By Vanessa Humes


This week Facebook unleashed it’s new Facebook Places, a geo-location based feature that allows users to share where they are, check in on people around them, and find out about events and services offered in their area.

Partnering with other location-based networks such as Gowalla, Four Square, Yelp, and Booyah, Facebook has brought on a whole new dimension to Social Media that hasn’t had as much hype before.  But will it stick?

Even though with partnerships and opening up its API data for developers to create other applications with this Places features, Facebook must overcome privacy concerns that people will like and adapt to this new feature.  Users will automatically be “checked-in” to places and this news will post in your friends news feeds.  The common concern users face is the question of, if this person was truly my friend, wouldn’t they already know where I like to hang out? Facebook stalking has just been taken to a new level.

My first perception of Facebook Places is this is nothing new… Four Square has been doing this for a long time and there are even geo-location social media sites that date back to 2006.  But for the majority of internet and social media users, Facebook still hold the share of users time so intergrating with Facebook is a logical solution to push this new media.

What’s this mean for businesses and marketing?  There is an opportunity to advertise your brick and mortar business to Facebook Places and the partnership subscribers when they are looking for things to do in their location.  In addition, businesses will be promoted by the ability for user to share where they are and what they are doing.  The integration with Yelp will eventually help ratings pull in for these places and businesses.

How do you plan on taking advantage of the opportunity that presents itself with Facebook Places?

Brandon Sauls met with the Brunswick County Chamber of Commerce in mid December.  At the meeting, Sauls was asked by the board to chair the Marketing Development Committee for the chamber. 

Working under the President, Cathy Altman, Sauls hopes to be able to increase the traffic to the chamber website and therefore increase awareness for the area which in turn will boost over all leads.  Brandon will be working not only on the online marketing and branding but the overall marketing and branding for the Brunswick County Chamber of Commerce.

What We've Been Working On - Month of December

It's been a busy end to the year and the momentum is rocking into the New Year.  We'd like to take the time and send out a big Thank You to all of current customers that made 2009 such a success and look forward to working with you in 2010.

Here's some things we've worked on in December, 2009:

AeroFlow Health Care - New Website Launched:

AeroFlow Healthcare is the a provider of home respiratory and mobility equipment.  They came to ICND to help them update their website's look and feel and promote their products online.  ICND created a newly designed website that broke down their target audiences and allowed them to view information pertaining to their needs.

In addition, ICND is developing an online Sleep Apnea survey and starting a search engine optimization campaign Spring of 2010.

New Website Launched:  Baxley & Smithwick

Baxley & Smithwick Attorney's at Law selected ICND to design them a website to allow them to have an online presence.  They wanted a nice traditional look and information about all the different services they offer and their backgrounds and specialties.

The Palace Theatre - Selects ICND for website Design

Last but certainly not least, The Palace Theatre of Myrtle Beach has selected ICND to redesign their website.  The Palace Theater is looking for a fresh, new, clean look to highlight their shows and venue.  We're looking forward to a launch sometime mid January.

In December, 100,000 brick and mortar businesses in 5,000 cities who had claimed their Local Business Listings got snail mail from Google in the form of Favorite Place stickers, with instructions to put them in their windows and use them to promote their business.

Included on each sticker is a bar code that some smart phone users can scan to pull up Local Business Listing information, including coupons, on their phones. Outwardly, this appears to be just another bribe that Maps is offering to get businesses to claim their listings. In reality, Google could be testing any number of things relating to smart phone use, mobile search and local businesses. It's worth noting here that Google encouraged Local Listing Ad advertisers to link their ads to their Place Pages instead of to their websites because the Place Pages render well on small screens and contain all of the information a mobile searcher is likely to be interested in.

Google is continually testing and tweaking, so changes are no surprise to those who watch it. But in 2009, the number, frequency, acceleration and anticipated impact of the changes both in paid advertising and organic results regarding Local Search at Google have been remarkable. In my opinion, these increasingly louder rumblings indicate that once Google finds the optimum combination of the right user interface and profitable local advertising to display, it will unleash a formidable storm in the world of Local Search. Are you ready?

For full article and more information, check out Search Engine News: http://www.searchenginenews.com/se-news/content/search-engine-strategy-and-optimization-updates-for-january-2010#2

To help get set up in Google's Local Business contact ICND today.

It's like the Swiffer commercial, where an old sponge-mop is outside a window, peeking in at a housewife who has moved on to better mops, while "Love Stinks" plays in the background. The old mop is trying to win her back, even going so far as to hire a Mariachi band to court its perfidious ex-partner.

In this case, you're the sponge-mop.

We're talking about site-abandonment, and especially early abandonment -- the kind that leaves you feeling like a toddler dropped off at a nunnery, and you never know why, though you spend your life trying to find out.

