The Latest Business Social Media

We know social media takes a lot of time to stay on top of, but if you’re running your business and are using Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn already, you’ll probably want to check these two out for the next step in your social media campaign. Our professional web design company is benefiting from more than just the basic social networking sites.

4. Biznik

Biznik.com is a fast-growing online community of entrepreneurs and small businesses dedicated to connecting and helping each other.

Why Use it:

• NOT “another LinkedIn clone”.Biznik is for people who are building real businesses, not looking for their next job.
• It’s for sharing ideas, not posting your resume. It’s the place where real conversations about small business and entrepreneurship are taking place.
• Local, face-to-face meeting to build real, lasting business relationships.

5.Google Connect

Here we talk about tons of different social networks, aiming in one single goal the to rank our web sites better in Google or to get more effective traffic from Google. What if Google itself is developing a social network? Although started low-key and only connected very limited web sites, you won’t be regret that you have read this post today!

Check out how Google Connect works below:

Credit: Social Orgs, Nan Ke

“More time is now spent on social networking than on e-mail…..The rapidly evolving world of social networks and blogs has officially grown up.Yesterday(Sep 16th), Facebook just claimed that it has 300 million active monthly users globally, and is getting 3 million new users every WEEK.

One of the most valuable aspects of social media for business is the ability to learn more about our business partners, clients, and prospects from a “personal” perspective.  After all, social networking is all about building “relationships.”  Just as early CRM programs encouraged us to capture things like clients’ favorite sports, theatre interests, family info, etc., those personal elements are now freely available and readily broadcast.

There are thousands of social media out there. So what and where to start? Here our Naperville web design company has listed 5 social networks that would bring most boost to your businesses , within which the last 2 are especially for business users.

1.Twitter

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read each other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Why is it important?

• Communicate information about the company via a profile along with capability of using logo in each individual message (Tweet)
• Send messages instantaneously about new product development, events, and any significant news within the company
• Establish two way communication with any clients or customers or the general public in a new way

2. Linked In

The purpose of Linkedin is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection.

What can it do?

• Set up organizational profile to establish company presence
• Create personal profile to establish identity
• Industry issues can be discussed to gain recognition and involvement of individual company represented
• Can join related groups to establish and grow relationships and find new business contacts

3.Facebook

In Facebook users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves.  Company and organizational profiles can also be established.

Why use it?

• Increases awareness of companies and individuals
• Can create company profile to establish organizational presence
• Communicate with individuals and company at all levels
• Creates a place to become fans of the company and can get targeted messages

continued: 5 Most Useful Social Media for Small Business (2)

Bing to Power Yahoo Search

With the search engine and search advertising partnership in the works between Yahoo! and Microsoft, how much will your website have to adapt to a growing number of users trying to find you on something other than Google? Yahoo will soon incorporate Microsoft’s Bing technology as its default search engine, giving the pair almost 30% market share in US searches versus Google’s 65%.

So what does this mean for the effort you’ve put into making sure your creative web design stays on top of the search results? With Bing taking over Yahoo Search, it is going to be important for webmasters to be aware of the importance of Bing in the future. While optimizing for Bing is generally a good idea anyway, those who see a good deal of traffic from Yahoo! are going to have to make sure they pay attention to their Bing results now. Once the switch comes next year, your Yahoo Search results aren’t going to matter as much as your Bing ones.

The differences between ranking well in Google and in Bing are luckily not too far apart, but there are a few things that Bing holds more important. Domain age seems to play a stronger role in the search results for Bing, as well as the amount of text on your website. Unlike Google however, blogs linked to your website aren’t quite as important as on Google.

For all the concern over rankings out there and how to optimize for different search engines, it is important to remember that there are other aspects of bringing your company business through your website. Social media like Facebook and Twitter have been growing fast in the business world, and your company can draw in many visitors from these sites alone, without worrying about those people finding you on a search engine.

Social Bookmarking Builds Links

Here is the last installment of this three part series. Did you find this article from Greg Shuey interesting? There are so many ways to build links out there, and they can get overwhelming sometimes. Just keep in mind that link building is going to help you in the long run and make sure you manage the time you spend on link building effectively. Remember, design your website first with the user in mind and then for the search engines.

