Ok so it happened, I finally have discovered a few less than appealing elements of Empire Avenue and what it takes to maintain a positive presence on the network. While I’ve greatly enjoyed my experience on EA, I have noticed some shortcomings that may cause me to eventually lose interest in the platform.
As I covered in two other posts in this series What I’ve Learned after a Week on Empire Avenue and What I’ve Learned after Two Weeks on Empire Avenue, EA has proven to be a great tool for networking, gaining exposure, and driving loyal traffic to your content. The users of EA are far more engaged (partially because they’re trying to win a game that scores you on activity) and they’re much more likely to click your links, like your FB page, follow you on twitter etc. These are the main benefits I’ve discovered about using Empire Avenue:
- expands your network
- gains followers, friends, mentions and likes
- provides a boost for your blog
- gives you “real” connections
- sharpens your social networking skills
- users tend to be more engaged (and actually click your stuff)
Having identified what I believe to be the main benefits of EA, in my third and fourth weeks on the network I’ve begun to discover some shortcomings for the platform.
Time commitment - The first being that it seems to require a big time commitment in order to be successful at raising your stock price. Now, EA is still tweaking and adjusting its scoring algorithms and there’s been a definite shift in the past couple weeks as to how they score activity, so I’m hoping my recent stagnation in stock price is due to those changes more than to my reduced activity on the site. However, I’ve noticed that people tend to lose interest in the site once they’ve stopped rising in share price as a result of their everyday social activities on other networks.
The connected disconnect – I outlined in earlier posts how Empire Avenue can be a great source of hits, likes, unique visitors etc. Unfortunately I’m noticing a flip side to that coin and that is that folks who are visiting your sites are doing so for the functionality of the EA game rather than to actually consume the content. So while I may receive 50% of my hits on this article from a link on Empire Avenue, I’m finding less than 15% of those visits actually consume and interact with the content. This could, however, be unique to my experience, I’d love to hear from others about this concept
Changing Scoring Atmosphere - EA is constantly tweeking it’s scoring algorithms and this can make it difficult to understand exactly what drives stock values and social scores on the site. I can’t be sure, but it feels recently as if the big one day bumps of 10+ points don’t happen the way they used to, and I can only attribute this to an adjustment made by EA. So the bottom line is, if they change the rules that make up the scoring once, how can you keep up the next time they change them?
All of these shortcomings included, I still find Empire Avenue entertaining and amusing as a game, but I’m beginning to wonder about it’s stamina as a prominent social-content-sharing destination.
Your turn: Feel the same as me about Empire Avenue? Or maybe you have a different opinion? Please share it with me in a comment.
Needless to say, small business owners have a lot of challenges in 2011. The biggest challenge is managing time. Anybody who’s been in business for themselves for any amount of time figures out very quickly that running a successful business of any type requires a big commitment from whoever owns and operates it.
So when discussing marketing, most small business owners want ideas and elements that are simple, easy, and (most importantly) effective. They typically don’t have a huge marketing budget and they cannot afford to absorb a marketing misstep as easily as a larger company can. In small business, if you spend $10-20k on a marketing plan and it’s ineffective, that can mean the end of your business.
So here are a few simple, easy and effective marketing tactics that should be a part of most marketing plans. Do these from the beginning and you’ll be setting a solid foundation for what will become your marketing plan:
Attending Conventions – Most industries have conventions that you can attend in most parts of the country. The purpose of these gatherings is typically to educate and connect people in a certain industry and they provide very useful opportunities to network with others in your field and also with those in businesses related to yours. If you have a decent ability to sell and represent your product, conventions provide plenty of chances to hand out cards and make connections with both potential customers and support people (such as distributors etc.)
Trade Shows – When done correctly, a company’s presence at relevant trade shows are a terrific opportunity to get your product in front of prospective buyers. For sales professionals who really know (or can learn) how to work show crowds, these events can be extremely effective sources for new business as well as increased brand awareness (which will grow the longer the company can maintain a presence at particular trade shows.)
