In this article we’ll examine some simple ideas to come up with fresh, engaging content designed to drive traffic to your site and keep them coming back for more.

Blogging Your Way to New Business
The goal for any blogger is to publish unique and compelling content. With this in mind, it’s probably worth noting here that the following ideas are designed as a general guide, so feel free to take the ideas presented somewhere new and get your creative juices flowing!

How to…
How many times have you asked Google to come up with the answer to a particular question? How to? guides present a fantastic way to engage the reader and encourage interaction through working examples and so on. They are also a great way of demonstrating your expertise and credibility within your chosen niche. Support well-written, informed content with great visuals and downloadable content for extra bonus points.

Common Problems – Great Solutions
Just as the internet is a great resource for finding out how to do things, it also provides a valuable opportunity to find new ways around general or specific problems. It therefore follows that presenting a structured, concise entry dedicated to a particular issue is a surefire way of both attracting traffic and presenting yourself as a knowledgeable expert in your field.

Proven Methodology
One drawback with the internet age is that anyone can present themselves as an expert in anything. A great way of building credibility and attracting traffic is through the use of referenced case studies. Back up your advice with hard evidence, demonstrating how a methodology has been applied to assist a particular client and the subsequent results. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding.

The Latest News
A great case in point for regular updated content – positioning yourself as a valuable resource for the latest industry news is a great way of attracting and retaining traffic. Becoming your clients’ ‘go to’ resource for the latest news via a simple RSS feed is a great way of staying connected to your audience.

Book Worm
Don’t assume that everything your audience reads is online. In fact, the majority of internet users are only interested in snippets of information. Providing references to offline material is a great way of demonstrating both empathy for your readers’ needs as well as your own knowledge on a particular subject.

Feedback
Requesting feedback is by far the most simple method of both gauging your success and encouraging user interaction. Don’t assume you know it all, open up your blog and invite your readers in – you never know what valuable ideas and suggestions could come out of it.

We keep hearing about Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. We even hear about big Social Media phenomenon: The Facebook Group set up to get “Rage against the Machine” to number one in the music charts, the spoiler to stop X-Factor winner Joe McElderry being the Christmas Number One. Dave Carroll’s song on You Tube viewed nearly 7,000,000 times that tells the tale about how United Airlines broke his guitar (Search for United Airlines on YouTube and Dave Carroll’s song comes top every time). Millions of people everyday use some form of Social Media every day; we hear of big company campaigns on Social Media, but does it have a commercial impact for local businesses? The short answer is Yes, very much so.

To understand what is happening online, we just need to understand how people buy off line or what we did before the internet.

 People select a shop, bar or restaurant based on many criteria.

• Advertising
• Price Comparison
• Reviews
• Recommendation
• Location

 Online, it is very much the same, except information and contact networks are so much quicker.

  This is why many companies are developing their social media presence ie to extend their brand reach by joining the conversation with their customers. Some essential elements of a social media campaign could include:

• Blogging
• Article writing
• FaceBook
• Twitter
• Questions and Answers
• Social Bookmarking
• Forums
• Monitoring

 More advanced campaigns could include Facebook and IPhone Applications, designed to engage and interact with the consumer.

Blogging

A Blog (weB- log) is a series of entries, records, thoughts and ideas on a website. Google appears to love Blogs, websites that have up-to-date blogs have made some commitment to adding and updating content on their website and are therefore contributing positively to the internet.  Google rewards good relevant content with high search positions. It is possible to get 1st page results on Google and even top positions on Google in under 5 minutes.

 Good blogging practice means writing a blog on a regular basis, daily if possible, but weekly can be sufficient. Other tips may include:

• Being informative
• Not being sales oriented
• Linking to other resources both on your site as well as off site.
• Getting your blog followed by linking into social networks, social book marking sites and article sites

 So as a blog grows it increases the number of pages in your website, as the readership increases, then so the authority of your site will increase. The effect of this is that it can increase the number of search terms that a website can be found on.

Article Writing

Writing Articles on other websites is a great way to improve your reputation as an expert to your customers. Articles on other good reputable websites linking to your site can also build your “reputation” with Google.

Facebook, Twitter and other Social Network Websites

Many Social Network sites have started out as online meeting points for friends and people with common interests. However, 2009 saw more and more  companies using social network sites to engage with their customers, often by creating a more personal face of the company and by deploying targeted content and offers to specific demographs.

Measuring Results

Like so much of internet marketing, it is measurable, with many websites getting over 25% of their traffic from Blogs and visitors from social network sites and blogs being 3 times more likely to buy. Why? because all of the offsite activity is targeted to specific groups, so that the social media marketing has been increasing brand recognition and trust off site; when consumers visit websites, they have already researched the products & services, received recommendations, interacted with the free content, making the final buying decision easier.

Stephen Harvey-Franklin wrote this article that was published in the Harrogate Advertiser’s Business Pink Pages.

Steve is a Social Media and SEO Consultant and Trainer with Ripley Training and a Digital Marketing Consultant for WSI Yorkshire, based in Huddersfield West Yorkshire. Steve also speaks at events on Internet Marketing and Social Media Strategy

Estimated at having more than 10 million users, Twitter is currently growing faster than any other networking site. As a result, businesses are getting on board as a means of extending their reach and participating in the ‘online conversation’. So what are some of the best ways to use Twitter for business?<!–more–>

Tweeting for Business the Right Way
The ability to communicate in real time with your followers is one of the main attractions of participating in the micro blogging arena. Add to this the ease of making updates of only 140 characters or less – and the ability to do so via a mobile device – and you can see why Twitter’s popularity is growing so quickly.

These same benefits also apply to businesses. At present, Twitter is free to use for companies. But users are not easily fooled. Participating with no other reason than to make sales will soon leave you ‘friendless’. To help you succeed on Twitter, consider the following 20 Twitter tips for business.

1. Begin with a strategy; otherwise, you may quickly find it a fruitless (and time-consuming) exercise
2. Update your personal profile, incorporating your business colours and ‘visual personality’
3. Add a picture profile
4. Include a ‘Follow us on Twitter’ link on your own website
5. Include a ‘Follow us on Twitter’ link in your email newsletters
6. Update your Bio information to give a little background, including a link to your website
7. Keep your strategy in mind as you tweet: stay on song
8. Use the Twitter search tools to find your target market
9. Search for Tweets related to your industry and participate in the conversations
10. Use ReTweets (RT) and replies (@…) when commenting on related Tweets
11. Keep an eye on trending topics
12. Ask for help from other Twitter users – it’s a great way to engage people
13. Use links in your Tweets to others sources, including (but not exclusive to) your website
14. Recommend other Twitterers; it’s a genuine act that is often reciprocated
15. Be yourself. Don’t be afraid to share your personality – it’s a part of being genuine
16. Ask questions and conduct polls
17. Give advice or assistance where applicable; this helps position you as an expert
18. Keep an eye on your Direct Messages (DM) and take time to respond to the genuine ones
19. Try not to use automated software. Think quality before quantity
20. Add yourself to the We Follow Twitter directory.

Other social networking sites such as FriendFeed and Facebook provide micro blogging tools as well, and it is possible to link your accounts with each application in order to update them all from one interface. Be selective, though. Don’t spread your resources too thinly.

While Twitter is fast becoming one of the biggest players in the social media arena, it shouldn’t be adopted as your only marketing activity. Instead, use it to complement your other marketing channels. If you would like help improving your social media strategy, call us on 01484 690430.