How Social Networks Are Helping Local Businesses With Online Lead Generation Efforts
Kennebunk, Maine (PRWEB) July 26, 2013 -- Social media has become an important part of marketing over the past few years. Even as its importance has increased, the distinctions between the various platforms have become muddled. Where Google was once a search engine, their addition of the social network Google Plus and acquisition of YouTube has bright them into the realm of being a social network, content producer, and search engine. Facebook started out as a social network, but their recent addition of Google Graph has brought them closer to being a search engine. These are just two examples from many. How can local business owners make use of this technology to bolster their businesses? My local Leads specializes in local search marketing and helps companies around the country in developing effective online lead generation strategies. These few tips will help business owners understand how different social networks can be useful to drawing in new customers, engaging existing customers and—most importantly—getting the phone to ring.
Facebook is one of the strongest social media networks out there. For social media marketing, it was once the only one really worth paying attention to. Now, however, new competitions have laid their claims and started to challenge the Facebook’s dominance. The recent addition of Facebook Graph allows people to search in ways they never could before. It relies on the actions and posts within individual’s social network to bring up most relevant information. This is very different from typical search engine algorithms. It is a type of search engine optimization that works based on the posts and activities of others rather than what the local company posts. It is great for local businesses, because people can get suggestions for restaurants, stores, and other local companies without having to ask anyone directly. They can simply search and it will search for what those in the social network have posted or shared. That means that local businesses providing information others want to share and providing excellent service in person are what is going to help make them a success through the Facebook medium.
With Google Plus, several services are linked into one. It has been seen that searches through Google, which is still the most prevalent search engine in the world, will give preferential treatment to pages that have made use of free Google services such as YouTube for video and Google Plus for social sharing. Google Maps is also still very important for local businesses, and it can and should be tied in with local search marketing, because it provides the geographic specificity related to the site that will help it dominate local searches. Videos posted to YouTube do not take up bandwidth on a company owned server and can easily be shared across several platforms. This sort of inexpensive, universal utility is what makes Google so useful while contributing to its relative dominance.
LinkedIn is a great resource for business to business (B2B) companies. It is also useful for those with professionals as a target audience. Being able to network with other professionals allows local companies to get themselves known and more easily recommended for providing useful services. The B2B market is demanding, but also highly rewarding. Even local businesses that are typically B2C have found benefits in using LinkedIn. As people are likely to turn to something they know, managers, human resource specialist, and other professionals familiar with the LinkedIn interface may look for personal services ranging anywhere from plumbing to landscaping. The recommendations and chatter regarding those providers through the LinkedIn network can easily help bring in new leads that might have otherwise been missed.
Chris Moreno, My Local Leads, http://www.mylocalleads.com, (207) 332-3306, [email protected]
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