.

• Social Media Examiner. A must resource and top Ad Age 150 blog. The best part of Social Media Examiner is that the often provide actionable social media tactics in their daily content. Social Media Examiner helps businesses master social media marketing to find leads, increase sales and improve branding using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.,….
• Mashable. Most used for staying on top of trends – it can be fairly simple for regular social media users. I read top posts everyday
• Smart Brief for Social Media. This is an easy to digest source of social media content. Love the daily newsletter which provides a round up the day’s top social media stories.
  

  In their own words, Smart Brief for Social Media is… Essential. Only the must-read news for the new social media landscape. Diverse. Articles chosen from thousands of news sites, blogs, and other sources, delivered straight to your inbox. Concise. Every story is summarized by our expert editors and linked to the original source for further reading.

• Hubspot. if you can endure their well executed follow up – they are the epitomy of what it means to create great content. They are an internet marketing firm, providing industry leading software. They are masters at inbound marketing and provide a wealth of social media content via their blog, ebooks and webinars.
• Who’s Blogging What. This weekly email newsletter which curates some of the best on what’s happening from the blogsphere. Thousands of web marketing professionals rely on Who’s Blogging What to stay current on social media, search marketing, user experience, email, web analytics and all of the latest developments of web marketing.

YouTube makes video marketing simple because it is free to use and very easy to work with. With millions of online video viewers logging in everyday, YouTube has become the hottest video sharing site online – it’s also the 2nd most popular site on the web – right behind Google.

So if you are looking to get in front of your local prospects, YouTube can help you do so with a little research and action. However, there are several things you need to do in order to ensure that your YouTube videos truly work to help you bring in more local customers.

Here are some important tips to keep in mind when using YouTube to market your business:

• 1. Create and Customize Your Channel – First, you should create your account and take time to customize it. Many business owners create a basic account, but don’t do anything more than that. However, if you really want to reap the rewards that YouTube can bring to your business, you should include your business’ branding, add relevant content, and customize the color to match the look and feel of your business. Also be sure to setup a channel since this will allow YouTube viewers to subscribe to your videos with a simple click.
• 2. Optimize Your Videos for Local Search – Once you upload your videos to YouTube, don’t stop there. Be sure to add keywords to the description box that local consumers would type in to find your business. Also make sure the title of your video contains a keyword as this is powerful in the optimization process as well. It’s also a good idea to place your local phone number in the title of your video. This way, when your video shows up in the search engine results, people will see your phone number right away without even clicking on the video.
• 3. Avoid Annotations Overuse - There is a feature that allows you to add comments over your video footage. While this comes in handy in some cases, do not be tempted to use it all the time because it will make your videos appear unprofessional. If you over do it, it will interfere with the audience’s concentration and be annoying to some people. Your aim is to capture the attention of your audience and your video content should be more than enough to achieve this.
• 4. Get Rid of Offensive Comments – While you do not have the control to prevent people from adding offensive comments below your videos, you can delete any comments that you feel are inappropriate. For instance, any vulgar language or racial comments should be removed. If not, some of your other viewers could be offended even though you had nothing to do with the comments. There is also a feature to block users from leaving comments on your videos.
• 5. Engage With Others – No one is an island in the world of social media, so as a business that wants more leads, customers, and sales, you have no choice but to join the party. Similar to other social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, YouTube presents an opportunity for you to connect with local consumers. Respond to comments made on your videos and also seek out other videos related to your field; comment on those as well.
• 6. Organize Your Content – People like to view organized content online and this includes videos. Organize your videos in a user-friendly manner instead of just uploading linear streams of videos; especially if you have a lot of videos. Create a playlist that will group relevant videos together and place older content in one lump. Give all the folders creative and catchy names to grab the attention of viewers.
• 7. Pay Attention to Tags – As with other sites, content on YouTube will be categorized based on tag words. Therefore, it is wise to take time to add proper tags to all your videos. It is difficult to identify the exact keywords people will use, but with the proper research, you should be able to determine some great keywords that can bring in local viewers. Be sure to monitor the performance of your videos to determine the effectiveness of the tags.
• 8. Promote Your Videos – Although millions of people go to YouTube to watch videos, there is no guarantee that they will find YOUR particular videos without some additional action on your part. Therefore, you need to promote your videos elsewhere to send as many viewers as possible. Use other social media networks and blogs to let people know that you have posted a new video on YouTube. Embed your videos on your business website as well as other video-sharing sites across the web; the more views you get, the better your results will be.
• 9. Use Analytics Tools – YouTube offers free analytic tools that business owners can use to monitor the progress of their videos. The information you get from these tools will go a long way in helping you improve your approach and get more viewers.
• 10. Do Not Neglect Your Channel – YouTube has a lot of neglected channels and you don’t want yours to end up amongst them. This does not mean that you should create and upload new videos every single day. But you should not let the channel be dormant for an extended amount of time. Instead, create new videos at a pace that makes sense for your business. Keep your account active by logging in often and interacting with others.

