Using Twitter for local marketing

Local businesses need to use every tool available to them to effectively target their local market. If you’re a local business owner, you might be surprised to discover that the massively popular microblogging site Twitter can be used for local marketing even though it attracts a global audience.

I was recently interviewed by Aaron Hoos, a business writer and strategist who also runs a regular Twitter-based networking group called BusinessLunchClub. We spoke about Twitter as a useful tool for local business marketing.

Here is a copy of the transcript of the Twitter-based interview. The tweets are color coded for your convenience.

@AaronHoos: It’s social media week at #BusinessLunchClub. Each day this week, we’ll talk about a social media and your business.

@AaronHoos: We have Jonathan Harr talking to us about using social media to market local business. #blc

@AaronHoos: Jonathan is the founder of http://localsemexperts.com, a company that helps businesses with local internet marketing. #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Hello there, good to be here #blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr Why should businesses use social marketing to reach a local audience? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos This so called web 2.0 wave provides so many vehicles to make your local presence stand out from the crowd.#blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr How does LOCAL social marketing/networking differ from more conventional social marketing we’re familiar with? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos With social networking you could be all over the world not really benefiting you locally so you really want to…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos start targeting locally with your social networking time if you have a local small business. #blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr Which social networks do you recommend businesses use for local SEM marketing (and why)? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Facebook is a huge player to build out a fan page all about your business and link it with your…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos We all know YouTube. YouTube has a huge growing audience of 80M+ monthly people…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Get your video channel out in front of them… #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Use blogspot.com and wordpress.com to build out business blogs by posting relevant content linking…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Twitter of course to build out your local audience and get locals to RT your business affairs and recommendations… #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …another social media network coming into play really big is Google Wave. Use It. #blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr Great! YouTube is on my “must do” list for 2010. And I’m looking forward to using GoogleWave, too. #blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr Can you talk about how to make specific sites effective locally? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Yes, I can talk about them…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Twitter: Establish local followers, practice reciprocity, in return establish local network of tweeters in city…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …use wefollow.com,chirpcity.com to find locals …#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Facebook: Establish facebook business fan page for product or services, make local friends and invite to fan page…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …promote fan page thru bookmarking…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …Linked In: Establish profile at linkedin.com and invite your friends, clients, etc… to help build your…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …with social proof – testimonial, reviews, feedback, your experience, etc…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …YouTube: Setup your business channel with videos of product/service demonstrations…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …connect videos to facebook fanpage, and your websites as well as web 2.0 properties. #blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr That was a great list. Very practical… and all within 140 characters. Nice! #blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr How do you build an audience of LOCAL followers/friends/etc.? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Just like in real life you want to get to know your followers by simple conversation and providing news,…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos info, and fun entertaining chat without a sales pitch all the time, mix it up. They will like you for this.#blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr How do you increase foot traffic to your business with local social marketing/networking? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos You want to promote your business thru content, audio, and video targeted locally…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …using the different web 2.0 properties you see all over the place online.#blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr When you coach people on local social media, what questions do you answer/challenges do you encounter? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos I always a get the question “how do you do that?” It’s a lot of work especially maintaining it, and you have to…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …do it right otherwise it could backfire. You don’t want to be or look spammy with…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …these sites or Google will knock you down for it. I find a lot of business…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos …owners don’t have a grasp on marketing and its just too overwhelming to maintain.#blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr What best practices do you recommend business owners apply to local social marketing/networking? #blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Learn it and take it one step at a time. Don’t rush into it. Just apply and do it and don’t spam!…#blc

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Be genuine, true, and transparent with your followers. If you will reciprocate they will too.#blc

@AaronHoos: @jonathanharr Thank you for spending time with us today. Your local social marketing insights were extremely valuable. #blc

@AaronHoos: Thanks to those who tuned in for today’s #BusinessLunchClub interview. Be sure to visit @jonathanharr at http://localsemexperts.com

@jonathanharr: @AaronHoos Thank you Aaron, Glad to help out. #blc

Squidoo as a local search engine marketing tool

Small businesses that want to search well for local keywords will do well to consider a local SEM strategy that includes Squidoo.

