Blog

Workshop on SEO and Facebook for Business – Atlanta

Posted by admin on Jan 18, 2012 in Trends | 0 comments

New Workshop begins on January 31st at 10:00 AM. We will have two workshops.

First Workshop will be:  How to Market your Website on a Budget using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Second Workshop will be: Marketing your Business on Facebook Business Page. Facebook has changed…..Everything.  1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Cost for each Workshop is $25.00 a person. OR $45.00 for both Workshops.  We break an hour for Lunch.

This research-based social media workshop is designed to help key employees, and business owners, to leverage online social networking for new revenue generation, customer retention, employee education, and expansion into new markets. Individuals will learn how social media increases brand awareness, improves customer relationships, and complements PR and marketing efforts. Workshop attendees will come away with a deeper understanding of social media strategy, know the best tools for online networking, and learn how best to implement social media tactics into a marketing mix. This session will also provide research results on what the most successful socially networked organizations have in common. One more thing: Bring your laptop for hands on demonstration. You may even have homework

In this Workshop, you will learn how to market your website on a budget using SEO, and Marketing your business page on Facebook. 

OPTIONAL SERVICES

Update Performance Measuring Tools
In addition to training, we can partner with youto incorporate the skills learned in training with performance measurement tools such as monitoring and feedback forms. This will provide you with a mechanism to capitalize on your investment in the training while continuing to drive performance improvement outside the classroom.

Monthly Consulting Options
Designed to help you with the continual changes in social networking platforms and keep your tools and skills up to date.

To Register for the Atlanta workshop please select which workshop you want to attend. Each workshop is $25.00 per person. To attend both workshops get a discount and attend for $45.00.  It will be held at 659 Auburn Ave. NE #205 Atlanta, GA 30312. Limited seating, so please hurry and register. The workshop will held on January 31 , 2012 from 10:00 am -3:00 pm.

Both Workshops – (Discounted Price)

Workshop One – Learning SEO on a Budget

Workshop Two – Learn how to use Facebook for Business
For more information on where the Workshop is going to take place, please visit www.rentmystudioatl.com Great place to have a workshop.

5 Reasons No One’s Following You On Twitter

Posted by admin on Nov 17, 2011 in Trends | 0 comments

I get asked a lot about how to attract Twitter followers and why should I even care? First, if you are trying to penetrate the internet market, you should give it some hard thought to using Twitter. I mean, there are only like 300 million people using it. I’m pretty sure, some where out there, your potential customer is out there using Twitter.

So now what? I have my Twitter account. How the hec to I get people to follow me.  The answer is easy. You simply ask them to. So now that I have just told you how to get them. Here is why they may not follow. 5 reasons no one is following you on Twitter.

1. Your profile info isn’t complete.

If I don’t know have a bio which explains who you are and what you do, I won’t follow you.  I’m also much more likely to follow people who have a link to some sort of website, blog or – at the very least – a LinkedIn profile.

2. You’ve only tweeted one or two times…EVER

How will I know whether or not I should follow you unless I know what kind of stuff you tweet about? Some one that hardly tweets, is hardly someone I want to follow. I mean, isn’t that the point? I want to engage in what you have to say, share, link to, blog, opinion, and my favorite: witty sarcasm.

3. No photo! Seriously, only spammers and newbies leave their Twitter avatar as the generic image.

There’s an interesting graph on Fresh Networks showing that users with a photo have around 10 times as many followers as those without. In my personal opinion (which is in no way based on fact), photos should be photos of YOU. Not of your dog, or a cartoon image of yourself.  If you put a logo up, great! Just make sure it’s uniform and can be found on your website.

4. An inappropriate follower ratio.

If you follow hundreds of people at once without having any followers yourself, you start to look like a spammer. First, follow a few people you know personally and who will most likely follow you back. That way you can build up a little following so it doesn’t look like you’re a TOTAL newbie

Also, be sincere at who you try and follow first. Marketing is all about you, and your product. On Twitter, more often than not, you are the product. So at first, follow people that you have an interest in, and in return, they will have an interest in you.

5. Your bio says absolutely nothing useful.

I know I mentioned an incomplete profile, but I wanted to put this separate in case you added a famous quote or, perhaps, “Total Bears Fan” to your bio. Irrelevant facts can be witty when called for, but you’ve got 160 characters.  Use it well.

Hope this gives you some basics on Twitter. Now tweet my friends, tweet like the wind.

Social Networking Workshop – Atlanta

Posted by admin on Oct 26, 2011 in Trends | 0 comments

New Workshop begins on January 31st at 10:00 AM. We will have two workshops.

First Workshop will be:  How to Market your Website on a Budget using SEO (Search Engine Optimization) 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Second Workshop will be: Marketing your Business on Facebook Business Page. Facebook has changed…..Everything.  1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Cost for each Workshop is $25.00 a person. OR $45.00 for both Workshops.  We break an hour for Lunch.

