It’s not a “Tweet” Until it’s a “#Tweet”

Standing outside the window of the person you adore with a boom box over your head, blasting a song that declares your love was so 80’s. Nowadays, if you want to get the word out about your business or organization, it’s as simple as a hashtag (#). 

With Twitter less than a decade old, using hashtags has become a part of the social media frenzy. According to Technology in Business, Twitter already has 140 million active users and sees about 340 million tweets a day.

With that many users you have an amazing chance at impacting your audience. You have 140 characters or less to capture an audience and shed light on your company but at the same time, you risk missing your audience. As it’s likely a Tweet can be buried at the bottom of a Twitter feed in seconds. But even with a character limit, Twitter inspires creativity. Use images, videos, links and humor to attract your audience.

Seems doable, right? There’s a little more to it…

Break it down

Twitter’s daily traffic breaks down to 750 shared Tweets per second. You need a way that will help your tweet reach out to more than just those following you, a way that will prevent you and your organization from getting lost in the crowd. This is where the idea of a hashtag comes into play.

#Hashtag #Help

A hashtag, which is symbolized as “#” is used for people to search for a common interest throughout the millions of tweets. For example, if you’re posting a tweet about a fashion show, try using “#fashionshow” to reach an audience that has an interest in that subject. You can also use “#fashion” and “#show” as a way to reach two completely different audiences. Either way, your tweet will now be found when those terms are being searched.

A #FinalRecommendation

Twitter is a great way to enhance your organizations presence on social media. In order to make it a more personal experience for your business, create your own hashtag.

By creating a hashtag, you’ll be able to see when people are discussing your company. Every time your hashtag is used, it’ll go straight to your twitter. This will give you the upper hand in knowing the direction your brand is going. As well as handling any issues that are starting to arise.

So when you are creating a hashtag, simple is better, but catchy is always remembered.

Once you are an expert at using hashtags you’ll be thanking Twitter for not only being such an impact in the social media world, but also taking you out of 80’s and into the 21^st century.

An Ex is Always an Ex Unless it’s an Insta-Break-Up

We’ve all had those relationships. The one’s that you are so passionate and obsessed about that you can’t, no matter what is said or done, walk away. Yet, in the last week there has been one relationship that has caused uproar with thousands and thousands of people. No, no, it’s not Brad and Jennifer again, that’s one relationship that is SO over. It’s Instagram’s new policy that was just released this past Monday.

 Instagram released a new policy that will become effective as of January 16^th, stating among other things, that any pictures that are posted using the Instagram application will be free to be used and bought for advertising from outside companies. Sounds like your relationship with Instagram just made you famous right? Wrong! Here’s what was actually disclosed, "…in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you."

 Sounds like a give and take relationship, except you’re giving and they’re taking. Naturally, you can only push someone so far until they threaten to walk out. Which is exactly what is happening. The dedicated users of Instagram are threatening to cancel their accounts and never look back.

 It sounds like a clever idea to me. To walk away from a toxic relationship and try to find one that benefits you. Yet, until January 16^th happens, no one will really know if these threats are just talk or if you’ll look back at Instagram as just another ex.

The big question becomes, if you break-up with Instagram what will your next addictive, passionate, obsessive relationship be with next? Will there be a new application that will be the new kid on the block? And if so, will that be enough to satisfy your desire?

If you go back, no one blames you, you tried right? Just brush it off as an Insta-Break-Up. It happens to the best of us. We expect your addiction to social media to always outwit your better judgment. 

 

'Tis the season for scams

 

‘Tis the season for holiday cheer, presents, hot coco and scams. Yes, that’s right…scams. No need to check your wallet, I promise I’m not talking about your credit cards. I’m talking about someone trying to pull a fast one and make you believe that you need a little thing called, “backup DNS service” for your website.

I’m sure by this point you’ve already thought, “I’m smarter than that. I don’t ever fall for any of those scams.” Of course not. I would never accuse you of that, but just in case, let’s go over some of the basics. If it makes you feel a little better, I promise I won’t tell anyone that you’ve read this far. Your secret is safe with me.

 Let’s go over the basics; just so we’re both on the same page, think of DNS (Domain Name Service) as your website’s personal phone number. This allows your internet browser to access your website.

 Here comes the twist, a company called “DNS Services” is sending a “bill” out for $65 for backup DNS services. This pretty little present of a scam comes in the form of an invoice. Please, don’t let it fool you.

 

 

 I’ve never heard of anyone needing to back up their phone number…have you? It just doesn’t make sense! So don’t fall for it!

They’ll try and get you, but I know you won’t let them. So sit back, finish your holiday shopping and rest assured that no “backup DNS service” scam will pull a fast one on you this season.

 Hot coco anyone?

