‘Twas the night before a site launch, when all through Sage,
The whole production team was working in quite the rage.
The site was designed, and built with care,
In hopes to drive many business leads there.

The meta data was nestled, all snug in the right spot.
While visions of qualified traffic danced as a marketing thought.
And the SEM team had on their thinking caps,
Of just how to bring in qualified traffic, and not traffic crap.

When out in the hosting department arose such a clatter,
The whole team sprang from their chairs to see what was the matter.
Away to Stuart and Brandon they flew in a flash,
Only to find out the server had temporarily crashed.

Not to worry, we were told, it will be fixed A-S-A-P.
Then the site was back up, and everyone jumped with glee!
When, what to our marketing eyes do we see,
But an awesome launched site, functional with J-Query.

Built in a content management system, so lively and slick,
We knew at the moment, our marketing skills did the trick!
More rapid than eagles, the qualified traffic then came,
And Google analytics was tracking, calling keywords by name!

Now Conversions! Now Pageviews! Now Bounce Rate! Now Unique Visits!
On Referring Sites! On Traffic Sources! On Time on Site! And on New Visits!
To the top of organic search! To the top of the search wall!
Now, convert away! Convert away! Convert away all!

And then, in a twinkling moment, we read from our stats,
Our hard work paid off and we were due a “congrats!”.
For the site was truly a success, increasing that ROI,
The client was pleased (and we were, too—we won’t lie).

And we smiled proudly, but went straight back to work.
We filled out our timesheets, then turned with a jerk–
We heard the phone ring, a potentially new client we hear…
Another project to start, with a deadline so near!

So we sprang to our computers, and to our team gave a whistle,
And away we all worked like the down of a thistle.
And you’ll hear us exclaim, as we dove into our new, fun, project task,
“Thank you for your business. If you ever need marketing services, you need to just ask!’

We are counting on the power of social media to help us do it!  Help spread the word by sharing this blog post, our Facebook Event, or Tweeting about it with the hashtag #SageIslandFoodBank. We have a drop box in our office and welcome financial donations as well in the form of checks made out to: Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina.  For every five items you bring or $5 you donate, you are entered into our raffle for the chance to win a sweet prize. We will be posting updates and more information on the Sage Island Facebook Page.

WordPress Blog:
Breck Gear already had a blog through Blogger in which they frequently updated content, which was awesome, but it was completely hidden and not accessible from the website; it was also at a third party domain rather than the site domain. By being so hidden, this already established blog wasn’t giving Breck Gear a chance to showcase their posts. Our suggestion here was to build a link between the blog and website (as shown in the navigation on the site), reskin the blog in WordPress (to have the blog match the look and feel of the site) and build the blog under a directory in the domain (to ultimately give the site’s domain ‘credit’ for all that blog content).

Facebook:
Here, again, Breck Gear was a step ahead and already had a Facebook page, but we had a few suggestions for improvement. First and foremost, we suggested adjusting the account name from ‘Breck Gear’, to ‘The North Face Breckenridge’ to allow us to capitalize on the North Face association. We then suggested a creative landing page and efforts to get at least 25 ‘likes’ in order to create a vanity URL for the page.

Since our suggestions on the blog and Facebook page, Breck Gear has really taken off and are currently working on building out the photo gallery, adding videos and linking posts from the blog to the Facebook page. In the future, once they have a solid following/community, they can have fun creating a Facebook campaign or contest. I encourage everyone to check out their new blog and Facebook page and leave a comment!

2. Use a variety of fresh content. It is crucial to keep your blog posts exciting. Include media in your posts to maintain your reader’s attention. Never just promote yourself. Write about what your viewers want to read.

3. Keep it short and to the point. Feel free to keep your blog posts around 200-250 words. These days’ people don’t have the time or the attention span to read a lengthy, drawn out blog post. Most of the time you can say exactly what you need to say in a simple and concise post.

4. Keywords, keywords, keywords! Always include important keywords in your post title, linked within the body of your text and in the tags of your post. Make sure to keep your tags under 10 so that you don’t clutter the subject matter. You can also add keywords within your image alt text to enhance your ranking within search engines. Using your most important keywords throughout your blog post will help tremendously with SEO.

5. Remember to link. Try to find a place to link to the pages with important information on your site, such as your homepage or contact page. If you would like to expand on ideas, you can offer links to other posts that you have written that may support the content of your post. Internal linking is always a good thing. It is also good to cite the authors of any source of information you have used. Those links are greatly appreciated, and will eventually be paid back to you.

6. Communicate with your readers. Add a poll or a survey to your site to find out exactly what it is your viewers like to read. This will help you determine the right content to provide and will encourage readers to not only interact with you, but with each other.

