Building your online business profile is one of the most important things you can do to generate sustainable and cost effective growth now and in the future.

We understand at Soup that many independent businesses in New Zealand are time poor, with minimal marketing budget. Therefore, although we would recommend building out your complete online profile correctly and across multiple channels. Below are the top three places (based on our experience and the results we see) your business should be found.

If your businesses are; not in the below list, not controlled/claimed by you, or do not contain sufficient/optmised content then either get onto it straight away or drop us a line and we can help you out.

1. Google Places/Maps - The most flexible, transparent, progressive and results driven business directories platform in the world that is putting your business at the forefront of “first search”.  Google are for ever evolving the way they bring in local businesses into their search engine result pages (SERPs).
2. Facebook Page – Facebook pages for business is about connecting your business to the largest social network in the world, providing a common platform to communicate and engage with consumers in real time, and drive new leads.   If you can bring the traffic to your site then go where the traffic is.  The only thing is remember to manage your time appropriately when it comes to social media and understand your ROI.
3. ZoomIn.co.nz – This one might seem a little left field or unknown for a lot of businesses and if Finda’s data was not already being leveraged in Google Maps then it would have been in this number 3 position (Finda has a solid self service platform and has it’s structure deeply entrenched in the virtues of SEO or simply put it ranks very well in Google).  Yes ZoomIn has not seen any real development on it for quite some time and has a relatively basic interface for both businesses and users. But it ranks very well in search engine result pages and that is key for generating leads.

If you would like to discuss getting your business online or improving your online profile across different business and social directories then don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Horraah!

Like the NY Times (http://nytimes.com/) we have finally got our hot little hands on the beta version of bit.ly Pro.  This is a basic but nice little Tool for Soup and took us a few tweaks and heart felt emails to get access to it.

The new shortened version of Soup Digital will be soup.ac.nz so keep your eyes peeled (Here is a test url now: soup.ac.nz/c1UZRl).  Sure its not the shortest of shorts but it keeps a shortened version of our trusted brand out there which is important.  More importantly it gives us the greater ability to aggregate and segment our click through reporting data across all of our clients various online products like Facebook, Google Maps, Google My Maps, ZoomIn etc.

For Soup this is the beginning of looking at harnessing various tracking tools out side of the standard Analytics (or lack there of) packages provided by large business listing, social media sites etc.  We aim to create as much transparency for our clients as possible so that we can truly turn the intangible into tangible.

Moving on from this we have some great proprietary performance based tools planned for Soup over the next Year and we will be sure to keep you all informed. Watch this space.

Soup on the Map.

I’m going to take a stab in the dark and guess that most small to medium businesses in New Zealand do not know about or understand Google’s Local Business Center.  In the many years I have been in the digital business I have not seen a better example of a more powerful, easy to use and free business tool that will allow you to grow your business cost effectively.

But why is the Local Business Center so good for your business?

• Location search with Google Maps embedded at the top of search engine results aka Google 7 Pack. This essentially means that if you list your business correctly and provide all the relevant information including location then you will begin to appear at the top (although then you will compete in the order of the 7 Pack) of search results within Google’s embedded map results. Obviously appearing “top” is dependent on a major factor, location but it still provides a quick way of getting local business leads without pumping cash into Search Engine Advertising (although this is a very useful tool and something we will cover in another blog post).  An example can be seen below when you search in Google on “auckland restaurants”.

An Example of Google's 7 Pack

• Free Coupons. Yes thats right you can create your very own Coupon or offer from your Local Business Center dashboard and no need to be a designer.  You can set it up, design it how you like, set an end date of the offer and then distribute online and even on mobiles all for zero cost!

Soup Digital's Coupon.

• Analytics. Sure it’s reasonably basic but it is a lot more comprehensive and useful then other analytics dashboards out there and provides more than enough information for small to medium business owners to use to their advantage.  E.g. If you notice that Thursday is your peak traffic day for your business listing you could promote your coupon through your “Post to your Place Page” feature.

Soup Digital's Analytics Page

• Place Pages. This is your info page for your business and it is evolving every day.  Not only does it display all the information that you have supplied including coupons but it also aggregates content from around the web such as; Trip Advisor reviews, Finda images, flickr even your own website.   The page also links your Youtube videos of your business, allows reviews and has even just added a new feature which allows you to post content to your page in a Twitter-esk fashion known as “Post to Your Place Page” (as mentioned above).

