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Social Media Marketing for Small Business Owners

Thanks for being a loyal visitor. Check back often for information on SEO! ShareSocial media on the web is an often difficult place to navigate, especially for small business owners. With so many social media outlets, it can quickly become overwhelming for small business owners just starting to get their feet wet in the world [...]

Good SEO \ Bad SEO

ShareI assume you’re familiar with the term Search Engine Optimization, aka SEO, because everyone seems to be. Well, this article will be something about SEO too, but with a twist. I want to caution readers about over-optimizing your website or blog because doing so may get you penalized by search engines. Bad SEO:  Common Forms [...]

Anatomy of a Tweet

ShareTweets are the building blocks of your communications on Twitter. You’ll be surprised by how much you can say with 140 characters or less. 1. HASHTAG A hashtag is any word beginning with the # sign. People use hashtags to organize conversations around a specific topic. Clicking on a hashtag takes you to search results [...]

Market Your Business With Facebook!

ShareCan Facebook actually be used to bring in leads, opportunities and sales to your small business? YES! You can’t use Facebook for your business the same way you use it for your personal life – you need a clear social strategy in place before you’ll see results. This isn’t hard to do, and can easily [...]

Twitter Day 8 by JaxWorks SEO & Web

It’s true business transactions are transpiring in the Twitterverse.  Individuals and businesses are connecting every day on  Twitter. The sale of a product or the scheduling of a service is not uncommon across the daily Twitterers. There are even companies finding that perfect job candidate on Twitter. Talk about amazing!

People are more and more using Twitter for business transactions, the sale of products, scheduling services, and finding candidates for jobs. Are you participating in Twitter for these opportunities? Nielsen reported that in a 12 month period from February 2008 to 2009 Twitter grew their unique visitors by 1,382%. This brought their user base to 7 million, so let’s put this in perspective. There are 7 million people out there that you could be prospecting to. Interested? I knew you would be, so how do you start finding those prospects that have an interest in your products or services?

First of all, don’t offend and lose prospects.

1.  Be willing to give other people information and knowledge in your area of expertise.  Provide information that they can use while maintaining your personality and unique persona.  Just don’t give them fluff:  put meaningful information out there that they can really use.  Solve problems, answer questions…you get the idea!

2.  Don’t spend all your time promoting your products or services.  That is annoying and unattractive to followers.  At best they will ignore you, at worst they will “unfollow” you.

3.  Once you say something, it’s out there for everyone to see, so be sure you use common sense when tweeting.  You don’t want to say anything derogatory or inappropriate about anyone.  This also turns people off and they will not consider buying your products or services.

4.  Don’t repeat the same message over and over again. Give your followers new and informative information…don’t spam them!

5.  All social media is about interaction, not about plugging your business or self promotion.  Interact and form a relationship with our friends, customer, colleagues, and prospects.  Treat them like you would treat a friend!

So, now that we know how to act, how do we find prospects?

  1. The most valuable tool that you can use to find prospects on Twitter is the Twitter search tool. Search for terms and keywords that represent your customers. By doing this, you will have a starting point that will represent a list of individuals that may have an interest in your products or services. Start following them! You’ll be surprised at what you will learn that will help you in targeting your selected market for your products and services. You will also find that many times the follow will be reciprocated and they will start following you.
  2. Share information with your fellow industry workers, not just your potential clients.  They like to hear different takes on the industry and what you are doing in it.
  3. Find people in your industry that are moving and shaking and follow them.  You may learn something!
  4. Create a Twitter profile that draws the interest of your prospective market. Make it informative and interesting, so that it draws in your potential customers and makes them want to follow you.
  5. Finally, pick a Twitter name that represents you or your business. Make sure the profile and the Twitter name accurately represents your business.

That’s it…now get out there and Tweet!

Twitter Search

Twitter Search

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Twitter Day 7! Social Media Marketing by JaxWorks.

I’ve taken so long to get all these Twitter posts out and I apologize but let’s look at  how to use social media in your marketing strategy. There are so many companies, and when I say companies, I mean both the large companies as well as the soloprenuer out there that are beginning to think social media marketing is about getting rich quick, or it’s the quick fix to small marketing budgets that will pull them through the recession with little or no effort.

To tell the truth, social media is about interaction, not hustling clients!   When you interact, you create relationships; when you create these relationships, you create opportunities to share your products and services. This doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time, consistency, and a genuine interest in the creation and nurturing of those relationships. If you aren’t willing to do that, then hire a consultant that will do it for you!

No matter what industry you are in, do it badly and you will destroy your reputation within the social media realm. You can save your reputation by minding your manners.

Social Media Marketing No-Nos

It’s not all about you and your business, so interact with others. Get to know others; don’t just try to sell and promote your products. It won’t work.

