Which Hat Do You Wear When It Comes To SEO?

I often read many posts where so-called “SEO experts” frown upon Blackhat strategies but then openly promote link building. According to Google’s Terms of Service (TOS), organic links are links others point back to your website or blog without the need to for payment.

Is having an online business all about rankings, traffic and conversions or should search engine optimization essentially be considered a technique, instead of possibly a moral or ethical issue?

Common Excuses For Not Joining Twitter And How Those Reasons Are Simply Wrong!

Twitter is definitely one of most popular social media websites at the moment, however there’s still a lot of resistance among marketers and non-marketers as well to joining Twitter. Time and time again we hear the same 5 excuses for not joining Twitter. Enough with the excuses already, Twitter can actually be a worthwhile tool for your business and we’re going to explain why.

Top 5 Excuses for Not Joining Twitter:

1.

it’s a waste of time for businesses.

Most likely the first excuse every person initially gives is that it’s a waste of time or has no value for a business. Nonetheless, admitting so, many of us have felt that way at one time or another, however, personally we have both gotten media coverage by connecting with bloggers and journalists directly, and also generated significant traffic and leads by finding prospective clients and sharing valuable content that drives them to our website. Marketers already recognize the value of networking in generating business – efficiently, this is taking that networking online, and Twitter is one tool that makes networking easy, painless, and powerful that countless businesses already utilize.

2.

Why do I need to know this nonsense?

Indeed there is much “noise” on Twitter with people talking about what was eaten for supper the night before, adorable pets, or how concerned they may be about their favorite NFL team. Precisely what is great about Twitter is that you don’t have to follow (and thus get updates from) people whose tweets you don’t enjoy. You can follow someone, and then choose to unfollow if you don’t enjoy their tweets. And you don’t have to follow every “noisy” person who follows you. With that said, don’t dismiss this advice altogether. What is sometimes labelled “noise” is actually an integral part of engaging fully on Twitter, sharing a bit of you in order to connect and communicate with others. You don’t need to make it all about business – not surprisingly, the lines between personal and business networks are often blurry.

3.

My customers aren’t on Twitter. Or, my business is too small for Twitter.

Have you actually checked? Have you seriously checked if or who is already talking about you or your business on Twitter? If not, head over to Twitter’s search page once you finish reading this article, of course and search for your business name, or product name, or just relevant keywords for your business. See if and who is talking about you or your business. If you have a very niche market, perhaps a small audience of engineers or manufacturers, which is even more reason to connect directly with these people wherever they choose to spend time, which may be Twitter.

4.

It takes too much time.

Twitter can certainly be a drain on your resources to manage your social presence at times. You get lost in your twitterstream and before you know it the day could be over. But it doesn’t have to be like that. For example, RSS makes things a much easier to follow conversations that are directly relevant to you. Head back to Twitter’s search engine where you searched for your business or keywords. At the top right you’ll see a link to “Feed for this query”. Click on the link to subscribe and stay on top of your most important conversations. Beyond that, just check into your main twitterstream a couple times a day to see what’s going on, check your @Replies to see who’s directly replying to you, and the task is completed.

5.

I don’t want to give people an opportunity to say negative things about me and my company.

The truth is, people are already talking about you and/or your business and the question is whether or not you will listen and respond? You need to get into that conversation to address your customers’ feedback, even if it’s just to let them know you care. Listening and responding early can have quite a meaningful impact in managing reputation before it results in negative action.

Some networking is difficult to outsource but social media managers and internet marketing consultants can save you tons of time by setting up your Twitter account, “Following” other local business profiles, tweeting questions to your audience, and creating effective campaigns that build brand awareness along with instilling trust among loyal customers.

Kayol Hope has a diverse background and working knowledge specializing in the areas of IT Consulting, Programming, and Web Development. His blog and online community of social networking was established to house and showcase some of the best information technology & programming tutorials and articles around. His published tutorials not only produce great results and interfaces, but explain the techniques behind them in a friendly, approachable manner.

We hope our subscribers will learn a few tricks, techniques, and tips that they might not have seen before and help them maximize their creative potential!

How to Advertise on Facebook

Social media is all the rage these days and all businesses need to jump on this bandwagon in order to reach more people in their target audience. Local businesses are seeing the benefits of social media because it’s so easy to connect with people in a certain geographic location. Facebook also makes it very affordable for businesses to advertise their services or products to millions of users each day.