Soup Digital's Place Page

The Local Business Center is a great example of creating a tool for small to medium businesses that will not only allow them to be found easier but also provide greater insights into how their business is found through the Analytics Dashboard.  To be honest though this tool has to be good as one of the things Google don’t have going for them in New Zealand is a sales force that can preach the benefits and educate the masses….but then again do they really need to?

In the next few years you will see Google form more strategic partnerships with businesses in New Zealand that have a close relationship with SME’s so that they can spread the “Google Love” vicariously. To those businesses considering this I would be excited but also recommend you have a sound road map and exit strategy that will allow your business to remain successful and in soul control of it’s IP.

Contact Soup Digital if you want to find out more about Google Local Business centre and how it can work for your business in conjunction with other online applications targeted at generating leads for Small to Medium Sized Businesses.

Share information and generate leads!

The changing face of online means that there are any number of ways that you can grow your business, as discussed in some of my blog posts.   However today I would like to talk about another way you can grow your business and its something I suspect many SMEs don’t know about and potentially might not see the immediate benefit in.

What am I talking about?

Well it revolves around sharing your industry/skill specific knowledge with the very people that want to use your services or buy your products.  It’s about generating useful “How To” articles for the public and posting these online.  Obviously you can do this through writing blogs on your own site (something I’ll cover in another post) but many SMEs still don’t have a site (something Soup Digital is trying to change).

It’s also a great opportunity (and time saver) to take advantage of these content aggregation sites that love posting your content.  Generally speaking they will have greater traffic potential, viral elements, search engine optimization and even advertising budget then you might have access to via your own site.

So what is an article and what do I have to do?

An article is an informative piece of writing that is specific to your expertise such as building, cooking, marketing etc which you then  submit to a site such as www.howto.yellow.co.nz (you can check out Soup’s submission here).  This site has been set up to provide useful and straight forward advice/information to the public which revolves around Yellow’s main business channel, SMEs.  The best thing about this though is that they allow you to contribute!  This idea is something that has taken off in the US with the advice content king eHow, where they have a plethora of helpful articles; from making your car more fuel efficient, to finding the best travel deal.

When writing your article don’t go for the hard sell by mentioning your business every second line.  Make it informative with a mention of your business, its hook line and a link to your site (if you don’t have a site then try linking to your google maps page, yellow listing page, finda listing page etc) at the end of the article.

If you have the ability to create a Video that can go with the article then you should most definitely submit this as well.  If the site you’re trying to submit to only allows for Your Tube or Vimeo embedding rather than uploading directly with them.  Then the easiest and best thing to do is set up your own channel on You Tube, upload the video and then use their embedded HTML code as shown below to embed it in your article.  Creating a You Tube channel with your How To’s is also a great way of syndicating your content/advice virally. So remember to always use the video editing software to include your business contact details.

Copy and Paste the YouTube HTML code

Won’t I be cannabalizing my own income by providing advice?

You have to give a little to get a lot back!  Whilst you may save a person from having to call your business to fix a basic plumbing issue this time.  You will be front of mind for more detailed plumbing issues in the future.  So don’t be afraid to share your wealth of knowledge that you have amassed over the years from running your own business.  I’m not saying contribute and give away all your trade secrets or unique selling points. Be strategic in what you write and almost think of it as a “teaser” to people wanting to use your service or by your products.  It’s also a great way of building trust with potential customers.

If you are not comfortable with contributing a full article then at least try commenting on some of the articles already submitted.  This will allow you to at least start contributing to the community and on some sites will even let you link back to your site, as Soup Digital has done on this article.

What's the priority for your business?

So you are trying to grow your business online and have ventured into the realms of social media.  But what should your priority be? What social media application should be the number one priority for your business and get you the most returns?

In this post I’m not going to discuss the pro’s and con’s of each offering with regards to its SEO benefits in the ever changing realms of real time search. I’m looking to explore what platform delivers the most return on investment (mainly an SME’s time), the most bang for your buck!

In some respects this should be a simple answer, Facebook.  Currently it has far greater flexibility for promoting your business and generally speaking average users, the people you want business from, don’t get twitter.  Case in point, I was seeing one of my clients the other day and began discussing thier social media options.  I had mentioned twitter to them a couple of weeks earlier (received blank looks) and thought I would leave it with them to quiz their clients about this new real-time communication tool.  The feedback was not great for twitter because most of their loyal clients (who are within twitter’s demographic) said they never used twitter and did not either understand or see the point.  This is not helped by the claims that 40% of tweets are mere babble.

