http://orangesoda/ en jthaeler@orangesoda.com Copyright 2009 2009-10-27T20:09:51-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/site/intuits-small-business-grants-nominate-a-local-business-even-yours/ http://www.orangesoda.com/small-business-advice-blog/intuits-small-business-grants-nominate-a-local-business-even-yours/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/intuits-small-business-grants-nominate-a-local-business-even-yours/#When:19:09:51Z Now through October 31, 2009 you can nominate a local business for a $1,000 grant and a chance to win the grand prize of $5,000. To nominate a small business, go to http://lovealocalbusiness.intuit.comWe all know it can be tough times for small businesses right now, but small businesses are key to the success of this country. One option that you can look at is ways to get business grants or assistance. Here’s the first thing I found: Intuit is giving away money to deserving small businesses! Each month, five local businesses will be randomly selected to receive $1,000 small business grants. One of them will have their grant increased to $5,000. But hurry, the contest ends on Saturday, October 31, 2009. To enter go to http://lovealocalbusiness.intuit.com/ and write a 250 character or fewer description of the local business you want to nominate. Here’s an example of some of the winners. The grand prize is a $4,500 check and $500 worth of Sponsor-selected Intuit product and services. 4 small businesses will win a $500 Visa gift card and $500 worth of Sponsor-selected Intuit product and services. If you want to find other grants, The National Institute of Small Business Grants says to check these sites: http://www.Grants.gov - U.S. Department of Health and Human Serviceshttp://www.Business.gov - The Official Business Link To The U.S. Governmenthttp://www.BusinessGrants.org - The National Institute of Small BusinessGrantsWe want to know how your small business is doing right now…are you maintaining, sliding or growing right now? 2009-10-27T19:09:51-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/site/google-adds-mobile-search-to-maps/ http://www.orangesoda.com/small-business-advice-blog/google-adds-mobile-search-to-maps/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/google-adds-mobile-search-to-maps/#When:17:57:48Z Another reason your small business should not only be on Google Maps but optimized for it: local search for mobile. Google is making it easier for people to find businesses on their mobile devices. Get this right and your business will show up when people come looking.I’ve written about how people are going online to find local businesses like yours they have the “Yellow Pages” on their phones. It doesn’t matter if they are locals or just on vacation or visiting, you want to be sure you’re found. It’s now easier to find locations on a mobile device (think iPhone) thanks to the new mobile local search. Customers will be able to find your business hours, read reviews, see photos, and even get coupons. To make it easier for people and cut down on typing, Google has listed categories. For example, someone wanting to find a local movie theater can easily go to the ‘Entertainment & Recreation’ section and execute a search. Local Search for Mobile is limited to users in the U.S. and China. Give it a spin: http://www.google.com/m/local, or click on the Local tab on http://www.google.com - and if you need assistance with your listing, check out our Maps Optimization service. We’ll make sure you’re in directories like YellowPages.com and other local directories for the terms people are most likely to use to find you.   2009-10-20T17:57:48-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/site/social-media-strategy-step-3-observe-and-listen-to-the-communities-you-want/ http://www.orangesoda.com/social-media-marketing-blog/social-media-strategy-step-3-observe-and-listen-to-the-communities-you-want/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/social-media-strategy-step-3-observe-and-listen-to-the-communities-you-want/#When:21:36:44Z If you don’t listen before you participate in an social media community you can make missteps and offend the community. Before you engage in social media marketing or work with bloggers, you should take time to listen. Get familiar with the likes and dislikes of different groups online and respond appropriately. In other words, be human. When someone is new they often make the mistake of coming on too strong. Establish relationships first, then try the big stunts. Most businesses new to participating in social networks and blogs want to jump in before they have trust or relationships within the community.  They try to be loud or find unique approaches to get attention. It’s all about them, their product or brand. Instead look for ways to make a contribution and add value. Look for ways to add to the community rather than exploiting it. Share other’s content, leave comments. Look for the key people who are actively involved. Rather than approaching a community directly, approach them privately and ask them to share the information. Information coming from them will be recieved better than from you if you’re unknown. Over time you can the support and trust. Then you can plan events or participate more actively.How do you listen? Get to know the locals and active participants. Look for information such as: Where do they spend time online? What Facebook Groups do they belong to? What magazines or blogs do they read? Who they talk to or consider trustworthy? What do they search on in Google? Who do they follow on Twitter? What forums do they frequent and participate in? What web sites do they visit regularly? After listening you can use insights you have to guide your messages and formulate strategies. Every social community is different. Some are more open and some are very hard on newcomers or marketers. For example: Digg and Wikipedia are not friendly to marketers. If you don’t follow the rules you will be shunned or hated. Know what you’re getting into and observe what works before participating. 