Digital marketers, especially those who rely on campaigns to drive ecommerce, suffer greatly from abandonment rates, which can run as high as 80 percent for a typical landing page. All marketers are affected by it, even if their KPIs don't involve selling something online. In fact, any failure to complete a scenario -- any loss of traffic anywhere in the funnel -- is a symptom of abandonment: The target audience just didn't want to proceed. And isn't that the entire reason we perform web analytics at all? To find out why we can't get every single site visitor to do what we want them to do?

Perhaps a thousand types of measures have been devised about visitor behavior. The sheer number of report choices can nearly suffocate any search for the truth. There are so many interconnected measures that, at a certain point, it becomes like a house of mirrors -- no one can tell what's the real number or which measure can be relied upon for some type of objectivity.

In your search for objectivity, have you ever wondered if people's behavior is affected by how long they have to wait for your page to load? Have you ever abandoned because of load time?

Here are three ways, based on understanding load time, to help put abandonment in perspective -- and perhaps even decrease your abandonment rates:

Step 1: Admit you have a problem
The latest data shows that abandonment increases dramatically after a wait time of four seconds. In net time, four seconds is like four hours of driving: "Are we there yet?" becomes "Let's just pull over." And all of your marketing efforts suddenly become road-kill.

Slow load time can be caused by a number of problems, some of them obvious, some of them hidden, and all of them addressable.

The first thing you'll want to look at is content richness.

Ouch.

You may be thinking content richness is what everybody is looking for. How can you survive without Flash, without embedded video, without whirling, dancing eye-candy for a user base that seems to think a chance browser encounter should be as glittery as a stroll down the Las Vegas Strip?

Your content might be too rich, and yes, it might take too long to download. It might ask for too many plug-ins. It might be unsupported by your target user's browser.

Or, your page load problem may be caused by something that has nothing to do with over-rich content. It could turn out that your server is slower than a dinosaur in a dunce-cap; then again, you might have a peerage issue somewhere between you and Timbuktu. The hunt for KPI completion does not begin and end with earning kudos from your colleagues in a closed environment where everything runs at optimum speed and every link works just the way it ought to.

You need to get out of the conference room and into the real world. That's where the real story of page load begins and ends. And, as noted above, the trouble may not even be content richness. But how do you measure that?  Contact ICND to fix this problem now!

Step 2: Measure with the right yardstick
There are a number of tools available to measure load time: Gomez, Keynote, TeaLeaf, Atomic Labs -- these are just a few of the companies with load time measurement offerings. There are also some clever ways to tag pages for load time information, but few of these options are bundled products as yet (though they may be available from your web analytics professional services vendor).

The products mentioned above tend to work in a somewhat different way than the typical analytics tools do. In other words, they don't concentrate on click-stream data and don't need tagging or log files in order to function. In fact, they are, generally speaking, separate architectures that look at all of your traffic, all of the time, and do a variety of things with that information. Sometimes they are called "sniffers" because they sit somewhere between your server and your user and pick up all the traffic (kind of the way a bloodhound sniffs an evidentiary trail).

So for instance, where an analytics tool will know whether a particular tag loaded, a "sniffer" will know much more about how long it took for the page to be requested, how long it took the server to get it out the door, and how long it took for the various packets sent by the server to show up in the remote user's browser.

I had indicated above that some of the tools have significant other uses. TeaLeaf, in particular, has a core function that allows the marketer to play back, literally, a browsing session. Some folks call it "Tivo for web analytics." It may be a bit much to deploy all of that solely for the purpose of locating a page-load problem, but if it is taking place, TeaLeaf will probably see it.

A tool like Gomez, on the other hand, sets up a network (around the world) of synthetic testing nodes, enabling them essentially to mimic requests from anywhere and measure your response time for anything and everything you want to measure. You can look at certain parts of your transactions and find out, for instance, how long that is taking in Albuquerque, Inchon, and Luxembourg all at once. The only drawback is that generally these tests are synthetic (in other words, not involving actual users).

A clever tagging solution will have its drawbacks too; for instance, it won't be able to know when the server request was made, or how long it took for the first tag to load. But then, the moon is not the sun, yet both have recognizable assets.

Linking load time directly to abandonment typically requires an additional integration step. For instance, if you are trying to find out how a sniffer-tracked load time problem is affecting your campaign ROI, you should be prepared to do some fancy dancing with your analytics tool -- but with the right kind of integration, the dancing can lead to marriage, and you'll see stars.

The important takeaway is this: While I'm not going to claim it's easy, you can certainly find out how long your pages take to load, and you can, with the application of some elbow grease, understand whether that is affecting abandonment and conversion overall. In all likelihood, load time is affecting abandonment. Now you'll know how much, and perhaps even why. 

Step 3: Come back armed with the facts
This part is probably the least fun, but most rewarding once it's done and accepted. Armed with load time data, your task now becomes a matter of breaking the news.

Your creatives, your developers, and/or your IT folks may all dislike your news intensely, but you've got bigger worries than that if people aren't completing scenarios.

I know from experience that creatives have a soft, mushy spot in their hearts for visual extravaganza. For them, a day without Flash is like a week in the pokey, and they will start to complain that they can't deliver value without it -- and some of that may even be correct.

