Archive for get found by google
Another Reason to Verify Your Google Places Account
Posted by: | CommentsGoogle announced today that businesses can now publicly respond to reviews posted to Google Places – but only if you have a verified account. As part of the consolidation into Google Places, the big G showed consumer-posted reviews of local businesses. (They are still in a dispute with review site Yelp.com over the reviews). While some believe that any publicity is good, when someone publicly posts a bad review of your practice the natural inclination is to want to respond. Until now, that has not been possible. So it’s time to verify your Google account.
Of course, interacting with those who post reviews is good business too. Take the time to thank them. After all, they took the time to compliment you! Big G even has some tips on responding to both positive and negative reviews of your business.
We’ll be talking about Google Places on the Third Thursday call this month. Join us if you’d like to know more about getting your practice found online.
5 Marketing Musts for Your Practice
Posted by: | CommentsHere are 5 Marketing “musts” for your practice:
- Know Who Your Dream Clients Are. You must clearly define WHO you help and the problem you solve for your Dream Clients. But that is just the start. You need to know everything about them – from language to where they hang out – it is important to really know who your clients are.
- Know Your Uniqueness. There are plenty of attorneys, therapists, coaches, healers and accountants out there. What is it that sets you apart from every other one?
- Have a Great Elevator Speech. In its shortest form, your elevator speech says, “I help [Dream Clients] [problem you solve]. I help experienced solo professionals get their websites found in online searches.
- Professional Photo. You don’t have to be in a stuffy business suit, but have a professional headshot photo. Use it on your written materials like brochures, on your website and blog and for your profile picture online. (Upload it to Gravatar so it appears everywhere). Department store photos are inexpensive and fine if you have the skills to do some basic photo editing.
- Networking. Whether online or in person, solo professionals need to get out more. Don’t just hang out with others in your profession. Go to events held by related professions. If you are an accountant who specializes in small businesses, look for small business owners at Meetup Groups, the local Chamber of Commerce or service group like Rotary International. The same goes for your online connections on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
These are just 5 “musts” to help you start your online marketing campaign so you can get your practice found in online searches.
Facebook Privacy Settings: Profile Options
Posted by: | CommentsFacebook privacy options and settings have gone through several revisions in 2009. We will review all your privacy options, starting with the settings for your Facebook Profile. You can access this from the drop-down Settings menu at the top right of the page.
From the drop-down menu, select Settings, then Privacy Settings, and finally Profile.
Facebook_Privacy_Settings
From here, you are presented with the privacy options for all aspects of your Profile.
Facebook_Privacy_Options
For each selection, you can decide who can see what on your Facebook profile. Your choices include
- Everyone
- Friends & Networks
- Friends of Friends
- Only Friends
- Customize
Facebook Custom Privacy Menu
If you use Facebook for both personal and business use, the ability to customize who can see what is the feature you want to explore and use. You can specify which groups of people can see your information. So for example, if you post your family and relationship information you can make it available only to your personal friends and exclude your business friends from seeing it. Using lists streamlines this process even more.
Remember that these are the overall settings. Facebook continues to introduce new options, including the ability to customize who sees each status update. This is great news for those who mix personal and business on Facebook.
Connect Your Blog to Your Facebook Fan Page
Posted by: | CommentsCreating a massive online presence involves creating content on the web. Many solo professionals are intimidated by the thought of writing a large amount of content. Fear not. It’s all about leveraging the content that you write.
The web provides many opportunities to leverage your writing. Remember that getting found online is about creating content that the search engines will find and like. Blogs create that type of content.
One of the ways to save time and leverage your blog content is to connect your blog to your practice’s Facebook Fan Page. When you connect them, your blog posts will automatically be posted on your Fan Page. No extra work for you and double the pages online. Sweet, huh?
The application I use to do this is called Networked Blogs. It is simple to set it up. To verify that you are the author can be done either of 2 ways: installing a bit of code on your blog or having 10 friends verify it, which they warn you will take longer and it does – considerably longer. But once your blog is verified, you can double your content and get found online.
