Flash Forward SitesThis video was done in 2010. And the numbers were staggering even then.
I say Social Media is a fundamental shift in how to build trust.
Social Media sites are FREE. Join at least one of them.
What is a QR Code? We are all familiar with the barcode 
It’s been in use for more than 30 years. Now the QR Code is gaining popularity.
The QR Code, short for Quick Response Code, can hold much more information than the old Barcode. And with today’s cell phones having a built in camera, it’s an easy way to share info with your Mobile audience and customers.
There are several potential uses for a QR Code:
So where could you use a QR Code?
Go ahead and read the QR Code above. You need a smart phone and scanning software. I use NeoReader. Other products are i-nigma and Barcode Scanner. They are free.
If you want to create your own QR Codes, there are several sites. I created this one at Kaywa.
Search Engines LOVE video. Particularly Google, since Google purchased YouTube in 2006. Right now there are over 900 million videos on YouTube.
While there are lots of other sites for storing and sharing Video, YouTube is the place to be for Video. It’s OK to use the other sites also.
Even if you don’t have your own Video there yet, you can create your own “channel” and select your favorite videos. Your “channel”, like your Blog, can be the distribution point to send your videos and backlinks to all the Social Media sites.
Your Channel Viewers can share your videos, subscribe to get your new videos, mark videos as their favorite, and write reviews.
In effect, YouTube has joined the ranks of being a huge Social Media site. And like the rest, it’s free also.
You can setup your own YouTube channel here–> http://www.youtube.com and click on CREATE ACCOUNT in the upper right corner.
Then when you have a Video ready, you simply click ‘upload’ to start the process. Many of today’s ‘flip’ type of Video cameras make it even easier to upload videos.
You’ll be surprised to know that amateur video is better than professional video. So don’t be afraid to use whatever clip you just created. Even if you just captured it with your cell phone.
Some people don’t want to be in front of the camera. That’s OK too. Many videos are picture slideshows with music or some other audio track. Or an instructional video of a person’s desktop with only the person’s voice.
Have fun with this one. Feel free to share your favorite YouTube video.
Track your results to know what marketing is working and what is not. It doesn’t matter that I’m referring to Internet marketing, because you should also be tracking the results of your print and mail campaigns too.
The tracking isn’t any different. The same question needs to be answered:
HOW DID YOU FIND ME?
Was it Facebook, a search engine, a referral, or one of the many other ways you are advertising?
This is something you need to ask everyone. This answer is a key element to help track your results. And you’ll never know, unless you ask. And you should save this info with the Lead/Customer data you have.
Over time, after you are tracking where or how people are finding you, you can focus on the areas that are working.
You want to know:
This is vital information, so you know where to focus your time and energy. You may also discover you are paying for advertising that isn’t working for you. Reinvest those dollars to where they WILL work, or try something new.
Lastly, don’t forget to ask each Customer for a testimonial. We all look at product reviews before we buy. Don’t we? Your prospective customers will check you out too.
You need backlinks to your website. What’s a backlink? It’s a link on another website that points to your website. This is also known as ‘in coming’ links.
The number of backlinks is a popularity rating for your website. And all Search Engines count your backlinks when ranking your site.
Want to see how many backlinks you have? You can use this free Backlink tool.
Just provide your website name and you’ll see how many backlinks are being counted in the Search Engines. And if you like, also enter a competitor’s website to see how you compare.
You will notice that you need thousands of backlinks to seriously compete with the bigger websites.
You’ll also notice that the Google numbers are zero or significantly lower than the others. Google considers their backlink counts to be proprietary. So they purposely don’t provide accurate counts. Instead, Google provides a PageRank rating. You can see your Google PageRank.
Your website content and the number of backlinks to your website are the 2 most critical factors Search Engines use to Rank your site. So it’s vital to continuously build backlinks.
How? That will be in future tips.
Do you have a blog? And if you do, are you using it regularly to share information?
Here is a few reasons why your business needs a blog.
A vital part of blogging is having “remarkable” content. I have 2 meanings for “remarkable”.
Meaning 1: your posts are creative, unique, and interesting. People crave the topics you write about and keep coming back to read more. Can you think of a website or person that you follow, because you can’t get enough of what they write?
Meaning 2: people want to share your posts with friends and family. And they actually remark about your posts by adding their own comments or viewpoint.
You can’t have number 2 without number 1. And number 2 helps your search engine rankings, as well as brings visitors back to your Blog. In the end, it’s “remarkable” content that brings traffic to your website and Blog.
Social Media offers a great way to share, create relationships and build trust. But you can easily go off track if you start “selling” on social media. It will look like Spam. People don’t want to be Sold. But are open to helpful information, ideas, and recommendations.
Checkout this post. This simple message says it best; Give before trying to Get
Enjoy!
Make sure the Search Engines know about your website.
Each Search Engine has a page for you to submit your Website name (the domain name).
Google: http://www.google.com/addurl/
Yahoo: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
MSN: http://www.bing.com/docs/submit.aspx
It takes 2 to 4 weeks for the Search Engines to scan and index your site.
There are many other search engines, but most of them get feeds from one of these 3 primary search engines. So the 3 above are the only ones you need.
Did you know that 25 “LIKE”s of your Facebook business page is an important milestone?
When you reach 25 or more “LIKE”s you can create a custom URL for your Facebook Business Page. You can make it a simple and easy to remember URL. But you only get one chance to create it. And once created it can’t be changed. So choose carefully.
For example….
When we each get our business page, the URL looks like this, with a bunch of numbers in it:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Arrowhead-Legends-BNI/128430757206416
This page has more than 25 LIKEs, so she made her custom URL: http://www.facebook.com/SimplyAmazingProperties
So when you reach 25 LIKEs, just go to http://www.facebook.com/username to create your custom URL for your business page. You can use numbers or letters, including periods, for your custom name. No spaces allowed. If you use multiple words, like the one above, capitalize the first letter of each word to make it easier to read.
You can use this same http://www.facebook.com/username page to create a custom name for your personal profile. Be sure which one you are setting, since they cant change after you set it.
When you think of “Social Media”, you probably think Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. But there are many other sites also. And maybe they offer a better “targeted” audience for you and your business.
Wikipedia has a list of the Social Media sites. Look for yourself to see if there is a site(s) that can help you.
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