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Online Marketing 201: Local Search & Social Media
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Learning Objectives
After this training you will: Understand what local search is, and how to register
in local search engines Know what social media/Web 2.0 is, and why you
need to be involved Understand how to leverage social media to
encourage volunteering Be able to measure your success from local search
and social media activities Understand how blogs work, and know how to start
a blog
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Monologues are over, no more: I’ll publish and put it out there and you’ll consume and you better not complain!. It is now a dialog.
- Avinash Kaushik, Occam’s Razor
The Web Has Changed
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What is Web 2.0?
Web 2.0/social media refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services — such as social-networking sites, wikis and folksonomies (also known as collaborative tagging , social classification, social indexing, social tagging ) .
These sites aim to facilitate collaboration and sharing between users.
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What is Local Search?
Why Local Search? More online searchers are looking for local
information “volunteer in Camden, NJ Local search results are displayed FIRST in
search engine results Recommendation engines get more traffic
than your site– Yelp.com has over 4 million visitors per month
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Local Search:Building Links from your Friends
Start off by getting links from your friends Convention & Visitors Bureaus Traditional Media Sites - newspapers, radio, TV Local city guides (search city name + “city
guide”) Local Business Associations - Rotary, Kiwanis,
Chambers of Commerce, etc.
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Local SearchGoogle’s Local Business Center
Sign in, create a listing, Google will mail you code, input code, you’re done!
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Local SearchYahoo! Local
Sign in, create a listing, input the code, you’re done!
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Local SearchTrueLocal.com
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Local SearchLive Search Maps
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Local SearchLive Search Maps
Go to the Local Listing Center Click on “Help” in Bottom Right Click on “Local Listing – Add a Listing” They will send you a letter with a verification
code Input the code You’re Done!
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Local SearchInsider Pages
How: http://www.insiderpages.com/advertiser/sign_up.html
Tell your story! Add photos, special offers & coupons, and a "message from the owner". Update hours, directions and contact info - it's ALL FREE, takes only a few minutes, and drives more customers to your non-
profit.
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Local SearchCraigslist.org
Over 30 million visitors/month
Volunteer section Community events
section Confirm posting via
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Local SearchKudzu.com
447,621 visitors/month
“List your business” on bottom of page
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Local SearchZVents
444,864 visitors/month
Event posting
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Local SearchEventful
564, 445 visitors/month
Can post events & groups
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Local SearchYelp.com
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Local SearchYelp
Do a search for your organization’s name and zip code to find out if you’re already in Yelp’s system.
On the bottom of the search result page, you’ll see a red button titled ADD BUSINESS which leads to a simple form where you can add your business.
Keep an eye on your reviews, but be restrained in firing back responses.
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Local SearchMerchant Circle
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Local SearchMerchant Circle
It offers a set of online marketing tools These tools include:
web page/landing page with a blog newsletter-sending capability Coupons Traffic reports, and more.
Simply click “join now” and you’re off and running!
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Local SearchSuperpages.com
8 million people/month
Listings provided to: About.com Lycos
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Social MediaIdealist.org
269,110 visitors/month
Post events, campaigns, volunteer opportunities, etc.
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Social MediaFacebook
34 million users
Create group profile, post events, join local networks
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Social MediaFacebook
Here’s how to get started with Facebook:
Create a personal Facebook account
Join your regional/city network, invite your friends, organizations & volunteers in your database
Create an event (on the left navigation). Make sure to pick which network to broadcast it to.
You can either use Facebook's guest list feature, or put the 1-800-Volunteer.org URL address for the volunteer opportunity in the "Description" field to track folks who have signed up.
Very simple. You've just reached out to a portion ofthe 34 million users that use Facebook.
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Social MediaGather.com
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Social MediaGather.com
Register as an individual Create your nonprofit as a group Invite your friends, encourage writers you
know to join, contribute & send their earnings to you
More detailed information here.
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Social MediaMeetup.Com
2.5 million users
Search in your area
Join existing groups, or start a group
Post your projects/events
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Measuring Success
Increased number of visitors from social media
Number of comments on your posts/blog Set up Google & Yahoo News Alert for your
Brand name Position of Brand Name & number of
mentions in Search Engines Number of Volunteer Referrals/Sign ups
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Learn More
Search Marketing for Nonprofits: http://SearchMarketingforNonProfits.wordpress.com
Exhaustive List of Social Bookmarking Sites http://mashable.com/2007/08/08/social-bookmarking-2/
Social Media Today http://www.socialmediatoday.com
The Original Signal – Web 2.0 blog http://www.originalsignal.com/
More Local Search Sites http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060831-090409
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Joining the Blogging Community
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So You Want to Start a Blog
Approximately 120,000 blogs are created every day
A blog is a website that needs to be promoted, or it won’t be found.
Technorati currently states it is tracking over 112.8 million blogs
What do I want to get out of maintaining this blog?
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Pick your Tool
Blogspot.com Easy to use interface, need to add Google
Analytics Wordpress.com
More advanced options Can create “pages” as well as posts Can host on your website Comes with watered down analytics
LiveJournal.com
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What are the Elements of a Good Blog?
Optimized for Search Engines Has an About page will help convert more
new visitors into loyal readers. Has social media links under each post Has an RSS feed using Feedburner Displays a blog search tool
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Promoting Your Blog
Your blog is a website – everything you learned about search marketing applies!
Post content using keywords & tags frequently
Submit to directories: http://www.stuntdubl.com/2006/01/16/blog-
promotion-tools/ Build Links Measure!
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Keep the Conversation Alive
Create an editorial calendar for your posts Start a dialogue with bloggers in your niche Ask someone to guest-post on your blog Thank your readers Participate in the comments on your blog
posts Stumped for Ideas? Brainstorm list here.
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Measuring Blog Success
New vs. returning visitors, length of stay RSS Subscribers Conversation Rate = Number of Visitor
Comments / Number of Posts Citations – people who link to your blog
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Blogging is a lot of work!
Don’t just blog for the sake of blogging.
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Questions?
Katherine Watier
Watier Creative
Nonprofit Search Marketing Consultant
301-793-6121
