Growing Your Business

Setting Up a Facebook Page for YOUR Business

2010-12-15T23:12:00.000-08:00

A question I get asked often is if you can set up a business Facebook page without having or using your personal Facebook page to set it up. Well here is the skinny...FB forces users to connect all fan pages (business pages) to a user's personal profile. But FB treats your personal profile and your fan page as two seperate entities.

However, FB does offer what is called a "Business Profile". If a person does not have a personal profile on FB, it is possible to create a fan page that is connected to this very limited Business Profile. A Business Profile page does not have near the benefits of a fan page. Many FB experts do not recommend this approach. Check out what FB has to say about Business Profiles at www.facebook.com/help/?faq=12850.

So how do you create a Facebook fan page, you first have to log in with the account you would like to administer the page either your personal page or your business profile. Once logged in scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for the link "Advertising" and from there you look for the button that says Pages at either the very top or on the top left. Click on that link and then look for another link that says Create Page (www.facebook.com/pages/create.php)

I hope this is helpful. A good book out about Facebook Marketing is called Facebook Marketing by Chris Treadaway and Mari Smith. I have learn most of what I know about the details of a business FB page from this book. Check it out at Barnes and Noble.

What is Search Engine Optimization or SEO?

2010-08-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

Search engine optimization is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a website from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.

We look at four things when trying to increase rankings:

1. We look at how the site is built. The site must have a strong balance of form and function. Google offers design and content guidelines and actually suggests to us how a website needs to be built. They offer these webmaster guidelines for free. Look them over and if you need help implementing their recommendations let us know. There are over 10 key elements on a site that need attention including page titles, alternative text tags and site map.

2. We focus on link building. Search engines consider the number of inbound links when ranking a site. Links are like votes. The more votes the better. So you want as many websites with strong content linking to you as possible. If you want higher rankings then get more high quality inbound links! But be choosey...don't let any site link to you.

3. We also look at content. Google considers content to be King. Google suggests the following:

Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content. Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.

Search Engines will rank your site higher if the content grows periodically and is updated. If you have not touched your site in over a year dont expect to have a higher ranking than a competitor who is updating content and posting new pages on a regular basis. A website is like a garden…spend a little with it each week watering and weeding …. it will grow and flourish. If you dont touch it and just let it sit there..it will die and become irrelevant.

What are you doing to encourage repeat visitors. A very effective way to inrease traffic is to give visitors a reason to return and check back with you. Offering fresh new content on a regular basis will encourage repeat visits.

4. We take a look at the things you are doing outside of your website to drive traffic. Does your general marketing drive customers and prospects to your site. Do you have your website address on your everyday marketing materials?

We look at the use of social media such as Facebook, Blogging, Twitter and Linkedin. These powerful tools can not only drive traffic to your website but help improve credibility and boost reputation. Search engines index the content on these sites and your business Facebook page, Blog, etc can show up as a search result. Here is a great example. Go to Google and search for “orthodontist, lake highlands, tx”. You should see Dr. Greenberg’s Facebook page showing up with a number one organic ranking. Facebook has 500 million users and growing so there is a strong chance that when they see the Facebook logo on your site linking to your business Facebook page they will click on it. But beware…once they click… you better be ready to deliver value. Make sure your page is updated regularly and has interesting posts that provide value to your audience.

More to consider: A site that is built on a solid foundation will give you a fast start. A well prepared SEO strategy that employs link building, keyword optimization, geographically specific landing pages and strong content, to name a few, will deliver results. Blogging and other social networking groups can help you drive traffic and increase your site’s relevance.

Pay-per-click campaigns will get you found immediately. We can help set up your pay-per-click program and show you how to manage it. Getting top rankings involves regular maintenance. Your website must become a living and breathing entity that grows.

Let us help increase your online visibility today! Call Us at 214-215-6048 or learn more at www.lawrencemediagroup.com

Getting Started with Facebook

2010-05-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

So it is agreed that creating a Facebook page for your business is a good idea. So now what? Here a few ideas on getting started...

Facebook Tactics – Getting Fans…

1. Enlist a tiny percentage of your most vocal and satisfied clients (clients who are also friends) to be your loyal FB subjects! Send them a personal email invitation to check out your FB page or make a phone call. Then a few days later send out a broadcast email to your entire database inviting them to check out your page.