2009-09-02T21:36:44-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/site/social-media-strategy-step-2-find-relevant-blogs/ http://www.orangesoda.com/social-media-marketing-blog/social-media-strategy-step-2-find-relevant-blogs/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/social-media-strategy-step-2-find-relevant-blogs/#When:21:22:14Z <!— /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph {mso-style-priority:34; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:.5in; mso-add-space:auto; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst {mso-style-priority:34; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-type:export-only; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:.5in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-add-space:auto; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle {mso-style-priority:34; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-type:export-only; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:0in; margin-left:.5in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-add-space:auto; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast {mso-style-priority:34; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-type:export-only; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:.5in; mso-add-space:auto; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} /* List Definitions */ @list l0 {mso-list-id:1919368293; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:-235919160 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-tab-stop:none; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-.25in; mso-ansi-font-weight:normal;} ol {margin-bottom:0in;} ul {margin-bottom:0in;}—> Women and especially “power moms"or mom bloggers are often key to brand’s success online and in social networks. These bloggers have trust and communities and can refer new business to you. But first you have to find them and engage with them in a personable and collaborative way. Women in Social Media Study Recent research by BlogHer a community for women who blog, has some interesting data for online marketers. (see http://www.blogher.com/files/2009_Compass_BlogHer_Social_Media_Study_042709_FINAL.pdf) Women are being targeted by advertisers both on and offline. Not only do women make the majority of purchasing choices for families, but they tend to share information with others. In other words, they can be great evangelists. Marketers have noticed and often target the power moms  – a small group of elite social media users who wield a lot of marketing influence. Key Findings – Why blogs and social networking are important marketing tools 1.        Women in the study are shifting time spent offline to online. Instead of reading a newspaper, talking on the phone, meeting people in person and other activities they are spending time reading and socializing online. 2.       The participants said they go to blogs to get information, stay informed, get advice and recommendations. 3.       They go to social networks to stay up-to-date with their friends and family. 4.       The number one place to get news is on blogs. That means if you have news and the news gets written about by a blogger with influence with your target audience you’ll get a larger reach. 5.       Research by Context Analytics of their clients found that blogs convert to sales at about the same rate as getting written about in traditional sources like the New York Times (10.5%). Obviously it’s much easier to get written about in a blog than in the media. 6.       Almost 40% of women who participate in social networks said they make purchasing decisions based on what they’ve read about the product on a blog. It’s also influenced them not to purchase a product. How do you find relevant blogs? Alltop.com – search by topic. Technorati blog search – search by blog post or blog topic and get an idea of their relative influence by their Technorati ranking. Google Search (i.e. type “social media marketing blog” into Google) or Google Blog Search. Find a blog and follow their links to other blogs they read. By referral - ask. If you’re on Twitter or know someone on Twitter with a decent following, ask them to ask their network for referrals. If you know someone who is well-connected, ask them. Once you find blogs then you can begin to create relationships with the author - sending content, making comments and getting involved in the community. We recently helped a client identify key blogs for the audiences they wanted to reach. Then we’re working with them to develop strategies and coaching them on the tools and technology to do that. We’ll provide SEO support and distribute their news online. We’re starting slow by working with one “power mom” and letting her collaborate on how the campaign will go. Then they’ll expand and do more outreah based on the results. Some say blogging is dead but it isn’t - it’s just that way that we think about them has. Perhaps blogging may not be effective for you but finding and reaching key bloggers would be. The next step is to “listen.