Why your ecommerce website needs an SSL Certificate

If you have an ecommerce website and don’t know what an SSL is, you should. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer which in layman’s terms means the security technology for establishing 

an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. To break it down further, without SSL all credit card data or security information between transitions could be compromised.

 Because in-store purchases allow the customers to see who they are dealing with and monitor a transaction while its happening, they'll have recourse to the store manager or owner if anything goes wrong.  But on the Internet, consumers have no reliable way of knowing who owns the ecommerce site they are purchasing from. They are also exposed to all the security risks associated with sending data over an open network. 

When customers visit a website to make an online purchase, they want to know who they'll be paying and that the personal information they submit to the site cannot be intercepted. This is the purpose of an SSL digital certificate.

Use of SSL and a digital certificate enable a web browser, or your customer to communicate securely with your website, assuring the customer of 3 things:

1. That the website really is who it claims to be
2. That credit card numbers or personal information are encrypted and cannot be intercepted
3. That the data sent and received cannot be tampered with or forged

 

How to tell if your website is secure:

Open your website in your browser. Once the page loads, look at the URL of the site. URLs usually start with the "http:" prefix.

If the URL has an added "s"--"https:"--this is an indication that the site is secure. Sometimes, you will have to navigate to the purchasing page or “checkout.”

Click on the lock icon displayed by a secure website. The location of the lock icon varies, depending on your web browser. Clicking on the icon allows you to view more information regarding the security of the site, such as the name of the company on the SSL certificate.

 

Pinterest comes with SEO benefits

With the number overwhelming social networking sites, it is hard to know which one will be most beneficial for your business. Pinterest, one of the newest of the bunch, is one of the fastest growing sites and yet many businesses are not taking the time to cash in on the search engine optimization (SEO) benefits it has to offer. The purpose of Pinterest is to “pin” images your like (or that most relate to your business) and the site has gained huge popularity with its growing number of members – reports say 11.7 million unique visitors. That is a large number of visitors that could potentially be a visitor to your business website.

How Pinterest Can Help SEO

Link Pinterest to Facebook and Twitter

Pinterest allows you to link your pins to Facebook and Twitter so all your activity on Pinterest will appear on your Facebook wall and/or Twitter feed. These are good opportunities to showcase your pins on other social networks. Link-building opportunities As Pinterest's grows, your pins will have higher visibility in search engine hits. The more links you build to point people back to your site the better your search results will be.

Enhance your keyword strategy

Google now shows personal Pinterest profiles and private Pinterest boards in searches. Adding keywords to your boards increases the odds of them appearing in a search.

Add "pin it" buttons to your blog

Pinterest has a "pin it" button similar to the Facebook "like" button and Twitter's "tweet" button. You can add a "pin it" button to your blog so users can share your images on Pinterest with a link back to your site. Once it’s pinned to Pinterest, it circulates faster than it would on Facebook or Twitter.

Pay attention to analytics

Pinterest is better than Facebook because you will find more details on Pinterest sources in Google Analytics than sources from Facebook. Analytics will tell you which item earned the referral click, and allow you to click through to see the item on Pinterest.

Link back to your site

A picture is worth a thousand words. If you showcase your images with a link back to your site, you will get more attention than if you share an image with a link on Facebook. Pinterest helps you drive more quality traffic to your website.

Get started with a Pinterest account for your business

To set up a Pinterest account, all you have to do is go to www.Pinterest.com and select Sign up to create and account. Previously, it was only exclusive to its invitees, but with its growing popularity you can sign up and start pinning within five minutes.

Ecommerce and Marketplaces

Are you listing your ecommerce products in marketplaces?

Do you have an ecommerce (online shopping cart)? How are you reaching the millions of online shoppers looking for the items you sell every day? In addition to driving traffic to your store through blogging, other great content, SEM and SEO, you need to list your products in marketplaces.

What is an ecommerce marketplace?

An ecommerce marketplace is a site which allows merchants and individual (site owners) to sell their products through the marketplace’s system for a percentage of the sale or for a listing fee. An example of a marketplace is ebay.

 

 

Why list on marketplaces?

Would you rather reach an audience of 100 or an audience of 500 when selling your products? That’s the question you have to ask yourself when it comes to listing your products on marketplaces. It allows you to drive more traffic to your ecommerce site.

How to turn marketplace buyers into web visitors?

Once you receive a buyer via a marketplace, treat them as a regular cart customer. Send them an order confirmation directly as you would an ecommerce shopper. Guarantee their satisfaction, and include links back to your ecommerce site in your email confirmation page. Additionally, make it very clear and easy how to be contacted on your email and on every page of your cart, which they may link to through your email.

How to keep buyers coming back directly?