2. Use FB to highlight specific products and keep customers informed about new products and technology…

3. Avoid any sales language. Do not use FB to sell…use FB to educate, to impress, to connect…

4. Use as a very efficient customer service tool as you can interact directly – always respond quickly to any complaints or negative remarks

5. Post Status Updates or other content at least 2-3 times a week to attract Fans and keep them engaged.

6. Get Fans excited about upcoming events, new product launches or enhancements

7. Tell your fans about ongoing projects..share before and after photos…showcase some of your best jobs

8. Pack your postings with relevant compelling content about you, your team, your services – no fluff!

9. After providing service to a customer, please give them a card or flyer that thanks them for their business and asks them to Become a Fan and share their experience

10. Place a FB logo and link on your website and/or blog (same for Twitter and others)

Facebook Post Ideas for your Fans – help your fans help you!

1. Say who you are and what you do. Say what services we provided for you. Talk about how what we did has helped you and about the experience working with our team.

2. Mention a company person by name and mention something positive about that person.

3. Mention a success story that is connected to the services we have provided. Mention a positive comment you have heard from one of your clients about the work we have done for you.

4. Ask a question for the general readers about your business or about a problem you are having that needs a solution.

5. Ask for a referral for a service your are needing.

6. Comment on an existing post. Comment or Like.

7. Share ideas and be helpful.

8. Share a success story. Readers like good news. It does not have to be connected to the Marketing Store but would be nice.

9. Be sure to lead readers to you by providing a link to your site every now and then.
10. Be subtle when you talk about yourself and your business. You do not want to appear self serving and self promoting.

11. Share a photo of yourself or something cool or if you have a photo with another one of our clients or with one of our team members…post it and explain it. People like interesting and relevant pics.

Do I Really Need a Facebook Page for My Business?

2010-05-17T20:32:00.000-07:00

Why do you need a Facebook page for your business?

I can give you 400 million reasons! (The estimated number of FB users.)

Facebook is fast becoming a very powerful search engine...a social search engine.
Having a business Facebook page allows you to provide a platform for you to connect personally with your customers. The Facebook logo is trusted and when you have the Facebook logo on your site to tell visitors that your business is on Facebook...that link is like honey to a bee. Facebook users will be attracted to that link because FB is a familiar place for them. They know they can find answers there...find people they can trust...find reasons to trust you.

And isn't that the purpose of your website...to create trust and confidence in your abilities to provide a quality product and service?

Facebook is also highly regarded by search engines. Facebook has a page rank of 10 out of 10.
Facebook pages are indexed by Google and can show up on page one of Google's SERP (search engine results pages). Here is a test...go to Google and do a search for "orthodontist, lake highlands texas". You will find a #1 listing. This page even ranks higher than their own website. Now that is hard evidence to ignore.

Creating a Facebook page for your business does not take much time. Once you have it set up you can even have a custom Welcome page created and the content optimized to help drive traffic to your website. See a sample of a custom Welcome page that we created by finding Fick Bros Roofing on Facebook.

Managing your business Facebook page does not take much time either. Just 2 postings a week is all you need to do. But please be careful to NOT use the FB page to sell your services. You must use FB to post information that has value to your fans. Selling on FB is a quick way to lose fans. Helpful tips about how to better use your services, consumer education postings are great, promotion of events, photos of customers and employees, mentioning of completed projects, etc.

It is important to get your existing customers involved in your Facebook page. Once you set up your page you will want to invite all of your customers to become Fans. You will want to help them help you by providing them with ideas on what to post on your behalf. Not everyone will reach out for you but some of your closest clients will want to help you. If you need some posting ideas to give them please let me know at jonathan@lawrencemediagroup.com. I can send you my Ten Facebook Posting Ideas Article.

In summary Facebook can be a very strong reputation and credibility management tool that can also drive traffic to your website.

Better conversions...more traffic...now there are 400,002 and reasons!

Thank you for reading...happy rankings!