However I do enjoy twitter, I truly do. I have learnt many a useful fact throughout my day and even connected with some very forward thinking SMEs.  But I can’t help and think that a lot of the people I’m communicating with and actively using it are on it for the same reason I am, to eventually generate leads through providing relevant business information i.e. not constantly spamming people with useless narcissistic facts like; “I’m eating a sandwich”, “I’m looking outside, its raining”.  I want to believe twitter has broken through into mainstream New Zealand and there are a plethora of active users out there consuming my advice and enjoying what small bits of my own personality I include in each 140 character post.  Or maybe the cold hard truth at the moment is that I’m communicating with the wrong crowd, making the same mistake many media folk do in forgetting about their consumers, their target audience in light of new “gadgets”.    Twitter does not suit every business out there at the moment however Facebook has that broader appeal, the broader knowledge of the product with everyday users.

Facebook obviously see the value in Twitter though and have made a move to go up against Twitter’s very premise it took from Facebook.  Its called Facebook Lite and provides the cut down version of Facebook.  Will this succeed?  I hazard a guess Facebook don’t really mind as they are very much ahead of the game in all respects, heck Twitter might have even done them a favour. Pushing  them to get out of their plush leather chairs and move social media innovation up a notch!

Does geography and general maturity of the New Zealand digital market play a part in the uptake and usability of Twitter? I think it does and to be honest in three years time when the market matures maybe this post could be rendered useless, stuck in the time capsule that is cyberspace.  I’m not advocating that small businesses don’t dabble in Twitter. NO. I would encourage setting up a twitter account as it does have many uses outside of simply posting “what you are doing” it can help with:

• Networking
• Real time feedback on whats being said about your business
• Real time relevant information from sources you choose
• Promote products, services, enhancements (if your target market is indeed on Twitter)
• Link creation

But and this is a big BUT, understand there are only so many hours in a day for a small to medium business owner and unless Facebook or Twitter invent a time machine or you can afford a small army of social media monkeys.  Then you need to concentrate your limited time on the social media application that will generate the most results.  At this moment in time in New Zealand, its Facebook.

“The Facebook Era”  BUY NOW

“People in all demographics and regions of the world are more connected than ever before to the products, issues, places, and individuals in their lives……Read More>>

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow Your Business” BUY NOW

“Profit from Facebook! High-Impact, Low-Cost Social Marketing That Works! With more than 80,000,000 affluent, savvy members, Facebook is today’s fastest-growing marketing opportunity……Read More>>

As small and medium businesses begin to demand greater visibility for their advertising/marketing spend so does the demand for online marketing.  Not only because online marketing offers performance based services where SME’s only pay for results delivered but also the increasing opportunity for “free” marketing products which use the SMEs business content such as; Google Maps, Yellow, Finda, Zenbu, Hotfrog, ZoomIn and even You Tube.

“But online has been around for years”

I hear some of you cynics out there utter these words. I also know that most of you who may be saying this work, like myself, within the realms of digital media in some way shape or form.  Its very easy to get caught up in the next big thing without actually taking a step back to see that the last big thing (which generally speaking SMEs are just getting use to) is actually coming to fruition and delivering tangible results for SMEs.  I’m not suggesting SMEs don’t try and innovate through the latest “free” marketing products, I’m just saying understand what products will generate the greatest return based on the time you put in.  Would I suggest a business creates a Twitter account first? No, they should concentrate on getting there various business listings information across all the sites accurate and optimised.  Then look at Twitter, Facebook, You Tube or ‘the next big thing’.

Online has been around for years, this fact is true but what has not been around for years is the accessibility, depth and ability to market your small to medium business across a wide range of sites. Especially when you can do this at minimal cost, with ever increasing visibility (Google Local Business Centre, coming soon to NZ) and to an audience that continues to evolve its media consumption. With 2.1 million New Zealanders actively online and growing there needs to be a fundamental shift in the way SMEs can be found.

“Print is dead”

A statement that I’m not going to simply jump on the band wagon for the sake of this blog post. Traditional media such as Print can still be an effective part of an SMEs marketing strategy and can provide some performance tracking via unique urls and phone numbers.  Use Soup Digital as an example, some of our target market are people that potentially don’t have any idea about how to use the web effectively let alone understand the basics around Google. So how do I reach these people? Well, traditional media such as Print and Radio (Radio is having a resurgence thanks in some part to online streaming and social media) are essential for Soup as a business to reach this market.

