If you’re a business owner who’s looking for ways to attract more web prospects to your small business website, then Google Places is a MUST. Local Search is really beginning to build momentum. Next time you use Google Search, add a location to your search term, such as “Social Media Marketing Doylestown” and notice the listings that come up next to the Google Map. This post will help you list a business on Google.
Why is this important? It’s important because as a small business, you can start outranking large organizations on Google. If you notice, the local listings appear at the top of your search page. This means that those businesses who used to rank 1st on Google, are now ranking 4th or lower.
Having a Google Places Listing for your small business can greatly increase the traffic to your website. Setting up a listing is actually pretty easy. The only pre-requisite is that you have a Google account. If you don’t already have one, simply create one and then get started on your Google Places Listing – it’s FREE. Here are a few steps to help you out:
- Navigate to the Google Places Business Center and click “Add New Business”
- Fill out your profile as completely as possible, the more details, the better
- Add your business listing
- Add your business information – TIP: Add a few custom fields and insert relevant search terms for your small business. This will help you rank for those search terms
- Last, but not least, claim your new Google Places Business Listing – You can claim your listing by phone, text message, or postcard
Not only will having a Google Places Business Listing help increase traffic to your small business website, but there are also a number of other benefits. Here are just a few:
- You can add coupons for your small business to your Google Places Listing
- The Google Places Business Center allows you to track stats for your Places Listing
- You can provide your business contact information on your listing
- Customer Reviews can be added to your listing to help build credibility for your small business
If you don’t already have a Google Places Business Listing for your small business, definitely take some time and add one today. You’ll be happy you did.
Figure out how you will build buzz within your local community. You can build publicity and awareness by promoting the event through online social tools, as well as, through in-store ads/fliers. You can host a live event and invite select customers, friends, family, media, and other local business owners. Video recording the event will be imperative, so that you can distribute it online – perhaps through YouTube or Viddler, in order to capture a larger audience. You can use the same online social tools to promote the fashion show post-event, that used to promote it pre-event. 
There are probably even more benefits to running an event like this, but you only have so much time to read this post and I only have so much time to write it…The key for small business owners to pulling this off is that the tools to do so are now available to you at a price you can afford. Online social tools can help you promote the event, share the event with the world, and converse with fans post-event. I’d imagine that you could run your own local fashion show for less than $1,000 if you get creative. Tools like YouTube and Viddler allow you to post a video from the show online. Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and your company blog will allow you to promote the event both before, during, and after. Your fashion show may be so cutting edge for your local community that it gets picked up by local news stations, which will add some great PR for you and your small retail clothing shop. 
The idea for this post actually came when I posted the following question on Twitter, “Working on new posts for the Catalyst Marketers blog, does anyone have topics they’d like me to explore?” I received the following response, which is the basis for this post, “@EnviroBooty I have heard from Social Media Magic that your profile itself should be rich in your pertinent keywords. If that’s true, just wondered why”. So thanks to 
Don’t simply stop at adding keywords to your Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, & LinkedIn profiles, use those keywords in your daily online conversations. When you respond to comments on Yelp, try to add a keyword where it makes sense (don’t go overboard). When tweeting, use your small business keywords. If you make a wall comment on your small business Facebook Fan Page, use your keywords. All of these efforts will pay off in moving all of your online business profiles up in the search ranks. 
Do you remember using that Emergency Call List when your business was going to have to stay closed on a normal working day? You know, with each new employee you bring on, and for every old employee who leaves, you update that list, print it out, and make sure everyone knows the procedure. Usually it starts at the top with the owner or manager deciding if their store will open on a day where weather or other emergency factors come into play. Once the decision is made, the owner calls the next person in line, then that person is in charge of calling the next person, and so on. 
Before the advent of using online social tools for business, there was really no way of communicating to customers that a store would be closed for the day. Granted, on days like the Philadelphia area had on Saturday, many people aren’t going out shopping in the first place. With that said, what if you’re a doctor’s office or another type of business where customers have an appointment setup on a day that’s in question? Well, you’d have to pay someone to answer the phone and unless you have a redirect system in place, that individual would probably have to go into the office. Obviously, that’s dangerous during bad weather days. Now, all of that has changed due to more and more businesses using online social tools to communicate with customers. A big key to this is also the comfort which customers have in using those same tools to communicate with businesses. 
This discussion topic really hit home as I had numerous responses within several different LinkedIn groups. 
HGTV is not only promoting their social media, but they are promoting their fans as well. It’s adds to the connection. Can you imagine how you’d feel if HGTV mentioned your Facebook comment on their TV commercial? I’ll bet you’d tell a bunch of your friends, both online and offline. In turn, that may increase fans and followers of HGTV social media sites, as well as, possibly increase viewers of their TV programs. 