Spamming is not ok, ever. It’s true that spamming is becoming a problem in the social media networks, and we are being required to weed through it, just like we do in our email inboxes. Don’t spam followers; if they didn’t ask for it, don’t send it. It’s that simple! Permission marketing is key.

Inconsistency will lead to failure. You must be consistent when it comes to using social media. Participating once a month or once a week just won’t get the results you desire.

Want followers?  You will have to be a follower. Just like you can’t open a storefront and think that customers will just show up, you cannot sign up and start off in social media thinking everyone is just going to come and follow you. You must be a follower. Social marketing isn’t about flying solo, participate.

It’s important to realize that social media marketing does work, but as with any marketing strategy, but you must find the right social media marketing vehicles that will work for you and your industry, as well as design the campaigns that will present you with the results that you desire. If you’re B2C, FaceBook is a great option.  If you’re B2B, you may rather spend more time on Linked In.  There are a lot of different things you can do to market and you have to find the right fit!  Social media marketing is a low to no-cost marketing option, but you will need to invest your time. If you are not willing to do that, consider selecting another marketing option or have a company do your social media marketing.  They can then create and implement your social media marketing strategy. If you decide to outsource, just be sure to select a company or a consultant that has an idea of what they are doing

Good luck in your endeavors and I’ll attempt to get these blog posts out more often.  Thanks for reading and if you liked this post, please see below and share it with your friends!

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10 Days of Twitter Day 6!

Ever heard of Twitter hashtags? A hashtag is used to unite specific tweets about particular topics. It’s a way of organizing or grouping tweets together.

What does a hashtag look like?
It’s the tweets you see that contain the “#” symbol plus a topic or word.

An example that comes to mind is this evening, while watching Fox News, many people gathered together and united their post by including the hashtag #foxandfriends. This enabled the hashtags to be searched and allowed Twitter users to follow the conversation of others on Twitter regarding the popular news show. The same was true during the last presidential election.

Twitter Day 6!!

Twitter Day 6!!

Twitter Hashtag Resources
If you are interested in what topics are being talked about on Twitter, there are a few resources you can visit to gauge trending topics that are being discussed. These sites include:

Hashtags.org is an extremely valuable resource when it comes to researching popular trends on Twitter. It provides you with information on how many messages were sent regarding a specific hashtag and within what time frame.

Twemes
Twemes is another popular site, because it provides you with information on what themes are floating across the Twitter cyberwaves. I’ve also found the RSS Feed feature to be extremely helpful when I want to follow a specific hashtag.

Wthashtag
Trying to find information on the history of a hashtag? Would you like more information about a particular hashtag on Twitter? Wthashtag is the place to go. It is a wiki tool that is generated by users that explains what a hashtag means, how you can use it, when it was first discovered, and a live stream of that hashtag. This is a great resource if you are doing research into specific hashtags.

Why Use Hashtags?
Hashtags can be useful when you want to create as well as monitor visibility on Twitter. This can be extremely beneficial when monitoring your company or your products. They can be used to categorize your Tweets according to topic or purpose.

Simply put, hashtags are a great way to organize Tweets and allow others to follow specific topics or events. Once you learn how to use them, you will wonder how you ever Tweeted without them.

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10 Days of Twitter Day 5!

Twitter Day 5!!!

Twitter Day 5!!!

Finally, day 5 – months later!  Sorry this has taken so long,

Should we consider Twitter to be a marketing tool or is it just for people who have a lot of time on their hands and the need to fill their day?

Think of Twitter as a means to get instant public messages out to your audience, whether it is an audience of colleagues or potential customers.Twitter is becoming an increasingly important platform for online communication.  TechCrunch reported that Twitter is receiving 8 million unique visitors per month and about 3 million messages are posted daily.

How can we use Twitter as a marketing tool?

Twitter As A Learning Tool
If over 3 million messages are posted everyday, are you mentioned in any of them? What about your company? This might be a good time to find out. Twitter provides a search engine that allows you plug-in company names, brand names, topics and even personal names. How is your buzz level? You can also find out the buzz level of other companies which whom you want to do business.

Today, I found out that a phone carrier made a customer unhappy and he Twittered about it. I learned that Weather Underground has some really cool iPhone applications and that the cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory is heavenly!  All that was posted today!  So, whether you are engaging on and participating in Twitter or not, someone may be twitting about you.

Use Twitter as a Bullhorn!
You can use Twitter to post news or updates about your company or products.  Think of what’s valuable to your consumers and let them hear about it. You’ll be amazed how your following will grow.

Promote You
It’s not uncommon for companies to post promotions, sales, or specials on Twitter.  It’s important to remember that Twitter is about conversation and breaking news, so be sure if you are posting promotional information that you make it conversational and personal. If I want an ad, I’ll look for one!

