Laura Kinoshita | Public Relations and Marketing Services | Kona Hawaii

How to Make Buyers Feel Good About Doing Business with You

Laura Kinoshita @lkinoshita — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:45:15 +0000

It may be easier for your customers to find you on a Google search than it is to find your contact card in their phone or PDA. Surprising, but true. How many times do we add a contact’s e-mail to our Rolodex, but never take the time to hunt down their phone number and add that in, too?

It happened to me all too recently. There I was, standing in a parking lot, needing to talk to a great freelance writer I know, but I just didn’t have her phone number handy. In fact, I had been pulling up her name and phone number from e-mail, and just couldn’t find her last message fast enough. So I used my smart phone to Google her name. She came up in the first result (as my name also does) and there she had it … her phone number right there on her Web page. Easy to find! Within 5 minutes we were on the phone, and I was able to book her time in the 15 minutes I had available that day.

How much easier, would it be, to simply have a vendor’s phone number in the banner?

Of course, it depends on what type of business you are in, and how much effort you want to spend answering incoming phone calls, but guaranteed it will help people to find you easily and quickly … even faster than if you had a phone book listing.

The other reason you might want to add your phone number is to “reduce friction” on your Web site. Friction is the resistence people feel when they do business on the Internet. Research has found simply having your phone number will boost opt-in rates and improve sales. It’s just another way people can quickly get in touch with you. It also shows you are someone “real.” Having your picture in the header and a clear statement about what it is you do also reduces friction by making it obvious within 5 seconds what your site is about.

What are other ways you’ve found to reduce friction on your site? What do you think your customers looking for when they come to your Web site? What personal touches can you add to make it fun to do business with you? Share your ideas in the Comment section below.

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How Facebook Changes Will Affect Marketers

Laura Kinoshita @lkinoshita — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:25:10 +0000

On Aug. 23rd Facebook will be changing the way marketers work with Facebook. This is a reminder that when you use Facebook, you do not own your content. So when Facebook changes, you have to change with them.

The biggest change is the removal of boxes that once appeared in the sidebar. This is where marketers used to be able to add ”Opt-In” boxes for their Constant Contact lists, or badges from Twitter and Skype. Boxes are what allowed people to tie in many components of their social media campaign into their Facebook landing page. They were very powerful. On August 23rd, they’ll be gone. So any content in a Facebook “box” will need to be recreated.

Boxes were also used to appease lawyers. They were where you put “community guidelines” and “rules” to keep everyone out of trouble. Now, this content will have to be moved to the “About” tab or “Info” tab. Neither tab supports FBML, but URLs do turn into hyperlinks, which is nice.

Over time, I think marketers will need to make more use of Facebook Markup Language to get the utility of boxes. FBML is HTML used specifically for Facebook. FBML allows you to create landing pages in Facebook that look and feel just like regular Web pages on the Internet.

If you’ve ever wondered, “how do I make a Facebook page engaging,” this is how. Examples of FBML are Gain detergent, Coca-Cola and Chick-Fil-A.

Facebook pages will also appear more narrow. If you’ve developed banners or images for Facebook, you may need to resize them. (Did a whole lot of graphic designers just make money?)

If you haven’t figured it out yet, all these changes are to make more room (and provide more value) to Facebook advertisers. Facebook is taking real-estate away from “free sites” and giving it to those willing to pay.

To see an example of the new Facebook page layout, look at a Facebook Event, like the one taking place at Big Island Seafood Farmer’s Market.

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How West Hawaii Businesses Use Social Media

Laura Kinoshita @lkinoshita — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:00:59 +0000

I wanted to find out how West Hawaii compares to the mainland U.S. when it comes to using social media for business marketing. More than 100 West Hawaii residents responded to my West Hawaii Social Media Survey in April. The results are presented below in a 19-page report with 10 charts and interpretive analysis.

This is the first look at how West Hawaii uses the Internet and social media tools for marketing businesses.

Previously, this data did not exist. In this report you’ll learn:

The percentage of West Hawaii marketers using social media to promote their businesses
How much time West Hawaii marketers spend on social media
The benefits most associated with social media
The relationship between time invested and results
The most popular tools, and which tools are best for what purpose

If you’re a marketer in West Hawaii and sometimes wonder if your efforts will pay off, these results will guide you!

If you’re already investing in social media, this report will let you compare what you’re doing to those that have the most success.

Download the West Hawaii social media report here and feel free to share the report with others!

Remember, the nature of social media is to share, so if you find value in this report, please share it with your social network.

Most importantly, I need to know what questions YOU have. Tell me what the most useful information was for YOU in this survey, and what you would like to see in the next West Hawaii Social Media Survey. Use the comments section below!

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West Hawaii Social Media Survey

Laura Kinoshita @lkinoshita — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:30:58 +0000

The results are in!

103 respondents took the West Hawaii Social Media Survey to report how they are (or are not) using social media to promote their business.

The winner of the $50 Costco cash card drawing is from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. If I get permission, I will let you know more about them.

I will now be preparing the results for release on Hawaii247.org.

Stay tuned!

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2010 West Hawaii Social Media Survey

Laura Kinoshita @lkinoshita — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 02:28:46 +0000

I’m conducting the first West Hawaii Social Media Survey. People who take the survey will be entered to win a drawing for a $50 Costco Cash card. Please take the survey by clicking on the image below, or by going to: http://survey.laura-kinoshita.com.

The purpose of the survey is to find out–once and for all–who is using social media in West Hawaii! I will also be comparing local and national trends to see how much Hawaii lags behind mainland U.S. Every response counts, and I especially need folks from West Hawaii to participate. So please help me get the word out. You can help me promote this on Twitter with something like:

“West Hawaii: Enter to win a $50 Costco Cash card by taking this super-short survey: http://bit.ly/91snua [please retweet!]“

Or use the green ”ShareThis” button below. Please contact me for a copy of the results, which will be ready in about 3-4 weeks.

Thank you for your support!

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