St Louis Web Marketing

Archive for the ‘Web Marketing’ Category

Will the growing popularity of social media sites end the need for a website?

Absolutely not. The real time attribute of social media is something that your website can not contribute to the online community. However, your website still offers so much more than any social site can match. The Net Impact, a web marketing company in St. Louis, agrees that social media is an important enhancement to online presence, but not the sole contributor.

“Think of social networks as a friendly gateway to your company website or microsite. Seeding your site with social networks spreads content far and wide through search engines, as well as through contacts who are already a part of your social networking communities – places where rapport has already been established. People tend to share their experiences, good or bad, with their social networking communities – people they have built a connection with. So find out where your audience’s conversations are taking place and establish a strong presence. When social media sites are operated effectively they have the power to steer your audience to your website, resonate with your visitors, humanize your brand and deliver content to the masses in the click of a mouse.”

Social media is what brings the online community full circle. Linking your facebook posts to Twitter, your YouTube videos to Facebook, your RSS Feed to microsites, and so on. The key is that all of these should ultimately link back to your website and drive desirable traffic. Social Media is important, very important, but without a website your brand would be running around in circles. Social media is growing rapidly, but your website shouldn’t be going anywhere.

Plan- There is much more to Search Engine Optimization than just stuffing keywords on to a website. A good SEO Company will plan out a strategy specific to your site. They know that there isn’t a cookie cutter SEO plan for everyone and will do the research needed to devise the perfect strategy for you.
Educate- Search Engines and their algorithm methods are constantly changing. SEO companies must stay educated of these changes, because these small alterations can make all the difference in results.  The SEO Company must stay educated and also be able to inform their clients of the changes that may affect them.
Remembering Sales- Many SEO companies are only concerned with rankings. A good SEO company is concerned with the overall growth of sales for your company. They will analyze things other than rankings, such as traffic, conversion, and revenue.
Focus- A great site is more than just good keywords. The navigation path, following compliance codes, and architecture of your site are just as important when trying to provide a great site. It is crucial for an SEO company to remember to focus on all of these things when developing a strategy for you.
Exchange- The SEO Company and the client should be exchanging words and thoughts on a regular basis. Without communication, neither the client nor the company is getting the full benefits of working together.
Compromise- An SEO Company may often get frustrated when a client chooses not to or is unable to implement their recommendations. However, a good SEO Company will understand that compromise is essential and will be satisfied with the decision or work with the client to find a better solution.
Test- SEO is an ongoing process that requires a lot of attention, even after the recommendations have been implemented. Testing is necessary to see if things are taking the right path and helps provide information of what should be done in the future. A good SEO Company is always testing, reviewing, and re-strategizing.
If your SEO Company is not PERFECT or your looking for one who is check out The Net Impact.

Businesses are shifting their budgets and strategies from traditional advertising and jumping on the Social Media bandwagon. Can you blame them? This is where the industry is headed and where money is being made. However, just because it is the trend, it doesn’t mean that you are prepared to jump on quite yet. Here is a checklist to help you decide if you are ready to be participating in social media:

• Do you know what you want from social media? Are you looking for more leads, traffic, conversions, or brand awareness?  Are you trying to build a better relationship with current customers or reach a new market? The sooner you understand what you want to achieve from using social media, the sooner you will be able to build a better social media strategy.  Just like your mother said “if everyone else was jumping off a bridge, would you jump too”?  You should know your reasons and goals for social media before you “jump off the bridge”.
• What kind of social media do you have in mind? People just assume that social media is Facebook and Twitter. Those are two great social media sites that can help out your business, but don’t forget about blog rolls, media sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr, and directory sites. Social media is a large pond, so you must be prepared to jump all in and not just wet your toes.
• How will you encourage participation? Talking to a wall isn’t exactly entertaining or useful whatsoever. If you are using social media, but do not have a strategy for encouraging participation, that is basically what you are doing. The wonderful thing about social media is that it allows interactions and a casual interface for conversation about your brand. You must embrace this gift or social media is pretty pointless for your business.
• Do you have the resources to maintain your accounts? Social media can be very time consuming and will absorb many of your resources. You should have a person, team, or company designated to maintain your social media accounts.  They should be there to post real time updates and interact with your followers.  With out the proper resources you may find yourself overwhelmed or dragging behind in your campaign.

