"Not In My Industry!"

Ever heard someone say: “in my industry, people don’t use social networking”? Or worse yet, have you ever said (or thought) something like that yourself?

The reality is that today, people in virtually all industries are using social networking, and the phenomenon continues to grow each week. According to a recent study by marketing agency Prodo, 86% of consumers today believe companies should incorporate social networking into their marketing. That means that many of your customers – if not most of them – are ready and waiting to interact with your business by using social networking!

Social networking can be especially powerful for small businesses, regardless of industry. It is a great way for your business to stay top-of-mind with customers and prospective customers, and delivers your message to a highly-targeted audience. Social networking also helps make your business more visible and easy to find online, which is typically a goal for most small businesses today. Since it is relatively easy and inexpensive to add social networking to your marketing mix, why not give it a try?

Make the Commitment
One of the key things to remember about social networking is that you must be prepared to spend a few minutes a day on your social networking profiles or accounts. However, you don’t need to do anything elaborate or time-consuming – just add a quick post about something pertinent to your customers, or possibly re-use your most recent coupons or other marketing materials as posts for your various profiles.

Getting Started
There are probably hundreds of social networking sites out there, but for small businesses the best bets are the current “biggies” – Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. For now, these are the sites that seem to have the most benefit for businesses and are getting lots of attention as small business marketing tools. To get started, you may want to try setting up profiles on each of these sites:

1. Facebook (www.facebook.com) – To get started with social networking, Facebook is a good place to begin. Just go to the site and create a profile for your business, filling out as much information as possible. The more complete your profile, the better. On Facebook, there are two types of profiles available: personal (or individual) and business. Personal profiles get connected with “friends”, but business profiles get connected with “fans”. When you post comments to your Facebook profile, they show up on your “wall”, which is one of the basic features of a Facebook profile. Other basic profile features include tabs for Info, Boxes, Events, and Photos.
   
   You can experiment with some of the more advanced features on Facebook like Facebook apps, RSS feeds, or custom tabs if you have the time and skills to do so, but at least get your business description, logo, and contact info added to your profile. Then, make sure your friends and employees visit your Facebook profile and become fans. That way, you can begin publicizing your profile and using the viral nature of Facebook to get the word out about your business.
   
   
2. Twitter (www.twitter.com) – Twitter is a unique micro-blogging tool that lets users communicate with “followers” in quick text messages of 140 characters or less called “tweets”. A Twitter account can be useful for sharing new information with your customers, promoting special offers, or sending links for coupons and other money-saving offers. Be careful, though – your followers don’t want to be bombarded with sales pitches or blatant promotional messages. Always tweet valuable information to your followers, and provide them with information that they will welcome and can share with their own network of friends and contacts.
   
   To get started with Twitter, go to the site and set up an account for your business. As with Facebook, make sure you fill out the profile for your business as completely as possible. Your business information will display in the right-hand column of your Twitter “home” page, so you want this information to be thorough. The main part of the page displays a running list of the tweets that you’ve sent to your followers, as well as any tweets that come from the people and businesses that you are following.
   
   Businesses are also finding that Twitter is a great tool for customer service, since they can instantly respond to any issues or problems that show up. Customers are impressed with this type of immediate response from businesses, and businesses can benefit from the excellent PR opportunity that results, since others in the “Twittersphere” also get to witness how responsive you are to your customers!
   
   
3. LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) – LinkedIn is an online business networking site used mostly by professionals. Until recently, you could set up only individual profiles on LinkedIn, but now the site has added the ability for businesses to set up business profiles as well (although this feature is still in beta). This site is great for connecting with co-workers past and present, and is also quite useful as a job resource site for individuals looking for jobs, as well as businesses looking for employees.
   
   On LinkedIn, users make connections with their friends and colleagues, and also have access to the people with whom their connections are connected. This can be especially useful for getting an introduction to someone you would like to do business with. You can look through your network to see how the person is “linked in” to the people you are connected with, and the site provides tools for requesting a formal introduction using your connections.
   