Create Brand Name
Twitter is a fantastic tool in giving your brand a voice and a personality. Being successful in Twittering, you will have to put forth your personality and a unique style. That’s what makes the difference and can increase your Twitter following and make it a successful marketing tool for you.

Let’s Tweet, shall we.  Come follow me by visiting my Twitter profile!

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10 Days of Twitter Day 4!

Twitter can be a great way to promote you, your brand or your company. People and businesses use Twitter as a way to connect with fans and promote themselves to millions of people.

But how do you build up a Twitter following? These simple tips will help you get started.

Follow People. The number one way to gain followers is to follow people. Many Twitter users follow anyone that follows them, while others check to see if the profile is active before deciding to follow it. You can find interesting people to follow by doing a Twitter search.  You can also find people on Twellow, a twitter yellowpages, by their businesses or region.

Be Active. Post messages daily or several times a day and make sure what you have to say is interesting and engages people.  If you’re a business, talk about interesting things in your business.  For example, if you are a restaurant, you could talk about the entertainment.   Ask questions, post interesting tidbits, follow other people’s discussions, anything to keep you friends and customers engaged.  There are ways to set up tweets for several days at a time.  Check out 10 Best Twitter Tools, Plugins, Widgets for WordPress blogs to see some of the automatic tweeting sites.  Also, something interesting is automatic posting of Google Alerts to Twitter as a way to gain targeted Twitter followers.

Promote your Profile. Add a link to your Twitter profile to your blog, website and as part of your signature in email messages and discussion forums.

Retweet. When someone tweets something of interest, retweet it. This is a great way to honor someone else’s great information and get it out there in the twittersphere!

Participate in Follow Friday. The Twitter community has many different customs, one of which is Follow Friday, whereby users call out some of their favorite people to follow.

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10 Days of Twitter – Day 3!

Twitter is sometimes hard to navigate if you are new to it and don’t know the lingo!  Here are some terms you may want to be familiar with when “Tweeting”:

10 Days of Twitter!

10 Days of Twitter!

Tweet – A twitter post or update – this is known as a tweet.

@ – The @ sign is a way of referring to others on Twitter. You can use the @ sign to send a public message to someone or to refer to or talk about someone else in a tweet.. The @ is useful in helping you find those that are talking about you. For example @JaxWorksSEO means someone is talking to me or about me.

Retweet – Retweet means sharing a Tweet of one user with your followers. Proper etiquette is to use the retweet feature when sharing someone else’s tweet rather than to just post it as your own tweet. A Retweet looks like this RT @JaxWorksSEO.”

Reply – A reply is when you respond to someone’s tweet. It looks like this @JaxWorksSEO. For example you could say “@JaxWorksSEO I’m reading your 10 Days of  Twitter blog” and that would be a tweet that is a message to me that I would see.

Direct Message – A direct message is different than a reply because it is private. You can only send a direct message to someone if they are following you. A direct message looks like this: DM JaxWorksSEO.

Hashtags or # – This is the most common term that people get confused by. Hashtags are words that begin with the number sign and represent a topic or an event. You can learn more about hashtags at Hashtags.org.

Follower – A follower is someone that follows you on Twitter. This does not have to be a reciprocated relationship – a person can follow you without you following them. However, it’s best if you follow your followers back, this way you can both engage with one another.

Blocking – Blocking is when you block a user and they are unable to follow you. You will also no longer see their tweets in your Twitter stream. This is different than unfollowing. When you unfollow someone, it means that they can still follow you, but you are not following them.

Un-following – Unfollow means that are not longer following a user on Twitter. They, however, can still follow you.

Tweeple, Tweeps, Twits, Twerson, Twitterai – These are people who are known as people, members and users of Twitter.Twitterverse – The ever-growing universe of twitter.

That’s it for now – have fun tweeting!

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10 Days of Twitter – Day 2!

It only takes a few minutes to create your Twitter account so let’s get started!  The most common question is often: “Do I name my Twitter account under my brand or my personal name?”   This is something you need to think about before you begin, but I do discourage you from having more than one Twitter account to manage. This can get complicated and often difficult to keep going in a meaningful way. Only create Twitter accounts that you will have the time to manage, which means actively engaging in. The last thing you want is for someone to find a Twitter account either under your name or brand that is not active.

Follow JaxWorks!

Follow JaxWorks!

    Here are the steps to start tweeting!

