What Is Local SEO? How to Use Social Media To Target Local Customers?

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The internet is the most powerful tool in the world. It’s changed our lives and made connecting with people from all over the planet more accessible. But what about when you want to talk to people who live right in your backyard? Suppose you’re running a local business or trying to reach out to your local community. In that case, local SEO is an essential part of how your business can stand out from the crowd—and get discovered by potential customers.

What Is Local SEO?
Local Search Engine Optimization, or Local SEO, is finding your business online through people in your local area. It can accomplish through organic listings on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo and other online directories such as Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google Maps.
It’s about ensuring you’re showing up in the results of Google searches and other search engines – but it also means optimizing your website so that people find what they need locally. You should also ensure that you have accurate information about opening times on social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter so that users can see whether or not they can pop into one of your stores before heading home after work.

How to Use Social Media to Target Local Customers?

Optimize your page for local visibility
You have now taken the first step in local SEO. Now it’s time to optimize your site for local visibility. To do this, you must ensure that your business information is accurate on Google and other search engines. Like adding a local phone number, your mailing address, and business hours of operation, to name a few.

Google My Business
Google My Business helps you gain more visibility in your local community by making it easy for customers to find and connect with your business on Google. How does it work?
After you’ve claimed your business, you can get found when people search on Google Maps and Google search, as well as through ads. In organic results, you’ll also see a snippet of basic information like your address and phone number. It’s important to note that only verified businesses are eligible for this feature.

Facebook Places
Facebook Places allows you to create a page similar to Google My Business.
Your information here will aid people in finding your product or services on Facebook but not on Google. It will help boost the organic reach of your Facebook posts, as they will appear in search results if someone searches for them specifically.
The description should match what you have on other platforms, and use the exact keywords when possible; also, include photos from your website or other social media profiles.

Foursquare
What is Foursquare? Foursquare is a location-based social networking site for mobile devices that gives your business a mobile footprint. With more people using portable devices to search for companies, a presence on Foursquare is a popular social media platform for local businesses. Create a Foursquare Page and connect it with your Twitter account. When you create your page, make sure you complete your Page Profile. Now you want to add your listing to Four square’s searchable database. Just click on “The List My Business” tab, and follow the instructions. If you don’t have a business listing, you can create it at https://foursquare.com/login?continue=%2Fadd_venue. The business listing will ask for your phone number, your website’s URL links to your Twitter and Facebook profiles, hours of operation, and a description of your business. Make sure you include all the information.
Once your business listing is there on Foursquare, claim it. When you claim your location, you are telling Foursquare you are the manager of that venue. You can claim multiple locations of Foursquare; all you need to do is to provide verifiable contact information. Once you have listed and claimed your site on Foursquare, you can begin adding specials, checking your analytics, and much more. But the most important way to use Foursquare is to take the time to build a network of just local followers and interact with them.

Business Information
Make sure your business info is correct in all places. You can use the same name and address on all your marketing materials, website, and social media accounts.
If you’re a new business, set these things up immediately so you can start local search engine optimization as soon as possible. If you already have a website, make sure of all changes across all pages.

Keywords and Hashtags
A helpful tip is to use geo-specific keywords and hashtags. Local SEO is more than just ranking highly in Google. It’s also about targeting customers searching for a specific product or service in their area, so they can easily find you when they’re ready to buy.
You must ensure that your website is suitable for local search and social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube for any videos and Instagram. Use geo-specific keywords and hashtags on these sites so that people looking for local businesses can find yours.

Conclusion
Local SEO is a great way to grow your business and reach more customers. It’s essential to take steps now so that when you open up your new branch or expand, you will be okay with Google and Facebook. The key takeaway is that local SEO can be compelling if done correctly.

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Content Marketing for Small Businesses. Expert Tips Just for You!

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For the past few years, content marketing has been a definite leader in the field of digital promotion. People are constantly looking for the right information on social networks, watching videos, and reading blog posts. They focus only on useful and high-quality content, so the only way to gain their trust and, eventually, close a sale, is to be the first and only one who’ll provide such content. And this is exactly what content marketing is for.