YouTube is one of the most effective ways to generate new traffic to your business. It’s cutting-edge, it’s popular, it’s engaging, and it’s affordable.

However, creating videos and uploading them to different online properties proves to be a huge task for most business owners. Not only do you have to figure out what type of videos you should be creating, but then there’s the task of actually creating and uploading them to various online sites.

Let us know if you need help with your video or you just want to learn more. Drop me a line at: jeff@i3marketingagency.com

This type of announcement might fly underneath the radar of your weekly reading – so why care, or more importantly what does the link disavow tool do?

Here is a quick summary – bad inbound links can hurt your rank in the search engines (I think we all know that). However, sometimes the sites linking to your site you have little or no control over. So the Google Link Disavow Tool lets you do something about these random links by giving you a way to disown — or “disavow” — those sketchy links so they don’t effect your ranking either way. Hope that makes sense?

I am not going into detail here – but for our clients who rely on us for Google+ Local Search and Link Building these are the type of things we are staying on top of for you. If you are interested in reading more you can read the two bets articles I found which explain all about the Google Link Disavow Tool and you can even watch a video of Matt Cutts, Googles finest seo guy) discuss it here:

• http://searchengineland.com/google-launches-disavow-links-tool-136826
• http://www.seroundtable.com/google-disavow-link-tool-15848.html

Read full article here:

GoDaddy Outage 2012 Takes Down Millions Of Sites, Anonymous Member Claims Responsibility

In case you haven’t noticed, social media has gained momentum at astonishing rates over the past few years. While a lot of businesses are scrambling to catch up and ride the social media bandwagon, they are ignoring another powerful form of marketing that is proven to generate results; email marketing.

Despite all the hype about social media, email marketing is still one of the most effective and affordable forms of marketing for small businesses. If you run a local business, hopefully, you are capturing your customers’ – and even potential customers’ – email addresses.

Most consumers don’t mind getting emails from businesses as long as the information is valuable and will benefit them in some way.  Email marketing is permission-based so once your contacts opt-in to your list, you have permission to start sending them both promotional and informational emails.

If you are already using email marketing, but are not getting any results, there is a problem somewhere in your marketing funnel. When developing an email marketing campaign, there are several steps businesses must take in order to build and maintain a solid, targeted list. Also, the way you engage with your list is another important factor in how well email marketing will work for you.

Marketing can sometimes seem like a puzzle – especially online marketing. However, there are some simple steps you can take to really make email marketing work to bring in more customers, sales, and profits.

Here are 10 email marketing tips that can help you run a targeted, effective email marketing campaign that will get results:

1. Build a List of Targeted Contacts – Building a list that is “targeted” to the type of product or service you want to sell is the first step in starting an email marketing campaign. One way to start is by asking your current customers to join your email list. Also, be sure to add a call-to-action telling people to join your email list on all of your marketing materials such as flyers, business cards, and especially your website. Make sure your website has an opt-in form on every page where visitors can join your email list right on the spot.

2. Don’t Spam and Avoid Being Too Salesy – Email marketing can be a little tricky because although your overall goal is to turn those emails into sales, you cannot send sales-oriented emails all the time. Also avoid sending too many emails to your list as this is an instant turn-off, which will result in unsubscribes. It is also important that your campaign is a nice mixture of promotional offers, entertainment, and information-sharing. Do not send sales and promotional messages all the time as this will also cause people to opt-out of your list.

3. Be Personal in Your Emails – Email is your chance to connect on a personal level with your subscribers. Make them feel special by speaking to “one” person instead of many people. Email is a great two-way communication tool, so be sure to answer any replies from your subscribers to show them that you care.

4. Decide on the Best Time to Send Your Emails – Depending on the type of business you have, there certain days and times that would generate a better response from your email subscribers than others. However, testing and tracking is the only way to figure out what days and times work best for your business.

5. Pay Special Attention to Your Subject Lines – They may not seem all that important, but the fact is that they are the most important factor in your entire email. The subject line is the first thing your subscribers will see when you email them, so it has to be enticing enough for them to open the email to see what’s inside. A catchy, professional subject line always wins while a dull or spammy subject line can ruin your campaign.