   To get started with LinkedIn, you need to first set up an individual profile with your own business information. But from there, you can create a business profile for your company that can be used to network with your current friends and colleagues. Because of the viral nature of the site, your business information will spread naturally as you participate in connecting with others, asking questions or posting answers, and taking advantage of the many other networking features that the site offers.

As you can see, social networking is becoming a powerful marketing tool for small businesses. It is fairly easy to do, and it costs nothing but your time to set up business profiles and then use them to communicate with customers, create additional visibility for your business, and reach countless new prospects using the viral nature of these web sites.

Even if you are not currently a social networking user, the statistics continue to show that your customers and prospects already are. And as the study from Prodo revealed, 86% of consumers today think that you should be using social networking as part of the marketing mix for your business. So if you are still tempted to think that “in my industry, people don’t use social networking”, you may want to think again. Don’t get too wrapped up in what it is or how it works; instead, consider the possibilities of what it can do for your business, regardless of your industry.

Ten Tips for Using Keywords Effectively

You probably know that part of the secret to ranking well in search engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo isn’t really such a secret – it’s a matter of finding the right keywords for your site, right? Well, that’s partially true; you have to select keywords that people are truly using when they search (and not just the keywords YOU think they use when they search), and then use those keywords appropriately through out your web pages. So what’s the best way to do that? Here are some tips to help you focus on finding the best keywords for your web site, and then using them effectively on the pages of your web site:

• Research your keywords – don’t just guess. There is often a big difference between what you think your customers would use to search for your products and services, and what users actually use to perform searches. Try using the Google Adwords Keyword tool (www.google.adwords.com) or other free keyword tools like SEO Book (www.tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook) to do a little research before deciding on your keyword list.
  
  
• Select the best keywords. The three most important considerations in selecting keywords are: 1) choosing the most descriptive keyword or phrases, with 2) the most searches performed, and 3) the least number of competing web pages. When you find keywords that fit all of these criteria, use them.
  
  
• Select the keyword terms that are likely to bring qualified traffic. Once you know how competitive each keyword is, select the keywords or phrases that are relevant and specific to your content. For instance, highly competitive keywords and keywords that are too general are not good choices, and “long tail” or uncompetitive terms typically don’t need to be optimized for (since no other sites are using these terms anyway). It’s best to stick with the keywords that are specific to your content, yet still general enough to bring in good traffic.
  
  
• Start with a strong foundation. Before you begin adding keywords to your web site, you must make sure you have clean, search engine friendly code that can be read and indexed by the search engine spiders (or robots) that visit your site. Without this, you really have no hope of competing in the search engines, regardless of how great your keywords might be.
  
  
• Use only a few keywords per page. Don’t put all of your keywords on every single page on your web site. Instead, select 3 to 5 keywords (or keyword phrases) that match the content of each page, then optimize for those.
  
  
• Optimize for behind-the-scenes code and on-page content. Be sure that your keywords are used correctly in the Meta data tags in your HTML code (Title, Description, and Keywords), and also in the first paragraph of text on the page. Also sprinkle the keywords appropriately through out the rest of the text on the page as well.
  
  
• Use keywords as anchor text. Anchor text is the text that appears as a link on the page, typically displayed as blue, underlined text. Using your keywords as anchor text signifies to the search engines that the term is important, and is relevant to the content on the rest of your web site.
  
  
• Use keywords to describe images. Use your keywords in the image alt tags in your html code. Image alt tags are required for all images in order for the code to be WC3 compliant. Image alt tags are intended to provide information to visually impaired visitors, or users who have images turned off in their browser settings. This is a great place to use your keywords.
  
  
• Use keywords in headlines and titles. Another great place to use your keywords is in the titles, headings, and sub heads that appear on the page. Always use appropriate header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) or bold formatting, since these elements typically signify importance to the search engine spiders.
  
  
• Have a presence elsewhere on the web. Google has adopted a Universal Search model, where it now returns search results from a variety of web sources and not just from web sites, and other search engines are following suit. To take advantage of this, you should always use your keywords in press releases, video tags, blog postings, social networking profiles, etc., since these are all used as sources from which the search engine pull results.

