Tag Archives: internet marketing

To keep up with marketing in today’s society, it’s hard to ignore the fact that social media matters. While we all may value it differently and use it for different reasons, social media marketing is almost everywhere you look—even on potato chip bags. As I looked at the back of my chip bag today with the intention of finding out exactly how many calories I shouldn’t be consuming, I instead noticed a little blue logo with “Like us on Facebook” next to it. I’ll admit that I laughed out loud, wondering why I would ever want to admit my guilty snack pleasure to my entire social circle.  However, that little experience reminded me of something I had read earlier that day that made me rethink if I should be laughing at my potato chip bag Facebook logo.
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A while ago I wrote a blog post for this blog all about Facebook Places and why it sucked. An excerpt from that post reads,

“It doesn’t benefit the user at all. When I check in on Places I don’t get points,     unlock badges or become the mayor. Although once you check in the businesses     name is plastered on your wall which is essentially free advertising. It is way too lopsided to the benefit the business not the user.”

Well, I’m writing this to let everyone know I was wrong, very wrong. Facebook Places has actually saved me money. Turns out saving money is more valuable than becoming the Mayor of a business that doesn’t care, sorry Foursquare. Read On

When it comes to their business website, too many small business owners still cling to the false notion of, “If you build it, they will come.” The idea is that having a web presence will get the job done. Put up the site, get the products on there, slap the logo on it and watch the sales roll in, right?

Once upon a time, when the concept of a business website was fresh and exciting, that may have been true. But times have changed. You can’t crank out any old website and expect customers to magically line up like the cars leading to Ray Kinsella’s remote baseball field.

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I get the chance to personally meet with hundreds of small business owners as part of my job.  I am always interested in what kind of marketing they are doing to grow their small businesses.  Today’s economy means businesses are having a hard time keeping the lights on, and marketing is the last thing on their minds.  As small business owners we have to ask ourselves this question: what’s more important, lights or customers?

The only way to get new customers is to let the local marketplace know you are out there, but with so many ways to market your business, sometimes it hard to know where to start.  On the traditional side we have the yellow pages, newspapers, radio, TV, direct mail, and the list goes on.  Maybe going online is little less confusing because Google is the only option, right? If only things could be that simple!  There is pay-per-click, banner ads, organic search, directories, email, and again, the list goes on. Read On