Marketing, Promotion and Advertising Articles » online promotion

Who Holds the Keys to Your Online Presence?

ksekelsky — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 14:05:52 +0000

Your company may have an established online presence, from your website to your email campaigns to your visibility on social networking sites, but who controls these accounts? Who might have control of them in the future? If you’re not careful with your online accounts, it may not be you.

Domain Names

Your domain name (your “www” address) is a property that is renewed (typically) every year, with the domain Registrant listed as the owner of the domain. The domain name Registrant needs to be permanently associated with your company. If your design firm is taking care of the registration themselves, be sure to specify to them who should be named as Registrant, and what contact information should be associated with the domain. This should be the name of an individual within your organization and long-term contact information for your company.

You should also put in place a succession plan in the case that the individual listed as Registrant leaves your company. Your domain registration should always remain within the hands of your organization.

Facebook Pages

Facebook Pages are run by “admins.” The initial creator of the Page is automatically made an admin, who can then designate other admins. These admins may also add other admins, and so on. Admins may also remove other admins.

Because of the nature of these pages, it is important to always have multiple individuals in your company listed as admins. If an admin leaves your company, you should be sure to remove their admin status from the page. Likewise, if you have a third party taking part in the running of your Facebook Page, you should never have them as the sole administrator and should remove their capabilities from the page if you part ways.

There is no way to have Facebook restore administrative powers to your company once you lose control of your Page, even if you can prove that you own the company it’s promoting. This makes it vital that you do not allow such a situation to occur.

Twitter, YouTube, etc.

Services such as Twitter and YouTube are run from a single username and password. If you have multiple people updating your company’s profiles on these sites, they will all be sharing the same password. However, even if you only have a single person updating your profiles, you should have multiple people within your business who know the login information. If one person who knew the password leaves the organization, you should be sure to change the password and inform those who are still with your company.

If a password is lost, forgotten or changed without your knowledge, it is possible to reset the password using the email address that is used when registering for the websites. To ensure you will be able to reset the password if needed, you should use a generic company email address (for example, if your company has an “info@” email address) that is not specific to an individual.
It’s important to maintain ownership of and access to everything your company puts online. If all of your online accounts are in the hands of a single employee or a third party company, there is an ongoing risk that when that employee leaves, or when you disassociate with the third party, that you will lose access to your accounts. Or even worse – an unhappy former employee could use their ownership of your online accounts against you.

Using Social Media Websites to Promote Your Company

ksekelsky — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:20:36 +0000

When used in addition to a well-designed website, social media sites can be a powerful tool for promoting your organization. Websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube now provide your business with a direct link to your most important asset, your customers. If utilized properly, these websites can provide your organization with valuable promotion and insight into your customers’ needs.

One of the greatest benefits of social media networks is their ability to involve the customer. Facebook, for example, allows customers to connect with your business in one click of a button. Once the person is connected, they will have the ability to communicate directly with representatives at your organization as well as with other customers.

This serves two important purposes for your brand. The first is that it engages the customer, essentially making them a part of your company’s creative process. This personal connection helps to develop brand-loyalty within your client base. Actively responding to feedback left by clients will enhance this benefit further. The second is that it provides your business with instant feedback. Comments left by customers can be used to gauge the success of a new product or program, as well as provide insight into potential improvements. You can also pose questions to your network, oftentimes getting results within a matter of minutes.

Another asset of social media websites is the ease by which they can be updated. Any number of moderators from your organization can make posts as frequently as necessary, keeping your brand relevant and at the front of your clients’ minds. You can use these posts to advertise a new promotion or event as well as link viewers to your website where they can learn more about the subject. Many clients find these updates to be less invasive and more personal than an email newsletter.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube also provide your company with another type of advertising, search engine results. Google and other major search engines have begun to use data provided by Facebook pages to generate search results. This extra visibility provides your organization with free promotion that will help you become more recognizable and set you apart from your competitors.

