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So we all hear that traditional media is changing. Businesses have been using Newspaper, Television, Radio, Direct Mail, Telemarketing, and Yellow-page advertising for a long time now. So how is media changing?

The person who grew up reading the newspaper is literally dying off. My parents and grand-parents are in that generation. I grew up in the electronic world…TV and Radio. In fact, only three channels on TV and radio saw the switch from AM to FM while I was growing up. Cable TV was new and has come into its own during my lifetime.

My kids grew up with hundreds of TV channels, multi-media platforms all around them all the time. This fragmented media world has caused enormous issues for local business. Just look at how many pillars of the local communities have gone out of business just in the last 10 years or so.

Although TV viewing is still very high, we no longer sit and watch TV as we used to, especially not as a family. We have On-Demand programs and movies available or internet sites that offer programs that we pull up any time, any day, and increasingly the numbers are showing that TV viewing and internet surfing are going on simultaneously.

We definitely don’t listen to the radio the same as when I was growing up. Today it’s satellite radio, an MP3 player or cell phone grabbing my attention instead of my local radio stations, especially while in my car. Direct mail is thrown away for the most part, telemarketing is no longer available due to the governmental “No-Call” list, the yellow-pages are all but dead due to online search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing while most print is far too expensive for a local business to advertise in when comparing its reach.

Our current generation of consumers is hit with as many as 3000-4000 ad impressions every day. How do we in Interactive Advertising assist our clients in getting their message through all of this clutter?
There needs to be a paradigm shift. Local business can no longer market the way that it has for so many years. Things are not the same. Consumers are not the same. Society as a whole is not the same!

So what does work?

There seems to be a very successful trend in using Inbound Marketing. Inbound marketing is a shift of more relationship marketing or permission marketing as Seth Godin coined. It’s using the social media platforms and content to tell your message thus inviting the consumer to contact you. Instead of a business pushing its message out, the business is pulling its customers in.

Social Media is incredibly powerful. There are many case studies that show the success of local business harnessing this power for their message.

As a practitioner of Inbound marketing, I believe that we have to teach our clients how to use these new platforms in conjunction with their current marketing and advertising campaigns or they are just not going to be successful and they too will wind up closing their doors for good.

I’ve put together a list of five elements to making this shift to Inbound Marketing work effectively.

1. Content. Keep your content fresh and relevant. The search engines will rank you higher in searches based on these two elements. They want to serve up the most relevant content to their own customers when they do a search. If your content is current and relevant, you have a better opportunity of showing up. Business owners will say, “But I just don’t have the time to produce this content.” I say make the time, or hire someone to do it. In today’s world content is King! The content that I’m speaking of can be gathered from other sources fairly easily. Trade journals, other articles within the business category, freelance writers, etc.

Your content can be in the form of an article that is written, a blog on your Website, a newsletter, or even a video that shows customers “how to” on a specific subject. It does not have to be some Hollywood production. Just something simple that gets your point across. The main thing is to keep it current.

Articles and Press Releases are another great form of content that works well in social media. There are tons of sites that will accept your articles and the more a business can place content the better the chances of someone finding and choosing to engage.

2. Customer surveys and polls are great. These don’t have to be real elaborate, just engaging for customers to want to participate. It’s a great way to generate market research and shows customers that you care what they think. You can then release the results generating another touch point with your customer base.

3. Videos or photos should be a part of your Website. Visuals are huge when it comes to engaging customers. They see that there are real people doing business. Video testimonials from happy customers are great to use in your social media pages like Facebook and Youtube. Video cameras capable of shooting video for the web are very affordable and are easy to use. In fact, no editing is really needed for this type of videos.

4. Newsletters can serve multiple purposes as well. The traditional newsletter that went out in the mail is long gone. An email newsletter is easy to put together, informs customers of what is going on in the business and can include links to products, special services, videos, etc. An email marketing campaign using a newsletter can be one of the best marketing tools any business can implement. These don’t have to be time consuming and this too can be outsourced at a very reasonable price.

5. Monitor and engage with customers. Once a business is in social media, it doesn’t stop there. Customers will ask questions and post comments. Businesses must be there to answer. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, Biznik, Digg, Flickr, or whichever platform that a business chooses to get involved in, the sites have to be monitored and kept current. If a business does not have time to allot, this too can be outsourced.

No matter the business, traditional forms of marketing and advertising no longer work the same. The new ways are effective and measurable and can generate brand recognition as well as sales. In fact, both need to be considered when implementing an online campaign.

