Social media users love to be heard, and if you are listening they can provide a great service to your company.

Gauge User Data
By implementing a website analytics tool such as Google Analytics you can see what content most interests your users, what content they are reading, what links they used to get to your site and what they searched for to find your site. If you know your user types, referring sites and what keywords they used to find your site you can then create more favorable content. By understanding this data it should in turn give you the answer as to why other sites trust you and what related topics you should consider.

Free Focus Group
Standard focus groups are a marketer's dream, one that is often unfulfilled due to high costs. By polling your social media users you can create focus groups for free allowing you to research for product concept, price validation, location based product offers and positioning. Most social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn have applications which allow you to easily create polls.

Receive Feedback
Social media is an immediate feedback loop. Give your marketplace a platform to provide feedback so you can improve your products and services to better your business. Social media also opens the door to provide immediate customer service to problems you may not otherwise been aware of. By setting up a monitoring system such as Google Analytics you can see what others are saying about you and immediately address any problems or concerns about your product.

10 Reasons Why Social Media IS Worth Your Time:

Many companies don’t see the importance of social media in their marketing plans or think that they do not have the time it takes to be using social media tools. However, with the rapid growth of social media it is important to pay attention. Read on to find out why social media is worth your time.

1. It’s Free
   In today’s economy most companies are on a limited budget when it comes to marketing their products or services. While it may cost you in time, the majority of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are free. The time spent using social media is well worth it in the increase of traffic to your site. 
2. Results Are Quick
   Unlike search engine optimization (SEO) which can take months to years to successfully implement, social media tools allows you to see results a lot sooner, within days or weeks. By following the same rules as SEO using social media builds quality links, generates an increase in traffic to your website and allows for keyword specific copy. Also, since social media users are generally primed and ready to buy when they visit your site you will see a fast increase in sales.
3. Instant Social Traffic
   Any traffic to your website generated from social media sites are Social Traffic. As with the basic principles of SEO an increase of traffic to your site increases your page rank on search engines.  Social Traffic is instantly produced by simply adding a link to your social networking sites including your Facebook page, social media blog, LinkedIn and Twitter or posting articles on social bookmarking sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon, this will prompt social media users to navigate to your site.
4. Allows for Safe Link Building
   Again, by following SEO standards, social media tools allow for link building. Links are easily built by simply adding a link on your existing website pointing to your social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc as well as by posting articles onto social bookmarking sites such as Del.Icio.Us, Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon. By building these free links there is no need to take the risk of paying for a link building service. Link building services often take unorthodox routes to produce links which are frowned upon by search engines and therefore decrease your page rank.
5. Covers Your Market
   Between social news sites, social bookmarking sites, general networking sites, forums and social media blogs your market is easy to find. Whatever your message or your audience there should be an option to use social media for your benefit.  Another benefit to social media is that if you are not seeing the expected results from one social media site’s market you can easily move to another.
6. Targeted Audience
   Once you get into your niche market your audience will be targeted. Think about it, if you run an ad in a local newspaper thousands of people will see it but very few will be in the market for your product or service. With social media you already found your market now you are providing them with what they want. Even when posting on social bookmarking sites you can see an increase of targeted users. If your post makes it to the front page of a site such as Digg tens of thousands of people will see your post, even if only 2,000 users have an interest in your post that is still 2,000 visitors to your site.
7. Users Are Valuable
   Social media users are predictable. After time you will be able to get a good sense of what content will draw a response and can better target your audience by generating content that will receive approving responses from users. In addition to creating favorable content you can also poll your users to learn what they like and dislike almost creating a free focus group.
8. Allows for Branding
   Just as in traditional media branding is key in social media and is one of the greatest benefits of using social media. When utilizing multiple social media tools it is best to stick with the same look and feel as you have used with other marketing endeavors. Once users become aware of your brand it is easier to find you on other social networks and tell others about who you are.
9. The More You Do It the Easier It Becomes
   In the beginning social media can be overwhelming. You may not have a large number of fans on your Facebook page and your social media blog hasn’t yet become a hit in the blogging world. But if you stick to it you will establish a following therefore making it much easier to see the desired results of social media. The more you use it the more you will understand how users will respond.
10. It’s Not Just A Fad
    Social networking isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Sites such as Facebook have been around for years and are seeing incredible growth each month. Businesses around the world are changing the way they market themselves so they can better fit into the social networking sites. Without finding ways to do the same you could easily be left behind.

