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Facebook – Uses and Advantages for Businesses. Free Webinar - Mar 24th

The next WSI public webinar is entitled: “Facebook – Uses and Advantages for Businesses”.

Facebook is one of the fastest growing social networks available today. With over 4000 million users worldwide, Facebook has even surpassed email as the most frequently used tool online.

At this webinar, WSI will show you how you can use Facebook to enhance your brand, manage your reputation, drive more traffic to your website, generate more leads, acquire new customers and retain your existing customers.

Registration is FREE, details are below:

Date: Wednesday, March 24, 2010 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM GMT
Register: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/333810568

Note: you will need to put my name, Andy Wooles, to complete the registration.

A whitepaper will be available to accompany this webinar.

If you would like assistance in implementing a Social Media strategy for your business, contact WSI Chester on 01928 787026.

WSI - The Power of Many

Last weekend, WSI held an international conference in Birmingham, UK. It brought together over 140 WSI internet consultants from the UK  and the rest of Europe, South Africa, the US, Canada and even Panama.

The opening keynote address from Google set the tone for the whole meeting by focusing on the challenges of marketing to people whose lives are becoming increasingly entwined with the internet – searching, surfing and socialising.

Other technology partners took up and expanded this theme in their sessions, looking at how WSI consultants can deliver real results to their clients in this rapidly changing world. Internet marketing is expanding to become digital marketing and advertising, embracing online media as diverse as YouTube and digital billboards!

However the real strength of the conference was the sharing of experience and best practice, knowledge and insights between the delegates in both formal sessions and informal networking. Case studies ranged from  improving the profitability of a van hire company in Bristol to launching the latest BMW across Central America, with lessons applicable to everyone.

It demonstrated the power that WSI can deliver to a client, whatever their size and wherever their market – The “Power of Many”.

Contact WSI Chester today on 01928 787026 to learn how we can help you.

Do you market to prospects some of the time - or all of the time?

In the keynote address at the WSI Conference last weekend, Google made this interesting observation:

- Most companies focus their interent marketing on being found when prospects are searching.

-BUT most people spend 95% of their online time ‘beyond’ search!

As another speaker stated in a subsequent session, internet users spend most of their time surfing sites and socialising online.

So ’search marketing’ is an important part of a broad internet marketing strategy. However a well-structured campaign should  also target potential prospects when they are surfing third party sites and socialising on Facebook etc . This could be through use of the Google Content Network, display advertising and even using online ad remarketing techniques.

If consumers visit a website but don’t buy, remarketing or retargeting technology enables retailers to serve them future ads on other sites to try to entice them to return and to remind them what they have left behind.

Broadening the reach of your online marketing to cover search, surf and social use of the internet can raise brand awareness and bring quality traffic to your website.

To find out how to implement such a campaign for your business, call WSI Chester on 01928 787026.

How well does Google optimise its products for search? – Report Card released

Getting high Google rankings is never far from the minds of most website owners. And Google’s guidelines for webmasters are the major guide to what is acceptable and good practice when optimising a site.

But do the developers of Google’s myriad of web-based products follow their own guidelines?

Google has just reviewed 100 of its products and released their SEO Report Card.

It makes very interesting reading and shows there is definite “room for improvement” !

If you would like an SEO report card produced for your own site to assess how well it is optimised, please call or email Andy at WSI on 01928 787026.

Is Your Target Audience on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter?

Business Insider in the US has just published some great research analysing the demographic spread of the three major Social Media platforms. You can read the article here.

In summary: Which social network should be your priority? It depends who your target clients are!

For help and guidance in implementing the right social media strategy for your business to deliver real results, call WSI today on 01928 787026.

Social Media Case Studies available online – new website launched

There’s a new website launched very recently which aims to showcase social media case studies from a wide variety of industries.

You can search by demographic, industry, organisation types as well as the type of social media marketing deployed.

Currently most of the case studies are in the US, but this will change as marketing companies submit their own case studies. Even so, there are some great examples from organisations of all sizes from major brands to SMEs. This site is already a great resource for any company wishing to implement a social media strategy.

So go and visit http://www.casestudiesonline.com/

#LinkedIn for Business – Free Webinar – How to Get Started

WSI is hosting a free public webinar on how to use LinkedIn to benefit you and your business. It will cover best practice, how to get started and includes lots of hints and tips.

The webinar is on Thursday, February 25, 2010 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM GMT.

Places are filling fast so register now by following this link which will open in  new window.
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/126719904

You will need to add my name “Andy Wooles” as the WSI contact during the registration process.

A WSI whitepaper to accompany the webinar will be available shortly, so come back soon.

Should you be interested in website activity or results?

Ask most people running a business whether they focus on activity or results, and most will be results-orientated. They measure things like profit.

So it was interesting and disturbing to read a recent survey published in eMarketer of senior marketing executives in the US. They were asked which web site measurements or metrics were of most interest to them.

59% said ‘return on investment’, ‘conversion rate’ and similar results-focused measures were least important, but ranked ‘time on site’ and ‘unique page views’ as most important. They thought ‘ website engagement’ of more interest that ‘website results’!

Perhaps its lack of knowledge, but those Execs are missing the biggest benefit of internet marketing over traditional marketing of being able to directly measure and drive business results.

If you would like to avoid the mistakes of these Executives and get your website focused on delivering business results, please contact WSI. We aim to provide the best internet marketing  and SEO services in Cheshire.

Who does your internet marketing target and why?

All marketing activities are usually aimed at one of four groups of people, according to a recent post from Seth Godin:

  • Strangers – customers to be, but not yet
  • Critics –  those that would speak ill of you, or need to be converted
  • Friends –  those that might have given permission, or even buy now and then
  • Fans – members of your tribe, supporters and insiders

As Seth pointed out, you can’t please all the groups at the same time. Also most marketers lean towards a default style of working – many focus on ’strangers’ looking for new prospects and neglect their ‘friends’.

Yet it is often easier to get more business from an existing client, than find a new client.

Traditional internet marketing techniques such as SEO, Adwords, email marketing, are very effective for reaching and communicating with both friends and strangers. Now social media gives businesses the capability to engage in dialogue with both fans and critics.

To get internet marketing and the social media working hard for your business, give WSI a call on 01928 787026.

Workshop – Social Media for Business – Chester – February 23rd

Do you want to start using the Social Media to help your business, but don’t know what, where or how to start? Confused by Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, Digging and blogging?

Then this is the workshop for you!

WSI are hosting a half day Social Media workshop at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Chester on February 23rd.

It is aimed at local business owners and directors, entrepreneuers, sales and marketing managers. In fact, anyone who needs to understand more about getting results from the Social Media.

For full details and to register, visit bit.ly/Socialmedia23rdFeb

The workshop fee is £75+vat, and includes your copy of WSI’s Social Media Strategy kit.

No technical skills needed, just an interest in getting business results!