Put A Face And A Voice to a Business using Social Media -#rva Social Media Workshop

Richmond Retailers get together to talk Socially – By Randy Windsor

I was given a fantastic opportunity to meet with and present to a group of business owners late last week in Richmond, Virginia. The topic of discussion was Social Media and how it can be used to help influence visitors and researchers that may consider using your business. This was a great experience for me as a presenter of Search Marketing Education seminars to learn a bit more myself about this fast growing field while, at the same time, sharing knowledge that I have with traditional forms of search engine marketing to provide a great overall strategy. While this was an interesting group with many of the people wading and testing the waters before taking their first social media plunge, the other speakers for the event were very well versed on the ins and outs of social media and the benefits that it can have for the small to mid-sized business owner.

The presentation started off with Monica Horsley and Trevor Dickerson of By Invitation Only, Richmond’s Premier Retailer of Invitations and Stationery. They related how they use Twitter and Facebook pages to connect with their current and potential customers by letting them know what is happening in their business. Monica noted it allowed her to put a face and a voice to her business that potential customers could easily relate to. She promotes special happenings and new products through her online efforts and was very surprised in the beginning of her social media experience with how many people came into her store and told her they found and followed her on Twitter. It was a powerful message coming from a peer of those in the crowd. Trevor Dickerson, also of Downtown Short Pump – The Official Guide To Richmond’s Far West End spoke of the actual process they used to create and use their account so it was a nice mix of technical information as well.

Priya Ramesh is Director of Social Media Strategy from CRT- tanaka, an PR agency headquartered in Richmond.  She co-presented with Shashi Bellamkonda, the “Social Media Swami” of Network Solutions. They discussed basic strategies that the group could use to get the best out of their effort. Many of the attendees asked very direct questions about how their business could benefit. An example came from a gentleman with a painting company who asked how his business could benefit since people only paint their homes once every few years. He was worried that he would spend massive amounts of time using social media for very little return. The presenters explained that he could inform the public of his skill and knowledge of the painting industry and even if they do not need a painter at the moment, they now know who to turn to. Those followers would then have a great resource they can recommend to friends and business associates.

Although it was not specific to social media, I presented a Top Ten list of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies that the group could use to market their business web sites to the search engines. After all, any business owner worth their salt knows that you cannot put all your eggs in one basket. So a balanced strategy with both social media and traditional methods of marketing will help small business owners on several different fronts. Many of the attendees asked questions during the Q & A session to learn answers to specific questions about SEO for their business or their industry. The truth is, a best practices approach for search engine marketing will generally help any company. Here is a rundown of my Top Ten SEO Strategies:

Know who you are up against

Linking, Linking, Linking…

Create good original content

Target effective keywords

Use keyword rich anchor text for all internal links

(Although not used by Google) Meta data is still important to other engines. Use tags properly.

Create a theme based page for each targeted keyword

Use logical and simple navigation (The engines need it to find your content)

Select a descriptive domain name when first starting a site

Use keywords in your internal URLs if possible

For further information regarding these tips, please follow the link below to a series of pre-recorded webinars that Network Solutions provides free of charge. You will have the ability to view these at your leisure and have control to fast forward, pause or rewind the presentation to catch up your notes.

http://networksolutionsseminars.com

Thanks  Richmond BBB,  Retail Merchants Association , CRT-tanaka for sponsoring the event and to the wonderful people who attended.

About the  author:

Randy Windsor has more than 25 years of experience presenting educational programs to public audiences as a professional speaker. His background in communications and technology has led him to become a top performer in technology sales and presentations. He began work with Monster Commerce in March of 2005 which was later acquired by Network Solutions to serve as their ecommerce service division. Randy was a Senior Level Sales Representative and Manager in the ecommerce sales office until becoming Manager of Search Marketing Education for Network Solutions in October of 2007. During his time in this position, Randy has trained thousands of businesses and professional organizations on how to use the Internet to further their business goals.

In 2008 and 2009 Randy played a key role in developing the Network Solutions Search Marketing Webinar Series, a supplemental educational program, which covers various topics on Internet Marketing. Such topics include Pay-Per-Click advertising, search engine optimization, link building strategies and e-commerce marketing. These presentations are available to the public on the Network Solutions Knowledge Center web site. Each quarter, Randy updates these presentations to keep them current and relevant to the times. He is also working on expanding the seminar program to cover additional topics that are vital to the success of an online business. The programs will cover the basics of building an online business and continue through to marketing strategies. These live seminars and live and prerecorded webinars will available as resources to help online business owners strategize for success.

Randy enjoys spending his free time with his wife and children; he is an avid model railroader, a fan of magic and also enjoys an outdoor recreation called Geo-caching.