February 6, 2012

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Changes in Facebook and video walkthrough of the changes

September 23, 2011 By Peter DeMott 1 Comment

There are lots of discussions right now about the changes in Facebook that were just rolled out. I thought it would be a good time to discuss some things that you should consider related to your business. At the end of this post is a link to INVOLVER’s blog about the roll out that is under way right now along with a video they have put together to talk more about the changes.

But, first, are you putting all your internet marketing efforts into something you have no controls over?

If you think that Facebook is a great social internet networking tool for your business, I think that is great. But, here is the big rub. You have no control over changes that may occur from one day to the next which may totally change the value of the work that you have put into Facebook for your business. It is not YOUR platform. It belongs to Facebook and as you can see, right now, they are making changes that you may or may not like. Something that you have been doing up to now that may have been effective for building your business may be changed tomorrow in a way that suddenly makes all that effort and time flush down the toilet.

Alternatively, if you have a self hosted WordPress blog and web site, you can make changes, add content, and build a reputation that bring people to your site…. and it is YOURS. The changes and the content that you add build SEO (organic search results through SEO) over time. Along with that, your information here can be automatically fed into your Twitter feed, and your Facebook profile and Facebook Page. If one of those is suddenly changed (remember, since you do not own them, they could change completely overnight) to where it is no longer effective to bring in new clients and customers, you have still built something that will continue to grow your business.

Here are the changes that are rolling out right now – click on link or picture

http://blog.involver.com/2011/09/22/facebook-releases-new-timeline-profile-at-f8/

timeline Facebook Changes in Facebook and video walkthrough of the changes

 

Mashable also has a presentation of the changes that are rolling out – click link below

http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebook-changes-roundup/

Fast Company has a quick review of how it might effect businesses

http://www.fastcompany.com/1782173/what-the-new-facebook-changes-mean-for-businesses

 

 

Peter DeMott • REACH Magazine, Dayton’s favorite coupon magazine • pdemott@reachusa.com • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222

 

Filed Under Growing your business, SEO Search Engine Optimization, Social Media for Business Tagged With Facebook marketing, Facebook marketing for businesses, Grow your business, Internet marketing, Networking, SEO for small businesses, Social Media, Social Networking for Business, Tools for business, web site marketing

Where can I learn about blogging and effective social media marketing?

August 31, 2011 By Peter DeMott Leave a Comment

Every week, some times a couple times each week I receive an email delivery of Copy blogger. This blog is packed with great and timely information.

This week’s post can help you be a better social media marketer:

The 7 Essential Elements of Effective Scoial Meia Marketing

I would encourage you to sign up for this blog either in a READER or by adding your email to his subscription form.

Peter DeMott • REACH Magazine in Dayton, Ohio • pdemott@reachusa.com • 937-478-6222

Filed Under SEO Search Engine Optimization, Social Media for Business Tagged With Grow your business, SEO for small businesses, Social Media

5 Tips for a Successful Campaign: QR Code Marketing in Dayton Ohio

August 20, 2011 By Peter DeMott Leave a Comment

This is a short quick article about QR Code Marketing that I found on Mashable. Just click on the link below:

 

QR Code Marketing: 5 Tips for a Successful Campign by Laura Marriott

 

One bad example on TV

One of my networking friends told me about a TV commercial that had a QR code as part of the commercial. The problem was that you would have to be a quick draw with your phone and be holding your phone ready focused on the screen as the QR code was only on screen for 5-6 seconds. Obviously if your phone was lying on the table in front of you you would not have time to pick it up, find the QR code scanning APP and scan the code (scanning itself usually takes 5-10 seconds) and see what was on the code. In all likelihood it would take the entire 5-6 seconds just to pick up your phone. This is not an example of an effective QR code implementation in marketing.

Local Examples of good implementations

I liked what she had to say about putting the QR Code everywhere. When I stopped by Michael’s Salon at Cross Pointe Centre the other day there were QR codes on their windows, near some displays, and on their business cards. Of course REACH Magazine is also a prime place to put well thought out QR Code marketing. In the upcoming September 2011 REACH Magazine here in Dayton, Ohio, check out several ads with QR Codes. Check out the one on Granite Transformations and also Papa Johns Pizza to see effective buy completely different usage of the QR Code. Also check out American Carpet Masters.

QR Code ideas for the Holidays

QR Codes would be perfect in our Holiday Gift Guide in the December issue of REACH magazine. Logo, web site, QR Code linked to a video clip walk through of a small boutique gift shop would work great. Or perhaps link it to your TV commercial online or a mobile friendly page with additional photographs of some popular products. Of course QR code usage is growing, but it is still small here in Dayton, Ohio. But now is the time to be experimenting and perfecting your usage. Just like the other things on the internet, early adopters can have the advantage when things get going.

