1. Build Your Friends Or Fans First – No matter what your message, if you are shouting it to an empty room you will not see results. Take time to build your client base and you will be more likely to see success.
2. Stay Relevant – If you want to advertise on the social networks, make sure you are sharing with an interested audience. If you choose to tweet your message about the newest weight loss products, it’s probably best to have an audience of people who actually have an interest in weight loss.
3. Diversify – Do not get stuck with just one social networking site. While Facebook and Twitter are the big dogs, don’t forget there are other options out there too.
4. Utilize Media – Pepper your social networking posts with pictures, video and audio clips. This helps your viewers to connect with your posts.
5. Build Cross Platform Traffic – See if you can get your Facebook fans to become Twitter followers, or those who follow you on Reddit may be ready to make the jump to becoming a Myspace fan.
6. Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously – People come to the social media sites for entertainment. Tasteful jokes or funny comics are a great way to get people laughing.
7. Avoid Overexposure – While you want to provide plenty of new content for your followers, do not spam their feed with your message. This is a quick way to get yourself deleted.

I hope these simple social media tips were helpful.. now get tweeting!

5 Ways that I can grow your Business:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Getting on the 1st Page of Google, Yahoo, Bing
• Google, Yahoo, Bing Local Business Places (Maps)
• Social Media Marketing (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
• Strategic Marketing and Branding for National and International Businesses
• Viral Marketing and Consumer Engagement (Video, Contests)

If you’re not sure what option is best for you contact me and you’ll get a response immediately.

We can all agree the Internet has exploded but the rush to sign up Local Businesses has really just boomed in the last 6 months or so. Every media or Yellowbook salesman soon found that sales were decreasing and it was harder to sell the big yellow book and started jumping on programs to sell SEO or any online service for that matter but we’ll stick with SEO to keep this post on track.

With unemployment rates increasing I feel there has also been a sense of “how stable is my job” (if you have one) and a boom in people wanting to work from home.

The Mad Dash to sell SEO Services

This economic and internet trend has been accompanied by a huge increase in marketers selling programs or courses on how to go out and sell SEO services to Local business owners. Which you would expect when a profitable trend emerges in the market people jump on it to make money. Most of these courses are mainly reseller programs or done for you services whereas the new SEO or Marketing “Guru” aka former office worker can go out and sell a SEO package then hand if off to the company to deliver it.

There is nothing wrong with reseller programs, I am planning one of my own, but selling yourself as the “expert” then handing off your client account to a company in India seems to be an issue of honesty and ethics, for my taste. An expert is not a reseller and a reseller of Sacramento SEO services is not an expert.

Most of these programs teach people how to be an “expert” missing the fact that to become an expert in any field of study takes hundreds and most would say thousands of hours of study and practice. As a skilled guitar player I have played on big stages, small stages, appeared on T.V., and done numerous Radio shows and I can play any style, but I have spent thousands of hours in practice and performance. In my college days I was practicing 8-12 hrs per day. A wood worker perfects his skill in much the same way. This is the expert path.

I have a lust for knowledge and information so I started doing SEO on my own websites (20+ and counting) studied every piece of information on SEO I could find from a reputable authority in the field and after thousands of hrs. I finally feel like I know what I am doing.

But because trends change, Search Engine Algorithm’s change, the way consumers use the internet change, it is important to keep up with this in order to stay ahead of the game and be able to deliver a great SEO Sacramento service.

Which is why I still devote 1 day per week to learning something new, reading new developments and trends, and seeing what my mentors are doing.

When searching for SEO how do you choose the right company?

So here we are going to get to the meat and potatoes and how to weed through the companies offering SEO Sacramento services. Some of these may or may not be important to you. Like having the company be Local is pretty big to many of the business owners I have spoken with and if you think of one that is important to you and its not here, feel free to leave a comment and I will add it.

#1 Results
A: Is there company ranking for their own market or service?
When you Google the service your looking for (sacramento seo company, internet marketing sacramento, etc) does that company appear in the top 10 or even better top 5.
B: Are their clients on Page 1?
Where are their clients ranking and ask to see proof.

#2 Customer Service and Communication
How big is there company and are they going to manage your marketing or do you have an account manager. This may or may not be a deal breaker but it effects responsiveness. A very common story I hear is that there SEO or Web Designer disappeared for 2 weeks after they got paid. So how responsive is that company?

