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SEO and Social Media Coach Doug Motel, Founder of Site Optimized joined me on “Turn the Page” to discuss how to build brand recognition and attract qualified traffic to your website. Our conversation focused on resources that the Internet offers FREE OF CHARGE to improve SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Listen on demand to learn more.

As a bonus after the show, Doug shared insights on COMMON MISTAKES that entrepreneurs and small business owners make in their marketing efforts:

POOR QUALITY PROFILE PICTURES ON SOCIAL MEDIA
“If your logo has an image of your building and the company sign, chances are it will not work well as a profile picture on Facebook or other social media platforms. The reason? When you are posting on your feed, or contributing to a conversation on someone else’s feed, your photo is resized to a very small square, possibly as tiny as 50 x 50 pixels (about 0.5 inches x 0.5 inches). No matter how much you love your business card logo, verify that it is legible when reduced to a small square before using it on social media.”

GO BEYOND POSTING MARKETING-RELATED UPDATES: SHARE COMPELLING CONTENT THAT YOUR TARGET MARKET WILL LOVE
“Being viewed as a valuable resource and attracting followers to your social media sites requires that you share great curated content, as well your own content. Curated content includes press, articles, blogs, or videos that your audience really needs to see. If your followers can count on YOU to be the clearinghouse for important information, they will be happy to consider your other (more mercenary) updates as well.”

PROVIDE A CALL TO ACTION
“If you are going to direct people to your website (which I recommend highly) or other places where your original content is sitting, suggest that they DO something. Use ACTIVE words like “Download” “Learn,” and ”Register Now” rather than simply providing links.”

PRIORITIZE BUILDING CONTENT FOR YOUR WEBSITE OVER ENHANCING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT
“Some social media platforms stick around a bit and then disappear (anyone remember MySpace or Friendster?) One platform that is dependable is your own website. Think to build up your web visitors before anything else, because you can capture their data once they are there and you never know when the other hot, new Internet toy is going to become passé”

FILL IN ALL OF THE FIELDS THAT YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA SITES PROVIDE
“Most social media sites are being seen and read by search engines. The code is open and readable, so be sure to fill in EVERY box provided (both the short description and long description, etc.). If you are properly prepared, you should have the keyword research on hand so that you can add in the words and phrases that you know – from hard data – people are indeed using when they go searching.”

NEW TRENDS
“One of the exciting new trends in marketing is “Over The Top” (OTT) content, which refers to the delivery of video through the Internet via devices like Roku, Apple TV, and Chromecast. It is now becoming possible to distribute your own content right into people’s homes!

Statistics show that an overwhelming number of millennials are cutting the cable box cord. This is great for even small businesses because technology is making it easier and easier for anyone to become a “TV Executive” and start his/her own channel. If you have longer form videos, such as sports events, trainings, music events, sermons, and podcasts, consider pushing that content to the next generation of TV devices. Speak with your SEO consultant/webmaster, and search for terms like “over the top content,” and “over the top video” to explore this further.”

GREAT “DO IT YOURSELF” RESOURCES
“Canva.com is an excellent resource for professional looking GRAPHICS that you can make yourself. Wevideo.com is a terrific web-based VIDEO-EDITING application that is very easy to use. Wisepops.com is great for making POP-UPS to collect people’s email addresses. Hellobar.com allows you to have a special widget that unobtrusively sits on your site, directing people to the content you wish to highlight (e.g., displays “follow” buttons to increase your social media networks, etc.). Oddnetworks.com is about to become the WordPress for OTT TV programming; it enables you to launch your own video streaming service, is inexpensive, and easy to use.”

Doug offers a free tips sheet, “10 Tips for Marketing Your Live Events,” available for download through his website.

Listen to our conversation to increase qualified traffic to your website, and convert that traffic into business using FREE Internet tools! By tuning in to my interview with Doug, you’ll also access a SPECIAL DISCOUNT on his on-line SEO course (“Playing the Game of Google”).