Stay ahead of your competitors by leveraging mobile devices and geo-targeted search engine results. Today I’ll show you two tools: Google Places (for geo-targeted search) and Facebook Places (for social/mobile devices). Onward!

Google Places

Quick overview
Google Places is an enhanced Google listing — which will be favored in local search queries. (Example: George Bowers Grocery’s Place profile)

Advantages

• You’ll receive stats about how frequently people find you on Google Maps and mobile searches
• You’ll gain another avenue to market to local and visiting customers
• Enhanced listings are more engaging and demonstrate your online savvy

Considerations

• You’ll need to set aside time to fill out the listing. Your goal is 100% filled out.
• No video or photos to upload? Add them to your online marketing “to do” list. (I can help.)
• Put on your marketing hat and feel free to “make up” relevant categories. For example, on the George Bowers Grocery listing we added the category “Quirky & Fun?” and then checked “Yes”. (‘Cuz we are quirky and fun.)

To set up
You’ll need a Gmail account (recommended). Go to this link and begin filling out your information. Go get ‘em!

Facebook Places

Quick overview
Facebook Places allows any Facebook user with a smart phone (iPhones, Androids, and Blackberrys) to “check in” at your business. (Example: George Bowers Grocery)

Advantages

• Visitor check-ins display on their Facebook “wall” in front of their social connections
• Another opportunity to brand your business – be sure to include keywords in your description
• Another search engine outpost that points back to your site

Considerations

• To personalize your business’s site you’ll need to provide identification to Facebook. You should black out sensitive information and anticipate a short delay as they review it. This prevents fraudulent listings.
• You can still benefit, seo-wise, from a generic listing if you do not want to share info. (Our listing above is generic.)

To set up
You must be a Facebook user. You must also be physically located in or near your business. Go to this link using your phone, click “Places”, and follow directions. Or use this link using your computer for more info. Who’s the business with the local seach mojo, now?!

More Thoughts on Your Content…

Why Your Content Cannot Die! client: Matt and Deena Warner
Content Marketing & Strategy for Clean Water client: Shenandoah RC&D
Content Strategy for a Sculptor client: Liz Beavers

Companies understand they must think and act like publishers…but they make a big mistake prioritizing the robots.

“Robots”, you say?

Yes: the search bots that crawl websites. These robots inform the search engines. In turn, these sites make search result recommendations for a global audience — making or breaking your website. Google recently caused an upheaval because they adjusted their algorithm (again — this version called “Farmer/Panda”).

Spinning robots allowed (by flikr, flickr)

Fantastic! One reason for this change is to punish the junk publishers who “spin” — hiring writers to take an article about apples and replace “apple” with “pear” (to fit whatever their topic or keywords may be)…This results in the seo-driven garbage that frustrates search engines and humans alike.

Your Web Content

Thankfully, there are just two (2) key concepts to remember when it comes to increasing the search effectiveness of your web content:

1) Write something original and gosh-darn-it, make it compelling. SEO-knowledge is helpful. So is a familiarity with basic web writing practices. Avoid cheap content.

2) Publish regularly. Search engines like regular updates. So do people! Realize that every online customer touch point and sale derives from quality content first.

Simply: write quality content for an audience of people and publish that content regularly.

In other words:

Don’t Write for the Robots

Challenge: Use a confirmation email to reaffirm a customer’s decision to sign up
Solution: Introduce new customers to other areas of a website
Client: Independent grocery store

—

Thank you!

Thank you for activating your newsletter subscription. You join a select group of people who appreciate good food and support local, independent businesses.

Here are a few more items that may interest you.

EVENTS:
Every Monday we donate 10% of our sales to local charitable organizations. Keep track of other fun events via our Events Calendar:
http://www.georgebowersgrocery.com/calendar/

(P.S. If you use Google Calendars, you can sync it directly to your calendar)

SEE FOR YOURSELF:
Browse behind-the-scenes of local food producers. Isn’t it great to know where your food comes from and who made it?
http://www.georgebowersgrocery.com/photos/

FRIEND/FOLLOW US:
(‘Cuz we’d be flattered!)
On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/GeorgeBowersGrocery
On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/GeorgeBowers

We always appreciate you passing along some kind words on our behalf. After all, good food should be shared with good friends. We look forward to getting to know you better and seeing you again soon.

Sincerely,
Brian and Katie (and George)
George Bowers Grocery
614 West Beverley Street
Staunton, Virginia 24401
540-255-6811
http://www.georgebowersgrocery.com

Lawsy—you thought you knew web lingo. But then you heard the term “NSO”. What’s NSO? How can it help you?