What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services. It focuses on creating and distributing content for a targeted audience online. Social media is an integral part of content marketing

Content marketing thus is promoted through content. In other words, you do not just create any text but write something that will increase sales growth, recognition, or attracts potential users.
Before we dive into some tips and specifics of content marketing for your business, let’s identify the technique itself. It’s all kinds of content that talk about what you do: texts, videos, pictures, animated images, information graphics, podcasts, etc. Basically, they are various types of materials that are used by Internet users visiting your site or reading about you on the web.
The Primary Benefits of Using Content Marketing for Your Business
Here you can see how content marketing can be useful for you:

1. You’ll get highly targeted organic traffic from search engines through the publication of helpful content on visited sites (media, thematic resources);
2. It’ll ensure comprehensive coverage of the audience of social networks and increased brand/product recognition through the targeted distribution of exciting content and its further “sharing” by users;
3. You’ll be able to influence the user’s decision to purchase at each stage of the sales funnel and get the corresponding increase in engagement;
4. Your SEO will boost as a result of an increased number of links to your business site from third-party resources, which will also improve behavioral factors.
As you can see, content marketing allows not only to convey information to the target audience, but also to establish an open dialogue with it, to find out the current opinion of customers, and to build brand loyalty.
According to a recent study, 90% of companies are actively using content marketing; 50% of published messages evoke a lively response and interest from the audience. And yet, only 5% of the posts lead to real actions: transitions to the site, registration, or other targeted efforts.
So let us provide you with some actionable expert tips that can help gradually improve your business.

Content Marketing Professional Tips
Focus on publishing relevant content. The first tip is easy to follow. When creating content, follow the rule of conformity with the professional field and subject. Post relevant content that is consistent and aligns with the overall goals of your site. Let’s say you sell coffee machines online. In addition to providing all the technical information about the product (photos, reviews, videos), you’d want to post articles related to coffee on the blog (preparation, use, recipes, etc.) d.), in other words, relevant content. Studies show that more than 50% of consumers are happy to read such materials on company websites.

Double-check your content formatting before you post it. Good content requires original, well-developed, and unbiased information on a specific topic. But even if it is just that – useful, unique, and expert – it can easily get lost on the Internet, among other publications if users struggle with reading it and following your train of thought. Proper presentation of any text implies improvement through breaking it into paragraphs, as well as through the use of bold and italic styles, headings, a suitable font size, etc.
Caring for content formatting is also good for SEO because it is a direct sign that you’re trying to create a high-quality website. If you decide to combine different types of content (text, images, video), this will improve the user’s impression of reading the material, which will undoubtedly lead to certain advantages.

Your title can be the key to success. What we’re talking about is the basics of SEO, which don’t get any less important. So, an extensive and bright title performs several functions at once:
● It helps search engines understand the content of your text;
● Gives social networks an understanding of the semantic direction of your materials;
● It attracts the attention of users and stimulates an increase in click-through rates to a specific page.
Do not underestimate the importance of the first impression of the text, so think a hundred times before clicking the “Publish” button.

Try to keep tabs with your competitors. There’s a chance that the number of players on your market is massive. And if you want your content to work effectively for your business, it should be better than that of competitors.
Before you start creating any material, check out related publications on Google, Facebook, Twitter (or another social network that is more suitable for your audience) and find out what type of content they like in the first place. Pay attention to such things as volume, quality, and format, and try to create content that will surpass the others in all respects.
Content that doesn’t outperform competitors’ content can’t cause the hype you need in search engines or social networks, so it’s preferable to spend some more time and work on improving your texts.

Create a perfect schedule for your content. In addition to the desire for relevance and accuracy of content, you should remember the need for its regular publication. If possible, post materials not only on specific days but also at particular times of the day. Having such a “calendar” will help you organize your workflow and create a group of loyal users.

Your content should be helping with conversions. Remember that the primary goal of creating content is to increase conversions. In other words, a conversion can be considered anything from increasing the number of your email subscribers and clicks on banner advertising, to growth in sales of goods.

