Archive for April, 2010
Your Web site and SEO
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My Brother Built It. Why Doesn’t it Work?
Have you ever wondered, “How effective is my company’s Web site?” The mRELEVANCE team runs across companies every day that had their Web site built by a relative, typically their brother or brother-in-law. This is great if your brother or brother-in-law works for an Internet marketing company, but chances are, he doesn’t.
Many of these companies don’t see results from their Web sites and simply have a hard time proving or justifying the effectiveness of their sites. In the worst cases, they can’t get their sites to work at all.
During an upcoming seminar on Web sites and SEO (Search Engine Optimization), I will cover the five most common reasons why Web sites do not produce leads, prospects or buyers:
- Not built to drive traffic
- Difficult to Navigate
- Content and Branding
- Proper Call to Action
- Tracking and Analytics
Best of all, during the presentation I’ll provide constructive direction on how to fix them.
For more information on this Lunch & Learn on Friday, May 21 at 11:30 a.m., call the Cartersville – Bartow County Chamber of Commerce at 770-382-1466.
If you can’t make the seminar, but need help with your Web site, let me know. We love helping companies become effective online! 770-383-3360 or carol (at) mRELEVANCE.com
Sites for Women
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If you are a woman, and statistically we know that about 50-percent of you are, here are some social media sites you may want to check out! We discovered many of these Web sites last fall while putting together the “Sell More Homes to Women Through the Social Media Grapevine,” a program presented by myself and three dynamic women at the International Builders Show (IBS). If you are a man (and 50-percent of you are), this is a great way to find out what makes women tick and how to market to us!
Blogher – The community for women who blog
www.blogher.com
Girls in Tech – A network for women in business in the technology space
http://girlsintech.net
MillionaireMoms – the art of raising an business and a family at the same time
www.millionairemom.com
Atlanta: A Social Media Meca
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Social Media Marketing for Business
Atlanta now tops the lists of places to be in social media marketing. Does your small business Tweet? Do you have a Facebook page? If the answer is no, maybe it is time to look into a social media program. Just last week Atlanta was listed as one of the top Twitter cities of the world. Listed at #5, Atlanta is in good company coming in just behind London, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
During 2009, Atlanta was one of the fastest growing cities in terms of Facebook users with more than 142% growth during the first half of the year. In numbers of Facebook users Atlanta is second only to New York! With all of these potential consumers flocking to Facebook and Twitter, it is more important than even to make sure your small business has a presence on the sites.
To streamline your social media strategy, make sure to launch a blog as the heart of your program. A blog will help you develop your messages and save time spent on social media by reducing the number of places you need to update. While there aren’t Read More→
Purse Power
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I don’t think anyone underestimates the buying power or influence of women. In fact, I recently Retweeted sheconomy, “Men, The Female Consumer is in Control. Listen or Perish. http://ow.ly/1zjvB.” My friend Aaron Hoffman quipped back quickly, “I think we understand that given that there’s 20 women’s stores to every guy’s store in the mall.”
Women influence all the major consumer purchasing categories from home furnishings to vacations to new homes. Here are the percentages:
- All consumer purchases: 85 percent
- Home furnishings: 94 percent
- Vacations: 92 percent
- New homes: 91 percent
- DIY (do-it-yourself projects): 80 percent
- Consumer Electronics: 51 percent
So, what is the best way to reach out to this influential demographic? Well, the Internet of course. Here of the statistics on where you can find us.
An April 2009 Women and Social Media Study by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners shows that women are twice as likely to use blogs over other social networking sites for trusted information. Here are the findings from the study:
- 75% participate in social networks
- 55% were active bloggers Read More→
Chatty Cathie Replaced By Texting Tammy
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A recent study from Pew on texting reveals that teens preferred method of communicating is by text. The study shows that boys typically send and receive 30 texts a day, compared with girls’ 80 messages. The one exception is Girls 14-17 who typically send 100 or more messages a day!
Women have always been the more social or chatty of the two sexes, but it seems that Chatty Cathie is being replaced by Texting Tammy.
Overall, girls more fully embrace most aspects of cell-phone communications:
- 86% of girls say they text message friends several times a day, compared with 64% of boys.
- 59% of girls call friends on their cell phone every day, compared with 42% of boys.
- 59% of girls send text messages several times a day to “just say hello and chat,” compared with 42% of boys. Read More→
She Says: Sell Me But Do It My Way
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Digital strategies provider Q Interactive enlisted its Women’s Channel, a pioneer in creating an online dialogue between leading brands and ideal women customers, to conduct a survey of more than 1,800 women — 82 percent of them mothers. The result may be as amazing as the women in your life! Women actually WANT ads to be directed and delivered to them to help them find the best deals. Women are busy and they want help finding the items they are looking for from the brands they trust.
Hghlights of the study include:
- 88 percent of women polled said they wished that brands they trusted would send them more tailored offers.
- More than 65 percent of the women first think, “Cool! How did they know I wanted this?” when receiving an online advertisement perfectly targeted to them.
- 58 percent said brands need to “Give me something” in order to build an online relationship.
- More than 53 percent believe they have relationships with sites and brands they often use online. Read More→
RSS Doesn’t Mean Really Simple to Steal
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Do you create GREAT blog content? Do you find that others love it too? In fact they often love it enough to steal it and post it verbatim on their own blog or website! Well, you are not alone. After having numerous posts copied and pasted word for word from our beloved Atlanta Real Estate Forum to other sites, we decided to create these clever shirts (Well, we think they are clever anyway, Let us know if you like them too!).
The front says, “My blog posts are so good, they may contain content that you’ll want to Steal!”
The back says, “RSS does not mean Really Simple to Steal.”
You can have one too for the low, low price of $20 (includes shipping). Just visit mRELEVANCE to order one. Make sure to enter your complete address so we can mail it to you along with your preferred size M, L or XL.
Let the world know how proud you are of your blog content with a fun RSS tshirt from mRELEVANCE.
Have You Synchronized Your Social Media?
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So you have a blog. . . now what? Now it is time to synchronize your social media and develop a more in-depth plan. Here are a few quick ways to evaluate your current program.
Does your blog have a plan to survive the next “dry” spell?
- Blog is strategically focused on a topic or specialty
- Team of writers in place and ready to blog
- Editorial plan of 8 blog posts a month
- Backup content is available for when something falls through
- Posts contain a mixture of copy, photos, video and podcasts
- Posts are easy to read about 300 words long and often contain bullets
Is your team “synchronized” in their approach?
- Both marketing and sales people are engaged in content production
- Blog leverages other social networks to maximize referral traffic Read More→
75% of Online Women Use Social Media
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She Cooks. She Shops. She Works. She is Online and She influences about 90-percent of today’s consumer purchases. Best of all, She is willing to interact with your company online. She is using social media. . . . have you met her?
The BlogHer-iVillage 2010 Social Media Matters Study, co-sponsored by Ketchum and the Nielsen Company, indicates that 73% of online women are now active social media users, engaging weekly or more often with top social media platforms. Social media is playing an increasingly important role in the everyday lives of Americans, particularly when it comes to getting advice on consumer products, according to the new survey released today, with many consulting blogs or message boards before making purchases.
“The twenty million users who visit the BlogHer Network favor blogs over every other media source for reasons both personal and pragmatic”
Key findings from the study include:
- Blogs are second only to Internet search as the preferred media source for product purchasing information for BlogHer Network users
- Blogs dominate the attention of BlogHer Network users (96% read blogs weekly or more often)
- BlogHer users are significantly more active with all three top social media platforms vs the average woman online (Blogs, Facebook, Twitter) Read More→
