Social Media Marketing Done The Right Way

For the first 10 years of its commercial existence, the Internet offered the greatest opportunity for businesses or firms with national or international markets; much has changed in the last several years.

First, the major search engines – Google, Yahoo, and Bing (previously known as MSN) – have increased their emphasis on “local search�; they recognize the market potential for them and their locally-based customers in this up-to-now untapped market category. They have developed a number of tools and applications which focus solely on local search.

Next, the rapid change in traditional local advertising media (newspapers, yellow pages, television, etc.) have opened up online opportunities for those businesses that “get it.�

One of the most important factors in this rapid change has been the inability of most traditional “offline� media to effectively measure the results for its advertising clients; the old days of “branding� a company’s name, especially for smaller, local businesses and firms, are over. In today’s market, effective business people can’t spend money on advertising and marketing hoping that it will work.

The Internet gives you the ability to measure results almost in real time and with a great level of detail. It is thus possible to determine with accuracy the return on investment of almost every type of online marketing or advertising.

Last, the explosion in new technologies, specifically cellular phones and their accompanying “mobile applications�, have made it almost essential that local businesses be found on the Internet – if they want to stay in business.

An undercurrent to all of this is the economic situation (worldwide) at the start of a new decade. We counsel all of our clients that their #1 objective is to acquire a new customer or client as quickly and effectively as possible. For your local business, using and managing local search goes a long way towards making this happen.

With this as background, a “setting of the stage� so to speak, we will cover the seven steps you need to take to give yourself a competitive advantage with “New Media.� And understand that “New Media� doesn’t mean just having a website. Your website first has to be designed to attract new prospects and get them to interact with you. Then, your site has to be found locally in Google and the other search engines. The advent of several new technologies and techniques makes this easier than in the past, but you want to ensure you do things just right. This combination is what we mean by “New Media.�

At its core is social media marketing, but it is so much more effective when it is used with just the right combination of other time-tested techniques of SEO (search engine optimization).

About The Author George L Jackson is passionate about sharing with local businesses the success he has had with Internet Marketing. In these challenging times, he helps them boost their bottom lines, often dramatically, through proprietary methods of social media marketing.