SEO Marketing | Social Media Marketing | Web Marketing

Santa Barbara Social Media Marketing Made Easy

26 April 2015 by
Taylor Reaume Blog Headers25

Need help with your Santa Barbara social media marketing strategy?

Consumers now co-author the stories brands’ tell. Push is now pull and monologue is now dialogue.

Social Media is the newer, better, faster way to reach customers.

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To grow your presence on the web, you need a smart social media marketing strategy. Many folks are turning to online marketing platforms to grow their business because over 81% of buyers make purchasing decisions online. As the web has grown and Google has become more sophisticated, the field of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has been merging with social media marketing, as well as traditional marketing, with emphasis on branding, framing, story telling, user engagement, viral marketing, and public relations.   For example, Google is now crawling the Facebook Fan pages, which means that the words you use on social media have an impact on your SEO.

Social Media Marketing

Did you know that the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is 40-60 years old?  In the old days, we used to network in the coffee shops, nowadays, it’s all happening on social media sites.  Social media sites are like personal newspapers of people’s lives.  Some call it “lifestreaming”.

Smart companies are building massive emotional equity with social media sites.  Educational marketing on these social sites, if executed properly (value adds, not pitches), will significantly boost your income.

Permission based marketing is more important than ever today.  Boost your “likes’ and your “followers”, and you’ll boost your sales and profits.

Someone with experience in SEO, is someone who understands how people search for information (on the web and in other ways) and ensures that they or their clients are visible in the unpaid (organic) listings. A social media marketer is someone that ensures your business presence stays top of mind on social sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

Get people to know, like & trust you!

Santa Barbara Social Media Marketing Made Easy

Q: Does a Santa Barbara social media marketing firm help with maintaining my Local Listings?

A: Santa Barbara social media marketing firms in general do not help with local listings.  However, at Search Engine Pros, WE DO!   Your social media manager will help build positive content on your local sites such as Google Local, Yelp and many others.  Local Search enables users to find businesses and services within a specific geographic region. A Local Search Listing gives your business instant locally targeted exposure online.  It’s important for your business to find a smart Santa Barbara social media manager that knows how to create and submit your Local Profile live to Google Maps, Yahoo Local Listings, Bing and YellowPages.com –many Santa Barbara social media manager falls short here.  Submitting to local sites will help your business tap into local search engine traffic and deliver more potential customers in your local area. Local Search Optimization is an ongoing tasks that takes many months to start generating traction.  In our Santa Barbara social media workshop, business owners report that the day they got into the number ranks on Google Plus Local was the day everything changed, and they started getting 5-10 calls per day.

Q: Does a Santa Barbara social media marketing firm help create social sites?

A. Yes.  Your Santa Barbara social media manager will also help you create and optimize Social Sites like Facebook. There are a number of other social websites that your social media manager can create. By optimizing your content, you tell search engines which keywords are important to you. Search engines can only give your web page a high ranking for a certain keyword if your web page is relevant to that keyword. Make sure you have your target keywords in your titles, h1 tags, page URLs, metas, body area, breadcrumbs, and image alt tags.

Facebook and Twitter are in many respects becoming more important than your actual company web site these days.  As search engine specialists, we’re helping you in a unique way with your social media strategy.  We’re different because we think from the search engines perspective, and we know that it’s not enough to just have a compelling copy.  Marketers create compelling copy.  Create compelling copy that is optimized for both humans AND the search engines.

Q: Do Santa Barbara social media marketing campaigns increase the number of friends I have on Facebook and Twitter?

A. Yes. Your social media manager connects you to centers of influence in your industry, and adds value to them by retweeting their articles and doing other value adds.  More twitter followers means more brand visibility and traffic.  Your Social Media Manager posts niche related news articles on your twitter for you. More tweets = more viewership and traffic.  Need to add Facebook Friends? No problem, we’ve got you covered. More facebook friends = more viewership and traffic.

Q: Do Santa Barbara social media marketing campaigns include DIGGS?

A. Yes.  Your Social Media Manager will DIGG Your articles. Diggs are the most popular social bookmarks to have on your article.  Digg.com is one of the social bookmarking sites that search engines pay attention to the most.  They increase the popularity of your article which in turn increases rankings.

Q: Do Santa Barbara social media marketing campaigns include YOUTUBE optimization?

A.  Yes, your Santa Barbara social media marketing manager will help you get more views and make comments on your Youtube Videos. Youtube is the 2nd largest search engine behind Google, and more Youtube votes increases your rankings in the Youtube Search Engine.   This will in turn increase the popularity of your video and help to increase rankings.

Successful websites launch with 100 helpful articles In order to rank well on the internet’s largest search engines, you site must contain informative, original content that contains the relevant keywords from which you’d like to capture traffic. Part of the success of your business depends on your ability to generate top ranks on Google and other major search engines.

Get an entire marketing department for the price of a part time employee!

