SEO Explained for Small Business Owners

April 25th, 2008 by John Herman, under internet marketing, search engine optimization. No Comments

Small Business Fuel has a great blog entry from last week that explains Search Engine Optimization in really simple terms.

He covers:

What is SEO and Why You Should Care
Code, URLs, and Crawlability
Content and Keywords
Popularity, Links and PageRank
Should You Pay for SEO Services

Check out the article on the SmallFuel Marketing Blog.

Track your Packages with Twitter

April 24th, 2008 by John Herman, under operations, products, tools, twitter, web applications. No Comments

via Make Use of Directory

@TrackThis has started on Twitter. Now you can direct message them and updates on your package progress will be sent to you in Twitter. It supports UPS, USPS, DHL, and FedEx.

Track This Twitter Profile

5 Keys to Using Facebook

April 22nd, 2008 by John Herman, under facebook, products, viral marketing. No Comments

Facebook has released a guide to using Facebook Pages. You may have received a copy from them already if you are using Facebook Pages. Here are their 5 Keys to Using Facebook. (via TechCrunch)

Keys to Using Facebook

1) Make business personal
People primarily use Facebook to share personal information with friends. The more you showcase the human element of your business, your products, and your people, the stronger of an effect it will have on everyone who views it.

2) Update your Facebook Page frequently
Facebook is geared to highlight new information and recent changes. The more often you add new content, the more often people will come back to your Facebook Page. You can also send Updates to your fans to announce in-store events, special promotions, new products, concerts, screenings, or other news.

3) Harness the power of News Feed
The News Feed on users’ home pages tells them what their friends are doing. When users become your fan, News Feed tells their friends and invites them to become fans as well. In turn, this can lead to the friends of their friends finding out about your business through their News Feeds, and so on in a virtuous cycle. News Feed is the key to spreading your message virally on Facebook.

4) Choose the applications that are best for your business
Facebook and its outside developers have built thousands of free applications for businesses, bands, and every other type of organization. Your Page comes with the basics pre-installed, but you can easily add whichever other applications are right for your business. For instance, a restaurant may choose to add an application for online ordering or reservations, while a film may add a cinema-locator so the user can find the nearest screening without ever leaving Facebook. You can even build your own applications. The more useful your applications are to your customers, the faster your fan base will grow.

5) Promote your Page through Facebook Ads
Facebook Ads allow you to reach exactly the audience you want and bring them to your Page. You can choose your audience based on age, gender, geography, educational status, relationship status, and precise interests or keywords. Your ads can be socialized so that users’ interactions are reflected in the ads their friends see, increasingly the virality of your Page. You can run ads both in traditional “banner” locations and in the News Feed. As with your Page itself, the key to success with Facebook Ads is to experiment and iterate on your work.

John’s Note: Of course they are going to recommend doing this. I question their ability to target the ads with such a huge ad inventory though. Click here for some evidence.