Butting Out - The Merits of Not Getting in the Way

Facebook is fast becoming as central to social networking as actual conversation once was. If you are feverishly checking your account every five minutes, then you know of what I speak. As our lives become more and more segmented, it’s good to know that at least you have pictures of that guy who ate paste in the back of class in grade 3, and are privy to his exact thoughts on his new Mitsubishi Gallant

How exactly does Facebook intend to make money off this type of information? Because apparently they intend to make a lot of money.

The recent Microsoft purchase of a 1.6% share of Facebook for $241 million, values the company at a whopping $15 billion!

Facebook has unveiled a new advertising system called Socialads. Facebook founder-cum-Harvard dropout, Mark Zuckerberg, says it will revolutionize advertising by “getting into the conversations” between people. Essentially, what Facebook has is an ever expanding list of potential consumers, and their specific interests, which is invaluable for advertisers.

Although the future of advertising seems to be veering towards social networking sites, media buyers are wary stating results showing that consumer behavior on a communication device is anathema to advertising. Look at the click through rates for the social networking sites. Facebook has a 0.04% click thru rate, that’s 400 hits for every million viewers. Myspace fares a little better at 0.10%, but the figures still seem pretty measly.

Their intention is to enact a word of mouth effect between people. (Often heralded as the Holy Grail of advertising). The problem is that any sort of intrusion into people’s conversation is just that, an intrusion into a conversation. Regard how well you’d receive advertising when you’re in a bar with your friends and a stranger comes up to you trying to sell you a new type of beer. “Hey friends don’t want to bother you but do you know that the beer you’re drinking is not as good as this one.”

A better and far less intrusive option for advertising your company is in the search engines. Search engines are used for everything from local sites to multinational conglomerates. By ranking prominently in the organic search engine results (requiring Search Engine Optimization aka SEO) and Pay Per Click advertising campaign services (Google Adwords etc.), the consumer is actively transported to your company. If one were to use the keywords “advertising advice Montreal”, why they’d be transported to the Starmedia blog in a timely fashion and end up reading this exact post.

Search engine advertising gives you visibility without the intrusion.

An Evolving Media

In case you haven’t heard, the Internet has gone local. Local online search is now second only to email for the most common online activity. Unfortunately Mom and Pop seem woefully unprepared for this shift in marketing. Still hewing closely to the 20^th century marketing model, local businesses are investing primarily in print and broadcast marketing, allocating less than 5% in Internet marketing.

By 2017, forecasters predict that local businesses will be investing close to 25% in their Internet marketing campaigns. But, you don’t have to wait that long. All the resources and tools are out there to help you get started on your Internet campaigns. You don’t have to be a computer whiz, as long as you hire a forward thinking company that specializes in Internet marketing to enact your campaign for you.

One of the most important aspects of Internet marketing is the actual website design itself. Your website is the portal connecting potential customers to your product and company. On a local level this gives the customer all the information they need, to avail of your services.

Search engine optimization or SEO is the process of getting traffic to your website. Sadly, many people still think that simply putting a website on the web is enough. There is not much point in investing in the Internet as an advertising avenue if no one will ever see it. The whole process requires research, strategic campaign planning and a professional website design. You can save yourself a lot of time and money by hiring a professional.

So the writing is on the wall, with more people searching the Internet for their local business needs, an adjustment to the more traditional marketing model is needed. This does not mean that all business owners must learn how to create their own websites. A reputable advertising company, well versed in Internet marketing is the best bet so these forays into new advertising territories are executed properly and professionally. A good website and tactical SEO, while not just visually pleasing can give potential customers all the information that they need in order to find you and frequent your service.

Top 5 Reasons Top 5 Lists Are SEO Effective Copywriting

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO as it has been dubbed by its followers, is like the Salem Witch Trials. Everyone is scrambling to find the perfect SEO plan and yet no one is exactly sure what SEO is or how it works. Instead we stand on street corners and scream out “there’s an idea!” and the idea starts running. Okay, maybe it’s not as dramatic as all that, but there definitely is something enticing about search engine optimization that we love to hate. Yes, I am getting to my point. People have been spouting lately that having top five lists is SEO effective copywriting, so in the spirit of trial-and-error, here are my top five reasons why top five lists are SEO effective copywriting.