Jonathan Lawrence
Partner
Lawrence Media Group
www.lawrencemediagroup.com
214-215-6048

Internet Marketing Tip

2010-03-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

Internet Marketing Tip: Are you listed in the Google Maps, aka, Google Local's Directory? If not you can become visible to Google with or without a website immediately by signing up for this FREE directory. Just go to the Google Local Business Center.

If you have had a website for a while, don't assume you are signed up in Google Local Directory.

The way to check is to do a local search for your services. If you are a plumber in Richardson, Texas then do a search for "plumber in richardson, texas". The listing will look like the following in the yellow shaded area on the left. If you are not on page one then click on More Results. If you cannot find your listing chances are you are not listed and need to be.

Don't worry it is easy to get listed. And if you are already listed you need to make sure your listing is optimized.

A big mistake many of us make when getting listed and completing the profile is that they don't think it through and give only the basic most minimal information. If you want to get the most out of the listing then be sure to fill in every piece of information that it allows. Enter a clear and descriptive explanation of what you do and why you are better than your competition. This is a great place for you keywords. Keywords are the words or phrases that people will use to search for you. Upload your logo and photos of your business and products if you are retail, photos of company vehicles, photos of yourself and staff. Photos are a great way to create trust with a visitor. If you have any specials or coupons enter them on the profile. The more information you can provide the better.

A great feature that the Google Directory allows is Reviews from satisfied customers. Once you sign up then ask a handful of your trust clients and friends to give you a favorable reveiw. These reviews will make a difference and help increase your Google Local ranking.

If you do not have time to spend on this than feel free to contact me and we can help.

It should only take us about an hour or so to sign you up and optimize your listing. The investment in your time or our time will be well worth it! If your competitors are not doing this then you could be on page one in no time!

Happy ranking!

Jonathan Lawrence

Lawrence Media Group

www.lawrencemediagroup.com

214-215-6048

Tip for our Ad-Hold Customers

2010-01-28T13:58:00.001-08:00

Here is a great tip to help maximize your on-hold messaging program....

BIG TIP: Since the Ad-Hold programming only helps you when a prospect or customer actually hears the program, here is a tip to help make sure that your professionally produced message gets heard.

Ring, Ring...

Company Rep: Hello this is XYZ company, my name is Jonathan, how can I help you?

Caller: Hello is Bob available?

Company Rep: I think so let me check. (Place them on hold and let them hear the on-hold messages for about 10 seconds...no more. Pick the phone back up and say if he is available)...Yes Bob is available, let me get him for you, please hold just one moment. (If Bob is not available, tell them, take a message or transfer to voicemail.)

Another tactic...is that whenever you answer the phone...tell the person calling...Hello "caller"...this is Jonathan...I am glad you called..let me get to my desk...or let me get a pen...or hold one second while I grab my notebook.

The key is to give most everyone that calls a chance to hear your on-hold program for a brief time everytime they call. If you do this...then you will start reaping the benefits of the on-hold program and it will start to pay you back. Dont worry...no one minds waiting just a few seconds if you give them a good reason and you are quick about it.

These tactics actually work and if you learn the right word tracks they can be legitamately used everytime without fear of annoying your caller.

Remember..a good Ad-Hold program will capture attention, boost image, promote your services, improve customer service resulting in more business for you.

ANOTHER TIP: Did you know that with most business voice mail systems you have the option to have your callers either hear your hold messages or actuall ringing when you transfer them to an extension. Ask your phone technician what options are available with your system.

Not an Ad-Hold customer yet...see if our Ad-Hold service is right for you by going to http://www.adhold.com/.

FIrst Impressions Mean Everything

2010-01-18T20:07:00.000-08:00

First Impressions Mean Everything!

What is it that people want to do more than anything when finding a service provider? They want to trust them. Consumers are just looking for a reason to trust. In most cases it all starts with the first impression!

Many first impressions are made in person, some via mail and now more than ever first impressions are made on line. That means your website and blog are extremely important. How it looks and functions is critical and content is paramount! Content is king. Content..Content..Content. Just like location, location, location in the retail business...so it is with internet marketing.

Proof your website or blog! Just like any other marketing piece...grammatical errors, typos and broken links are unnacceptable. When you create your site and insert content pretend that you are going to have your College English Professor review it. That will get you to proof your work! Try using a 3rd party proof reader that can go through your site with a fine toothed comb and make sure that all your "i's" are dotted and "t"s are crossed. Silly typos and grammatical errors send the wrong message to your prospects. Never try to proof your own work...be smart and have your site reviewed by someone with a sharp eye for the written word.

