Looks like if you were relying on organic Local Search results with Google for better exposure for your business, you’ll need to spend some money on paid ads to get the same results as you did with the previous version of Local Search with Google.
Recently, Google has made several changes to how it displays local search results. Columnist Jason Decker explains these changes and discusses the impact for local search marketers. Click Here for the full story from Jason Decker at Searchengineland.com
00Stephen Proffitthttps://gorgedesignstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/gorgedesignstudio_transparent_small-1.pngStephen Proffitt2015-09-22 01:58:072015-09-22 01:58:07The New Google Local Search Display
In just a few months, live streaming has become the hottest new trend in social media. Users are flocking to new platforms, and Periscope is leading the way.
If you are looking for a way to tap into this growing user base, here are a few ways you can use Periscope for marketing your business or brand.
What Should I Broadcast?
The tagline on Periscope’s website invites users to “explore the world through someone else’s eyes.”
This is a good mission to keep in mind as you broadcast for your brand or business. It is important to remember that Periscope isn’t a promotional tool — it is a connection tool.
Don’t use Periscope to show your audience what you want them to see. Show them what they want to see. Here are a few ways to give viewers what they want.
The Human Side: Invite viewers to get to know you and your brand by documenting what it is really like to work there (clips from meetings, the break room, inside jokes, etc.).
Live Events: Broadcast from behind the scenes of your event or share an attendee’s perspective.
How-To’s: Create explainer sessions where you give a tutorial or walk your audience through the steps of a task. Invite your audience to ask questions during the live session.
Q&A Sessions: Invite your audience to ask you questions during a live Q&A session discussing your business, products, or services.
Interviews: Live stream an interview with an influencer in your industry or other members of your staff. Include viewer questions as they come up.
Product Reveals & Demonstrations: Give the first look of your new product or walk your audience through the process of what it is like to receive, open, and use your product. This can include demonstrations that show the product in action.
Big Moments for Your Brand: Allow your audience to be there with you as you experience a big milestone for your brand (receiving an award, hitting a metric goal, receiving national media attention, etc.).
Release Special Offers: Reward your followers by offering exclusive special offers that are for Periscope users only. This is a good incentive for getting people to follow you and keep an eye out for your new live streams.
Have a Contest: You can host a contest through the platform or announce winners of contests live.
Tease: Show small pieces of products or service you are developing to create buzz and generate interest and curiosity.
Hold a Focus Group: Ask your customers their opinions and allow them to help shape the direction of your business. Invite them to participate in a focus group where they share their thoughts and opinions about your brand.
Periscope communication goes both ways, so always look for opportunities to both share and gather a unique perspective. Use the platform to talk and listen to your audience.
How Do I Get People to View My Broadcasts?
Periscope enables users to discover broadcasts by following users and browsing through the map and list display to find new streams.
Get discovered in the list by using a specific, descriptive, and interesting title. A great title is a primary way to get users to notice your broadcast.
Get discovered on the map by sharing your location. In your settings, enable the location feature. That way, Periscope can show your general vicinity as your share (although they will not give your exact address) so viewers can find you based on your streaming location.
Make sure that you are promoting on Twitter. Periscope is in a partnership with Twitter so they made it easy for you to cross promote between the two platforms. Set up your account so that every time you broadcast, an automated tweet will notify your Twitter followers of your live stream.
Once you get users to discover you, keep them interested and engaged. Remind them to follow you so that they can catch your next live stream.
How Do I Get the Most Out of My Broadcast?
If you are going to use Periscope to promote your business or brand, take some time to get involved as a viewer first. That will help you get ideas about what the experience is like from the other side of the camera.
Then when you are ready, use these other tips to get the biggest reach out of your broadcast.
Don’t be stuffy. Remember, this is an opportunity to show the personal side of your business or brand. Don’t be overly professional or stuffy or else your viewers will see through it and change the channel.
Expect mistakes. Don’t obsess over the details before, after, or while you stream. Part of the allure of the platform is that it is live and anything can happen. Don’t focus on perfection. Expect that you will make mistakes, and know that your audience will appreciate seeing the human, uncut side of your business.
Respond to comments. Periscope is a two-way street so don’t ignore the comments as they come in. Respond to comments as much as possible to keep up audience engagement.
Get Started Now
Unlike other social media platforms that are already saturated with brands and influencers fighting for attention, Periscope is a relatively open playing field. Get in now before the crowds arrive and you have to fight through to get attention.
Periscope is a new platform which means that the rules and best practices are not set in stone. Continue to try out new tactics, test out new strategies, and watch what other big brands are doing.
Let us know how you are successfully using social media’s hottest new platform by tweeting us on Twitter or Facebook.
00Stephen Proffitthttps://gorgedesignstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/gorgedesignstudio_transparent_small-1.pngStephen Proffitt2015-09-15 20:03:362015-09-15 20:03:36Brand-Building Ways to Use Periscope
It is an ideal solution for any business which is looking out to increase its revenue by attracting more consumers. Now digital marketing is simply another type of advertising your company’s products. Whereas other traditional advertising methods use newspapers, flyers and billboards, digital marketing just needs electronics including the radio, television, cell phones and the internet. Today, as a result of incredible usage of the internet, more and more digital marketing tactics have dedicated to the internet. Now you can use many digital marketing options such as for example banner ads, web blogs and paid search engines. The main element to any successful business is now effective marketing.