So you are ready to jump on the band wagon as well and begin your social media campaign. Check out The Net Impact for assistance in your social media efforts.

I am one of the few and lucky graduates of Spring 2009 that actually received my degree and got a job in my field within three months of graduation. “Advertising, so you write commercials and stuff?” is often a response when I tell people the industry I belong to.  I usually laugh, because that is a common stereotype for those of us in advertising and marketing. Honestly, it is those stereotypes that lead me to choose my major in the first place. While, I didn’t learn how to write funny commercials in class, I will say that I did not learn how to do what I am doing now either.

I am a web marketing account manager for an internet marketing firm.  Search engine optimization, social media, and Google Analytics are apart of my daily vocabulary at my new job, but I never heard one of those terms during my four years at an accredited University.  Schools are still teaching students about the ancient traditional media and are not training pupils on internet marketing or even mentioning the growing technology. Perhaps it is because it is a new genre that professors do not even understand, but in my opinion it needs to become a part of the curriculum sooner than later.

Having a degree no longer sets you apart from the eager job seekers, but knowledge and experience sure does. And in an industry that is constantly growing, employers are looking for those who know more than then they do. If Universities really want to stand out for their marketing programs, they should really begin teaching about internet marketing, search engine marketing, and social media. Soon enough they will realize that traditional media is yesterday’s medium, and internet marketing is the advertising of the future. Schools, students, and the industry are sure to benefit from these changes. At least until something else comes along…

So you’ve got your Facebook and Twitter accounts set up for your business.  They are synchronized for a convenient post to both outlets. You’re ready to tell the world about your brand through the all fabulous social media. But, what do you write? And more importantly, what is acceptable to post?

There is such as thing as Social Media Etiquette and it is important for you to follow the guidelines. You and whoever is going to be posting on behalf of your company or brand should be well aware of what is and is not acceptable to post via Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media outlet.

Here are a few guidelines that should be followed and please feel free to expand to better suit you and your business.

• Never represent yourself or your company in a negative way
• Never represent yourself or your company in a false or misleading way
• Be sure to post meaningful, respectful comments. No spam, off topic, or offensive remarks
• Do not violate any company privacy, confidentiality, and/or legal guidelines

Finally, the golden rule that is most important in terms of public relations and protecting your brand:

• Remember that not only do you represent the name under which you are posting, but you represent your company/brand as well

The internet is fast paced and unforgivable. If someone sees a remark that they are not happy with, it can be “retweeted” to thousands in seconds. Users have the option to click away from your page faster than you can say “Facebook” if they see one thing they are not satisfied. Realistically you have milliseconds to grasp your audience, keep them there, and keep them content.

With all of this said, please be selective in choosing who you give administrative rights to for your social media accounts. Social media is apart of a free world, so be sure to monitor your employees and what they are saying to the public. The easiest way of keeping the peace is by distributing guidelines to anyone you think may be using social media on behalf of your company or brand.

Now get to posting…

Facebook has got it all and it is no surprise that users spent an average of five hours and 12 minutes on Facebook in July, 2009. With all of the applications, friends, fans, and photos, there is still one thing missing from Facebook that even Twitter has.

And it is as easy @ b c…

Soon enough, that will not be a problem. Facebook just introduced the ability to tag your friends in your status update. Much like Twitter’s @mention, you will be able to direct a message through your status to any of your contacts. Not only can you tag your friends to your status, but you will able to tag groups, events, applications, and pages.