Who scans QR Codes?

By Christmas 2011 more than 50% of all cell phones in use will be smart phones. Smart phone usage by young adults is very high and younger kids hardly know what the yellow pages are. They can search and research on the web as they walk into Starbuck’s and show the cashier their Starbuck’s membership on the screen of their cell phone, then sign in at Foursquare and tell all their friends where they are after posting to Facebook.

Embrace Technology and stay current as a business owner

Over a year ago I decided that I would “embrace technology” to be able to help my advertising clients to stay current. I participate in Dayton’s NEW MEDIA group which has a LinkedIn group and meets with speakers on timely topics each month. I now have people I recommend for social media consultations and web sites. My clients don’t just learn about REACH Magazine, Dayton’s favorite coupon magazine, but they learn about how everything can work together to help them get seen here in the Dayton market. If a small business in Dayton does not have a web presence, they are far behind and need to catch up. I can help with that.

Peter DeMott • peter@reachusa.com • 937-478-6222 • REACH Magazine Dayton

Filed Under Advertising in Dayton, Growing your business, SEO Search Engine Optimization, Social Media for Business, The power of the mailbox Tagged With Advertising in Dayton, Business growth, Dayton, Dayton's favorite coupon magazine, Direct mail, Direct mail advertising, DIY Marketing ideas, Facebook, Facebook marketing, Facebook marketing for businesses, Grow your business, Internet marketing, REACH Magazine, SEO for small businesses, web site marketing

Internet marketing for smart people by Copyblogger

May 24, 2011 By Peter DeMott Leave a Comment

cb podcast cover Internet marketing for smart people by Copyblogger

You can never learn too much about marketing your business:

I have been subscribed to Copyblogger from their website/blog for several months and I have been getting some great information from them. Here is an example of a recent post from Copyblogger:

5 Landing Page Mistakes that Crush Conversion Rates

Podcasts for easy and convenient learning that can help your business:

In addition they recently started a podcast called Internet Marketing for Smart People

I find podcasts a great way to continue learning as I make my way to various meetings and appointments. I can continue my lifelong learning on my way to and from work as well.

Here is a link to Internet Marketing for Smart People on iTunes where you can get a free subscription. Each time a new episode is uploaded you can transfer it to your iPhone or other Mp3 divice automatically.

Link to iTunes Podcast page, click here

Podcast Description: You don’t have to be a genius to master Internet marketing. But you’re not dumb enough to fall for that “get rich quick” hype, either. Internet Marketing for Smart People tells you the straight story about marketing online. The show is hosted by Robert Bruce, and features serial online entrepreneur and Copyblogger Media CEO Brian Clark, Copyblogger Senior Editor and content marketing specialist Sonia Simone, and occasional guests with specific online marketing expertise.

Join me in listening and subscribing to Copyblogger and Internet Marketing for Smart People podcast. We can learn to grow businesses in Dayton together.

Peter DeMott • REACH Magazine Dayton • Dayton’s favorite coupon magazine •

• peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222


Filed Under Growing your business, SEO Search Engine Optimization, Social Media for Business, Your web presence Tagged With Advertising in Dayton, Business growth, DIY Marketing ideas, Facebook marketing, Facebook marketing for businesses, Grow your business, Internet marketing, SEO for small businesses, Tools for business, web site marketing

5 tips on content for your blog/web site from Copyblogger

March 23, 2011 By Peter DeMott Leave a Comment

Since I subscribe to COPYBLOGGER, I get their blog posts in my email each day. The web site is all about the content that you put on your web site or blog or even on your facebook page for your business. I thought todays tips were helpful and clear so I am sharing the link with you here:

The Simple 5 Step Formula for Effective Online Content

Peter DeMott • REACH Magazine • Advertising in Dayton, Ohio • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222

Filed Under Growing your business, SEO Search Engine Optimization, Your web presence Tagged With Advertising in Dayton, Facebook marketing, Grow your business, Internet marketing, Reaching consumers, SEO for small businesses, web site marketing

What does the long tail of the internet mean to your web site?

February 18, 2011 By Peter DeMott Leave a Comment

As I was looking at some web sites and facebook pages the other day, I was frustrated because I could not determine WHERE the company was located. They had no locators that said the name of the community or even the region where their service was available. As a consumer I found this extremely annoying. As an advertising sales executive I know better.

entlogo What does the long tail of the internet mean to your web site?

Today I was reading an article in Entrepreneur Magazine online that talked about the long tail of web searches. Natural or organic searches drive people not just to you home page, but deep with your web site.

“Everybody knows the importance of making a positive first impression, but if you assume prospective customers first encounter your website through its homepage, think again. Natural search results drive users to individual pages that best match each user’s search query, and often that page is not your site’s homepage.”

