Internet Publicity Helping Local Businesses Grow their Business
It's been a while since I've made calls, and hopefully I can get back in touch with at least some of you before the end of August.
I wanted to share with you what I've been doing for some of my clients in the Raleigh area because it may be helpful to your business.
For my clients, I've been promoting the creation of an interconnected web of sites all endorsing and supporting their business, each linked to the other, each adding their own value, and potentially reaching a different group of people.
Baba Ghannouj on Hwy 55 in Cary is an independent Mediterranean restaurant with the same name as a franchise, but no longer associated with them. Since my husband and I love going there, often a couple of times a month, I wanted to help spread the word about his business to more people. I approached the owner about signing on as a client of mine for internet publicity. After a few appointments getting to know his interests and concerns, he signed on.
It started with an audit of their internet presence.
He wanted to be able to post the daily special on Twitter, something that would take very little time each day. They wanted a Facebook Page for their business too. So I took a set of pictures on my last appointment there and had those to load for Twitter and Facebook. They sent me their logos, so I had good copies of those to work with. Because many logos are rectangular I had to create a square version of their logo, which I did.
I located local people on Twitter and chose a couple of hundred to follow, and do that about once a week. About a hundred have followed back or found us, mostly from the local area. I listed with TweetWagon, for local businesses on Twitter. The owner tweets almost every day about the specials. I do some followup tweets with customers on their behalf.
I set up the Facebook Page, and wanted to have the Tweet from Twitter post there too, but Hello Txt isn't doing it for me, so that remains a technical challenge. We now have 51 fans and growing, and today got a terrific review from a customer! I put up a page of Links to online restaurant directory listings for them, so fans could, if inspired, write reviews easily just by visiting the Notes on the Facebook Page. It was very rewarding to print the contents and show them to the owner - that people are responding, giving nice comments, engaging with us online.
LocalAdLink, a new low cost internet advertising solution that I learned about on inSide919.com, is also part of the package. They signed up for the standard package for just under $100/month with 10 zip codes to target to, and two targetted words (food, restaurants). I created coupons to their specifications, and a video with the photos I took using Animoto.com. See their ad here.
Next we're going to bring the Web site in. For a variety of reasons that all make sense, the web site has been in transition. We're going to connect that up with links to Twitter, Facebook, LocalAdLink, and soon inSide919.com. I've done a couple of blog posts about the restaurant in a couple of my inventory of blogs.
We'll also be claiming and filling in information on the dozen and more free listings for restaurants online. Google is the first! At the bottom of their local listings, there's a link for local businesses. For nothing you can list your business with Google. Then there's Merchant Circle. Yahoo and Bing. Urban Spoon and many many more. Some do not offer free listings, so for now we'll just work with the free ones.
While this takes many hours to set up, because computers never process fast enough, and there are technical difficulties, and resizing of logos and photos and account set-up time, time coordinating with each other so we're on the same page, the result is a rich nest of resources for people doing searches on the web.
The goals are: to be attractive, appealing and accessible for those looking for their kind of restaurant and to reinforce the appreciation for existing clients and offer them ways to engage and share with their friends. "Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold!"
All in all the package of work is easily worth $1200. Much of the internet work will hold it's value over time. I'm happy to say we were able to do it for less.
I hope this was helpful to at least one of you. It has been my intent to share a lot of the steps so that if you wanted to, you might be able to do this for yourself, or for your friends. If you have any questions about it, please reach out to me.
I wanted to share with you what I've been doing for some of my clients in the Raleigh area because it may be helpful to your business.
For my clients, I've been promoting the creation of an interconnected web of sites all endorsing and supporting their business, each linked to the other, each adding their own value, and potentially reaching a different group of people.
Baba Ghannouj on Hwy 55 in Cary is an independent Mediterranean restaurant with the same name as a franchise, but no longer associated with them. Since my husband and I love going there, often a couple of times a month, I wanted to help spread the word about his business to more people. I approached the owner about signing on as a client of mine for internet publicity. After a few appointments getting to know his interests and concerns, he signed on.
It started with an audit of their internet presence.
He wanted to be able to post the daily special on Twitter, something that would take very little time each day. They wanted a Facebook Page for their business too. So I took a set of pictures on my last appointment there and had those to load for Twitter and Facebook. They sent me their logos, so I had good copies of those to work with. Because many logos are rectangular I had to create a square version of their logo, which I did.
I located local people on Twitter and chose a couple of hundred to follow, and do that about once a week. About a hundred have followed back or found us, mostly from the local area. I listed with TweetWagon, for local businesses on Twitter. The owner tweets almost every day about the specials. I do some followup tweets with customers on their behalf.
I set up the Facebook Page, and wanted to have the Tweet from Twitter post there too, but Hello Txt isn't doing it for me, so that remains a technical challenge. We now have 51 fans and growing, and today got a terrific review from a customer! I put up a page of Links to online restaurant directory listings for them, so fans could, if inspired, write reviews easily just by visiting the Notes on the Facebook Page. It was very rewarding to print the contents and show them to the owner - that people are responding, giving nice comments, engaging with us online.
LocalAdLink, a new low cost internet advertising solution that I learned about on inSide919.com, is also part of the package. They signed up for the standard package for just under $100/month with 10 zip codes to target to, and two targetted words (food, restaurants). I created coupons to their specifications, and a video with the photos I took using Animoto.com. See their ad here.
Next we're going to bring the Web site in. For a variety of reasons that all make sense, the web site has been in transition. We're going to connect that up with links to Twitter, Facebook, LocalAdLink, and soon inSide919.com. I've done a couple of blog posts about the restaurant in a couple of my inventory of blogs.
We'll also be claiming and filling in information on the dozen and more free listings for restaurants online. Google is the first! At the bottom of their local listings, there's a link for local businesses. For nothing you can list your business with Google. Then there's Merchant Circle. Yahoo and Bing. Urban Spoon and many many more. Some do not offer free listings, so for now we'll just work with the free ones.
While this takes many hours to set up, because computers never process fast enough, and there are technical difficulties, and resizing of logos and photos and account set-up time, time coordinating with each other so we're on the same page, the result is a rich nest of resources for people doing searches on the web.
The goals are: to be attractive, appealing and accessible for those looking for their kind of restaurant and to reinforce the appreciation for existing clients and offer them ways to engage and share with their friends. "Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold!"
All in all the package of work is easily worth $1200. Much of the internet work will hold it's value over time. I'm happy to say we were able to do it for less.
I hope this was helpful to at least one of you. It has been my intent to share a lot of the steps so that if you wanted to, you might be able to do this for yourself, or for your friends. If you have any questions about it, please reach out to me.
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