Keep your website updated. Make sure that the content is current and that you are not promoting past events. Be sure that your news is current too. Make sure you update your blog regularly.

Your website must be attractive. An old and outdated site built on an old platform is like showing up to a sales call in a 20 year old Camry. (No offense to Camry owners!) Use quality images and not cheap clip art. Try an image library like http://www.dreamstime.com/.

You need a well designed site that has strategic movement and a plan to convert the visitor to a lead.

Make sure the content is relevant and unique. More is best when it comes to content and search engines appreciate it too.

Teach the visitor to become an expert at buying what you sell and you will create a customer that can see why you are the best choice.

If your goal is to get the phone to ring, make it easy for your visitor to call you and request information. That means placing your phone number prominently on your homepage and create a very visible link that can take them to a request information or request estimate or consultation form.

These are just a few recommendations to help make the best first web impression possible. We spend a great deal of time and money to drive traffic to our website. It seems obvious that giving the best online experience possible would be part of the plan. But most businesses drop the ball in this regard. Pay attention to my words and you will create the trust and confidence you need to gain a new customer.

http://www.lawrencemediagroup.com/

Converting Visitors to Leads

2009-11-12T21:18:00.001-08:00

A common mistake by many website owners is to spend a great deal of effort and money to generate traffic but neglect to make sure that their website can handle that traffic. So how do we make sure that our websites can convert visitors to leads. How do we reduce conversion friction? Well here are a few simple tips:

1. Make sure your phone number is prominently displayed on your site. If the purpose of your site is to generate a phone call then do not make the visitor have to search for your number. This sounds simple enough but you would be surprised how many websites make it difficult for you to contact them. What is up with this??

2. Make sure that you have a form to capture visitors. A request information or estimate form, or request consultation form is a good idea. It is good to have a low risk way for a visitor to reach you also like an Ask the Expert or Newsletter or Mailing List Sign Up or Request Buyers Guide.

3. Make sure that your website is attractive. An old, outdated and poorly designed site will stop traffic cold.

4. A site with poor and weak content is also a visitation killer. Go out of your way to build a site that is content rich and can educate the visitor about your services and why you are the best choice.

5. Make sure that you have a strong headline that tells the visitor the most important thing that you want them to know.

6. If you want the visitor to respond to you while they are on your site then you must have some type of call to action (CTA). You need to give the visitor an incentive to respond. This is marketing 101 but you would be surprised how many websites do not have a CTA.

7. Use the power of video on your website to engage the visitor and create trust. A friendly web intro by the company president helps build trust and confidence. Customer interviews are another great tool.

Converting visitors to leads is a very important part of the marketing process. I encourage everyone to look at their website from a new visitors perspective. Are you delivering the goods? Does the site offer any value or does it just sell. Is the website attractive? Is it easy to use? Is there strong content?
Does the site have a plan to convert visitors to leads?

Take a few moments and evaluate your site. Let me know if you need any help. I am happy to provide some feedback.

Regards,

Jonathan Lawrence
www.themarketingstoreusa.com

What is Link Building?

2009-10-23T12:28:00.001-07:00

Link building is the process of increasing the number of websites that link to your website.
Google ranks websites higher who have good quality inbound links. Since any website can have outbound links they do not improve rankings. The goal of link building is to increase your rankings and generate more traffic to your site. On my next post I will share with you how to get links through a reciprocating links program.

Thanks,

Jonathan Lawrence
www.themarketingstoreusa.com
www.lawrencemediagroup.com

Elements of a good website!

2009-04-06T20:31:00.000-07:00

A good website must have the following components:

1. It must be attractive and designed well providing the user with an experience that exceeds his expectations and or is consistent with his everyday experiences surfing elsewhere.

2. It must be functional, easy to use and interactive. It must be alive.

3. It must have good content that is relevant to the keywords they are using to find you, well written, that educates and informs.

4. It must have a marketing strategy – a plan that takes the visitor down the road you want him/her to go. It must have strong headlines and an easy way for people to respond.

