1. Start advertising online.
   One of the quickestways to generate an influx of visitors to your website is to, quite simply, pay for them. There are certainly caveats to this, as you can blast through hundreds, if not thousands of dollars and walk away with nothing but empty pockets. However, a well constructed and planned out advertising campaign can produce a substantial number of highly qualified, relevant visitors.Some great tools to start with, include:
   - Google AdWords.
   - Microsoft AdCenter.
2. Increase engagement on your Facebook Page.
   More often than not, I will see a corporate Facebook page with a 6 month old status update as the most recent activity. One of the general rules of social media, is that if you are going to dive in, you must dedicate the amount of time that is required. You also can’t simply talk about how great your product or service is, unless you want to alienate and completely bore your audience.Entice your visitors to start conversations about industry rumblings, or any news relevant to your type of business. Ask them questions, let them know that someone is there on the other end, ready to answer questions, or just listen.
3. Really USE your Twitter account.
   While it may be difficult to juggle multiple social media accounts simultaneously, giving each the attention they deserve will pay dividends.Twitter can be a fantastic source of quick, back and forth discussion, as well as a great source of gaining (and even providing) knowledge. Twitter posts containing links are far more likely to be read and retweeted than those without.
4. Join a LinkedIn group and be vocal.
   There are thousands of LinkedIn groups with very active members that discuss an enormous range of different topics. By finding a relevant group and contributing to it on a regular basis, you can expand your network and brand recognition, while increasing personal and brand trust among potential colleagues.
5. Start a blog, or writing for a guest blog.
   This one is tricky, as writing a blog can be quite time consuming. We typically try to get one blog post a week out and even that becomes difficult sometimes. However, if you can spare 2-3 hours a week, having a blog can provide you with a tremendous outlet for speaking to your existing and potential customers on a different, more personal level. Keeping blog posts non-corporate, while still informative, helps improve the likelihood of search engines crawling and indexing them.Also, blogs other than your own will cover a subject or events that occur within a specific industry. These blogs typically profit from on-page advertising or sponsorships, so they tend to be unbiased and industry-wide. Writing a blog post for another website can be very beneficial, as it reaches a potentially untapped audience, while providing a funnel for visitors back to your website.

   The two most popular tools for blogging are:
   - Blogger
   - WordPress

   They can both be setup and running within a matter of hours, depending on what design you wish to use and how much content will be inserted.

6. Be active within relevant industry forums.
   Similar to guest blog writing, being active on forums and even Q&A websites can provide you with an incredible outlet for connecting with customers. Engaging with visitors on a forum that’s relevant to your business, will not only provide a means for you to display your expertise, but can be a direct source for referrals (as long as you’re subtle).
7. Build/Optimize backlinks with existing connections.
   Capturing new backlinks for a website can be one of the most difficult and time consuming tasks for any business, however the potential rewards are significant. Gaining just 10 backlinks from 10 different, highly trusted and busy websites, has the potential to be more effective than many other methods of promotion.
8. Creating Link bait.
   “What is link bait”, you ask? It’s not as sinister as it sounds, I assure you. It simply refers to posting an article on your blog or Facebook page that relates to a very popular recent event or news story. The trick, is to keep the article relevant to your business.Here’s an example. If your business sells golf clubs and a term such as ’2012 canadian open’ or ‘tiger woods in trouble again’ become trending topics on Google or Twitter, get on top of it and capitalize on the momentum of those topics.Write a blog post and get onto your social media platforms, discussing those topics but remember, only if they are related to your business. Otherwise it’s just spam, and your audience will be able to tell the difference.
9. Email Marketing.
   Yes, email! People still use it. So much in fact that it’s still the most widely used form of communication online. Yes, spam is an ever present source of frustration and confusion, but if there are people willing to hear what you have to say, a targeted email campaign can produce some stunning results. Sponsoring an industry newsletter, or writing an article for one, can produce some very qualified visitors.One of those most popular online marketing tools for email is Constant Contact. It features a very user friendly interface to create and customize your newsletters.
10. Create videos.
    YouTube isn’t just for cats and Britney Spears videos. If your business has anything even remotely interesting to talk about, your voice can be both seen and heard.
    Oh, and one of the biggest bonuses for YouTube videos, is that they are 50 times more likely to show up for a relevant search result than a website.

This list is certainly not the be all and end all for website promotion. There are certainly other methods, however these are all proven, effective methods and should continue to be for the forseeable future.

Have I missed anything? I’m sure I have… why don’t you tell me in the comments below?

Related Posts that I promised!

