While doing some local search marketing for a client of mine last Friday I took a moment to watch the introductory video at the Google Local Business Center and I was impressed on how well it got the message across to viewers. As a result, I think it is a benefit to you to watch this if you are not already maximizing your Google Local account:
What would you say if I told you that there was a free and easy way to get your Website address—and even your business name—in front of hundreds of people?
If you are like most folks you would either say, “Great, sign me up!”, or “Okay, what’s the catch?”
Is word of mouth and referrals enough to grow your business, especially with the economy headed south? My experience working with hundreds of small business owners has shown that while you might get by for awhile solely on referrals and word of mouth, typically that’s not going to be enough over the long haul.
That means you’re going to have to do some marketing and/or advertising.
There is an interview on Open Forum in which Seth Godin interviews Richard Branson. The question is: Why is small business is better than big business?
Branson explains how he structures Virgin so that it is a series of small companies. People know each other by first name. People need to know each others strengths and weakness, and collaborate, and be responsible for the work they do. Branson believes this open small company results in a better service to clients.
Check out this article on Harvard Business:
There is nothing more important to a small or medium business owner than control. It is one of the main reasons why they are in business for themselves. As a result even the people that they hire like more control because they are often called upon to do more than their job description. The trouble is that it impossible to have control over everything. Of course, add in something as wide ranging and wide open as Internet marketing and the concept of control seems to be unattainable thus making Internet marketing more of a sore spot than a bright spot.
On Christmas Day in 1990, British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee sent a communication between an HTTP client and receiving server. The result? The Internet as we know it (the world wide web) was born.
Cue almost 30 years of innovation in the way we communicate and do business.
Yet this isn’t the full story.
The other night I was on 207, the evening news magazine here in Maine, talking about managing your–and your company’s–online reputation.
Like always, I ended up preparing about 20 minutes worth of material for a 5 minute segment; as I was doing my research I found a lot of stuff I wanted to share. Here are my notes:
What is online reputation?
As I’ve been talking with people about Fruitful’s mission to advance “conscious capitalism,” it’s become clear that social impact is often perceived as a nice-to-have rather than a critical component to business strategy. Here are 10 reasons why you may want to help your company rethink that notion.
This is a continuing series of questions that need to be asked before you engage in any kind of SEO strategies or services. We started in Part I with questions that need to be answered if you in-source your SEO campaigns, specifically addressed questions about doing it yourself. In Part II we continued the in-sourcing line of questioning but addressed issues of splitting the work between you and another party. In this installment we’ll expand the in-sourcing line of questioning further, looking at the questions regarding hiring a dedicated SEO to bring into your company.
Read the rest of this entry »
Have you been thinking about jumping on the online video bandwagon, but didn’t know where to start?
Maybe you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by the technology…
Or you’re just not sure online video is for you.
Well there’s no better time than the present to turn on your inner director, bust out a video recorder, and get your own videos our there.