Contact/Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce – This is easily the simplest thing a company can do when it gets started. Contact your local chamber of commerce and find out about becoming a member and attending their events. These events are usually gatherings of other members of the chamber (other small business owners) and are wonderful chances for anybody who serves other businesses (IT, accountant, ahem…marketing professionals) to meet owners of other local businesses who might need your services.
Joining Trade Associations - Trade associations typically give a number of benefits to its members. The biggest ones are networking opportunities, industry education, advertising opportunities, and discounts on related products and services. By joining a relevant trade association in your industry and attending its meetings, events, conventions etc. your business will be opened up to several new opportunities to grow your contacts and potential customer-base.
Got any other ideas? Leave a comment and share some other quick and easy marketing ideas, they might end up in a follow up post!
Social Media use is trending upward in the U.S. with two thirds of small business owners saying they now use some sort of social media for their business. Here’s a cool infographic I designed using statistics outlined in the Network Solutions State of Small Business Report and Hubspot’s State of Inbound Marketing Report.
Key points I noticed in the studies:
65% of small business owners now publish a blog for their company – Blogging as a medium of course has continued to grow in interest and readership. Businesses that can provide informative content about their niche for their target market are finding blogs to be effective in creating brand awareness and driving new business.
36% of small business owners said that social media fell short of their expectations – In my opinion this stems from two things: unrealistic expectations and/or ineffective (or non-existent) social media strategies. It’s important to have some sort of handle on both before taking on social media for your company.
So here it is, hope you enjoy it, and please feel free to use it, share it, and post it on your blogs (and please link to me if you do and send it to me)
The last infographic I did The Importance of Local Listings for Small Business also got a great response. Please feel free to check it out.
What do you think of my infographic? I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas about this and any other infographic. I am really enjoying the process of making these and would be interested in hearing from others about ideas, criticisms, or anything. Let’s hear it.
I’m very excited to report that my new ebook “Local Winning: How to use Local Search Sites to Get Found on the Internet and Gain More Customers” has received it’s first online review! Allen Taylor of Taylor and Associates was kind enough to post a few (thankfully) very nice words about the book and I urge all of you to read it here and follow/connect with/subscribe to Allen in all his endeavors online. The review is greatly appreciated and hopefully is not the last positive review the ebook receives.
Here’s the link of the review:
http://taylor-and-associates.com/seo-local-search/free-ebook-offer-local-winning
Local Winning is an ebook for small business owners and it’s loaded with information and ideas on how to maximize your presence on local search listing sites like Google Places™, Yelp and Yahoo Local.
Please read my announcement of the book here for more info:
#LocalWinning Ebook Annoucement
For those of you wishing to receive an advanced copy of the book please tweet me for it here or you can send an email request to darren[at]darrenjdeverux[dot]com
In case you didn’t know: Youtube is huge. And why do you care as a small business owner? Because videos that are found to be entertaining on youtube are shared and viewed millions of times giving whatever is in that video (perhaps your company) the kind of exposure that marketing firms would pay tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands to achieve.
A note about youtube and this article: If you’ve been reading this blog then you know that we like to provide information that small business owners can use themselves without needing a marketing degree to understand. You also know I like to write things that you can actually help your business with and with that in mind I’m not going to publish another list of basic Youtube functions like “use the annotations” or “connect with the youtube community”.
No, this post is more valuable for small business owners than the general gobbledygook lists that pop up out there when you search for small business Youtube tips. Yes, it’s important to learn how to use youtube, and I may eventually write a post about how to use it, but this article is about specific things you can use Youtube for to gain more customers, which is what we’re all looking for isn’t it? So here are a few ideas I’ve come up with over the years for my own clients and they’ve worked well for local businesses.