Capturing one of Twitter’s best features, Facebook is making it even easier to have a public conversation. Fans are sure to love the new feature and it could mean good news for businesses as well. Brands that have created pages, but are having a hard time getting noticed can reach out to their fans in a more direct way. On top of that, fans will be able to tag their favorite pages as well. Soon we will be seeing status updates that read Joe Shmoe: is eating McDonalds and drinking a Coke.  With easy linking to fan pages, this new element is going to be driving so much traffic to sites that users may have not stumbled upon otherwise.

While users and brands should be ecstatic about Facebook’s new feature, Twitter is probably pouting in the corner. This move takes away the need of Twitter for some people and gives them everything they could need on Facebook. If Twitter plans to continue to compete with Facebook it will need some new features, and soon.

More updates on Facebook and other Social Media soon…

YouTube… Many of us think of “Charlie Bit My Finger”, “Evolution of Dance”, and other hilarious homemade videos created simply for entertainment. But, in this ever changing world of social media, YouTube is now another source of marketing that can be used as a tool to advance your business.  However, just like any other form of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs), YouTube is only considered effective if it is used properly. Here are some practices that should be followed when creating and optimizing your YouTube videos.

• Videos should be short, sweet, and to the point. Unlike the traditional, specific to entertainment YouTube videos, ones that are created for your business should be direct and informative. Viewers will not want to spend more than a few minutes viewing what you have to offer and desire instant gratification, answers now! Also, longer videos lead to longer upload times, which no one wants to wait around for.
• Save your video as a search friendly name. Just like a URL, you don’t want to save video files as 58756-apx.mov. Save it as something that actually describes your video and use some meaningful keywords.
• Comment and allow comments. Similar to Google Ranking, the more interaction you have with other users the higher you will rank in YouTube optimization. This means watch other videos, comment, subscribe, and make channels and friends. The more you put yourself out there, the more reciprocation you will receive. Also, be sure to post your video on other blogs and sites. If your video is viewed from another site, it still counts as a view.
• Chose ALL text wisely. Your Title should include basic keywords that people are likely to search and should be in conversational format. (How to do… How to make a…Product tutorial). Your URL should be the first thing listed in your Description.  YouTube only displays the first few lines of your description and since the ultimate goal is to get visitors to your site you want to be sure that they see that URL.  Following your URL, you want to illustrate your video with keyword dense sentences. Use as many keywords that make sense, but do not overdo it, that is SPAMMING. Your Tags should contain all variations of likely searched words and phrases. Get rid of non-specific words (and, of, to) and stick to the keywords.

These were just a few tips to get you started. Until next time……..

Your website may have one of the most innovative designs out there, with information that people desire. Unfortunately, none of this is important at all if your website isn’t marketed. Unless search engines, such as Google, that are frequently used by ordinary people who might be potential customers for your business, know how to get to your website, nobody will know your website even exists. The objective of web marketing is to have your website ranking on at least the first page of results when a potential customer types in certain keywords relating to the point of your website. For example, if you’re trying to sell vending machines, and a person types in vending machines in the search bar of Google, a web marketing team’s main goal is getting your website to show up when they click “I’m Feeling Lucky.” This feature brings up the number one result of the keyword or phrase they choose, and this shows how important it is that you use the best keywords for your website.

To make sure the best keywords are used for your website, and the best chance at getting your website on that “Lucky” spot, use The Net Impact as your web marketing team.

When you go to a search engine and try to find something, you type in a word, or several words, and click the search button. The search engine then looks in its index for those words.

Suppose that you used the words “car racing”. Generally speaking, the search engine will look for various things:

• Pages that contain the exact phrase “car racing”
• Pages that don’t have the phrase “car racing”, but do have the words “car” and “racing” in close proximity Read the rest of this entry »

If you have a website that gets few visitors, its time to do something about it. The most important and inexpensive strategy is to rank high organically for your keywords as opposed to paid ad (pay per click). Search is the second most common activity on the Internet after email. Statistics show that web users use search engines to find products and services. Search engines send robot “spiders” to index the content on your website, so what are some steps you can do to prepare your website for optimal indexing.

To improve your search engine ranking, make sure to have all the following SEO steps on your website: Read the rest of this entry »