Archive for Google
Using Google to Market Your Business Part 3: YouTube
Posted by: | CommentsTable of contents for Using Google to Market Your Business
- Using Google to Market Your Business
- Using Google to Market Your Business Part 2: Google Analytics
- Using Google to Market Your Business Part 4: Google Keyword tool
- Using Google to Market Your Business Part 3: YouTube
YouTube is now owned by Google so this is yet another way to use Google as a marketing vehicle. With over 100 million U.S. viewers of YouTube (never mind the rest of the world) as of January 2009, clearly YouTube is a way to reach a large number of people.
Why should you add YouTube videos to your marketing plan?
SEO
First, search engines are starting to rank video higher than longer articles and blog posts. If you’ve used good keywords in your title and meta tags, your video is more likely to get found by Google and other search engines. Additionally, since you can include a link to your own website, you can further increase the ranking of your site by adding videos to YouTube.
More Clicks
Our eyes naturally go to photos. If your video shows up in a search someone does on Google, the thumbnail of your video is more likely to catch their eye and get clicked than a text only result. This means more traffic for you.
Link Bait
Good videos are “link bait”. YouTube automatically includes a link for views to use to add to their website. If you provide interesting or useful content it is more likely someone will add your video to their website, increasing the number of people who see and hear your message.
You’ll be cutting edge
Even though people are moving to YouTube in droves, the majority of small businesses haven’t tried it yet. If you start using video online today, there’s a good chance you’ll be one of the first ones in your industry to do so. You’ll be seen as cutting edge or just reach people your non-YouTube competitors don’t.
Works well with other social media sites
Social media sites like Facebook are designed to work with YouTube. You can easily and quickly import your YouTube videos and get double duty. Even if someone has never used YouTube before, they can still watch your content.
The rule of seven
YouTube was made for the Rule of Seven. I’ve said it before: people like to do business with those they know, like and trust. And getting to know, like and trust you takes time – at least seven contacts with your marketing message. Video is a great way to let people get to know you: they can see your face and hear your voice. You’re no longer an anonymous entity online but a living, breathing person. If you combine that with interesting and helpful information, video can speed up the process of getting people to feel comfortable enough with you to be willing to open their wallets and purchase your products or services.
Tips for creating a good video
I’m not a videographer so I’m not going to give you tips on how to actually use a video camera. If you need help there, hire someone or find a teenager who knows what she’s doing.
However, there are some tips I can give you to get better results.
- It doesn’t have to be perfect. While you don’t what to look completely unprofessional, if your video is too polished viewers may feel like they’re viewing a commercial. Sometimes a slightly homemade quality to the video can make your message more authentic.
- The average YouTube viewer spends 2.5 to 3 minutes per video. Keep your video in that range and you’ll likely get more viewers.
- Dress professionally. I know I said a homemade quality may sound authentic but that doesn’t mean I think you should create your videos in your pajamas. Unless your personal and business brand is very quirky, dress how you would if you were meeting clients. Clean up your office – if that’s where you’re shooting.
- Provide good, useful content. People don’t want a sales pitch. The best format is to talk about a problem your customers have and give them tips on how to solve it.
- Don’t forget a subtle sales pitch. If you’ve given useful information, end your video with a soft sell. Include your website address and some sort of call to action – what do you want the viewer to do next. An ideal call to action is send them to a place on your website where they can get more information.
If you haven’t started using video yet, now might be the time to give it a try. Go to YouTube, see how others are viewing the site, get out your video camera and give it a try.
Andrea J. Stenberg
Are you using video and YouTube to market your business? Let us know how it works by leaving a comment. Also, if you know of businesses that are doing a good job with video, leave us links to the best online videos.
Using Google to Market Your Business
Posted by: | CommentsTable of contents for Using Google to Market Your Business
Whether you’re a traditional “bricks & mortar” business where customers come to your store, a virtual business conducted entirely online or something in between, marketing online should still be part of your overall marketing plan.
