Thank you to Laura MacPherson from Northstar Creative for teaching us what we can do to make our website more prominent on search engines like Google.

Did you know that 39% of people online are using search engines? And 33% of the people online are actively shopping for something? This places great weight in the businesses that are displayed when users search for your industry. In order to organically move the link to your business to the top of the list.

Here is what you can do on your website to make it more search-engine friendly:

•  Metadata – in the page titles and descriptions, make sure your location and keywords are in both.

•  Web Code/Programming – a handcrafted website is usually coded cleaner, which Google likes. Make sure your web designer is familiar with CSS/HTML standards.

•  Web Copy – Google likes text, and is getting smarter at reading text on websites. In writing copy, be sure to use keywords and synonyms of keywords, making about 70% of the text to be keywords. Make it read like a newspaper article, putting the most important information at the top.

•  Blogging – blogging keeps you current in your industry, and having a blog on your website drives traffic to it.

Here is what you can do off of your website to drive traffic to you:

•  Links are Votes – Google counts each high-quallity link to your site on other sites as a vote of confidence. If another website has a link to yours, this is a good thing, and the more, the better.

•  Directory Listings – take advantage of listings in free and paid directories.

•  Article Syndication – write and syndicate articles.

•  Blog Commenting – commenting on industry-related blog posts can draw like-minded individuals away from that blog to your website.

Thanks to Jon Evans (@bigjonevans) and Glenn Bourquin (@DDMotors) for throwing this info out into the universe for us to soak up. And thanks to Greer Chamber for holding the Community Commerce Convention, and giving these two guys a place to launch the ideas from.

We are at the Greer Community Commerce Convention, and just finished our first session: Tweet Your Marketing with Social Networking. Jon Evans and Glenn Bourquin enlightened us on social media and how we should use it. So what is social media? Its building those connections and communicating through social networks and media like Facebook, LinkedIn, Youtube, Twitter, etc. Sharing conversation and content to build communities, engage your consumer, build credibility, educate, inform, and be found (yes, Googleable is a word!) Social media is biggest shift since the industrial revolution. Here’s what Jon had to say, and did he begin with some shocking statistics:

- Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months when it first began, currently has over 400 million.
- Wikipedia is more accurate than Britannica
- There are 200 million blogs online.
- 78 percent of consumers trust peer recommendations while only 14 percent of consumers trust advertisements.

So now that you know how important social media is, why should you use it?

1. Branding—branding yourself and your product to move ahead of your competitors. Creating a buzz about your product—finding a way to excite people about what you do.
2. Online reputation management—see what others are saying about you, and control what is said.
3. To establish yourself as an expert—use forums and blogs to establish yourself, get your name out there, and showcase your skills.
4. To build relationships, and become more personal—This one is a no brainer. Social media allows you build relationships and move forward with your business—and it’s cheap!

Things to avoid
Creating profiles everywhere!
—Pick 1 or 2 to actively be a part of and be consistent with it. People will give you one chance, and if its not intriguing, they’re done.

Selling to everyone immediately
—Your initial goal is to build relationships. Too much sales will turn people off. You don’t want to take it from a personal thing to a television commercial.

A few notes:
Define your target market, your objective, your capabilities, and your policy on who can edit, respond, and interact with your social media channels. Answer questions that are asked of you and turn negative posts and comments into something positive. Measure your results, and refine your strategy to create the most value for your customer.

Social media isn’t the magic bullet but it provides a world of opportunities. People go online for two reasons: to be entertained and to find information. TiVo and things like Pandora and satellite radio has eliminated commercials. Traditional advertising is more push push push; social media is push, and then pull in. Social media is there for you to captivate your consumer. Keep it relevant. Listen. Have a goal. Make it personal!

Sir Francis Bacon said, “Time is the measure of business” in the 1600’s. Those words are truer today than ever. How many times have you sat through a meeting that was a waste of time? We all have, in fact, we have even set them up and in the end realized it was not time well spent. How many times have you met the same person or group and walked out of the meeting with comments like “great meeting”, nice people”, “that person is really smart”, but what was the outcome? Why did I just spend one hour of my day with this person or group.

There is a fine line between spending an incessant amount of time with people vs. being the business butterfly catching bits and pieces before moving to the next meeting. The key is to develop a strong habit of understanding what you want out of a specific person or group, determine how you can be of benefit, and what will be the achievable first steps as an outcome.

As we close on 2008 and enter a very challenging 2009, it will become increasingly important to maintain concise timeframes that connect with the people that we meet.

Do The Work
Read up on the person, company, market, product before the meeting. Coming to a meeting with more “intel” than the others is always a benefit to you.

Get To Specifics
You should be able to get through the intro, history, and current events within the first three minutes. The next step is to specifically state why you are having the discussion and what you hope to get out of it.

Bring Something
The assumption is that you have an idea why you are meeting. Make sure you have an inventory of how you can help the person or group you are meeting; your experience, your knowledge of the industry, market, or products. Don’t give it all away for free, but just enough so they know you are needed.

6 Degrees Of Separation
Most people meet other people through introduction; so do the same. Give the person you are meeting a name of someone that will be very relevant to your discussion, even if it does not help you directly. It will come in handy later.

Look For Opportunities
Disagree with every 3rd statement if you’re in one of those “me too” conversations. It helps to bring clarity to concepts and ideas as they’ll have to articulate. By the time you have finished you will both learn something.

The “Deal Junky”
As an entrepreneur or senior manager, it is important to pursue a steady stream of new contacts, while managing existing relationships. However, be skeptical of people who discuss deals that appear very attractive on the surface, especially when they bring up more than three in the same meeting. Some checks and balances are; what product or service do they bring to the table? What is their main function or core competency in the deal? Do they have real contacts and funding? Do the “Deal Junkies” do anything or do they just do everything?

What Are The Actions
There must be a reason to meet next time. If not, then the meeting did not follow the above steps and should not have been setup in the first place. What are very specific actions that are going to take place by you and for you that will require another discussion or meeting?

While you are making your new years resolutions, try to interweave time into your activities; it will be very important. Keep this inventory list in mind for your next “let’s have coffee”. In addition to helping you, it will be a relief to the person or group you plan to meet.