Production Blog Reviews

Making Your Google Alerts Smarter

Posted by cgseo under Social Media, Web Marketing

Share Making Your Google Alerts Smarter This content from: Duct Tape Marketing If you follow my writing you know that I’m a big fan of setting up routines that let you listen in on what’s being said about your brands, products, people, industry and competitors using free tools like Google Alerts . Google Alerts let you set-up custom searches and then have any mention of that search term sent to your RSS Reader (like Google Reader) or email in box as they happen or at the end of the day. This is a great way to keep tabs on things that matter without needing to scour the web universe for this kind of intel. You can set up very specific searches such as your name or broad searches so you know who is talking about a concept like referral marketing. Alert Rank detail – click to enlarge Recently I came across a tool call Alert Rank that works hand in hand with Google Alerts to make them smarter. You see, Google picks up everything, including the very low value content scraper sights that simply republish other people’s stuff. One of the main ideas behind keeping tabs on what’s being said is it allows you to jump in and join the conversation. Few things make a blogger happier than when someone they mention in a post shows up and adds a comment. Alert Rank looks at the mentions of your alert terms and gives you solid information about the quality of the mention. Now quality is a loaded term, but what Alert Rank does is measure things like numerous inbound links to the site, PageRank, no follow, comments allowed, and delicious tags to come up with a quality score about the link. You still get the alerts in your inbox, but you can quickly use the quality score to decide if you need to jump right in. You can also click through to get lots of information about the site that mentions your term. This is simply a much better way to manage alerts and find networking opportunities. Alert Rank report – click to enlarge Alert Rank also offer reporting tools that make it easy for anyone that monitors alerts for clients to set-up custom reports in excel of PDF format. The one thing I need to tell you though is that if you already have alerts created you will need to set-up a new Google account and create your alerts again using your custom Alert Rank email as that’s how the alerts get routed through the Alert Rank system. It’s not a big deal, but may not be readily apparent when you first read the set-up instructions. All in all it took me about five minutes to get it going and it works wonderfully. Related Posts: Google Alerts Hack Google Alerts to Twitter Get Your Google Alerts via RSS Weekend Favs February Six Use Yahoo and Google Alert as Sales Tools Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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Making Your Google Alerts Smarter

Local Review Success Hits Speed Bump

Posted by cgseo under Social Media, Web Marketing

Share Local Review Success Hits Speed Bump This content from: Duct Tape Marketing You know I’m a supporter of the local review sites like Yelp! and City Search , but some small business owners have issues with the format. Here’s the dilemma, consumers do seem to like them because they offer an easy way to get some input on a business. Business owners take issue because they sometimes get bad reviews and feel they have little or no control over what’s said about them. I’m not going sit here and say these sites are perfect, but I for one think they provide a necessary service and should be looked upon as a business building tool. Too often the only real problem with these sites is they publish the truth and that’s hard to hear. This past week several attorneys filed class action suits against Yelp! claiming that the service is attempting to sell advertising to businesses as a way to help them erase bad reviews. Here’s some coverage on the filed lawsuit and more in the Wall Street Journal The lawsuit was brought by a vet clinic in the San Fran area called Cats & Dogs Animal Hospital – one look at the reviews on the Cats & Dogs Yelp page and you kind of get the feeling this business has some issues. There are some very good reviews and some very bad reviews. I’ve found these review sites to be very accurately indicative of the health of a business. I suppose this is a good time to remind business owners to be proactive in getting their loyal fans to start the good review trend! Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman had this to say about what he’s called the conspiracy theory . I did some further searching and found one attorney who thinks the Yelp! suit will get tossed quickly . Or consider this from industry analyst Greg Sterling “The allegations above must be proven with evidence. As I’ve said before I’m skeptical that there was any “quid pro quo” or pattern accordingly. But the depositions in this case — and there will have to be many — will start to establish whether there is any meat to these claims or whether it’s just frustration boiling over together with some opportunistic attorneys who may have solicited the action after reading the negative press coverage and wondering if there was a viable lawsuit in the making.” I have no idea whether any of these allegations have merit, but I’ve witnessed how much effort Yelp puts into giving business owners a voice on Yelp and I for one think this shows how authentic their attempt to put out a balanced and necessary offering is. Related Posts: Yelp! Changing the Local Game Some More Your Pizza Sucks And . . . 5 Ways to Rock Customer Review Sites Google Wants to be the Local Place Social Search Gaining Steam Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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Local Review Success Hits Speed Bump