Good Content and Social Media
Content marketing for small businesses can be very powerful. You can even consider adding a blog to your business website, or post content on social media platforms like Twitter, Linkedin, Foursquare, or a short video to Youtube. Remember people want information. And good content can provide information that your prospective customer is looking for. brand

 

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7 Social Media Platforms Effective for Business

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Congratulations! You have successfully started your business or at least launched your business website online! How will you market it? Paid advertisement is essential but expensive! Using social media is what many businesses are doing now because of its reach online, and because that’s where the people are!
So the question is: What effective social media platform can be use for most businesses? Or let’s say my business? What an appropriate question!
Nowadays, there are tons of social media platforms at your disposal. These are all effective social media platforms where you can create an amazing following. However, you don’t have to sign up for all new and popular social media sites on the planet. Trust us when we say you would rather be excellent with one or two platforms rather than be mediocre with four five or six!
A number of accounts in different social media sites don’t matter. Instead, pick one or two channels and focus your target marketing there. If you need some guidance on what is the best social media site/s for you, tips and information are available for you to determine the most effective social media channels out there. But for now here are seven of the most effective social media platforms that you can use for your business.

1. Facebook
What can we say? Over 1.11 billion people are into this famous social media site. Besides catching up with loved ones from overseas, Facebook did a wonderful job for many aspiring entrepreneurs out there. If you’re a start-up entrepreneur, we suggest you try the waters of Facebook first before jumping on any other platforms.
Facebook has established itself quite well and you can use that to your advantage. You will be easier seen on this social media site with an option to send you a private message, browse your products and even share your goods to a wider network. We firmly believe your target marketing strategies will not be wasted on this site. Indeed Facebook is an effective social media platform for you business. On facebook, you will be able to launch a seperate business page or “Fan Page” to promte your business and to also leverage the use of group pages as well.

2. Twitter
Twitter is an astonishing social media platform that can promote your business in 140 characters or fewer. This is a site that garners over 215 million active users or potential customers. This great site is generally made for communication so you know that customers can reach you 24/7. What’s more special about Twitter is that you can incorporate your own hashtag brand so you’ll be easier searched or be on the most popular page.
Word of the wise, this effective social media platform can get you viral in no time! Proven and effective way to increase your business’ popularity.

3. Instagram
Instagram is a good platform if you like photos. Just open an account and build your audience to engage and post any pictures relevant to your business, add a cute or useful tagline and then link them to your website.
If used properly, your followers may skyrocket more than what you’re expecting.

4. LinkedIn
This effective social media platform is made for business people to interact with others. Sometimes it is used by job seekers to find potential employers but most of the time it is used to increase your audience. Business owners realized the value of this site and the opportunities to build relationships and sales leads. An estimated 2.7 million business pages are on LinkedIn, each interacting with each other for partnership, proposal, quotations etc.
Just a quick heads up LinkedIn has a humongous number of professionals so expect important business dealing. It is not similar to Facebook or Twitter where any start-ups can be casual. On LinkedIn, you need to look professional so people can take your business seriously. Nevertheless, don’t be intimidated though as the users on this social media channel are really friendly. You’ll never be out of place here.

5. YouTube
1 billion unique visitors every month – that’s how huge this video-oriented site is. Not to mention that it’s the second largest search engine after Google! How’s that for target marketing and popularity boost? YouTube can literally take you to places with increasing your customers every second someone clicks on your video.
You can even sponsor a commercial where they can stream over millions of videos. Oh, did we also mention that YouTube is owned by Google? You don’t have to worry about search engine rankings at all with this platform.

6. Pinterest
Pinterest is another effective social media platform made for business-especially if your business involves products to promote. All you need are good photos of your products and post or “PIN” them on a board representing a certain category and then build your following to interact. The people on Pinterest are friendly and sometimes helpful to promote even your own products. It is worth signing up just to get a little familiar and start getting your business or brand out there to be seen on the internet!

7. Foursquare
While most social media platforms will connect to people all accross the web, Foursquare is design to target local follower at the exact location of your business. Over 50 million people use Foursquare whether for online or offline businesses. So for storefront owners, you would want to learn how to leverage this effective social media tool. Just simply go to Foursquare, sign up, follow the guides, and engage as you would with other social media platforms, but keep in mind these will be local followers as potential customers to you business.

