Google Plus offers Business Pages

Google is not being outdone by Facebook and has launched business pages on Google Plus. Time will tell if the social platform can compete with Facebook, but Google maintains it is not really about competing with Facebook as much as allowing existing Google services users to connect by giving them their own platform.

In reality, competing with Facebook must certainly be on their minds in addition to their magnanimous reasons for doing so.

Social media has certainly evolved to contribute to the ranking signals Google uses to rate websites, so it should also be included in the ongoing promotion of important websites and pages.

SEO Oakville 2011

SEO report from Oakville Ontario Canada for June 2011

As the weather turns from freezing to muggy and hot overnight, the Oakville area managed to escape some of the severe storms that spawned tornados recently.

Another source of tornadic action online has been the recent Google Panda update.
Google is getting better and better at weeding out machine generated and useless content from quality content that will benefit readers.

Why does Google constantly tweak their algorithm? In order to remain the dominant force in search. Bing has made inroads recently at the expense of Google by taking away an additional sliver of the search engine pie, but Google still remains the leader. Google is leveraging many resources toward the coming explosion of smart phones and mobile technology,

The confluence of mobile and local search is all but a foregone conclusion as more and more consumers snap up Android phones, now the largest mobile operating system that is - you guessed it - owned by Google.

Oakville Ontario is home to over 170,000 residents and many businesses still believe that the only way to get attention for their brand or service is to put an ad in the newspaper.

Old school technology is being replaced by new ways of doing things whether we like it or not. See the current demise and closings of hundreds of Blockbuster Video stores across Ontario and Canada. All three Blockbuster locations including the store near Monastary Bakery and the one on Westoak Trails are closing their doors with a firesale of dvds. Online video, Netflix and other more reliable and cheaper sources along with pirated videos have made the video store a loosing business.

While the video stores go out of business, video views on Youtube (also owned by Google) are booming. With the new televisions that make it easy to combine facebook and youtube with tv viewing, Youtube in high def is now a feasable full-screen alternative to regular television programming or dvds.

What does all this have to do with SEO in Oakville for 2011. Everything! The message is that local businesses need to embrace the new forms of connecting with their audience through all of the internet channels where their customers may be. From facebook and twitter to Youtube, blogs and of course websites, businesses need to take their online presence more serious than ever.

Here is to getting more Oakville residents and visitors to find your business, service and product offerings in 2011 and beyond using the power of the internet.

Visit Webmad online for more on Oakville SEO.

Mobile Marketing Trends in Canada

Mobile marketing is the new online frontier. Google has committed to mobile ahead of desktop applications as the future of marketing. The mobile ad space is still cheap in relation to Adwords prices and the reach of the mobile advertiser is very targeted.

SMS marketing or text message marketing has become quite popular in Canada due to high open rates. Instead of a low open rate for emails, over 92% of text messages are opened.

The holy grail of marketing is to market to a customer where and when they need your product or service. With the new smart phones offering a wide variety of apps, an advertiser can geo-target advertising to a customer when they are in the vicinity of the offline store.

New services such as Foursquare in the States are offering check-in bonusses for loyal customers of a local business with the most loyal customer being promoted to online Mayor.

By combining a game element with local search and mobile marketing, targeted advertising just got a lot more interesting for primarily offline businesses.

Webmad Internet Marketing and Design builds mobile websites and connects offline businesses with online targeted traffic.

Facebook Changes Business Pages

The dust is flying at businesses as logging into their business fan page has become
anything but routine. Facebook is known for implementing fast and furious changes and a major "upgrade" has just occurred this February, 2011.

Many businesses are having trouble with some of the features; some are discovering some of their wall posts went missing, others accidentally converted a personal profile into a page and the confusion goes on.

We tried to parse through some of the changes and see if it was worth upgrading our account to. Unfortunately for all that don't like what has been done, you have no choice on March 1, 2011 when the changes will be rolled across all business pages.

Major changes include the elimination of tabs that were on the top of business pages. Now the navigation is being made profile style in the left margin with small icons that you cannot change. This minimizes the effect that the grand tabs had and many business owners don't like it.

Another change is that you now login and manage business pages differently. Now you have to login as your page from the dropdown menu being careful about who is posting (yourself or your page) and to what account if you manage multiple pages.

This is going to take some time to get used to and careful steps are necessary to avoid cross-posting.

One seemingly good change is that you now can get email alerts everytime someone posts to a page and the page can post on other pages (and profiles too if permissions are set correctly in that profile), but you have to watch whether you are commenting as a person or a page.