Due to the fact that most businesses need to earn high profits at an inexpensive, they decide for these strategies which can be most cost effective and that leave the best effect on the consumers. This is actually the sole reason why many agencies and consultancies have opened up and have been in high demand. These agencies and consultancies basically help plan out effective strategies and also guide companies detailed in the whole procedure. However, if you only want some methods for on how to advertise online most effectively then you have come to the best place. In the remaining of this informative article we would be discussing various ways in which you can advertise most effective using Google Ad Words and other methods to improve your ad’s click through rate (CTR) and website conversion rate.
To increase your advertising, start using social media. This can be a guaranteed win-win solution while the more you connect to people the more you win them over your side. Next for increasing your web site conversion try a few of these tips. To begin with, to increase your click through rates you must try to increase delivery details. Also try to put in actual charges for authenticity to make your ads look realistic. Also, a percentage of capitalization adds a personal touch to your creative’s. They are basically tip for Ad Words users.
Lastly, it is important to know what folks assert about you, your company and your products. The best way because of this to get feedback from consumers but most of us know the harsh reality that it’s quite costly and sometimes impossible to adequate feedback. Here social networking comes into the picture. Not merely could it be a price effective way you uncover what people consider you but in addition it gives the image of you being thinking about what your clients have to say and increases the amount of communication.
00Stephen Proffitthttps://gorgedesignstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/gorgedesignstudio_transparent_small-1.pngStephen Proffitt2015-09-14 18:19:312015-09-14 18:19:31Techniques For Effective Digital Marketing
Yet another wave of scammers are taking advantage of local businesses with their “Best of Business” awards or similar equivalents. This one didn’t even bother to check the information and note that we are no longer in McMinnville, and haven’t been for a few years.
We will have a sudden influx of client businesses that have received awards for being the “best” in their local market for their industry now that this scam which first appeared in 2013 is now operating in 2015.
While we think all of our clients are the best, some are brand new and have done little yet to earn such “prestigious” awards. We have also heard stories of businesses with 1 star ratings and an ‘F’ in the BBB who are receiving these awards, not to say that star ratings or BBB scores are necessarily accurate.
Most of the emails from this new wave started going out again about 2 months ago from what we can tell. In fact, we received our first ever award just today – unless it is real… Take a look:
Gorge Design Studio has been selected for the 2015 Best of McMinnville Awards for Website Designer.
For details and more information please view our website: 2015 Best of McMinnville Awards – Website Designer
If you are unable to view the link above, please copy and paste the following into your web browser: (Link Removed)
Once you follow their link, you are immediately offered a free digital award, such as a customized Press Release. The goal is for them to keep pulling you in deeper and sell you on physical awards and trophies, etc. Once they find a sucker, they take advantage of it.
Here is what they offered us for being the BEST:
The difficult thing with this scam tactic is the scammers use a variety of domains, so it is tough to track how many scams are occurring at any given time. If they were simply using one domain, you could find a lot of complaints online, including sites like Rip-off report. Most of the domains we have seen have been .net, .org, and .us, but we assume the use more.
So, what do you do if you get such an award?
First, look to see if it is from a reputable company or organization that you are familiar with. Not all awards are fake!
Next, use your instincts. If you have look at the examples above, including the stories in the links, then you should be equipped to recognize potential scams
Once you suspect or recognize the scam, there still might be a dilemma for you. By receiving such an award stating that you are the best business in your category in your market, you could use this for promotional purposes. Or you may need some bling for your office desk or wall. The scammers understand this; in fact they count on it.
Even if you figure out that it is a scam, you still may want to leverage it for the “credibility.”
Is there anything wrong with that?
It really is up to you. If you choose to go down this path, be careful about providing payment information, such as credit card numbers, for their tangible gifts. I would not give the scammers anything, personally, and do not recommend you do.
If you want to use the “award” for credibility purposes, you could just reference it. There is a fine line here. If you know without a shadow of doubt that it is a bogus company and award, I would not use it. On the other hand, if you are unsure and don’t have the time to do the research, you could reference it.
Example: Awarded Best ___________ in ___________ in 2015
If you choose to do this, save the email you received as proof that you received this recognition from the sending company.
Final thoughts…
Unfortunately, a side effect of good marketing and local SEO, is that businesses are listed in lots of online directories, internet yellow pages, and review sites. It is very easy for scammers to “scrape” these sites and pull your business data.
This means you will get a lot more spam emails, scams, and telemarketing phone calls, and this is expected to increase greatly over the upcoming years. You need to have a policy in place so that you can filter these distractions appropriately. Most of our clients simply forward all emails and telemarketers to us, so that our team can review and make recommendations.
If you found this article helpful, please share it with as many people as you can. Not only will you be helping them, but they will get to see our shiny new blue award!
00Stephen Proffitthttps://gorgedesignstudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/gorgedesignstudio_transparent_small-1.pngStephen Proffitt2015-09-09 14:24:052015-09-09 14:24:05Scam Alert: Best of Business Awards for Local Businesses
We’ve launched our new Project Management Tool. Now you can manage your project, submit support tickets, request quotes & estimates on current and future projects, as well as pay your invoice. No more playing phone and email tag wondering if your request has been received.
Once we receive your Request for Quote from our RFQ form, it will be entered into our project management system and you will receive an email with your login and password where you will be able to revise and update your request, accept the quote, and start your project on the road to launch.
Periscope enables users to discover broadcasts by following users and browsing through the map and list display to find new streams.
If you are going to use Periscope to promote your business or brand, take some time to get involved as a viewer first. That will help you get ideas about what the experience is like from the other side of the camera.