Finding the right keywords for your web site is the first step in getting good search engine rankings, but it is just as important that you use them correctly on your web site. Keywords and keyword phrases must be used accurately in the behind-the-scenes web code that visitors don’t see, and also used appropriately in the on-page text and elements that visitors do see. By incorporating some or all of these 10 tips, your web site stands a much better chance of meeting the search engine criteria that determines the order of search results, and getting your site listed at the top!

Six Ways to Turn Browsers into Buyers

If you’re like most small businesses today, you’ve probably invested a significant amount of time and money into building (and maintaining) a web site for your business. Maybe you’ve even taken steps to promote and market your web site, or invested in having the site professionally optimized to perform better in the search engines. So why doesn’t the site convert more visitors into customers?

There are perhaps dozens of reasons for poor web site performance, but whatever the reason, the goal is to figure out exactly what is not working on the site, and why it is not convincing visitors to take the actions you want them to take.

Here are six areas of your web site that may contain obstacles to converting web site visitors. With a little tweaking, though, these obstacles can be removed, clearing the way to better conversion rates for your web site.

1. Headlines – Web visitors tend to skim page content rather than read it, so headlines are vital to capturing your readers’ attention. Break up long blocks of text with sub headings, and try using various techniques for grabbing attention. For instance, use percentages (like “nine out of ten” or “90%”) to prove your point, or ask questions to get readers to take notice.
   
   
2. Call to Action – Be sure to include a clear call to action on each web page that uses action-oriented language, like “learn more” or “help me choose”. Replace boring button titles like “submit” with action phrases like “contact us” or “download now”.
   
   
3. Reassurance Points – When you are asking visitors to take some sort of action on your site – whether it’s making a purchase or signing up for a mailing list – they need to be assured that you are trustworthy. Always place guarantees, privacy policy, and other promises where visitors can clearly see them, preferably near the point of action you are asking them to take. For example, adding a link to your privacy policy beside your newsletter sign-up form lets visitors know that you will not misuse their personal information or give out their email addresses.
   
   
4. Contact Info – You need to make it easy and convenient for customers to get in touch with you, so be sure to include a link to your contact information on every page of your site (or better yet, link to a specific Contact Us page). Another simple change that could help convert visitors is moving your phone number from the footer of the page to the top of the page, and increasing the font size so visitors can’t miss it.
   
   
5. Page Download Times – Few things are more frustrating to users than a page that takes too long to download. In fact, studies show that users would rather click the “back” button and move on to another site than wait for a slow page to download. Optimize your site’s images so they download quickly, because visitors simply will not wait for a slow page to display.
   
   
6. Navigation Trail – Once visitors land on a web page, they typically skim the content to see if the page contains the answer to their question, or if it matches their specific interest. Make sure your navigation is consistent on each web page so visitors can move around the site with ease until they find what they are looking for. Visitors are fairly comfortable with their first click not providing exactly what they are looking for, but the second click must keep answering their questions and providing useful details, or they won’t stick around for a third click.

You’ve probably already put a lot of time, effort, and money into your small business web site, so of course you want it to convert visitors into customers and produce a positive ROI for your business. But if your site’s conversion rate is not currently what you’d like it to be, take a look at these six areas to see if there are hidden problems that could be standing in the way. By removing the obstacles, you can make it easier for visitors to take the action that you want them to take, and improve your site’s conversion rate and overall success.

Five Sparrows is a Michigan web site development firm and search engine optimization provider offering a complete line of web site marketing strategies and services designed especially for small businesses.

Because Five Sparrows specializes in working with small businesses, we understand their specific needs and challenges.  We offer a full range of products and services at a fraction of the cost of what traditional marketing and web site firms charge, all designed to help small businesses get a big-company presence on a small company budget.

Our services include web site development and re-design, online shopping, search engine optimization, e-newsletters, email marketing, search engine reporting & monitoring, and more.

Contact us today at editor@fivesparrows.com, or call us at 810.923.1874 to see how we can help your business!

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