Photos are now the top thing seen as they have been moved prominently front and centre.

You can also feature admins of your pages or other pages that you like and mutual connections are shown when people visit your Page showing their social graph/friends who also like your page that both you and them liked your page.

What are you thoughts on the latest upgrade and any problems you are having with it? Your comments below appreciated.

One thing is for sure, we don't seem to have a choice in the matter come March 1.

Selling by Demand

One of main problems marketers face when selling a product or service is that the marketing industry is obsessed with “what’s new”. What is the cutting edge marketing technique for 2011?

This fast-paced, wall-street style, high-tech “online alchemy” absorbed by the collective marketer audience of beginners & wannabe millionaires to discover his or her “secret” is the supposed holy grail of online marketing.

As marketers lineup for Facebook Ads, Twitter audiences, iPhone Apps (or the latest social media crze) putting tried and true marketing methods on the shelf. Online marketers that actual peddle information are making money from the clueless hordes over and over again while leaving the real effective techniques by the wayside.

Now more than ever, the fact is that those that understand the fundamentals of online marketing, keyword research and actually working the lead generation program across a multitude of platforms without all of their marketing eggs in one basket are getting the best results.

People have a subliminal aversion to SIMPLE TRUTH. They either want to justify their lack of results with an acceptable excuse (“I don’t have the latest gizmo method…”), or they want to believe it’s more complicated than it really is – so that they can “secretly” never complete anything lest they potentially face failure.

According to a leading online marketer:
"People secretly want the thrill of the hunt over and above the spoils of the catch. For the majority of people in this industry, the thrill of discovery and embarking on a journey (with some “new” method) is infinitely MORE enticing than putting on some proverbial overalls and hammering out some results with really basic methods – methods that have always worked and always will.

The Market Serves Demand. And our market contains an audience with an aversion to simplicity and an insatiable desire for the “new” and the “exciting”. That’s what gets ordered. So therefore – that’s what’s on the menu. Therefore…

The PRIMARY News Topics, Discussions and Points of Interest in our Industry Always Focus on “What’s New” and “What’s Hot”. It’s just like the regular media. People don’t buy “fluff” headlines – regardless of the reality. And even though most North Americans have a better chance of getting struck by lightning whilst being attacked by Shark than they do compared to being the victim of “terrorism” – the news must deliver what is interesting. What’s… “new”.

And so the cycle continues. Indefinitely."

The key to successful marketing is to understand what people want and then serving it up in a way that they can consume the information they need along with a powerful call to action.

Here is to a great 2011 and thriving business!

Webmad

Ontario Business Marketing for 2011

Happy New Year to Ontarians in Canada!
Have had some questions over the holidays about the best way to position small and
medium sized businesses in Ontario, Canada for the New Year, so here are some tips.

The internet is made up of billions of files, so the first order of business is creating user friendly, informative content that the Google Gods may smile upon.
Now in theory, that is all you would have to do in a perfect world and omnipotent Google will find your needle in the proverbial haystack and serve it up to potential clients.

The problem is that it is not a perfect world, your clients are not only on Google but on social media, web 2.0 properties, online directories, news sites, blogs, video sharing sites, podcast sites and on mobile devices, ipads, laptops and more.

So where do you engage your potential customers? Everywhere they are! That sounds like a monumental undertaking, and that is why there are quality online marketing services such as Webmad Internet Marketing and Design of Oakville, Ontario to help focus your business' online presence. Give your company the gift of "Online Presents" in the New Year 2011 by reaching out to more customers and clients.

The Yellow Pages have been dead for years now. Most people in Canada under the age of 25 have never even opened a phone book. The phone book is now what many will find in the Spring under a snowdrift in a corner by the front door once the snow melts. In fact many directories are no longer being distributed at all.

You can either spray and pray by throwing thousands of marketing dollars at newspaper, radio and magazine ads, or you can have the internet working to promote your business 24/7.

The most important distinction I have raised over the holidays with colleagues and friends, is that many businesses feel they have to have a website because everyone else does. They still treat their website as an online catalog or brochure instead of a living and breathing lead generation tool to help grow their business. Those few that realize the difference and do something about it will rise to the top to the detriment of their competitors who are still locked into 3 year ago thinking (which is eons in the lifepan of the internet).

Keep in mind that even the second largest search engine in the world: Youtube, was only born 5 years ago and even more recently acquired by Google.

So here is to a successful and prosperous 2011!

Webmad Internet Marketing and Design
info@webmad.ca