However due to prints historical and what I believe over valued ROI, the reliance on it has definitely begun to shift to it’s more nimble media sibling.  This has occurred more dramatically in the more mature markets of the US and UK but the signs for New Zealand have been there for a while, just check out the figures in this NBR article.

“So why be online and how do I get there?”

This question even in New Zealands market is in itself somewhat outdated as many companies are online but some of the time without them knowing it. I’m always coming across clients that did not realise they had their business  listed across Zenbu, Hotfrog, Finda and Google Maps.  Not because they forgot they had listed their business but because these companies are constantly aquiring new business content (not always legally I might add) to place on their sites and build new products, usage and revenue around.

But even if this is the case, don’t just stop and think to yourself ‘my business is already listed, job done’.  There are other businesses (your competition) really making the most of the plethora of online marketing products out there, some with the help of Soup Digital and some doing it for themselves as business owner’s become increasingly online savvy.  Just check out Groove Kitchens twitter page, a great little cafe in Napier who are making thier first steps into real-time Social media….I just hope they do it right but thats another blog.

All in Moderation.

After all thats been said, the one piece of advice I would say with regards to online, is to allocate you time accordingly.  Don’t spend all your day tweeting, checking analytic results, etc as your time should be focused on converting business leads and bringing in the money.   Becoming almost obsessive compulsive about how your business is tracking online right down to the very minute is a sure fire way to lose all the hard work your online marketing has done.  Remember this is one of the reasons why Soup Digital and companies like it exists, to manage you setup and manage your profile so you have time for your business.

So I guess the question SMEs should be asking is; “My business is online now but how do I make the most of it?”

“The Facebook Era”  BUY NOW

“People in all demographics and regions of the world are more connected than ever before to the products, issues, places, and individuals in their lives……Read More>>

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow Your Business” BUY NOW

“Profit from Facebook! High-Impact, Low-Cost Social Marketing That Works! With more than 80,000,000 affluent, savvy members, Facebook is today’s fastest-growing marketing opportunity……Read More>>

With so many terms floating about in the online world I understand that for small to medium business owners (or SME’s) it can be a pretty daunting prospect.  So to help you out and to extend some of the useful terms you can find in the Soup site here: http://www.soupdigital.co.nz/about/useful-online-terms/ I have taken it right back to basics:

1. SEO: Search Engine Optimisation or in simple terms; Google, Yahoo, MSN etc like your site and will feature its contents accordingly and to the right people. See below for where optimised content or natural search results are located in Google.
   

   Natural search results in Google.

2. SEA: Search Engine Advertising (SEM or Search Engine Marketing is the combination of SEA and SEO) seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages through the use of paid for advertising or sponsored listings. This is separate to natural listings as shown below.
   

   Paid for Advertising or Sponsorded Listings in Google

3. Page Impression: or Page View is simply a single request to load a website page on the Internet.  So if someone was to click on your business within Yellow.co.nz then that would generate 1 page impression
4. Unique Browser/User: An estimate or indication,  generally taken over a month which shows how many “individuals” have visited your site, information page etc based on information held in your cookie.  Remember this is just an indication as the same person can access the same site from both home and at work or indeed clear out their cookies (searching history).
5. PPC: Pay Per Click refers to the charging mechanism when you as a business undergo an advertising campaign online. People click on your ad, you pay the search engine/publisher. For an explanation of Google’s pay per click service or commonly known as Google adwords see our video resources page
6. CTR: Click Through Rate is a common but simplistic way of measuring the success of a Paid for Advertising campaign you may have carried out using something like Google Adwords. A CTR is calculated by dividing the number of users who clicked on an ad on a web page by the number of times the ad was delivered (impressions). For example, if an adwords delivered your ad 50 times (impressions delivered) and 4 users clicked on your ad, then the resulting CTR would be  8%.
7. Domain name: basically this is the entry path into your businesses website so if your business is called Brown Builders then you would look to purchase the domain name www.brownbuilders.co.nz. However please remember that just because your business name is registered that this automatically gives you rights to the domain name.  Its first in, first serve with domain names so you might not get exactly what you were looking for.
8. Social Media: just a term used to described those sites out there that let you become part of a conversation by communicating online such as Twitter, Facebook, Bebo, Myspace.  For more information check out the definition in wikipedia by clicking here
9. Qualified Traffic: This is website traffic that has a higher propensity to purchase your product or service based on their search requirements. Basically you do not want to be spending money on driving generic traffic to your site. Its quality not quantity that will generate leads for your business in the online space!
10. Business Directory: reasonably self explanatory but essentially these guys love your content so utilise them as much as possible to promote your business.  Soup Digital utilises business directories to increase your exposure because when done correctly you can really harness their SEO to generate quality leads.