I also know from experience that IT folks will defend their architecture to the bitter end -- or at least until management coughs up enough bucks for some faster servers. But even the best server jockeys must sometimes face the fact their horse is not in the money.

Developers will say it can't be fixed. The work that's been put into your current site cannot be taken apart and reassembled in a more efficient way "just like that." And they are right (but they were, perhaps, wrong for building it "like that" in the first place.)

In any case, while your developers may be architects of the best parts of your site, they are also architects of the worst; and when people are bailing before your pages load, that's the worst. As a marketer, you may need to force-feed them some facts, and hold them accountable for making sure you don't have to tell management that the site's most important pages aren't even being seen by the audience.

Conclusion
You've probably long sensed there was some "other" problem out there that was keeping users from delivering for you. You could never be sure what it was. There were fingers pointing 'round the table during your last review, and nobody seemed to be at fault. Knowing about load time will help reduce the blank stares at meeting time, and set you up for better success at conversion.

Often, it's the unturned stone in the path that hides the all-important clue. My suggestion: You should at least turn over that stone.

Andrew Edwards is managing partner of Technology Leaders. 

Is your traffic quality traffic?

Put your site and your marketing efforts to the test.

So you’ve had 2,567 visitors this month and only two sales online. What’s going on? You’re doing SEO, PPC, and other offline marketing tactics.   Your results should be more, right? Yes. They should be more. So, let’s take a look at what might be causing this slump of proportion of sales per visitor.

Back to the basics. Whether or not your site is booming or dragging, do you know who your customers are? Are you targeting the right audience? In the past couple of years, buyer’s behavior has really shifted. They have more control then ever, more information thanks to the internet, and are much more cost conscience because of the recession. So take an immediate look at your buyer from the last year and also look at their buying behavior and cycle. What’s the sex, age, average income? Where do they live? When are they buying? Here are some cool tools and analytics to find out.

Microsoft Ad Center has a great program to help you look at the demographics of your website. Check out their demographics prediction tool: http://adlab.microsoft.com/Demographics-Prediction/DPUI.aspx

Click on URL next to tool input and put in your website URL. It will bring back the results of your website based on different factors they record.

Then, put some of your top keyword phrases in the query tool and see what the results bring back.  Compare your site demographics to your keyword phrases as well as what you thought the results would be. You may be surprised on how far off you may be.

Check out some of your competitor’s sites and see where they pan out in comparison to the popular keyword phrases pertaining to your industry.

Then, pull up your Google Analytics or your analytic software and there you should be able to pull a map that shows you all of the geographical locations your traffic is coming from. Is that your target area?

Look at your bounce rate. If it’s high, you may need to adjust your content or your site or your marketing efforts. Look and see where your traffic may be exiting your site. Is there a disconnect somewhere? Are you able to take your visitor down the right path? Or, are they getting frustrated and leaving?

Next you look at your marketing both online and offline. It’s not necessarily the amount of traffic you send to your site, but the quality of traffic you drive to your site. The more targeted your marketing efforts are to your core audience, the more your inclined to have more sales. 

For more information about how to evaluate your marketing and traffic, contact us as info@icoastalnet.com with your questions or call 1-866-249-6095

Is your website getting loads of traffic and not generating sales? 

According to eMarketer.com the US internet population will reach 200 million users in 2009.  How much traffic is your website getting?  Though you must break down your industry and your market share of the target audience; are you getting enough traffic to your website to reach your sales goals?  Of the total number of visitors your are getting, how many of them convert? A conversion can be defined as a sale of a product, an inquiry, or a sign up.

If you aren't clear on your traffic numbers or even how many of them are actually converting, start by looking at your web analytics. We recommend Google Analytics. This software safely and accurately records visitor sessions and shows a plethora of useful information that you can analyze and keep track of - and its FREE! ICND would be happy to install Google Analytics on your website at no cost to you. Simply schedule a free Search Engine Optimization (SEO) consultation, and we'll work on the details for your Google Analytics install then. It would be our pleasure.

Here are some key metrics you want to find and monitor:

Monthly visitors (if you can compare to last year even better) – New and repeat
Visitor Geographics – Map overlay
Visitor Source Breakdown – Search Engines, Direct Traffic, and Referring Sites – shows the number of click through traffic
Pages per visit  - average number of pages your visitors view
Average time on site – average time spent on your site before exiting
Bounce rate – number of visitors that found your site irrelevant and clicked off your site – standard is to stay below 40%
Conversion rate – the number of visitors that found your site and converted to sales

Analyzing your website analytics is vital when trying to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your current website. But it can be a bit cumbersome at first. So, feel free to call 866-249-6095 or email us and our professional internet marketing team will walk you through everything you need to get started, from installing the analytics to reading the results. We can set up convesion goals that will automatically "count" the behavior of your web traffic, as well as set up alerts that will automatically email you reports.