This research-based social media workshop is designed to help key employees, and business owners, to leverage online social networking for new revenue generation, customer retention, employee education, and expansion into new markets. Individuals will learn how social media increases brand awareness, improves customer relationships, and complements PR and marketing efforts. Workshop attendees will come away with a deeper understanding of social media strategy, know the best tools for online networking, and learn how best to implement social media tactics into a marketing mix. This session will also provide research results on what the most successful socially networked organizations have in common. One more thing: Bring your laptop for hands on demonstration. You may even have homework

In this Workshop, you will learn how to market your website on a budget using SEO, and Marketing your business page on Facebook. 

OPTIONAL SERVICES

Update Performance Measuring Tools
In addition to training, we can partner with youto incorporate the skills learned in training with performance measurement tools such as monitoring and feedback forms. This will provide you with a mechanism to capitalize on your investment in the training while continuing to drive performance improvement outside the classroom.

Monthly Consulting Options
Designed to help you with the continual changes in social networking platforms and keep your tools and skills up to date.

To Register for the Atlanta workshop please select which workshop you want to attend. Each workshop is $25.00 per person. To attend both workshops get a discount and attend for $45.00.  It will be held at 659 Auburn Ave. NE #205 Atlanta, GA 30312. Limited seating, so please hurry and register. The workshop will held on January 31 , 2012 from 10:00 am -3:00 pm.

Both Workshops – (Discounted Price)

Workshop One – Learning SEO on a Budget

Workshop Two – Learn how to use Facebook for Business

For more information on where the Workshop is going to take place, please visit www.rentmystudioatl.com Great place to have a workshop.

Marketing Tips for Your Small Business Digital Footprint

Posted by admin on Oct 21, 2011 in Trends | 0 comments

One of the most important elements for an effective online marketing strategy is an optimized website. It needs to be structured correctly so that the search engines and humans can easily find it. Make sure your website navigation makes sense where people can easily find what they’re looking for on your site. Create compelling content that attracts and pleases your visitors. Keyword research on the types of content your target market is looking for and then creating and uploading good content to your site that satisfies their search is a must! Many small business owners have no idea what types of content to create for their website.

The results of keyword research can often be used as content ideas. For example, my client does orthopedic massage which is actually the technical term for “massage for injuries”. When we finally drilled down to this keyword search result, we ended up with content ideas such as “massage for neck pain”, “back pain relief” and “carpal tunnel massage”. My client saw how easy it was for her to create content that would answer all these keyword searches and position her service as a solution to their problem.

Once your website is ready, then you need to promote using the various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and social bookmarking sites like digg and del.ici.ous.com. Post good content to your fan page regularly so that people will be engaged with your shop’s events and offerings. Adding Twitter to the mix is a good idea and make sure you’re following people who are part of your industry. You should also have some mechanism to gather names for a list building campaign. You can do this at your store by offering your customers freebies or discounts if they sign up. Also, offer those freebies or discounts to your online customers as well to get their names and email addresses. Email marketing is an important part of your online promotion strategy. You should establish a regular schedule( monthly is a good start) where you send out useful and valuable content in the form of a newsletter to your list as well as incentives to get them to come back to your site. You don’t have to make this a long newsletter. Simply tell them what’s new and provide a link back to your site to read more about it. Did you notice that, other than creating a website, all these strategies are free?

You don’t need to spend money on banners or other online advertising to have an effective online strategy. You will want to invest money in a paid advertising campaign eventually but establish all these other elements first.

Quick Marketing Tips for Twitter

Posted by admin on Oct 21, 2011 in Trends | 0 comments

One of the quickest growing applications available on the web is Twitter. Yes, the Internet highway is jammed with traffic on their way to visit this friendly neighborhood. Twitter is not just another fad, and that means as a marketer, this is a great opportunity to gain the edge in a new market.

Your target market is most likely using Twitter as well. And Twitter can be a highly effective aid to your marketing program, too, when you learn how to make use of its capabilities to guide some of that crowd your way. But in order to succeed you have to take notice of a few major focuses. Also, you need a firm plan that you can follow step by step.

Twitter marketing like any other form of marketing depends on your approach and your speed of execution. Throughout this article, we’ll outline a couple of methods for utilizing Twitter to further enhance your marketing thus driving more traffic to your site. The first thing you want to focus on if you’ve chosen to market on Twitter is growing your base of followers. Even though this will happen any way, it’s important to keep in mind how you go about it. Everyone on Twitter has follows who will be kept up to date on everything that person posts, or “tweets”. Twitter users post to keep their followers updated on news, opinion or just things that are happening in their own life at the moment. As an online marketer your goals needs to be adding followers to the list who are watching your updates and are quite active on their own. But just taking any random follower is not always going to be helpful. Your goal should be to add followers who are interested in your niche so you’ll have a good return for all your efforts. Besides all this, you will want to be promoting your activities on Twitter as much as you can. If you are a business entity or professional, it’s especially important to inform the people who are following you about what’s going on. It’s all about educating people on how they can follow you on Twitter and stay updated about your activity. You can’t expect everyone to be perfectly versed in keeping up with the process. When using Twitter as an internet marketing tool it is important to keep expanding your network of followers and contacts.