1 – People don’t like to read. The thought depresses me, but unfortunately in today’s technologically savvy society, there is just an over abundance of information hitting people every day (especially in advertising) and so to defend ourselves, we no longer care to read. If you want attention, you’re going to have to be brief. This is why slogans and taglines are so popular.

2 – Keywords, keywords, keywords. Top five lists can simplify everyone’s lust to find the perfect keywords. Mine for example would be advertising, design firm, logo design, website design… the list goes on (and now this page will be ranking higher…) It’s easier to put your keywords all in a neat list and build copy around it. Sad isn’t it? I think so.

3 – If you bold it, they will read. This one speaks for itself and yet no one seems to notice. If people don’t read and you want to highlight keywords then bolding text is the best way to go. Heck, go with it anyhow. Bolding text makes it a) stand out to readers and b) helps search engines pick it up.

4 – Keep it short and sweet. Okay, I suppose sweet doesn’t matter, but once again, and I can’t stress this enough, no one (short of me and apparently you) reads, so having brief content gets your point across, especially in advertising. Copywriting is made to sell. People won’t think about buying your product if they have to read five pages of content to get to your main tagline, slogan or selling point.

5 – Text link it all up. If you have more to say, but are trying to be concise, use text links. Then if your reader is interested in knowing more, they can move on to another article by you on the same topic. This creates a web of articles and keeps users interested in your website/blog.

Keep in mind that SEO techniques are similar to Salem’s original “witches.” We don’t know what’s an effective SEO tool and what isn’t. Stay calm, try some and see what works for you and what doesn’t.

As always, if you have questions or comments about SEO, please drop me an email at kate@starmedia.ca or call us toll free at 1.866.816.5646. We’d love to help!

-Kate

What the heck is SEO anyway?

The Internet has come a long way since the days when we thought it was absolutely astounding that we didn’t have to walk through deep snow in the winter to send out letters to our grandmothers, friends and parents. Now everything in our ever-growing society has some online connection and the Internet has become a saturated and complicated place for a newbie website owner. Yes, I am getting to the point, which is SEO. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, but before we get into the nitty gritty of what that means for you and your website, let’s first start with the simple (perhaps stupid) question of what is a search engine and what does it do?

Search engines allow you, as the user, to find what it is you are looking for online. One of the most popular search engines out there right now is Google; however there are some other larger options such as: Yahoo, Altavista and MSN. Search engines operate by using a program which sends out “robots” to find all of the websites that have the search words you typed in. These search words are called “keywords.” So what do keywords do for you as a website owner? Well to start, keywords help your customers find your website. In order to get your website above others in the same category as you, you’ll need to know a thing or two about SEO.

1) SEO requires a little bit of common sense. It is not merely enough to tack on a bunch of keywords onto your website; you will also need to know which keywords will be the most successful for your site. This is where the “common sense” comes in. There are millions of websites out there, probably thousands that have the same basic content as yours, so you’ll need to find another way to rank above the crowd. Find very specific words that describe your product. For example: John is selling funky-flavored ice cream. The keywords for his website would be: funky-flavored ice cream, specialized ice cream, new flavors, creative flavors, fun ice cream, etc. This would get him a higher ranking than using the basic keywords like: ice cream, good ice cream, ice cream cones, etc.

2) Know your competitors. This is a must in business and it works no differently online. If you know your competitors and their keywords, it’ll make it easier to come up with different ones that stand out. You can see your competitors’ keywords by right clicking on their website and then selecting the option “view source”, the keywords will be located on the top of that file.

3) Ask your friends. Tell your friends you have a website about say, funky-flavored ice cream. Ask them what they would search for if they wanted to find it. This will help you to realize what kinds of keywords your customers would type into a search engine to try to find your site. These keywords should be listed on your website so that it will come up when someone types them in.

4) Write articles. If you write lots of articles that are keyword-enriched (filled with your keywords) you will rank higher on the search engines. Every time the search-bots are looking for the keywords a user types in, your page will come up. If you have ten pages with the words “funky-flavored ice cream” on them, it will come up ten times. Know when “do-it-yourself” ends. While it is great to be independent and get things done yourself, it is also a good idea to understand that you might need some help. Proper SEO requires a lot of work and a lot of time. If you’re already bogged down running your company, it is often a good idea to get some help. A good SEO company can dramatically increase your ranking and keep your site at the top of the search engine lists. To find out how to increase your ranking through effective SEO, drop us an email at: info@starmedia.ca.