Want to Add Some Oomph to Your Social Marketing Efforts? Check Out SocialOomph!

January 20, 2010 Social Marketing

SocialOomph (which was formerly known as TweetLater), has been adding and expanding its suite of social marketing tools to not only help you organize and schedule tweets on Twitter, but also expand out to use with your other social networking accounts like Facebook, ping.fm and any blog that you have. SocialOomph is a great online tool to help organize and manage the multiple social accounts on the multiple social sites many of us have now. I have found this product to be a real time saver and I like how they are aggressively adding new features and tools to make the product even more valuable. Here is a quick overview of a few key features that I utilize.

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6 Critical Steps To Implementing Any New Idea For Your Business

January 19, 2010 Management

Have you ever read a great business book or attended a powerful business development seminar or dynamic sales and marketing conference, excited to return back to work with tons of fantastic ideas that you know will have a positive impact on the future success of your business? The problem is six months later none of those ideas that you knew would make you more money and grow your business have been implemented or were tried, deemed a failure, abandoned and mostly forgotten.

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Is Your Small Business Ready To Catch The Google Wave?

January 10, 2010 Google Wave

Google Wave is a tsunami that is going to impact how we all communicate and more importantly how we all virtually collaborate in the future. Google Wave is an online communication and collaboration tool that will make real-time interactions with clients, prospects, family and friends more seamless. It will become your Communication Hub to interact, communicate and collaborate with everyone, using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and much more.

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Using a Website and Blog as a Realtor – Do You Know How or Why?

December 30, 2009 Content and Keywords

As a Realtor, you know that you need to utilize the internet to remain competitive in your market. But do you know how? Real estate marketing is evolving and every Realtor needs to adapt, retire or start looking for a new career. Gone are the days of plopping your picture along with a few key listings in the local newspaper to generate calls. When I opened up my local real estate section this past Sunday, there was only one page of listings where there used to be eight pages. The internet has changed how people ship and is the key to identifying, attracting and capturing new listings and active buyers in the future. The problem is that many Realtors have no idea how to effectively use the internet to market and grow their business.

At the center of any internet marketing effort is your core web presence. In the past that represented a static website that does little more than acting like an online Yellow pages ad. If that is you than you need to rethink your core web presence and how it will work for you and not just sit their alone in cyber-space.

What every Realtor needs to understand is that a website is “sizzle” that looks good if found, but a blog is the “steak” that is going to attract the search engine spiders and get you listed in a search. I am a firm believer in the effective use of both a keyword content rich blog to create page ranking, traffic and link energy and a core static website to drive traffic to in order to connect with and capture buyers, sellers and future prospects.

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5 Essentials For Restaurant Owners To Keep Your Restaurant Doors Open in 2010

December 15, 2009 Small Business

Are you a restaurant owner who is struggling to keep your restaurant doors open in 2010? The economy continues to lag and restaurants, as well as many other retail businesses are feeling the strain as people choose to eat in to save money or are spending less when they do go out. Competition for dining out dollars is fierce and “Me To” advertising in the local papers alone is not going to drive diner’s through your door or profits into your bank account.

You need to develop an effective Customer Marketing Campaign that utilizes the power of the internet and an automated email communication system to create “front of mind awareness” with your customer.

Restaurant owners and management need to combine their traditional advertising efforts to include the goal of identifying, capturing and communicating with every customer that walks through the door, so that you can establish the “front of mind awareness”, that will keep them coming back when they choose to dine out again.

The easiest and most cost effective way to establish a “front of mind awareness” restaurant marketing campaign with your customers, is to combine traditional marketing, a trained staff and a web based and automated email communication system. Below are five essential steps to establishing an effective marketing campaign that any restaurant can implement.

Before you read the 5 steps ask yourself this question. What is a loyal customer worth to me over the course of 1 year? A couple who visits your restaurant once a week and spends $50 could be worth over $2,600 to you in a year. A frequent loyal couple who visits twice a week will spend over $5,200 per year and that does not include people that they bring or recommend to your establishment. What is it worth to you to keep them happy and establish “front of mind awareness” with a customer?

