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Call Seven North Web & Graphics at 727-894-5266 in St Petersburg, Florida to talk about setting a Wordpress website as the hub for your social media marketing program.

From WPBeginner:

Hey, these are big companies!

Ebay,  Yahoo,  Digg,  Ford,  Wall Street Journal,  Sony,  People Magazine,  Samsung,  Playstation,  NYTimes, Wired,  Firefox,  GigaOm,  CNN,  Network Solutions,  Flickr,  Download,  Ben & Jerrys,  cPanel,  General Electronics,  Rackspace…

The don’t have to use the open source, free Wordpress blogging platform, but they know they couldn’t get a better CMS at any price.

WordPress is a nifty software for managing content, or blogging. Due to the fact that it is open source, many say that it is not the best choice for a serious project due to insecurity and bunch of other nonsense reasons. To prove those points wrong and show you that WordPress can be used for serious projects that can go big scale, we are highlighting the most popular brands that are using WordPress.

1. Ebay. Ebay manages their official blog using WordPress. They have it custom designed to make it look flashy. Even though it doesn’t look like WordPress, it is WordPress.

2. Yahoo. Yahoo is also using WordPress to power multiple blogs that they own…..

Read the whole list here.

Call Seven North Web & Graphics at 727-894-5266 in St Petersburg, Florida to talk about setting a Wordpress website as the hub for your social media marketing program.

Like any other honest marketing endeavor, Social Media Marketing involves real work! From the The4EBlog:

Social media optimization is now a relatively delicate process. Traditional link building campaigns often involve blatantly asking for links, or simply buying them. In contrast, social media optimization is only effective if a marketer can convince others to link to material, not by asking, but by creating fantastic content. Most people’s accounts and profiles on social media websites are intrinsically attached to their offline self. Unlike people who run a website that includes a designated “Links” page, social media users are not likely to add a company’s profile as a “friend” or vote for a company’s content just because they’re asked to. The majority of people want their user history on sites like Digg and Reddit, and their friend lists on MySpace and Facebook to reflect something about their personalities. The less socially appealing and more exploited your industry is offline, the harder it will be for you to take advantage of online communities.

Read more about business integration of social media.

Call Seven North Web & Graphics at 727-894-5266 in St Petersburg, Florida to talk about setting a Wordpress website as the hub for your social media marketing program.

From Mashable

Why use social media?

The best way to illustrate why small businesses are using social media is with a story. Think back to the days of the wild west. In those days, towns had one general store, and the store owner knew everyone. People trusted him and knew what they were getting. Enter the industrial age, and efficiency trumped personalization. People didn’t mind where they bought from, as long as goods were cheap.

Now, that mentality has changed. Consumers are once again reverting to a need for personalization from businesses large and small. The need has been rekindled by the Internet and our ability to find anything we want, as well as a mistrust of advertising (think used cars salesmen).

We’ve reached a point where the consumer wants to know the store owner’s name and that he can be trusted. Small businesses must look beyond their want to grow into corporations, and instead focus on their core customers. Thanks to social media, we’re able to foster these relationships easily and quickly.

Read the whole story, 5 Easy Social Media Wins for Your Small Business, on Mashable.

Call Seven North Web & Graphics Web Design at 727-894-5266 in St Petersburg, Florida to talk about setting a Wordpress website as the hub for your social media marketing program.

Twitter brings the To Go orders and a new sense of community. If they can do it in Houston, it can be done in St Petersburg:

Nothing can build your brand faster than being or doing something remarkable. Seth Godin, author of the recently released Tribes calls this becoming “The Purple Cow”. Cohen didn’t set out to become a Purple Cow – but with one brief 140 character message – that’s exactly what he’s done.

On October 31st, 2008 Sean Stoner (@maslowbeer) was hungry. As a regular customer at CoffeeGroundz he sent the following Twitter to Cohen:

Read the whole story here at Blog of Mr. Tweet.

Call Seven North Web & Graphics Web Design at 727-894-5266 in St Petersburg, Florida to talk about setting a Wordpress website as the hub for your social media marketing program.

Say that you are blogging to create community and a better page-rank for your small St Petersburg Fl business. Say that you are flat out of inspiration for a compelling blog post. What the heck should you write about?

About.com to the rescue:

3. Conduct an Interview
You can contact a customer, distributor, supplier, manufacturer, or even an employee and ask if they would be interested in answering some questions to appear in an interview on your blog. Most people don’t mind the online exposure and interviews give your blog readers an inside look into your business.
4. Highlight Your Office, Employees and So On
Another way to give your blog readers a view into your business and help them make a personal connection with it (which leads to customer loyalty) is by inviting them behind the scenes. Post photos and stories about employees or photos of your office. Write about company events or anything else that lets your readers feel like they’re part of your “family.”

