Wednesday 29 March 2017

9. Google Maps

In the year 2017, if you are not easily found on the internet, you do not exist.  This is the 9th in a series of articles; “How to Create and Maintain a Social Media Brand – the Lecture Series”.   This is all you need to know to create a social media presence for the independent consumer based business.     Happy Capitalism!

Google is the search engine of choice.   The second most popular search engine is YouTube and in 3rd place is Google Maps.   (No one seems to care about Yahoo or Bing any more.)  

Location Location Location.   If physical location counts, google maps will be your entry to business existence.  Here is my Google Maps Listing:



When you login to Google with your google account (a gmail address) you have the opportunity to edit the information contained on the Google Maps listing, add photos, hours of operation, edit the address and more.   

How to?
Go to Google Maps and enter your business name.   If it cannot be found, you will be given the option of adding an entry, complete with pictures and descriptions and more.   As with Google+ and Brand Accounts (next blog in this series), it is important to put in the whole thing correctly, than apply for verification.  



Tuesday 14 March 2017

8. Pinterest

In the year 2017, if you are not easily found on the internet, you do not exist.  This is the 8th in a series of articles; “How to Create and Maintain a Social Media Brand – the Lecture Series”.   This is all you need to know to create a social media presence for the independent consumer based business.     Happy Communicating!

Pinterest is a suprise.   It becomes useful when your clients are searching via Google.   Google returns articles, but will also find the images and returns them in a search.   If you want to be found, post pictures on Pinterest!

Pinterest is a visual presence for your business.  If it can only be said in words, than Pinterest will be a challenge.   But, because of its SEO significance, Pinterest is worth the investment. 

Like Instagram, it can be the visual identity of your business on the internet and definitely at minimum a visual presence for your business. 

Small Potatoes

If you run a consumer based business, it is an excellent forum to post photos of charity events that your company sponsors, pictures of your product and brand, and raise awareness of your business services.  

The whole Shabang

If you have the resources to create a major campaign, instagram is an excellent place to do so. 
Consider a contest where the prize would be $5,000 to a charity of choice based on the number of likes that a proposal or charity were to garner.  Think of the incredibly successful movember campaigns or ice bucket challenges. These types of campaigns are ideal for a photo/video based social network.

How To:

1.    Start by signing up
2.  Create a few boards that align with your market space.  Here you identify and decide on your branding and your target market.
3.  Upload and post pictures that align with Step 2 above, that your prospects may search for or come across.
4.  These pictures should have, in their properties, links to your website.  (Backlinks are always good SEO karma). 
5.  These pictures should have, in their properties, tags with likely search keywords and phrases.
6.  When you’ve run out of ideas, take a breather by searching and posting other peoples pictures on your boards (but not too often, or this dilutes the message too much). 

What makes Pinterest work for you?   

Essentially, when a prospect searches for something using a phrase or keywords, your pictures show up as part of the results in the Google search.   When the prospect clicks on your picture, the link should take them to your website.   The more often that you are found, the more likely that Google will return you as one of the search results on the first page.  




Wednesday 8 March 2017

7. Snapchat


In the year 2017, if you are not easily found on the internet, you do not exist.  This is the 7th in a series of articles; “How to Create and Maintain a Social Media Brand – the Lecture Series”.   This is all you need to know to create a social media presence for the independent consumer based business.     Enjoy

Snapchat is impermanence in a permanent Internet.  When they say:  the internet never forgets, they were not referring to Snapchat.  Your posts are only available for a few short days at most.  It is a place to post that will be deleted and so has been laughingly referred to as the social network of choice for sexting!  Of course, as some politicians are aware, if someone is out to get you, the impermanence of anything is questionable.  

This is a whimsical play site and attracts like mined adherents. 

I cannot write about what I cannot use, so here is a link from someone who can:  
 http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/5-ways-to-use-snapchat-for-business/

Next week we will look at more useful tools on social media.... stay with me....