Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, Oh My!

Social media has made it big in the news, and the news is that you can use social media like Facebook and Twitter to built you business and bring in sales. Several time a week I have people asking me to make a Facebook post and bring the business pouring it.

It doesn't quite work like that and I'm finding few people are willing to put in the time required to make it work.

Facebook and Twitter are not marketing silver bullets. They don't magically bring in more business. But, when used with an understanding of how they work, they can make a big difference.

To be effective you must participate. With Facebook you must build your network of friends. With Twitter it is a network of followers. These are people who are listening to what you say. Of course, if you are not saying anything, then no one is going to bother to listen. So building your network requires participating with others, and saying interesting things in your posts... and here's the most important thing: you must say something. Opening a Facebook account and then sitting back waiting for something to happen does not work.

That's what I see people doing. Make two or three posts on Facebook, or in a bog, and expect something to happen. It's not going to happen. That's right. Success takes work, even when you are building your success with the latest tools on the internet. There still is no free ride.

Using YouTube For Marketing

You've come up with a better product, lower price, or improved service... but how do you tell the world? If only people could find out about your product, they'd be pounding on your door to buy it. That's the purpose of marking. It doesn't matter how good your product is, if no one knows about it, your sales will be zero.

YouTube is one way to let potential customers know about your products. BUT, you need to do it in a creative and interesting way. Otherwise your video will be lost among the ten's of thousands of other videos. We've all heard about the "Will It Blend" videos. They are simple videos that have attracted a lot of attention. Simple ideas are best because they clearly communicate your point. However, coming up with those simple ideas can seem like an impossible task.

What is the basic principle behind making an attention grabbing video?

Here is a new video for a product that can be tough to market, vinyl industrial labeling tape. The point of the video is cutting costs... an important point to make in these tough economic times (or at any time).

The video is about the Brady GlobalMark printer. It takes the unusual approach of making the point that cutting your printer in half is not the way to cut your labeling costs. Does that catch your interest?



The way to make your video interesting is to do the unexpected. The petite young lady in this video seems like the last person you'd expect to keep a shiny double-headed ax at her desk, ready to slice an industrial printer in half.

Do the unexpected and you'll be on your way to having a YouTube video that attracts attention.

Granite Tile Counters - Blogging

When you have a blog that you are using to help bring traffic to your web site, it is critically important that you make regular posts. A minimum of two posts per week is what I recommend, but that is the minimum. If you want to have people returning to your web site to read your blog, you need to be providing new, informative blog posts. Plus Google loves new, fresh content.

The problem is that writing is hard work. It takes time and a lot of thought to write a good blog post. But if you take the time and put in the effort, it will be worth it.

So what's happening on the granite tile web site?

Orders are coming in and customers are writing back saying how happy they are with their new granite tile counters. The product is outstanding and people really like it. The shipping process is working... which was a big concern because granite tile easily breaks during shipping. Plus the web site has been updated to incorporate various shipping methods in the online granite tile calculator, with the result being that they can charge as little as $49.95 to ship the tile almost anywhere in the U.S. (This may only be good for a limited time, but it makes for incredible savings and a great value for the customer).

So they have everything needed for a great foundation: an outstanding product (with satisfied customers), great delivery, and outstanding value. What else is needed?

For people to know about this. No matter how good your product and the value you offer, if no one hears about it your business will go out of business. That's where regular blogging becomes part of the plan. Provide useful information, about your products or related to your products, making at least two posts per week, will help to bring people back to your web site and build you rankings in Google.

Related Previous Posts
Granite Tile Blog
Granite Tile Web Site
GraniteTile Counters for Kitchens and Bath

Rejecting Blog Comments

People leave a lot of comments on this blog, and we reject just about all of them. If you have something to say about any of our posts, or even about internet marketing in general. Your comments are welcome and will be posted.

I'd like to give you an example of a comment posted today, that is one to watch out for. Here is what it said:

I recently came accross your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Alanna

It was followed by a link to a web site. It sounds like a nice comment from a nice person who really liked the blog. But, do a search for a phrase from this comment and Google will show you that the exact same comment is being left on blogs across the internet. It is nothing more than a technique for getting around comment moderation and adding their link to your blog... even though Blogger marks all comment links as no-follow, meaning they have little SEO value.

There are many varieties of this type of comment spam, but they are all similar. Usually a nice but generic comment from a nice sounding person, with a web site link included.

Granite Tile Blog

It's been a couple of weeks and it is time for the next step. Adding a blog to the web site. In this case we'll be using Blogger because of its simple user interface that makes it easy for a non-technical person to write posts.

Use this link to go to the Granite Tile Blog.

Posts to a blog actually started about two weeks ago. For a blog to be recognized as legitimate, it needs to have a minimum of at least five to eight posts. By getting a head start the blog is ready to go when it is added to the web site.

A custom template is used so that the Granite Tile Blog has the same look and navigation as the rest of the web site.

Content for the blog comes from questions about granite tile that people have already started to ask. An email response is sent to the person asking a question, and that response servers as the basis for a blog post. That saves time and it results in posts that are about granite related topics people want to know about.

Granite Tile Press Release

I don't know if you've noticed, but the ads at the top of this page are now about granite tile. Google has determined that this blog, although it is about marketing, is more about granite tile.

The next step was completed today. Press releases are powerful tools for building a new business on the internet. Today we came our with the first press release for the Easy Granite Tile web site. It announces that the new web site is now available, and for the first time in history do-it-yourself installation of granite tile counter tops is easy. (This is the link that will bring you to the press release.)

Press releases are also good content for the web site, so I've created a press release section and added the press release. So far there is only one granite tile press release so it is the index page in the press folder. When a second press release is added this page will become an index page to all press releases. I'll tell you more about why I things this way in a future post.

There is another reason why we want to have the Easy Granite Tile press release on the web site. I write several industrial blogs and it is frustrating to find a press release published by a press release service that has it copyrighted. I want to go to the originating web site and get a version of the press release I can copy and paste onto a blog. But they don't have it. Always make it EASY, very easy, for the press (and bloggers) to find versions of your press release they can copy and use. The best place to do that is by putting a copy of your press release on your web site.

That's why Easy Granite Tile has the press release on their web site. Actually there's even more to it than this, but that's for a future blog post. For now let's leave it at using the press release to get more publicity for this new source of granite tile that, for the first time, makes custom edged--with precision machine edging--granite tile available for the home handyman.

Granite Tile Web Site

The next step was to add a granite tile installation blog to the web site.

Blogs are nice because the provide lot's a fresh, relevant content that Google likes to index. Plus they are easy for experts to use, even though they are not experts in the internet or blogging.

In this case the blog is being written by the Granite Tile Guy and he is loaded with good tips for installing granite tile, as well as anything else related to granite tile. There is only one post as of today, but the goal is to add three granite tile relate posts each week... roughly one post every other day.

Blog posts do not need to be long. I think it is best to have posts that vary in length. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I think Google assumes humans are not consistent and precise. So things with a bit of variability to them look more like they are human created. But I could be way out in left field on this.

By the way, have you noticed what I'm doing in this post? This post is about blogs, but I'm working in the phrases "granite tile" and "granite tile installation." These are the two key phrases that we plan to build traffic going to the Easy Granite Tile web site.

One other thing to notice. I don't use exactly the same tags on all these these granite related posts. For this post I've added a new tag called Granite Installation. Again, variety is important.