The easiest way to get started using Facebook is to create a Facebook fan page. This option is free and reserved specifically for local businesses, places, institutions, brands or products, public figures, entertainment or causes.

Keep in mind that this is different from a personal profile and their uses are very clear. A personal profile is intended for personal use – connect with old classmates, neighbors, family and friends. A fan page is more business-oriented and meant for building a community and engaging with customers. Businesses that start off with personal profiles run the risk of having their account suspended.

Once a fan page is created, the page administrators should optimize it properly with keywords, website URL, and a full description so viewers know exactly who this page belongs to. Well-optimized pages will also show up in online search results so choose keywords wisely. Local businesses should include keywords using their region, town, or county names.

The Next Step: Purchasing a Facebook Ad

The beauty of Facebook ads is the ability to target your chosen market with laser precision, thereby increasing your Return On Investment. This is done by choosing narrowed keywords and knowing exact demographic details of your ideal customer.

Even though the ad setup is extremely easy, be aware that Facebook does not charge a flat fee per ad. Before making this purchase, plan a strategy and a budget for your Facebook ads; otherwise you risk wasting money and having poor results.

Your first choice of ad is the Cost Per Click (CPC), which means you only pay for however many clicks your ad receives. So if your ad receives 1,000 impressions (or views) but only 10 people clicked on the ad, you only pay for the 10 clicks. The CPC ads are best used for advertising a product or driving traffic to an external website.

The second type of ad available is the Cost Per Thousand (CPM), which means you will pay a certain price for 1,000 impressions (or views). So instead of paying for clicks, you are paying for your ad to be viewed 1,000 times, regardless of whether people click on it or not. This type of ad is best used to advertise Facebook fan pages where you want to collect as many “Likes” as possible.

In both of these ad examples, the prices of the ads are based on how much you are willing to bid for certain keywords. Facebook states that the minimum bid is $.01 but in reality you will need to set your bids higher.

You can set a daily limit as well as an individual limit per keyword but in either case it is worthwhile to start off slowly and measure how quickly your limits are being used up compared with what results you are getting.

If you don’t have time to setup a fan page or ad campaign and these tasks have fallen to the bottom of your long to do list, consider hiring an internet marketing consultant to do the job for you. Delegating this type of work to an expert will save you hours of frustration, allowing you to better serve your customers and clients. You will still be involved in the strategics but internet marketing consultants know how to complete these tasks quickly and efficiently.

Testing, Tracking & Tweaking Facebook Ads

To run a successful advertising campaign, testing and tracking the results of your ads is imperative. Only after analyzing the results will you know if a campaign was successful and worth the cost.

Every campaign is different and requires a different strategy. Businesses that sell physical or digital products can generally appeal to the masses who shop online while brick and mortar businesses such as doctors, real estate agents and attorneys benefit greatly from a localized campaign.

Facebook ads are a great investment for both wide and local marketing campaigns because the ads can be highly targeted to your audience. With so many millions of people online, knowing the keywords used to find your products or business is important. For those running a local campaign, including your city, town, or state name along with your prime keywords can help your neighbors find you more easily.

To start your Facebook ad campaign, choose your keywords and the demographics you want to target. Write an interesting title and description for your ad and use some keywords in both of those spots. Keep in mind, character counts are limited so be creative but choose your words wisely.

After you set the ad budget and publish your ad, check your stats every week in your account, paying close attention to the click through rate (CTR). You will see the number of impressions for your ad as well as the CTR. This is your first indicator of whether people are convinced by your ad copy to click.

The next statistic to watch is what people do after clicking the ad. If they are directed to your fan page, do they all click the “Like” button? Do they sign up for your email list? Do they call your local office? Indicate on your data sheets what the sole purpose of the ad was so you can properly identify if that result occurred after the click through.

Watch your ads for a few weeks and then decide if these are the numbers you want. If you think they can be improved, try changing the headline or call to action in your ad. Try adding more local keywords or even changing the image for the ad. Go slowly and make just one of these changes to each ad and then track the same stats for a few more weeks.

Keep in mind that marketing and advertising plans are meant to be fluid and able to change with the times. A hometown baker who started off with a small, local marketing plan to bring foot traffic into his shop can eventually expand his campaign to include a different part of the state, a different part of the country or to a worldwide audience by adding shipping options to his business.