Learn the elements of a viral video – Or as was so eloquently expressed in this post from Ben The 5 Key Elements to Viral Video you need to use all or some of the ingredients or the WOWAH formula (Wow, OMGLOL, What?, Awwww, and HMM). Before you start using youtube to gain customers for your business it’s good to learn some of the stuff that has made youtube a successful medium for brands everywhere. Do some research on the art of the viral video and see if you can find a method or group of methods that might work for your type of business. There are a lot of things that make a successful viral video (and you’ll find that there is no set formula.)
Publicity Stunts – Again, the art of the publicity stunt is something you’ll have to research a little if you haven’t already. But once you’ve decided to use this useful guerilla-styled marketing tactic, filming or involcing a youtube video of whatever stunt you pull will bring more attention to it and, if it’s good, will make people want to share the video of your awesome publicity stunt with their friends.
Example: A youtube user in the Netherlands decided that she was going to get all of her Facebook friends’ avatar pics tattooed on her arm and she filmed the process for youtube. The stunt was written about in dozens on blogs and the video (featured below) was viewed almost 3 million times. Now, imagine if you owned the tattoo shop that gave her the tattoo? And what if your sign or poster was visible in the video for the tattoo session? That would mean that you’re company just got 3 million views for free!
P.S.: It was later revealed that the tattoo was not real and a second round of publicity raged as all the blogs who wrote about it had to return and write about the video again.
Pranks and Humorous Videos – The most viewed videos on Youtube almost always involve humor of some type. So how do you involve humor in a video involving your company? Be creative! If you have a pizza place hold a contest to see who can fir the most pizza slices in their mouth, film your teenager stuffing his cheeks to the max with your delicious slice (with your sign or poster featured prominently) and put it on Youtube! It’s not going to work for every type of business, but if you can harness the power of humor in your youtube video, odds are people who find it funny will share it.
It’s your turn: Do you know of any ways in which youtube can help small businesses gain customers? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
We had a terrific response to last week’s post What I’ve Learned After a Week on Empire Avenue so I decided to follow up with more of my findings and discoveries as I explore this new fun social network from the perspective of a marketer.
In my first week on Empire Avenue I quickly learned that it’s a useful tool worth adding to your social marketing toolkit because it actually provides a number of benefits such as:
- expanding your network
- gaining followers, friends, mentions and likes
- providing a boost for your blog
After two weeks on EAv I must say that I still enjoy it far better than Google +. In 14 days I’ve been introduced to dozens of social contacts (something I did not see for months on Twitter or Facebook) and my Facebook page likes, Linkedin network, Twitter followers, Youtube subscriptions and blog visitors have all increased considerably. My stock has multiplied many times over (I now have 135 stockholders and a net worth of 550 thousand or so.) The nature of the game motivates people to connect with one another, share content and drive traffic to various sites, videos and articles. Here are the latest benefits of Empire Avenue I’ve discovered:
1. “Real” Connections – For whatever reason, the connections I’ve made on EAv seem to be more valuable. Finding people in your interest area is quite simple and conversations are easily started and encouraged throughout the site. I’ve connected with a number of marketers, small business owners, and bloggers on EA and instead of just following or friending and saying nothing (as per other sites) on EAv sending shoutouts, mentions and recommendations adds to your score, so people are encouraged to talk!
2. It Sharpens Your Social Skills - Since joining EA, I find myself more conscious of how many times a day I tweet, or how many times I’ve posted something on Facebook. I’m more conscious about getting likes and retweets for my updates which means I’m thinking about how to provide better content. Getting a higher value on EA is achieved by using your other social profiles effectively. So by nature, the game makes you sharpen your skills on your other networks.
3. People actually click your stuff - I haven’t done the math yet, but I’m noticing a lot more clicks on links I post in communities on EAv than I ever do on twitter. Example: I received over 10 requests to review my new ebook #LocalWinning when I posted the opportunity on Empire Avenue two days ago. It took me two weeks of tweeting to get the same number.
(By the way if you’d like to review it, please click here and tweet me.)
Certainly continuing to notice the benefits of maintaining a presence on Empire Avenue. The only issue with it thus far is the time consumption, but as long as it remains a fun challenge and continues to yield the results laid out in this guide I don’t foresee me slowing down any time soon.
