MDS Resource — Digital Ad Agency

Tag: relationships

Who Else Wants Location Based Social Media?
Location Based Social Media Is Where We’re At
Connecting with others regardless of proximity is one of the strongest values Social Media brings to the table. My blog may be read in earnest around the world and I appreciate that. LinkedIn has brought business to table with people I’ve not met nor am I likely to meet (e.g., China, India.) Exchanging tweets across the universe is fun and rewarding. So, what is all of this hoopla about Location Based Social Media?
That being said, I do in fact live here, in this specific place, and not only to I reside here, but I shop here, I eat here and I come face-to-face with hundreds of people every week — right here in Minneapolis, MN USA. Most businesses I see do not benefit from ecommerce and shopping carts. Somebody in Afghanistan on the Internet can go to target.com and order a 4-slice toaster; Target will do the currency exchange and ship the toaster to them the next day — everybody wins. On the other hand, my dentist in Plymouth, MN is not likely to benefit from that Afghani shopper. My dentist has a service area outside of which he’s not likely to profit.
Location Based Social Media are the darlings of 2010. New social media platforms, known as Location Based Services, add a contextual layer of movement and proximity to our relationships online and offline. Location Based Services are smartphone applications utilizing GPS to provide information and social networking relevant to our current location. Location Based Social Media are our interfaces to these applications. We are exploring our community online, tracking our friends whereabouts, recent activities, opinions and we shout out to our world where we are and how we want to be found.
What does Location Based Social Media mean to you? ABI Research estimates, “By 2014 global LBS revenues will have surpassed $14 billion.” The more detailed information we have on prospect behavior patterns and social context, the better we find something truly valuable to offer them. We can also provide more specific, directed information based on the location of our best audiences. Location Based Social Media is particularly valuable for brick and mortar store front business who need to drive local traffic to their store, and for anyone promoting an event at a physical venue.
Basic Types of Location Based Social Media
Kate Shaw categorizes the main types of Location Based Social Media in a blog post “Comprehensive Guide to Location-Based Social Media.”
Social Check-in Sites
Social Check-in sites enable users to access information about businesses in the local area. At the same time, Social check-in sites encourage users to develop location based relationships with other users, with their other social networks and with local businesses.
Offer incentives to users to check-in and frequent your establishment. Compelling offers bring new customers to your location and build loyalty with your existing customers. Encourage users to check-in on any and all Location Based Social Media. Honor incentives you offer across any Location Based Social Media a user may use.
Listen to your guests! Review sentiment. Comment on posts. Acknowledge Testimonials and Referrals. Most Location Based Social Media have Facebook and Twitter connections that allow your guests to promote your business to their entire social network.
Some Location Based Social Media have search options facilitating keyword and brand term searches. Look for opportunities to promote special offers to users checking in to a nearby locations. Some Location Based Social Media have advertising platforms that enables marketers to purchase advertisements based either on category or location.
Social Review Sites
Social Review sites encourage users to publish online reviews, referrals and Testimonials based on their experiences at restaurants, hotels, shops and wherever you and your business are found in Location Based Social Media. Quality scores can be assigned to each comment based on this user-generated content.
Not all Social Review sites are Location Based Social Media.
Social Review sites are critical for brick-and-mortar business — do not skip your strategy here. Utilize Social Review sites for the free market research they offer — make the changes your customers ask for as appropriate.
Social Review sites enable businesses to publish local business content. Many Social Review sites facilitate offering coupons and discount offers to loyal customers.
Make absolutely certain that your guests remember that you exist on Social Review sites. Ask them for their Testimonial. Acknowledge customers that take time to post the positive reviews. Respond to your negative reviews with tact and consummate professionalism.
Local businesses need to listen closely to what their customers say about you, and respond to their suggestions and complaints.