Don't forget to check back in next month for Part II of Harnassing the Power of your Website.

Facebook has recently added some new features and made some changes that, from this reviewers point of view, helps the user experience quite a lot.

One of the most annoying things I found about Facebook is that my posts (which are ALL very important, and should be read and responded to) can quickly be lost in the "push-down" process of real time postings coming in. Translation: other peoples posts that come in after mine, push mine down and then OFF the wall. No good.

Now you can click on the "most interesting stories" deemed so by the Facebook team/machine. I'm guessing the stories are those posts that get the most interaction, but I could be wrong. "Interesting" is a relative term and I'm curious how a machine could figure that out.

You can also check out all LIVE FEED (which appears as a link at the top of your WALL) to view all the posts in real-time chronological order.

But before you get all misty eyed about Facebook's recent user experience facelift, consider that changes have been made to the "advertising" experience (and the way(s) marketers can advertise) as well.

See all changes at Facebook's official press release: Facebook News.

Review Courtsey of DoshDosh.com 

50 Social News Websites: A List of General and Niche Social Media Communities

General Social News Websites

1. Reddit: Popular social news website with a large user base. Covers a wide range of news. Includes several topical sections called subreddits, which focus on specific topics like programming, science, politics and business.

2. Digg: The largest and most popular social news website on the internet. Covers all topics including politics, entertainment, technology and general news. Includes a separate video and image section.

3. Propeller: A social news site that covers all topics from technology to politics and entertainment. Operates in a similar fashion to Digg.

4. Fark: A community news site which allows users to comment on news articles. User submitted links will be posted on the main page once they are approved by the administrators.

5. Slashdot: Primarily a tech news site, Slashdot also covers topics like books, games, politics and entertainment. Users can submit stories and they may be published after editors approve it. A popular site that can send a large amount of traffic.

6. Metafilter: A community weblog which allows users to share links and discuss interesting websites/topics. Moderation is done through editors as well as peer pressure in order to prevent gaming.

7. I am bored: Covers general topics with a strong focus on weird and offbeat news. You can submit a link which may be posted after the editors approve it.

8. Mixx: A general social news sites which has a category for all types of news. Topics covered include business, entertainment, sports, health and tech. Includes the ability to create groups to share news with other users.

9. Shoutwire: General news site that is well populated with a loyal group of users. Topics covered include technology, politics, entertainment, lifestyle and sports.

10. Newsvine: A website consisting of community-driven news stories and opinions. Users have their own blogs and can write articles, save links to external content and vote/comment on other user stories.

11. IndianPad: A general social news site that with a large indian userbase. Topics covered include entertainment, sports, videos and tamil news.

12. Linkfilter: Covers all sorts of news. All links are posted and moderated by users. Links can be ranked on several levels: clicks, votes, age, or a combination of all three called points.

13. NewsCloud: A general social site with a focus on news in all topics. Similar to Newsvine, each user has their own blogs and can publish content to be voted up by other users.

14. Hugg: Hugg is a social news site with a strong focus on environmental issues. Also includes other categories like politics, science, fashion and technology.

15. Plime: A general news site which features a wide variety of topics ranging from religion and sports to technology or business. Odd news performs best in this community.

16. C2NN: An active social news site with a variety of topics including environment issues, business, politics, animals and offbeat. Similar to Hugg in focus but much more populated and active.

17. Kirsty: A general news site with a focus on fashion, entertainment and design on top of other topics like technology and food. Has a strong female user base.

18. Nowpublic: A participatory news network which focuses on citizen journalism. Each user has their own individual profile blog/page and can upload videos, images and news stories.

19. Stirrdup: General social news site with four broad categories: politics, technology, news and entertainment.

20. Searchles: A hybrid social news sites which covers all topics. Includes a video section and offers personalized filtering features and the option of joining groups made up of other users with similar interests.

21. Linkinn: A social news site that specializes in pictures and video. Covers a broad range of topics, particular offbeat and weird content.

22. Earthfrisk: Covers topics like humor, politics, entertainment and business. Combines a social network and group features with digg-style news voting.

23. Truemors: A social rumor news site which focuses on the publication of “true rumors that are relevant, informative, and interesting.” Users can post links anonymously via text, voicemail, web or email. Editors moderate content.

24. StumbleUpon: A social network and browser toolbar which allows users to channel surf the internet. Technically not 100% a social news site, although users can submit webpages to be rated by other users. Here is a guide to StumbleUpon.

25. Linkswarm: Covers a wide range of topics from celebrity gossip to funny media, science and politics. Focuses on pop culture and bizarre news as well.

Niche Social News Websites

Here are social websites which focus on a specific niche. For best results, only submit to them when your site falls within the same niche or covers the same topics. Or else you’re likely to be marked as spam.

26. Sphinn: Sphinn is a social site for search and interactive marketers. It’s designed to allow you to share and discover news stories, read and take part in discussions, discover events of interest and network with others.

27. Dzone: DZone is a free link-sharing community for developers. Other topics commonly featured include web design and programming.

