First Blog Post

This feels like a great opportunity to post some notes about advertising on the web for my clients who ask about the very basics. I have been receiving many questions about search engine optimization for websites and social media tools these days. So it seems that the first blog post is a good place to start with some of those very basic definitions by answering these questions.

Will Twitter help my business? Twitter is a web tool that allows you to send 140 character messages to people who are following you. I see Twitter as a cool technology but not necessarily the right tool for advertising most businesses. It is handy at conferences to track ongoing events. I use it to track a few stars in the web development community but mostly use it at conferences.

Why do I need Facebook? By now you have all seen the movie and have a little better feel for what it is but do you need it for your business? It has grown from 400 Million users in 2010 according to Facebook's stat page and the demographics are well beyond college kids. Facebook can be used as a targeted push-marketing tool. But it is important to understand the difference between a profile, a page, an event, a group. These are all different things you can set-up on Facebook. You can start with a profile and keep it relatively private as long as you keep up with the changes on Facebook. Then set-up a page for your business and invite some of your contacts to be fans. The average Facebook user has 130 friends. So when they click "fan" on your page, all of their friends can see their interest in your business. You can do the math, send it to 10 friends and hit 1300 potential customers. But don't stop there. Keep the page active by posting new pictures, and tidbits to the page so people keep you in mind. Add the link to your website on the Facebook page and add a Facebook link to your website. The most common flaw I see with this is the idle Facebook business page. If you post some meaningful information about your business once in a while you can maintain some digital influence. Too much useless information and you get hidden. No information an you get forgotten.