“ 2009-08-27T21:22:14-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/site/video-marketing-can-mean-roi-for-small-businesses/ http://www.orangesoda.com/social-media-marketing-blog/video-marketing-can-mean-roi-for-small-businesses/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/video-marketing-can-mean-roi-for-small-businesses/#When:15:52:15Z Social media is turning into the next natural phenomenon on the web. With the right tactics, it is possible to get enormous amounts of exposure with relatively low costs. When people think of social media Facebook and Twitter are usually the first two networks that come to mind.  These are highly effective tools that should be used in coordination with video. More and more small businesses are learning how to leverage the internet to compete against larger corporations.  Video has proven to be an important tool if David wants to find success against Goliath. The main question on everyone’s minds is how you have a successful video marketing campaign. Lucky for you, we’ve dug a few tips out of our archives to help you out. Social media is turning into the next natural phenomenon on the web. With the right tactics, it is possible to get enormous amounts of exposure with relatively low costs. When people think of social media Facebook and Twitter are usually the first two networks that come to mind.  These are highly effective tools that should be used in coordination with video. More and more small businesses are learning how to leverage the internet to compete against larger corporations.  Video has proven to be an important tool if David wants to find success against Goliath. The main question on everyone’s minds is how you have a successful video marketing campaign. Lucky for you, we’ve dug a few tips out of our archives to help you out. Video Marketing Process -          Identify if your company has the type of product that could benefit from video marketing. -          Dig through all of your old marketing material to see if you can use any already produced footage.  There is a significant cost savings if you are able to edit and publish already existing video. -          Identify if your company would benefit more from our standard video marketing or our landing page video marketing.  Many companies would benefit from both. -          Produce video and distribute through as many channels as possible.  We recommend using a tool such as Traffic Geyser or Tube Mongol to help with uploading to hundreds of directories. Tips for Producing an Effective Video -          Incorporate upbeat music throughout the movie. -          Keep video to fewer than 4 minutes. -          Make your video funny, cool, or clever. -          Have a clear call to action at the end of each video. -          Be sure to incorporate the website you are trying to promote at the beginning and ending of each movie. -          If distributing on Youtube and other video directories, be sure to write excellent Meta Data. -          Edit your video in sharp, clear, and interesting clips.  Sample Videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKcGvv9XjPI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diGxtWr4mpc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYmEHnX_Ah4 Take the Social Media Plunge Today With video or any other type of new marketing technique there is definitely a learning curve.  It is going to take a while to produce something that people are going to want to see.  At first, don’t be too picky about putting out something that isn’t perfect.  The important thing is that you try to improve with every piece of work.   2009-08-27T15:52:15-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/site/onsite-seo-a-solid-foundation/ http://www.orangesoda.com/search-engine-optimization-blog/onsite-seo-a-solid-foundation/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/onsite-seo-a-solid-foundation/#When:15:42:26Z If your business has any sort of web presence, chances are you’ve heard of SEO. The odds are also good that you’ve been told that SEO is complicated, expensive, and takes a long time (which may or may not be true in your case). What you might not have heard is that SEO is THE most effective form of online marketing. You read that right. Though it can take some time, SEO is the most effective form of online marketing. It has better returns than email marketing, pay per click, or even an affiliate programs. So what’s the catch? There isn’t one. If your business has any sort of web presence, chances are you’ve heard of SEO. The odds are also good that you’ve been told that SEO is complicated, expensive, and takes a long time (which may or may not be true in your case). What you might not have heard is that SEO is THE most effective form of online marketing. You read that right. Though it can take some time, SEO is the most effective form of online marketing. It has better returns than email marketing, pay per click, or even an affiliate programs. So what’s the catch? There isn’t one. SEO is commonly broken down into two components, onsite and offsite. Offsite SEO is basically link building (securing keyword targeted links pointing to your site), though social media marketing can also be termed SEO, as it often influences rankings. Link building is a necessary, ongoing component of SEO. However, it is the other half of SEO that we want to discuss. Onsite SEO is composed of foundational principals that should ideally be integrated into the website at its conception. From keyword rich URLs to well written titles, Meta tags, content and internal link structure. It is very much like