There is no more effective marketing than Testimonials. Every review, every referral, every comment is a Testimonial to the quality of your business. The more positive Testimonials you accumulate, the greater your authority and credibility in your community.
In real life you cannot please everybody. Everybody cannot be your best customer. Some customers cannot be satisfied. The minority negative review is real life. Occasional dissatisfaction is more believable than saccharin drivel, and builds your online personality.
Social Scheduling Sites
Social Scheduling sites facilitate sharing your “social calendar” with your social networks. Individuals can find out about upcoming events. Networks of people can plan anything from birthday parties to movie dates.
- Loopt
- Plancast
Rather than publishing to the world where you are at at this moment, Social Scheduling sites facilitate sharing where you will be. Like a public calendar, you publish where you’re going, which events you will attend and with whom you are going.
Social Scheduling sites often include comment and review functionality. Other users comment, share information, and they can publish their own intent with a “count-me-in” button.
Social Scheduling sites can facilitate keyword searching, so customers and Location Based Social Media can find out about your events. Any marketing involving conferences, meetups, parties, or other get-togethers will benefit.
Conclusions About Location Based Social Media
Carefully examine the list of Location Based Social Media. Explore the pros and cons. Determine which platforms will best help you communicate with your customers. Marketing Local Business Online demands that you go where your customers are. Be found everywhere they are looking for you.
Listen carefully and learn from your guests. Self-reporting your location has a value in itself. Declaring your current location is more than just a piece of information — your intention is behind it. Suppose you’re in a bar and the name of the place is broadcast to your colleagues. That’s both a statement about where you are and an invitation to others. They can infer about your availability or your willingness to interact socially.
Engage with your guests — communicate — bring something of value to the conversation.
Remember that Location Based Social Media is very new. You are marketing to early adopters with voyeuristic tendencies and enormous digital mouths.
Be genuine. Engage your guests with open arms, a big smile and kind words. Offer them the right incentives at the right time. Your Location Based Social Media community will become your most loyal customers and loudest evangelists. Location Based Social Media is where we’re at.
26 September 2010
Top Ten (10) Excuses NOT To Write Your Blog
Blog Writing Is Marketing Local Business Online
Blog Writing Is Marketing Local Business Online
Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Of Excuses …
Truth be told, all of the excuses listed below I have used myself. Yes, I’m as guilty — perhaps, more guilty because of my vocation — of irregular blog writing as many of you dear readers perusing this post. Writing my Blog is Social Media. For my Blog to be found I must publish. Search Engine Marketing assumes that my online marketing words can be found; therefore, blog writing is essential to my business success.
Knowing that it is human nature to avoid the unknown, those things in life and business that we do not understand, I, too, have procrastinated and equivocated. Today, Labor Day here in the USA, I want to take a few precious minutes to explore the very best, World Class excuses for not sitting down once or twice each week and scribbling to the world why, O why, are we in business?
Without Further Ado, Here Is My Top Ten List Of Blog Writing Excuses:
1. I don’t have anything to say.
  Really? How do you sell anything? What do you want to say to your Best Customer when she’s sitting eyeball-to-eyeball with you? I know that you are passionate about what you offer; and I know that you will have a great deal to say to every eager Prospect ready to buy what you do best. Suppose you said some of this online. Furthermore, suppose somebody new reads your online words. Is it beyond reason that some of them will be influenced by your words, and ask to buy from you? Blog writing is nurturing your relationship with your marketplace.
2. Nobody wants to read my blog.
  Rest assured, everybody is an authority in something — even you. Regardless online or offline, marketing your business requires you to build a relationship with each Prospect, nurture those relationships, and to service those relationships throughout your business life. Every relationship begins with a single conversation. Some will listen, some are not interested — that is the way of business. When you speak to a larger audience, what happens to the number of your listeners? What larger audience opportunity do you have than blog writing?
3. I don’t like to write.
