I’ve been on a rampage lately about businesses being listed on the online local business directories.  It’s such an overlooked piece of the SEO puzzle — and often the first piece that should be in place before any other — that I find myself trying to figure out why that is the case. 

• Do business owners underestimate the importance of having their business found on Google, Yahoo and Bing?
• Is there a lack of both awareness and understanding about how powerful and critical a detailed business listing is to a business’s overall success? 
• Are businesses not cognizant of how consumers or other businesses find them through the search engines?
• Do businesses work with and adjust their keyword list as their business grows?  Better yet, do they even have a keyword list?
• Do business owners know which listings are important and how to find them?
• Do business owners know that if they can’t own certain competitive keywords with their local directory listing, they can more heavily focus on them by other means, such as their blog, and may still get on the first search page for those terms?

And then I have to ask myself, did I know about all this a year ago?  Even just six months ago??  Well, the answer is emphatically “no.”  I was aware of the search engine local directories but I certainly didn’t know exactly how they worked or what it meant to get in the 3-pack or 10-pack — or that Google may be changing their 10-pack to a 7-pack or anything like that.  In fact, the questions asked above are derived out of my experience of working with several business listings over the period of many months, including now my own business, in order to even begin to ask questions like those.  So I have to give business owners a break here.

I just recently worked with a company who has been in business for 8 years that had never claimed its Google Local Business Center directory listing.  While the successful business had a general listing, it didn’t appear at all if one was searching for any of the relevant keywords or phrases.  Only their competitors showed up as well as a few other businesses that did not provide the same service.  The only time their business listing appeared was if one searched on their full business name.  And, frankly, that’s the only time their website appeared in the organic searches as well, so their website was not optimized either.  After claiming the listing and massaging it in order to get it to appear more often on the prominent keyword searches, the business comes up on the “board” in all the main keywords except for one highly competitive one, and they often appear in the top 3 business listings.  In a couple of cases, they are #1 and/or the ONLY business listed.   I was thrilled beyond belief with my before and after results, even taking screen shots to remind myself of the major difference, by making changes that were relatively simple if you have a bit of experience with gaining SEO value.

Admittedly and openly, the business owner didn’t share my enthusiasm.  ”I’m not sure I fully can appreciate what you just did for us,” the client said.   The business owner didn’t know how to put a value on what was just accomplished.  The business is primarily B2B, and not consumer-driven like some other businesses who would rely heavily on internet searches.  Still, the business would only need to gain one new client from an internet search for it to be more than beneficial.  Last time I checked, there are very few businesses in this economy that are doing so well that it would be okay for them to remain invisible on the internet.  I mean, if it were okay to be invisible on the internet, then why have a website at all?  Why have a social media presence? Why invest the time and cost?  If the only people who are finding the business are the people who already are familiar enough with your service or product to search your business by name, then what’s the point of using the internet for generating new business leads?  Am I wrong in my thinking here?

Frankly, I don’t know how to value what seems like such a simple change either:

• From a TIME standpoint, even with my experience, it took some hours to write a comprehensive listing, add logos, verify and then test/edit the listings on Google, Bing and Yahoo.  It would take some further time if I were adding photos and video as Google allows.  The client had a Google account, but the other accounts I had to create.  It took additional hours to figure out the best keywords and key phrases (he didn’t have a keyword list for his business), as well as to perform the before and after searches on the multiple search engines and save the screenshots and report the results in writing with a phone discussion.  I would guesstimate 15 hours total.  Sure, a business owner could pay someone with less experience to verify the listings but the effect would not be as pronounced, that’s for sure.  They wouldn’t understand the strategy and tactics to get the same desired results.
• From a VALUE standpoint, I guess it would depend on what kind of business it was.  A bricks-and-morter retailer would benefit greatly as would any kind of local professional service business.  And larger businesses can benefit as well because of the sheer volume of people searching, as would most franchise owners.  Perhaps a true B2B business like my client’s, not so much.  Although I feel like I could argue that point greatly in that maybe they’re the ones that get the MOST value from an internet lead because the sale would be large in terms of dollars coming in over the length of the project and/or relationship, versus a retailer or service business that might get a one-time, small-dollar purchase from a lead.  Internet sales based on local search and/or organic searches can range from the hundreds to thousands to perhaps even hundreds of thousands for some businesses — and some businesses would kill for that 3-pack listing, or even to be on the board somewhere in the 7-pack listing.