6. Integrate Emails With Other Marketing – Email works great by itself, but it’s even more powerful when you combine it with your other online properties such as your social media profiles and your online videos. Always direct your followers to your email opt-in form. Vice versa, whenever you send out emails to your subscribers, always ask them to “Like” you on Facebook or “Follow” you on Twitter.

7. Make it Easy for Them to Unsubscribe – I know this may sound backwards, but it’s actually a good thing. If people have problems unsubscribing from your list, they could flag your email as spam, which could cause problems for you.  Make sure the unsubscribe link is easy to find in every email you send out. Most email autoresponder services automatically include this option at the end of all emails.

8. Keep Your Emails Short and Simple – People today do not have a lot of time, which means they do not want to sit and read really long emails. To ensure that your message is fully received, you will need to keep your email short and to-the-point. Less is considered “more” when it comes to email marketing messages. Highlight the important points and use trigger words related to your audience for the best results.

9. Always Send Test Emails First – Prior to sending your emails to your list, send a test email to yourself first. This will give you an opportunity to view the email from your subscribers’ point of view. If there are any errors or formatting issues, you will have a chance to catch them and fix them before sending out the final email to your list.

10. Measure and Track Results – Measuring and tracking the results of your email marketing campaigns is extremely important if you want to succeed. What if your emails are not being opened? What if your open rate is rapidly declining? If you are not aware of what is going on, there is no way you can improve your campaign for optimal performance. Testing, Measuring, and Tracking are pertinent in finding the right messages, the right design, and the right call-to-actions that will generate the highest responses.

Email marketing is not going away anytime soon. Creating a strong, solid campaign may seem like a never-ending task, but it can be done if you take the time to do it right. As a business owner who wants to bring in more local traffic to your establishment, email marketing cannot be ignored. Although getting started can seem like huge under-taking, the benefits are well worth it in the end.

Need some assistance setting up and/or managing your email marketing campaigns? Get in touch with us today.

Go ahead and watch the two videos below and think about the question and answer our poll: What concerns you more, Lulzsec Hacks or WarGames?

Watch this video on YouTube.

Future of Social Media Marketing

Image via Wikipedia

Social Media Marketing Tips that will Make or Break Your Business

If you are not using social media as part of the marketing strategy for your business, then the only thing you are accomplishing is losing business to your competitors. Your competitors are using social media to attract new clients and communicate with existing ones. It is no longer a question of whether or not businesses should be using social media networking and marketing; the question is now how businesses should be integrating social media into its marketing mix.

It’s Not a Trend

Marketing is one of those tasks in a business that is necessary but daunting at the same time. It may also seem as if a new marketing trend comes along all the time and if you tried every one, you and your business would be broke. This, however, is not the case when it comes to social media marketing. This type of marketing is not a trend and is here to stay.

What this means for your business is that you need to learn how to leverage the power of social media marketing now or suffer the consequences of lost customers and a decrease in profits later. I plan to write weekly about the social media marketing tips we use on a day to day basis passing on the information that we see working with our clients.

It Creates a Sales Force

Still not convinced that social media is a powerful tool for promoting your business and boosting your sales? Consider that the average Facebook user has about 140 friends. Assume that one of your clients mentions that they just bought your product or used one of your services and how great it was. You just received a positive advertisement for your business that reached at least 140 people.

Then, multiply the 140 people the initial message reached by the 140 people each of these friends has on their Facebook page, and now we’re are talking about some serious numbers.

And, all you had to do is create the platform for these conversations to take place and your sales force to start spreading the word for you.

It’s Free

When it comes to the marketing budget, it is always music to a business owner’s ears when they find out that the use of social media marketing is free. You or an employee should put together a social media marketing plan and someone has to implement the plan, but other than the time it takes to do this, social media marketing does not cost you or your business a dime.

Stop fighting it. Join the millions of small, medium, and huge corporations that are using social media as part of their marketing strategy today. If you continue to fight it, you may as well just refer your customers directly to your main competitor that is using social media. If you are ready to stop fighting it, then learn more about social media benefits, how it can boost your business, and the ways that avoiding this type of marketing can make or break your business.

For more information on the benefits of social media marketing browse these related articles:

Related articles

• Benefits and Drawback of Social Media Marketing: (ruralstops.blogspot.com)
• Results Are In: The Top Tool to Help with Social Media Marketing (community.constantcontact.com)
• Resource Page: Social Media for Online Marketing (serchen.com)

Watch the video below as Adam’s five year old daughter responds to different logos and brands. A telling view into why logo’s matter and make a difference.

How strong is your brand?

Watch this video on YouTube.