Web Marketing – Do You Need It?

Posted by BlogPostman under Web Marketing

So, you’ve been in business for a few months now, and you’ve seen your customer base grow from just a few friends and family members to enough local action to keep you busy on a daily basis. You’re probably thinking that you’re doing alright without any web marketing campaigns, but that’s where you’re wrong.

Too many people think that because they’ve managed to generate interest about their products or services through word of mouth tactics, or simply print and television advertising in their particular region, they are doing all they can to build a brand awareness about their company. However, without web marketing, you are leaving out a very important piece of the puzzle.

If you’re just now starting your web based business, you have to understand that web marketing is even more important for you than it is for traditional brick and mortar businesses. This is because the internet is your lifeline to your customer base. If you’re not making use of it, you can be sure that your competition is.

If you’re trying to decide whether or not you really need to invest in web marketing, you have to ask yourself how big you eventually want to grow. If you want a big tomato bush, with lots of fruit on it, you can’t keep it in a tiny container on your kitchen counter forever. Internet marketing gives you access to the biggest audience of all: the millions of people who are searching the internet right now.

Neglecting the need for web marketing just puts your business at risk for complete obscurity, meaning that you might have a great product or service that many people would be interested in, but because you don’t show up in the relevant search results, they have no idea you exist.

If you’re interested in utilizing web marketing to help grow your business, but aren’t really sure the best way to get started, you should know that there are many qualified internet marketing firms that can provide you with comprehensive packages that will work for you.

When choosing a web marketing firm for the first time, make sure that they offer a wide variety of services for you to pick from. This means that you should have your choice of website linking, email advertising, and social bookmarking, as well as banner ads.

If you’re scared that you might not be doing enough to connect with your online audiences, web marketing could be the tool that you’ve been looking for. Click here for more information on services that could propel you to success.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Social Media Marketing

Posted by cgseo under Social Media, Web Marketing

Share The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Social Media Marketing This content from: Duct Tape Marketing Back in high school I had a great English teacher (I may not have left him with that impression at the time) that was very into science fiction. He made us read Robert A. Heinlein and all 1200 pages of Atlas Shrugged , but I also discovered Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (A series of books now known as a “trilogy in five parts.” If fact, if you’re feeling particularly smug some day go ask a bookseller for the fifth book in the Hitchhiker Trilogy and see if they flinch.) There’s an underground of H2G2 followers that can frame any argument or challenge with a bit of advice from the series. The other night I was reading – The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time . It is a posthumous collection of previously unpublished material by Adams and consists largely of essays about technology and life experiences. I stumbled across this bit of wisdom and thought to myself this is the perfect way to frame the reluctance some small business owners feel when it comes to new technology and, in particular, social media. In the words of Adams: “Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.” — Douglas Adams I don’t know what to do with this so much as to accept its reality, don’t panic, and be mindful of it as I continue to marvel and the brave new world we live in. Image credit: jonathanjoni Related Posts: Want to write better - read better It's A Little Like Childbirth, I Suspect Il est collante (It is sticky) What would the perfect business day look like? Read Any Good Research Papers Lately? Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Social Media Marketing

