Anita Campbell on Starting a Business

The Top Ten Social Networking Sites for Entrepreneurs

Social networking fever is everywhere. Every week I get invitations to try out social networking sites.  There are literally hundreds of such sites.

If I used every single one I’d never have time to run my business! 

So I’ve developed a short list of social networking sites for which I’ve seen a return on investment.  The trick is knowing what they are good for and how to use them.  Currently, these are the ones I have seen some value for small businesses (in no particular order):

• Blogs – Blogs are the foundation for many social networking strategies. Some social networking sites can be used independently of having a blog, such as Work.com and JumpUp.com.  But the real value in other social networking sites is in using them to help widen the visibility of your blog and in turn your business.  If you do not have a blog, consider getting one.  Blogger.com is perfect for experimenting to see if you like blogging – you can set up a blog for free in under an hour.

• Facebook –  Small business owners have more recently caught on to this site that students have known for a few years.  Facebook lets you “meet” new people online because you can easily follow links from your friends’ pages to discover other friends. 

• LinkedIn --  LinkedIn lets you keep your resume/bio online 24/7, where it can be seen by others who are looking to hire employees and service providers.  I like the LinkedIn Answers feature, where you can answer business questions posed by others.  It’s a good way to bring yourself (and your expertise) to the attention of a wider audience.

• StumbleUpon –  This site allows people to share Web pages with others.  Someone  “stumbles” a page (i.e., marks it for sharing).  That enables other StumbleUpon users to randomly “stumble on” that page and discover it.

• Work.com –  At Work.com you can write “how-to guides” on topics you know well, and see them published.  It’s a place you can establish yourself as a published “expert” on a given subject.

• Digg and Reddit – These two sites can drive considerable traffic if you have an interesting blog post.  Here’s how it works. If you write a blog post that is especially interesting, someone could post a link to it on Digg or Reddit.  Then others see it on Digg or Reddit and visit your blog.  If they like the article, it will get ranked high on the home page of Digg or Reddit, drawing even more traffic. 

• Del.icio.us --  Del.icio.us is a bookmarking site that can drive traffic to individual blog posts or articles on your site.  Readers can bookmark links to blog articles or helpful Websites. They mark them using keywords (“tags”).  Others using Del.icio.us can search the tags and discover articles bookmarked by others.
 
• Megite and Techmeme --  These two sites track online conversations that are hot at the moment among blogs.  There will be a list underneath each topic linking to some of the blogs discussing that topic.  Some bloggers I know use these sites as part of their strategy:  they watch to see what is on the home page and then write about those subjects, in the hopes that their blog will get listed thereby attracting traffic and links to their blog.

• MyBlogLog –  MyBlogLog.com shows who is visiting which blogs.    You place a widget on your blog.  When someone who is a member of MyBlogLog visits, their photo shows up in your widget.  Other readers can click on their photo and eventually get back to their blogs or sites.  In that way it helps drive traffic to other blogs.  Plus, it’s a fun, interactive widget to have on your blog to interest your readers.

• JumpUp --  No discussion would be complete without discussing JumpUp.com.  JumpUp lets you connect with other entrepreneurs starting businesses.  What I like about JumpUp is that you are presented with content that is already filtered and appropriate for starting a business.  You can find links to resources, many of them free, for your business.  And your business can be spotlighted on the home page – JumpUp is the only site that devotes so much space to spotlighting individual small businesses.

A final word about MySpace:  I consider it good for certain types of businesses, but not for everyone.  If you are a musician, MySpace can be perfect for building a fan base.  But for more traditional small businesses, it may not attract the audience demographic likely to turn into real customers.

In closing, don’t bite off more than you can chew.  If you don’t have a lot of time for online networking, pick only one or two of these sites and get good at using them. 

What is Local Search and Why Should You Care? Part II

Part 2 of a two-part article on local search. 

If you already know what local search is, and your company is listed in local search engines and yellow pages directories, it's time to move on to more advanced strategies:

1) Paid visibility -- Most search engines and yellow pages sites offer paid listings or paid search ads for higher visibility.  If you decide to go with upgraded listings or paid search ads, try them for a period of time so that you can measure the ROI.  Some offer statistics to let you see how many times your listing or ad was viewed.  