Squidoo.com is a site that provides a platform for user-generated content. It was created by the hugely popular marketing guru Seth Godin and it is one of the top 500 most visited sites in the world.

Here’s how it works: Users sign up for free and then create a “lens”, which is basically a website that users can then add different kinds of content to. A lens is something in between a website (which might be thought of as static and impersonal) and a blog (which might be thought of as dynamic and personal).

The site has a higher PageRank and its URLs are customizable. So, if you are a Cincinnati-based dry cleaner, you can (and should) get some Squidoo lenses with domain names like /CincinnatiDryClear and /CincinnatiDryCleaning and /DryCleaingCincinnati and so on. Of course, good local SEO success is not just in the domain name and backlink. You should be putting keywords throughout your site – in titles and in the content – so that it points back to you with the right tags. Don’t forget to add high quality, compelling content as well as images and videos to make your lens visually appealing.

You can create as many Squidoo lenses as you’d like so the sky is the limit in terms of what you can do. They are fun, too, with basic drag-and-drop functionality and really easy, intuitive interfaces. All of that helps to take some of the “work” out of marketing.

What’s up for 2010? Local Search Engine Marketing trends for this year.

Eminent local SEM blogger Andrew Shotland of LocalSEOGuide.com created a set of predictions for 2010. I consider them to be “must-reads” for all local SEO and SEM people out there, as well as businesses who are thinking about marketing locally online.

You can read the article here but I will summarize it for you:

Open Source Yellow Pages. In his article, he talks about how Twitter has the potential to become the clearinghouse for local Yellow Pages information, replacing current options.

Google will continue to grow. Google is going local and Andrew believes that they will increase their emphasis on local businesses this year.

Demand Media Strategy. This is where content no longer becomes arbitrarily created but strategically created and written. A colleague of mine who is a business writer does exactly this kind of work — content strategy — and is noticing a trend toward it as well.

Local guides. Shotland derides this method but I think it has legs for a while and will be the advantage for first movers.

Small Business SEO budgets will increase. This is good to hear. Businesses need to market themselves and invest in doing that successfully.

Want to read more about local search engine marketing trends? You can read all eleven plus additional insights here.

Want to read more about online marketing trends and how local fits in?
SEO Trends to Watch for In 2010
Predictions for the Changing Local Search Landscape in 2010

SEO technique: Squidoo

One of the challenges that business owners face when they are looking to build a local online presence is where to market their business. Many sites might not present the opportunities they need because those sites are global in their reach.

Squidoo is a site that offers a great opportunity for local marketers. Squidoo is a place where you can create a website – called a “lens” – easily with drag-and-drop modules offering a variety of content. It’s one of the top 300 most visited sites in the United States and it has a PageRank of 8 (out of 10), which is very impressive. It’s free to sign up and you can make as many lenses as you want.

Although you probably wouldn’t create a lens INSTEAD of a website, you just might create a lens, or two, or ten, or fifty that are related to your local keyword and point to your website.

For example, if you are a Laundromat in Houston Texas, and you’re facing fierce competition against other Laundromats for the term “Laundromat”, you can target the word “Houston Laundromat” (or narrow it down to your neighborhood level) and create a bunch of Squidoo lenses for keyword combinations like:

Houston Laundromat
Laundromat Houston
Dry cleaner and Laundromat in Houston
Trusted Houston Laundromat
(etc., etc.)

So, be sure to include a number of Squidoo lenses in your local internet marketing plan to help you lock in your top ten Google keywords.

Twitter… In Plain English

Local businesses learning to create a web presence and market themselves effectively online wonder at the value of Twitter. Will their followers really care to read “I’m eating a ham sandwich” or “I’m drinking coffee”?

Twitter is so much more than that. I love what the folks at CommonCraft have done to explain how Twitter works:

Twitter does give local businesses an online presence and adds search engine marketing and search engine optimization benefits through backlinks and to help increase web traffic.

See us for starting your Maryland Social Media, Maryland Search Engine Marketing, and Maryland Search Engine Optimization Services today.

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