Twitter is a great tool that can help get your business move into the world of online and real time.  However it’s not all sunshine and lolly pops when entering into the world of Twitter.  There are a few things as a small to medium business user that you should be aware of.

For the time being I’m going to forget the do’s and really concentrate on the don’ts of using twitter:

• If you do get some negative feedback (which inevitably you will) do not react emotively.  Remove your personal feelings from the comment, be patient and reply in a professional manner.  You need to mitigate as much negative PR as possible so take your time and respond accordingly as you never know where it could go or who could see it.

• I mentioned it in my last post about twitter and its a bit of a tricky one but you have to be careful not to spam people with loads of offers or rss feeds.  You should be informative, personable and provide offers only when its really necessary.

• Don’t tweet anything you would not want to be quoted on in the media.  Remember Twitter is a public site with millions of users and potential customers.

• Don’t tweet anything about your clients unless its been explicitly agreed.  You may think you are doing them a favour but this could get you into trouble.

• Do not lie, it’s simple.  If you cannot back up your claims, offers or experience then do not tweet about.  Trust is important in every facet of your business.

• Do not try and follow hundreds if not thousands of people in the vain attempt to attract people to your tweets. You want quality not quantity so try and keep that balance in the people that you follow and who follow you.  For instance Soup follows business_govtNZ because we are interested in what they have to say with regards to small and medium businesses.

• This relates to point 2 but don’t be all about your business or “me,me,me”. Tweet information that you think your followers might find useful or informative and could stimulate a conversation….that’s what its all about.

• Don’t ignore people’s replies. They took the time to reply to you so make the effort to reply to them even if it is just to say “thanks”.

What is twitter?

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that allows you to answer the question, “What are you doing” by sending short text messages 140 characters in length, called “tweets”, to your followers.

Find out more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

So with that brief intro onto some tips for SME’s using twitter:

• Always check the type of people who are following you on twitter. There are numerous people/organisations who set-up fake accounts that link to malicious or “unsavory” sites.  Look for things like; they are following 1,000 people but only have 20 followers and just 3 updates. If they are undesirable and you do not want them following you then take the next steps:

Click on the block link in your follow alert email highlighted below by the red box:

twitter email notification.

Once you have logged-in and it’s taken you to their page, select the option “Okay, I still want to block this person” highlighted in Red below.

Block Twitter follower

• Only follow people who you are interested in, such as; competitors, clients, related businesses/services, authorities in your business field, and other’s that can provide you with a business benefit.  As above do not follow someone who has started to follow you just for the sake of it.  Remember its quality not quantity you need to make the most of twitter and other followers will respect this.

• Post regular updates on your twitter page (1 to 3 a day) although keep it within reason so you are not spending more time posting tweets, checking tweets etc and less on following up real leads.

• # – place a hash tag next to keywords which will allow you and other users to search on later and potentially attract people to your tweets e.g. #hairdresser, #menu. See below how we use it at Soup Digital:

Twitter # tag example

• @ – this is used to respond to another twitter user, for example see below how we use it at Soup Digital:

twitter @ example

• Remember to check your “@soupdigital” replies to check who is mentioning you in tweets, replying to you and potentially want you to reply. See below highlighted in Red:

Check @ messages

• If you have a personal message you need to send to a fellow twitter user then send them a direct message.

• Be personable, and relate to your followers for example:
  • Send out offers in moderation rather than “spamming” users with your latest offers 20 times a day or letting an rss feed do the posting work for you (a sure fire way to lose followers).
  • Post things that are informative/helpful and are related to your business e.g. top 3 tips for saving money when building a house (remember you only have 140 characters to work with so be creative)
• As you only have 140 Characters to play with, try shortening url’s you are posting.  Simply go to http://tinyurl.com/ enter your url in to the box and click make it “tiny”. See below:

tiny url box

• Remember you might not get Twitter straight away but keep at it and the more you tweet the greater your understanding will become.  For a more exhaustive guide to Twitter check out this blog here: http://www.lostartofblogging.com/twitter-guide