  Do you like to write sales orders? Will you write a proposal for me? How do you feel when you endorse a check? Writing is an extension of what you have to say. When you are comfortable with speaking with great Prospects, the words drip easily from your tongue. Record your best sales presentation. Listen to yourself. How does that story you tell your Customers affect you? Put it down in writing a few hundred words at a time. Tell your story. Your Customers love your story and they’ll read your blog writing.
4. I don’t have time to write a blog.
  OK — time is of the essence. Do you have time to write orders? Do you have time to cash checks? If you find a simple method of attracting eager buyers who come to you to buy what you offer — will you find time to sell to them? Would you rather cold call or be found? I’m betting that when you sharpen your sales tools by honing the persuasive story you tell … I’m betting that blog writing will be well worth your time.
5. My industry/company does not allow self promotion.
  Actually, this can be one of the most challenging hurdles. For example, Financial Services professionals are subject to stringent regulations from the SEC and FINRA, and their broker/dealers and compliance departments may choose to restrict rather than interpret rules. Nonetheless, I find no shortage of commercials advertising one Financial Services provider over another. Find a way to express your personality, your trustworthiness apart from your limited business persona. When was the last time you bought from somebody you didn’t like? Blog writing is telling your story.
6. I’m afraid I’ll lose my privacy.
  Yes, it’s true. Those words you publish online are likely to live forever — and I do mean longer than your human life. You are a professional, and I’m asking you to keep professionalism in mind while writing your blog. Professionalism with personality … this is what makes your business better. This online universe is forcing us to be better businesses. Step up and be the personality for your business. Make your Customers so excited about you that they advocate for you in public, too!
7. My customers don’t read blogs.
  Really? Are you willing to bet your business on this assumption? Yes, it’s true, some people aren’t online often or ever. However, it’s very easy to demonstrate that millions of people are searching online for what your business offers. Google measures over One Billion online searches each month for products and services that the searchers can find locally. When was the last time you sold to a prospect from the Yellow Pages? One person reading your blog might tell ten people about you — but, only after your blog writing …
8. My business cannot benefit from a blog.
  Are you sure? If you want to be successful in this Online Age, you must step up and be a thought leader. The easier it is for Prospects to choose among competitors the better those competitors have to get to keep playing. Practice makes perfect — we’ve been told this forever. Your Blog is a tool. Blogging gives voice to the marketer inside of you. The more stories you tell, the better and more persuasive they become. Your blog writing shall become an influential book about you and your business.
9. I’m afraid of bad blog comments.
  Blog writing is a subset of Social Media, which, by definition, is social and public. Blogs are most effective as discussions. When readers actively participate, you have engendered a conversation — so much more than a one dimensional monologue. As in real life, you will disagree with some, and some will disagree with you. Focus more on gathering Testimonials, and less on trading widgets and widget services for money, utilizing widgets and widget services as a means to Testimonials. Won’t business be more fulfilling and everybody win?
10. Blogging Return On Investment is too low.
  Granted, measuring Blogging ROI is problematic. Measurement is your salvation. If you do not measure, how can you calculate ROI? If you do not know your ROI, how can you evaluate the value proposition? In this online universe, eager Prospects are already searching for what you offer. If they don’t find you, they will buy from somebody else. When you place your story everywhere they are looking for you, qualified Prospects will come to you. What will it take for you to be found everywhere they are looking for you? Writing your blog ensures your visibility.
Whether you agree with items in this list — or you find this all hogwash — I implore you to comment below. Tell us what you do — or don’t — get from blog writing. We want to understand what it is about blogging that does not work for you or your business. Furthermore, we want you to understand what you do not understand. Share with us — we will listen.
… Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
“The New Colossus,” by Emma Lazarus
How Will Blog Writing Change Your Business?
6 September 2010
What is Inbound Marketing?
Why does Inbound Marketing matter to you and your Local Business?
Welcome to the Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money Frequently Asked Questions Series, Part 3: What is Inbound Marketing?