7. Always respond to comments. Your readers will most likely have something to say about the content you post. Make sure to answer their questions, give additional insight or information and provide any additional resources they may need.

8. Find the right schedule. Make sure to post in a routine manner; never too often and not too sporadic. You will quickly find out which time of day and days of the week get the most hits by looking at your site analytics and demographics.

9. Never ignore the numbers. Take advantage of analytics, it will provide you with all of the insight you’re ever going to need. You can track every visit from hundreds of different angles. It will be the best source for learning who your viewers are.

10. Maximize all social media resources. Promote your blog posts on all of your social media channels. This will spread your content and reinforce the information you are trying to share. It also makes it easier for people to find your site.

Buyers looking for the latest products for the upcoming season know exactly where to find them — at ASR. Twice a year the Surf/Skate Lifestyle and Fashion industries invade San Diego to conduct business and preview lines for the upcoming seasons. ASR tradeshow provides an authentic and efficient forum for buyers, sellers, media, and the investment community to conduct business and move the action sports industry forward. It’s the platform that unites brands of all sizes with an unmatched national and international buying audience.

Mike Duncan, Sage Island’s CEO, will be presenting three different seminars during the show.

The Board Retailers Association (BRA) hosts Survival of the Fittest – BRA Retail Certification Programs August 12th, 2010. Retailers are encouraged to take advantage of the trip to the trade shows by attending a full-day of certified retail education focused on current market issues facing specialty retailers.

Strengthening Your Website’s Presence through an Integrated Marketing Plan
Presented by: Mike Duncan, Sage Island Marketing Agency
10:00 am on August 12th

Your website is a critical component of your business. At a time when online competition has never been so fierce, it’s crucial to have a marketing plan for your website that drives results. This seminar, presented my Mike Duncan, CEO of Sage Island addresses the necessity of a well designed, innovative site, and how to properly market it through a hands on  approach of planning, analysis, and optimization. Mike speaks to the art of  SEO and PPC tactics and how to  expand your brand on the web to drive results.

Ten Ways for Retailers to Improve Website Presence
Presented by: Mike Duncan, Sage Island Marketing Agency
Saturday, August 14th at 11:00 am

In the ever changing world of retail, competition has never been more fierce. Your website is a critical component of your business. This seminar teaches a fully integrated marketing approach leading you through the basics of a well designed, innovative site, and how to properly utilize e-commerce solutions. Learn how to build and expand your presence on the web to drive sales and maximize your bottom line.

Leveraging the Power of Social Media
Presented by: Mike Duncan, Sage Island Marketing Agency and Danny Keith, Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop
Saturday, August 14th at 2:00 pm

Over the last few years, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have gone from college networking sites to marketing powerhouses. Businesses today tap into Facebook to reach their audience in more targeted, local, and efficient ways than ever before.  This seminar, presented by Danny Keith, owner of the Santa Cruz Skate and Surf Shop, and Mike Duncan CEO of Sage Island, teaches the latest tactics and applications that elevate social media from self promotion sites to professional lead generating tools.

Twitter is a great way to reach out to your target audience for conversation, marketing, and customer service. But social media outlets require a big time investment, and with ROI still not certain, many businesses choose to invest their time elsewhere.

Here are some of the key points for business owners who want to use Twitter to their advantage but are short on time:

Determine a strategy.

Twitter allows users to follow information in real time. That means instant access to your customers to listen to what they’re saying about your brand, share information with them, and offer instant customer service. Decide which of these objectives you want to accomplish, and develop a strategy to achieve it.

Choose your audience.

Build a network of customers, competitors, strategic partners, experts, colleagues, and other people within your industry circle. Start following them to get their attention, and maintain constant conversation.

Choose your tone.

While traditional marketing is formal, Twitter allows you to converse with your network casually and personally. Don’t just focus on marketing and PR, and don’t automate your conversation. Automated direct messages and tweets make followers think you’re a robot. Social media works best when it involves people connecting with people. Talk to your customers, listen closely to what they’re saying, and keep it casual.

Decide who will represent your brand online.

Twitter and all social media is an online representation of your brand. Be careful when choosing who will represent your business and how. Whether it’s the CEO, an employee, or an in-house community manager, be sure they’re putting the right face on your company.

Start talking.

Initiate conversation about your brand, listen to what people are saying, and be proactive in responding to @ replies and direct messages. Offer information that customers and other people in your network will find interesting — not just marketing and PR messages. Don’t toot your own horn too much, and don’t bombard users with links or repetitive marketing messages. Just like any conversation, these common mistakes will make you boring or annoying to followers.