I’d love to know your thoughts about optimization for Local Search Listings and this post.  This will be a subject that will be explored further in the near future.

A great new book on personal branding by Kaplan Mobray

Last week I had the opportunity to speak to a group of people from a large accounting and tax consultancy firm. They were reading The 10Ks of Personal Branding: (K)reate a Better You, authored by Kaplan Mobray.  They sent me a copy before the meeting and wanted me to talk about the book and personal branding in general.

Personal Branding is one of those topics that I really love to both delve into, discuss and teach.  So many people are talking about social networking or the buzz of Twitter and Facebook, but to me those are just the communication and relationship-building methods.  Maybe that’s why Kaplan only devoted a couple of pages of his nearly 200-page book to social media. 

What lies underneath and what must come before is figuring out who you are — as an individual or small business owner — before you put yourself out there.  So many people want to market themselves before figuring out how to articulate their strengths and what they want to be best known for.  What they’re all about.  Who they serve.  Why they do what they do.  What’s their mission in life.  What legacy do they want to live, and leave for others.

I was listening to business advisor and author, Brett Harward, last week who had studied about both universal laws as well as probability statistics prior to writing his book, The 5 Laws That Determine All of Life’s Outcomes.  He said that the average business spends just two hours in planning mode each year, while the average family spends eight hours each year planning their vacation. 

I don’t know what the stats are about how much time the average person spends focusing on developing their personal brand but I’m guessing it isn’t much.  Even the group I spoke to last week had a difficult time even reading the book — a couple of people cited that when Kaplan asked them to answer questions about themselves in the book, they stopped reading.  Another person stopped reading when they found out there was going to be a speaker.   It’s amazing how we humans let ourselves off the hook so easily.

There are three groups of people who I feel should find personal branding extremely valuable:

1.  Those already in a fairly comfortable job working for an employer

In his book, Mobray focused heavily on this group, even going so far as to watch for opportunities with senior management in the elevator in the early morning or before/after the peak 2-hour lunch times.  And he describes in detail the different personalities in meetings and for you to be careful about which one you are, making sure you have a meeting strategy and that you don’t show up as the dreaded ”Question Mark.”

This is also the group that is most oblivious to the fact that they should be building their personal brand and using social networks to make connections while they have a job — because with the job market the way it is, that investment will come in handy if their employer decided to lay them off suddenly.  Tons of really great people have been laid off recently but if you’re prepared, you’ll sleep a little easier at night. 

We don’t always know what we’re going to be doing in the next five years but if we have a roadmap of where we want to be, then we help create our future rather than let “whatever happen happen” to us.  Unfortunately, those people who are working for someone else tend to allow themselves to be identified by their title and the company — true, they do make up their company’s brand — but if they were to find themselves unemployed today, they’d more than likely experience a bit of a wake up call.  There are no walls to hide behind when you don’t have the safety of an employer.  It’s just you and the rest of the world.

2.  Those in Career Transition

These are the many folks right now who are out of work for one reason or another and who are looking for job.  Rather than spending so much time with other job seekers in weekly networking meetings, they should be considering it their full-time job to build their personal brand and make it public through social networking.  And even be fully considering whether starting their own business would be a viable career option, rather than going for six months or longer without having any income coming in as some people are doing right now.

3.  Small Business Owners

Small businesses, whether a one-person shop or several employees, almost always can’t be separated from the owner.  The owner is the face in the community, for their customers and he or she often defines the company’s brand.  Just like I said in the beginning that the average business owner spends about 2 hours a year planning — I bet he/she spends even less time working on defining their own personal strengths, especially because they (we) tend to wear so many hats.

But just as important as defining a company’s brand, the owner needs to define their own.  Sometimes people are so engrossed in the business’s daily operations that they don’t think through an exit strategy or what they’ll do next if they ever want to sell the business.  In addition, having the owner define their own brand provides options and opportunities to the business that may not have been achieved any other way.  For example, many business owners get speaking gigs but don’t have a strategy for that effort.  While it’s nice to get the experience and exposure speaking in front of groups, does the time invested net out opportunities? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. 

To me, this is all part of that business’s brand.  What are the topics that business owner is uniquely qualified to speak about?  What are the topics that are most likely to get that combined brand (the business and the business owner) in front of the right people who will be able to provide the most or best leads?  A personal brand strategy is often a sales strategy, but the brand definition has to come first.

So what about your brand?  Do you fit in one of the categories above?  Have you been consistently working on BRAND YOU?  Or are you going to stop reading the book when Kaplan poses the first probing question you’ll have to answer about yourself?

A few of you will take the next step – perhaps buy Kaplan’s book or start a personal development journal and/or a blog.  And a few of you will go so far as to put together your personal brand team which might consist of someone like myself, a life or business/career coach, an image consultant, a speech and/or voice coach, and others as needed depending on your goals.

If you’d like help in taking the next step, putting your personal brand team together — or if you would like us to speak at your next event, please call our office at 804.777.9940.  We’ll be glad to help.

Sally Witzky is owner, chief strategist and “tractioneer” of Traction Group LLC.  She helps small businesses and speakers develop an online brand strategy through social media and she coaches people who want to develop their personal brand.  For more than fifteen years, she has led advertising, direct marketing and brand development initiatives for Fortune 1000 companies including Citizens Bank/RBS, Champion Mortgage, Saab, FMC and Mercedes-Benz.   She can be found on Twitter as @SallyWitzky and @TractionGroup.

Correct Set-up of your Twitter Account can translate into effective followership, and better relationships.

I recently completed three back-to-back social networking presentations for small business owners and one of the most burning questions coming from the audience always surrounds how to set up an effective Twitter account.

This blog post isn’t designed to give you step-by-step instructions – you can get that from a number of places – including the Twitter 101 Guide for businesses.  But we wanted to share our ”traction tips” on what we believe to be the most critical things to think about when setting up a Twitter account for your personal brand or your small business.

Listed below are the 7 most important steps to gain social traction for your Twitter account:

