business

Blogs are absolutely soaring in popularity these days. It seems like everyone from our airlines to our hairdressers are publishing something online. But why? What makes blogs such an important social media tool that Marriott and Coke have decided to adopt them? And more importantly, what separates a good blog from a not-so-good one?

The first thing every social media person should know before diving into the blogosphere is what a blog is and what a blog isn’t. Technically what a blog is is a website that people update semi-regularly with news, information, commentary, or just general day-to-day details. Blogs can either be professional or personal, and both types have their own unique set of guidelines. As far a business bloggers are concerned, a proper blog is—

A Whole Slew of Pages that Search Engines can Index
Any blog platform worth its salt will give each of your posts its own unique URL, which means that every entry you post will be a page that Google can index. If you’re a chef and restaurant proprietor, odds are that you didn’t devote a main page of your site to your love affair with Wusthof knives. However, if you write a post about why you love your Wusthof Le Cordon Bleu sandwich knife for slicing cucumbers, searchers could potentially find your restaurant by way of Googling  a combination of Wusthof + knife + cucumber + sandwich (trust me, stranger search combos have been Googled).

A Place Where You Answer Frequently Asked Questions
If you hear a question a lot, why not post a thorough answer on your blog? You should answer the customer queries immediately, of course, but you could also direct them to your blog if the answer is particularly long or complicated. And chances are, if many people are asking you, many more are asking Google, and wouldn’t it be nice if a few of those Googlers happened upon your company’s blog and used your services?

A Place Where You Demonstrate Your Expertise
When potential customers visit your website, they want to know that your company is the best one for the job. If your blog is full of well-written, informative posts, customers will know immediately that the people behind your business are capable and competent.  

Updated Regularly
I’m not saying you have to update your blog every day, but if there are month-long gaps between posts, old readers will lose interest and you won’t accumulate any news one. A loved blog is an effective blog, so try to keep your update schedule consistent.

Now for what a proper blog is not—

A Billboard
Entries about why your creamed corn/seared tuna/artichoke dip is the best and/or better than the creamed corn/seared tuna/artichoke dip down the street aren’t going to be all that useful. Sure, you can post an occasional announcement or promote a product, but by and large blogs aren’t really intended to be hubs for blatant advertising. If you want to post about the 22nd Annual Half-Price Oyster Week at your restaurant, consider doing so in an interesting way (perhaps you could post about how Oyster Week grew into the tradition that it is today or about which wines go best with fried and raw oysters).

A Will/Business Proposal/Other Official Document
A blog is a pretty informal thing, so have fun when you’re writing it! Use contractions and colloquialisms when they’re appropriate. Joke with the reader. Just remember that the voice behind your blog is the voice of your company, so keep it professional and keep it consistent with your company’s image.

Remember that above all else, good blogs are the ones that people find interesting and valuable. If people like what you’re saying, they’ll come back for more, and there’s a pretty good chance that if something you write is especially useful or fresh, it will get passed around, which could translate into more exposure for your business and potentially more money in your pocket.

A few months back we sung the praises of Google’s Local Business Center and encouraged all the business owners in the blogosphere to snap up their listings. Creating/claiming a business listing is really one of the simplest things in the world to do, and since Google features its listings front and center on search engine results page one, having a listing is also one of the best ways to reach customers. But if, for some reason, you have not already claimed your listing, you really ought to do so before your competitors can monopolize the top spots. Why? Because most customers figure they can get what they need from one of the first few listings they see, so they won’t look beyond the main pack. Your business listing must occupy one of the top spots if it’s going to be effective. Thankfully, the tricks to boosting your listing’s rank are just as straightforward as getting a listing in the first place:

