Pittsburgh Social Media Brand Reputation Management

As people, we care about how others perceive us. Our personal reputations are what we build our careers on. Businesses have a reputation to protect as well. Not only should it be protected; it should be cultivated. Social Media provides us the opportunity to develop a closeness with our customer that didn’t exist before. In these times of increased competition and shrinking profit margins, a business must always be mindful of its reputation.

Case in point is, “Only the Paranoid Survive”, a book by Andrew S. Grove (former CEO and current chairman of the board of Intel). We’ve included a link to the Preface of the book here: http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/bios/grove/paranoid.htm. This writing hammers home the idea of business as a defensive struggle against pitfalls all businesses face; internal and external.

A Business or Brand’s reputation starts from day one. It is born out of the vision the founders developed. This vision needs to be communicated clearly from the very start. What customers say about us online travels as fast as the data behind it. A strong Brand Reputation Management plan allows us to monitor these comments, good or bad. Swift and decisive action can then be taken. This makes all the difference in keeping or losing a customer.

Blackball Online monitors the Internet constantly for comments or articles relating to our business and our clients. This allows our customers to be notified of anything we may come across and allows for quick response. We believe that addressing problems provides golden opportunities to shine.

With a wide enough sample of comments, a business can gain valuable insight into products and services and how the public is reacting to them. Some companies spend millions to monitor these trends through focus groups and market research studies. For a smaller company, the same results can be achieved by monitoring social media. Why not take advantage of this vast data mine of feedback.

Contact Blackball Online for all your Pittsburgh Social Media Optimization needs including Brand Reputation Management at (412)377-7280.

Pittsburgh Social Media Optimization by Blackball Online Marketing

Pittsburgh, PA - Social Media Optimization is now the hot new topic and favorite of the search engines. (Google, Bing, Yahoo) It used to be you could put up a website and get some traffic. Generate some leads and all was well. Then you needed Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to rank because of the increased competition. Now it’s very important to use Social Media Optimization in addition to drive traffic to your website/blog.

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is a “set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites” according to Wikipedia. Google and Bing have picked up on these emerging trends and been ranking these mediums for some time now. These search engines index sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn including your profiles.

As the search engines evolve into what engineers believe is a more intuitive system, Social Media Optimization has taken center stage. This is by no means a substitute for a well designed site with SEO. It is an extension of the Internet Marketing strategy and the next logical step.

Blogs have been the design of choice for some time now. They offer the ability to add content at will with very little technical expertise. But, let’s face it, these are very competitive times. The more you put into your business, the more you get out. SEO coupled with SMO now rules the roost. A thorough grasp of how search engines view your site is necessary for your hard work to pay off as well as it should.

If you have a new / existing business with limited resources and this sounds like a tall order, it is. But taken in logical steps it can be more than manageable. Blackball Online works with small businesses to maximize their resources and achieve the best results possible given the assets available for their Pittsburgh Social Media Optimization campaigns.

Start slow and think this through. Formulate a strategy and stick to it. The Internet will be there. It is important to do the proper analysis of your business first to speed the way for your Social Media campaigns later. A good start is to leverage Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. They are all valuable sites and mediums to start with.

For a free Pittsburgh Social Media Optimization by Blackball Online Marketing consultation email us at info@blackballonline.com or just call (412)377-7280.

G-20 Summit, It’s Getting Closer

As Pittsburgh gets ready to roll out the “Red Carpet” for the G-20 Summit, we, as a city have the rare opportunity to display our innovativeness, creativity and our own unique “Burghness” and share it with the world. There are probably a few reasons to why Pittsburgh was chosen as the 2009 G-20 Summit host. Here’s what I believe a few of them are:

Pittsburghers themselves, I believe when all these diverse cultures meet for the G-20 summit in our backyard they’re going to be hard pressed finding a friendlier, more accommodating and engaging bunch of people. Topped off by the passion Pittsburghers have for their hometown.

The Rooney family, if there is any name or family that embodies the Pittsburgh spirit and truly makes us unique; it’s the owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

A powerful aversion to giving up, it’s just not in our vocabulary. Pittsburgh’s history is built on a “plowing forward” attitude no matter how tough things get.

Technological innovation, Pittsburgh is right up there with Silicon Valley. And CMU is eyeball-to-eyeball with MIT. Pittsburgh has done more than its share with leading the way technically and medically.

Primanti Brothers, do you know how far some people go to get a Primanti sandwich? Well, maybe the G-20 Summit group is no different. They’ll experience one of the great tastes of Pittsburgh– literally.

On another G-20 Summit note, there’s been a lot in the news about what to do concerning all the protesters. Well, here’s one solution (and it would save some tax dollars); we could “Pittsburghize” the protesters via Primanti’s delicious sandwiches.

Instead of employing manpower ensuring and protecting the right to peaceable assembly, hand out Primanti sandwiches to the G-20 protesters. After we win them over with Primanti’s great chow, the only thing we’ll have to worry about is getting them enough Iron City to wash it down and desert. The only protesting we’ll be hearing from the protesters is “hey, we want more.”

So that’s about it. You may or may not see this as a “fluff piece” or something like that, but one thing is for certain, Pittsburgh was picked to host the G-20 Summit for a reason. It didn’t happen in a vacuum or at random.

Pittsburgh Internet Marketing by Blackball Online