Tuesday, August 18, 2015

How Does Social Media Marketing Help Me in My Business?


Venturing into your own business is a risk that any entrepreneur takes. After working in the food industry for 8 years, I decided to use the space in front of our house to open a small restaurant. My wife and I are both food lovers and we both love cakes and pasta. Luckily, my wife went to a culinary academy so she has good knowledge on making delectable pasta and mouthwatering cakes. After a year of planning, we finally opened a small café.

Like what other entrepreneurs do, I sent out flyers to my friends announcing the opening of our café. The first few months were great. People kept coming into the café. I asked them how they knew about our shop. Most of them answered that it was recommended by our common friends. Indeed, I was thankful that my friends were kind enough to spread the word about my shop. However, I felt the need to advertise my shop more to gain more customers and gain more revenue.

It was very noticeable to my customers taking pictures of the food before eating it. I saw an opportunity. With the help of my younger brother, I was able to make an account on Facebook about my shop. In my account, I invited all my friends I know who had been to the shop. I posted photos of the food we serve including happy customers who tried our food. The response was overwhelming. I got likes and comments on the pictures that I posted. Some people even share my posts to their own timeline. My wife had an idea to write blogs about the food we serve. She made an account on WordPress and started writing about our shop. These blog posts are linked to our Facebook page which garnered more visitors daily reading about our food.

Aside from Facebook, I also used Pinterest in promoting our food. It was so easy to upload pictures and share it to everyone on their social media accounts. As more and more people like our Facebook page, our customers kept increasing monthly. I even had a wall in my shop asking customers to write a post on how satisfied they are with the food. Some even tagged us on their photos on Facebook which I think helped a lot in promoting our shop. The hashtags and mentions on these social media accounts have been a cheap and easy way in reaching hungrier public for our food.


Today, I am currently having an extension of my shop. More and more visitors are coming and I need to accommodate them – as I want every customer of mine happy and satisfied. With social media marketing, I was able to make my shop exist on the Internet. It is a marketing strategy wherein I do not have to spend a lot on paper or radio advertisement. The simple like and share buttons on Facebook are the powerful tools that attracted customers to our great food. With the success of social media ads, I am planning to launch our own website and write more on how good our food is. This website will serve as a new hub for my customers to expect new menu and even promos in our shop. Indeed, social media marketing has made my business bloom and popular among my customers. 

For more internet marketing tips you can refer to this link smallbizonlinemarketing.blogspot.com.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Wordpress, Joomla or Drupal? Which is the Best When it Comes to Web Development?

The idea of having your own website is very promising. It draws more customers to your brand, and at the same time, it makes it easier to advertise your brand since a lot of people, prospect clients, are always online. When creating a website, it is important to understand which content management system (CMS) is best for your website.



There are three options to your website: WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. These are already established and trusted names in the online content management systems. These three are all open-source that lets you save money since they are for free. If you are unfamiliar with these three, better consult a web developer to help you.

Choosing which of these systems to use is difficult, so here are some information to help you pick the right system for your website

WordPress
It is the most popular amongst all content management systems. According to statistics, over a quarter of the websites are using WordPress. First, it is very easy to install. Anyone can actually install it and have his or her own website in just a few hours. Using WordPress does not need very technical knowledge to make use of the customizations. WordPress has its own variety of themes so you can choose whatever suits you best. WordPress is best for first-time bloggers as well as it has plugins for SEO or search engine optimization. WordPress is indeed very flexible.

Drupal
Drupal is commonly used by those people with technical knowledge on web development. A lot of people say that is technically advanced. Pages under Drupal load faster and are easy to customize. They have plugins and themes. However, since it is more advanced than WordPress, anyone who chooses Drupal should have at least basic knowledge on programming languages such as HTML. If you do not have these skills and you want Drupal, it is best to start getting familiar with it or have someone with the knowledge on programming languages to create the website for you.

Joomla
Joomla is known for having a very user-friendly interface. It has a strong developer community with a large collection of free plugins to choose from. Unlike Drupal, technical knowledge is not much needed with Joomla. People choose Joomla as it easier to build social networks of which are popular nowadays. So, if you want to add social networking to your website, Joomla fits best to your needs.

Which of these three is best when it comes to web development?

WordPress is best for individuals who do not have any technical knowledge on web development. If you want to setup a small website or a personal blog for your own business, WordPress is perfect with its ready to use customizations. You do not have to wait a long time to have your website running with WordPress as you can launch it after a few hours. If you want extensive features for your website and you have the technical knowledge to do so, Drupal is best for you. It is more important to have the desired expertise on programming languages for the website to launch and work. Finally, if you target more on expanding your social network, Joomla can work fine.

Choosing can be pretty difficult, so the best thing is to identify what you want to determine the need of your website. 

Friday, August 7, 2015

The Main Responsibilities of an SEO Specialist

The World Wide Web is a battleground of different companies and institutions – local, national or worldwide. Every single website incorporates different strategies for them to be on top ranks of search engines. Being on the top search results means that your website has already gained popularity online, and it has garnered a lot of traffic from the number of visitors checking it online. Having this said, other websites have to invest in getting traffic to increase their online presence. To be able to do this, one should hire the service of an SEO specialist.

Once a website is launched, the work does not end there. The website has to be maintained to keep up with the changes in the trend. Further, a company may have a new product or service to be offered which should be included as a new update on the website. Comments and suggestions that will improve products and services need to be read and addressed for customer satisfaction. There are still lots of things to be done once the website is up and running. As an SEO specialist, he or she needs to foresee everything to help the website rise on the search pages to promote online presence and visibility.


Being an SEO specialist (search engine optimization) takes a lot of responsibility. Some SEO specialists admit the stress and pressure they get from this job. To have a clear understanding on what an SEO specialist do, here is a checklist of his or her responsibility.

Manage content strategy, link building and keyword strategy

An SEO specialist should have broad knowledge on creating good content for a website. He or she should be someone who has an expertise in writing posts that contain powerful keywords that will boost the website’s ranking. Furthermore, he or she builds links form different social media pages and other websites that will lead to the website he or she is responsible in managing.

Runs tests, collect and analyze data

Different techniques are to be used to boost traffic. These techniques have to undergo tests whether they can work perfectly or not. An SEO specialist will then collect data from these tests and analyze them to make improvements or proceed with the technique for a successful ROI.

Record, report and analyze website analytics and PPC campaigns

An SEO specialist also uses PPC or pay-per-click strategy in improving traffic. The SEO specialist should foresee the results and analyze them whether PPC should be invested for a specific number of weeks to avoid losing or wasting money.

Manage expenses

An SEO specialist should see that the strategies have to stay on budget. Some techniques need to be paid; thus, it is his or her responsibility to make sure that the plan will work for a positive ROI.

Other responsibilities are as follows:

- New search protocols
- Search verticals
- Community management
- Social media promotion
- Reputation tracking
- Local and Maps Optimization

Getting SEO services is essential in getting ranked on search engines. A website without good content will lose its purpose once it cannot be searched online. SEO specialists will do a lot of tricks to get the ranking and increase ROI for the business.