Marketing Local Business Online Is Inbound Marketing
Previously, we discussed What Is Internet Marketing? itself:

“… a Marketing Relationship is a specific conversation between Business and a market. Therefore, Internet and Online Marketing are relationships between Business and customers and prospects that take place in the New Media of today, and New Media of the future.”

How have new customers found you in recent months?
Today, people find out about your Local Business in two main ways:
- Passing Word-of-Mouth recommendations, or
- Finding you on a search engine results page
Word-of-Mouth depends on the good will of existing customers. How would you like people publishing Word-of-Mouth recommendations online? Why not spend zero dollars marketing your Local Business?
What is Outbound Marketing?
In traditional outbound marketing companies focus on finding customers through:
- Building brand awareness,
- Advertising, and
- Promotion
Outbound Marketing includes:
- Focus on your product / service (advertising & promotions),
- Focus on your transaction (sales),
- Focus on your business (public & media relations),
- Focus on your post-sales support (customer service), and
- Focus on your customer after-the-fact (customer satisfaction)
Everyday, a typical consumer is overwhelmed with over 2000 outbound marketing interruptions!
They have become quite creative in blocking these interruptions, including:
- Caller id,
- Spam filtering,
- Tivo, and
- Satellite radio
Customers need to find a very good reason to visit your Local Business.
Marketing Local Business online is quite a challenge!
What is Permission Marketing?
Alternatives to intrusive and increasingly ineffective outbound marketing are based on what Seth Godin calls Permission Marketing:
“Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them …”
“It realizes that treating people with respect is the best way to earn their attention.”
For the business to engage the prospect, the prospective customer must grant either:
- Explicit Permission (e.g., request email or catalog), or
- Implicit Permission (e.g., follow a search engine result link)
Furthermore, Godin says:
“In order to get permission, you make a promise. You say, ‘I will do x, y and z, I hope you will give me permission by listening.’ And then, this is the hard part, that’s all you do. You don’t assume you can do more.”
What is Inbound Marketing?
Google reports more than 1 Billion searches each month for local products and local services.
Fully qualified prospects are already looking for products and services in your industry. Inbound Marketing is when customers call you to:
- Make appointments,
- Purchase products, or
- Gain information
When customers find you and like you, you can get business from them, from their friends and from their family.
“Home delivery is the milkman’s revenge… it’s the essence of permission,”
Godin says.
Online Marketing is starting to make more sense …
What comprises Inbound Marketing?

Rick Burnes suggested an intertwined relationship between three main components of Inbound Marketing:
1. Inbound Marketing Content
  - Content is the substance of Inbound Marketing.
  - Content is the information that attracts prospects to your Local Business.
  - Content includes the Call To Action that converts prospects into customers.
2. Inbound Marketing Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
  - If people don’t know you exist, how are you going to do business?
  - SEO makes it possible for potential customers to find your content.
3. Inbound Marketing Social Media
  - Social Media amplifies the impact of your content.
  - Widely distributed content will be discussed.
  - Socialized content taken seriously becomes authentic.
  - There is more trust when a person has a choice.
Social Media have two sides:
- What you say about your business
- What others say about your business
Why Inbound Marketing?
1. Inbound Marketing has high Value
  - Cost less than buying ads, PPC, mailing lists, print, etc.
  - Blogs and Twitter accounts are free to start
  - Higher Return on Investment (ROI)
2. Inbound Marketing is Effective
  - Targeting specific markets is easier
  - Prospects qualify themselves
  - Pre-sold customers search, find you and ask to buy
3. Inbound Marketing has great Timing
  - Prospects search for you
  - Searching prospects are considering a purchase now
  - Prospects considering a purchase are more receptive to your message
Godin remarks,
“One of the key drivers of permission marketing, in addition to the scarcity of attention, is the extraordinarily low cost of dripping to people who want to hear from you.”
What are Prerequisites to Inbound Marketing?
You need to do your homework and fully understand those looking to buy what your Local Business offers.
Your Market analysis includes:
- What groups of customers exist? (markets)
- Which customer groups do you prefer to serve? (target markets)
- What do they need?
- How do their needs change? (market trends)
- How do they use these products and services?
- What price are they willing to pay?
- How do they want to receive what they buy? (distribution)
- What do you offer that meets those needs?
- Who are your competitors?
- What are your competitors doing about your target market?
Exactly how are your customers searching for what you offer? It’s not enough to know how you describe your offering. What matters most are the exact words prospects use to search for it.
Simply make it easy for potential customers to find your Local Business.
“The Internet means you can treat different people differently, and it demands that you figure out how to let your permission base choose what they hear and in what format,”
instructs Godin.
How is Inbound Marketing Done?
Setup your web site to attract visitors naturally through:
- Search Engines,
- the Blogosphere, and
- Social Media sites
Don’t forget your Call To Action to convert visitors once they arrive on your web page!
The Inbound Marketing process is straightforward:
- You provide content of interest to people wanting to learn or know something.
- You share similar content from other people who do the same.
- Interested readers come to see you as an authority in your field.
- When somebody considers a purchase related to your expertise, they will come to you.
Inbound Marketing is like Word-of-Mouth with people passing recommendations online.
Seth Godin sums it up like this:
“Real permission works like this: if you stop showing up, people complain, they ask where you went.”
Marketing Local Business Online Is Inbound Marketing
27 May 2010
What Is Internet Marketing?
Why does Internet Marketing matter to you and your Local Business?
Welcome to the Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money Frequently Asked Questions Series, Part 2: What is Internet Marketing?