• 5 Step Guide To Launching A Social Media Campaign
• Get Your Social Media Under Control
• How To Run A Social Media Campaign In Less Than 4 Hours A Week

Holland Park Garden Gallery

We are very proud to have worked with a wonderful local business and to have the opportunity to design such a rich, colourful and lively website. Since Holland Park is in the horticulture industry, it allowed us to be a bit more adventurous and use some colour schemes that are normally restricted.

Holland Park’s objective for the website was to provide visitors with a more visually striking, yet informative showcase of their products. The ability to update and change content was also a very high priority, which was delivered by means of Glacier Digital’s Aumbry CMS platform.

Below, you will find a quote from Holland Park’s website in order to provide you with a bit more information about their organization.

Holland Park Garden Centre was founded in 1966 in the west end of Toronto, Ontario. Holland Park Garden Centre relocated to Burlington, Ontario, in 1974 and built the present location in 1981. A second location in Dundas, Ontario was added in 1989. The business is presently owned by Joe, his wife Anita and their daughter Jennie.

Click Here to Visit : Holland Park Garden Gallery

C.W. Shasky & Associates

It was a unique experience to work with C.W. Shasky, as their business is one that not everyone deals with hands on. Foodservice brokers get to work with a variety of different companies and C.W. Shasky is in a league of their own. They work with companies such as Dole, Haagen Daaz, Nestle, Pataks and office-favourite, Tabasco.

The aim of the website is to inform prospective clients of the amount of experience C. W. Shasky provides, as well as  feature the strength of products and brands that the company is capable of handling. All of this has been provided, along with our intuitive CMS (Content Management System) so that C.W. Shasky employees may update the website at their leisure with the utmost level of ease.

Below, you will find a quote from C.W. Shasky’s website in order to provide you with a bit more information about their organization.

C.W. Shasky & Associates Ltd. is one of Canada’s most significant Foodservice Brokers, representing top quality, branded, category leading manufacturers, both provincially, and nationally. This privately owned and operated company is dedicated to securing and expanding access to the foodservice, club, industrial / ingredients and HMR business channels on behalf of our principal partners.

Click Here to Visit : C.W. Shasky

Here is a promotional video that Google released alongside the launch of the recent upgrade, explaining some of the new features while reiterating some existing ones.

Unfortunately for Google, there have been countless jokes and jabs at their expense, portraying Google+ as a non-competing service, being outnumbered exponentially by services such as Facebook, Twitter LinkedIn and even Pinterest. While the service did enjoy a tremendous launch, word of mouth has been overly negative since, which begs the question “Who is actually using it?”.

I will come out and say it, I have approximately 230 Facebook friends (which is peanuts compared to some people out there) and I would say that only 3 or 4 of them are active on Google+. By active, I mean I’ve seen them post something in the last week or so. Why are there are so few people that use it, since most of Google’s other services are so widely accepted?

Two of Google’s many strengths are the number and variety of services they offer. A stellar email service (Gmail), Calendar, online photo storage (Picasa), Maps, Youtube, the list goes on. The reason these services should be so relevant to Google+, is that there is now a unified login system throughout Google’s properties. What this means, is if you’re using Gmail or Youtube already, you simply need to visit http://plus.google.com and within minutes you will be set up and ready to go.

It doesn’t stop there however, as there is also tight integration with these other services. Sharing a Youtube video, photos, or chatting with friends via Google Talk are all deeply integrated within the social media site.

Am I trying to promote Google+? Sure, why not. The service has a lot going for it, and Google isn’t going to let it die any time soon (like Friend Connect, Wave, etc.). The only way it will get better is if more people use it, plain and simple. It doesn’t matter how fantastic the UI is, or how easily you can share a Youtube video if no one is there to engage with you.

What does Google need to do?

I’m quiet certain that Google has a team of engineers, analysts and industry experts numbering in the hundreds, if not thousands, working around the clock to figure out the secret to social media success. Therefore, my opinion may not be the most influential, however I do truly believe that Google+ could succeed, or at least claim its own place in the social media world.

Even though Facebook has enjoyed a meteoric rise in users and traffic, it wasn’t exactly an overnight success. It’s taken years to get where it is today, Google needs to remember that. To be fair to Google, their critics need to remember that as well. As long as the Google+ userbase continues to grow, it’s doing something right. The major setback for Google+ however, is that it directly competes with Facebook on almost every level. Facebook hosts your photos, videos, has hundreds of games available (although only 1 or 2 that aren’t incredibly annoying)… but the biggest factor in Facebook’s favour, is that everyone you know uses it.