• Put keywords in the title of your listing: From Google’s perspective, the title of your listing (the name searchers see on the search engine results page) is the most important place for keywords. Your title should indicate what type of business yours is and where it’s located because those terms will be the ones used most often in a search. For example, if you own an art supply store in Chicago called “Glitter ‘n Glue,” the title of your listing should be “Glitter ‘n Glue Chicago Art Supplies.”
• Make sure the business address you enter in your listing exactly matches the address on your website and in internet Yellow Pages: The more often Google sees one business address, the more likely it’ll be to recognize the legitimacy and popularity of that business.
• Submit a phone number with a local area code: Local phone numbers prove to Google that you are actually doing business in the area you claim you are. If you have an 800 number you can add it as an additional number, but it will do you no favors in the primary position.
• Include keywords in the description of your business: Think about some of the words people might use to search for your business and arrange them in a readable 200-word description. Glitter ‘n Glue might choose “canvas,” “crafts,” “paint brushes,” “ceramic,” and “scrapbooking,” but they would never arrange them thusly: “We sell canvas paint brushes for your ceramic and scrapbooking crafts.” Customers want to understand who you are, so make sure your description makes sense to them.
• Fill out as much information about your business as you possibly can: Google wants to have the most complete collection of Local Search business listings on the Web. If you scratch Google’s back by submitting an informative listing, Google will scratch yours by ranking you higher.
• Consider who will be searching for your business: Will your customers be local or out-of-towners? If your customer base is local, you should use colloquial keywords in your listing. For example, if you own an ice cream shop in Rhode Island, it’d be better to mention your 200 varieties of colorful “jimmies” rather than your 200 varieties of colorful “sprinkles.” If your customer base is from out of town (perhaps you own a hotel or a restaurant) identifying your location is especially important because potential customers who are planning a visit will use it as their search term 100% of the time.
• Get reviewed: Potential customers love reading what other people have to say about a business they’re considering using; Google loves listings that can boast a lot of customer reviews. Let your current customers know about your listing and encourage them to leave feedback there.

As always, too much of a good thing can be, well, bad. So don’t stuff keywords (it looks spam-y), don’t write 100 five-star reviews for your own business (it looks fake), and for heaven’s sake don’t create multiple listings (Google really hates that). If you play well and you play fairly, your listing will make you proud.

At i5 web works, we're all about tracking internet trends and keeping up with the newest and most efficient ways of being found online, so we just love The Pew Internet & American Life Project. If you're not familiar with it, The Pew Internet Project is one of seven projects that make up the Pew Research Center, which "provides information on issues, attitudes, and trends shaping America and the world." The Pew Internet Project is focused on the Internet's impact on our world; its research covers everything from emails and blogs to podcasts and social networking.

Recently, the project reported that 19% of internet users are sharing updates about themselves via Twitter or another online status-updater service. That's up a whopping 8% over what was reported in December of 2008 and April of this year, which indicates to us that social networking sites are quickly becoming some of the most popular new kids on the block.

So what does social networking have to do with internet marketing? Just about everything. You see, social networks like Twitter and Facebook aren't just for finding out what your fifth grade teacher had for breakfast anymore. With heavy hitters like Starbucks, McDonalds, and Apple joining the fray, social networking sites are turning into havens for online business marketing and promotion. And since 55% of the people who are updating their statuses on these sites are between the ages of 18 and 44, the companies that are marketing themselves on social networks are smack dab in the middle of their customer bases.

I5 web works burst on to the Facebook scene a few months ago, and we're so impressed with it that we encourage our clients to get their businesses out there as well. If you're not sure how to get into the social network arena, or if you're just too busy to maintain your account, let i5 web works do it for you!

I devoted the majority of my last post to proclaiming "keyword meta tags are not the answer to being found on Google! Invest your web promotion dollars and hours elsewhere!" I mentioned some other avenues for search engine promotion of course, but I'm betting you wouldn't mind a specific example of a worthwhile "elsewhere." Ladies and gentlemen, feast your browsers on Google's Local Business Center. This local business listing service is one of the easiest ways to promote your website to your web browsing customers.

Google a business, any business, followed by the city in which you'd like that business to be, and Google will return a list of relevant business listings, their phone numbers, URLs, and a map marked with where each one is located within the city. Click on the name of one of the businesses and you'll go directly to its website; click on the gray "more" link next to the phone number and you'll be whisked over to the company's own local business listing page. These pages are hosted by Google and are loaded with basic details about the company (business hours, contact info, acceptable payment methods, etc.) and with more advanced material too, like pictures, websites related to the company, and user-added content. The best features of the page are the user reviews--as long as they're mostly positive, customer endorsements could do more for your business than paid ads ever would.      

Getting one of these listings for your company is about as simple as flicking on the lights in your office or store each morning. The service is free through Google--all you have to do is sign up and supply some content to put you business on Google's radar. But as with everything on the web, there are tricks to keeping your business near the top of the listings, like adding fresh content, using the right keywords, promoting your listing page, and garnering customer reviews. I5 web works knows all these tricks and more. We can help you establish your local business listing and increase your chances of being found in relevant searches.