The document provides strategies for businesses to enhance their visibility on social media and improve online searchability. Key recommendations include developing a content generation strategy, creating various social media and online profiles, and sharing expertise through blogs, newsletters, and ebooks. It emphasizes the importance of engaging in community activities and utilizing analytics tools to track and enhance marketing efforts.

1. Social Media Club Evansville Growing Your Business with Social Media Jay Lane, Jay Lane Media LLC [email_address] March 15, 2010

2. Are You Invisible? If someone were to “Google” you, your company or your type of product/service, what would come up in the search results?

3. There are several things you can do to increase your chances of being found: Develop a good content generation strategy ( Share your expertise) . Create the following: Facebook company page: www.facebook.com/pages/ LinkedIn personal and business profiles: www.linkedin.com Google business and personal profiles: google.com/profiles All of the items listed above get indexed by search engines and provide quick paths to you Make Yourself Findable

4. Example Search Results Facebook page LinkedIn company profile LinkedIn profile Google profile

5. Nine Ways to Share Your Expertise (and be Found)

6. Set up a blog Free Hosted (joesblog.blogspot.com): www.WordPress.com , www.Blogger.com Standalone (www.joesblog.com): www.WordPress.org Generate rich content – Content is king The search engines love blogs Educate – Don’t sell Commit to a regular schedule Create an RSS feed Google Feedburner: http://feedburner.google.com #1) Start a Blog

7. What’s a screen cast? A short three - five minute video covering a particular subject matter or demonstrating how to do something Captures what you’re doing on screen with audio Upload video to YouTube.com and then embed it in your Web site/blog post What you need to get started: Headset with microphone, $20-$25 cost Software Camtasia Studio (~$300): www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp CamStudio (Open-Source): www.camstudio.org Screenr (Instant Screencasts for Twitter): www.screenr.com #2) Create a Screen Cast

8. #3) Share Your PowerPoint Presentations Put your presentations online so others can view, download and share them SlideShare: www.SlideShare.net Connect SlideShare to your LinkedIn profile Use a SlideShare plugin for WordPress to embed presentations within a Web site or blog page: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/slideshare/

9. Distribute a regular email newsletter with tips, tricks and other value-added information Use an email service provider (ESP) to send emails Constant Contact: www.constantcontact.com iContact: www.icontact.com My Emma – www.myemma.com Electric Mail – www.electricmail.com MailChimp – www.mailchimp.com Do NOT distribute via Microsoft Outlook (no tracking data, subscriber management, or CAN-SPAM compliance) Sales pitch (if any) should be very soft Make sure subscribers can share the content via their social media profiles #4) Publish an Email Newsletter

10. Write a book about a particular subject matter and offer it as a .pdf download on your Web site The E-Book should be available for FREE and without registration (don’t require visitors to give an email address) Becomes a great marketing tool Write about something that will excite your Web site/blog visitors and make them want to share it with others #5) Write an E-Book

11. LinkedIn Answers - www.linkedin.com/answers Feature a variety of categories and sub categories: Advertising and Promotion, Business Development, Graphic Design, Mobile Marketing, Public Relations, Sales, Search Marketing, Writing and Editing Great way to establish yourself as an expert #6) Answer Questions at LinkedIn Answers

12. Be helpful. Don’t hard sell yourself or your services Comment on others’ blogs Share other people’s content Link to other’s blogs / content “ Re-Tweet” content on Twitter Participate in message board conversations Monitor the conversations Google Alerts: www.google.com/alerts Twitter: http://search.twitter.com #7) Participate in the Community

13. Some great ways to distribute your content: Blog RSS feed Facebook status updates Twitter LinkedIn status updates Your email newsletter Automate the process Download TweetDeck @ www.tweetdeck.com Automatically push content to your Twitter feeds, Facebook (profile/company page) and LinkedIn Publish your blog’s RSS feed on your FB company page & LinkedIn profile #8) Distribute Your Content

14. Promote your social media profiles Your Web site/blog Email signatures Traditional marketing efforts Add some popular buttons/plugins to your Web site/blog: ShareThis: www.sharethis.com Tweet This: www.tweetmeme.com Facebook Share: Get URL from Google #9) Make it Easy for People to Share Your Content

15. Use URL shorteners to shorten long Web site addresses for social media sites such as Twitter & Facebook that restrict characters URL shorteners provide basic usage data (i.e. # of clicks): Some example URL shorteners include: www.bit.ly www.tinyurl.com www.is.gd Use URL Shorteners to Simplify Things http://www.jaylane.com/2010/02/26/how-to-exclude-your-internal-company-traffic-from-google-analytics/ http://bit.ly/dBB69f

16. Use Google Analytics to track blog/Web site activity (visits, page views, average time on site, etc.) Go to www.google.com/analytics Set up Web site profile & get tracking code Insert tracking code into your Web site/blog pages Use Google URL Builder tool to track incoming links to your Web site/blog: http://www.acmecompany.com/ ? utm_source =facebook& utm_medium =link& utm_campaign =FB_Page utm_source – Used to identify the source of the link utm_medium – Used to identify the medium (link, email, ppc) utm_campaign – Used to identify a specific campaign in Google Analytics Track What You Can With Google Analytics

17. You can use Google Analytics and a shortened URL to get more accurate data about your Web site/blog visitors Follow these steps: Use Google’s URL builder to create your tracking link Input the tracking link at www.bit.ly to create a shortened URL ( http://bit.ly/n0tr3al ) Include the shortened URL in your Tweet or FB status update When someone clicks on your shortened URL they will be redirected to your tracking URL You’ll get lots of good data about the people that clicked your link Combine Google Analytics & URL Shorteners for More Accurate Tracking

18. Start small and do a few things really well before expanding your efforts…don’t overwhelm yourself Commit resources and time to be successful Check out blogs/online resources – learn from what others are doing Don’t be afraid to get out there and try some things Use Google Analytics to track Web site/blog visitor activity so you can know what’s working and what’s not Final Thoughts…

19. Questions? Let’s Connect! Email: [email_address] Twitter: @JayLane Web: JayLane.com LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/jaylanelouisville