Once Google+ can learn to offer something truly unique, but also something that everyone wants (sorry Hangouts), it might stand a chance at really making a name for itself. Myspace was one of the original social media sites, and after competing with Facebook, it managed to adapt and change to a music and artist friendly site, after a very close dance with death.

As one of the worldwide leaders in online marketing, I’m pretty sure Google will have some ideas up their sleeves. I for one, am not too worried, but I would like to get some more use out of my account… Also, feel free to +1 this post below, to dive into Google’s approach to social media!

When an organization decides to take the leap into social media, it should not be done on a whim. Far too often we have seen companies jump in with both feet, only to fizzle and give up after 2 months, wondering what happened? Allocating time to a campaign, and understanding that it needs to run for not only 6-8 weeks, but for the foreseeable future, is a necessity in order for it to be successful.

While the overall goal of a social media campaign is to generate business, it must not be used as a sales tool. After all, that’s what your website and sales staff are for.

While this list is certainly condensed, it covers the basics that every company must address in order to run a social media campaign.

1. Decide who will run the campaign.

Does your company have a marketing department, or are YOU the entire marketing department? Regardless of the amount of manpower available, a social media campaign can be managed by anyone as long as the time they have is used effectively.

No one wants to put their hand up and say “Oh yeah, I have 30 minutes a day where I do nothing”, but if you have the ability and skill-set to manage multiple networking tools and to talk to customers on an intimate level, you’re up to the task.

2. Determine what social media tools should be used.

This may require a bit of research, but by asking your existing customers which social media tools they use most often and what other industry sites and competitors are using, you should be able to focus on the most effective tools. For instance, B2B’s typically use LinkedIn and Twitter, while B2C’s use a wider range of tools, depending on their industry. Here is a list of some of the more popular services available.

Most tools take minutes to setup, but most can be customized and have additional functionality through the use of apps, etc. Taking the time to properly setup each tool will pay off in the long run. Tasks as simple as replacing a default logo with your company emblem are things that are often and surprisingly overlooked.

3. Link up tools.

What I mean by linking tools, is taking advantage of any automation that is offered by the tools. For instance, you can set up Twitter to automatically update your Facebook wall or page with whatever message you post to your Twitter status. Even more powerful is the functionality offered through RSS feeds generated by blogs. In short, this allows a blog to very easily be shared on nearly every service available. Read more about RSS feeds here.

This automation can save a lot of time while building content for the other, linked services.

4. Setup a (realistic) schedule for updates

There have been dozens of articles written to pinpoint what time is the best for posting updates and how frequently you should be doing them and while they shouldn’t be ignored, you need to plan within your own time frame. It doesn’t matter how busy you are, everyone has a couple of hours a week to spend speaking with their customers online. It’s how and when that time should be spent that’s dependent on what you’re comfortable with. As we’ve talked about in the past, there are applications that you can run on your desktop or even your mobile to make things a bit easier to manage and even track. If you would like to read about these social media management tools, please click here.

Twitter.

Typically, Twitter status updates (i.e. Tweets… which I STILL hate saying) should be posted at least 2 or 3 times a day. Why is this so frequent? Think about a Twitter feed and how often it gets updated. If you only posted once every day or two, your posts will most likely be lost in the ever-growing sea of unread updates. Many Twitter users follow hundreds, if not thousands of users, so unfortunately you CAN get rewarded for cramming as many posts into your feed as possible, as long as they are interesting and/or useful.

Facebook.

Since it’s far too easy to ‘block’ posts written by an individual, or even a business or page that you’ve ‘Liked’, keeping posts at a minimum is best practice. Two posts a week is a great balance, as it reminds people that you are there to provide interesting content and that you won’t be filling up their wall with post after post. One post on a Monday or Tuesday, and another on Friday afternoon will keep people informed and should be easy to populate with company or industry news.

Other Tools.

There are literally hundreds of social media tools available and it might be worthwhile spending some time researching a handful of them. There may be an industry specific tool available with thousands of users ready to listen or eager to buy your product or service, but just haven’t heard about you yet.

5. STICK TO IT!

Only have 10 Twitter followers and even fewer Facebook page likes after only a couple of days? Don’t worry. Most accounts start off that way and only through promotion and regularly scheduled updates will anyone stick around to hear what you have to say.

Get your friends, family and coworkers to join your social media efforts and as your updates continue and word spreads, the people will follow. Social media isn’t a sales tool, it’s a relationship building tool… however that’s an article for another day!

1. Making the navigation inaccessible to search engines.

So often I see navigation structures on websites that are comprised of either images, or locked away in a flash file in order to make the text look nicer than plain old boring text. The problem here is that while it may look nice to you and I, search engines cannot decipher the text contained within the image. All they see is ‘prod_button_off.jpg’ or something similar, while humans see the words ‘Product Catalogue’.
Solution? Use text and images separately through CSS! If you’re worried about fonts, there are services such as Fontdeck that you can use to liven up an otherwise plain old navigation bar.

