”Share This!   Follow Us!   Tweet!   Like!…”

What’s this all about? and why do I see these “social sharing” buttons everywhere? What am I supposed to do with them?

Over the past few years you’ve most likely seen social media buttons spread throughout websites. Some sit at the top, side or bottom of every page of a website while some sit near the content of every page and sometimes, they’re in both!

So what’s the difference between the two? Let’s look at the image below…

This is an example of buttons you might find sitting at the top or bottom (or both) of a blog post or website page. In fact, you should see this very image at the bottom of this blog post. These “share” buttons are there for YOU to share the content of the post or page you are reading on YOUR social media account. If by chance you like what you’re reading here or want to share this particular blog post within your social circle, you’d simply click one of these icons and a snippet of this  blog content along with a link directly to the content will post immediately on YOUR social media account.

That basically explains the “Sharing” buttons you see embedded within website blog’s and posts. So now we’ll discuss the Social Buttons you sometimes see sitting at the top, side or bottom of a website…

Usually, these buttons will be prefaced with a “Follow Us”, or “Follow me”. These buttons will most likely take you directly to the social media account of that particular website. If by chance you like what you see on that site and you’d like to keep up with THEIR blogs, specials, current news, etc., you’d simply go to their social media account and opt to “Follow” them.

Why Is Social Media Sharing So Important?

Social Media has brought the internet to life. We’re able to communicate like never before. Now, if you aren’t sure about visiting a local merchant you can simply visit a social media website to read reviews, find their location and even share your own experience after visiting.

Do Search Engines Care About Social Media?

No longer do search engines have to consider how many links point to a website in order for them to be relevant. Businesses with deep pockets can easily buy links, but they can’t necessarily buy friends (or “Likes”). If people are sharing, liking, retweeting and reposting your website’s content, then you obviously have a website that is relevant. Search engines have picked up on this and now consider your social media activity as part of their algorithms.

If you have a website get these buttons added as quickly as possible. Not only will your users enjoy sharing your content, search engines will pick up on what’s happening with your business, hopefully, with the right amount of followers and positive reviews, your business will benefit from social media.

Blogging, posting, sharing can be very time consuming! Read about our social media marketing plans or contact us for more information.

Here’s a very common misconception we run into on a weekly basis – We’ve seen so many customers come into our office complaining that there website just isn’t showing up on Google. They feel that the investment they made in the development of their website should get their website ranking #1 on Google. Again, this just couldn’t be further from the truth, let me give you an analogy;

Let’s say you choose to open a shoe store. You find a location, you build your inventory, you paint, modify, construct, create signage and eventually open your doors to the public. You have put quite a bit of money into your shoe store and now it’s time to open for business. A month’s gone by and still very few people are coming through your doors. Why is this? Why if you’ve just put thousands of dollars into creating a beautiful store front with beautiful signage and all of the hottest shoes in town, why is no one coming to your store?

Chances are, you forgot to spend time and money in “promoting your store”. Sure, you’ll catch the people that stumble by your store, maybe get a few referrals, but how do you make sure your store is visible to the masses? You must promote! Yes, you’ve already spent a ton of money in opening your store, but you still MUST set aside a budget for promoting your store.

It’s exactly the same with your website. Again, no matter how pretty your website is, no matter how much money you’ve spent on it, if you don’t invest in promoting and optimizing your website, you’re not going to be seen.

Not sure what steps to take in promoting your website? If you are not careful, you could jump into unnecessary means of promoting your website. I had a client walk in that had signed up for a $1000 p/month campaign through a company claiming to be Google. First off, Google will never solicit your business, they are doing just fine, they don’t need to solicit sales. This client signed up with this “SEO Company” that claimed they could get him tons of traffic. Well, anyone that spends $1000 a month can get traffic to their website, but is their website optimized for this traffic? Were they targeting the right demographic? The right geographic location? Were there any changes made to the website to be sure people knew what to do when they got to the website? Was there any “onsite optimization” done to the website so eventually the site would begin ranking in the FREE searches? The sad answer to all is NO. This SEO Company had no intention of really helping this person’s website, they were purely in it for the money.

Before heading down the path of promoting your website, stop by our office or give us a call. We will be glad to analyze your website and your market. We’ll develop the best marketing plan for your website.

Contact us for more information

The Business Card Shoppe
426 Salinas St
Salinas, CA 93901
831-759-2273

A survey by ExactTarget showed that more than 50% of consumers make purchases as a direct outcome of email. And, according to Direct Marketers Association, email marketing garners an average ROI of $43.52 for every dollar spent. That’s expected to reach $44.25 in early 2012. Email marketing works. Give us a call for more information about on our email marketing service.