You’ll want to make as many professional connections through Twitter as you can. You want to keep people coming back. Through doing so, you can allow them to learn just how many benefits they can gain through using Twitter. They will learn that it is even capable of establishing a brand name. The more Twitterers you add to your network, the better things will work out for you. One of the reasons for the explosion of Twitter marketing is that it sounds complex but is actually simple. But still, a large number of people who want to use Twitter for marketing keep struggling to find new ways to gain some good, targeted following. Twitter can be an excellent way to bring traffic to your website as well as raising your profile with the search engines, but you must be willing to take the time to build your Twitter strategy.

Remember to look to others if you are having trouble; many have been in your shoes and are out there to help, even if it’s just by example. While paying attention to others successes it is like that you will find the technique that is a winner for you.

What the hec are QR Codes?

Posted by admin on Oct 21, 2011 in Trends | 0 comments

As Smart Phones and Smart Phone Apps increase in usage we’re seeing a lot more interest in how to use QR codes (also known as 2D barcodes or mobile tagging) as a part of the marketing mix. Late last year Nielsen predicted that smart phones will be the dominant device by the end of 2011, so there’s certainly a reason to be taking this area more seriously.
What are QR codes?
Firstly, in case you’re not 100% clear on what QR codes are – QR – ‘Quick Response‘, originally invented in Japan for tracking components in factories. In short, they offer a method of effectively adding web based content, a URL really, to real-world messages, objects or locations. So they’re great for integrated campaigns to offer a digital offer and drive engagement with a brand, ultimately leading to interactions on a website, social site through the mobile. The novelty is the way your phone scans and “clicks” to access the content, so they’re inherently tied to smart phone usage. Any user with a smartphone will need to do a one-time download a free application which makes use of the phone’s camera, but other than that you’re away. Note that there are several variations of code too, so choose a widely adopted one like Jumpscan, EZ code (big in the US) or the original QR Code by Denso in Japan. Different code types require a different reader.
Marketing applications of QR codes
The applications for marketing are quite vast and pretty obvious when you think about it – you can even create your own QR codes easily enough, as explained by this this post last year on Mashable. So to get started, we suggest asking the right questions as for any campaign rather than jumping onto QR for the sake of it:
Who are the audience – are they even using smart phones that way, what’s missing that QR codes could add?
Amongst the many touch-points the consumer has with your brand – which could favour QR codes, why and any obvious quick wins to test that?
What are your campaign goals – Don’t forget the real functional uses of QR codes, post-purchase or on the product itself – might that be the best place to test?
What are they going to do at the end of the QR code – shiny technologies don’t mask awful content – please remember to make sure that the page you take the user too works well on a smart phone – obvious, but…!
How powerful is your offer – Can you provide enough reward for using – something really helpful, valuable or rewarding?
Is the offer relevant to the audience and related to the service or product your promoting – the example above doesn’t get this right.
Remember to assist users with what to do, QR codes or 2D barcodes are still new enough that people will likely need a little direction as well as a good enough reason to give it a try.
Our top 7 applications for QR codes

There many decent blog posts (just Google “QR code examples”) that illustrate a lot of uses of codes and will give you to food for thought, some are not so creative, but sometimes the simple functional campaigns are most effective – think QR codes on business cards, sorry that’s really mundane! Here’s a list of the top applications that I feel have the best combination of practicality, cost and impact:
Maps and signage – “point and find” or “you are here” – this can work well at events, theme parks are large complexes – where someone might need specific guidance to get to something, quickly. You can even create forms of engagement for virtual treasure hunts, or “find your nearest”
Coupons and special deals – obvious and likely to become the most exploited, allow users to redeem offers in specific locations, ideally with a time limited offer so they act now
In-store drive to web – when retail experiences can be so bland, imagine bringing content into that space that offers a richer experience (not a hard sell), check out the PUMA case study at the foot of this post for a great example of this one
How-to advice – Rich advice based content in the form of “How to” video or maybe audio – great for DIY or interior design, even recipes and cooking advice, maybe a bottle of wine at a restaurant
After sales care – ever struggled to assemble flat packed furniture or wondered where the specific help area is for the product you have, maybe you just want to add to the “new purchase” experience by having a value-add waiting online for that new consumer or use it for activating a guarantee with data capture.
Direct response mechanic on any advertising (press, TV, outdoor media, direct mail or brochures) – do ensure the landing page appreciates where I’ve come from, that’s a wasted opportunity and can be limiting for the user
E-ticketing – with the ease of creating QR codes, you can issue e-tickets easily enough and have that scanned from your phone to enable access
The common theme here is that QR codes make rich and relevant interactions possible, and they do it, well, quickly! You (the brand) get the opportunity to add value to the consumer or prospective consumer, they’re not only about exploiting the opportunity of a “great offer” that you might want to make Could be worth trailing something soon since the time maybe now for the best combination of novelty factor and consumer awareness as to what they are

Social Networking Sites can Help You?

Posted by admin on Oct 21, 2011 in Trends | 0 comments

Social networking is going corporate. The popular technology used by millions of people to share ideas and photos on MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn and others is catching on at companies to improve productivity and communication among workers.