Read the whole piece:
10 Business Blog Posts
Business Blog Post Ideas to Keep Your Company Blog Interesting

Call Seven North Web & Graphics Web Design at 727-894-5266 in St Petersburg, Florida to talk about setting a Wordpress website as the hub for your social media marketing program.

Lorrie Thomas Tells it like it is to Dr. Ralph Wilson of wilsonweb.com.
How Social Media Helps Small Businesses Sell

When small businesses empower their target consumers, they feel powerful. When your target market feels powerful, it trusts you, buys from you, and stays with you. Social media collaboration transforms consumers into prosumers. In an era of social media prosumers, it’s people (not companies) who make, shape, or break purchase patterns.
Small businesses can ignite collaboration for marketing by creating their own communities and/or joining communities. By doing so, they can listen and connect to their target customers and build a free forum to bring their market together. Collaboration = Marketing Acceleration.
Social media collaboration tools like review sites, video sharing sites, blogs, wikis and more allow users to self-serve, collaborate, and potentially serve as an endorser for your small business. Social media works as a marketing tool because people are more likely to trust peers rather than companies.

Read the whole piece here.

Call Seven North Web & Graphics Web Design at 727-894-5266 in St Petersburg, Florida to talk about setting a Wordpress website as the hub for your social media marketing program.

What a useful summation! It leads off with a little history:

In the early days (late ‘90’s) online advertisers focused on reaching the largest possible audience. The thinking was if they threw enough mud against the wall some of it would stick. Headline making deals were done for banner ads and sponsorships on the major portals, but the little guy didn’t get a look in.
Then in 2003 Google introduced Adwords. This was a genuine revolution.
Ads were only served to pages with relevant content and advertisers only paid if their ads were clicked on. The shotgun had been swapped for a rifle; relevant ads aimed at a relevant audience. Suddenly small businesses were able to get out of the car park and onto the ball park.
But the more people that used Adwords, the higher the price and the less cost-effective it became (today Adwords remains popular but once again it’s the big advertisers who have muscled in).
This led to many of the early adopters to look elsewhere.
They re-focused their attention to optimizing their websites for the search engines to generate free traffic. Free search engine listings tended to generate better quality traffic, but this too had its limitations and risks. Google could play God; one day you are on page one of the search results, then next day … poof… like Houdini in a mirrored box, you’ve disappeared. And there is nothing you can do about it, except plead and beg to be re-listed.
Entrepreneurs and marketers needed to find a cost effective way of getting relevant traffic without over-dependence on Google.
The answer was to build up a good reputation on the Internet amongst the people who were most interested in your subject. These people would then become your followers, evangelists and ultimately bring new customers to your door.
And so Social Media Marketing was born (although the title came along long after it was established).

Read Part 1 and Part 2 at SubHub.com

Call Seven North Web & Graphics Web Design at 727-894-5266 in St Petersburg, Florida to talk about setting a Wordpress website as the hub for your social media marketing program.

Remember LinkedIn? The place you dust off between jobs?

From Social Media Today

Fill your profile with colorful language, not drab resume-speak. There is a reason why the site is called LinkedIn, not ResumePlace. Verify the headline either is a mirror of your job title or a description of what you do. Change your headline as often as you’d like; mine currently states, Online media strategist and community manager for business and government, and Newburyport City Council candidate. Flesh out the summary and don’t be afraid it’s too long. Most summaries I see are too short.

Read the complete piece here.

These are some proposed neon sign designs for a St Petersburg, Florida sushi bar and restaurant. The sign will be six feet wide. The owner picked one of the designs. Which one would you have picked?

Call Seven North Web & Graphics Web Design at 727-894-5266 in St Petersburg, Florida to talk about setting a Wordpress website as the hub for your social media marketing program.
How can they buy you if they can’t see you?

From Online Marketing Blog

http://www.toprankblog.com/

Traditional marketing tactics would emphasize making an offer that makes so much sense, like swapping a messy icebox for a modern refrigerator at the same cost; consumers would “buy in”.

The problem with continuing to rely on that model of marketing is increasing numbers of consumers ignore formal marketing messages and offers. If they don’t notice the offer, they can’t respond to it.

As the social web eliminates physical boundaries for making connections with friends, family, like minded individuals and even the brands people buy from, there’s more interest in a participatory or social marketing process. Consumers connect about things of interest to them and brands have an opportunity to listen and engage in conversations in a way that demonstrates the value of their products and services. There’s an opportunity to provide value, before seeing a direct return. The give to get principle for social media participation by brands results in goodwill, educated consumers and buzz.

A good example of that includes creating social network groups to provide consumers a place to socialize and for brands to introduce new products, gain feedback, crowd source ideas, “energize” brand evangelists and listen/respond to concerns. Mashable has a good write up on brands that use Facebook Fan pages that do this such as Pringles, Coca Cola, Starbucks, Adidas and Red Bull.

Read the whole story here.