One of my jobs here at in the internet marketing and advertising department is to work with business owners on social media. Business owners are usually busy, so over the years I have developed "elevator pitch application". I will touch on that later. I know you don't have much time so I will get to the beef of this article. Most business owners are thinking it is time to address their websites SEO and SEM and start investing into online media marketing. There are literally thousands of web 2.0 style social networking sites out there to choose from. Social media interaction isn't for everybody, whether it be time constraints or spelling problems, most business owners won't take advantage of the free open networking web being built.
What have you done for me lately? We use yellow page books as booster seats and watch the newspaper giants crumble at our feet. Bolder price tags and boxier contracts are steering the forward thinking entrepreneur towards infiniti and beyond. My grandfathers use the internet, as does their great grandson, so the age of online advertising is here. I have been an online marketer for years and I love fads and trends. The dot-com boom had some serious upside and so does social media. Not every little startup is going to be the next Facebook but the environments that do succeed must find their niche. What I mean by niche is they must be able to be exploited for public relations equalling foot traffic for business owners and money. I am not saying that Myspace is not hugely successful, but I will say that Myspace is not the best place to make a stand for most business. Advertising for a tattoo shop is a bit different than an allergy doctor. Still, most business owners want a piece of the fee-free pie and they don't always know what it is all about, but they can feel it coming.
Mindfly's SEO marketing specialist works with the business contact and translates what their website is saying to Google's algorithmic spiders. Mindfly's designers and developers are insuring that these changes are being made with usability and functionality at the forefront. Mindfly does not want to and shouldn't have to do something twice. Face it, you can no longer afford to just assume that your website will be fine, it could end up costing you twice as much and have half the impact. The difference between the first page and the third page could only be a few more billable hours from your design and marketing consultant. The difference between the first page and the third page on the search results can be you owning a yacht or sporting a dingy.
So I pitch social media marketing the same way I use to pitch websites or SEO. You may not see immediate results, but in three years you'll be happy with a firm cornerstone to build on. Internet searchers may not assume that you are social networking but they will find out eventually. You will sponsor a fun run but you won't set up a business listing with your logo on a free social network? "Why should I set up a social network for my company if I'm not going to be active?" This is a question I hear a lot. Social media branding is becoming more and more necessary. A great example of this is the social network Naymz. I set up a listing a few months back, invited some buddies and buddets to sign up and then never thought of it again. A couple months later I searched "Internet Marketing Bellingham" on Google and yours truly pulled up numero uno in El Googlio. This is an example of Mindfly Internet Marketing branding. Naymz is doing branding and online marketing of their own I just piggy backed them. I know that the listing will not last forever, the point is I have taken a few minutes in my circadian rhythm to ride the carousel of Google's algorithm. Did I mention it was free?
Not every business owner out there is going to write three blog posts a day or or set up tweetdeck to notify them when someone types in a relevant keyword. Most of the social networks out there need some pruning and weeding every once in awhile. I don't suggest for every client to have a twitter account or even a facebook fan page. I want every client to have the full spectrum, from branding to back links. No follow or not locally SEM works like word of mouth and SEO like those expensive sponsored ads you used to buy in the yellow pages. Don't get me wrong I love SEO and it is necessary for the local business owner these days. But, would you rather have a back link from a speckled red bellied bearded gecko stud directory forum, or a picture of you, logo, description of services, and a link over to your site on a meetup group social networking site in your community. Stop copy and pasting anchor text on .edu job boards, put down the energy drink, and shake some online hands.
As Google goes semantic and breaks down relationships between hype society and deep rich data, small business environment must get with the program. Incorporating rich snippets, mobile style sheets, and multi-media branding (Youtube and Flickr ) into the web design and marketing campaign will be essential. The search results are starting to look less like the yellow pages and more like an illustrated children’s book, (BTW Hawaii BBQ and Noodle House, you have awesome prices, huge servings, you deserve a website = ) ) Internet savvy potential clients aren’t looking for a phone number as much as what relationships a company has locally, or what type of reviews a restaurant may have on a proven directory like Yelp. For example - if I am going to hire a search engine marketing firm I would feel more comfortable if my cronies back them or they have some comforting online reviews. The search engines are going social, multimedia, and want you to get involved!