Likewise, a worldwide brand might focus their ads more tightly to reach a brand new demographic or those in a different part of the world. As with any kind of marketing or advertising plan, the key to success is knowing what tactics are working and how to best improve that conversion rIf you need help keeping up to date with the newest online marketing strategies, consider hiring an internet marketing consultant. Just as you would hire an expert plumber to fix a leaky faucet, hiring an expert online marketer to handle your campaigns and to share the latest strategies is economical and will save you hours of time trying to sort it out by yourself.

Tips for Creating a Compelling Facebook Ad

Writing doesn’t come easily for everyone. Some people are gifted and can sit down at their computer and punch out hundreds of words or multiple articles. Others break into a cold sweat at the idea of writing even a short blog post.

If you stress out over writing, you’ll surprise yourself with how easy it is to write a Facebook ad! Writing Facebook ads is very different than copy-writing a whole sales page, primarily because with Facebook ads the number of characters is limited, much like Twitter.

Obviously, the purpose of using Facebook ads is to promote your product, services, or other type of local business by directing the fans to your Facebook fan page, to your company’s website, or to a sales page. Since the number of characters is limited in your ads, you need to choose your words carefully so they appeal to each person who sees it and compels them to click through.

Step 1: Do Keyword Research

Keywords are words or phrases the people in your target market use in their web searches to find the information or products you offer. Knowing these specific words and using them in your ads will help attract your ideal client to your ad.

Make a list of all these keywords and remember to include your local keyword phrases, such as the name of your town, county, or state. Do some other demographic research using Quantcast for more keyword ideas.

Step 2: Choose An Audience

When you start the process of creating a Facebook ad, there’s a whole section where you choose exactly what type of audience you want viewing your ad. These qualities are based on gender, location, interest, or age and will also give you some insight about new keywords or phrases to use.

Step 3: Create a Title

You’re limited to 25 characters in the title but choose strong words that your audience will relate to. Appeal to their emotions.

Step 4: Write the Ad Body

This section is limited to 130 characters and it’s important to personalize your ad in this section. Write as if you are talking to your best friend; convince them why they must click on your ad.

Sometimes people need to be told exactly what to do next so include a clear call to action. Phrases such as “Sign Me Up” or “Learn More” might just help your conversion rates.

Step 5: Upload a Photo

Whether it’s a photo of yourself, company logo, or product image, using a photo will help draw the viewers’ eye to your ad. Be sure to re-size your photo to the allowed 110 px by 80 px so it doesn’t get distorted.

Final Tips

Keep in mind, whatever you promise to deliver in the body of your ad should be readily available or visible when the viewer lands on your website. Frustrated buyers will click away in a hurry so make the purchasing experience as easy as possible.

If you’re touting a brand new eBook make sure the eBook is front and center on the landing page. Don’t make your visitors go searching for the promised item because chances are high they will just click away to a competitor’s site.

Another wonderful feature of using Facebook ads is the testing feature. You can run up to 4 ads at a time, each with a different budget setup, and this allows you to track the number of clicks and purchases. Analyzing this data will tell you which title and body copy gets the best response.

Of course, if you have put off starting a Facebook ad campaign because it all seems too confusing or daunting, hiring an internet marketing consultant to create and manage the campaign is an option. Internet Marketer consultants are experts with keyword research and how best to reach your audience online; and they can save you many hours of frustration if you’re not a do it yourself type of person.

Who can benefit from Local Marketing Campaigns?

If you’re in business then you can benefit from a local marketing campaign. How’s that for an easy answer?

Online marketing campaigns are often mistaken as something that’s saved for internet marketers or those who run virtual businesses from home. If you don’t have a brick and mortar office or shop, then there’s no need to market online, right?

WRONG!

Think about all the small businesses in your town, from the local pizza place to the corner gas station. Preschools, garden shops, grocery stores, restaurants, dance studios, daycare centers, martial arts studios and any other business that has a physical location need to spread the word about where they are located and using Facebook ads is the easiest way to accomplish this feat.

Generally, these small businesses aim to be well-known in their hometowns and then spread that brand recognition to neighboring towns. Facebook ads allow you to choose specific keyword phrases so using your hometown name as a keyword will allow people in your town to see your ad on their Facebook newsfeeds.

Internet marketers, graphic designers, social media managers, writers, and virtual assistants are just a few examples of business owners who can run their entire business virtually. Many have clients in different parts of the country or even on other continents.