Submit Your Site To Local & Industry Specific Online Business Directories

Seek out local directories and directories that are specific to your business. Submit to these first and take your time filling out all of the information that they ask for. These will be some of your most valuable links since they are so relevant to your website and business. Make sure when someone searches for your Chicago area web design company they can find you.

Social Bookmarking

You can waste a lot of time social bookmarking if you are submitting to the wrong sites. I limit my social bookmarking to Mixx, Propeller and sometimes Kirtsy. The trick to social bookmarking is to not only bookmark your website, your blog posts, and other things related to your website, but bookmarking lots of different things that interest you, like experienced Chicago web designers.

Write An Article And Submit To Article Directories

Writing articles and submitting them to sites like Ezine Articles is a great way to get links back to your website. Take time to write a very detailed article about your industry and submit it to a few article directories like the ones I listed above. You will get links back to your website by properly using the author resource or bio box at the end of the article. You should tell a little about yourself and your company, while adding keyword rich anchor text links pointing back to your website.

Credit: Greg Shuey

Get Your Links on Friends and Family Blogs

Friends & Family Members

When beginning a link building campaign, one very natural way of obtaining links is from friends and family members. How hard is it to simply call up (recommended – it’s more personal) or email your family and friends who have blogs or other sites, and ask them for a link to your new website? You can do the same thing with social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.

Add a Blog to Your Domain

Internal links from other pages of your website are a guaranteed way to help you increase your rankings in the search engines. Adding a blog to your domain is a great way for you to easily add new content to your website on a regular basis. In most cases, adding a blog to your main domain is rather simple and can be done in as little as three clicks of your mouse. Web hosting companies like offer one click installations of blog platforms like WordPress.

For a company that doesn’t have a very industry specific name, like Systemtek, an external blog might also be a good idea because it is hard to know that we are a Chicago web design company based on our name alone. Our blog title focuses on what we do, and it gives helpful links to other websites. If you have an external blog, make sure you have a link to it on your website, and make sure that link is easy to find.

Local Organizations

Just about every city in the country has a local chamber of commerce; for us it is the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce. Joining a chamber of commerce will not only get you a very good link back to your website, but also provides networking opportunities with other local businesses.

Local News

Developing relationships with local newspaper writers and always making yourself available for comments on news stories that involve your industry is a great way to build awareness about your company and get links back to your website (if the newspaper is published online).

Help a Non Profit Organization

You would be surprised how many non-profit organizations are operating in your city and your state. Every one of us has been given talents and certain things that we are good at. If you offer yourself and your services freely, you can most likely ask for, and get a link to your website from theirs.

Credit: Greg Shuey

Credit: Greg Shuey

Believe it or not, all SEO’s were newbies at one time or another. Launching a website can be a very exciting event for an individual or new business owner. However, that excitement can quickly turn to disappointment when the site owner finds out that they are getting little or no traffic. If they are getting traffic, it is most likely coming from family members or friends who they notified through an email or Facebook.

I was on a call yesterday with one of my best friends from high school. Our conversation was focused on general search engine optimization principles and link building tactics that could provide a good foundation and hopefully, if he does them right, some strong rankings in the search engines. One thing I emphasized is the fact that what ever he does, he needs to build links naturally. A natural link building campaign is crucial for success in SEO.

A natural link building campaign is one that is just that, natural! It is crucial for success in SEO. Getting 50,000 links within the first twenty days of your website’s existence is definitely not natural. Getting a slow trickle of links coming into your website and then building up looks much more natural. Also, getting 50,000 links pointing to your home page with the same anchor text is not natural. Vary your anchor text and include long tail versions of your keywords. You should also build links to other pages of your site in addition to your home page. All of these things help with building a natural link campaign.

In terms of links, there are two types of links you can get for your websites, external and internal links. For example, a link directing you to our Twitter Page would be external, because it is directing you to a whole different website. An internal link like Web Design directs you to another section of this blog, but both are very important and can make a huge difference in your search engine rankings.

Get Connected in Social Media

While I’m saying it’s really easy, I mean it. Give it a try!