Santa Barbara Social Media Marketing Pros

Step 1. Design a web site that captivates, informs and motivates your target audience to take action.
Step 2. Develop an annual content publishing plan detailing specific steps to success.
Step 3. Delegate execution of the plan to a team that delivers a true return on investment.

Ready to get started?  Inquire with Search Engine Pros today – your Santa Barbara Social Media Experts.

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The Internet, And The Future Of Bumper Stickers

18 April 2015 by
Bumper Stickers

Oh where, oh where have the corporate bumper stickers gone?

It used to be that in the good old days of marketing, not so very long ago, businesses could simply go to any trade show and hand out bumper stickers with their name and corporate logo on them, and that would be about it for any outbound marketing effort. Add on some type of contest like the radio stations did, and you were really going above and beyond.

But look around these days and you don’t see anything near the proliferation of bumper stickers that there used to be.

Oh sure, you can still find witty and religious sayings, magnetic ribbons for various diseases, words of support for politicians and sports teams, “my child is an honor student” and those omnipresent stick figure families.

But when was the last time you saw a bumper sticker with the name of a local business on it? If you have seen one, odds are that it was probably on an older vehicle and had a purpose of helping to keep the bumper on the car!

Well, times have changed, bumpers have changed and the marketer’s idea of only using bumper stickers to attract prospects and customers will have to change, too.

Those once-plentiful signs of company pride used to be a popular form of traditional — or push — marketing. The objective was to push information, the company’s name or branding statements out to consumers, and they would be more inclined to frequent your business.

Now it’s a much more in-depth and delicate wooing process for companies to capture the attention of prospects and win their consumer hearts. It demands the strategic use of Internet marketing.

The good news is that businesses of every size can utilize Internet marketing. The bad news is that businesses of every size have to utilize Internet marketing, or they will simply lose out to their much more aggressive and Internet-savvy competitors.

This form of marketing is known as pull marketing. It’s a little similar to fishing, where you put something of interest out there to attract some attention, and let it slowly lure in a prospect. The differences here are that you have to use lots of lures and you sometimes have to gain the fish’s permission to participate in the process.

The Move to Social Media and Online Marketing

One similarity between bumper stickers and pull marketing is that you have a very short period of time to garner some attention. Just like passing another car and noticing what the slogan is, your online communications have to be sharp, focused and consistent.

Get to the top of the search engine rankings or nobody can find you, have a succinct Facebook message or it’s gone in 60 seconds as new posts appear, catch attention in six seconds with a blog title or your prospect moves on. It’s a fast and furious world, and you’ve got to be on the top of your game.

Here are just some of the amazing statistics about the opportunity represented by social media and online marketing:

» Social media is huge and it’s still growing: In January, ClickZ highlighted a report from eMarketer that found that social media will have 5.4 million more users by 2016, on top of the 180 million Americans who already rely on it for social interaction and information.

The top five social media outlets are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr. If your business doesn’t have a presence on these five as a minimum, you could be missing out on customers, regardless of your target age group.

Amazingly enough, there will be 4.9 million social network users younger than 12 and 21.1 million teenagers engrossed in social media. Older Millennials are the most active social networkers, and even 17.1 million 55-64 year olds frequent Facebook.

No matter who you need to communicate to in order to present your features and benefits, you had better include social media if you plan to accomplish that goal.

» Young adults are watching less TV: According to Nielsen’s 2014 fourth-quarter analysis of television viewing habits, young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 are actually watching less television.

If this is your target group, it’s going to be harder and harder to find them without incorporating an Internet element to your marketing strategy.

The primary reason for their decreased interest in traditional television is their increased interest in digital devices. They are surfing the web, using social media, and Googling answers to every question that comes up in conversation. They use their mobile devices and smartphones extensively and, if they want information on a product or company, they want it now. If it’s not easily available, they are more than willing to move on.

» Social media is the new “back fence”: If people wanted to communicate with their neighbors just a few years ago, they could simply walk to the back fence and exchange information. They might ask about local businesses, relate good and bad experiences, or even provide a referral.

Now all of that is accomplished online through social media networks, bloggers and influencers. Consumers are now in the habit of searching online for answers and information first before making decisions from where to eat to where to have surgery.

In fact, Power Reviews found that 86 percent of consumers say reviews are an essential resource when making purchasing decisions. They trust peer recommendations more than they trust advertising and, if they do have a question or concern for a business, they want to be able to get a response quickly.

Does it seem like too much effort to learn about the new “pull” marketing? The return on investment for the time and energy needed is that you get to stay in business and keep attracting customers. Not such a bad return.

So, are bumper stickers totally useless now? Well, not exactly. But I’d recommend adding your web site with a call to action and a coupon code.

— Taylor Reaume is an e-Business coach and founder of Search Engine Pros. He can be contacted at taylor@thesearchenginepros.com, or 1.800.605.4988. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.