 

Social media is really simple to use and inexpensive! It’s all about one thing-engagement! Once you get a good feel at using social media-the more you will be effective in promoting your brand and they can become a powerful tool for your business. So whatever you choose from these effective social media channels, just remember to focus first on one or two at a time, so your marketing will be successful to a large degree.

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Using Social Media to Find Local Customers for Your Small Business

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Buy LocalHow would you like to target potential customers for your small business-but only in your local area? Targeting local traffic is an important website marketing strategy for small businesses. According to a variety of studies that have been done regarding website traffic, approximately 80% of people doing an online business search are searching for local businesses. But what if you want prospective customers to know that you are here locally? Here is where Social Media can help!
Promoting through social media sites is a new way that offers a lot to your business, mostly for free. Utilizing social networking sites is an effective way to draw local customers to your website. Here are a few social media tools to use:

FREE TOOLS

Twitter

In Twitter you can literally find tweets that mention your topic of expertise, from people who are geographically close to you. The way to do this is by using Twitter search. But instead of using the basic Twitter search box, you would want to use the Twitter Advanced Search page, which will allow you search locally.
To access the Twitter Advanced Search page type the keywords you want to search for in the usual Twitter search box and press Enter. You’ll see a results page that gives you a list of tweets that include those keywords. Click the down arrow next to the ‘cog’ in the corner of the page, then click Advanced Search. This reveals the Twitter Advanced Search page where you can really narrow your search. Type in your keywords then go to the Places box. Enter the geographical area you work in and then click Search. You’ll get a list of tweets that include your keywords, from people who are in the location you searched on. To save this search for future use click the drop down arrow on the search results page next to the ‘cog’ and click Save Search. The next time you want to look at this search click in the basic search box and a list of your saved searches will appear.
Using Twitter search in this way helps you find opportunities and people to add to your network.

Twellow

Twellow is a Twitter related tools that permit you to specifically target users who are among a certain area of interest and those who yield the most influence on the site. Once you’ve identified these people, you should follow them and hope that they return the favor.
You simply open up a Twellow account. At the top of the page you will see “Find Twellow users anywhere.” Just enter your city or location and start clicking on users you would like to target. Once they follow you back then start engaging with them.

Facebook

If you want to build brand awareness and connect with your customers, there is no beating Facebook. To claim and set up the Facebook Places page for your business. The first step is to create your Facebook Page by going to https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. When you click on Local Business or Place, you will be taken to a page that will require you to fill in the required details of your business. After this you can use your admin panel to edit your page, build your audience, and fill your page with the requisite content. Once you have created your official local business page on Facebook, it’s time to claim your Facebook Places page.
Go to your Facebook Business Page and click on the arrow on the box next to “edit” and select ‘Is this your Business?’ When you click on it you will be taken through a series of steps that will ask for information about your business. You will now need to verify your connection to the business by either choosing an email verification process or by uploading the necessary documentation. Choose the email option only if you have an email address linked to your Facebook account and which also serves as your business email address. In terms of documentation, you will need to scan or click a picture of an official business document, like business license, tax file, phone bill, etc., and upload it.
Now you are done claiming and setting up a Facebook profile for your local business. All you need to do now is start managing it.

Foursquare

Foursquare is a location-based social networking site for mobile devices that gives your business a mobile footprint. With more people using mobile devices to search for businesses, a presence on Foursquare is one of the most popular social media tool for local businesses. Create a Foursquare Page and connect it with your Twitter account. When you create your page make sure you complete your Page Profile. Now you want to add your listing to Foursquare’s searchable database. If you don’t have a business listing, you can create it on https://foursquare.com/login?continue=%2Fadd_venue. The business listing will ask for your phone number, your website’s URL, links to your Twitter and Facebook profiles, hours of operation, and description of your business. Make sure you leave no information out.
Once your business listing has been added to Foursquare, claim it. When you claim your location, you are telling Foursquare you are the manager of that venue. You can claim multiple locations of Foursquare; all you need to do is to provide verifiable contact information. Once you are done listing and claiming your location on Foursquare, you can begin adding specials, checking your analytics, and a whole lot more. But the most important way to use Foursquare is to take the time to build up a network of just local followers and interact with them.