building a home. When a home is being built, great care is taken to ensure a solid, even, durable foundation. Why? Because the foundation can make or break an otherwise incredible home. So it is with SEO. A million dollar website with no SEO elements in place is about as useful as a million dollar home with a foundation made of Play-Doh. A ten thousand dollar website with excellent SEO could quite easily outperform a million dollar website with no SEO. If your web designer claims to build SEO friendly websites, ask to see some examples. Give them a copy of Google’s free SEO Guide and make sure they follow it to the letter. There is nothing worse than spending a ton of money for a new website only to find that it won’t rank for anything. If you already have a website, and you aren’t ranking well for the keyword you are going after, pay to have an SEO expert perform an analysis of your site. It may be a simple fix to get you ranking. Remember, a site without onsite SEO is a home with no foundation. SEO isn’t terribly complicated. Yes, it takes some effort to stay on the cutting edge, but the principles themselves are pretty simple, easy to learn, easy to apply. The simplest definition of onsite SEO is this: making your site worthy of ranking first for a given keyword. That’s it. Do you want to rank #1 for a certain keyword? Look at your site, and then look at the sites ranking in the Top 10 for that keyword, then ask yourself if you deserve to be ranking ahead of those other sites. Be honest. If the answer is no, then make yourself worthy of ranking better. If your website is well written, relevant for the keyword you want to rank, and follows the standards and guidelines that the search engines and SEO experts have identified regarding onsite SEO optimization, there is no reason why your site can’t rank. If you feel like you have already done this, and you are still having trouble ranking, then it’s definitely time to consult with an SEO expert. Want more information regarding current onsite SEO guidelines? Contact us today for a free copy of our Onsite SEO Guide!   Small Business Advice 2009-08-27T15:42:26-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/site/social-media-strategy-step-1-find-your-community-online/ http://www.orangesoda.com/social-media-marketing-blog/social-media-strategy-step-1-find-your-community-online/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/social-media-strategy-step-1-find-your-community-online/#When:21:10:48Z <!— /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;}—> We’ve been working with clients on social media strategies and online PR. The next few posts cover ways to develop a social media strategy which is a part of online PR. Social media involves various communities that are online. They include everything from message boards to forums and Facebook. Why do people visit online communities? People go to online communities mainly to have fun. They also go to socialize, build relationships, find information and share recommendations. Being involved in social media is a great way to build word-of-mouth marketing. But first you’ve got to find online communities and build trust with them. It starts with finding your community or communities online. Be sure to spend your time participating in communities that are potential sources of leads. Do research to see where your target audiences are spending their time online. For example: You may find that people on Facebook are asking each others for advice about things you’re an expert on. Using OrangeSoda as an example, people might ask how to get traffic to their web site. Response: You can take an educational role, answering questions and providing guidance. In this example,we’d talk about optimizing a web site for search and paid search options. We’d let them know what we do to help. You may learn that people talking about how the economy is affecting them, and their needs and responses to it. They want a product like yours but can’t afford it. This is a hot topic right now. Response: Create or increase visibility of information that is helpful. Payment programs you have, the value of your product, etc. Or, you create a package that is priced more competitively. You offer discounts or bonuses to build value or reduce cost. How do you find your online community? The post has a great list of tools.   Here are some of my favorites: http://tweetreach.com - type in a topic, your branded terms, products etc. and see who’s tweeting about them most. Find the people who are most actively involved, follow them, develop a relationship with them and ask them to tweet your content. http://www.backtype.com - BackType is a conversational search engine. They aggregate information from blogs, social networks and other social media “so people can find, follow and share comments.“ So if you find someone you want to follow on TweetReach, type their name into BackType. You’ll see and can track which communities they are actively participating in. Also see the reach of your content by entering a URL. The next step is to find relevant blogs. 