If you are using Facebook for sending out cute little messages and posting pictures of your vacation, it won’t do you much good in attracting customers. On the other hand, if you have a Facebook account that is just set up for business, that’s a different story.

The message here is to set up a separate Facebook account just for your business and post your cute stuff to your personal Facebook account.

After you have set up your business Facebook account do a deep search using the Facebook search bar, and find potential customers to add to your following list. As an example, if you sell cut-glass flower vases, you might want to invite all owners of flower shops to follow you. There are over 2,100 flower shop listings on Facebook that I recently found. It will take some work, but sending out invitations to these and other potential customers is well worth the effort. Just make sure when you do invite them to follow you, you send something that is of interest to them. Remember you are trying to build a relationship, not to try and sell your products with the first contact that you make.

I won’t go into what you should send them via your business Facebook page. That’s a whole topic unto itself.

Now on to Blogging!

I believe setting up and using a Blog is a lot easier than using Facebook or other social media sites. Blogs were used for short communications like a Facebook or LinkedIn account is now. A Blog should be used to send out articles, lists of tips, helpful suggestions and recommendations. However, using it to publish articles is the real key.

Why publish articles? The first thing to understand is that the Search Engines (especially Google) love content. By content I mean a 300-500 word article written about a subject that relates to your business. You are the expert in your business, so coming up with an article every other month shouldn’t be that difficult.

A good article will have a greater chance of being recognized by the Search Engines. The Search Engine will index your article and will list it in their organic search results. On the other hand, a short little note on your Facebook account is not going to get spidered and indexed by the Search Engines. Good content on a Blog will almost always get spidered and indexed by Google and other major search engines.

The more listing that you have in the organic search results of the major Search Engines, the more chances you will have that someone will find you, visit your Blog and eventually visit your website. That is exactly what you want to happen, and using a Blog is the way to do it.

Helpful Tip

When you write an article for your Blog, remember that you want to get your article to show up on the Search Engines. So be very selective in which keyword/phrases you use when writing your article. As an example; if you are writing an article about the variations in quality among various manufactured cut-glass vases, use the keyword/phrase “Quality Cut Glass Vases” several times in your article. Also, use this keyword/phrase in the title of your article, use something like: Quality Cut-Glass Vases:  Price is Not Always the Best Guide”.

The 1989 movie Field of Dreams was a fantasy that used the phrase “If you build it, he will come!” which is sometimes misquoted as “If you build it, they will come.” In the movie, Kevin Costner built a baseball field because he thought that “Shoeless” Joe Jackson would return and once again play baseball in the field.

 If you build a website will visitors come to your site? If you believe they will just because you have a website, then you, like the movie, are living a fantasy.

 Today it takes more than just having a website to get visitors (potential customers) to come to your site.

 You wouldn’t design a brochure or catalog and not mail it out to potential customers would you? No, of course not! Unfortunately, most website owners are doing just that with their site. They are not taking the proper steps to promote (market) their website and therefore are not getting the traffic they should.

 Today, the Internet (specifically search engines) is the number one source that individuals use to look for products and services, even for local sources. Without properly promoting your website, you will be sitting in the stands waiting for the game to start.

 So, what do you do? The following list gives some of the best proven ways to get significant, quality traffic to your website of potential customers looking for your products or services.

Search Engine Optimization

Writing Blog Articles

Submitting Articles to Article Websites

Using Social Media

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

 The primary goal of a well established plan to promote (market) your website is to get your website listed high in the search engine results. Not just for the name of your company, but for keyword/phrases that potential customers would search on when looking for your products or services.

 This goal holds true whether you sell nationally or locally. With the search engines being the number one place individuals go to search for products or services; don’t you want your website to show up high in the search engines or do you want a “Website of Dreams?.”

 Where do you start to promote your website? Most website owners lack the knowledge of how to properly promote their site, so the best staring point is to find an Internet Marketing company that has the experience to guide you.

If you are interested in learning more about the best ways to promote your website and generate traffic, please contact us today at USA Marketing Associates. 508-223-3653 or jconant@usamarketingassociates.com

You might have noticed recently that Google’s search results are listing pages from sources other than traditional business websites. It’s certain that Google is now taking a big interest in ranking, within their search results, with more unique information. It most likely started when Google purchased YouTube three years ago and started listing video from YouTube in their search results related to the specific keyword/phrases being used for the search.

 With videos being hotter than the SUN as far as search popularity is concerned, Google made a very good choice in their purchase of YouTube. So what does that mean for individuals searching on Google?  The first clue is that search results are showing small jpeg graphics of videos Google believes are relevant to the search. If an individual thinks the video would be of interest, they now can click on the link and view the video on their computer.

However, what Google is now displaying in their search results doesn’t just include YouTube. We are now seeing listings from LinkedIn, FaceBook, Wikipedia, MySpace, EzineArticles, Scribd, Flickr, Search Directories, and Twitter to name just a few. Yes, even Twitter is showing up on the first page of Google’s search results.

This is both Good news and Bad news for website owners trying to obtain high rankings! The Bad news is your previous high rankings in the search results might get pushed down to the second or third page. The Good news is you can regain your rankings by taking advantage of all of the Social Media sites. In fact, it is possible to obtain several listings on the first page of Google’s search results by providing good content to the Social Media, Article, Directory websites and good optimized pages on your site.

So if you are not using LinkedIn, FaceBook, MySpace, EzineArticles, Scribd, Flickr, Search Directories, and Twitter, you should. And the best news is they cost nothing to use.

If you are using FaceBook, LinkedIn, and other Social Media websites for personal use, create new accounts for business “only” use.

Realizing high rankings on Google and other search engines using Social Media and other sites, will require that your content be of high quality, and relate specifically to the keyword/phrase or phrases for your business.

If your business sells “home gardening supplies” as an example, you will want your content to be written for this topic (keyword/phrase). Make sure you use the keyword/phrase in the title of your content, whether you are describing your business in your LinkedIn profile or if you are writing an article and submitting it to an article website.

One thing you should remember is that your Social Media site listings on Google and other search engines will not give you direct links to your website. Someone clicking on one of these listings will need to go from the Social Media site to your website with another click or two. The primary way to get potential customers directly to your website is with optimized web pages. The next best thing is all of the free Social Media sites that will help you generate more visitors to your website.