry if you do not know this information right now. Later in this article we provide you with links to resources that will help you gather and analyze the needed information.

Last week we discussed the importance of starting Search Engine Optimization (SEO) from an Entrepreneur’s point of view by creating a result statement.  This week we are skipping to the Technician's point of view.  At the end of the month we will cover the Manager's Point of View, but before you create your plan it's helpful to be familiar with some of the technical points.

As described in the E-Myth Revisited, the technician is the "doer" of work.  When dealing with SEO the technician's work is often making changes to websites or creating links back to your own website.  As a business owner, the goal is not to do this tactical work yourself or to be an expert in SEO, but it is important for you to have some technical knowledge.  By understanding at least a few basics of SEO, you have the ability to ask the right questions and to delegate the work.  The truth is many businesses are hurt by small SEO errors that are easy to fix.  The good news is that there are many options out there for learning the basics.  Here are two to get you started:

Can your business afford to ignore leads that are looking for a place to spend their money? Consumers are becoming web savvy and turning to their favorite search engine to help decide where they want to spend their money. And if your leads are turning to search engines, then you need to know how to influence those searches.

Search Engine Optimization, commonly referred to as SEO, is the way you can influence how easy it is for your leads and your customers to find your business via search engines. Put simply, SEO is a marketing strategy for the internet age, yet it is often overlooked by business owners. Why? Many business owners view SEO mainly from a tactical point of view. It is shrouded in a web of jargon that can be down right frustrating and thus easy to discount by saying, "It's not for me." Granted there is a technical side to SEO, but more importantly, SEO is a marketing strategy that when neglected or ignored can cause you to lose out on leads and revenues.

On Facebook, when you “like” a page it is easy to assume that you will see that page’s updates, but in reality not all “likes” are created equal.  As we discussed in Five Features to Bring Your Business into Focus, there is an algorithm often called Edge Rank that decides where a post shows up in the news-feed.  

Today, we look at another way to boost Edge Rank, which is controlled by fans that like your page.  When someone “likes” your page the default is set to “Show in News Feed.”  This means that when they like your page the results will show up in their news-feed, but how often and where depends

In last week’s article, “3 Keys to Getting Your Business Recognized,” we discussed the importance of creating an online presence by using Likes, Comments, Shares, Tags and Check Ins on various social media sites. This week we’re looking at why you should use the features and how to use these features in more detail.

Note: We’re mainly focusing on Facebook features in this document, because it is one of the most widely used social media sites. However, most social media sites have similar features and you should look at using these on all sites.

 Have you ever found yourself standing in a book store or novelty shop looking at one of those pictures with an image hidden in the graphics? You stare, and stare, and stare at one point in the picture until the image shows itself. In today's small business climate, getting your business recognized can be like staring into that picture. Customers make thousands of choices everyday that decide the success or failure of small businesses and it is up to you to bring your business into focus. How do you make your business standout? What is different about what you do and how you do it that drives customers to your door? What are you doing to get the name of your business out to your potential customers?

As Michael Gerber pointed out in "The E-Myth Revisited," you have to know who your customers are and what they want from your business. In the following bullets, you will gain a high level view of how to get your business recognized by your customers, their friends and the surrounding community.