These business owners can also benefit from local marketing campaigns, especially if they want to create a web directory of local businesses for their town, teach a local class, want to start public speaking or if they want to sell their social media and search engine optimization services to local businesses. Managing the local Facebook campaigns of some hometown clients is a valuable skill to add to a portfolio.

Many experts believe that smaller brands (aka smaller businesses) have more success connecting with and engaging their followers on Facebook because of their size. People feel comfortable interacting with a small business owner who is approachable and willing to answer questions rather than a multi-million dollar corporation who seems to just want to sell stuff.

Focusing on a local ad campaign also allows the business owner to tell stories, to share their experiences of living in their town, with their fellow community members. They can reminisce about attending the local high school 20 years ago or visiting the annual fair that arrived every Memorial Day during their childhood years. Telling heartfelt stories is just another way business owners can connect emotionally with their target market.

Of course, the idea of creating a local marketing campaign or even just setting up a Facebook fan page might seem daunting or impossible. Rather than doing all this work yourself, you can delegate this task to an employee, hire an internet marketing consultant, or talk to your advertising agency about this new marketing plan.

Even though it’s a good idea to understand how Facebook fan pages and ads work and the strategy for using each one, hiring specialists who are highly trained in this area is a smart and cost-effective idea. They can create a whole campaign and implement it along with the most up-to-date strategies while you continue serving your customers and clients.

Why Use Facebook for Local Marketing?

A new buzzword lately is the term “local marketing” but many people disagree about what that term actually means, which leads to confusion about how to integrate local marketing campaigns into a broad business marketing plan.

Local marketing generally means the strategy and actions used to communicate a message to your target market based on localized differences. Other business owners consider local marketing as focusing on finding their target market close to home and then slowly branching out to neighboring communities.

The ultimate goal of local marketing is to obtain a favorable result, such as making a purchase or becoming a client, as a result of more targeted communication.

Using Facebook ads as a local marketing tool might seem counter-intuitive given the worldwide appeal of Facebook and the hundreds of millions of users who are online every day. The beauty of Facebook ads, however, is the ability to narrowly define your target market so only those people who fall into those set demographics will see your ad.

As an example, let’s say a new dentist is opening an office in a small town in Connecticut. In addition to having a grand opening celebration and publishing a press release, this dentist can use Facebook ads to specifically target those who live within a certain radius of this small Connecticut town. Now when those residents log in to Facebook, they will see the dentist’s ad and hopefully will click on it to obtain more information.

In a different example, a large, local retail store wants to build another store in a different state. They don’t want customers to forget about the headquarters, so they place specific Facebook ads for people in that location. But they can also place other Facebook ads with different local keywords to attract customers in their new location.

Even worldwide companies can practice local marketing. Advertising to customers in North America is different than attracting customers in Europe or Asia. For example, McDonald’s is recognized around the world and they even have different products which appeal to their customers’ likes in different parts of the world.

On this level, local marketing means customizing their message to a specific country and their regional products can be advertised only to those markets. They would use Facebook ads in exactly the same way as the small town dentist in the first example even though the scope and reach of each business is vastly different.

Before embarking on a local marketing Facebook campaign, do some simple research. Identify your target market, including age, gender, income level, and geographic location. Make a list of keywords this market uses to find the information or products you sell. Make sure you supply a solution to whatever problem plagues your market. Then set a budget for your ads and write some creative copy.

Or you can hire an internet marketing consultant to take care of all the research and details of your Facebook ad campaign. A consultant can also help you analyze the data from the campaign and integrate other forms of online marketing.

Also remember to keep engaging your target market on Facebook by “Liking” other pages in your community, offering your expertise when appropriate on other people’s comments, and asking questions. If customers see that a real person exists behind a company name and logo, they will be more open to making a purchase.

Social Media Marketing Services Website Temporarily Suspended

Recently we have received notification that our domain has been temporarily suspended by our webhosting provider for our website, http://kayolhope.co.nf due to going over our allotted traffic. As many of our regular readers have been already made aware, we have expanded our range of services in regards to social media and seo services we offer.

Luckily we never put all our eggs in one basket and ask visitors that are unable to access those services to please contact us through our tumblr blog http://kayolhope.com while we work with our hosting provider to upgrade and restore access. We also have a portfolio setup under http://kayolhope.com/freelance

Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter.