flyte blog: small business web marketing blog

Web Marketing Seminar Marathon

Would you like to learn how to leverage social media to help grow your business?

Would you like to learn how to start, build and promote a successful blog to increase your online visibility?

Would you like to learn how you can rank higher than your competition at Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines?

Would you like to learn all of these things in a marathon of Web marketing presentations, put on by one man, fueled only by his desire to help you grow your business and an unlimited supply of Red Bull?

Then have I got the spectacle for you.

I'll be doing back-to-back-to-back Web marketing presentations for the Southern Midcoast Chamber of Commerce. Here's how it breaks down:

• Social Media Marketing: 8am - 10am
• How to Plan, Build and Promote a Business Blog: 10:30am - 12:30pm
• Search Engine Optimization: Rank Higher, Sell More! 1pm - 3pm

For session details and to register for any or all of the seminars please visit the links above.

Date: Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Place: Southern Midcoast Chamber HQ, Topsham, ME (directions)
Cost: $20/session for members, $30/session for non-members

Rich Brooks
Marathon Man

Save the Date: Social Media Marketing Conference: 9/23/09

Social media is seemingly everywhere these days.

Twitter was the cover story of Time magazine last month. Seniors are joining Facebook by the busload to see their grandkids' photos. Blogs are replacing press releases as a communications tool. Companies are using YouTube to reach new audiences at a fraction of the cost of TV ads.

But you still have questions:

• Does my company really need a Facebook page?
• Will social media really drive new leads to my Web site?
• Can I use Twitter to sell?
• Why do I need a blog if I already have a Web site?
• Is this just a passing phase?
• How do I get started?

Well, now it's time for answers.

Over the past few months, Chrystie Corns, Jaica Kinsman and I have been scheming. We've been putting together a conference on social media marketing. We've got some of the most talented marketers to talk about:

• blogging & podcasting
• Twitter, Facebook, & LinkedIn
• using video to drive traffic to your Web site
• how social media improves search engine optimization
• and a lot more.

We've just launched the site for The Social Media FTW Fall Conference. This half-day conference will take place on Wednesday, 9/23/2009 from 1pm - 5pm with a 1 - 2 hour networking event to follow. (And the first round's on us...no joke!)

Kiosks, Have We Got Kiosks!

In addition to great speakers and presenters, we want to make this a hands-on, roll-up-your-sleeves event. We'll be having computer kiosks where volunteers will help you setup profiles for yourself and your business at Twitter, Facebook and other popular social media sites.

Already have a Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn profile setup? We'll give you quick, on-the-spot evaluations and tips on how to improve your profiles and get more bang for your buck.

It's only $79--which is a steal for all this great material. But wait, there's more! Through Friday, 7/24 we're offering an early bird special of $59! That's less than $10/hr (if you stick around the networking event for 2 hours.)

Since this is the first FTW conference, we're offering only a limited number of tickets. Tickets started selling within 30 minutes of the announcement of the new site, so please...don't miss out!

Register for the Social Media FTW Fall Conference

Learn more about the Social Media FTW Fall Conference

What the heck does FTW stand for, anyway?

Hope to see you there.

Rich Brooks
I Love the Smell of Social Media in the Morning

Web Marketing Course for Small Business

It's hard to think about school starting up while classic rock stations still have Alice Cooper's anthem on heavy rotation.

Even if you're not quite ready to shop for back-to-school fashions, it's never too early to register for Web Marketing for Small Business, the four-week, eight-hour course I teach at the University of Southern Maine through their Center for Continuing Education.

If you're a small business owner, marketer, or thinking about starting your own business, you can't go wrong with this course. We'll review:

• Search engine optimization
• Email marketing
• Blogging
• Social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc.)
• E-commerce tips
• Web site analytics and
• How to build a Web site that sells

If you're wondering why your competitors rank higher than you, or how you can leverage your Web site to grow your business, than you should register for Web Marketing for Small Business.

Just remember to bring your teacher an apple.

Rich Brooks
Checking My Seat for Tacks as We Speak

TV Segment on Web Resources for Startups

With the downturn in the economy many people are thinking of starting their own business but not sure where to start. This was the idea behind a recent segment I recorded for 207, Maine's evening news program.

In preparation for the 207 segment I generated a wide variety of Maine-centric startup business resources that you can see here. A few people suggested their own resources in the comments.

The segment aired earlier this week, and although I'm out of town, due to the magic of the Internet, I was able to catch the segment online.

You can watch the segment at WCSH's Web site, or below on the flyte blog.

Putting Almost No-Cost Web-based Tools to Work for Small Business

Last week I put on a presentation for the Small Business Development Center counselors located here in New England. The event was hosted at the beautiful Mt. Washington Resort in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

(I'm not saying that the place is haunted, but I'm pretty sure I saw a kid going around in circles on his Big Wheel saying "redrum".)

The presentation was entitled Putting Almost No-cost Web-based Tools to Work for Small Business. I talked about one-to-one communication tools like VoIP and Skype, one-to-many communication tools like social media, software to put on teleclasses and Webinars, as well as free alternatives to Microsoft Office and more. I also showed off Basecamp (for project management) and Highrise (for customer relationship management), two apps from 37 Signals that I couldn't live without.

I uploaded the slides to Slideshare (think YouTube for PowerPoint--or in this case Apple's Keynote) and then embedded them here at the flyte blog. Enjoy!

Putting Almost No-cost Web-based Tools to Work for Small Business

Rich Brooks
Slide Share and Share Alike

How to Send Branded Domain Emails from Gmail

There's a number of reasons small business owners and entrepreneurs should consider Gmail as their primary email tool:

1. Great spam filters (the best I've used)
2. Your email is synced whether you're using the office computer, your home computer, a computer at the Internet café in Brussels, or from your iPhone
3. Insanely fast search
4. It's free
5. The threading of messages is fantastic (90% of the time)

However, the default setting of Gmail is to send your emails from [email protected] That's not so good for a small business (or any business) that's trying to brand itself. You want all of your emails to come from [email protected]

(For those of you who still have your AOL email address on your business card it's time to step up. Your email scribbled on a cocktail napkin has a more professional feel.)

And no, Gmail's not perfect and it does take some getting used to; perhaps the topic of another blog post & video.

In the short video below I'll walk you through how to add your domain-branded email to Gmail, and how to make it the default email on your account. Or, you can watch How to Send from Another Email Address Using Gmail at flyte's YouTube channel.

Rich Brooks
Web Design for Small Business

Web Sites for Healthy Eating (& Living)

Last week I donned my "As Seen on TV" shirt and recorded a segment for the local evening news program, 207. The subject was on Web sites that provide health information on the food we eat, the cosmetics we wear (some of us at least), and the sunblock we lather on.

You can see the full-size video on the 207 Web site or a slightly smaller size down below. (Sorry about the obligatory commercial lead in.)

The Trouble with Crowdsourcing

Recently we decided to have some flyte bumper stickers made up. Ryan Goan, our creative director, created a bunch of variations (click on the image to the right for a detailed look) for me to review.

I decided to get some additional feedback, so I crowdsourced the review process. According to wikipedia (aka the Word of God according to many geeks):

Crowdsourcing is a neologism for the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people or community in the form of an open call. For example, the public may be invited to develop a new technology, carry out a design task (also known as community-based design^[1] and distributed participatory design), refine or carry out the steps of an algorithm (see Human-based computation), or help capture, systematize or analyze large amounts of data (see also citizen science).

The term has become popular with business authors and journalists as shorthand for the trend of leveraging the mass collaboration enabled by Web 2.0 technologies to achieve business goals. However, both the term and its underlying business models have attracted controversy and criticism.

So I threw it open to my followers on Twitter and my friends on Facebook. When people gave two answers I split the vote. Here are the results:

• 1: 14.5
• 2: 6.0
• 3: 5.0
• 4: 6.0
• 5: 1.5
• 6: 10 

Well, 1, then 6 seems to be the big winners, but there's certainly some variables in there. Personally, I'm not a fan of 6 because the traditional oval bumper stickers have a border. There was also a lot of discussion around whether we could "pull off" a bumper sticker that didn't include our name and had our URL so tiny.

However, I don't think a lot of people make a buying decision based on bumper stickers.

"You know, I was going to vote for Obama, but that 'McCain/Palin 2008' bumper sticker makes a lot of sense. I think I'm voting for them."

I've always felt the plane was a pretty cool icon, and people who see it might be intrested to learn more about the story behind it, a.k.a. flyte.biz.

So, at the end of the day I'm no closer to a decision. I do like #1, although I'm thinking of dropping the www off the URL for additional white space, or even perhaps just leaving ".biz" in small letters below. I also like #3, perhaps with the www-less URL.

Anyway, if you'd like to confuse me further, please feel free to add your own thoughts below. It still hasn't gone to the printer.

Rich Brooks
Consensusless

Twitter Webinar: How to Use Twitter for Business

There's no doubt that Twitter is a phenomenon: almost every news and sports program seems to have a Twitter account, and celebrities as diverse as Oprah, Shaquille O'Neal and that guy married to Demi Moore all have accounts.

But how do you use Twitter for business? How do you get started? How do you build an audience? How can create a network that will help you grow your business?

Whether you're new to Twitter or have been using it for a while, this Webinar led by Twitter expert addict Rich Brooks will provide you step-by-step instructions on:

• How to setup your Twitter account for maximum impact
• How to find and follow interesting people
• How to build an audience
• How to engage people for networking and marketing opportunities
• How to use 3rd party applications to connect with local people on Twitter, learn what people are talking about in real time, and become a Twitter power user
• How to integrate Twitter into your overall marketing plan

Plus, the last 30 minutes or so will be question and answer.

Date: 6/18/09
Time: 3pm - 4:30 ET
Place: Your desktop! (Do you need directions?)
Cost: Special Low Price! $15 (That's only 16 cents a minute!)

"Space" is limited, so register now!

Rich Brooks
Now I Gotta Go Tweet This

How to Rank Higher in Local Search

Local search is already important to most every business, especially those who are geographically challenged (read: your customers share an area code with you) or who have set up shop in a tourist destination.

Local search results often appear above organic results, giving you another chance to increase your online visibility.

Further, as more of us carry smart phones and other mobile devices, performing searches as we're on-the-go, local search will only gain in importance.

Don't be caught playing catch up: learn the techniques to improve your rankings in local search. Or, as we say in this month's flyte log, Local Search: Get Listed, Get Business.

Rich Brooks
Local is the New Organic