Twitter tools

Build your network:

Twitter Search (search.twitter.com) – Search for your brand name and key phrases associated with your industry to find users who are interested in you and your products.

We Follow (wefollow.com) – User powered Twitter directory helps you find users that may fit in your network.

Just Tweet It (justtweetit.com) – Another Twitter directory where you can find followers.

Mr. Tweet (mrtweet.net) – A Twitter networking client that helps you discover new people in your industry, find relevant followers, and track usage stats.

Use Twitter:

Tinyurl.com, bit.ly, is.gd and countless other URL shortening services shrink long URLs to Twitter-friendly sizes.

Monitor your conversation & brand:

TweetDeck (tweetdeck.com) – The Twitter client of choice for many busy users, this free program allows you to track your feed, specific searches, and replies in one window.

TweetScan (tweetscan.com) – Alerts you when users mention your brand and related keywords.

TweetBeep (tweetbeep.com) – Google alerts for Twitter. Set it up to tell you when people are talking about your brand or industry.

Twollow (twollow.com) – Auto-follow users who mention your brand or products to build your network.

Qwitter (useqwitter.com) – Notifies you of the last tweet you sent before losing followers. Great tool to find out what you could be doing to turn off followers.

Twitterless (twitterless.com) – Graphs your followers and tells you who stops following you.

Engage your users:

TwtQpon (twtqpon.com) – Create coupons for Twitter to give users incentive to follow you.

StrawPoll (strawpollnow.com) – Poll your followers to find out what they think about your brand and pertinent questions related to your industry.

TwitPic (twitpic.com) – Share photos of new products, office antics, and other cool stuff they may find interesting.

Profiles & Pages

Facebook terms of service prevent companies from creating personal profiles. Businesses must use pages and groups, which are similar to profiles except for a few key differences:

• Pages cannot connect directly with people. People may “Like” of your page, but you cannot write on walls or invite users as a page.
• Pages must be connected to the personal profile of someone within your organization. This user will receive administrative access to the page for editing, posting, and sending messages to fans. Multiple users may become administrators of pages, but only the creator will have control over adding and removing administrators.

Creating Your Page

To create a Facebook page for your business, you must first create a personal profile. Once you have created your profile, click on the “Ad and Pages” application in the lower right corner of the Facebook home page. Then click on the “Pages” tab in the top, and “Create Page.” Choose your business or organization type, enter your company name, and click on “Create Page.”

Once you enter your business information and upload your logo as the photo, click “Publish Page.” Your page is now active.

Finding Fans

You cannot invite users to become a fan directly through your page. Here are some ways to find fans:

Share your page with your friends through your personal profile. Click on the “Share” button in the lower left hand corner of your page, and send it to any of your friends who are associated with or interested in your organization. Encourage other people in your organization who are on Facebook to do the same.

Add a link to your Web site and email signature. Facebook offers a badge that you can add to your Web site (click on “Get Your Badge” under the admin section on your dashboard), or you can create a text link. Just copy and paste the URL from your page.

Promote your page on other social networks. If you already have a following on MySpace, Twitter, or your blog, promote your new Facebook page on these networks.

Promote your page in related groups. Find groups that are related to your business, and post wall comments inviting people to become a fan of your group. Be careful not to overdo it, though, as excessive invitations can be considered SPAM by Facebook.

Advertise on the Facebook network. Facebook offers pay-per-click advertising to promote pages. This can be expensive, but creating targeted ads is an easy way to find fans outside of your network.

For additional considerations, view Facebook’s promotional guidelines.

Posting

Fresh content is important if you want your Facebook page to be successful. Facebook allows you to send bulletins to your fans with information, upload an RSS feed from your blog so your fans will be notified every time you post a new blog post, share events, photos, videos, and links.

You must control all posting through the dashboard on your page to ensure it is posted to the page instead of your personal profile. You can reach the page dashboard by clicking on “Edit Page” from your page (below the photo) or by clicking on the “Ads and Pages” application in the bottom left of your screen when you’re logged in. Choose what you want to post, and click on the “edit” pencil next to that application to post to your page.

Notes & Bulletins

Notes are like blog posts within your Facebook profile. If you want to share information that will be published on the NewsFeed, publish it with a note. You can also send updates or bulletins to your fans by clicking “Send an Update to Fans” from your page. Updates are like notes, except they do not appear in the NewsFeed. Users are notified of bulletins from pages when they log in, but they are not featured as prominently as notes.