5. It must be built properly so Search Engines will find you.

5 Things You Should Know About On-Hold Messaging

2009-03-02T14:36:00.000-08:00

FIVE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ON-HOLD MESSAGING

1. What you tell your caller on-hold is equally important than how it sounds. Not all on-hold companies are created equal. The on-hold program needs to create trust and confidence and clearly convey the message that your company is the best choice. Stay away from puffery and platitudes that make you sound like everyone else. In most cases you only have 20-30 seconds to tell your caller why you are better than your competitor. Make sure the on-hold company you select can produce ad copy that produces results.

2. Did you know that playing music on your telephone’s hold system is considered commercial broadcast? Did you know that it is illegal to play music, even the radio, without paying the applicable licensing and royalty fees to those writers, composers and musicians who created the music? By federal law businesses are required to pay annual royalties to play music on their hold system. You could pay a hefty penalty if you are caught not paying when you play. So when selecting an on-hold provider to produce your custom on-hold program be sure they provide in writing their music licensing policy so you are protected.

3. Think twice before you decide on how many times you should update your script throughout the year. Many customers bite off more than they can handle. Sometimes less is best. How many times you should update your on-hold program is based on how often information changes about your products and services and what kind of audience you have listening to the messages throughout the year. In other words, do you have the same customers calling in each month placing orders or are your customers only calling in once or twice a year or even less frequently? The answers to these two questions will tell you how often you should change your script throughout the year.

4. Any business regardless of size can install an on-hold marketing system at their business. Technology is available for even very small and home-based businesses to use our service. Whether you have a simple 2 line phone purchased at a local electronics store and receive only 5 callers a day or have a sophisticated business key system and receive hundreds of calls a day, an on-hold system will enhance your image and promote your services more effectively than any other medium.

5. According to a CNN survey- Without messages or music nearly 60% of business callers placed on-hold will hang up. Almost 30% of these callers won't call back. A survey by the North American Telemarketers Association reveals that callers will hold up to 3 minutes longer when hearing music with information.

Ad-Hold
www.adhold.com
Jonathan Lawrence
1-214-215-6048

---------------------------------

Custom On-Hold Messages

Messaging On-Hold

On-Hold Telephone Messages

On-Hold Advertising

Increase Search Engine Rankings - Learn our top ten!

2008-08-02T13:14:00.001-07:00

TOP 10 SEO TIPS – Compiled by Lawrence Media Group

Becoming visible to search engines is critical to a successful online marketing campaign.

If you want to increase your search engine rankings then follow these recommendations. If you do not have a webmaster to implement these changes or make sure you are optimized for search engines then please call us at 1-888-275-4814.

1. Be sure your address and a list of cities you serve is listed at the bottom of your page. Search Engines will look on your home page first to see where you are located. Make it easy for them to find where you are located so they can report back to potential clients searching for you by location. Check out http://www.tcsidingprofessionals.com/ for a sample.

2. Be sure to sign up for Google Maps/Local and Yahoo Local. These are free directories that allow you to be listed at the top of the organic rankings for the city that you service. Go to http://www.google.com/local/add/lookup?hl=en-US&gl=US to sign up for Google Local. For Yahoo Local go to https://edit.yahoo.com/registration?.done=http://local.yahoo.com/&.src=lcl&.intl=us

3. Create a Blog. Blogs are very effective in creating trust and driving search engines to your website. If you don’t know what a blog is then you can go to http://www.lawrencemediagroup.blogspot.com/ and read all about it. We recommend a Blog for 2 reasons. The first is to drive search engines to your website an second so you can communicate with your customers on a more regular and personal level. Blogs also allow feedback from readers and becomes a very simple ad efficient way to have a personal relationship with your reader.

4. Make sure you have a Site Map on your page. Sitemaps, as the name implies, are just a map of your site - i.e. on one single page you show the structure of your site, its sections, the links between them, etc. Sitemaps make navigating your site easier and having an updated sitemap on your site is good both for your users and for search engines. Sitemaps are an important way of communication with search engines. Sitemaps offer the opportunity to inform search engines immediately about any changes on your site. The steps you need to perform in order to have a sitemap for your site are simple. First, you need to generate it, then you upload it to your site, and finally you notify Google about it. Notifying Google includes adding the site to your Google Sitemaps account, so if you do not have an account with Google, you should open one today. As a matter of fact Google will want its own site map called an xml site map.

5. You can improve the rankings of your website by increasing the number of
high-quality sites that link to it. Establishing a reciprocating links program is a good way to go about this. If you belong to any organizations that post a membership directory, make sure your website is listed. Try creating an Our Partners or an Our Friends page on your website.
Contact service providers in your area and ask them to put your link on their site and you will put their link on yours. Link swapping is a very effective SEO tactic.

6. May sure your site has been submitted to Google, Yahoo, MSN and other popular search engines.

Google: free Submit your site ; paid Premium SponsorshipsOpen Directory (ODP): How to suggest a site - Free (and very important!)Yahoo: Free URL submission for inclusion in Yahoo! Search (Yahoo! registration required)Inktomi: Add URL - Free (currently used by MSN and also Yahoo)Ask Jeeves: Answer Link - PPC ; Premier Listing - PPC ; Site Submit - Paid inclusionLooksmart: Submit URL - PPC ; Zeal Add URL - Free for non-commercial sitesOverture : Pay-for-Performance - PPC ; Site Match - PPC ; Content Match - PPCFast: AdBuyer - Paid Placement ; InSite Search Engine Submission - Paid inclusion Mamma.com: Collection Submission - Paid inclusionInfoSpace: Add URL - Paid inclusion

If you have your website link on other sites, most likely you will not have to do this as your site will be submitted when those sites get reindexed. But it wont hurt to do it once. But you do not need to resubmit, unless you make changes and want them registered as close to immediately as possible. Otherwise, the major search engines will come back periodically and re-crawl the site.

7. Be sure your Meta Data is keyword optimized and page specific for every page. Most developers just use the same meta data for all of the pages. But you will rank higher if you have meta data that is unique to each page. ie. meta description, meta title and keywords. If you wish to be on the first page of the search results, you must include your keywords in your Title tag and these keywords must be in the content of that page.

8. Nomenclatures: Whenever possible, you should save your images, media, and web pages with the keywords in the file names. For example, if your keyword phrase is "golf putters" you'll want to save the images used on that page as golf-putters-01.jpg or golf_putters_01.jpg (either will work). It's not confirmed, but many SEO's have experienced improvement in ranking by renaming images and media. Also all images must be assigned alternative text descriptions called Alt Tags so they will become visible to search engines. Without Alt Tags your images are invisible.

9. It would be a waste of your time to optimize your website for keywords that are not even being searched for. Therefore you should invest some energy into finding the best keywords. There are several SEO tools available on the Internet to help you find the best keywords. Tip: Don't be deceived by organizations that require you to register first. The two most popular resources are WordTracker and Yahoo!. Because Yahoo! has a man-made database that truncates plurals, many SEO pros prefer to use WordTracker (WT).

10. By far the easiest top 10 SEO tips you will ever do as it relates to search engine optimization is include a robots.txt file at the root of your website. Open up a text editor, such as Notepad and type "User-agent: *". Then save the file as robots.txt and upload it to your root directory on your domain. This one command will tell any spider that hits your website to "please feel free to crawl every page of my website".

BONUS TIP:
11. Optimize your code for higher rankings.Use correct HTML code as HTML errors negatively impact search engine promotion and turn away human visitors. The W3C offers a good free online validation tool that spots coding errors. Of particular importance is the H or heading tag that tells search engines how you have structured the importance of your content.Remove extra code. Replace lengthy JavaScript functions and CSS definitions with calls to external files. This moves important page content to the top of the page, makes maintenance easier, and decreases page file size.

External CSS file linked to all pages that use styles
External JavaScript file linked to all pages that use JavaScript functions
Minimal use of FONT and other deprecated formatting tags to reduce page file size
Do not depend on the DHTML menu alone for navigation – provide additional links throughout the body of the page, through breadcrumb and footer navigation links.Dynamic URLs and frames - best not use frames at all and keep dynamic URLs to a single ? parameter.'

If you need help implementing any of these strategies please contact me at 1-888-275-4817.

Thank you and I hope this post is helpful.

