Basically Facebook is now suggesting / requiring you to pay to have your messages reach your own page audience !.

Read all of Ed’s post here:

http://www.eddale.co/facebook/there-is-something-rotten-in-the-state-of-facebook

So it will be a wait and see in the next couple of months for company backlash or acceptance.

I’m finding that more and more customers are asking me about social media marketing and how to connect your social media accounts together. So here is a article about what social media and SEO.

SHOULD I USE SOCIAL MEDIA FOR MY BUSINESS?

I often get asked this question and my answer is always – do your customers use social media?
Its simple – fish where the fish are – ask your customers if they have a facebook account, if they are twittering, if they are on linkedin.  If the answer is YES then you need to be there too. If they are not, then forget it. Keep an eye on what social media your competitors are using and see how many people are following / liking / connecting with them.  If you find they are being successful then jump in.  If not then keep asking  your customers every few months how they would like to connect with you and deliver your message / communicate with them how they want to be communicated to.

WHICH SOCIAL MEDIA SHOULD I SIGN UP FOR?

Again it depends on your business – be where your customers are.  I know you are not happy with this answer so I’ll make it easy for you:
If you are selling to businesses and professionals you need to be on LinkedIn
If you are selling to consumers between 30 and 50 years old, you want to be on facebook especially if you are selling to mothers.
If you are selling to young people 16 – 25 years old then you may want to be on twitter.

FORUMS & BLOGS

I suggest signing up for upto 3 communities forums or blogs that are relevant to your business and your customers.  Find the biggest forum or website where your customers may be eg if they are mothers in Melbourne then find parenting forums, mumpreveur forums, women’s business network groups et.  Sign-up, read and listen to the conversations then offer suggestions and help to this community.

BECOME A SOCIAL MEDIA GURU

Once you are comfortable within a particular social media area eg Facebook or LinkedIn or a Blog or Forum, create and moderate your own interest group and invite your community to connect with you.

I will give you an example:
If you are an executive coach you would have your personal profile on LinkedIn and you may have a LinkedIn company page for your business.  You would then create a LinkedIn Group dealing with “Helping Businesses Grow” or “Developing Your Staff”.  You want to create groups based around the interest areas of your customers.  They may not know they want / need an executive coach so you need to think about what their problem is that you are a solution to.

DO I NEED TO BLOG?

Google loves new quality content so if you have something to say (and most people do) then you should blog because it will help your website rank.  Again you need to blog not about you but about the problems your customers may have and the solution that you have to that problem.  As an example look at this blog which is for small businesses. I’m blogging about how to get your website up, what you need to know about getting you website ranked, social media etc.  I’m blogging about problems you have and offering quality information to help you solve your problem.

LINKING SOCIAL MEDIA AND BLOG

This is the last step.
We’ve established that you should at least have a blog and you should have social media accounts that are relevant to your customers so Facebook or LinkedIn.
If you then connect your blog to facebook or to your LinkedIn account then all you need to do is update you blog and your content will be updated on your social media accounts.  You then just need to set-up alerts for when people respond on your social media accounts so you can communicate with them.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

• You MUST have a website
• If you can include a blog on your website.  In that blog add information that your customers might be interested in.
  - white papers
  - industry updates
  - latest news and trends
  - events
  - anecdotes and stories
• On your website and blog, make your content sharable with social media plugins
• Have one or two main social media accounts eg Facebook and Twitter or LinkedIn and Twitter
• Connect your website to your social media account
• Connect your blog to your social media accounts so they update automatically
• Participate in 1 to 3 online communities
• Moderate your own social media groups

Here is the plug: if you need any help working out which social media to use for your business, how to connect it all up, what to write and how to get fans and followers, just give me a call or e-mail cblanchet@online-discovery.com.au

For those that don’t want to read on and want the answer NOW – here is a little table:

If you want to do it yourself with something like sites.google.com – Free

Basic static template driven site around 5 pages – Between $350 and $500

Medium size business website with some customization $1,000 – $2,000

Fully custom designed website $4,000 plus

Ecommerce website agency – between $4,000 – $8,000

What should a local business website include?

Most businesses don’t actually need a website that is all that complicated. KISS – “keep it simple stupid” is always a good motto to follow for a small business and as far as websites go, that could not be more true.

