Social Media and Local Directories to Grow Your Business

Over 367.5 million smartphones sold in the fourth quarter of 2014, Local Business Marketing, especially the use of Social Media Local Search Tools, are increasingly important to the successful growth of your business.

Local Business Marketing

In old school marketing the first choice to market your local business was the yellow pages, and I mean the book! Although the yellow pages are not quite dead yet, it is certainly not the first choice in New Marketing.  So what are the New Tools for growing your local business? Local Directories Marketing.

Local Directories Marketing is the positioning tool of New Marketing.  It's the tool that can make a difference in your sales and ultimately in the success of your business.

Why Local Directories Marketing:  

Local Directories Listings are Great for SEO

     Google and your smartphone love Local Directories Listings such as Google Places, Yelp, Merchant Circle, YP.com and others. These sites get indexed faster are displayed as part of the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) quickly and often.

     Your job is to post the profile of your business on as many high ranking (PR) sites as possible. Its important that your profile is complete, professional and written with relevant keywords at hand.  Complete all the sections that you are given by the Local Directory, including profile picture, hours of operation, videos, etc.  

Living with the NAP

    One very important aspect of your online Local Directory profiles as that the NAP, Name, Address and Phone number be consistent across all sites!  

Local Directories Listings are Great for Authority

     Local Directories Listings demonstrate to Google what's called "authority". Authority is demonstrated to Google by having highly reputable sites linking back to yours. Google uses "authority" in it's algorithm to determine which pages to serve on search results.

Everything is Going Local

     With the grow of smartphone and other tech device usage on the rise, more people are going online to find businesses like your and to cast reviews and share their thought, ideas, photographs and more.  This means that you have no choice if you want to be the leader in your field but to Get Going on Local. Local Directories Marketing will have a tremendous impact on the growth of your business. Beat your competition to the punch Get Local before they do or else you'll be the one getting left behind! P.S. Local Directories Marketing is sometimes called hyper-local marketing. 

Manny Sarmiento - CEO
New Media, New Marketing, Inc.
http://www.newmedianewmarketing.com 

My Answer to Kirsten Yeajer's Bad Review on Yelp's Extortion Site

Yelp has been accused of Extortion of their users.  Read more about Yelp's Extortion accusation. All the positive reviews I've managed to receive on Yelp have been removed for one "reason" or another. There are two review on Yelp not displayed under "2 reviews for Doral Chamber of Commerce, Inc. that are not currently recommended" and "6 Reviews Removed for Violating our Content Guidelines or Terms of Service" all displaying 5 Stars.

So along comes Kirsten Yeajer, a Groupon voucher purchaser who attended my SEO class and posts this negative review:

"I took the Social Media Marketing class. It was nothing but a sales pitch for their $2000 course. This was a waste of my $19 and more importantly my 4 hours!

Manny just repeated himself over and over, stating the same basic information about FB, Twitter, YouTube and the like.

When one of the students would ask him a question, he would say, "That's in another course." etc...

Unfortunately Yelp does not give you an opportunity or place to answer their reviews. So I wrote the following email to Kirsten:  What would you have done? Comments below please! 

Dear Kirsten: 

 

I have read your Yelp review and I am very surprised!  I’m sorry you didn’t feel it was worth your while. However, I’ve received many positive comments about this course and others like it. I have to disagree with you in saying that we did not provide content and that the whole class was a sales pitch. The course offered 3 ½ hours of very practical content for only $19.00.  The course is normally between $47 to $97 and we offered the special Groupon deal for just $19, and most have told me it’s a great value even at $97!  

 

Remember, after we pay the Groupon fees we really get a minimal amount for each person, so I use this as an opportunity to promote our other classes, which are our livelihood. This is a common practice in our industry.

 

The other courses I was offering are ones that have been very beneficial to small business owners and employees in the area, including Certification courses they may need to maintain their licenses.

 

Again, I’m sorry you did not enjoy the class, however I can assure you there were many others who appreciated what we taught. Perhaps this particular class was too basic for you and you needed a higher level course. I would welcome you to come to one of our other business classes or courses, in which case I’ll provide you with credit for the $19 plus I’ll offer you a special discount.

 

Thanks for your feedback and I hope you’ll take us up on our offer.

 

Best Regards,   Manny-

http://www.newmedianewmarketing.com