    • Complete the sign-up information providing your full name, username (which is what you will be known as) your password and email account. I strongly recommend you stay away from cute names, things that are hard to spell or just plain silly. My advice is always that people use their real names, or a reasonable facsimile thereof. Shorter is always better, so don’t get hung up trying to use up all the spaces you are allocated.
    • Click on the button that says “Create My Account.”
    • You can import your email addresses from your Gmail, Yahoo or Outlook email accounts. This is a great way to get started in following current contacts.
    • Almost Done!! You need to sign into your account and complete your profile. Go to twitter.com and click the button that says “sign-in.” You will be taken to your Twitter homepage. At the top click the text that says “settings.” This is where you can tell people more about who you are, what companies you represent, and add your url or other link that is appropriate for you. You will also be given options to geotag your tweets, which basically tells others where you are “tweeting” from. Whether or not you choose to do this is totally up to you. There is also an option to protect your tweets – I highly suggest that you don’t use this feature, especially if you will be using Twitter to promote your company and your brand.
    • Add your picture. At the top of the settings page, you will see a “photo” tab. Click this and add a photo of you. I suggest using a personal picture of yourself, not a photo of your logo or an icon. Individuals want to see who they are tweeting with. A close up picture is better, so that people can see your face. Avoid using pictures of you and your wife, your cat, your toddler or other “cute” or “group” shots. The best photo to use as an avatar is always just you.  You can also have someone create a custom Twitter background.  JaxWorks will create these for you or you can create your own Twitter background.
    • That’s it – you are done, now start finding others to follow.  A great source to use to find others to follow is MrTweet.
    • Try to spend a few minutes a day engaging on Twitter – you can split this into two  intervals in the morning and the evening if that works best for you.
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    10 Days of Twitter

    Twitter is a free social networking and blogging service that allows you to keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick, frequent answers.  Each post must be less than or equal to 140 characters. You can post these messages using Twitter on your computer or your mobile device.

    Twitter calls these short 140 character messages “tweets” or “tweeting.” These messages are broadcast to other Twitter users that follow you and shown on your Twitter profile page. You can also use direct messages through Twitter to your followers, which is essentially a private message.

    Twitter is social media that is often used for business, marketing, campaigning, education, politics, legal proceedings, and public relations. Businesses like to use Twitter to promote their products and services as well as provide customer services and listen to be being said about their companies.

    As stated in Wikipedia,”Since its creation in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained notability and popularity worldwide. It is sometimes described as “SMS of the Internet . The use of Twitter’s application programming interface for sending and receiving text messages by other applications often eclipses direct use of Twitter.  What we have to do is deliver to people the best and freshest most relevant information possible. We think of Twitter as it’s not a social network, but it’s an information network. It tells people what they care about as it is happening in the world.”

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    Use of Social Media in Business Doubles!

    The University of Maryland (yay!  my alma mater) conducted a study, called “The Small Business Success Index“, which found that social media doubled among small businesses in the last year.

    This study asked business owners, 500 to be exact, about their use of social media.  61% had used social media in the past year to drive traffic to their businesses and attract customers.

    In other studies, 45% of respondents viewed social media and blogging as a lead generation channel of growing importance.  Small businesses are spending 180% more of their budgets on blogging and social media.

    According to the study:

    • 75% created a company page on Facebook or LinkedIn
    • 69% post status updates on Facebook or LinkedIn
    • 26% use Twitter to talk about their industry expertise
    • 39% have a blog to talk about expertise

    Blogging was the most used social channel among small businesses.

    Social media is dramatically more inexpensive than traditional marketing tools like advertising and direct mail. Social media marketing is a great way for small businesses, who have a relatively small marketing budget, to get information about their business out to targeted customers.  This way, they can compete with large businesses without breaking the bank!

    It’s time for you to take your small business to the next level by using social media and a social media marketing plan to attract customers to your business.

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    SEO and Content for Website Visitors

    Have you ever been to a website where there are so many keywords for SEO purposes that you can’t read it? There is a thin line between having good on site search engine optimization and having a readable and interesting website.


    Some websites clearly focus so much on the search engine optimization that their website starts to suffer on the user experience side of things. You have to keep in mind that the whole goal of your search engine optimization is to drive website visitors to your website These customers want information about what you do and they want a good user experience.   I think sometimes search marketers look at analytics information and SEO techniques so much that they forget that unique visitors are actually real  human beings. These visitors want to be able to read about your products or services so they can decide for themselves whether or not to buy the product or service.  All this happens very quickly so if your homepage is more worried about SEO than  your audience, visitors will not enjoy the experience or want to stay on your page.

    There are many different opinions out there when it comes to search engine optimization and marketing so it is important to really navigate through them with caution. Not all recommendations are good recommendations. Some could hurt you just as quick as they help you. Stuffing your website with links and really cluttering up the pages could lead to a variety of problems. Not only could load time of your website be really impacted.   Search engines read all the links on your website so if you are spamming them with keywords,  you could be penalized for it down the road.

    Always think about your visitors and what they would like to experience when it comes to reading your website content.  Make sure it’s an enjoyable experience!

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