If you’re trying to build out a well-rounded social media plan for your business, creating a Google+ page should be right up there towards the top of your list of things to do (along with your Facebook Business Page and a great Twitter Business presence too). Google+, while not quite as heavily used yet as the other big social media players, is definitely in the game to stay and is growing in popularity each and every day. You should be sure to include it in your plans, and here’s exactly how to do so:

Step 1. First things first, you’re going to need to work through an existing personal account for Google+. If you have a Google account already, or a Gmail account, then you probably already have this step taken care of. Just visit https://plus.google.com and log in using your existing personal Google account.

Step 2. Next up, it’s time to set up your business page…Go to https://plus.google.com/pages/create This link will take you to the “Create a page” dialogue within Google+.

Step 3. Choose the category that best suits your business from the “Pick a category” menu on the left hand side of the page. Right now, Google+ offers options for the following:

• Local Business or Place
• Product or Brand
• Company, Institution or Organization
• Arts, Entertainment or Sports
• Other

If you hover over these menu buttons, Google+ provides some helpful examples of which kinds of businesses fit under which respective category. In the end, it’s really up to you to choose what seems to make the most sense for your business or brand.

Step 4. Input your business information after you’ve selected the appropriate category. Depending on the category you’ve chosen for your business, Google will ask you for certain information which might include your “Page name,” your website URL, your sub-category, phone number, and so on, so forth. The more information you can provide, and the more accurate it is, the more professional your page is likely to appear to viewers—something to keep in mind here. Once you’ve entered the requested information, select “Create.”

Step 5. You’ll be prompted for additional information for your page. This might include a “Tagline” and a profile photo which could be your logo or other business-identifying image or icon.

Step 6. After you’ve populated the requested info for your page, it’s time to spread the word. Google+ will automatically suggest that you tell the people in your personal circles about your newly created business page. If you choose to do so, just follow the prompts.

Step 7. Your page should now be created and live to the world. Now it’s all up to you to promote it and use it wisely. Google+ will provide some helpful tips and suggestions on doing so at the conclusion of the sign up process.

A couple of additional pointers to keep in mind:

• It’s definitely wise to use appealing graphics for your brand image and header on your page. If you have existing artwork or image files in place already from your website or other existing social media accounts elsewhere, it might be a good idea to tie them all together by using the same consistent imagery here as well.
• Be sure to create a “brand/business” page with Google+ and not just a Personal page. It’s easy to get confused here, but know that there are better integration and sharing options available for brand pages than there are for personal pages.

So what else are you waiting for? Getting started with Google+ for your business is a breeze!

Twitter has become an essential social networking tool for businesses. Yes—Facebook is a little bit more out there as far as reaching the most mainstream clients and customers, but Twitter can play an essential role for your business too. Here’s the deal: Twitter is one of the best ways to communicate with your savvy business followers, and it also just so happens to be a nice way to find and be found when it comes to followers of your business.

How do you make a Twitter page for your business?

Well, in step-by-step terms, it’s actually very easy:

1. Visit http://twitter.com and find the “New to Twitter? Sign Up” box on the right hand side of the page. You’ll need to enter your name, email address, and a password here and press the “Sign up” button. Use your real name here.

2. Next, you’ll be prompted to come up with a Twitter handle. This is the nickname you’ll be identified with on Twitter and what will be shown publically. Good idea to use something identifiable as your business or brand with this handle.

3. Following the prompts, your account is now setup. Continue to work through the Twitter setup wizard and suggestions. They’ll help you connect with people you already know and get your account profile, bio, and images setup and added.

That’s all there is to setting up a Twitter page for your business. The rest is all in actually using the page to its fullest extent to communicate and stay in touch with existing and new clients and customers.

Here are some additional pointers and tips to keep in mind as you make a Twitter page for your business:

A Twitter handle cannot be more than 15 characters long. This means you might not be able to use your full business name, so you’ll have to get a little bit creative. But don’t get too creative. Keep it straightforward and professional.

Choose a Twitter handle that relates ideally to your brand or has a similar name. You don’t want to pick a Twitter name that is totally random and unrelated to your business. And for a general business Twitter page, you’ll probably want to have it be associated directly with your business and not just use your personal name or handle.

Use a good bio. Again, Twitter is all about keeping it short and sweet. Use just few words to say who you are and what you do. It’s almost like a tagline that you would use on your business cards, etc. Be sure to put your website’s URL in the bio. If you don’t have one, then put your Facebook link in there.

Setup searches that relate to your business. This will help keep track of who your fans are and what they are looking for.

