Pittsburgh Social Media Marketing Campaign Strategies

The first 3 posts in this series:

• Planning Your Social Media Campaign
• Analyzing Your Social Media Campaign
• Implementing Your Social Media Campaign

have showed how to plan your social media campaign, analyze the social media market, and implement a social media campaign. Now it’s time to look at measurement of your efforts to determine your campaigns effects on Traffic, SEO, and Reach.

Measurement statistics or analytics, as they are referred to, provide a way to judge how effective your campaigns are to date. Analytics can provide valuable insight into strengths and weaknesses of your social media campaigns and sniff out opportunities that you may have to promote your campaigns and your business.

THE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING MIX – ANALYTICS

All websites and blogs should have some form of Analytics. The screenshot above is from a Twitter analytics tool called Twitalyzer. Measuring your success in the Social Media arena is very important. There are many great social media platforms to choose from; as mentioned in the previous posts in this series. Measuring your traffic on your website or blog can be done with a simple hit counter. Other more involved statistics can be done by implementing Google Analytics or AWstats.

Here is a great article to show you how involved statistics can be and how much they can cost. (see comments) Having said that there are loads of free tools that you can utilize to measure your social success in the marketing arena for free.

A great free tool for you to benchmark where you are at any time is http://www.socialmention.com/. This is very powerful and provides you with a number of options for finding your content and reach. Of course if you are yet to start your campaign then it can give you an idea of how competitive the social media landscape has become for your terms.

Another free tool we really like is http://www.howsociable.com . This tool generates scores based on your level of involvement in dozens of social media sites. It is no frills, no login, and generates a nice idea of how well your campaign is progressing.

Just remember that analytics are only a barometer of how well your doing. The true measure of your success is always conversions. Need help with your Pittsburgh Social Media Marketing campaigns? Contact Blackball Online Marketing for a free analysis.

Pittsburgh SEO and Your Web Hosting Company

The major Search Engines - Google - Yahoo - Bing

Pittsburgh, PA – If you want to rank well in the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing), planning is the key. Your web host can make or break your rankings. Researching you hosting provider can prove to be as important as your on-page SEO. This article explains a little about how search engines see your site and some criteria to get you started to finding the right Internet hosting company. We do not promote any hosting companies over any others. The research is up to you, unless of course you hire us.

First things first; Our article on picking the right name for your business to rank well in the search engines will help you to do just that. Next on the list is buying/registering your domain name or URL (Uniform Resource Locator). This is the dot.com, dot.net, dot.org that your business will use to be found by your customers on the Internet, Blackball Online can be found at http://www.blackballonline.com.

You should already have the perfect business name after reading the previously mentioned post so try to get the exact match for a URL. The whois database website is a very valuable resource for this. Your website host can also walk you through all of this but it pays to be informed. Tip; register your site for as long as possible. 10 years is the maximum allowable domain name registration as of this writing. Our recommendation is to register for at least 3 years – the search engines look favorably on this.

Do a search on your favorite search engine for “web hosting” or “web hosting providers”. Make a list and rate them; it helps. For the actual research of these companies you can visit their websites or call them directly. We usually do both. We find that we can weed out certain companies by the products they offer and their price points for the levels of service they provide online. Then we call. Another tip; if your contact method of preference is to call and speak to a human like ours is, make sure you call them.

What are your needs? Is this site a one time thing? Is this your flagship website? Do you have 30 other websites that you need a host for? Are you running a forum, blog, or online store? All these questions should be considered as they all require different technical capabilities. Do you know what language or CMS you are going to use to build your site or blog? Once again, planning and research are very important. When you pick a web hosting company keep in mind these questions:

1.) Service: Do they offer 24/7 technical support? Do they charge extra for it? Is it by email only? Are they pleasant? (Knowing this beforehand can save you time, money, and aggravation)

2.) Can they handle your business? (i.e are they technically capable? Do their products meet your specifications mentioned above for your CMS or databases? This is why it pays to be prepared and informed.)

3.) How is their track record? Research the hosting company by checking the search engines for complaints or rants. A pattern of complaints can be a giant red flag; steer clear.

4.) Do they offer up-time reliability guarantees? Your site is no good to you if the server is down. The search engine crawlers will pass you by and penalize you if they try to crawl your site and it’s not there. This is a sign of instability.

5.) Price: We mention price last because it really should be your final concern. Service, Capabilities, Reputation, and Reliability are all priorities over price.

We have many other criteria we check at Blackball Online but these should get you started in the right direction. You get out what you put in. Search engine rankings and SEO starts before you ever code a line. Why sabotage your efforts before they begin? Our job is to make sure you get the maximum out of your site/blog. Blackball Online has the capability to host client sites as well.

Pittsburgh SEO by Blackball Online has all the necessary skills and contacts to meet all your Web Hosting and Online Consulting needs. Just call (412)377-7280 or contact us through our website.

Pittsburgh SEO Your Twitter Tweets

Pittsburgh, PA - SEO is our passion. Because of this we make every effort to maximize your site and business to its fullest. The same goes for Twitter Tweets. The following is our analysis of the most effective way to Tweet on Twitter based on our experience to date.

Our use of Twitter is to contribute and be involved in the community, raise awareness of how our services and Website / Blog can potentially help small businesses, garner and learn from your feedback and pass on things that we’ve learned (and are still learning) through trail-and-error. Fundamentally, we use Twitter to meet and share experience with all sorts of business folks out on Twitter. We also use Twitter to spread the word, or advertise for our clients.