Another cool thing that I’ve learned about: my Empire Avenue badge which is now prominently featured in the column to the right. Please feel free to watch my stock price rise.
It’s your turn: Have you discovered any other useful things about Empire Avenue? Please share them in a comment below.
Local Search Rankings Rule
In a recent post I outlined The Importance of Local Search Listings for small businesses and now I thought I’d share what I’ve learned about how a company can climb to the top of these crucial local search rankings.
Getting to the Top of Local Search Rankings
Getting to the top of local search results depends on a number of factors. The concept of “search engine marketing” is hot topic that hot-shot marketers study and release surveys of every year.
Bottom Line: These are the Main Things to Worry About: Focus on the following factors when managing your company’s listing and your company will appear higher in local search rankings:
1. NAP (name, address, phone number) – This has shown to be the most important factor in your company’s ranking on local search sites. So make sure that the name, address, and phone number that is on your listing is also shown identically on your website in a place that google can find it (crawlable) (view factor #5)
2. Manually owner-verified page – Google says that less than 20% of the businesses listed on Google Places™ are claimed and controlled by their owners. So one BIG (and easy) thing you can do (and should’ve already done if you’re reading this article) to increase your ranking is to claim your business on it’s respective listing site.
3. Properly assigned category selections – If you’re an accountant, don’t list yourself in the “banking” section. Proper assignment of categories is the third largest factor in determining your small business’ ranking on local search.
4. Volume of traditional structured citations (your company’s info on other sites) – The amount of times your company’s information is listed on other sites factors in 4th for importance. The key here is to make sure your company’s NAP is listed on as many sites as possible.
5. Address on website (“crawlable” in text, not an image) Matches Address on place page – Building on the first factor, this is something that a lot of business owners miss. Make sure that your physical address is on your website in text (not an image) and that it matches your local listings.
6. Page rank (your website’s page rank on Google™in general) – Your company’s general ranking on Google™ is the 6th factor in its position on local search rankings. So study up on SEO (possibly by reading my post on Small Business SEO Basics) and get your website to the top of Google for the keywords of your choosing.
7. Quality of inbound links (other sites that link to your page) – Another large factor of SEO as a whole are inbound links. These are qualifying links on other websites that lead to your site. Getting inbound links is an art form by itself and many marketers spend the majority of their time pursuing inbound links to raise relevance. Focus on this as best you can.
8. Phone number on website matches phone number on place page – Again, consistency being the key here. There’s no reason why your phone number shouldn’t match the one in your Google Places™ listing, but if it doesn’t, be sure to fix that ASAP.
A key piece of information that is released every year is a survey done by David Mihm and it’s called the Local Search Ranking Factors Project. If you’re interested in really diving into local search ranking this guy’s website is an ultra-valuable tool.
Do you know any other factors in local search ranking? Have you used these methods and found success? Please leave me a comment and share your experience in local search with me. I appreciate your comments and will do my best to respond expeditiously.
Empire Avenue (or EA) is the latest addicting social network “game” that gives users an individual stock price that is measured by your activity on EA along with your influence on various social network sites (Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Linkedin, Youtube, Flickr).
After one week playing around on the site I will first say that I like it 10 times more than Google+. Also, the benefits of using EA are becoming evident and measurable for me in a real way. While my stock price has risen 200% (I now have 65 stockholders invested in me) that hasn’t been as exciting as the fact that I have gained a considerable amount of “likes” for my Facebook page, a good number of new followers on twitter, and dozens of unique visits to my website all directly from my activity on EA. So after a week, here are the major elements that have shown me the value of being on EA:
1. Expanding your network - I’ve made more “online friends” in one week on EA than I have on any other social network. Bloggers, designers, web folks. EA scores you based on how much you interact with people. Each activity on your connected social networks adds to your social score and stock price. In effect, this seems to make users actually use their social networks and reach out to people and connect with them on each social network site. The name of the game is to communicate and connect.
