WHITE HAT SEO BLOG

As you are used to choosing the right meat for that BBQ, or the correct bread making machine, so should you chose the right social media site for your company.
The simplest way to choose a site is to do so with one that works for you. Pretty simple really.

You can be in various social sites and then narrow it down to the ones you feel most compelled to use.

Do you need a very friendly, young, hip hop site? Or do you need a serious business-like site? That depends on whether you are selling high priced sneakers to a young crowd or a warehouse full of these sneakers via B2B.

Alternatively, if you do not find a social media site that fits your needs, then go to Ning.com and create your very own.

The pros and cons to using a smaller site like Ning.com is that they do not have the visits, media exposure and is not as well known as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Therefore, just as you need the right meat for that great BBQ, you will need to find the right show size for those sneakers; otherwise it will be one sore foot at the end of the BBQ.

As with any business, you must offer your followers something worth reading about. A hook of sorts. Keep in mind that with your hard earned followers, you need to keep them following you. Twitter is growing at breathtaking speed and your business should use it.

What do you offer? Ever ask that question? Twitter it.  Something that you offer which is singular to your business and only your business, will attract interest.

From customer relations, crisis management, press releases and even an event or product activation. Your business will only grow and prosper by the information you care to share with your followers (fans).

With the frame of mind that what you create, others will follow and then you engage those followers, you have a win-win strategy.

Another twitter idea is to create a quick response to a crisis, thereby avoiding the so called brand ambassadors (for damage control). By tracking the people who talk about you and your brand, it gives you an idea of what areas are needed for improvement and perhaps even ideas for a new product. Engage in dialogue!

In the end, you use Twitter to listen and learn from those who follow you. As they talk about your brand, whether it is positive or negative, it will give you a rare insight into your brand’s following – a bit of a “fly on the wall experience.”

Not many of us can do what the rich and famous do: Market ourselves with unlimited resources and have the help of thousands of friends and contacts and media.

Well, now you do. Twitter is used by those very same people. Look up a current talk show host, singer or movie star. They would inevitably be on Twitter; updating for ever more. From what color hair they had back in 1972 to why they kicked their guest off their show last night.

And Twitter’s fame is something you really cannot buy. It is like riding inside a Rolls Royce; priceless and people take notice everywhere you go.

What Twitter offers is blogs. You can write up to 140 characters in length and update as often as you like or need to. Daily specials? Sale next Sunday? Closed for vacation until June 5th? Put it there.

You do not need to create your own webpage, pay monthly or annual fees. No need to pay a web geek to put that soup of the day up, every day, 7 days a week.

Twitter is free. You control it, not it controls you. Why not add Twitter to your business card or email signature?

In the old days, you sold your product by building relationships. Don’t you miss it? I do. The main thing there is that those customers come back to you for your products. Facebook does exactly that: build relationships. The tools at your disposal are priceless and they do not hinder your ideas.

With that relationship you have repeat business, word of mouth advertising and that oh so important trust between you and your customer. Networking is an integral part of Facebook.

Going back to the old way of building relationships – when the lady of the house bought that important vacuum cleaner or steam iron, she told her neighbour and that neighbour told someone else, perhaps a relative. And so on. With Facebook and its powerful networking tools such as sponsorships, friendships, fans and blogs, your competition’s loss is your gain.

With their being heavy competition and a current global market crisis, this one-two punch to your bottom line would create a negative impact to your overall sales. Facebook actually helps you to achieve sales because of your location. Your web location and the other Facebook tool, group creation, you will be one step ahead of your competition and laughing all the way to the e-bank!

A website funnel is a series of pages by which a customer will go through from the first page through to the final page (or thank you page). Typically, this is used in a shopping cart web environment, but is important for all industries.

Clearly, you want the user to buy your pair of shoes, or whatever your product and/or services are. In the case of shoes, you have a page with many shoes, then he chooses brown shoes. Your page then shows brown shoes, sizes, pricing, etc. Then you want the user to input the marketing information (email address, cc information, demographics, etc).

From this part of the funnel, you do not want to lose the customer by him or her going to another shop. You need the customer to click the checkout button and finish the procedure and complete the sale.

The strategy here is to keep the guests and make them register on the site. Many people prefer to shop anonymously and then create an account and then checkout.
The funnel works in reverse if the registration is needed before shopping is allowed.  The people who would have bought these shoes, leave, as the pages are too difficult to navigate and too difficult to complete a given transaction.

A rule of thumb is to see if 20 or 30% of them leave before completing the purchase. Then analyse the funnel and see where the fault is with this form abandonment.