Try your best to use a consistent branding strategy. For example if you have graphics already for your website background, Facebook header, or logo, try to work those in to the mix with Twitter too so all of your online presences have consistency.

Choose the right profile picture for your business. Best practice would probably be to use your business logo for your profile pic. Or maybe use a picture of your building or something else that properly represents your brand. Don’t choose something obscure or hard to see and interpret—doing so is a surefire way to get ignored by people.

Making a Twitter page for your business is really pretty simple stuff. You’ll be started in no time flat, and then actually using Twitter is fun…with a bit of a learning curve for those who’ve never used it…but fun nonetheless. Enjoy and all the best of success using Twitter for your business!

Whether you want to admit it or not, having a Facebook page for your business is absolutely necessary. It is 2012, after all, and the great majority of your clients and customers have been using Facebook now for about half a decade.

In fact, even if you don’t plan on taking an active role with your business Facebook page, at the very least, just go ahead and set up a basic business page profile that includes your address, basic information, website link, and the basics. The more you can really use Facebook and put it to work for your business, the better—but just being listed is better than nothing at all. It might just be how your next customer decides to try and find you. Will they be successful?

So, to help you get things off to a running start, here is how you can create a Facebook page for your business:

Step One—Visit Facebook’s Create a Page option. Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Step Two—Chose the right option for creating your page. The options are as follows:

• Local Business or Place
• Company, Organization or Institution
• Brand or Product

Use your best discretion on which option is best for you. For those that want to be listed as an “open to the public” location, it would be best to choose Local Business or Place as the option. For larger companies with possible multiple locations or those that are not exactly open to public foot traffic—the “Company, Organization or Institution” option is most likely going to suit the cause. Brand or Product might actually be what you’re looking to promote via Facebook.

Once you’ve selected the best option for your Business, go ahead and complete the requested information that includes your particular category, business name, and possibly your location depending on the option you chose.

Step Three—Sign in via your existing personal Facebook account or create a new personal Facebook account if you don’t already have one. This is confusing to many, but Facebook Business Pages must be created and managed by an authorized individual. If you are that individual, it will be from your personal Facebook account that the Business Page is managed under. Don’t worry—you can go in and add other admins to your business page later once it’s all been created initially.

Step Four—Add your information to the new page. Facebook will prompt you through a series of options to set up your new Business Page. These will include adding a Profile Picture (possibly use your logo or some other image that is closely associated with your business), a quick “About” statement, your regular website address, and setting up your specific Facebook address URL.

Step Five—Once your basic business page has now been setup, simply follow Facebook’s prompts on inviting friends, adding additional information and images to your page, and getting the message out in general. The new business page format of Facebook is pretty self-explanatory, and the new Admin panel for pages is designed to make adding your information as simple as filling in the blanks or taking a suggested action.

Congrats—setting up a Facebook page is just that easy. You can have it all ready to go in just about 5 minutes or so. Of course, the more you invest and “work” your page in the future, the better you will do with the strategy, but as for just getting started, it’s a breeze.

The glaring popularity of social media these days might be enough to convince some businesses and organizations that there really isn’t all that much need to have a stand-alone website any more. But this assumption couldn’t be any further from the truth. At face value, and without giving it much thought, it’s possible to see where this misconception comes from—social media does get tons of attention and a lot of the credit—but it’s a company’s website that still does all of the heavy lifting.

What Makes Social Media Great?

Eyes and attention, that’s what. Your customers are checking their social media accounts dozens of times a day. A giant percentage of the country is totally addicted to social media. As such, you have multiple chances to put your message in front of this captive audience each and every day.

What Makes A Website So Great?

People don’t go to their social media account to read a top quality blog post or learn about a product or company in depth. They might find a link from their social media, but it’s up to the website to do the heavy lifting and build a trust relationship here. Websites are the long format way to present your information and message the way you want. You own it and you can custom-tailor every detail to your advantage and liking. It’s not just another page amongst millions on the social media’s site (which conveniently have their brand logo at the top, their advertising on the side, and their profits on the line).

They Really Go Hand In Hand.

You’ve heard it before, but think about it again for a second: a website and social media are just the same thing as the old hub and spoke model. Your website is the hub—the place where all of the action is—the center point of what everything else should revolve around. Your individual social media accounts and marketing strategies are each spokes that transfer the weight back to the hub of your website. Your website and social media should go completely hand in hand for the most successful strategy possible.

Don’t Put All Of Your Eggs In One Basket.

Websites are here to stay. Social media could be here today, gone tomorrow. Just look at MySpace, for example—yes, it still exists, but when was the last time you checked your account there?

Also, it’s important to consider the fact that your social media account could literally be erased…wiped totally clean…overnight, either purposefully or by mistake. It could be server glitch at the social media company or someone could errantly report your account as spam or copyright violation. As just one of millions of account holders, can you guess what the social media company’s response is going to be? Deletion happens every day, and even when it’s a mistake, your account and all of your hard work is gone just like that.

Use social media to your fullest advantage to drive traffic to your website and drive traffic to your business, but don’t put all of your eggs in one basket and lose it all when the ship sinks.

With the era of social networking upon us, many are led to believe that websites are a thing of the past.  The question goes something like this…why have a website and put effort into that if you’re going to be doing social networking extensively for your organization or business anyway?

The notion that social networking can replace your professional website is a myth.

Yes, it’s tempting.  The excuses to go social-solo instead of a website are plentiful enough:

•    Social networking is free; websites are not.
•    You’re already using social networking personally every day; with a website, you’ll have to do something additional.
•    Social networking can possible provide more traffic for your business; websites take more work getting visitors in the door.

And so on and so forth…the list of temptations could go on all day long.

But again, there’s more to a website than meets the eye.  It’s a must-have component for any professional organization—as well as a must have component of any good social media strategy.

Reason Number One: A website serves as a central hub to all of your social networking activity.  It’s extremely helpful and very beneficial to your visitors and followers to have all of your social posts across the web point back to your website.  No matter how many visits your social strategy attracts, the bottom line is your website is still “home.”  It’s a must-have to look and functional professionally.

Reason Number Two: It’s dangerous to put all of your eggs in one basket.  It’s not unusual at all to spend a year building up your presence on social networking sites—complete with developing thousands of followers—only to have your entire profile erased overnight due to mistake, malicious-but-false complaints from ill-willed competitors, or you name it.  With your own professional website, you’re always in control.  But with social networking sites, they own your presence and the content you post within…it can be here today, gone tomorrow at their free will.

Reason Number Three: Just as your social networking can and should link back to your website, you can also use your website to point to all of your different social networking campaigns.  It’s one stop shopping…your website serves as a catch-all, and also a starting point for your visitors and those you want to refer to the web.  It’s really difficult to verbally explain to a person how they can find your Facebook page or Twitter profile—but you can give them your dotcom website address and they’ll be able to find you in an instant.

Reason Number Four: With a website, you own your search listings.  In other words, when a search engine picks up on and lists your website in their index, the visitors are going to your site…not someone else’s.  When the search engines pick up on your profile or feed at a social networking site and list that, the social networking service can change that around at any time—ultimately rendering the search listings that are supposed to represent your business as useless to you.

Websites still are and will remain an irreplaceable piece of the pie when it comes to having a web presence for your business or organization.  The more effort you want to invest in social networking, the better—as long as you have a solid plan and an excellent, professional website to tie it all together.

A lot of companies, from the biggest to smallest, are struggling with what seems to be the one million dollar question of the moment: how to leverage the 500 million plus Facebook users into some sort of cohesive marketing medium. In other words, they want to know how to get more customers from social media sites.

Well, we’re here to give you (and them) a little hint: it’s the easiest way to do just about anything… get someone else to do it for you.

Sites like Facebook just aren’t built for marketing. People go to them to share news, upload photos, and check in on their family and friends. What they don’t do is log into their profile and hope to be “sold” on something. You would think that would just about close the door and business opportunities, ironically enough, that’s what makes Facebook so great as a marketing medium.

Here’s what we mean: by creating a fan page for your business, and only uploading fun content from time to time, rather than advertising copy and marketing messages, you make it easy for the people who love doing business with you to share their experiences and impressions of others. In other words, you don’t worry about spreading your marketing message; you just encourage your customers to spread it around on their own. If they have had great buying experiences with you, and your Facebook fan page offers some content that is fun and engaging, the process becomes a lot easier than you might think.

If you have spent a lot of time worrying about the best ways to use Facebook to find customers, let it go. It’s just not a good avenue for that sort of thing, at least for the moment. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be leveraging your existing customers to find more online. It might not be straight advertising, but it is good business.

Social media or SEO?  In a lot of circles, it’s actually starting to come down to this question.  One or the other—and which one works best.

The growth trend of social media as a traffic factor is remarkable.

And there is absolutely no doubt at all that social media—and in particular, Facebook and Twitter—has become an incredible source of promotion and traffic generation for websites that have been savvy enough to use the social tools in an effective way.  Some bloggers out there especially have been reporting that as much as 50% of their traffic now comes from these two popular social media outlets.  This is all traffic that used to come primarily from the search engines (SEO) instead.

Search engines still account for a great deal of visitors to websites.

While it’s easy to assume that social media statistics (like accounting for half of a website’s traffic) equate to a kind of a paradigm shift online when it comes to attracting visitors, it would be a huge mistake to automatically rule out the search engines as a thing of the past.  In all reality, the site or blog that receives 50% of its traffic from social media is an outside-the-box situation, an exception to the rule.  Most sites still receive the overwhelming majority of their traffic from the search engines…and from a solid SEO strategy in particular.

Balance:  It is the best of both worlds.

When it comes to SEO vs. social media, who says you have to choose one over the other?  Just because social media is gaining in both popularity and effectiveness doesn’t mean that search engines have become or will become a thing of the past.  In fact, these two different traffic sources actually work quite nicely together in harmony.

Google has recently reversed their policy of saying that links to a website from social media don’t carry any weight when it comes to impacting search engine rankings.  While social media links won’t initially have a huge impact on what makes up your website’s overall search engine results standings, they’ll continue to grow into a more and more relevant determination of a website’s authority and popularity.

Long story short—social media is a great way to measure what real people think about a particular website.  The search engines are able to pick up on this and use this information to help determine how the website should be ranked.  See how it all works together?

So the question of which is the better traffic generation strategy—SEO or Social Media—should really be turned around to ask how these two effective traffic building methods can be put to work together in harmony to deliver the best possible results for your website.

Search engines and social media are both here to stay for the long haul.  Instead of picking one or the other, use both together to make your website visible to as many targeted visitors as possible.  They both work best together.

Now this is as tough question.  Facebook vs. Twitter…which one is best to use as a social media promotional tool for your organization’s website (if you could only choose one)?

Let’s preface the rest of this post quickly now by saying that there are, of course, major differences in using social networking as a way to keep up to date with your family and friends and using social media as an online marketing tool to promote your business or website.  So, depending on how you’ll actually use social media, one option might be significantly better for you in general personal use, and the other might be best to use for more focused marketing.

But this still doesn’t exactly answer our question—if you had to choose either Facebook or Twitter, which would it be?

The Benefits Of Facebook

• Facebook has a huge user base. By far the most popular social media option around the entire world right now, the chances are pretty good that even grandma uses Facebook.

• This popular social networking platform attracts a huge spectrum of users. Again, these days it’s not at all uncommon for everyone from grade-schoolers all the way up to their great grandparents to have a Facebook account.

• Facebook has lots of media options. Beyond text-only blurbs, using Facebook makes it a breeze to share multimedia like photos and videos.

The Benefits Of Twitter

• Twitter’s user base seems to be more professionally-oriented. This is most likely due to the age group of its users—which happens to be mostly the post-college crowd.

• There are fewer privacy concerns. The Twitter crowd seems to clearly grasp that their “tweets” are intended to be public by default.  It’s a more open public platform because of this.

• Twitter seems to be a social environment that’s open to the little guy. In other words, when implemented with some creativity and ingenuity, even a micro-business owner can attract the same global attention from their tweets as major world-wide corporations can.

There Are A Few Drawbacks To Each Service As Well

With Facebook, there are ever-increasing privacy concerns that have been causing a little bit of a backlash among once-loyal users.  Also, some people find it kind of amateurish when businesses and organizations use Facebook (this is an unfair stereotype that probably derives from the fact that Facebook began as a way to stay in touch with friends).  And at the same time, people who use Facebook strictly as a tool to keep up with family and friends sometimes resent and turn away from any other derived use of the service—including marketing & promotional uses.

The drawbacks to Twitter are kind of similar in some ways, but totally different in others.  First things first, it’s important to realize that Twitter’s base of users isn’t anywhere near that of Facebook.  And those who do use Twitter regularly tend to be a little bit more technically or professionally inclined (which can also be a positive if this is your demographic target).  The other important thing to know about Twitter that could potentially cause issues is the fact that no one is exactly certain as to what direction the social networking service is going to grow—it could be drastically different in just a year or two from now.

So, if you’re going to focus your time and energy on just one social platform, which one will you choose and why?

It’s hard to believe that 2009 is drawing to a close already.  Time flys, and so do plans to grow and improve websites and online marketing plans.  The good news is that with the fresh start of a new year, you can start anew with making improvements to your websites at the same time and not have to feel overwhelmed.  Keeping this in mind, here are just a few small—but effective—ways to improve your website in 2010.