The article has some great tips on ways to change your web site to take this concept into account. Here is the article in full: Home Away From Home.

In may case, the thing that annoyed me what the lack of any geographical description of where the service was available or where it was located. Along with the suggestions in this article, I am going to add the importance of including the service area of a service business easy to find and obvious on every page.

Although the much of the information on this web site can be used all over the country, I am a sales executive for REACH magazine here in the Dayton, Ohio market. At the bottom of each post I include my name, REACH magazine, my email address and a phone number where I can be reached. If someone sees my post, I want them to be able to find me without having to go on a search throughout my web site to find me or to learn where I am located. Although someone can get value from these posts in learning about effective advertising, there is no value of someone from California sending me an email about advertising in REACH magazine since we have no distribution in California.

So, EVERY page can become the HOME page depending on where Google sends someone to find the information they are looking for and for that reason, every page should include consistent information about your company (logo, phone number, email, and service area). Don’t frustrate people looking at information on you web site by requiring click after click after click to find the information they need if they want to do business with you.

You can continue your growth in knowledge from Entreprenuer magazine by subscribing to some of their email newsletters here: Image is a live link, just click.

Newsletter signup1 What does the long tail of the internet mean to your web site?

Peter DeMott • REACH Magazine • Dayton OHIO • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222

Filed Under SEO Search Engine Optimization, Your web presence Tagged With Advertising in Dayton, Business growth, Grow your business, SEO for small businesses, Tools for business

Web site with blog for powerful SEO, Why is that?

February 11, 2011 By Peter DeMott Leave a Comment

growth chart2 Web site with blog for powerful SEO, Why is that?Monitor organic word searches that bring people to your web site

For a couple weeks I have been noticing that “Allen Promotional Products” as a search term was leading people to this web site. I was wondering why that would be so. At that point I went ahead and “Googled” (did a search for) “Allen Promotional Products Dayton” and what I found surprised me. My web site, not Allen’s, had the number ONE and number TWO listing for Allen’s company.

If your web site cannot be on the first page searching with your company name there is something wrong

Some time back I did a blog post about Allen Promotional Products. I went back and looked at it. I tried the link for his site that I had in the post and it did not work. At that point I gave Allen a call. He explained that with “www” his web site would no longer come up, but without the “www” it was fine. He had brought this up with his web guy and nothing was done. I corrected the link so that people looking for his company would be able to find him, but I also explained that I was astonished that if I searched for the name of his company and the city he is in, that he was nowhere to be found. Not on page one, page two, not on page three (I stopped looking at that point).

Importance of content (words) and new content to increase your ranking on Google

I suggested that he should have a consultation with my web guy AND that he discuss adding a self hosted WordPress blog within his web site. Right now the news in SEO is that “content is king”. What that means is that actual content and updated NEW content on your web site has a higher priority for searches than unchanging meta data and keywords.

If you set up a blog correctly within your web site all the words you post become searchable content for the Google spiders to explore and resource for the search engine. I explained to Allen that if he sold printed gel pens for promotional purposes and this customer was located in Centerville and the business sold lawn mowers for example, Allen could post something about that with pictures on the blog portion of his web site it would be searchable material for Google. Now if someone puts in a search for “lawn mower promotion” or “someone who can print on gel pens” or “promotional items in Centerville” these searches will all lead to his web site.

In every post he would add his company name, phone number and email address so that in the future if someone searched for Allen Promotional Products in Dayton, Ohio his web site would become the first listing on that search page.

Dependable local web site and WordPress blog/website development

My web guy lives and works here in Dayton. He does major web design to small starting out stuff. He is fluent in various web mark up languages and understands the ins and outs of WordPress as well. You can see some of his work on his web site http://www.e-3design.com/ His email is Larry@e-3design.com . I recommend him to REACH clients and many have outstanding web sites because of it.

Static web sites lose importance each day and week that they sit there unchanged

If you have a static web site (that means one that just sits there without new added information for long periods of time) it will gradually go down each day and week in the page ratings. Google sees static unchanging sites as OLD information and losing importance each day. However if your web site is updated frequently with posts on your blog (once a day, once a week or whatever), your web site will be graded to have cutting edge and current information. And with each post you will be adding more words that can lead people to your web site through organic searches (That means not cost to you, the person just put some words in the search box and clicked on the search button).

This is fairly basic information about SEO, but frequently businesses that I work with say, “why would I want a blog?”  Now that you know what a blog can do for you when it is properly integrated within your web site, perhaps you will talk with someone about converting or upgrading your web site. Just starting to blog on some free blogging site will only bring people to your blog. It will not bring people to your web site. You have to properly integrate the web site and the blog together to have a positive effect on your web site visits.

