Most business owners understand the basic premise of social media marketing today, which is that linking your website to your company presence on other social networking hubs (such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter) is more effective than just getting a lot of SEO for your site. Consequently, I spend a lot of time advising small businesses on how to create and maintain their Facebook Pages, and how best to improve their LinkedIn presence.
However, there are some golden opportunities for creative marketing that haven't been widely adopted yet, that would be even more effective for many professionals. While all your competitors are concentrating on updating Facebook and LinkedIn, wouldn't it be fun to outshine them all by doing something completely different? Here are five new strategies for business marketing -- things that have only become possible quite recently, that will make your service or storefront even more relevant in a crowded field.
1. Claim your business profile on Yelp. If you have a storefront or office, you absolutely must list it on Yelp. Why? Because Yelp has a great mobile app that is very popular for finding products and services when you are on the road. It is quicker and easier to use than Google's iPhone search app, making your store hours, phone, and location instantly accessible to the large group of Yelp users.
When you sign up for Yelp and claim your business, you can interact with all of those users -- and Yelp gives you free swag you can display in your window, or add to your website to cross-link your site to its Yelp listing. Non-storefront businesses can also have profiles on Yelp, and can list up to 5 different cities they serve. Finally, consider writing reviews yourself. Leverage your deep knowledge of a locale or industry by writing helpful comments on relevant businesses, then create a widget on Yelp that you can place on your website, that will share your reviews with a wider audience.
2. Improve your business search results with a listing on Google Places. In its recent efforts to improve search results, Google now gives greater weight to local data, most notably from its own Google Places. The first step is to simply Google your company name, then locate it on the Google map for your area. Like Yelp, you then claim your business identity (creating a Google account if you don't already have one) and are able to add lots of information about your business.
Having a listing on Google Places will automatically bump up your business in a Google search, and filling it out is pretty straightforward. You can also correct any misplacement of your store location on GoogleMaps, which happens fairly frequently in rural areas. Being easily found on GoogleMaps is important, but you can also use Google Places to do the opposite and hide your company from view (by substituting a P.O. Box for a street address), if you work from your home and do not wish to divulge your residence to the world.
However, there are some golden opportunities for creative marketing that haven't been widely adopted yet, that would be even more effective for many professionals. While all your competitors are concentrating on updating Facebook and LinkedIn, wouldn't it be fun to outshine them all by doing something completely different? Here are five new strategies for business marketing -- things that have only become possible quite recently, that will make your service or storefront even more relevant in a crowded field.
1. Claim your business profile on Yelp. If you have a storefront or office, you absolutely must list it on Yelp. Why? Because Yelp has a great mobile app that is very popular for finding products and services when you are on the road. It is quicker and easier to use than Google's iPhone search app, making your store hours, phone, and location instantly accessible to the large group of Yelp users.
When you sign up for Yelp and claim your business, you can interact with all of those users -- and Yelp gives you free swag you can display in your window, or add to your website to cross-link your site to its Yelp listing. Non-storefront businesses can also have profiles on Yelp, and can list up to 5 different cities they serve. Finally, consider writing reviews yourself. Leverage your deep knowledge of a locale or industry by writing helpful comments on relevant businesses, then create a widget on Yelp that you can place on your website, that will share your reviews with a wider audience.
2. Improve your business search results with a listing on Google Places. In its recent efforts to improve search results, Google now gives greater weight to local data, most notably from its own Google Places. The first step is to simply Google your company name, then locate it on the Google map for your area. Like Yelp, you then claim your business identity (creating a Google account if you don't already have one) and are able to add lots of information about your business.
Having a listing on Google Places will automatically bump up your business in a Google search, and filling it out is pretty straightforward. You can also correct any misplacement of your store location on GoogleMaps, which happens fairly frequently in rural areas. Being easily found on GoogleMaps is important, but you can also use Google Places to do the opposite and hide your company from view (by substituting a P.O. Box for a street address), if you work from your home and do not wish to divulge your residence to the world.
To continue reading click here
No comments:
Post a Comment