And part of that overall plan should include using the behemoth Google. Google has many tools to help small businesses compete in the online world. These tools are easy to use and best of all, most of them are free.
While virtually everyone one on the planet knows about Google search, there are many other Google products that make running a business easier. While you probably know some of them, unless you’re a total geek, you probably don’t know them all. Over the next few days I’ll be introducing you to some of these tools and giving advice on how they can help your business.
Google Alerts
Google Alerts gives you email updates from Google when new items for your chosen search terms appear. You can decide whether you want daily, weekly or “as it happens” emails.
At a bare minimum, you should have a Google Alert set up for you business name and probably your own name. This way, if anyone mentions you online, you know about it. If a dissatisfied customer writes a scathing blog post, Read More→
Search Engine Optimization: Increase Your Chance of Getting Found Locally
Posted by: | CommentsAccording to Search Engine Optimization expert Gem Webb, Google had added geography to its search algorithms. What does that mean? If you’re searching for a company that makes widgets, Google will try to include companies that are close to your location, even if you don’t include a geographic term in your search.
For small business, particularly “bricks & mortar” businesses with a local customer base, this is very good news. When it comes to getting your website found on Google, you don’t need to beat out the big players to get found. You just need to be better than your local competitors.
But how can you increase your chances of getting found by a local audience even more? There are a few simple steps you can take, to improve your chances.
First, have you noticed when you go to a website, there’s often a description of the site along the very top of your web browser? Those are known as title tags. You can control and change those tags to include keywords you think people looking for your products or services would use. Including local geographic terms is also a good idea. There are also meta tags, which visitors to your site don’t see but search engines do.
If you are using WordPress, you can use a plug-in to add or change these meta tags. I use the Platinum SEO plug-in. Once installed, it’s easy to add or change these tags. If you’re not using WordPress, get your webmaster to edit these tags for you. Or, find the nearest teenager. Odds are you can find one who can whip this off for you in exchange for a gift card for their favorite store.
But there’s another strategy you can use that’s a little more radical than tags, but in the long run will likely be more effective. Try partnering with other local businesses and work together to increase your entire community’s profile. “It’s not just building an online business, it’s building a local economy,” says website marketing expert Ryan Wiseman.
The first part of this basic strategy is simple link exchanges. Contact other local businesses and put each other’s links on your websites. This interconnectedness will help increase all your profiles on the web.
And you don’t need to worry about including “competitors” in these link exchanges. “I don’t see other graphic designers a competitors,” says Jennifer Harris, owner of Keylime Creative. “I see them as sources of information, future employees, future partners.”
This is the radical part of this strategy. Small businesses, particularly in smaller communities, need to stop looking at other businesses as the competition. They need to work together to promote the community as a whole. When businesses do this, everybody wins.
Beyond link exchanges, local businesses need to talk about other local businesses online. When you visit other local businesses and get good service or good value, write about it on your personal blog, Facebook, Twitter. If everyone makes a conscious effort to help promote each other, everybody wins.
Andrea J. Stenberg
What do you think about this idea of banding together with other businesses to help increase everyone’s visibility online? Please leave a comment and share your thoughts or experiences.
Andrea’s 10 Favorite Free Online and Technology Tools
Posted by: | CommentsEveryone has favorite tools that get them through the day. I discovered most of the ones I use from Twitter or articles like these so I thought I’d share the love.
Here are the free online and technology tools I can’t live without:
1. Social media
I can’t imagine running my business without Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. But since I write about them all the time, ‘nough said.
2. Flock
Flock is a web browser created by the same folks who did Mozilla Firefox. It’s similar to Firefox except it is optimized to help manage your social media. You can have a sidebar with Twitter or Facebook (or other social media) updates running live. You can subscribe to your RSS feeds from a sidebar. You can use social bookmarking sites like Delicious as part of the browser. It’s very cool.