Feeling overwhelmed? Allow us to help.

Our social media team will enable you to reach your audience as you never have. With advanced social media tools, customized development and full integration, OpenVision will transform your traditional marketing presence into a fully functioning social media masterpiece. Visit our social media team at www.mysocialmediacompany.comto see the full range of services offered.

Tis the season to pull out the pencils, calculators and spreadsheets, time to sit down and start planning out your 2010 online marketing budget. I know, I know, it's never fun and everyone is dreading it, but it's something that needs to be done.

Wondering where to start?

SEO, PPC, social media, email blasts, website updates, banner ads, links, directory submission…the list is endless when it comes to Internet marketing options. So what is right for your company? The easy answer is to spend it where you get the most return; the more difficult answer is what will bring the most return.

But, first things first, take a look at your existing website. Are there broken links, outdated information, clunky copy or poor design? If so that needs to be the first thing in your online marketing budget. There is little point in driving people to your site if your site is in need of an upgrade. Click here for a free website evaluation.

Now let’s see how much you are paying per visitor to your site (CPV). Don’t worry we’re not looking at conversion rates, after all it’s your website’s job to convert visitors, marketing’s job is to get them to your site in the first place. Review your 2009 marketing plan and see where your visitors are coming from, print ads, radio, tv, etc, and see how much you are spending marketing your site and how many visitors you are getting. Marketing dollars/Visitors=CPV.

This may be a good time to start thinking about ways to make finding your CPV easier for you next year. One simple way is to utilize specific URLs. For example if you are advertising in a magazine called Vacations Today you (or your webmaster) can set-up an invisible link directed to your home page, the URL for this link would be www.yourwebsite.com/vacationtoday, you can then take this URL and use it for advertising purposes. When looking at your site stats you will be able to see exactly how many visitors your site generated by this URL and be able to calculate your CPV easily.

Whew, now that is out of the way, let’s take a look at the second main factor in determining your online marketing budget, your Revenue per Visitor (RPV). This is easy to find, take your total sales generated from your website and divide it by the number of visitors to your site.

If your 2009 online marketing paid off you should be seeing a decrease in your CPV and an increase in your RPV. If you are that’s great, take a look at ways you can improve for 2010. If you are not seeing these results what can you do for 2010?

Test, test, test. Dip a toe into the waters to see if there is a market for your product or service online and customers who are ready to buy by setting up a low-budget Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign. A few hundred dollars is all you need for this and all three major search engines (Google, Yahoo! and Bing) all have easy to use analytics. A PPC campaign will bring an immediate increase of traffic to your page, but be sure you are also tracking the benefits of long-term results as long-term PPC campaigns can quickly drain a budget.

For long-term results Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a good way to increase traffic and sales to your site. The higher your rankings on top search engines, the greater the traffic to your site. According to HearingReview.com “if your website doesn’t show up on page one of the search engine results page, your chances of being found are less than 2%”. Due to SEO tactics such as localized searches and targeted keywords SEO has never been better to home in on the perfect clientele for your product or service.

Another option for long-term results is Social Media Sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Social Media Sites not only provide an increase of traffic to your site but also offers an extremely high Return on Investment (ROI). It is free to set up a page on most Social Media Sites, but the time it takes to maintain these sites often scares people off. This is why it is sometimes best to hire a company to perform the maintenance for you. Even with the additional costs, the ROI still remains high and it’s not just monetary. Popular contributors to Social Media Sites often build a loyal following and become industry experts which can obviously enrich your career.

So whether you are planning your 2010 budget for social media, Search Engine Optimization, Pay-Per-Click or redesign of a tired website it is never too early to plan ahead. If you would like further information on any of the ideas above please feel free to contact us at 1.800.374.7297.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to Search Engine Marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion." - Wikipedia. In English please... Search Engine Optimization is the process of getting your website listed higher in search engines without paying for placement.

It seems that in today's world anybody with a little bit of internet knowledge thinks that they can be an SEO Specialist: insert keywords here, submit site to search engines and wa-la instant SEO. Unfortunately it's not so easy; and neither is deciphering the legitimate SEO companies from the fly-by-nighters. Avoid these 5 SEO tricks and you will be on your way to a better ranked website without risking damage to your site or your reputation.

1. “We can successfully have your rankings increased within 48 hours!”

SEO is a time consuming process, anybody who says that you will see almost immediate results is lying to you. Any legitimate SEO Specialist will spend hours slaving over keyword research, conversion rates, traffic and ranking reports, etc. It will take days to implement SEO terms and weeks or even months to see the final effect of a higher page rank.

2. “We submit your site to 1,000s of Search Engines!”

I don't know about you, but I cannot even begin to name 10 reliable search engines, let alone 1,000's. Stick with Google, Yahoo! and Bing (formally MSN) and you will be fine, most other search engines piggy-back off these three anyways. Search engines these days don't even really need to have your site submitted, with all their spiders and robots they will pick-up a well optimized site on their own.

3. “We will get 1,000s of links to your site!”

Although this probably isn't an outright lie, it's not a safe SEO practice. Sure having a large number of links to your site is a good thing, but what you want is QUALITY links. SEO scammers will rely on "link farms" to generate links to your site and search engines don't like this, they don't like it so much it will actually decrease your ranking. Make the search engines happy and stick with a smaller number of quality links.

4. “We will optimize your site for $59.95 a month!”

I know that you've heard the old adage "you get what you pay for" and this could not be more true than in SEO land. See trick 1: Proper SEO takes time, and time takes money. Good SEO should cost you $1,000s of dollars, if you can't afford this you are better off buying a book about SEO and doing it yourself than getting scammed. And be sure before signing a contract that your SEO will be maintained after the initial optimization at no extra charge. Search engines often change algorithms, the way they rank sites, and competition for keywords and ranking can get pretty brutal in certain industries. If your SEO is not maintained, your rankings will slip.

5. “We guarantee you #1 Google ranking!”

Nobody, I repeat NOBODY, can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google, or any other search engine for that matter. Don't be weary of all guarantees though, often times reputable SEO companies will offer guarantees. These guarantees, however, are usually about an increase in your page ranking and not a guaranteed placement. If you are in a competitive industry often times a first page ranking may be difficult if not impossible to obtain even with the best SEO.

Choose Your SEO Company Carefully:

Now that you are on your way to identifying and avoiding SEO tricks you will still want to check out your SEO company carefully before signing on the dotted line. Some reliable sources for research are:

·         Check with the Better Business Bureau, see if any claims have been filed against them

·         WHOIS tools (such as www.iptools.com), to find out who the domain is registered to and who the administrative/technical contacts are and if these contacts are legitimate

·         Google, type in the name of the company and scam and see if anything negative comes up

·         Also just Google the company's name, if they can't get themselves top ranking SEO how can you expect them to do it for you?

10 Tips on Budget Friendly e-Marketing

By Michelle C. Lee.

Whether we are in a recession or a depression it really doesn't matter, we are all hurting. We're trading in our Italian leather loafers for faux-leather footwear, our business class airfare for economy class and our gas guzzling SUVs for gas saving sedans. And that's just in our personal lives, what about our businesses? Wages are being cutback, layoffs are happening and our advertising budgets are drained. How can a company still market themselves in this economy?

1.    Email Signatures:

“…your companies name is on display 133 times a day per employee.”

This is such a simple way to promote your business, and it’s amazing how few people actually use it. Industry analysts say that every day, the average user sends 34 emails and receives 99 emails, that means that your companies name is on display 133 times a day per employee. By adding a simple signature to the bottom of your emails which includes your URL and an incentive to visit your site you will generate traffic to your website and thus to your product or service.

Michelle C. Lee
Sales Executive, OpenVision, Inc.
POB 5645, Hilton Head Island, SC 29938
843.785.9911 ext.230 / Fax 843.785.9190 / cell 843.263.4005

michelle@openvision.com || http://www.openvision.com
Visit our site to receive a FREE website analysis

2. Online Classified Ads:

“There is no way around it, free online classified ads are much cheaper than any printed ad...”

By listing your product or service on a free Online Classified Ad site such as Craigslist or PennySaverUSA.com you are already marketing yourself to people searching specifically for your product or service. When these searchers come across your website listed they are already primed and ready to buy. There is no way around it, free online classified ads are much cheaper than any printed ad, it is after all free.

3. Blog:

“... a blog will bring in all the riches the internet has to offer.”

Blogs are no longer for angst ridden teenagers or tech geeks with too much time on their hands; they are the gateway to getting your website recognized by search engines and giving you credentials in your industry. By adding a blog to your website, or as a cross linked stand alone site, a blog will bring in all the riches the internet has to offer. They not only flow with keyword rich content but also bring along with them a following of devoted readers, getting you recognized in search engines and generating traffic to your site.

4. Post in Forums or Discussion Boards:

“Be sure to contribute meaningful content to the board and to include your URL and Signature...”

If you're advertising vacation rental properties or thumbtacks it doesn't matter, there are discussion boards out there for you. If you really can't find one, create one. Be sure to contribute meaningful content to the board and to include your URL and Signature (see tip 1) at the bottom of each post to drive traffic to your site and attract search engines. Just be certain that the board you are posting on is relevant to your industry, it doesn't make since to post on a square-dancing board if you're selling pickles.

5. Get Listed in a Directory:

“Submit your site to Google and Yahoo for free.”

Both search engines have geo-targeted search listings so when someone searches for a product or service your company provides, your website, phone number and a map will show up at the top of the page. Go ahead try it out: type "Website Design Hilton Head" into Google, you will see OpenVision listed with our site, phone number and location marker on the map. You can also submit your site to yellowpages.com for free. The most basic listings are free so why not?

6. Social Networking Sites:

“... Soon you will have thousands of people aware of your company.”

Using a social networking site like Facebook or Linkedin to market your business is like playing the game "Six Degrees of Separation". You create a page for your company and send friend requests out to everyone you know, they in turn send it to their friends, so on and so forth. Soon you will have thousands of people aware of your company. Be sure to include on your page a URL to your site with incentive to visit it.

7. Banner Ads:

“...you do want to grab the viewer's attention and draw them to your site.”

Banner ads have come a long way from the annoying headache producing flashing advertisements at the top of webpage’s. Today's banner ads can be adjusted for size to go along the side of a webpage or to fit into a specifically designed box. Yes, you don't want something loud and flashing but you do want to grab the viewer's attention and draw them to your site. Select which sites you chose to advertise on carefully, you want a site that is relevant to your field but not one that is competition. Although most websites do charge a small fee for advertising on their site but the benefits of traffic to your site can greatly out way the minimal cost.

8. Write an Article:

“Your article should be well written and interesting enough to hold the reader’s attention...”

Similar to writing a blog, articles are filled with keyword-rich information, and show that you have expertise in your industry. There are multiple sites for posting articles free of charge: goarticles.com and articlecache.com are two great sites. Your article should be well written and interesting enough to hold the reader’s attention. Again, be sure to attach your signature file to the bottom of each article you submit, sit back and watch the traffic flow in.

9. Video

“Video not only improves your marketing message, but also helps your website stand out from your competition.”

For most people, reading through conventional marketing materials such as brochures and sales literature is often a time consuming and boring process. Typically your reading audience will glance over the photos, and possibly read the captions, but nothing more. Video not only improves your marketing message, but also helps your website stand out from your competition. Depending on your budget you can produce your own video and post it to sites like YouTube, but for greater results have a video professionally produced and put it on your webpage; see our examples at SpokespersonWebsite.com

10. PPC

“…you pay only when someone clicks on your ad…”

Pay-per-click campaigns leave you in control of your budget. Let's say you have a budget of $1,000 a month, your ad runs for the duration of the month or until you have generated enough clicks that your budget is spent, either way your website is out there for searchers to easily find. When people search your selected keywords your ad will appear next to the search results so you are advertising to an audience that is already interested and you pay only when someone clicks on your ad; when your allocated budget it up your ad goes away, it's that simple. Keep in mind while selecting keywords that you want high-ranking, low-cost keywords that are applicable to your product or service.

With these 10 tips you should be on the way to starting a successful Champagne marketing plan on a beer budget. If you would like any further information on any of the ideas above please feel free to us at 1.800.374.7297.