A good local business websites needs:

• Prominent contact details
• Information about the business and its services
• Useful resources
• Some nice pictures and video
• Sign up to your newsletter
• Links to your blog &  social media accounts

So why do website design prices vary so much?

The price of a website depends on the following elements:

• who you get to do your website – a friend or student, a freelancer in your area or one overseas or a local agency
• if you want to use a website template or have a unique design
• how many pages you want
• what functionality you want on your website
• if you want an e-commerce or shopping carts

Who do you need on your website design team?

If you want the bells and whistles website, the costs are often higher because of the time and the number of specialist people involved in building your site.  Website specialists include:

A website programmer or designer which is the person that registers the domain or website name, find and manages the website host, builds the website shell / template, pages and functionality. A website designer usually has an IT background and is skilled in programming.

A graphic designer which is the person that creates all the graphics and images for the website.  If you are using an existing website template you don’t need a graphic designer but if you want a custom built site then then you might need one.  Sometimes the website designer has some graphic design skills.  Otherwise they may outsource certain elements of the website to a graphic designer or buy graphic elements and pictures for the website.

A photographer is someone that can take pictures for your website.  These may be of you and your staff, your products and services, your building etc. Depending on the business, you may be able to get away with purchased stock images on your website or digital photos that you have taken yourself. Professional looking photos though will generally look better than non professional ones.

A copy writer is someone who can write the content of your website.  This is not the job of the website designer and generally the website designer will ask the client for the website content. As a business owner you know your business and your customers better than anyone else and you know what you want to say on your website so it is generally the business owner who provides the website content to the website designer, however if writing is not your thing or if you want a professional writer to put your thoughts into compelling words, then you should hire a content or copy writer.

Last but  by no means least is a search engine optimization specialist which is someone who has a look at the website and content and optimises it for the search engines.  They will also submit your website to directories, build links for you and get your website listed in as many places as possible. The SEO expert should be someone that is involved from the beginning as they should do the research into what search terms people may use to find your business and therefore what pages you should have and what name those pages should be.  They should work with the website designers to ensure the website structure is search engine friendly and work with the content writer to include your most important searchable words in your content and with the graphic designers and photographers to name the images to include your keywords.

Each specialist is looking at your website from a different point of view – the designer wants the website to do cool things, the graphic designer wants it to look pretty, the copy writer wants the words and meaning to stand out and for you to make sales, the search engine optimisation person is focused on getting your website found and driving traffic to your website.  Each of these elements are important in their own right and most business owners don’t understand all the work that goes into building a great website that is appealing to the customers and gets found.

Have a Website – Don’t put it off

The most important thing is to actually have a website so I have clients who are getting the bells and whistle website but who have asked me to build them a good temporary website in a couple of day to they have a web presence whilst their flashy website is being built.

This is the website I built for the graphic quill: http://www.graphicquill.com.au/

I have other client that I built temporary sites for whilst they got quotes for large websites and who ended up liking the one that I had made and not going for the custom one at all.

This is the website I build for earl’s hardware: http://www.earlshardwarestkilda.com.au/

I have other clients that needed a website quickly and cheaply to get their business off the ground fast.

Here is a website I built for Maid2Party http://www.maid2party.com.au/

And I have consulted with companies and their website designers to optimise the website and get it found for certain keywords.

These are a few in that category:

http://www.coolpac.com/
http://www.tdefrance.com/

So if its website advice and management you need or if its website building and/or search engine optimisation, please let me know if I can help.

I visit many small business every week and I’m constantly surprised by how few internet resources are being used out there.

Below is my list of the best internet tools for small business. I’ve got another list that deals specifically with internet marketing tools so look out for that next.

If you would like me to e-mail you the list, just enter your details in the contact form and I’ll send it to you.

They started by telling me how great their website designs were and that they build each website from scratch not using templates and focusing on the “customer experience”. This sounded quite fancy although unless you are a big company with deep pockets, most types of websites have pretty much already been designed and you can easily customise an existing template rather than start from scratch saving lots of time and money. Most small businesses don’t need a super fancy website – they just need a basic site which performs well and can be found by their customers.

I also asked if they used Flash (which for those of you that don’t know is programing code that makes elements of your website move and look flashy!). Although your website might look nice, Flash is terrible for search engine optimisation. You can get around it but it takes time to program and we all know time is money.