Follow these, and you’ll grasp all you need for social media and jump start in a few hours.

1. Where to Social for Small Businesses?

A: Twitter, Facebook, Linked In and your own Blog.

These are what so far I found most efficient for small businesses. Forget about hanging on 50+ different social media sites unless you have a same sized marketing department and dollar as Dell. It is completely time-and-money-consuming business.

2. How to be Social?

A: Be yourself. Be personal. Start with your own blog and try to update weekly at first.

Research! Listen 300% more what other say. Then you talk.

Try publish more often, 5+ daily . Commit.

3.What to Social?

Blog and Twit about You, Your Family, Your Business , Your Customers, and Your Goals.

Being personal and sociable is very important. Comment on other blogs. Remember to be RESPONSIVE to your audiences, twitter followers and facebook fans. Answer their questions and involve in their discussions.

Social media is useful for almost every type of business. Cafes, retail stores, and even professional services can build their online reputation and increase trust. By taking advantage of social media, businesses can make themselves more accessible, more personable, and maintain long term connections. For a small business looking to increase referrals, social media can be a powerful tool.

Here are five ways small businesses can capitalize on this new form of marketing.

Why use social media?

Social Media for Small Businesses

The best way to illustrate why small businesses are using social media is with a story. Think back to the days of the wild west. In those days, towns had one general store, and the store owner knew everyone. People trusted him and knew what they were getting. Enter the industrial age, and efficiency trumped personalization. People didn’t mind where they bought from, as long as goods were cheap.

Now, that mentality has changed. Consumers are once again reverting to a need for personalization from businesses large and small. The need has been rekindled by the Internet and our ability to find anything we want, as well as a mistrust of advertising (think used cars salesmen).

We’ve reached a point where the consumer wants to know the store owner’s name and that he can be trusted. Small businesses must look beyond their want to grow into corporations, and instead focus on their core customers. Thanks to social media, we’re able to foster these relationships easily and quickly.

Sizzling Summer Internet Marketing Tips (2): Generate Word of Mouth Marketing

Chances are your happiest customers are the best and cheapest marketing tool you have at your disposal. People who are already fanatical about your company’s products or services will be the first to tell their friends, coworkers, and personal network about the quality of service they receive. So here are a few ideas to get your best customers talking more about you:

• Ask customers to spread the word. Don’t be afraid to ask your most satisfied customers to tell their friends, colleagues, or family members about your business. Consider offering them some exclusive service or benefits that they can brag about to their friends; try a VIP email newsletter list that puts customers “in the know” about new products, sales or promotions before anyone else. Then add a link to every email marketing promotion you send that allows them to forward the message to a friend. Soon, their friends will want to get in on the action, your VIP list will grow, and so will your business.

• Give people something to talk about. One customer with a family-friendly restaurant started offering stroller valet. Word got out that not only could you enjoy a great meal there, but you could also bring your kids without worrying about inconveniencing other diners when deciding where to park the bulky stroller. This tactic is especially helpful in busy downtown locations or shopping areas. Another restaurant promotes Tuesday nights in the summer as “family night”. What was once a slow night for their kitchen now encourages local customers with children to come in and feel right at home. A preset kids’ menu and a few decibels noisier, now it’s the most popular place in town for the family crowd. As a side benefit, the customers without children, who appreciate a quiet meal, know to make plans for any other evening. Think about ways you could offer a memorable service experience and get people talking.
• Make it easy. If you’re selling products by mail or in stores, consider including something memorable or
noteworthy in the box or bag. It can be silly, inspirational, or whimsical, but it should remind them who
you are and that you offer more than your competitors. Better yet, include two items and ask them to
give one to a friend.

Sizzing Summer Internet Marketing Tips (1)

More Marketing Articles visit napervillemarketingideas.com

Not Only does Google Maps Put you in front of millions of customer searching businesses in your area,  In addition,Google Maps is an important factor determining your web site’s ranking order in Google and other search engine results pages. And it usually takes 6-8 weeks for Google to acknowledge your listing-so act now!

Systemtek now ranks No.2 on the map of the Google search result page on the search term "Naperville Web Design" .

Here is a video step-by-step.

Video credit: Andew Wong 15