Google users will now have one comprehensive profile and data will be shared across all of its platforms (Search, Google+, Gmail, YouTube and so on), making it easier for Google to be more precise with ad targeting. Theoretically, we should see better return on our investment in PPC and SEO as a result of Google’s ability to get a
clearer picture of each individual who uses Google.

A survey done by the Pew Internet & American Life Project after the new policy was announced found that 83% of U.S. search engine users rated Google as their preferred search engine. (Yahoo was a distant second at 6%.) Nearly 75% of survey participants said they don’t want search engines to analyze personal information for advertising purposes. More than 33% said they don’t want ads to be customized based on their web surfing activities. Will people will turn away from Google now that the new policy has been implemented? Very doubtful. Big search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing, and social media platforms like Facebook, all collect personal information for advertising purposes. People who are concerned about privacy aren’t going to find it on the internet.

If you’re promoting your business on Facebook, now is the time to start optimizing
for the new layout. Showcase your brand, products and services in the large cover
photo space. It’s huge! The new layout provides countless new ways to promote your
brand. But it’s only worth doing if you have a social media strategy, goals and the
time to manage your page. We have a multi-tiered social media marketing service –
you can choose the level of support that suits your needs. And, you can log in to
your reporting dashboard at any time and see data from your social media campaign
alongside your other online marketing campaigns. Please contact us for more
information.

Your web copy is money.

In order to grab the attention of the skimmers, surfers, and clickers, you’ve got to know what kind of web copy works and what doesn’t. The success of your business depends on it. Your website copy will either make people buy, or make people click away. It’s money. Web copy is that important.

Good website copy is easier said than done.

Creating fresh, compelling, powerful web content is not easy. “Oh sure, yeah” you’re thinking. “It’s just article writing, right?” Yes, but it’s a whole lot more than throwing words on a web page. It’s about typeface variations, sub-headings, keywords, single-idea paragraphs, readable layout, and powerful leading sentences. It doesn’t come naturally.

Hire a professional to do your web copy.

In order to get the best web copy there is, you need to hire someone who knows what they’re doing — someone who has done this before and can do it again. The Business Card Shoppe in the Monterey Bay/Salinas area is the solution. There are times you need a professional. If you need to reroof your house, call a roofer. If you need to repaint your vehicle, call a body shop. If you want powerful, revenue-generating, SEO-driven website content, call The Business Card Shoppe.

Three Commandments of Good Web Copy

1. Be concise. If you can say it in fewer words, do it. People don’t have time to read a novel-length website article.

2. Break it up. People want to get the main idea of your content in a five-second skim. Break it into chunks. Use headings. Use numbered or bulleted lists.

3. Be clear. Don’t try to be cute or clever with your writing. Just say what you mean. Sensational marketing fluff doesn’t work.

Did we lose you yet?
If you’ve made it this far in the article, you’re in the rare 21% of people who actually read the whole article. Either that, or we’re so good at writing web copy that we made you read to the end.

Want awesome copy that makes people stay, read, and buy?

We thought so.

Hire The Business Card Shoppe to write your web copy.

Find out more about our landing page creation services here.

Google’s announcement that it will create one comprehensive profile of each user and will share data across all of its platforms has been a public relations challenge. Many users are alarmed that Google has the ability to collect data on everywhere they go and everything they do. But, is this really so different from what Google has been doing all along? Data is already shared across at least some of Google’s platforms–consider that Adwords ads are served to Gmail users based on the content of private emails. And last month, Google released Search Plus Your World, a search format that combines content that’s been privately shared with users in combination with public results.

On February 1, Facebook filed for an initial public offering and expects to begin selling shares this spring. In 2011 Facebook had profits of $1 billion on sales of $3.7 billion. 85% of that revenue came from advertising and the rest from social gaming and other fees. Facebook expects to raise at least 5 billion and hopes to raise as much as 10 billion when it begins selling stock in April or May. This is likely to be the biggest Internet or technology IPO ever.

For online marketers, the message is: social media must be embraced! Its impact is growing stronger every day. Facebook and other social media platforms will continue to be aggressive in finding ways to compete with search engines. In addition to having a presence on social media sites, many marketers are adding Facebook pay-per-click to their advertising plans. From 2010 to 2011, the number of PPC ads delivered on Facebook grew 42% and the average price per ad grew 18%. Keep in mind that it’s easy to make costly mistakes when you first venture into social media marketing. Call us if you want help with social media.

Contact us for more information