28. Tweako: A user-powered site and social network with a focus on guides and tutorials in all categories like computing, technology, and the Internet.

29. Autospies: A social site that focuses on automotive news, car reviews, auto show photos and videos.

30. Design Float: A social news site for design-related content. Topics covered include business, freelancing, advertising, digital art and branding.

31. Ball Hype: A site that aggregates content from thousands of sports blogs. Users can submit stories and votes will determine if they make it to home page.

32. YCombinator Hacker News: A news site that focuses on technology, startups, business and entrepreneurship.

33. SWiK: A community driven resource for people who use open source software.

34. Buzzflash: A user driven progressive political news website that allows you to submit political stories.

35. DNHour: DNHour.com is a user-powered news portal built specially for the domain name industry. Most members are generally from the domain name industry, which includes domain name owners, companies or professionals.

36. PlugIM: PlugIM is a user driven internet marketing community. Topics covered include search engine optimization, products, business and marketing.

37.Showhype: Operates in a similar way to Ballhype. Stories come from two sources — users and aggregated content. Users can also submit a link to a story that they’ve found or write their own article on ShowHype.

38. Small Business Brief: A niche social site which focuses on small business news. Topics covered include marketing and sales, website development, management and entrepreneurship.

39. Hypediss: Social news site with a focus on design, fashion, urban culture and art.

40. Chictini: Product-oriented social site which a focus on new trends and styles. It’s possible to submit news stories although most of the submissions feature products from online retailers.

41. DotNetKicks: DotNetKicks.com is a community based news site that focuses on topics like NET development techniques, technologies and tools including ASP.NET, C#, VB.NET, C++ and Visual Studio.

42. Lipstick: Reddit-style social news site for celebrity gossip.

43. Hubspot: Social news site for marketers, entrepreneurs and business professionals.

44. Winelifetoday: A niche social site for wine lovers. Topics covered included news and opinion articles to do with wine.

45. iliketotallyloveit.com: Allows users to publish and share products with the broader public which they find cool, innovative, exceptionally beautiful, or just weird. Included with every item is a link to an online shop where it can be purchased.

46. Wordsy: A niche social news site for people who love reading and books. Topics covered include small presses, fiction writing, authors, book awards and poetry. (Note: Wordsy has suspended its site since Dec 2008)

47. Value Investing News: A niche social news site that covers stocks and investment news. A small but active community.

48. Teenwag: Focus on celebrity gossip. A hybrid social network with digg-style voting. Users can submit links to be voted up by other users.

49. Muti: Muti is a social bookmarking site inspired by reddit and Digg but dedicated to content of interest to Africans or those interested in Africa.

50. Tip’d: A social media site for finance, investing, and business topics. Tip’d users vote on stories they like by clicking the ‘Tip it’ button that appears next to each story, and then can comment by pressing the ‘Discuss’ link below the story.

End DoshDosh reviews.

That about covers every subject and category any business or aficionado could ever possibly want to blog, microblog, or bookmark. Join them and then sign up for Digsby or Ping.fm to handle all the posts from one place.

Now if we could only find a way to write content without having to think or spend time doing so.

For all your social media marketing needs, contact InterCoastal Net Designs today - A North Carolina marketing company.

If yours is like most small businesses, you can't afford the luxury of a PR department, much less a dedicated PR agency or even one employee responsible for external communications and PR.  However, this business function is critical as the world of communications continues to expand with new applications, demands and opportunities like social media networks. The thought of a concerted PR strategy and execution can be overwhelming for a small business owner, but it doesn't have to be. There are two primary elements of PR for a small business to engage upon - leveraging online and local offline outlets. The old world of face-to-face will continue to be critical in building your PR strategy and overall business, but let's face it - the environment has changed, and you simply can't ignore the power of the Web, particularly social networks. Proactively getting your business out in the community while leveraging the Web will ensure the success of your PR strategy. And, these tactics are not expensive; in fact, many present opportunities for free PR for your small business.

These PR strategy tips are designed for those small businesses that simply don't have budget allocated toward hiring and retaining a communications expert. If you are a smaller company, hopefully you can take a few tips below to integrate PR into your small business to help build a brand and generate leads. Utilizing informative, valuable PR about your small business gives you the opportunity to influence people and lead them to your destination - your website, your store, your offering. Take advantage of what's out there! Get online and get local - it's that simple.

Growing Your PR Strategy

Grow Online
If you don't have a website, you need to get one immediately. Today, you can get a starter site for free or within your communications packages from your voice and data provider.   If it's in the package, then it's a no-brainer. If you have a website, then make sure it's dynamic (video, blogs, and communities) to ensure your target audience comes back and builds a relationship with you and your brand. It's a requirement in today's online world; the days of stagnant sites are over. Then, once you have your interactive site, make sure you optimize your website and everything you say about your business online to ensure your potential customers are finding you online when they search. This is a key part of your online PR strategy. Don't you search Google or Bing to find what you need a pinch? It's called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and it can be an affordable way to create additional PR for your small business -- and it's often found in your communications and IT packages.  At the very least, getting a URL allows you to be FOUND online and that's key.  Google now provides maps when visitors are looking for a specific service in a specific area. By simply having an Internet address - you can be found online looking professional with a map to your location and link to your business, which is pretty cool.