Whether a business is optimizing their Website for the search engines or producing content for a social media site, Inbound Marketing is The way to reach today’s consumer. Those of us that work in Interactive advertising and marketing have the responsibility of teaching our clients how to do this correctly and effectively.

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Businesses anywhere in the world are able to create a powerful brand and rapidly project it to a global audience. This is all the more apparent when one considers that the major social media websites are indexed by the major search engines and thus appear among the first search results when the relevant keyword is searched for. What does this mean for the way that you do business and how do social media help you build your brand? A solid social media marketing strategy is where one must begin and the following are five techniques that you can use social networking to build your business and brand.

• Community building is perhaps the number one way to build a brand through social networking websites. Sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn can be used to help connect you to other people who operate within your niche. These connections are then leveraged for not only networking, mentoring, and mind mapping, but also for referrals, and recommendations. Your brand is built through a constant interaction with the people in your industry and those already using your service.

• For community building to be effective, it must be supported by building an informative profile. When someone goes to your Twitter, or LinkedIn profile they will only stay for a few seconds before they move on. They want to know what you are about, what you do, and how you will help them. Place this information at the foremost part of your profile as possible and make it as concise, clear and yet exciting as you can. Also (where possible) use colors that match your brand and incorporate your business logo on each social media site you use as long as it allows you to.

• Excellent customer service and speedy complaint resolution is something you must actively aim to achieve through any social media you use as it plays an important part in your overall brand position. Many of the world’s largest companies including those that would be considered to be in traditional sectors such as banking, are using social media as a platform to address generic client issues or communicate client-important information. So even if you are a small business owner, you can do the same thing.

• Another way to use social media is participating in industry specific forums online. This is one of the best places to sell your business both directly and subtly. As you become more visible in your conversations, interactions, and by providing solutions, people will start to talk about you, link to your blog, and recommend you to people interested in the products you have on offer.

• Finally, combine all your social networking profiles so they are linked together to lead to even more online visibility.

Branding yourself online seems like it would be a monumental task. However, when done in gradual and well laid out steps like the ones outlined above, you can build a strong brand that continues to grow and benefit your business over the long term.

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I recently chatted with Chris Tomkins, the CEO of Go! Media International. They are a comprehensive online solutions firm. Their focus… strategic development and implementation of social media marketing campaigns (in addition to developing other online marketing tools – websites, blogs, email marketing campaigns and more).

Check out the ebook that Chris wrote on the value of social media marketing and how it can apply to your business. You can download it here: http://www.gomediainternational.com/index.cfm?pageid=33

Let me know what you think. I thought it was a good read and that is why I’m sharing it.

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For every business that is working on increased Search Engine rankings, this one’s for you.
Many marketers still fail to strategically optimize their videos. Learn how to avoid this common mistake and get the most out of your video efforts. View

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Over the weekend I was talking with a friend of mine that has her own business and she asked me a question about using Facebook to help market and promote her business.

As we talked and shared ideas I began to think that there are probably a lot of different ideas on how to best use Facebook, or any social media site for that matter, to help promote a local business.

I decided to take a couple of my ideas and put them into a short article here this morning.

How To Optimize Your Facebook Page

“Optimizing” a Facebook fan page can mean different things to different people. Do you want to optimize for search? Are you wanting to create brand awareness? Are you maybe interested in optimizing for lead generation?

The first step in fan page optimization is identifying the objective of your fan page.

Once you’ve made that decision you should integrate design elements using the Static FBML(Facebook Markup Language) app. Create a tabbed landing page that has the same look and feel of your associated website. Consider integrating FBML elements such as suggesting the fan page to friends (WooMe example http://www.facebook.com/WooMe) or marketing elements such as a newsletter (Animation Mentor example http://www.facebook.com/AnimationMentor?v=app_10531514314).

Add conversion points such as a “Get More Information” form or a “Rewards Program” sign up (again, consider your objectives).

Remember your objective is about finding your target audience. Hold contests (Wildfire App good for this http://wildfireapp.com) or offer Facebook-only deals or coupons. Run polls. Ask questions. Share insider info about your company.

If you are an e-commerce company, consider selling products online using the Alvenda app or Payvment apps. Basically, treat your fan page as your homepage for the Facebook community.

What can you offer your target audience? How do you want to engage with them? What action are you looking for them to take?

Then measure and test. Look at Facebook Insights and your web analytics platform. Test a strategy and see what works. Set goals and attribute it to revenue. Measure your ROI. Rinse and repeat.

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