I am not a programer. I explained it this way to a friend recently, ” I can drive my car, but I don’t always know how to make it work correctly…for that I have a mechanic.” It’s funny that the WordPress blog has a “dashboard” and I can drive my blog, but I don’t have to be a programmer and understand the guts of the thing to make it work, that’s why I have Larry@e-3design.com . He knows the guts of the thing and can do whatever I need done to make things work and look the way I want.

Peter DeMott • REACH Magazine • Dayton, Ohio • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222

Filed Under Advertising in Dayton, Growing your business, SEO Search Engine Optimization Tagged With Grow your business, Local SEO, SEO for small businesses, Tools for business, web site marketing

Improve your web site ranking using directory listings

January 29, 2011 By Peter DeMott Leave a Comment

A great tip about directory listing and your business visibility on the internet

By listing your business and web site on directories you will have a bigger footprint on the internet, but it can be very time consuming to go to Yahoo and Bing and Google and about 100 other directory lists. Listening to a presentation by a marketing company, they suggested that you use a service for this. They suggested UBL.org, so this morning I went through the process of listing my photography business on UniversalBusinessListing-List Once. Be Found .

I am now registered with them with a password login and my photography business will be listed on, looks like about 100 directory list services all over the internet. The basic service is $30. I cannot imagine how much time it would take me to find and list my business on all these directories.

I found that a little preparation was helpful

You will need to have a web site address for your logo and some pictures. Because I didn’t know this, I had to come back after I had gathered the information I needed to complete the process. I was able to use my media files from my web site for live link locations for my logo and some pictures related to my business. You will then fill out various forms that describe your business, give your website address, your email address, business location, phone numbers, and various other aspects of your business. Once you have everything in, you just pay with a credit card. The basic package is $30.00. There are about five levels, but the recommended package was just the basic package which does most of the important work.

I did not do it for this web site. I did it for my photography web site: http://www.photosbypdemott.com . In a couple weeks I can come back and tell you if I notice any differences in traffic. I have listed my photography web site on many directories over the years. There is no question that having an automated system to list my web site on that many directories across the web universe is worth every penny of $30. This also lists your business on all the white and yellow page web sites on the web.

Peter DeMott • REACH Magazine • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222 • Dayton, Ohio

rr3d7284 Improve your web site ranking using directory listings

Filed Under Advertising in Dayton, Growing your business, SEO Search Engine Optimization Tagged With Advertising in Dayton, Business growth, Grow your business, Reaching consumers, SEO for small businesses, Social Media, Tools for business, web site marketing

Google is giving priority to local search so optimize for it in your SEO

December 22, 2010 By Peter DeMott Leave a Comment

This is a short video from the JOY OF MARKETING that explains how Google is now prioritizing local search and how you can do some SEO (search engine optimization) to help your web site using this information. This is on YouTube, so I am hoping that it will work just fine.

For my non-photographer friends and businesses, this mentions photography. But, you can certainly consider these valuable changes for your business web site that is non-photography related. If you are looking for business from the local area with your web site, these suggestions can be extremely helpful to you.

Just in case the embed does not work correctly here is the link as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG6_2OdFWaQ

Some of the recommendations are to add your local city and state to every page on your web site or your address. So for this web site, to localize more, I would include that this blog is directed to businesses in the Dayton, Ohio area who are trying to grow through SEO, networking,  and various forms of paid advertising (REACH magazine, for example).

Hope you found this helpful.

Peter DeMott, 8390 Germantown Pike, Germantown, Ohio 45327 • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222

REACH magazine, Dayton’s Favorite direct mail coupon magazine, 2360 West Dorothy Lane, Suite 101, Dayton, Ohio 45439

Peter DeMott Photography, offering photography for businesses and individuals for web sites, profiles portraits, senior pictures and equine portraits. http://www.photosbypdemott.com

Filed Under Advertising in Dayton, Growing your business, SEO Search Engine Optimization Tagged With Reaching consumers, SEO for small businesses, web site marketing

An article and some resources to get the most from your businesses Facebook page

August 27, 2010 By Peter DeMott Leave a Comment

As I tell people about REACH magazine and our new eREACH Big DEAL, many times I talk to businesses about Facebook and WordPress web sites too. Today from a social networking newsletter called MASHABLE, I found this article that I thought could be helpful to you:

HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Your Business Facebook Page -by Susan Payton the president of Egg Marketing & Public Relations

If you find it helpful, please make a comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Here are some other links you may find helpful as well:

The amazing secret about REACH magazine:

Sign up to receive THE BIG DEAL here:

Find out about guaranteed advertising with The BIG DEAL

Easy FUNDRAISER for your school, team, group, or church…REALY EASY!

Filed Under Growing your business, more customers, Social Media for Business Tagged With Advertising in Dayton, Business growth, Facebook, Facebook marketing, Facebook marketing for businesses, Grow your business, SEO for small businesses, Tools for business
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