They then proceeded to tell me that I could help with with the website optimisation by adding title and description meta tags, image tags and optimising the content etc.  My immediate  question was “why was the website optimisation not done at the design stage?” Surely keyword research is THE FIRST thing you do and you decide on your page names and meta tags, image tags etc as you go based on they keywords you want to rank for!. Their response shocked me; it was that customers paid for a “website design” not for optimisation and that they were not a charity. If the customer wants their site optimised they need to pay extra for it.

This comment actually reinforces something that I already suspected but I’m sure the lay person does not realise and that is that often a website designers is someone that creates your site and makes it look pretty but often they don’t consider search engine optimisation or how your website will be found on the internet.  Many people don’t realise that just having a website is not enough – you need your website to be found by your customers when they type in search terms relating to your business eg “counselling Melbourne”.  Design and optimisation are two different skill sets and you are lucky if you find a designer that does both.

So the lesson is if you are a well known brand and people will find you because they are looking for you by typing your name, don’t worry that your website is not SEO friendly.  For everyone else, you must must must ask your website designer to do the keyword research and optimise your website for they keywords you want to come up in google for.

If you need to pay more, if it is not included in the price then either find someone who knows about seo and can build your site or instruct the website designers what to do or just pay the extra fee. Its no use having a website that can’t be found by your customers for your keywords eg “hairdresser toorak”.

I hope this will help you ask the right questions and get a better understanding of what you are paying for.  If you need any help, please feel free to contact me via the form.

It got me thinking that this would be a great tool for a “virtual” stylist or personal shopper.

Imagine a business where you would go and visit you client and take pictures of their existing cloths, then find them other cloths that match what they already have or create a look for them.

This tool could be used in combination with a face to face session or for people in remote areas, a virtual stylist would have the client take pictures of their wardrobe and add items to it or send them look boards.

If you are a designer, upload your latest collection so that people know what you have and where to buy it.

The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

If you want to set yourself up as a virtual stylist and need help with creating your website or the technology and marketing side of your business – please feel free to contact me.

Maybe they live locally and decided to come in then they told their friends and word started to spread and all of a sudden you are full.  This works as long as your patrons believe they are getting value for money – ie good food, good service and nice atmosphere.

There are two things to note about “value for money”. Firstly it does not necessarily mean cheap, it means that the diner was happy to part with their hard earned cash in exchange for the experience they had. The second point is that the definition of good food, good service and a nice atmosphere depends on the expectations of the diner.  A friendly cheap and cheerful restaurant can have as many happy diners as the most expensive restaurant.

So as a restaurant owner you need to ensure you provide value for your customer.  Now back to how people find you. In the restaurant industry it is often through word of mouth and the new word of mouth are online restaurant reviews and social media.

Step by step guild to getting your restaurant found on the internet.

1. You definitely need a website which entails getting a domain name or restaurant internet address and a website host.
   The website should includes your physical address, contact details, opening hours, type of food you service and your menu along with any special features your restaurant has eg kids menu, vegetarian options, takeaway, function options, courtyard etc. You may want to include something about the chef and the cuisine or philosophy of the restaurant.
2. Your website should include a newsletter subscription so you can communicate specials and promotions.
3. Submit your website to the search engines
   
4. Register your restaurant in google places
   
5. Submit your restaurant in your local directories such as www.truelocal.com.au
6. Add your restaurant to restaurant review sites such as www.eatability.com.au
7. Ask some of your good customers to review you on these sites to get the ball rolling.
8. Build a facebook fan page and promote it on your website.  Your customers will be able to “like” you and therefore share their experience with their friends.
9. You will also need to set up internet alerts and social media alters to monitor what people are saying about you and respond accordingly.

If you are a restaurant owner and you need help with your internet marketing, you’ve come to the right place. Fill in the contact form on the side for a free 15 minute internet marketing consultation about your restaurant.

Below are a couple of videos that will help you understand why Social Media should be considered as part of your restaurant marketing plan.

Let’s start with the definition of SEO or Search Engine Optimisation as there is a clean and consistent definition f what that is.  According to Wikipedia Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.  At its most basic level SEO is the process of changing your web site (structure and content) and building links to your site so that it eventually appears on page one of google in the unpaid or white central area results for particular search teams.  There is little point being anywhere else than on page one of google since most people use google as their preferred search engine (over 65% of searches) and very few people click past page one.  Given that there are millions of websites and only 10 spots on page one of google for a particular search term, you can see why the choice of which search term to rank for is absolutely critical to the success of a website being found by people typing in search terms.