1. TWITTER HANDLE.  Be sure that the Twitter handle you choose is both memorable, it serves you well and is as short as possible.  Keep in mind that people connect with people which means ideally we like to see Twitter handles in the name of the person.  Often that becomes a challenge because your name may already be taken, it’s too long or you’d prefer to use your company name which we’ll address in a moment.  While we don’t recommend using all caps for sure, we do recommend using initial caps where it makes obvious sense.  For example, @guykawasaki can be (and is) @GuyKawasaki.
2. MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS: For those of you who have personal brands as well as businesses, you can (and should) set up two accounts:  one in your personal name and one in your business name.  That way, you get the benefit of both.  Your personal account should be bringing your listeners value based on your own knowledge and building of one-on-one relationships with others, and can and should include some of your own personality and humor.  Your business or company account can be more focused on helping people strictly as it relates to the company and what value the company brings and shares to others.  You don’t need both necessarily; take a look at your own situation and figure out which is best.  You certainly can have an account that has your business name as your handle with your photo and name.  Or vice-versa.  Weigh the pros and cons and figure out what is best for your individual situation.
3. PHOTO CRITICAL.  For your personal brand account, your photo or avatar should be a photo of yourself.  For goodness sakes, don’t use a photo of your dog or kid, or a photo of you as a kid — unless you really are a kid (and then perhaps Twitter should be used only with some adult supervision).  And it’s probably not a good idea to put up just any photo of yourself.  Your photo — whether on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook — is a reflection of you and your personal brand.  Make it count. Invest in a decent photographer, pay attention to your wardrobe — even hire an image consultant if you feel it necessary.  People will see your Twitter photo each and every time you send a tweet or post – adding up to thousands of times.  Think of tweets as your own branding campaign – like your target audience seeing mini TV spots of you over and over again.  If this is your business account, then your company logo — or a very memorable graphic representation of it — should be used. Traction tip:  remember that Twitter (as well as LinkedIn) only allows for a square photo less than 700kb in size.  Make it bold and impactful in that small space.
4. FILL THE BIO.  Many people don’t take the time to write a good bio and so they get in a hurry and just write something lame. Irrelevant. Meaningless.  Your Twitter bio, while short, says a lot about you. In fact, it says everything about you.  Aside from your avatar, it is your image to the world.  Pay attention.  It’s like your resume only short.  Very short.  But just like a tweet, you’d be surprised what you can say in a few words.  Or what your bio says about you.  One of my favorite lines is one from Mark Twain or perhaps attributed to T.S. Eliot, who said “If I had more time, I’d write a shorter letter.”  The point is, take the time.  Write pithy. Edit. Review. Edit again.  Get not only to the heart of who you are but, most importantly, who you serve.  To whom do you bring value to?  Be sure they are mentioned.  Business owners? Moms? Kids?  Runners? When people read your bio, your “story,” they need to see a bit of themselves in it.  They need to relate to you.  While you don’t have to take up the entire character space, we don’t want you to sell yourself short — but we also don’t want you to sell in this space.  Just keep it simple and don’t try to do too much: simply get the person to the next step and the next step is to follow you or, if they’re already following you, to connect or converse or contact you. 
5. LOCATION.  So we have some pet peeves about this.  People don’t realize how important it is to not only use the location field but also to use it correctly if you expect people to find you and follow you.  If someone leaves this field blank, then it says they were either lazy or don’t want anyone to know where they’re from.  I’d rather see something in this field, than nothing.  Geez, at least let us know what country or state you’re from.  But some people use UberTwitter and then have their UberTwitter code in the field, which is meaningless if I’m looking for location to be a connection with the person.  What’s worse, is that their Twitter handle won’t be picked up in Twitter directories such as Twitterholic or Twellow.  Which means, if I’m looking to find people close to me, I won’t find that person.  So adding the proper location is important if you want more people to find you — and particularly important for local businesses, sales professionals or freelancers.  Traction tip:  use the main metropolitan area closest to you. For example, I live in Chesterfield, VA but in the Richmond, VA area so I use Richmond VA.  Most people won’t be looking through all the suburbs to find people.  And best to use that City, ST format as well.
6. FILL IN THE URL.  Sometimes people leave the URL field blank but don’t do that.  If you don’t have a website you can find a URL to put there.  You can use the link to your LinkedIn or your multi-media VisualCV profile, particularly if you’re looking for a job or building your personal brand. Or you can set up a PeoplePond page with your social profile and use that.  Or a simple Google personal profile.  Even your YouTube channel if you work with a lot of video.  Traction tip:  we want this URL is an active, engaging place — either a blog or a site that not only has further contact information for you but also has further content — content that is relevant to what you do, who you are and, most importantly, who you help.
7. TWITTER BACKGROUND.  Ideally, you want to design a custom background for you or your business that is branded to you.  Not a designer?  That’s fine.  You can use the Twitter backgrounds and colors to at least match your brand temporarily, until you get started.  There are also a number of free Twitter backgound services you can use.  But, just like your photo, your Twitter page is a reflection of who you are and your company so don’t leave it to chance.  Just like anything else, sometimes you only have one chance to make a great impression.  So find a designer who will create a Twitter background page for you — budget of $100-$200 will usually more than suffice, depending on how much graphics you need created.  If you can’t find someone, call us and we’ll create one for you.

So those are what we believe are the 7 most important set-up steps to creating an impressive and effective Twitter account — one that will get you the most traction from a branding standpoint.  If you still need help, no worries.  Just contact the Traction Group, the social marketing agency for small business owners, and we’ll be glad to answer any questions you may have.  Remember, WHAT YOU TWEET is just as important, if not even much more so.  We’ll share some traction tips for that as well — in a future post.