10 Steps to Increase Traffic to Your Website

blaw — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:29:06 +0000

A website sits so prominently in the hierarchy of marketing initiatives that there is little wonder business owners can frequently be heard asking, “how can I attract more visitors to our site?” The answer lies in understanding what people are looking for and how you appear to the Internet at large.

These ten ideas can help you increase the number of visitors to your website and, in many cases, improve the quality of their visit.

Create a Google Webmaster Tools account

Google Webmaster Tools is a free service that shows you how your website appears to Google’s search engine crawlers. It also provides you with the means of making it easier for Google to index your website through the use of a file known as an XML sitemap. This file identifies the name and location of every page on your site and can even be set to designate the frequency at which each page is updated.

No level of technical knowledge is needed to create the sitemap.xml file thanks to the many free online services that will generate one for you, including XML-Sitemaps.com.

Submit to Industry Directories

When a website is launched it is often standard procedure to submit the URL to search engine directories, such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and DMOZ. What is frequently overlooked, however, is the ample supply of smaller, more specific directories available online.

Finding directories specific to your industry can be as simple as entering “[industry name] directory” in your favorite search engine. Having your business listed in as many of these directories as is feasible can result in increased visits from a less generalized demographic.

Add a Blog

Blogs are a convenient way for businesses to publish the single most valuable element on the Internet—new, unique content. By posting compelling, relevant articles businesses can:

Demonstrate a superior level of expertise in an industry sector
Open a new line of communication with potential customers via integrated “Comments” areas
Increase search engine ranking by regularly publishing new content and through the use of keyword-rich categories and tags

Thanks to the prevalence of top-tier blogging engines, such as WordPress, Moveable Type and Expression Engine, incorporating a blog in your company’s online marketing scheme has never been more accessible.

Promote Your Content

Make the effort to craft a well-written, timely article pay greater dividends by promoting your new posts in blog-specific search engines. Blog-Search is a search engine focused only on content published through blogs. Users of this type of search engine are looking specifically for insider-style content, the exact type of information you are using to add value to your website. Traditional search engines recognize the value of the links posted to this site as well. By including your site’s blog area to this directory you can increase the visibility of the information you are posting.

Become a Guest Author

Again, recognizing that the main thing people are searching for is original content, we can easily understand the need for popular blogs and online publishers to employ guest authors. Your business can benefit from you becoming a guest author by giving you and your company exposure to a larger audience.

Finding a site willing to publish the work of a guest author can be as simple as emailing the publisher of your favorite industry-related blog. Other places that are always in search of contributing authors include:

Create a Professional Twitter Account and Facebook Page

A key to getting increased traffic is to distribute your information in a variety of formats. This leaves it to the recipient (your potential customer) to determine which way they prefer to receive periodic updates.

Two easy data streams to tap into are Twitter and Facebook. You can use these networks to post links to related industry articles both on your website and elsewhere on the Internet. These feeds also provide you with a vital link to your follows and fans where you can announce new products, specials and website updates.

Focusing on growing your subscription base in these two networks can result in significant traffic increases.

Leverage Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking site provide individuals with the means of managing important references found on the web. An added benefit of social bookmarking sites is that you can view links that others have found to be of interest. By building a collection of valuable links related to your industry you can increase exposure to your own site as well.

Of course, getting others to bookmark your site is even better. If you are regularly publishing valuable content, encourage them to add your posts to their bookmarks. What’s the easiest way to do that? Add links to your pages that, when clicked, will automatically add the page to that visitor’s account.

A key is knowing which social bookmarking site has the appropriate audience for the information you are publishing. If your information is related to health and wellness then it is unlikely to be added to Slashdot, which is geared specifically towards a computer-savvy audience.

Popular social bookmarking sites include:

Post to Related News Groups

As a knowledgeable professional within your industry you have a lot to offer the general public. Exposing people to that knowledge can not only benefit them, but can result in additional qualified visits to your website.

Sometimes you need to search out those that can benefit from your expertise, and that’s where news groups come into play. Visiting a news group and browsing to your specialized field can provide an abundance of opportunities to demonstrate your knowledge and direct traffic back to your website.