NSO is lingo for “Natural Search Optimization”. It’s similar to SEO, “Search Engine Optimization”. Both are the collection of techniques used to get your website noticed by search engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo.

Why bother? Easy enough: the number one way Internet users find web sites is through search engines. Achieving a top search ranking helps you get people in the door 24/7/365. Think of NSO as the “organic” method for doing so.

Here are some tips to get your NSO a go-go:

Fresh Content. Search engines are hungry for fresh content. Your human visitors like updates, too. Update relevant content on a regular basis. If you can’t write up the material regularly, hire it out.

Avoid Flash. Flash animation is great for certain applications. But search engines can’t “see” the text on your site. And text (key words) are the keys to opening up large gains in search results.

Key words. Speaking of words, how do you find the best words to drive traffic to your site? In SEO you typically pay for them. With NSO, you do some digging and get them for free. Then you add them to your site and wait for the engines to notice.

For example, I automatically include code in my client websites so that clients can monitor the words and phrases that bring traffic to their site. Often, there are words and phrases the client might not have considered. Using these words and phrases in your fresh content updates effortlessly results in inclusion in more search results.

Other tips: if you know HTML, review your code to include the appropriate meta-titles and meta-tags. And a good site map helps, too. Don’t stuff your site with popular [pornographic!] search terms that have no bearing on your site’s content. Doing so will risk getting yourself demoted in the search engines. Plus, it’s just sooo 1998.

How soon can adding NSO techniques pay off? It takes some time to naturally build. Anyone who tells you differently or guarantees certain rankings should be viewed with some suspicion. But regular application of specific and unique terms to your site will help your site float to the top. Ask your web designer or developer. Do it, and think of it as a long-term investment.

Online Brand Management for Small Business

“Your brand is not what you say it is; your brand is what Google says it is.” — so why do so few small businesses manage their online reputation with the same zeal as their brick-and-mortar reputation?

Learn the basics about how a brand is built online through SEO (search engine optimization) and NSO (natural search optimization). We’ll work together to create an online brand-building and/or  brand-management plan for your small business.

NOTE: This class is extremely limited due to the personal and direct attention given to all participants.

WEEK 1
We’ll discuss what affects your brand online. This will include the basic principals of SEO and NSO. We’ll discuss where you’re “located” online and what this conveys about you to an unknown prospect. You’ll leave with a homework assignment.

WEEK 2
We’ll review your homework assignment and begin to outline an online brand-building or brand-management strategy. We’ll discuss practicalities as well as pitfalls. We will also discuss the value of interacting with customers or clients online. I will also show you tools to use to track your online reputation so you can respond immediately. You will have another homework assignment.

WEEK 3
We’ll review your Week 2 homework assignment. Each participant will brainstorm additional methods to increase brand awareness. You’ll be introduced to online tools used to measure and track effectiveness of your efforts.

WEEK 4
We’ll review all the online brand-building and brand-management tools discussed in class. Each participant will leave with access to a collection of tools to continue their online brand management efforts.

Each class is one hour.

Price: $200
Location: 9 South Augusta Street, Staunton at the Staunton Creative Community Fund offices
Next Session: Monday, October 5th

Reserve your space now by paying online via debit or credit card.

You may also pay at the door if enrollment space allows.
For more info: 540-466-4141

Bling – not too long ago you might have resisted using this word, or wearing studded belly rings. (“It’s just not me”). Likewise, you avoided blogs, or learning tech things (“It’s just not me”). Then you noticed bling and blogs are still going strong. Why?

Times, they are a’ changing.

Now, you not only really NEED a blog, you need to BLING it out, (yo!) WHY? Blogs allow you to quickly communicate with your audience and demonstrate your expertise.

Here is some common BLOG terminology:

RSS - a/k/a, Really Simple Syndication, a/k/a blogging. You know, that thing where you can publish directly to your friends, clients, and client’s friends.

Feeds – Your content. Call it your channel, your news feed, your xml feed, or your web feed. But whatever you call it, make sure it’s interesting or useful.

Aggregators - Your news reader. How you “read the feed”. Come in two flavors: web-based or desktop. I prefer Google’s free web-based version.

PING – Your content, in a small tidy package, sent from your computer to others. That’s all you really need to know. But for extra points you can impress people by knowing this stands for “Packet Internet Grouper”.

Blogroll - Your posse of friends’ blogs listed on your site. Manage these using a link management system like www.blogrolling.com

Trackback - A ping that says, “Hey, someone at this blog is talking about you!”. Wouldn’t that be great for real life, too?

Confused? Don’t worry. Pretty soon your blog will be bitchin. Here’s a brief video to review: