1. Connecting With Your Customers With Twitter

Hands down this is the Number 1 reason – why you should use Twitter for your business. This is a fantastic way to stay in touch with your customers and it takes seconds to do.  There are plenty of apps for your Smart Phones to use Twitter directly from your phone so you don’t even need a computer.  The idea is to send a message or two throughout the day about what might be happening at your store or restaurant or hair salon or whatever business you have.  The customers that are on your Twitter list will receive the message, think about your store and it that is all that happens it is a positive.  You can certainly prompt them to do more with coupons or notices of upcoming events, etc.  We will talk more about that later.  The point here is staying in the front of your customers mind is a key ingredient to getting more business, period.  

2. Customer Feedback From Twitter

Your customers will be able to interact as well and good news is always great but if someone responds negatively you will have a chance to rectify the situation and solve the problem and Tweet about it.  This will not only help the disgruntled customer, who might normally have just retained the unhappiness, and given yourself a real chance at keeping that customer long term but also attracting more customers because they see how attentive you are.

3. Increase Sales With Twitter

In many cases you will see a direct increase in sales once your account is up and running and you are posting to it regularly.  Other cases may be a more indirect sales result, i.e. retaining customers – like the example above.  The fact is by communicating with your customers only good things will come from it – usually in the form of an increase in sales

Claiming Your Google Local Listing

Matt McGee – Claiming is the right thing to do, but building out your profile with great information is what helps rankings.

"Claiming is the right thing to do, but building out your profile with great information is what helps rankings."
–Matt McGee

Tom Crandall – Claiming or creating listing(s) in Google Places does two things. First, it tells the search engines that they have the most accurate and up-to-date information about a business location. Second, it gives the business owner an opportunity to out-rank competitors by optimizing their business listing for targeted keyword sets and geographic areas.

Mary Bowling – One of the most important factors in ranking, although unclaimed listings can and do rank well due to other factors. In addition, you should claim your listing so that you can control much of what searchers see about your business, rather than letting others control it.

Local Search Ranking Factors

Why Is Yelp Important?

If you own a restaurant or other type of business location, another important task to do after claiming your locations on  Google Local Business is to claim them on Yelp.  While my research is based on work in the restaurant industry, it is applicable to any business with a physical location that is visited by either retail or business customers.

Yelp is important because it is emerging as the leading consumer review site for many types of businesses and it currently receives high priority from the Google Search Engine results

Why Is Yelp Important To Your Business?

Social Media and the Small Business

Did you know that even if you don’t have an online presence, the internet can have a profound effect on the way you run your business? The truth is that even if your company is not online, people can find out about it through various social media sites and then contact you by phone.
What is social media? Simply put, it is a group of internet-based programs that facilitate interactive information sharing. Generally, these applications are very user-friendly and geared towards everybody, not just the extremely tech savvy. Some examples of social media sites include Facebook, My Space, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Yelp, but there are literally hundreds that could be used to help your particular business grow.
Picture this: A person on a social media site like the popular Twitter reads a complimentary message about a local gym. The individual then uses a phone directory website to locate your number, and a few minutes later they contact you and ask about a membership. As a business owner, not having an online presence can seriously hurt your business. And contrarily, business can increase exponentially when an online presence is established.
What you just read is not fiction. In fact, it happens every day. Businesses that do not currently have an online presence receive endorsements and leads from people who are communicating on social media sites. Since consumers are increasingly turning to the internet to help them with their offline buying decisions, it has an effect on companies that don’t sell goods online. In fact, in one recent study, one out of every four internet users said they consult online reviews on sites like Amazon before they order any product or service.
These days, most people rarely consult a traditional phone book. More and more, they are relying on search engines like Google to find the nearest/best service available to them. If a potential customer searches “Chinese restaurant Seattle”, millions of different items will pop up and be available for the customer to view. These items will include addresses, maps, and phone numbers, but they will also contain links to restaurant review sites that allow customers to rate their experiences at various restaurants. Chances are if the customer reads a positive review about the restaurant that is two blocks away, that is where they will dine.
Some of the biggest beneficiaries of social media sites are small offline restaurants. Why? Well, many social media sites, like Yelp, allow users to post restaurant reviews. So, when an internet user wants to try out a new restaurant in their area, more often than not he or she will consult sites like Yelp. If the reviews are overwhelmingly positive, there is a good chance he or she will eat there. As you might imagine, most small restaurants do not maintain their own websites, and they do not advertise online.
Reaching out to potential customers through social media has never been easier. It seems like everyone and their grandmother has a Facebook page. Information posted there can reach so many people in such a short time. Take this for example: A new bar opens in a town that already has thousands of bars. A curious customer looks online to see if there is anything interesting going on at that bar tonight. When the name of the bar is searched, a Facebook page pops up. There are pictures of good-looking people having a great time, delicious food, and a band playing. And guess what? The Facebook page says that tonight is karaoke night. Sold! That bar has gained a customer for life. Getting your business connected with Facebook and other social media sites can be just as effective as a traditional website, and it is interactive and constantly being updated.
So, what does this mean for offline businesses? Well, for starters, it lets them know that social media sites can be used to boost sales even if their business is presently offline. It also means that they should pay attention to what customers are saying about their company, because it won’t always be positive. These comments can appear on a number of different social media or consumer review sites, and can be used to improve their business.

Local Search is the new Yellow Pages.  Not only is this great news for our trees but also for local businesses.  Why???  Because, if done right, it becomes an incredible opportunity for small and medium sized businesses to set up a recurring advertising marketing campaign.

The fact is the internet is now the primary source of local business information. According to a study conducted by TMP Directional Media, more users utilize online search engines to find local business information than the number of users actually using a print yellow pages directory.

Our local search optimization service will increase your company’s internet presence by improving your visibility and footprint on the internet.  This results in an affordable, cost effective, local search marketing and advertising solution.

• Search Engines - We design your business profile to optimize your search engine optimization.  This involves determining a keyword strategy based on your competition and industry, picture submission, category choices and much more.   We then submit to all major search engines including Google Maps, Yahoo Local and Bing Local.
• Directories & Local Listings - Our team will submit your website and or profile to a carefully selected list of directories that are geographically relevant to your business.  These are sites like Yellowpages.com,  Super Pages and 411.com.
• Customer Review Sites - Yelp, Insider Pages and Kudzu are a few.
• Submission To Smaller Search Engines – Additional submissions are continuously added to smaller search engines, directories and/or review sites.  About 10 to 20 of these submission a month will continue to increase the visits and provide more inbound links to help your search engine optimization.    This will help your websites position in the natural organic search rankings.
• We submit all listings manually.  We do not use a script of submission tool.
• Exclusivity – Our policy is to work exclusively with one company per industry per municipality.  Unlike our competitors you won’t find us working for your competition.

For all you folks who use Firefox, I’ve found a great little extension that you can download for free.  It’s called Twitterbar.  It allows you to post your comments to your Twitter Account directly from your Address URL without having to log into your Twitter Account!  Pretty Cool.  FYI – the picture below is the only change you’ll notice on your screen, so you won’t have to re-learn where your stuff is at.

You can also search the entire land of Twitter, and all social media, with the TwitterBar as well!  Just type in what you are looking for and add –search and it will bring up what you are looking for.

Click Here to go to the Download Site –> TwitterBar