What better way to spread a press release quickly than through your established email lists?  Since press releases are not necessarily on a consistent recurring schedule, I find it helpful to use a flexible email marketing service like Vertical Response that offers a pay-as-you-go option.

After you announce the release to your email contacts, forward it to the Chamber of Commerce, local trade organizations, and other media outlets.

Incorporating an interview into your blog post is a great way to create a unique, entertaining and informative article. It is ok if you are at a loss for words – just get somebody else to do the talking!

Are you planning on attending a conference related to your business or industry? This is a great opportunity to speak with professionals in your field who can offer their opinions and advice. If you have access to a list of attendees or speakers, take a look through it and pick out several professionals you are interested in speaking with. If you want to secure your interview, try contacting the people you would like to talk to in advance. This way, you can introduce yourself and let them know the nature of the questions you are interested in asking them. You might ask them to meet you for coffee after the event, or meet you between seminars and workshops. If you do not have access to a list of attendees, you are sure to meet some interesting people while you are there, and most professionals are happy to sit down for a quick interview – especially if they know it is going to be featured on a blog. In addition to bringing your pen and paper, bring a small tape recorder with you, so you can capture your interview and review it later. Recording the interview makes it easier for you to engage in the interview, and you won’t have to scribble notes while trying to talk.

You don’t have to go to a conference to meet people to interview. In fact, you most likely already know many interesting professionals in your industry. Consider requesting an interview from your boss, perhaps your readers would like to hear from someone in an executive seat. You could request an interview from your co-worker, perhaps he or she recently completed an interesting project and you could tell his or her story in your blog post. You can even go through your rolodex and contact people you have met and worked with who may have interesting insight into the future of your industry. You can even interview someone outside of your field, someone in a different specialty – you can always find a way to make the information relevant to your readers.

If you have a topic in mind to write about that you are very interested in, but know little about, you can conduct a panel style interview. Do some initial research on the subject of interest. Formulate some questions you would like answered by those who know the subject best. Also consider questions you think would elicit informative answers for your readers. Then, contact people you would consider experts in the subject. Maybe it is a professor at a local college, a government official, or a small business owner – you can ask each individual the same questions and compare and contrast their responses. This type of investigative interviewing lends itself to a very comprehensive blog post.

So, the next time you have a case of blogger’s block, get out your tape recorder. Your interview is likely to inspire an interesting and informative new post.

For many small businesses, summertime translates to a slow business season. So, why not take this extra time to plan ahead?

As much as we might like summer to last forever, we all know how the fall and holiday seasons will quickly approach us, often faster than we expect. The summertime is an ideal time to plan for the upcoming busy seasons, and what better way to prepare than by taking this time to make sure your website reflects your mission, values, and goals. So browse through your website pages – make sure the design and layout still suit your needs, the colors still reflect your brand, and that the site is still easily navigated. You might consider asking some of your customers to fill out a brief survey, to help you better understand the needs of those who visit your website the most. By addressing these issues now, you will have time to focus on other business concerns during the busy season. It may be time to take a vacation, but not from one of your most valuable business assets – your website.

This summer, try adding a new feature to your website. WEBii knows that small businesses face a unique set of challenges when it comes to identifying an audience, capturing that audience’s attention, and converting website visitors to customers. However, by working with new website features, you can begin to overcome these obstacles. From member registration areas to online purchase centers, there are a variety of tools that can help your website flourish.

During your slower summer weeks, consider adding a blog to your site. Prepare 10 to 20 topics to discuss about your industry.  Later, when you need to maintain your blog during busy season, you will have those drafts ready to publish quickly.

Need expert help for your online marketing strategy?  WEBii is available to personally consult with you about your project and offer customized advice. Contact us for a free consultation on your redesign.

What industry related conference did you recently attend?  Write a short commentary on one of the presentations.

What local charity did your company recently sponsor?  Write about your involvement at their fundraiser.

Where did you recently notice some of your products?  Write about the cafe down the street where you saw your lamps hanging.