2. Gain followers, friends, mentions and likes - Because EA encourages users to be active on other social sites like Twitter and Facebook, EA members are very receptive to invites and connecting on sites outside of EA. Again, because it raises your score, being on EA will definitely increase your twitter followers, Facebook friends and likes, and Youtube views.This is a wonderfully beneficial element of the scoring process because not only does it make other connect with you more, it also encourages you to stay active on each of your sites.
3. A boost for your blog – Another fortunate effect of being an active member of EA has been that my blog has seen a boost in its number of visits, tweets, and shares from fellow EA members. While certainly most of these have come from people wishing to raise their score, it gives the site an added avenue of exposure that it would not have had otherwise. More exposure, more hits, more shares = triple win!
So there’s definite value to being on Empire Avenue right now and I plan to work on a guide as I explore and learn more about the site. These are the three biggest benefits I’ve noticed in the first week and I’m not going to be one of these guys that pretends to be an expert, I’ll wait until I’m a real expert. 
What have you learned about EA so far? Any tips, tricks, or benefits? Please share your EA knowledge with us a comment and I’ll include it in the next blog in this series. Thank you ahead of time for your input!
Coming Soon!
LOCAL WINNING: How to Use Local Search Sites to Get Found on the Internet and Gain More Customers
Click here to Tweet for an Advanced Copy
Darren J Deverux’s first E-Book loaded with information and ideas on how to maximize your presence on local search listing sites like Google Places™, Yelp and Yahoo Local.
Did you know: 7 out 10 online consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation and Google now says that 20% of all search queries are “location-based”
This FREE E-Book is a must-read for any small business owner who wants to know how to:
• Create and/or Claim Your Company’s Profile on over 20 useful local search sites
• Rank Higher in Local Search Results
• Get Loads of Positive Customer Reviews Online
• Get Your Business Found on the Internet
• Gain More New Customers Regularly
• Improve Your Company’s Online Presence and Overall Credibility
Darren J Deverux has been helping small businesses market their companies for over 10 years. He’s created the Local Winning series from his knowledge and experiences in successfully executing local search campaigns for a number of companies all of which saw an immediate improvement in one if not all of the above listed areas. Local Winning is an essential toolkit for any small business owner and/or marketer needing a complete guide to the fastest growing element on online business: local search.
Want to review the book early?
Click here to send me a tweet (@DarrenJDeverux) with the hashtag #LocalWinning and I’ll email you an advanced copy for review.
{EAV_BLOG_VER:572102d0239f8ed8}
I am beyond ecstatic to announce the launching of my new (and only) personal blog with the domain being my namesake darrenjdeverux.com.
The site is still in it’s young stages, and I will be perpetually adding more content, but I hoped to achieve a minimalist appearance as to keep the focus on the high-quality marketing information I will continue to provide on this site. To all who have followed me from the SmartBiz Marketing Blog I welcome and thank you profusely for following along as we build this online presence aimed at helping small business owners take over the world. If you have found me on Facebook, Twitter, Empire Avenue or any of the other social networks I am a part of, please leave me a comment and tell me so!
For the occasion of the launch, and as a wannabe superblogger, I make the following 5 pledges:
1. To always do my best to provide accurate, relevant, and useful content that helps small business owners gain more customers and sell more products and services.
2. To never re-post or copy-and-paste links to other posts in replacement of quality scheduled posts of my own.
3. To approve all comments that aren’t SPAM including criticism and suggestions to improve the site.
4. To always write articles that small business owners can use without needing a marketing degree to understand.
5. To connect and respond to my readers whenever they tweet, share, comment, update, IM, email, call, write, knock, visit or carry out any other form of communication pointed at me. I feel very lucky to have anybody pay attention to me and your questions, comments, insights, guest posts and all else are very welcome!
Please connect with me:
On Twitter: @DarrenJDeverux
On Facebook: Darren’s Facebook Page
On Empire Avenue: /darrenjdev
#LocalWinning