Importing a Blog

If you want new blog posts to automatically post on your Facebook account as notes, you must link your Facebook page to your RSS feed. To do this, click on the “Edit” pencil next to “Notes” from your Page dashboard. From this page you can write a new note. To the right, you’ll see a box that says, “Notes Settings” with a link to “Import a blog.” Click on that link and enter your blog or RSS feed address to begin importing blog posts.

Photos & Videos

Click on the “Edit” pencil next to the Photos application to create albums and upload pictures. For videos, use the Videos application.

Events

To notify your fans of an event, click on the “Events” tab and invite fans that may be interested in attending. They will receive a notification of the invitation, and if fans accept the invitation the event will show up in their NewsFeed, notifying their networks.

For additional tips and information, visit Facebook Help or Facebook Business Solutions – Pages.

Social media is an easy way to connect with people on a personal level. If your website serves as your online business card, then social media can be a form of online greeting card, providing you with a more personal presence on the Internet and allowing you to interact with clients individually.

When done properly, social media is a fun, targeted way to reach your audience on a personal level with a wide range of positive results for marketing, search engine rankings, and traffic. Here’s a basic overview of the most popular methods and how to use them.

Blogging

Adding a blog to your website provides a personal voice to your business and allows you offer your audience useful information. It can even help your website rank better in search engines. It’s also the most time consuming method of social media and the most difficult.

Before starting a blog, come up with a plan. What kind of information do you want to provide to your visitors? Will you have time to write original content for your blog several times a week? Are you or someone on your staff comfortable enough writing to develop quality content? If the answer to these questions is yes, then a blog is a perfect start for your social media campaign.

If you’re ready to build your blog, keep these guidelines in mind: don’t blog from an outside website like WordPress or Blogger. Your blog should be a part of your website (http://www.yourdomain.com/blog), not part of an outside website (http://yourdomain.blogspot.com). Write fresh, original content regularly (at least three times a week), and keep blog posts under 500 words each.

Facebook

Facebook is the largest social network on the Web. The website boasts more than 200 million active users with more than half of them logging on at least once a day. And it’s not just kids, either. More than two-thirds of users are out of college, and the fastest demographic is 35 years and older. If you’re not already a part of this huge community, now is the time to join.

The way Facebook differentiates between people and businesses can be confusing. Facebook does not allow businesses to build personal profiles. You have two options for promoting your business: building a business profile page and creating a group for your business. Use the page as a central hub for information about your business on Facebook, and use the group as a forum where fans and friends can interact with you and each other.

Remember, profiles are for people; pages are for businesses. Your business page will need to be connected to a personal profile if you want to reap all of the benefits of Facebook. Build your personal profile first, and keep it business appropriate. Then connect a business page to your profile.

Facebook is people oriented. The only way it’s going to work is if you’re willing to get involved in the conversation. Build a personal profile, seek out friends in your target audience, and participate in groups related to your industry.

For more information on Facebook pages, read Facebook’s help section for businesses at http://www.facebook.com/advertising/#/advertising/?pages.

Twitter

Twitter (http://www.twitter.com) has quickly grown to become one of the most powerful social networking tools on the Web. According to data compiled by Neilson Online, Twitter reaches more than 13 million people in the United States each month. It’s also the social networking tool that many novices have the hardest time using. Twitter allows users to broadcast short, 140-word messages to other users who “follow” them.

It’s no use if your target demographic isn’t using Twitter. Do some research to determine if you can reach your audience through Twitter. Use the search tool (http://search.twitter.com) to search for terms related to your industry and find people who are talking it. Start following them and they’ll often follow you back. Use Twitter to share useful industry information, personal messages, and news about your business. If you have a blog, link it to your Twitter account so your followers will be automatically notified of new posts.

Initiate conversation about your brand, listen to what people are saying about your company, and be proactive in responding to @ replies and direct messages. Offer information that customers and other people in your network will find interesting — not just marketing and PR speak. Don’t toot your own horn too much, bombard users with links, or repetitive marketing messages. Just like any conversation, these common mistakes will make you boring or annoying to followers.

This is by no means a complete list of social media sites that can help promote business. There are hundreds of other sites and social networking tools. Social media marketing is like any other marketing: different tactics work for different businesses.

Spend some time exploring these websites to determine if they can work for you. Come up with a strategy for how to implement these tools and integrate them with your current marketing efforts. Be sure you’re using a network that your target audience is using.

If you’re unsure of where to begin, Internet marketing consultants can help you come up with a strategy, set up your profiles, and learn to use these tools effectively. Sage Island Interactive Marketing Agency offers a full range of social media consultation services from blog strategy and design to social networking training. Let us help you find the right social marketing approach for you!

GO! Diabetes Website

GO! Diabetes eNewsletter Campaign: