Much has been talked about Social Media Marketing over recent years and its potential to drive online business and revenue. Few have mastered the use of Social Media. Even fewer have turned Social Media activities into hard cash.

Here is our guide on Social Media and the key steps in the Social Media process:

1. Content, content, content

If you are not able to generate good quality, unique and useful content on a regular basis you might as well stay clear of the Social Media route. Good content, if promoted correctly, gets you an audience. Ongoing good content gets you a following.

2. Become the expert

Not only do you need to publish good content you also need to become an expert in your field, publishing on blogs,  writing articles and white papers,  answering questions on niche forums.

3. Keyword focus

Make sure each post, document, video or status update you publish includes keyword rich anchor text to relevant pages on your website.

4. Automate content distribution

There are many ways you can automate communication with your target audience.  RSS feeds and ping allow users to subscribe to your content.

5. Publish, publish, publish

Publish your content wherever and whenever you can.  Avoid duplicate content and article spamming. Use blogs, forums, social networks, potcasts, youtube, flickr and other websites to publish quality content and comments.

6. Capture emails

Wherever you can, make sure you capture email addresses, that way you can support your Social Media activities with targeted email campaigns.

7. Drive Traffic to your main site

Anything you publish should link back to your main business website,  ideally to a page with relevant content. the web page should also have contact information and email sign-up forms.

8. Maintain Conversation

Keep in touch with your audience through social networks, forums, twitter, blog comments etc. Maintain the same identity so your audience can identify you as a trusted source.

9. Maintain steady effort

Keep up your Social Media effort at the same or increasing pace. Don’t stop and start.  Try to do something every day.

10. Budget for Social Media

Although most social media sites are free to use, your time is not.  Larger companies have teams to deliver their Social Media strategies. Other companies outsource to agencies at substantial costs. Social Media Marketing requires considerable effort and time.

Social Media is not free. Don’t fall for it.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is not just about keyword focus and link building. There is a lot more to it and it all starts with a well structured SEO audit.  If you are thinking of building a web-based business or if your business has a web-based channel you should read this post.

Here is what we include in  SEO audits and what we think you should look at when you define SEO projects for your business:

1. Business Objectives

SEO needs to be aligned with your business objectives. You need to know what you want to achieve and how to measure this. Especially if you are thinking of outsourcing SEO or recruiting staff to deliver SEO

2. Understand your Competitors

SEO success often depends what other companies do. Find out who your competitors are, both direct and online and what  their visibility is online.

3. Keyword Research and Analysis

Identify all business relevant key phrases. Think out of the box. What would search engine users type in to Google to find your business? Read more on keyword research.

4. Check indexation

If you have an existing site, make sure the website is indexed in search engines. Make sure there are no access limitations for robots, no site or server performance issues , no dead links or  site loading issues.

5. Ranking Report

You have to understand your current rankings for all major search engines. Which URLs are shown for which search term and at which position. You don’t want to undo good rankings. Equally you want to focus on rankings that can be improved.

6. On-page Optimisation

Is your current site keyword optimised? If you are launching a new website for your business make sure you define the optimal site structure before you build the website.

7. Internal Link Structure

Are you web pages linked in a ‘search engine’ optimised way. Have you used relevant keywords as link text between pages. For new websites, we highly recommend that you have a well defined link structure before you build your site.

8. Inbound Link Analysis

External links to your site are critical for SEO success. If you have existing links, are these links SEO optimised? Do they come from good neighbourhoods ? What links do your competitors have?

9. Resourcing

Search Engine Optimisation requires both upfront and ongoing resources. Do you have internal resources that can be trained or do you need to get an agency involved to deliver all or part of your SEO project.

10. SEO Budget

SEO costs money. Even very small SEO projects can cost £10k or more to achieve good rankings for a small number of keywords. You have to define your budget before you start SEO. Running out of money half way through any SEO campaign will do your ranking more harm than good. If you only have a small budget, set smaller targets.

If you want to find out more on SEO audits and our services please contact us or sign-up to our newsletter.

Too often new business start-ups spend their early stage resources on websites design, logos and corporate identity.  Of course these things are important, fun and give you a real sense of identity. However, before you even think of spending any money or time doing so, you should evaluate your idea. Make sure you do a reality check on how you can commercialise your business idea and at what cost.

Here some factors to consider:

1. Is your business idea / business model truly unique. If not can you improve on the existing business models?
2. What are your USP (unique selling points)?
3. Are you entering a market which is mature or growing. Either way, will the challenge for your business be a different one?
4. Where will you get your business leads from and at what cost?
5. Have you had an independent view on your business model, other than approval from friends and family?
6. Have you checked out size and sophistication of your competitors?
7. How long can you run your business on zero income?
8. Will your business model still be required in two years time?
9. Is your business satisfying a consumer or business need or are you just realising your own dream?
10. What ongoing time commitment and capital will you require to run the business for the next two years?

We hope the above list will get you thinking and planning before you even spend a penny on business collateral. Remember logo / website designs come fairly cheap these days but they are still a waste of money if you do not have a business model.

Not  a day goes by without somebody contacting us with a new idea for a website or application on the web. Now.. we could just go away, build to requirement and specification and charge for the project irrespective of viability of the idea.  However we don’t.

Before you start spending money on realising your web idea, there some things you should consider. Here is our ‘reality check’ or feasibility check list:

1. Do you need income from your project or is it just a little fun?
2. Is there existing demand for you idea? If not, why not?
3. How many sites / businesses are doing this already?
4. Is your idea commercially viable – will there be potential users?
5. What revenue models are available to fund your idea?
6. What search volume is available to drive traffic to your site?
7. Will it be feasible and cost effective to optimise your site?
8. Are there existing competitors that could deliver your idea?
9. Are there any open source apps you could use to realise your idea?
10. Could you partner with another company to realise your idea?

You see, it only takes a little web thinking to qualify and quantify an idea before you start spending money on it.

Welcome to Go Genie

You have an idea for a website or web application and everybody is telling you you need a big budget to realise your idea?  We don’t think so!  Talk to us.