You can also use a traffic-analytics program to measure whether the paid listings or ads drive traffic to your website, get searchers to fill out lead forms, and otherwise convert into real customers.  Google offers a free analytics program that I use and highly recommend.  It takes a little work to understand how to use Google Analytics, but it is worth it.

2) Geo-targeted ads -- Geo-target your paid search ads.  Take, for instance, Google AdWords (the listings you see marked as “Sponsored Links” in Google search results).  Google lets you  target your ads geographically, in several different ways:  zip code, city/state, even mapped out in irregular shapes.  Other search ads, such as Yahoo Search Marketing, offer varying ways to geo-target.  See what's available for the advertising you choose.

3) Hire an SEM firm -- Consider engaging the services of a search engine marketing (SEM) firm.  A good SEM firm can tailor a program to increase your business' chances of being found by those searching for local vendors.  For instance, the SEM firm may be able to help you re-write the text of your website specifically to attract local buyers from natural (non-paid) search engine results.  They can also help you with strategies to prompt visitors from your website to visit your physical location.

4) Educate yourself -- If you can't afford to hire an SEM firm, then your next best alternative is to educate yourself so that you can learn how to get your business more visible to those searching locally.  All of the following cover more than just local search.  But since local search is just a subset of search engine marketing as a whole, you will need a broader understanding anyway:

-- Attend a few search conferences - just make sure they are designed for non-techies.  Jill Whalen's High Rankings seminars are great for business owners. Or look for sessions put on by search engine firms or technology organizations in your city - they are often geared toward beginners and business owners.

-- Invest in a good eBook on search engine marketing – you can get a good one for under $100.  I recommend the "Small Business Guide to Search Marketing".

-- Finally, you can learn a ton just by regularly reading search engine blogs, especially those that touch on local search topics. 

These advanced strategies involve extra time and money beyond simply getting your site listed in some free directories.  But if your business is all about local customers, the results could be worth it.  Your Web traffic will be better qualified and you are much more likely to attract in-premises foot traffic from those who are planning to buy locally.

What is Local Search -- and Why Should You Care?

Part 1 of a 2-part article on local search.

Local search is when people search in Google or some other search engine using geographical parameters.

For instance, let’s say I want to buy a new car.  I might search for “Toyota dealers” plus the name of my local city “Cleveland” or maybe my city AND state, “Cleveland Ohio”. Or perhaps I put in my zip code in place of the city and state.

Not only that, some of the search engines can detect from my IP (computer) address where I am located.  So I do not necessarily even have to put in my location information.   The search engine technology detects where I am and returns results specific to my location  even though I did not specify them.

Why Local Search is Important

Wouldn’t you rather attract Web searchers who might actually buy from you, instead of people halfway around the world?

If you have a brick and mortar location, chances are that most of your sales come from your local area.   According to research by the Kelsey Group, 60% of small businesses get the majority of their customers from within a 50-mile radius.

But even if you have a primarily local business, Web searches are growing.  People turn to the Web even to find a vendor or store or business in the same town:

How to Get Found in Local Searches

If you want your business to be found in local searches, start by listing it in the major local search engines, directories and yellow pages sites.  These are the sites with some of the highest local search volumes.

Google Maps 
Yahoo! Local 
Windows Live Local 
Judy’s Book 
Superpages.com 
YellowPages.com

Check first to see if your business is already listed.  If not, look for a link near the bottom of each site that says something like “add/edit your business.”

If your business is already listed, check over the information carefully.  It may be inaccurate or outdated, and need correcting.

Submitting a listing to all these sites shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours.  If your business is too small to have a marketing department, never fear: this is the kind of project you can assign to a receptionist, virtual assistant or student intern.

Don’t expect a lot of traffic from these listings.  Consider it laying the foundation for getting found in local searches.

Also, don’t forget to include geographical information in your website.  Make sure your website has your full street address and phone number prominently listed, in text (not an image, since search spiders do not read images).  That way the regular search engines can find and index address information when they spider the pages in your site.  This will give you more ways for your site to be found (more indexed pages that link your business to a zip code, area code, state, city, etc.).

Some savvy businesses put their address and phone in the footer of each Web page right next to the copyright notice. If you have multiple locations, then set up a separate “locations” section of your site.