2. Ignoring the META Description tag.

The META Description tag is found on each page within a website and is used for the sole purpose (at least for now) of providing a description (go figure!) of a page in a list of search results. It appears underneath the Page Title and URL on search results. This example is from Google, but applies to most search engines. Without a specified Description, search engines have no other option than to pick one themselves. While they try their best to pick content, it can have less than stellar results. Having control over this text is powerful, as you can let potential visitors know a bit more about your page, potentially raising your site above another, even if it may not be ranked as high.

3. Using HUGE images and scale them down.

This one is simple. Don’t upload huge images. 

I understand that not everyone can afford to buy (or has time to learn) Photoshop, but if you are going to populate your website with great imagery, then the images need to be optimized and properly cropped before you upload them. If you took photos with a camera and want to put them online, they will be anywhere from 1MB to 5MB or higher. Optimally, images on a website would range anywhere from 1KB to 20KB.

Solution? Use free software such as Gimp or ImageOptimizer to perform similar optimization and formatting requirements as Photoshop.

4. Not having a Call To Action

Most businesses have what we refer to as ‘defensive’ websites. They are there purely to exist and have said company’s mailing address and phone number located at the bottom. Well, this crazy thing happened over a decade ago. People started going online to either buy stuff, or at least check stuff out online before going to buy it. The thing is, you need what’s called a ‘Call To Action‘ in order to encourage the potential customer to move along the sales process.

Whether you sell services, products or information, there is something you want your potential customers to do.

Do you want them to:

• Request A Quote?
• Contact Us Today?
• Download Free Trial?
• Sign Up For Our Newsletter?

Without providing visitors with a Call To Action, they are left to make their own choices and on the web, it’s far to easy to just leave. So please… figure out what you want from your visitors and guide them there! Below you’ll find an example that looks a bit familiar.

5. Neglecting the text content throughout the site.

If you want to show up in search results for a specific keyword, but scratch your head as to why you’re not #1, the first thing you can do is look at the content on your website. Actually READ the content and ask yourself, is that keyword relevant to the content?

Too often, businesses feature a few big images on the home page and very little crawlable, indexable text. All the while, filling the ‘About Us’ page with quality, relevant content. I have some bad news… NO ONE reads your About Us page. So get that content onto the Home Page (or whatever your focused landing page is) and provide search engines with what they crave.

This doesn’t just go for your Home page though, as the site can help itself grow with inner linking… which we’ve covered before. Why don’t you head on over there to see why it’s so important?

What exactly IS Pinterest?

Well, it’s an online scrapbook of sorts. One that you can share with friends, family or anyone that has similar interests. Instead of text, or news articles however, it’s jam packed with images that you can comment on, ‘pin’ on your own wall, or share. The entire idea is incredibly simple, and after spending about 2 minutes setting up your profile you’re free to view whatever you want. Topics range from Architecture to Food to Science and everything in between.

Think of it as a very basic Facebook Wall, but in a good way. You can browse walls of your friends or complete strangers and depending on their interests, will find yourself connected in a more visual way than I think Facebook offers. Of course, Facebook does a lot more than just sharing content on walls, but I don’t think Pinterest is trying to directly compete with the big blue behemoth.

Why has it become so popular?

Let’s start with how popular the site is. In December 2011 alone, it had over 11 million visitors. That is up 40x from 6 months prior. FOURTY times. And according to ComScore, it is the quickest website to ever hit 10 million visitors. Oh, and it’s invite only, which makes that figure even more impressive.

Search Marketing leads overall Interactive Spend as more and more companies embrace Search Marketing tools such as PPC (pay per click) Advertising, and SEO (search engine optimization).

Forrester points out that 70% of marketers are already utilizing social media (Facebook) in various forms. Most of these companies have only “dipped” their toe into social media marketing. The next move is to monitor user activity, listen to what consumers are saying, increase engagement, and increase brand loyalty.

Mobile Marketing is gaining considerable momentum. 45% of the adult population has a smartphone or PDA with full browser capability. Apple iPhones and Google Android devices are leading the way as consumers become more comfortable using their PDA’s for practically everything – map directions, couponing, product reviews, and online purchasing.

This is indeed a major challenge for businesses because the marketing strategies they’ve executed on for the last 30 years may be totally redundant within 2 years (if they aren’t already).