The anatomy of a Twitter Tweet is simple. You get 140 characters to state your case. You can add links using the hxxp://longurl format or you can use a url shortener (an algorithm that makes your url very short, thus using fewer characters). We prefer Bit.ly.

Getting down to it, normal marketing rules need not apply. Pushy Tweets or advertising don’t work on Twitter. Good quality information in as few characters as possible is the ideal Tweet formula (using effective keywords of course). Remember this is a micro blogging platform. Blog posts in miniature.

In addition to these points we must add the fact that should someone want to ReTweet or RT(send your message out again giving you credit) your Tweets should be limited to 100 or so characters. The task sounds daunting but it isn’t.

Eliminate all fluff. Promote a topic or have a call to action immediately followed by your shortened url. That’s it. Some sample Tweets we use to promote Blackball Online – Pittsburgh SEO include:

#Pittsburgh #SEO #SEM #SEA http://www.blackballonline.com

Internet Marketing for Small Business; Take Your Best Shot - http://bit.ly/GUpcd

#Twitter and the 2000 Follow Limit rule http://bit.ly/v8S99

Choose an SEO that does the research? http://bit.ly/3H3zJu

CMS Tools friend or foe? http://bit.ly/zIoyF

Some of these links are blog posts on the Blackball Online Newsblog , and we did leave the full URL for Blackball Online on the first Tweet. Other information about these Tweets – the # or hashtag as it is called, designates a topic or locale. When we use #Pittsburgh anyone who belongs to the #Pittsburgh group will get our Tweet, even if they are not following us.

We have also written some posts designed for new and experienced Twitterers. The links are here:

New to #Twitter? Get started with these Twitter tools. http://bit.ly/42iIq

Not so new to #twitter - Our 2nd installment of #Twitter Tools. http://bit.ly/5QNeW

Below are some very good posts on the same or similar topics and are worth the read;

http://mashable.com/2009/06/25/twitter-seo-tips/

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/01/15/twitter-seo/

Internet Marketing for Small Business; Take Your Best Shot.

Pittsburgh, PA - Yankee Ingenuity, only Americans can claim that term, that state of mind – nobody else. One of the things that makes America unique and standout from all other countries is that only in America do you have the inborn right and opportunity to take your best shot. The caveat – nobody is going to make it easy.

So what does that have to do with Online Marketing or Search Engine Optimization? Well…plenty. Not that far back, small businesses had to come up with all kind of creative ways to say “hey, I’m over here” without the marketing and advertising resources of the “bigger boys.”

Then along came the Internet. Next the World Wide Web, and you pretty much know the rest. Now just about any small business can get a Website at real good price and it goes without saying it’s an obvious business must-have. But you still have the “hey, I’m over here” dilemma.

Enter Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, Online or Internet Marketing, whatever you want to call it and ta-da; you now have the tools to shout as loud as the big players without the big price tag. With some creativity (Yankee Ingenuity), help from a qualified SEO, and commitment, you can beat the bigger players in the “hey, I’m over here” department and do more business. We’re seeing and being part of it first hand. So, take your best shot.

Contact Blackball Online at (412)377-7280 or visit our Pittsburgh SEO website for a free consultation. We specialize in Internet Marketing for small business.

Pittsburgh SEO for Small Business (Part 1) – Choose an SEO that Researches your Industry

Pittsburgh, PA - We have seen the rise of the SEO. A lot of old school marketing and advertising companies are now professing to be Search Engine Optimizers. I speak with clients in the Pittsburgh area who have been approached by SEO companies who never even ask what the company does. We believe that Industry research for your target market is essential to your SEO initiative.

If you have a pre-existing website, an introductory review must be completed to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. How else would an SEO know what course of action to proceed with? A review of your site’s content and structure for search engine ranking factors such as keyword research, links, proper use of Meta information, and a number of other factors should be included.

The next step is to analyze the market itself. Is this a niche market with little competition or is the field so competitive that a diversified approach is required? Are there many players? This is something that is impossible to determine without the proper background and Internet Marketing Research.

Your SEO, we believe, should not be guarded about answering any and all questions about technical procedures. This affects your company and your rankings dramatically. Advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript and robots files all fall under the category of SEO Consulting and we feel these are valid questions and open for discussion. If your prospective or current SEO is secretive about these items it raises a red flag. It is possible that your SEO could be harming more than helping.

We encourage our customers to be involved in every step of the SEO initiative. Content development is a major area. After all nobody knows your business like you do. An SEO can gain valuable insight and information about your company and market complexities by asking some basic questions.

Management of online business development campaigns and advertising is all dependent upon the research previously mentioned. Why spend valuable dollars and assets with someone who doesn’t have a plan of attack, a course of action, and the verifiable means to achieve your goals? Our business is to get you business.

We try to educate our customers about the SEO process if they want to be involved. An educated customer can be one of our most valuable resources. We are available to aid in SEO training to help in this process. At the same time, we want to learn about your business and market to better do our job. By doing this we can gain expertise in your specific markets and geographies and use it to drive business to your site/s.

It takes a lot more than adding a bunch of keywords to your site to be a good SEO. SEO requires Research, and a lot of it. Contact Us at Blackball Online for a free initial consultation and we’d be happy to discuss you business goals and objectives.