7 Steps to Powerful Online Seminars

Posted by cgseo under Social Media, Web Marketing

Share 7 Steps to Powerful Online Seminars This content from: Duct Tape Marketing For many businesses, particularly service oriented businesses, getting up in front of a group of prospects with the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise is one of the best lead conversion opportunities going. Holding workshops and seminars live and in person has long been an effective tool. The web makes this tool even more powerful and more affordable as it allow you to conduct online versions of seminars that don’t require you to rent a room or your prospects to leave their homes and offices. Online seminars are a marketing tool every business should consider adding to the mix. Below are seven steps to consider to make your online seminars pay. 1) Get sponsored Before you go too far down the seminar path consider getting sponsors to join you. This doesn’t have to be some big name corporate deal, give strategic partners the opportunity to join you in promoting your educational sessions for the right to call themselves a sponsor. Round-up prizes from related businesses that want the exposure their prize garners in your promotion. Free stuff drives enrollment! 2) Educate, don’t sell Make certain that your “free” session is packed with content so good people would pay for it. That’s the expectation these days. If you create seminars that are basically veiled sales presentations, you won’t reap the benefits of this expertise play and people won’t come back or tell friends about your great seminars. There’s a time and place for the sales pitch, but only after you’ve established trust through sharing valuable information. People are OK with a “here’s the sales pitch” at the end of a presentation that was time well spent. Consider creating a series of events and promoting them together. This can help build momentum and allow you to build a loyal following. 3) Pick your platform There are dozens of online platforms for hosting your web seminars but choose your platform with some considerations in mind. Free may not be the best option if you are using this tactic to demonstrate how professional your business is. Look for a tool that offers some interaction tools such as polling, questions, chat, even video Make sure your chosen tool can handle the numbers you plan to enroll Be certain you can easily record your sessions for future marketing use Look for ease of use and follow-up reminder email automation GoToWebinar (a sponsor of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast), Acrobat Connect and WebEx all offer the features above 4) Cause interaction Use the functionality of your online webinar tool to get the audience involved. Polls are a great way to take the temperature of your audience and the results can make for both interesting discussion during your session and follow-up discussion in another form of content such as a blog post. With small groups you may want to allow video or audio chat, but it’s always a good idea to take questions from the attendees. Most platforms also allow you to conduct a survey at some point in your presentation. This is a nice way to end a presentation to get feedback from the audience and even let them vote on other topics they would like to hear in the future. 5) Create a backchannel Lots of people attend webinars these days and share information they hear with their followers on Twitter. It’s become common practice to create a hashtag for your events so people who attend or those that don’t have an easy way to collect all of the comments made by listeners. Some presenters go as far as having an assistant monitor and tweet during the presentation to keep the conversation lively and accurate. This free PowerPoint Twitter Tool allows you to create tweets and have them posted automatically during your presentation. 6) Have bonus content Because there is so much free information out there online the expectations for what you provide as free package have grown. In addition to the event itself consider creating a PDF workbook or collection of blog posts from yourself, related bloggers or strategic partners and delivering that document along with your follow-up. This gives you another reason to reach out and remind your attendees about the great content and gently about the products and services you offer. 7) Promote the archive Use your chosen platform to record your presentation. Upload your recorded session to a video host such as Vimeo or YouTube and embed the video in a web page surrounded by additional resources and further reading links related to the topic. This is a great way to use the session for future marketing efforts and create the kind of page and content that search engines love. Consider using a service like CastingWords to transcribe the session, combine three or four session with video, transcript, resources and your collection of blog post PDF and you’ve just created a product that you can sell! Handling all the moving parts of setting up, promoting, running and archiving live events can seem a bit overwhelming at first, but the long term payoff in terms of expertise, content, and trust building is worth every bit of it. Image credit: hildgrim Related Posts: The Telephone Doesn't Use Any Gas 5 Tips for Getting More Leads from Speaking 5 Ways to Share Content to Create Referrals Extending Your Presentations Through the Backchannel Great Small Business Video Collection Powered by Contextual Related Posts Like this post? Share it with others

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7 Steps to Powerful Online Seminars