Photo Credit: rocky stream photo courtesy of FreeFoto.com

Here are our top 10 best ways for you to get more mileage out of your small business blog:

1. Write an effective blog title. Your blog’s title is its billboard. It is what piques peoples interest enough to stop and read it. Don’t be vague – blog titles are no place for story lines. If it takes people more than a glance to figure out if it has any relevance to them, then you’ll lose your target audience. Quick.
2. Write with enough substance but not too long. Ideal blog posts are 350-500 words in length. They can be shorter or longer. If shorter, be sure you’re covering your subject with enough detail. Sometimes posts that include photos or videos can be shorter as far as number of words is concerned. If longer, be sure you’re making enough new points within the article that you won’t lose your reader, or graphically break up the copy with photos, bullet points or numbers as we’ve done here.
3. Add a call-to-action. We usually prefer that the post is closed in some way, either with contact info to get more information or a next step for your reader. Don’t just leave ‘em hanging, as if the post writer was lazy and left an unfinished piece. Your readers are looking for you to sum up your points in some way or lead them to the next step so they don’t have to guess at your intention.
4. Review your keyword list. All blog owners should be working with a keyword list that includes 5 main key words or phrases that you want to really own in the search engines, along with other keywords that are relevant to your content and what your target audience is searching for. Revising your blog posts to ensure a proper density of your main key words as well as any ancillary key words or phrases is critical to your blog’s success.  Tip: If you do not have a keyword / keyphrase list, don’t write another post until you create one!  This is critical to your blogging success!
5. Ping your blog. Be sure to ping your blog each time you post new content. This helps the search engines to know to look for updated content on your blog. Technorati, the search engine designed for searching blogs, is still valuable as is using Weblogs.com.
6. Blog Communities. Taking the time to list your blog in popular blog directories not only helps you gain new followers by making your content appear elsewhere but increases your search engine rankings because these sites have more SEO power than your site by itself. One of my favorites is NetworkedBlogs, which integrates directly with Facebook. NetworkedBlogs keeps a ranking of the top blogs in each city based on local followers so it is particularly important for local businesses. Other blog directories we feel are a must are BlogCatalog, Blogged and MyBlogLog.
7. Blog post sharing.  It is critical to make it easy not only for your readers to comment on your blog but also for them to share it. Popular sharing services such as ShareThis, which also provides results tracking, and TweetMeme make it very easy for others to share your posts with their audiences.
8. Outbound links. Can’t tell you how many blog posts we see that utilize zero outbound links. Blog posts aren’t book pages so don’t treat them that way. The whole idea is that your post provides an interactive experience and a way for people to learn more about a company, product or service that you mention in your post. Plus, it’s just common courtesy to refer out because that is exactly what you want others to do for you.
9. Write well and often. Ideally, you should be posting two to three times per week on your blog. More often if possible. Google, Yahoo and Bing tend to find your blog easier and more often when there is fresh content posted that includes your blog’s main key words and phrases. Building repetitive use of keywords and phrases over several entries, plus creating a history or backlog of posts (duration length) aids your overall ranking. Always add relevant photos, YouTube videos, SlideShare presentations or other graphics to make your posts more visually appealing.
10. Tag you’re it. Don’t forget to take the time to include your category and post tags for each and every entry and be consistent with matching the tags to the post itself.  This includes the custom title tags, meta description and meta keywords.

Effective blogging can take time but it’s worth doing if you’ve made the commitment to your blog. If you have created guidelines for your blog’s content, including your keyword list, then you can have guest bloggers add content if frequency of writing is a problem for you. If you own a small business, appoint several people to be part of a blogging team so that you as the business owner don’t have to be responsible for creating all the content. Or sometimes you can find a virtual assistant or intern to help write and/or edit and post with the proper tagging sequences.

If you’d like to know how to get more steam out of blogging for your small business, please tweet us @TractionGroup or call 804.402.0804.

Photo courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg tells Bloomberg that he plans to take advantage of the surplus of engineers by increasing his workforce by 50%, from the current 1,000 employees to 1,500 in the next year.  They also plan to have revenue of $500 million this year through advertising from companies such as Nike and J.C. Penneys.