2009-08-18T21:10:48-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/site/twitter-101-for-businesses/ http://www.orangesoda.com/social-media-marketing-blog/twitter-101-for-businesses/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/twitter-101-for-businesses/#When:14:46:09Z Like Facebook before it, Twitter has become the place to be found in the online world. From February 2008 to February 2009, Twitter grew roughly 1,400%, hitting 7 million visitors in February 2009. From February 2009 to April 2009, it grew another 250%, topping 17 million visitors. This is a growth trend that is expected to continue for a long time. Is your business taking advantage of this incredible opportunity? It should be! Unfortunately, if you don’t know the ... Like Facebook before it, Twitter has become the place to be found in the online world. From February 2008 to February 2009, Twitter grew roughly 1,400%, hitting 7 million visitors in February 2009. From February 2009 to April 2009, it grew another 250%, topping 17 million visitors. This is a growth trend that is expected to continue for a long time. Is your business taking advantage of this incredible opportunity? It should be! Unfortunately, if you don’t know the Do’s and Don’ts of Twitter, you could do more harm than good. Twitter users, like users of any social media platform, are looking for sources of genuine value. They want information, humor, and great deals. They want breaking news, or the latest gossip. They want a place where they can communicate with people who share their interests. Twitter users don’t want to be bombarded from every direction with self-serving tweets, advertisements, and blatantly commercial links. There is no quicker way to alienate potential followers than to try to sell them something every time you tweet. These 10 steps can help your business to avoid mistakes and to succeed on Twitter: #1 – Determine a Niche – It is important that you find and occupy a niche in which you are an expert. If your company is a bakery, you should be tweeting about recipes, food related news stories, great places to eat, and the like. If you are an automotive company, your tweets should similarly focus on that niche. Be an expert in your niche, and those who are interested in that niche will look to you for information. #2 – Optimize Your Account – When you create a Twitter account, it is important to select a Twitter name that either contains your company name or that contains a keyword that is important to your niche. Make sure you fill out your profile with keywords relevant to your niche so that you can easily be found. Make sure you include a link to your website. It is helpful to have a custom, branded Twitter background created to set you apart, preferably one that contains business info to the left of the Twitter feed. #3 – Tie Your Social Media Accounts Together – A unified social media presence helps to establish your company as trendy and cutting edge. You can set Facebook to automatically update your status from your Twitter feed. You can add a Twitter module to your company blog. You can link to Twitter from your company LinkedIn page or your Google Local Profile. The more genuine and reachable your company is the better. #4 – Be an Expert – It is important once you have occupied your niche that you establish yourself and/or your company as an expert. Look for question tweets related to your field and answer them. Post up links to the latest information regarding your industry. If someone searches for terms related to your industry on twitter, your tweets should show up. It is recommended that you build up to at least 50-100 tweets before you actively hunt for followers, so that potential followers have something to look at and judge you by. #5 – Find People in Your Niche – There are numerous search tools for twitter, from search.twitter.com to Twellow.com and TwitScoop.com. Search for keyword related to your business or industry. As you find people who are interested in your niche, follow them. Read what they have to say, RT and @ reply to their tweets (re-tweet and at reply). These people will hopefully check out your tweets in return, and if you are adding value and are relevant to their interests, they will follow you back. #6 – Add Real Value – Do not be overly commercial! A good rule of thumb is 9 out of 10. Out of every 10 tweets, 9 should be about your industry, informative and non self serving. The other tweet can be about your business or products. If every other tweet is about your own products or services, you aren’t adding value to the community, and you will alienate potential followers. For example, if you sell baked goods you could use Twitter to announce when food is coming out of the oven or to offer free samples. If you own a restaurant, you could announce new menu items or freebie deals. If you sell online software products, you could offer a free copy to the first 10 people who respond to the tweet. Be creative. #7 – Build Loyalty – Twitter makes an excellent platform to distribute coupon codes and special deals. People love getting free or discounted stuff, and this will help to build a more loyal following. You can then track how many additional sales occurred using the coupon code or special offer, to determine if Twitter is an effective platform for your company. #8 – Tweet Often – 5-10 Tweets per day is a good, safe number. Any more than that and you may become a nuisance. Any less and you risk not being noticed. The tweets should be staggered, perhaps every hour or so (you don’t want to dump 10 tweets all at once). If you can’t tweet throughout the day, TweetLater is a great free tool that allows you to schedule tweets in advance, amongst other things. #9 – Tag Your Posts – It is helpful to use #hashtags to mark your tweets with relevant keywords for searchers to find. A hash tag is a # followed by a keyword, no spaces. Twitter has a lot of search engine strength, and proper keyword tagging can help you to be found by search engine users in addition to twitter searchers. #10 – Measure It – Twitter is actually pretty easy to measure. If your website has analytics installed, you can see how many visitors to your site are originating from Twitter (Google Analytics is free). If you sign up for a Bit.ly account, whenever you put a URL in your tweets use your Bit.ly account to shorten the URL. This will allow you to track how many people follow your Bit.ly shortened links. If you follow the above steps, you can create a solid Twitter following, improve your branding, avoid damaging mistakes, and determine just how valuable Twitter can be to your company.   