Jonathan Lawrence
Lawrence Media Group
http://www.lawrencemg.com/
http://www.lawrencemediagroup.com/
214-215-6048
972-818-8273 x111
jonathan@lawrencemg.com

*I would like to thank Google Webmaster Tools, Steve Wildmann SEO Specialist, Paul Slack at WebDex, Ed Taylor and Canadian based The Wire for help creating this document.

What is a Blog and How Can It Help Your Business?

2008-07-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

I decided to write this article because it has come to my attention how little many of us in the contractor community know about this huge phenomenon called blogging, and how this usually free and simple practice can actually grow your business.

Blogs are simple programs that allow anyone to quickly and easily publish content on the web. The main goals of a blog are to express your thoughts, communicate ideas and even talk with your customers, or as a vehicle to promote your product or services.

If you want official definitions here are a few:

blog: an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called weblog; typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.*

blog: a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies; "postings on a blog are usually in chronological order" [syn: web log] **

blog: a blog (an abridgment of the term web log) is a website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.***

*Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.7)Copyright © 2003-2008 Lexico Publishing Group, LLC
**WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
*** From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Producing a blog or blogging is an immensely growing practice because it is so easy to set up and is usually free. As of June 2008, Technorati, an internet search engine for searching blogs, indexed over 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media.

So, if you are wanting to reach internet savvy homeowners, a blog is a good idea.

There are many places to sign up for a blog, and it is usually fast and simple. Here are a few that you may want to consider:

www.blogger.com Owned by Google

www.blogstream.com

www.blogster.com

These blogs are free but some will contain advertisements. I like Blogger the best. Blogger requires no advertisements and it is very easy to set up. I like the fact it is owned by Google.

USING YOUR BLOG FOR BUSINESS

There are two main reasons why I recommend blogging.

We all want more leads, and in today’s economy every lead is becoming more and more precious. A blog creates another page on the web that gives positive information about you or your business.

1. Blogging generates more leads by driving search engines to your website. This is a proven strategy; the idea is that when a homeowner searches for your services using Google, Yahoo, or other search engines (for example typing in roof replacement, dallas, texas) there is a good chance that your Blog will show up as a search result -- hopefully ahead of your competitors. The homeowner clicks on your Blog, reads the article, and then is directed to your website to learn more about you.

It is important to know that search engines are looking for fresh content and want to give the person searching the best possible search result, so you must keep your Blog current and have it updated at least monthly. This also means that it is important to make sure that your blog is optimized for search engines. This involves making sure that your blog contains the most popular keywords that homeowners use to search for your services so your blog can be found by the search engines.

2. The second reason blogging is a good idea for your business is because it allows you to easily share your thoughts about your services and yourself in a simple and more personal way. The homeowner is hoping to find a contractor he or she can trust, and a blog will allow you to help them understand a little more about you as a person and not just as a business owner.

Blog Ideas:

· announce a recently received award
· announce a special event
· mention community involvement
· announce addition of a new team member
· announce birth of a baby
· announce a new product or service
· announce anniversary of long term employee or retirement

The bottom line is that you can write about anything, and if you are trying to establish trust and confidence, letting the homeowner understand a little more about you as a person will go a long way. You are more than just a contractor. You are a real person trying to provide a quality service with honesty and integrity.

One interesting benefit of a blog is that readers can respond to your blog and post their comments to what you have to say. With most blogs, you control who can read and write to your blog. You can choose whether you want to allow comments and you can delete any comments you don't like. This is a good feature in the event that someone decides to take advantage of your blog by posting false and negative comments about you. So you will want to review your blog on a regular basis and monitor all feedback if you decide to allow readers to post comments to your blog.

I have set up a few Blogs for some of my customers and you can see how they are using them at:

www.francisharvey.com
www.villagebuilders.ca
www.advancedroofing.biz

After we set these blogs up we created a link on their website called Our Blog to allow homeowners to find it easily when they visit their site.

CONCLUSION

I hope this article has been informative and helps you understand blogging and how it can help your business. If you have any questions blogs or comments about this article, please let me know.
I can be reached at jlawrence@lawrencemg.com or directly at 214-215-6048.

P.S. Please contact me for help setting up your first blog.