• If you don’t already have e-commerce features on your site, you can easily set up a pay pal account to accept online donations without having to purchase complex a shopping cart system.
• If your site currently incorporates e-commerce, add an option at check-out to include a donation into the purchase total.
• Use your social media outlets to share your support of your organization and let others know how they can help.
• Link your organization’s website to your own site and social networks to help out their SEO.
• Have an online contest.  For example, whenever your company’s facebook page reaches 1000 fans, you will donate $X to Organization X.

By using these and other tactics, you will not only be supporting a good cause, but you’ll be building your online presence and improving your site’s SEO in the process!

• Donate your services to a good cause or have an event that will draw media attention.  Remember to take lots of pictures and video for posting on social media outlets!
• Write expert articles for an industry newsletter as a guest writer or even become a regular columnist.
• Run a comprehensive search of mentions of your company on the web and if you are not linked, ask for one!
• If you’ve received sincere thanks and praise from a client, ask them to post a link to your site on their personal website or profile.
• Be sure you are linked in the directories of all chambers or business organizations you’re a member of.
• Exchange links with business partners and referral partners.  Make sure you are “fans” of one another.

YouTube, like every search engine, uses its own algorithm and delivers unique results… video results.  To access the 125.5 million Americans using YouTube each month, you must have video content on the web.  This doesn’t have to be an elaborate short film by any means– it can be as simple as a slide show, webinar, or a quick infomercial.  If you want to get more creative with your search marketing strategy, try releasing a viral video!

You should use the same principle SEO tactics with YouTube that you would with more tradtional search engines.  When submitting content to YouTube, be sure to sign up for a director’s account.  This will give you more room to describe your business and you’ll also have the capability to put live links in video descriptions.  Video content is a great and relatively easy way to get top-ranking search results, so what are you waiting for?  Grab the video camera and GO!

It is unlikely that anyone around the office has the time or skill set to manage a successful SEM campaign.  Unless your company has hired a full time, in-house SEM expert, it is in your best interest to consider outsourcing at least some of these tasks.  Consider which aspects of your SEM campaign you wish to hand over to the experts: Search Engine Optimization? PPC? Social Media?  Most firms will offer a package deal that includes all these components.

Outsourcing your search engine marketing is one of the best investments your company can make.  It will end up saving you a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of headaches.  Ready to give it a shot?  Call one of our SEO specialists at WEBii and get started today!

1960’s: tie-dye, lava lamps, and ouija boards
1970’s: tetherball, pet rocks, and Farrah Faucet hair
1980’s: parachute pants, Rubik’s cube, and Jazzercise
1990’s: Tamagotchi, chat rooms, and spandex
2000’s: Crocs, Hannah Montana, and… social media??

Consider the following (adapted from Erik Qualman’s article, Social Media: Fad or Revolution?):

• By 2010, Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers — 96 percent of them have joined a social network.
• One out of eight couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media.
• Eighty percent of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. People update anywhere, anytime. Imagine what that means for bad customer experiences!
• What happens in Vegas stays on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook…
• More than 1.5 million pieces of content (Web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook daily.
• Wikipedia has more than 13 million articles. Some studies show it’s more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica.
• There are more than 200,000,000 blogs.  Fifty-four percent of bloggers post content or tweet daily.
• Years to reach 50 million users: Radio, 38 years; TV, 13 years; Internet, 4 years; iPod, 3 years. Facebook added 100 million users in less than nine months; iPhone applications hit 1 billion in nine months.

So… you decide.  Is social media just another fad, or has it completely revolutionized the way people across the globe do business, connect with loved ones, share information, and live their everyday lives?

Need help revving up your company’s presence in the social media world?  WEBii can help!  Contact one of our specialists today to talk about starting a customized social media plan for your business.

How large are your files and how will they affect the performance of your site to those visitors? Do they have a fast enough Internet connection?  Will they likely be viewing your site at work when they might need to mute sound from playing?  Is the primary purpose of your web site to entertain, for brand recognition, or for making sales?  Will a video detract from another key call-to-action?

For many businesses, marketing with online videos and audio is a great tool, but it might be better served on a particular web page instead of your home page, or only on third party web sites like blogs, community forums, Google, and YouTube.  SEO and marketing consultants can often make recommendations in this area that are tailored to your campaign.  Ask WEBii about SEO Marketing Services.