When you requested a consultation how long did it take for them to respond? You want to make sure that the communication is very high and fast.

#3 Are they Interested in YOU
What questions are they asking you? Are they really interested in your business or your pocket book.
Are they just trying to sell you more back-links than the next guy?
A professional consultant will take time to interview you to get in-depth details about your business, services, and target customers.
They are going to be interested in increasing your revenue and not just selling you links.

#4 Location
Is the company even located in the US?
This may or may not be important to you but I think it is important to most Local Businesses. I have spoken to many business owners who are giving me time JUST because I am here in Sac. They are getting hit with many calls a day from companies not in California and some not even in the U.S.

It is also very nice to meet someone your going to be working with, shake their hand, and speak face to face… I know I enjoy it and it gives me a chance to peel my eyes of the monitor

#5 References
Do they have a few clients past or present that you can speak to?
You dont need a 100 names but a few people to confirm their a good guy/girl and people are happy with them is always nice.

This may be difficult for a new company or service provider, so if you are new to working with Local Business owners just tell them, and be honest, that your new and don’t have any references yet but you do a great job and if they give you a shot you will make them very happy.

#6 Cost
Are there services really cheap? Are they too expensive? Are they priced right?
SEO companies that offer really cheap pricing you should proceed with caution. By cheap pricing I would say anything under the $300 per month mark. Depending on the geographical region and number of keywords of course, but that is a pretty good benchmark.

To over deliver to a customer, because that is what we are talking about. To deliver a very exceptional winning service and give the best results it cost money and there is no way around that. You can’t drive a Ferrari on a Volkswagon budget.

So that just about wraps up this post I hope you found these tips useful. Put them into use and I think you will find the right company to work with your business. Remember its all about taking action and putting in the right action steps needed to help you achieve your business goals.

Talk Soon!
Craig

Search Engine Optimization in Sacramento or Sacramento SEO is a term widely used today by many developers. For the past few years and the next ten years or so, search engines would be the most widely used internet tool to find the sites that they need to go to or the product or information they need.

Most people that use search engines in the Sacramento area and internationally use only the ten top search results in the first page. Making it to the first page, more so to the top three is a barometer of a sites success in search engine optimization. You will get a higher ratio of probability in being clicked on when you rank high. The more traffic for your site, the more business you rake in.

But, it is essential to grab a hold of that spot or make your ranking even better. As I mentioned, each day is a new day for all web sites to make them selves rank higher using search engine optimization. It is imperative to make your site better and better everyday.

So just what is search engine optimization and do you have to use it? The answer to why you have to use it is an easy one. You need search engine optimization to be number one, or maybe at least make your site income generating.

With search engine optimization you can get the benefit of generating a high traffic volume. Let’s just say you get only a turn out of successful sales with 10 to 20 percent of your traffic. If you get a hundred hits or more a day, you get a good turn out of sales already. If you get only twenty to ten hits a day, you only get one or two if not any at all.

So once again, what is search engine optimization? Search engine optimization is utilizing tools and methods in making your site top ranking in the results of search engines. Getting yourself in the first page and better yet in the top half of the page will ensure that your site will generate public awareness of your site’s existence and subsequently generate more traffic, traffic that could lead to potential income and business.

Sacramento based Search engine optimization requires a lot of work to be fully realized. There are many aspects you have to change in your site or add as well to get search engine optimization. These will include getting lots of information about the keyword phrases that are popular in regards to your sites niche or theme.

You may also need to rewrite your sites contents so that you could get the right keyword phrases in your site without making it too commercial but light and informative. There are certain rules and guidelines to be followed with making your site’s content applicable and conducive to search engine optimization.

You will also need to collaborate with many other sites so that you could get link exchanges and page transfers. The more inbound and outbound traffics generated by sites among others are one of the components search engines uses to rank sites.

Try to search the internet for many useful help. Tips, guidelines and methods for search engine optimization are plenty to be found. The more knowledge and information you gather the better. This will all help you in getting those high rankings. This may require a little time and effort in your part but the benefits will be astounding.

If you can part with some money, there are many sites in the internet that can help you in search engine optimization. There are many sites that help in tracking keyword phrases that can help your site. There are also some content writers that have lots of experience in making good keyword laden content for your sites that have good quality.

Act now and see the benefits garner with search engine optimization. All of these will result to better traffic and more business for your site and company. We are a Sacramento SEO Company that know how the local market can grow your business. Contact us today!