Ok Small Business Back to Work
It is a new year, the holidays are over, kids are back in school and it is time to get moving again. 2009 can be the year that your small business really breaks through online. Over the holidays I ask a number of associates for their thoughts on what small business should do in 2009. These will be coming in the next post but today I thought I would provide my thoughts for small business for 2009.
The #1 thing small business needs to do in 2009? Is do SOMETHING! Too many small business are simply sitting on the sidelines and waiting and watching. Get off your butts and get online. There are so many avenues that a small business can pursue to promote themselves and increase their online visibility….
Local Search: To start off with, small business needs to optimize their current website(s) for their appropriate local / geo-targeted keywords. They need to get listed in the local search engines, directories and Internet Yellow Pages sites. Once they accomplish these two things then they need to branch off into other areas. The other areas to consider:
Social Marketing: This is one of the fastest growing areas- Twitter, Facebook, blogging - all ways to interact with visitors and customers. Social marketing is a great way to network with others and learn alot in whatever area you might be in. This can become very time consuming but if you plan and set aside some time this would be worth the effort.
Mobile Search: Advertising on mobile-centric networks, create mobile ready web pages, etc will be a very valuable aspect of online marketing to many different businesses.
Video Search: Video marketing I think should be a no brainer. Creating a video for your business and then promoting it online is growing very quickly and I am not just talking about YouTube. Video SEO is very real and effective. To me this would be step two for a small business. Using video can add another dimension to your website and promote yourself in more locations online.
HyperLocal: What is going on in your neighborhood or city? Is your business sponsoring an event in town? Where ever you are, you are part of some community, why not take advantage of it?
Right now these 4 areas are ones that most small business can take advantage of today. Each can be done without having to break the bank and each will help extend your online presence. We will definitely be covering these areas in 2009. But as I started this post-small business needs to do something.
Merry Christmas!
From our home to yours, a very merry and blessed Christmas!
Local Search Via Blackberry Storm
Have not posted in a while, simply because I have been busy and playing….with my new Blackberry Storm. Yes I got one last week and I really like it. If you read the reviews, some think it is great, others a piece of garbage. Now I came over from a Palm Treo. I really liked the Palm and what it could do but after 3 years it was time for an upgrade.
One of the reasons for the upgrade was that I wanted to be able to experience local mobile searching like the “big kids” do. LOL. Right now the iPhone is king so why didn’t I go get an iPhone? Staying within our current wireless network, removable battery, and the micro sd card were probably the three biggest reasons.
Ok, I am not here to sell you on the Storm but to see where we might go with it. The iPhone has a ton of cool local search related apps right now and it should be only a matter of time before folks begin developing them for the Storm. It runs on the Blackberry OS so many of the current apps will work on the Storm.
Right out of the box, the Storm comes with a number of local search related items:
1. a nice full HTML browser and of course a very strong wireless network
2. built in GPS
3. Blackberry Maps
4. VZ Navigator (a fee based directions program)
Since it has a full HTML browser, you can go to any mobile or regular website. Citysearch, YellowPages.com, Mapquest, local news sites, you name it. All seem to work well and provide the local search info you need.
Google Maps is another option. Currently Google Maps does not work properly with the build Storm GPS but from what I have read, it should be coming soon.
Blackberry is saying that in the Spring, they will have their own app store too.
I played around with Blackberry Maps and found it very nice. When you turn it on, there is an option for “local search”. There you type in what you want, and it provides a list (says via Google Local) of what it found and the distance from you. You can then click to view them on a map. When you click on an individual listing, it provides the name, phone and/or website–both of which you can click on to activate.
The program allows you to can get directions to the location, create favorites…very nice.
Coming from the Palm OS, it has definitely taken some time to get used to things but I am getting there.
Since the Storm is so new, (and I to BB) there really is not much more I can say right now. I look forward to seeing the apps come next year. Has anyone else used the Storm? Found any good apps? Let me know.
Local mobile search continues to grow and the addition of the Storm simply adds to the options folks have to search locally via a mobile environment. Does your website look good on a mobile phone? Should you have a mobile version of your site? Are you listed in Google Maps, Yahoo Local, and so on? All questions you should answer going into 2009.
Mobile Local’s future looks bright: (just a couple of articles)
Pew Survey: Mobile to be Primary Internet by 2020
New TKG Data: Smartphone Penetration Nears 20%
Want more info on Blackberry phones? Here are a few great sites I found:
newbbiee.com
CrackBerry.com
Small Business Video SEO
While at the Kelsey Group’s ILM last month, they spoke a lot of video marketing. I wanted to follow up the meeting and a few posts I had done before Kelsey with some info on SEO for online video.
I am currently reviewing a couple of services that allow small business to create their own videos and then they will promote the videos online via various services/markets (other than YouTube).
At ILM 08, I met Mark Robertson of ReelSEO.com. Below is a presentation Dave did at PubCon, which I thought was very good and he gave me permission to reprint here.
Optimizing your video is just as important as optimizing your website. You want to make sure the right people see your video.
There are a couple other posts I thought worth your time. I found SEO 101: Video Optimization posted by Richard Burckhardt at Web Optimist very helpful. This is a great how to guide on helping your videos.
Another good post is How To Get Discovered Through Video Search by Eric Papczun at Search Engine Land. And finally 2008 Video Search Year In Review also by Eric at Search Engine Land.
Take a few minutes to review these. Am curious does anyone out there do online videos for their website? if so, let me know you experiences.
Small Business Ad Spending on Search Engines
Palore has come out with some interesting data on small business paid advertising trends. From their post:
“..looked at over 3000 SMBs who advertise online, on different websites, out of which we focused on 300 businesses who also advertised on search engines in the past 5 months. The chart shows the average monthly ad spend of SMBs on search engines over a period of 5 months.”
The business surveyed are all local businesses, no large corporations. Looks like the drop in spending corresponds to what is happening in the economy….
Check Out My Interview
If you have nothing else to do, why not check out Interview with Larry Sullivan: Value of Local Search and Online Marketing. Nisarat Sujatanond from MySolutionSpot.com conducted an interviewed with me the other day.
For those unfamiliar with MySolutionSpot, it is a new online business resource and professional networking tool for small business owners. From their website:
“MySolutionSpot is a professional networking Web site designed for the proactive business executive. With MySolutionSpot you can publicize your business, explore insightful resources, exchange ideas with other industry experts and find the tools you need to achieve your goals.”
From what I have seen, looks pretty cool. You can add articles into your profit, network, etc. Check it out. Thanks very much Nisarat for the interview and good luck with the new site. (I set up my profile!)
ILM 08 Wrap Up
Hope everyone had a great holiday. I did but now it is time to do some work. LOL.
I had a great time at ILM 08 and definitely would recommend the conference to those who want to understand more about local search. I thought all the discussion/talks were great. I especially like the panel discussion they had where they brought in “real life” small businesses.
A lot of time was spent on the topic of online videos. This area definitely is growing and should be something all small business consider.
I spoke to a number of businesses/companies and I will reporting on these in future posts.
Finally, I wanted to provide some links to see what my colleagues who were there had to say:
ReelSEO
Local SEO Guide
Praized
The Kelsey Group Blog
The Local Onliner