Upgrade to more professional web hosting. Few realize it before making the upgrade, but the bargain-rate shared hosting services that many sites utilize can really adversely effect site performance and search engine performance.  Moving your site to a better web hosting package can be just the performance boost you’ve been seeking—and the price could possibly even be less than you’re paying now.

Continue to expand your social networking efforts. If 2009 was the year of Facebook and Twitter really going mainstream, then just imagine what 2010 will bring for social networking!  The benefits of using social networking to drive traffic to your website are undeniable.  If you’ve already begun, then by all means—keep it up!  And if not, don’t worry…it’s not too late to get started now.  Just try not to put it off until the next new year rolls around.

Integrate CMS into your website. Have a great website already, but beginning to get tired of having to pay the pros every time there’s a small content update to make to the site?  If this sounds all-too-familiar, adding a CMS (content management system) will be the improvement of the year for you.  It’s simply a system that enables you to log in and make content edits and additions with a few simple clicks.  Cost savings and time savings from CMS really add up quickly!

Improve your existing website copy. Speaking of adding and editing your website’s copy, have you given this much thought since first developing your website?  It’s important to keep your website’s written content fresh, accurate, and up-to-date.  After all, visitors and search engines alike practically demand it.

Beef up your site’s security. With a seemingly ever-growing onslaught of security exploits to worry about, web users these days are becoming more and more conscious and wary about what sites they visit and how they transmit information on the web.  Regardless of if your website is e-Commerce enabled or not, you still need to do frequent security audits on your site to make sure your visitors are receiving a safe experience.  Making sure your security certificates are all up to date is just one such example in this department.

Develop an organic SEO development plan. Ready to start improving your website’s organic SEO so you don’t have to spend so much on PPC and other costly paid online marketing promotions in 2010?  Well, the good news here is that it’s simpler than ever to improve your site with quality organic search optimization.  Here are a few SEO pointers to help you get started.  And by laying out a solid plan at the beginning of the year, and working diligently to implement it accordingly, you might even be surprised at how simple, affordable, and downright effective it can be!

Let 2010 be the year that you take your website and your business to the next level (and know that we’re here to help you when you need it).  Wishing you all of the best in the New Year!

These days, finding new sources and methods of driving targeted traffic to your website is more important than ever—and especially when that traffic is free!  While traffic development has always been a challenging task, the good news is that the huge growth spurt of social media is making things a bit easier on us all.

Here are 5 undeniable benefits of using social networking to drive more traffic to your website:

One:  Social Networking Is Free

Implementing a do-it-yourself social media campaign to promote your website is not only effective…it’s free!  That’s right, no subscription costs, development fees, or other monetary expenses have to enter into the picture.  Besides the investment of time, social networking is probably the lowest barrier of entry web technology that’s gone mainstream so far since the inception of the internet.

Two:  Traffic From Social Networks Is Notoriously Web Savvy

Because the fans of social networking are keenly aware of the web and how it’s effectively used, the visitors driven to your site from your social networking promotions will naturally be a web savvy crowd.  Depending on your website’s theme, it can certainly help to have more visitors that are wise to the ways of the web.  And even if your theme is very novice-friendly, driving more visitors site-ward certainly can’t hurt things any.

Three:  Networking Has A Multi-Fold Effect

Not just promoting your website in search engines, but also yourself through social networking.  Basically, you achieve double the results for your time and effort invested.  Plus, the visibility earned through proficient social networking will hold its own and have a certain degree of permanence in the future.

Four:  Results Can Literally Begin To Happen Overnight

In the world of web development and web optimization, it’s almost impossible to find a traffic-building strategy that is able to produce results immediately.  In fact, the traditional motto goes something like “patience is a virtue” or “patience pays in dividends.”  Good news:  With effective social networking, you can indeed send visitors to your site as soon as you begin to promote it across the networks.

Five:  Social Networking Is Gaining On The Search Engines

While Googling a search term is still by far the dominate way to conduct a web search, more and more folks are finding that they can better sift through all of the clutter out there if they search through Twitter or other networks.  Or better yet, they can often post a query and receive numerous personalized responses in just minutes—something that’s just not possible yet with traditional search.  Social networking is starting to change how we see web search.

So as you can easily see, the immediate benefits of using social networking to drive more traffic to your website are quite evident.  And as the trend continues to develop, being ahead of this curve will only become more and more essential to the successful website’s overall traffic strategy.  As the old saying goes, take advantage now and get in on the ground floor!