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The Top 15 SEO Websites To Use!

November 6, 2009 Content and Keywords

Recently I came across a post on eBizMBA on the 15 Top SEO Websites – November 2009 that I wanted to share with my readers. This list is made up of the 15 Largest Search Engine Optimization Websites based on a variety of traffic parameters. Some are SEO blog sites, some are keyword sites and others are SEO training and information sites.

The bottom line is that you can not know enough and you can not possibly stay on top of the constant changing in SEO without checking out at least a few of these sites on a regular basis. I am not endorsing one over the other I am just passing on the rankings as they were posted based on traffic. Check some of them out and let me know which ones you think were helpful.

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Is Internet Marketing Evolving To Fast For Your Small Business to Keep Up?

October 30, 2009 Social Marketing

Online marketing, the use of keyword rich content, SEO “Search Engine Optimization” and SEM “Search Engine Marketing” strategy has evolved tremendously in just the last few years and many business owners (large and small) and marketing executives do not have a clue that they are lining up to play a game and everyone else has moved to a different field. Staying on the leading edge of this evolution is going to have a tremendous impact on your organizations effectiveness to market your products and services to clients and consumers in the future.

Your web presence should not be an online yellow pages ad, but a prospect generating vortex. You need to know how to leverage social networking, social media marketing, niche marketing and keyword content distribution into contacts and follows. Then capture those contacts and communicate with them in order to create real connections, prospects and new business for your company. That is the essence of creating an internet marketing strategy. Putting effort into your “About Us” page is not going to drive traffic.

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Is Trade Publication Advertising Dead? Six Steps To Breath New Life into Your Print Media Marketing!

October 4, 2009 Small Business

Is advertising in an industry magazine, a waste of marketing dollars? Should B2B marketing strategy totally abandon print media? The answer is a Big Fat No! Industry and niche market print trade publication marketing can be a huge opportunity to capture new prospects by utilizing the internet and harnessing the power of social media marketing.

The opportunity and challenge is changing how you “the advertiser” utilize trade magazine advertising to drive traffic and capture leads, not just promote yourself or create brand recognition. Lets face it. The days of using a trade magazine to show off to your market or industry is over, but the vehicle to attract new contacts and customers is not dead.

Look, we all know that newspapers, magazines and trade publications are getting thinner and thinner as advertisers turn away from them to invest their dwindling marketing dollars into other projects during these tough economic times faced by many companies. Where some see this as the end of print media and time to join the masses and jump ship, I see that as great opportunity to stand out and create velocity for my marketing efforts.

To me a thinner trade magazine means that there is a better chance of my ad being found and noticed by my target customer and if I leverage this opportunity effectively.

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What is In A Name? Keywords, Colors and Logo, Essential To Branding Your Small Business!

September 29, 2009 Entrepreneur

What is in a name? Plenty, if you plan to do business on the internet and want to generate traffic and link energy to your website or blog.

If you are looking to create a new business or re-brand an existing one, you can not underestimate the power of keywords, keyword phrases, color and your web presence, when naming and branding your organization.

Most businesses do not have the resources of a large corporation or a well funded start-up to spend the thousands, if not millions of dollars that it takes to establish a unique and recognizable brand name and image. You can take a shot as Bob Parsons, founder of GoDaddy did when he bet the farm (and his advertising budget) on a Super Bowl commercial that propelled his company from a virtual unknown entity to a domain and internet hosting market leader and household name.

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The Difference Between Social Media and Social Marketing

September 17, 2009 Social Marketing

When I discuss social networking, social media, SEO, SEM and social marketing with small business owners for the first time, many are overwhelmed and confused about what they really are and how they impact their business. They know that they are all important, but not sure why. They know they need to establish an effective social web presence, but not sure how. If you feel similar frustration, let me share a little light on a couple of these subjects. Let me explain the difference between social media and social marketing and the importance of a social marketing strategy.

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