The Wild World of Social Media
You have probably heard about "social media" and you may already be taking part. For many, however, the world of Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, blogs, vlogs and status updates may be a bit unsettling. Suffice it to say - these are powerful tools to help you carry out your PR strategy, especially when used properly to connect, communicate and yes, to sell.

As a small business, you can't afford NOT to take part. It's easy and affordable, so don't waste anymore time. Of course, you do need to understand how best to engage before you jump in.  Here are a few quick ways to start creating more PR for your small business:

1 - Create a Twitter profile (www.Twitter.com) and gain followers by "Tweeting" about your business, surrounding businesses and community topics that map back to your business. Build buzz about what you provide - can you Tweet special coupons? Can you give advice? Can you share relevant information to your community? Do you have an event you want to invite local prospects to? Twitter, an emerging PR strategy with an increasing audience, is a great way to quickly (140 characters or less) get a message out and position yourself as a leader. Remember, it's not all about you; you must talk about the world around you to make an impact. Start off Tweeting about your business, but quickly begin integrating Tweets about your customers, your community, and your industry - and the most important part is to provide some kind of value or benefit in your tweets. Be respectable as well. And if you see someone comment about your business online (good or bad) - respond online for all to see. It's a great way to show you are committed to your customers. The cost to you?  It's essentially free PR for your small business.

2 - Create free profiles on Linked In and Facebook. All you need for Linked In is a profile of you, and from there, you can create a group where you can share stories, news, and other PR about your small business. People can ping you for questions which positions you as an expert and, you can join interest groups that will help you track what other potential buyers in your community do, say and think. For Facebook, simply select "business" on the homepage to create a business "fan" page. Local residents, family and friends can then become "fans" of your company, which is an easy way to highlight the most recent PR about your small business. All you have to do is commit to posting news, updates, coupons, photos and other interactive content to get people engaged. Remember - provide a benefit - a reason for your "fans" to come back for more.

In addition to these PR strategy tips, there are local meet-up groups in every community that often originate from the Web, and then meet offline to have a real interactive discussion. Check out Meetup.com in your area to find one.

Confused about this new world of social media? Read Groundswell by two Forrester Research analysts, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. This book will set you straight and get you excited about the opportunities out there in terms of online PR for your small business.

Grow Local
Much like how consumers like to buy from locally grown farms, small businesses tend to buy from their peers - other small businesses. An effective PR strategy is all about supporting your local communities, and these days, that's more important than ever. Keeping this in mind, focus on your community by generating PR for your small business at local events. Depending on your business, there are often specialty groups for different types of businesses such as professional service specialty groups. Often these groups gather monthly or quarterly to share best practices and to network. There are certainly general small business groups in your community such as your local Chamber that meet regularly as well. Beyond networking events, you can get ink for your business. Most Chambers have monthly newsletters or emails. Do you have something to say? Could you contribute twice a year with a special promotion to drive people to your business? Take advantage of these opportunities to fuel word-of-mouth marketing through PR for your small business. Hand out business cards, build relationships and follow-up. These opportunities are right outside your door.

Think grassroots
Shake hands with other small businesses owners, refer each other and grow your business. To improve PR for your small business, think about what events are taking place this weekend where you could set up space, hand out collateral, serve up some hotdogs, and generate solid leads. Is there an art show or "Taste Of" type of event? Don't take it all on yourself; partner with other local businesses right in your area to split costs and cross-sell to each other's customers. A hand-shake goes a long way towards an effective PR strategy. Add a coupon and see the results. Most communities have annual events that bring hundreds/thousands of people - target those. In terms of PR for a small business, the best thing you can do is to connect directly to your audience by showing your personality and your value - get out there!

Leverage Local Media
Another important element of your PR strategy involves local brand development, which means building relationships with local media. Yes, there is still benefit in reaching out to traditional media when it comes to PR for your small business. Take a moment to find out who your local reporters are and introduce yourself. Share with your new media contacts areas of expertise that you would be able to discuss if requested. If you create a relationship with your local media and have something compelling or contrarian to say, chances are they will call you when they need your input. Consider a quick email to your local reporters with an introduction, a quick reference of your expertise and what you could comment on. Being timely and relevant is critical to your PR strategy. Offer a cup of coffee. Those relationships can go a long way when you really want to make noise in the community. It's important to know that if you want coverage and/or additional PR for your small business - you won't get it with a cold pitch. You must: 1) - establish a relationship; 2) - have news to share that's relevant, unique or at least different; and 3) - have a product/or service that is remarkable. These rules ring true for influential bloggers as well.  For more on being remarkable, read Seth Godin's Purple Cow - a great, quick read that will get you thinking about how to stand out from the rest to grow your business.