Google + Local

The local pages on Google+ Local closely resemble company Facebook Pages —they interact with Google Maps, Zagat reviews, and Google+. But the big thing is that your local pages will be indexed by search engines. Just click here to read my article on how to put your small business on the map!

PAID TOOLS

Yelp

This is another directory that is scaling the popularity charts, though for a small monthly fee. The 3-step process to be followed for claiming a Yelp listing for your business is similar to the processes on other sites. First go to https://biz.yelp.com/claiming. Type in the name of your business. If it shows up and is unlocked, somebody has already claimed it. If it turns up locked, click on the ‘Unlock’ button.
Another scenario is that your business listing doesn’t turn up in search. Don’t worry, just click on the ‘Add your business to Yelp’ link, which will take you to a page that will allow you to do just that. Once you click on ‘Add’, you are done. Now wait for the confirmation email from Yelp. You are done claiming your listing. Now you need to optimize the page by adding as much business information as you can. This could mean including more business information, photos, responding to reviews, and a whole lot more.

“The Bottom Line”

In using these social media tools, it’s very important that all your profiles contain complete and up to date information. Also, your contact addresses and phone numbers must be the same across all your profiles. Maintaining profile consistency across different online directories will boost your local SEO efforts and allow you to target market local customers for your business.

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Tips on Marketing Local Businesses With Social Media

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Social Media for Business

 

social media for businessBusiness oftentimes is a local competition. Especially if it’s a brick and mortar storefront and you want to promote it locally online. To get into the game, you have to ride the craze in reaching out your prospect consumers. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of options to choose from— paid advertisement and social media.
In every marketing strategy, budget has always been the primary consideration. Paid advertising can be effective, but it can cost you an arm and a leg. Moreover, there is a loophole in this scheme. The impression that you will make on your prospect consumers will depend on how you formulate the plan and execute it. This goes the same with social media marketing, but on the contrary, it is not expensive as paid advertisement. Despite the difference in digits, it can also render you promising results.
Social Media in Action
No matter what your purpose is— brand awareness, online reputation management, website traffic, or communication with your audiences, social media always has a room to cater these needs. With your goal right before your eyes, your approach to social media will depend accordingly. Here are 6 tips to market local businesses with social media!
• Devise a social marketing plan. Given that you have analyzed your target audience and your competitors, it is about time to carefully think of a plan that will blow away your rivals. In this part, consider coming up with content ideas that will interest your audience such as tips on using your products and great deals.
• Go for quality instead of quantity. There is no use in posting many articles online if it is just fluffy. Always remember that people want to read something valuable and worth of their time. For example, if you are promoting food supplements, write articles that relate to your subject like its benefits to the user.
• Maintain an open communication. Technology paved way to what kind of communication the people have today. With this advancement, it is easier for businesses to get in touch with their audience. For instance, people can exchange or share thoughts on Facebook or Twitter. As this continuous, it creates a dynamic and lively environment for people to interact. Hence, it improves customer relationship.
• Social Media Platforms. Facebook and Twitter are just some of the popular social media platforms where people interact. Despite its orientation towards online interaction, you can also take advantage of advertising your products or company as its reach is multitude. Just make it a point that you will not solely use the platform for the sake of promotion, but also for interaction. Apart from these social media platforms, you can also use Foursquare for your business. According to Social Media Examiner, it is a location-based social network that has over 20 million users. In this platform, people use to check it for locations or shops that they have visited. As people checked where they have been, it can be shared with Facebook friends and Twitter followers. Eventually, your business is noticed.
• Offer promos and great deals. Customers love promos and great deals from a company. You can offer discounted products or services, buy one take one deal, and even a game of prizes. Doing these are a sure fire to delight your consumers.
• Dress your business professionally online. Reputation greatly matters for every business. It is one of the main ingredient for success. With this, keep your social business accounts in motion by sharing good content, promotions, and fabulous deals.
Mapping your business success with social media is indeed possible. You just have to cut out the appropriate moves to market your products and services locally. Hence, delve deeper on what every social media network can offer and gear it towards your goal.

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