The World Cup of Soccer is the largest single sporting event in the world and the opening ceremonies were sponsored by Adidas. What was particularly interesting was that the advertisement displayed on the TV screen as follows:

This was the first time that a major sponsor had used its social media page as the focal point or  marquee. It was a defining point in the advertising world.

This paradigm shift will no doubt create new business opportunities – and a  few casualties along the way.

There are certainly websites that exist in an almost organic, very dynamic fashion. These include news websites (Canoe.ca, NYTimes.com, etc.), and user-driven websites (Facebook.com, Reddit.com, etc.). Search engines have been making a shift to user-generated content for years, and not just because it’s fresh and more frequently updated, but in part because of the linking structures that are built into the website architecture.

Let’s face it, most small to medium sized businesses have what are called ‘defensive’ websites. These are websites that exist purely because they want to put the URL on their business cards. These sites are also built in the most linear, straightforward way possible. Below is a depiction of one of these websites:

On these websites there exist a handful of pages, with some content here and there. The only way to access any page on the website is always done through the navigation bar… which I HOPE are not images… but that’s for another day. This, my friends, is a typical corporate website. Go look for yourself, and you will see.

One of the most effective ways of increasing the ‘importance’ of a website is by inner linking words and phrases found within the content, to other relevant pages within the website. You might ask “Why does it matter… these aren’t as good as getting links from other websites, so why bother?”. While not as valuable as a backlink from another high traffic website, inner linking has been proven to be a very effective method of increasing search rankings. It’s also making changes to your own website which you have full control over, so why wouldn’t you do it?

It’s a very simple process, but it should be done in a way that it assists the visitor. The end result will be a more connected website with highlighted content for Google and other search engines to pinpoint for future search queries. An example of an inner-linked website can be found below:

Not only are the pages connected through the website’s navigation, but since relevant keywords have also been linked, it will create a much more connected and intertwined system, boosting the authority and importance of not just specific pages, but the website as a whole. This will, in turn, increase the likelihood of pages showing up in search engine results.

Here are some other related articles that you might find interesting:

• 10 Quick Search Engine Optimization Tips
• Think Your Website Is Too Old To Optimize? Think Again!

Also, we want to hear from you! If you have found a specific topic to be especially useful or informative, let us know so we can dig deeper and provide more of it. We want to hear your comments and any critiques you can offer. Don’t worry, we can take it

Just leave a comment on the blog, or head over to our Facebook page and tell us what you think.

Coming up with a new idea for a blog post each week is not as easy as it may seem, which is something we have admittedly been slacking with here at Glacier Digital HQ. The last few months we have experienced some growth and have only squeezed out an average of 1 blog post per MONTH. This is one of the reasons this exact blog post has been written. If your business already has a blog or is planning on proceeding with one, updating it once a week on average is industry-wide best practice.

Why post once a week?

Unless your business is completely dependent on online ad-driven traffic generated by frequently updated content, posting an article on your blog once a week should suffice. It will compliment your business’ activities and will provide your customers with something to look forward to on a Friday afternoon (which, is the optimal time to post).

What do I talk about?

You would be surprised at how much your customers DON’T know about your business and your ongoing activities, in and out of the office. This includes industry news, tips, opinions and just about any relevant events or information available online. A great technique which can help generate ideas and catalogue them more effectively, is to create a list of topics, whether as draft posts in WordPress or Blogger (or whatever blogging platform you use), or even good old paper and pen *gasp*!

More often than not, I will revisit an old topic that I jotted down during a brainstorming session and see if any ideas stick. Sure, there are times that I find myself starting at the keyboard, sometimes with my head in my hands, frustrated that I can’t get a specific sentence to sound…. just right. That’s when you look at it from a different angle, work on a different paragraph, or work on a different post entirely.

PLEASE… let your customers talk!

Taking the leap into social media is a big deal for many businesses, there is no doubt.  However, one of the worst decisions a business can make is shutting out the ability for users to provide feedback, whether it’s good or bad. This goes for not just Blog comments, but Facebook and other tools that have discussion or commenting systems built in. Worried that you will get a LOT of bad feedback? Well, instead of denying customers the right to ask questions and vent their disapproval, perhaps you should ask yourself why they have these concerns (or better yet, ask the customers!!). One of the many benefits of social media in general is the ability to bring the conversation down to a more personal level. Don’t give customers the “corporate cold shoulder”, let them feel as if you are attending to their issues in a way that makes them feel like a priority.

Blog writing is still writing, regardless of your opinion. Sure, sometimes facts and data are provided to fuel the content, but it is still written… by hand… by a human. As long as that’s the case, there will always be the possibility of “Blogger’s Block”.