Blending Old and New: Building PR for a Small Business

Hopefully these PR strategy tips will help you build a brand for your small business and generate new and recurring business via PR. Communicating to customers and enabling them to communicate back to you is essential in today's social world of meia. However, what remains important today as it did 100 years ago is the face-to-face interaction. Nothing will replace it, so make sure you show your face and personality in the community. Coupling the old with the new will ensure a successful PR strategy for your small business. 

Written By Shana Keith

For more about PR and other Interactive marketing strategies, contact InterCoastal Net Designs today - a North Carolina marketing company.

Strong Evidence of Stabilization; Google Fades; Facebook and Twitter Gain;
Microsoft Moves Viewed Favorably

CHICAGO, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- To gauge the state of the
interactive marketing industry, the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association
(CIMA) recently conducted its seventh semiannual survey of its members and
associates. Data was collected during August 2009 with 130 survey results
tabulated, analyzed, and prepared by CIMA's partner analyst and Director of
Global Strategy and Operations with The Marketing Store, Troy Mastin.  Mark
Ailsworth, CIMA's President and Director of Midwest Sales for Undertone
states, "CIMA's prior survey results provided industry insights that held true
to form for the marketplace.  The most recent results document interesting
points for debate here in Chicago and nationally."

Clear signs of stabilization following a steep decline in early 2009. Annual
interactive marketing budgets' growth is expected at 8.3% versus 5.0% from the
sixth survey and an average of 18.5% for the first five surveys. On a scale of
one to five (five is very healthy) the industry was rated at 3.39, down
slightly from 3.43 in the last survey, but still below an average of 4.09 with
earlier surveys.

Economic conditions and industry dynamics impacting vertical categories.   The
economy is having a chilling effect on the marketing activity within the
automotive, travel, and financial services industries, which were rated as the
three weakest; a contrast to prior surveys when these categories were viewed
as the strongest.  The consumer packed goods (CPG) category was seen as the
strongest category while the apparel category continues to improve.  The
professional services and telecom categories remain stable and healthy.

Google loses ground to Facebook and Twitter; Microsoft finally makes progress.
Google did not dominate in respondents' views of the best-positioned company.
Additionally, Microsoft's launch of Bing and its Yahoo partnership was viewed
as likely to result in lower share for Google in terms of consumer search
volume and spending

In-depth survey results and an industry panel discussion will occur Wednesday
September 30th, 2009 in Chicago.  Panelists will include senior executives
from Digital Time Inc., Google, Topix, MindShare, and Allstate.

About CIMA: CIMA's mission is to provide a forum for interactive marketing
professionals to share ideas, continue their professional development, and
promote the value and successes of interactive marketing. You can learn more
about CIMA at www.ChicagoIMA.org.



SOURCE  CIMA - Chicago Interactive Marketing

Jen Brady, +1-312-607-1400, jen@fredassociates.com, for CIMA - Chicago
Interactive Marketing

Okay, there are plenty of mom and pop, brick n' mortar stores that sell products locally - to drive and foot traffic - but they DON'T sell online. Heck, a lot of them don't even have a website.

My question to you is WHY? Why wouldn't you? Even if you only sold one thing a day, or week, or month...it's worth the sale. Right? Of couse, let me explain.

First, if you sell products of any type or description (unless the logisitics of shipping or pick-up are unsurmountable) you should definitely sell online as well. Web design, development and e-commerce solutions have become quite affordable, so cost really isn't an issue. There are even no upfront cost e-commerce solutions, like Pay Pal, that cuts out even more of the cost. However you should know, if you choose a no money down solution, like Pay Pal or Google Checkout, your cost per sale (the percentage(s) these companies take) are much higher than those merchant service solutions that require a setup and install fee. So, short term, feel free to use the cheaper solutions, but for the long term, go for the pay solution. After all, if is your intention to save money, you'll end up paying out more with higher per sale percentages.

Checkout ICND's e-commerce merchant service solution, which is scalable and intergrates with Authorize.net (the largest and best known service online) to process and store your credit card transactions.

Once you've crunched the numbers, and still need convincing that you should sell product online, consider this. If your business stays alive and thrives just off of drive and foot traffic, can you imagine what you could do online. In a local market (and depending on how "specialized" or "unique" your product line is, you could be fishing for as little as 5,000, or even 500 people. Now open that up to the national or even global market. There's nearly a quarter BILLION English speaking web surfers online. And if just one half of one half percent are looking for your Blue Widget online, you could see thousands of sales. Can you really afford to ignore that much possibility?

Also, you can push your product out along social media networks as well, and through PPC campaigns (pay to play), and appropriate Seach Engine Optimization campaign. But it all starts with a website. If you are a business of any kind, you have to get online with a website - even if it is one page.

Intercoastal Net Designs can handle any and all of these solutions, so do some browsing and if you have any question, don't hesitate to contact us.

What is Google "Caffeine"?