3. Thunderbird
Thunderbird is an email client made by Mozilla (can you see a theme here), similar to Outlook, but not a Microsoft product. More important, as a Mozilla product, it has tons of plug-ins (add-ons) you can add to customize what you do. I only use a few but they are really handy.
4. TweetDeck
TweetDeck is my newest favorite. It’s a free tool that lets you manage your Twitter account. The nice thing is you can have several panes open in your window at once. This way you don’t have to flip back and forth to monitor Tweets, @replies or direct messages. There’s all visible at once.
But the coolest feature has to be the ability to create groups. Once you’re following more than say 100 people, Tweets from people you really want to hear from can get lost in the noise. In TweetDeck you can create a group of key people you want to follow more closely than the rest. You can even create multiple groups. Now you don’t have to worry about who you’re missing.
5. WordPress
WordPress is the blogging software I use to run this blog. Like Mozilla products it’s open source so it’s easy to find tons of free themes and plug-ins to enhance what it does. It’s easy to use and if you need to figure out how to do something, you can bet someone has created a blog post or uTube video explaining it.
6. Cli.gs
Cli.gs is a free tool for tracking clicks to your links. If you’ve ever wondered if it’s worth sending a blog post link via Twitter or Facebook, here’s the way to test. Set up your free account, enter the url for your post into Cli.gs to get the short url. Spread the shortened Cli.gs url far and wide. Then go back and track where the clicks came from.
7. Errorlytics
Let’s you locate broken links and redirect people to the correct page to reduce 404 errors. (Read more about 404 errors.)
8. Google
It has to be said. Can you think of a day you don’t Google something?
9. Yahoo! Groups
Even though social media like LinkedIn and Facebook has overtaken Yahoo! Groups, this is still a great way to have the old fashioned type of discussions. I don’t belong to a ton of groups on Yahoo! But the ones I’ve kept are extremely valuable. I look forward to the email updates every day.
10. Skype
Love Skype. I have a great long distance plan so I don’t use it much for voice. However, I’m connected to a few colleagues via Skype and we use the messaging feature a lot. It allows me to ask a quick question and if the person is available I get an instant response. It’s also helpful when working odd hours. I’d never phone a colleague who works at home at 10pm or on a Sunday morning, but I can use Skype to check if they’re available without being intrusive.
Andrea J. Stenberg
Any tools you use daily that I’ve overlooked? Leave a comment and tell us what tool you can’t live without.
Deadline for Switching Your Feedburner Feed is February 28th
Posted by: | CommentsIf you don’t log into Feedburner on a regular basis – and perhaps even if you do – you might not be aware that Google’s purchase of Feedburner has some impact on you.
As of Saturday February 28th, if you haven’t transferred your feed to the new Google account, you won’t be able to check your stats or manage your settings for your RSS feeds until you do transfer your account.
I don’t know why, but this change has not been well publicized. In fact, I only learned about it from Twitter. Someone I follow Tweeted about it, which caused me to dig a bit. I certainly never received a message from Feedburner/Google.
According to Google, you won’t lose your feed; subscribers will still receive your posts even if you don’t migrate your account before February 28th. You just won’t have access to your account.
Changing is easy. I logged into my Feedburner account today and there was a link that let me automatically transfer my account to my Google account. This is the same user and password you use for gmail, Google Alerts etc.
If you have subscribe button for your RSS and a feed counter on your blog, you’ll need to get new code once you’ve made the transfer. I have my subscribe links in a WordPress widget. I just copied the code for Google Feedburner and pasted it over the old code.
According to Google, your stats may take up to 72 hours to transfer. So if you transfer your account, don’t freak out if your stats suddenly go way down. They should be correct within a few days.
What does this mean for you?
Google’s Adsense for Feeds blog writes: “our highest priority is making sure your feed is served as fast as possible after you update your content, and is as close as technically possible to being available 100% of the time.”
But the real change is you can now have Adsense in your RSS feeds. For people using Adsense, I guess this is an important change because you won’t lose revenue because people are reading your posts from within a reader rather than going to your site.
Andrea J. Stenberg