Marketing Local Business Online Is Internet Marketing
Previously, we discussed What Is Marketing? itself:

“Marketing is a system the sole purpose of which is to communicate with the marketplace.”

Marketing, then, is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others. The Marketing concept becomes a philosophy. It makes the customer, and the satisfaction of his or her needs, the focal point of all Business activities. It is founded on the belief that profitable sales and satisfactory returns on investment can only be achieved by identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs and desires.
Let’s look not only at identifying customer needs, but also to satisfying them and anticipating them in the future. The right product, in the right place, at the right time, at the right price …
In that same spirit, Internet Marketing is a relationship between Business and customers and prospects that takes place in Internet Media, such as Search Engines and Web Pages.
Furthermore, Online Marketing is a relationship between Business and customers and prospects that takes place in Online Media, including Email, Mobile Phones and Internet.
As you recall, a Marketing Relationship is a specific conversation between Business and a market.
Therefore, Internet and Online Marketing are relationships between Business and customers and prospects that take place in the New Media of today, and New Media of the future.
Internet and Online Marketing are relationships between Business and customers and prospects — the only difference between these relationships and other Marketing processes is the Medium!
What, then, is the Opportunity and the Potential offered by this unique Marketing Medium? Let’s compare and contrast:
- If a Medium has a continuously shrinking Market, the potential for doing Business in that Medium approaches zero.
- If a Medium has a continuously growing Market, the potential for doing Business in that Medium approaches infinity.
This, then, is the crux of everything we have to discuss in this and subsequent conversations.
- If you want to grow your Local Business, you must participate in the largest and fastest growing Markets for what you offer.
- If Business is not communicating with a continuously growing Market there can be no relationship with that Market and little or no Business comes from that Market.
What Relationships do you want with your Market?
Over 1 Billion Local Searches are performed every month on the Internet …
… if your Customers do not find you, from whom will they buy ???
The Internet is one of the largest and fastest growing markets in the known Universe. Ecommerce and multinational companies have created extraordinary fortunes based solely on Internet Marketing. Local Internet Marketing for small Business is quite a different animal, as we will discuss in subsequent conversations.
To learn more about Internet, Money and your Local Business browse our Web Site and see if our ideas work for you and your Local Business. Look for our further conversations and Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money !!!
Marketing Local Business Online Is Internet Marketing
19 May 2010
What Is Marketing?
Why does Marketing matter to you and your Local Business?
Welcome to the Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money Frequently Asked Questions Series, Part 1: What is Marketing?

What Is Marketing
David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard, once remarked,

“Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing people.”

How can that be? What is so important about Marketing? Who are your Marketing people? What benefit do they provide your Local Business?
Peter Drucker, the father of Business Consulting, often admonished us,

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

What do you have in your Local Business if you do not have customers?
If you do not have enough customers, what changes do you need to make in your Local Business?
Furthermore, after studying the most successful Businesses of all time, Peter Drucker observed The Purpose of Marketing:
“Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two — and only two — basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”
Successful Marketing is therefore a systematic approach to the MarketPlace:
- Marketing is a System the sole purpose of which is to communicate with the MarketPlace.
- Marketing processes are specific conversations between Business and a Market.
Relationships start with a Single Conversation — Marketing Relationships are no different:
- Every conversation is a relationship between Business and a distinct set of customers and prospects.
- Every conversation takes place in a specific medium, whether print, radio, television or Internet.
What Relationships do you want with your Market?
- What conversations have you started with your Local Business customers?
- What conversations have you started with fully qualified prospects?
Will your best customers search for you? Or will they go to your competition?
Think about the conversation we started with you here a minute ago in this blog post. What about our message rings true with you and your Local Business?
To learn more about Internet, Money and your Local Business browse our Web Site and see if our ideas work for you and your Local Business. Look for our further conversations and Brilliant Ideas About Internet and Money !!!
Marketing Local Business Online Leads To Success
10 May 2010