Search Engine Marketing

Now let’s see what is the difference between SEO and SEM.  SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing and even Wikipedia has two definitions.  In the broadest sense of the word, search engine marketing is “a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of search engine optimization (SEO), paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.”  So search engine optimisation is one component of search engine marketing.   The second definition again from Wikipedia but referenced in many other online articles, is that “search engine marketing (SEM) target paid listings”.  It is the use of pay per click ads, banner ads, paid directory listings etc to drive traffic to a site.  So if you are confused about the terms, don’t worry, so is the internet marketing community too.

To SEO or To SEM?

The end aim is to drive visitors to a website, keep them there, keep them coming back and get them to do something on the site – buy, sign a petition, participate etc.

You should start off with SEO – making sure your site is logically structured, your pages title include the keywords you want to rank for, your description meta tags well written and your headings engaging and also containing the keywords.  Once your website is built, you need to submit it to the directories, some of which will be free and some of which are paid.  Only select appropriate directories to list in whether they are free or paid.  Once that is done, you should use paid advertising to start getting visitors to your site and build your customer database.  Over time switch more funds from paid advertising to search engine optimisation so that your traffic is free rather than paid but there is nothing like paid traffic to get things going.  If you have the money, get the professionals to do your keyword research, optimise your website and conduct link building campaigns for you.  Outsource your pay per click advertising too so you can focus on growing your business.  If you don’t have the funds then there are plenty of free DIY internet marketing resources and pay per click training on the internet so don’t despair – it is possible to do it yourself, it will just take a little longer that’s all.

If you need any help, please contact me for a 15 minutes free consultation.

Step 1 Get a lay of the land – investigate the neighborhood

In other words, do some competitor research (on the internet of course !)

• How many competitors are there?
• What are their customer niches / who are they appealing to?
• What is their unique selling proposition?
• What does their website look like?
• What do you like / don’t like about it?
• How are they enticing customers to contact them?
  -          Contact me page
  -          Newsletter subscription
  -          Free something – free consultation
  -          Special offer
  -          Gift
  -          Other . . .
• Do they have a special offer, newsletter, blog, download, other resources?
• Are they participating in social media and if so which ones and how many followers do they have ?
• How many inbound links do they have?
• Who links to them?

Step 2 Who do you want to do business with?

• Who is your idea client?
• What is it about your business that would appeal to them?
• What is different about you do you offer?
• What do you think your customers would want / value that you could provide for free?

Step 3 Time to design your shop front

You have 7 seconds to capture someones attention on your website before they switch off so here are a couple of tips:

• Have clean headlines
• Not too much continuous blocks of text
• Include pictures & video
• Have a way clear call to action on the page above the fold
  (meaning in the top left or right quarter of the page.)

Step 4 Don’t Forget The Back Of House

In website term the back of house or basics of your website include

• Clear site navigation
• Heading that contain the keywords
• Page title meta tags
• Strong description meta tags
  (this is the text that will appear in the search engine results).
• Include alternative keyword rich Image text tags
• If you have an actual online shop, make sure each product contains keywords
• Install google analytics code on each page so you can see how you are going and change what you are doing accordingly.

Step 5 Put Up Your Open For Business Sign

• Submit site and site map to google and yahoo otherwise no one will find you
• If you have a physical location go onto google maps
• Sign up for google business listing
• Submit your details to relevant directories
• Start getting incoming links from relevant high ranking site

Step 6 Find customers by leveraging your existing network and building relationships with potential customers

• Write a newsletter and get people to subscribe to it
• Give away something for free in exchange for an e-mail address
  (eg information, cheat sheet, tips, articles etc)
• Start blogging
• Post articles of article directories
• Create a facebook fan page, import all your contacts and have them become fans. Let everyone know you are on facebook
• Create a twitter account and link it to facebook
• Find and sign up to relevant social media groups and participate in discussions
• Advertise your services with google adwords or banner ads

So you see the internet is just another way of people finding you and social media is like an extension of word of mouth.

If you don’t have time to do this yourself, please contact me and I’ll do it for you.

Back by popular demand – next adwords training course:
6th October 2010 6.30pm-9.30pm

[googleMap name="Port Melbourne Neighbourhood House" description="Training Venue"]Corner Nott St and Liardet St, port melbourne[/googleMap]