First of all, Caeffeine is just a code-word (like Shock and Awe) for the secret project Google has been working on. Project was revealed in the last few days on Google's official blog. So, it's not so secret now. And it's no big surprise that Google would reveal some fire power after Microsoft and Yahoo inked their deal.

What is Google Caffeine's purpose?

Reportedly, Caffieine is an under the hood version of their existing search engine. What does that mean? "Caffeine" or whatever it will be called, uses the existing algorithm to produce results. However, those results will be "more comprehensive and streamlined". As the code name suggests, this under-the-hood version will be faster. Faster how you ask? Who knows. Perhaps it will have a separate indexing process, or a more streamlined quality guideline that will be more black and white. If your website is built to Google-perfection, you're in. If not, you're out. Your guess is as good as any ones.

Google could be doing some spin-doctoring here, revealing a reportedly super secret, revolutionary product to pull headlines (and rising consumer use) from MicroHoo. Google is a multi-national state unto itself, so you shouldn't be surprised if it starts acting like one.

Should businesses be worried?

For those business who live and die by their Google rankings, the answer is maybe. Google won't do anything too detrimental to their advertiser base. But, they will shake things up in the name of consumer progress. But if you're business is chasing the dragon (so to speak) with Google, you should get your hand slapped. Diverisify. Diversify. Diversify. Have you learned nothing from the current American economic meltdown? If not...remember what you're grandmother used to tell you. Don't put all your eggs in one basket...even if that basket is Google.

Will Caffeine's search results be any different from the standard Google SERP?

Well. According to Google. Yes. In reportedly "minor but significant" ways. I checked it out and found no differences as of yet...but perhaps this under the hood version relies more on user behavior? There have been rumors that Google has been enamored by real time search results fed by real time source like Twitter. Maybe Caffeine takes a snapshot of real time search behavior rather through the traditional bot indexing process. Is that what makes it like Caffeine, that it keeps you alert? This is all just speculation of course. But if I lose my life in some strange and unexplained way, then you'll know I was right about something. You've seen Conspiracy Theory I'm sure.

Can I try out Google Caffeine?

Sure can. It's sandboxed, so Google is keeping the program a safe distance from their Standard Google search engine. After all, they wouldn't want a coding error to pull down the whole sha-bang. Check out Google Caffeine. I would be really interested in hearing what difference people discover while searching.

I'll keep you posted as more is revealed.

Oh my. A lot has been going on in the Search Market. There hasn't been this much buzz since Google went in cahoots with China on censorship and Ashton Kutcher saved someone from a not so glamorous suicide. Wow.

So Microsoft and Yahoo, the number 3 and number 2 companies in the Search Market respectively (and respectively WAY behind Google) have inked a 10 year deal to combine their efforts. Combine ad platforms mostly...letting Bing (Microsoft's used-to-be MSN used-to-be LIVE) handle that. But it's that what it's all about.

From what I see from the individual SERP's, I personally think Bing is way ahead of Yahoo in its clearer quality guidelines and sensible indexing. Yahoo has been all over the place for the past year. Especially in it's PPC results. So, it just makes sense that these two giants combine.

But Google doesn't seem to frightened by the prospect, though certainly there will be a round of anitrust suits to follow the deal. And why not? Google gets in trouble for every company it acquires...and it should. Why should Google, Microsoft, and NewsCorp own EVERYTHING (directly or indirectly)?

Which brings us to Twitter. Though Twitter burns through cash faster than American auto-makers, it's still just a pebble in Google's shoe...but the prospect of real time search results, getting indexing on a real time basis - what's hot NOW because of behavior, NOT because of a long list of code and content protocols - is interesting. Interesting enough to be a game changer. Or so they say.

Check out this article on the top contenders in real time search, and the problems each one faces in immediacy, popularity, and relevancy.

We all get by with a little help from our friends, and I decided to take some time to help one of our friends out.

Improvement Tree is a FREE online contractors directory (a business directory similar to Yellow Pages.com) that specifically caters to contractors, subcontractors, handymen, do-it-yourselfers, construction businesses, and home improvement service providers

Here are just some of their many benefits:

• Post Unlimited Home Improvement Projects for FREE


• Contractors, Home Improvement, and Construction businesses join for FREE


• Contractors, Home Improvement, and Construction businesses get FULL directory access - equivalent to Yellow Pages.com Platinum Membership a $1,500 value - for FREE


• Join our Contractors Directory and get Unlimited Leads for FREE


• Our Contractors directory allows members to upload videos, articles, and links for FREE


• Our Contractors directory pages are automatically optimized for greater SEO and Search Engine presence for FREE


• Our Contractors and Home Owner and Property Owners get discounts on web design, web development, and other interactive marketing services from our preferred partners

So if you work for or own a construction or home improvement business - be it roofing, painting, fencing, flooring, plumping, electrical, concrete, landscape, architectural, housecleaning, you name it - then join Improvement Tree today. The only thing you have to lose is LEADS.