2009-08-17T14:46:09-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/site/pr-has-changed-what-that-means-for-you-online/ http://www.orangesoda.com/social-media-marketing-blog/pr-has-changed-what-that-means-for-you-online/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/pr-has-changed-what-that-means-for-you-online/#When:20:55:34Z PR has changed in many ways. First, what was once a handful of journalists is now many – which means it’s harder to form relationships with them. So finding the right person and getting a story published about you just got harder. Why? Their jobs (like yours) are more complex. They once wrote articles that got published. Now their job includes new territory—online. They are expected to write blog posts, maybe audio recording or video to go with their stories. They, like you, measure success by metrics like traffic to their web site. Another way PR has changed is that your audience is splintered and increasingly it is online. To take full advantage of this you need to find and pay attention to the right audiences. Because once you get your message to the right audience, your conversion increases dramatically. Also, what was once pretty predictable is no longer predictable or controllable. You may not even want to be online but that won’t stop people from spreading information about your brand. You can either ignore it or find ways to participate. What started as more of a one-way conversation with a few people, has evolved into a collaborative communication with many people in many places. It’s a new neighborhood online and many are new to this community. Like any community is has its own culture and before you jump in you’ve got to get to know the locals. It’s not enough to have a web site. Search engine optimization, press releases that are distributed and promoted online, blogs and social networks are all part of online marketing. PR is part of online marketing.  What that means to you, is you have to be more savvy. Or your PR firm has to be more savvy. You may work more closely with your online marketing firm. The lines between journalists, bloggers and online marketers and PR are blurring.   2009-08-11T20:55:34-07:00 http://www.orangesoda.com/site/two-heads-are-better-than-one-microsoft-and-yahoos-new-search-deal-to-comba/ http://www.orangesoda.com/pay-per-click-blog/two-heads-are-better-than-one-microsoft-and-yahoos-new-search-deal-to-comba/ http://www.orangesoda.com/site/two-heads-are-better-than-one-microsoft-and-yahoos-new-search-deal-to-comba/#When:14:45:16Z For many marketers arriving to work this morning it came as a shock that Microsoft had joined together with Yahoo in an effort to collaboratively move to take more of the market share from Google. Last year Microsoft bid just under 50 billion dollars to buy Yahoo. The offer was immediately withdrawn and we saw Microsoft reconstruct their search engine in an aggressive attempt to be a realistic Google competitor both in algorithm and appearance. For many marketers arriving to work this morning it came as a shock that Microsoft had joined together with Yahoo in an effort to collaboratively move to take more of the market share from Google. Last year Microsoft bid just under 50 billion dollars to buy Yahoo. The offer was immediately withdrawn and we saw Microsoft reconstruct their search engine in an aggressive attempt to be a realistic Google competitor both in algorithm and appearance. This new deal is effective for ten years. In order to incorporate all of the changes the two engines will undergo to comply with the agreements made in the deal, the companies will have to put in about two years of work. The advertising efforts will be split, Yahoo taking the more prominent and premium advertisers while Microsoft will be used for the smaller customer whose budgets are much lower. Together the two engines will incorporate about 28% of search for their users. The biggest change will be algorithmic as Bing’s new formula for search is proving to be extremely beneficial and user friendly. So what happens now from the online marketer’s perspective? The questions, for me, mostly lie with Pay-Per-Click.                 What platform should I use?                 Will I get equal ad distribution between the two search engines now?                 Will Bing’s algorithm use on Yahoo be effective?                 If I do PPC on both Bing and Yahoo, will the results be the same as if I only used one engine?                 Will this affect my marketing strategies at all during the two year transition? There are lots of questions and, as with a lot of big ideas that move fast, not a lot of exact answers. I don’t anticipate massive marketing changes from the back end of the search engines in the immediate future. But it is very exciting to see the competition that Google’s massive hand has made upon its two main competitors. For now I wait in the hopes of seeing more users for Bing and better ad serving for Yahoo, two much needed pieces to both platforms.   2009-07-29T14:45:16-07:00