Once you have a new ecommerce shopper, whether referred to you via a marketplace or not, keep them coming back. Make it extremely easy for them to contact you, and opt-in to an email program to receive product news and special offers. Offer a second call-to-action for non-buying site visitors. Providing some offer that is less of a high-commitment will engage a potential customer without losing their attention. Then they are entered into the sales conversion process and will still become a buyer, just not that day of the initial visit.

 

 

Buyers WILL buy more products

Recommend products to increase product cross-selling. This will increase up-selling. If your site sells athletic gear, those who buy running shorts will most likely buy a dri-fit shirt to go along if it’s recommended.  Amazon does a great job of doing this.

 

 

 

President Obama in the midst of a PR disaster

At a press conference last week, President Obama said something, which created a big disconnect between himself and the reality of today’s economy.

President Obama said, “The private sector is doing fine.” That phrase can be argued as right or wrong depending on whom you’re talking to, but in one statement he created a PR disaster. He just provided the ammo his opponents need to show this big disconnect between how he perceives the private sector and how things really are.

He also said:

“The truth of the matter is that, as I said, we created 4.3 million jobs over the last 27 months, over 800,000 just this year alone. The private sector is doing fine. Where we’re seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government.”

The damage

So how disastrous are the recent remarks by President Obama?

Remember John McCain and what he said in 2008? In the midst of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the plummet of the stock market he said, “the fundamentals of our economy are strong.” Opponents capitalized on that clip and used it as proof he was out of touch with the economy, and four years later President Obama seems to have made the same mistake. Shortly after, McCain list his edge in the polls.

Obama may have said something that could really hurt the confidence people have in him as well. Recent news reports Romney as more trusted in improving the economy and handling taxes than Obama. According to The Wall Street Journal, voters’ top concern is the economy.  

What’s next?  

Mainstream media and citizen journalists have been all over Obama’s remarks with more coming.

Imagine the resulting headlines as the election nears a head, and the ads we’ll see come fall showing Obama’s disconnect regarding the economy.

Heck, I can just see the clip itself being used over and over.

If Obama’s purpose in saying what he did was to intrigue news organizations about the growth in private sector jobs, then his strategy was a PR disaster waiting to happen.

His remarks are all over Twitter, some people mocking the president, while others saying he was only calling out Republicans for not helping public sector employees.

Obama may not lose the election over these statements, but he has his hands full with a PR disaster.   

The difference between SEO and SEM

SEO (search engine optimization), according to Google, is the process of building new websites or changing existing ones so they can rank higher in a search engine's organic (free) listing. 

SEM (search engine marketing) is promoting and driving traffic to a website and/or landing page through paid advertisements on search engines and sites like Facebook. Google AdWords and Facebook Ads are examples of SEM.

How to pick the right SEO consultant/company

While most people look at the advantages an individual or firm can bring about, it's important to look at the possible disadvantages. If you hire an irresponsible consultant you may suffer greatly. Some SEO "experts" are only into meta data (keywords, titles tags) and are not understanding the importance of rich content and industry relevant information. Blogs and news containing keywords within the content itself, and links (from and to your site and others) will be the most helpful to your SEO efforts.

Of course, make sure your meta data is current, but do not just create lists of keywords, pages, links or text you don't intend site visitors to see, but have only posted for "SEO purposes."  

How much is too much?

I've worked with customers who have paid past companies and consultants thousands of dollars per month so their organic (free) ranking on a search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing) could increase. This is bogus. Instead of paying an SEO expert who talks in a language you or your business managers don't understand, contract someone or a company who can explain how it all works, and who can put together great content, which according to Google is one of the "main things to do" to increase organic rankings.

Hire a kick-butt SEM consultant/company

SEM, like SEO, can be expensive. If the consultant you hire does not know what they're doing your marketing dollars could go to waste. Here are some main points to consider.

• Is your consultant certified? Google offers an individual and company AdWords certification.
• What are the boundaries of their SEM knowledge. Internet marketing is so complex, your consultant or firm has to be able to understand how to begin, test, execute and measure SEM efforts.
• Getting started is extremely relevant to the success of an SEM campaign. If you don't pick the right CPC (cost per click), targeted demographics (mostly applies to Facebook ads--age, gender, interests, etc.), daily budget, headline (applies to Google, Yahoo, Bing), photo (Facebook) or purpose (link, landing page or Call-to-Action) you won't reach the expected success.
• Like any campaign (PR, offline advertising) you should reach a main objective before spending a penny.
• Does your consultant/firm understand your target customer? This goes along with picking targeted demographics. If you're a photographer serving a 100 mile radius make sure you are reaching those who are "engaged" or have children under five, which are more likely to need a professional photographer.

Things that may affect SEO

There are a few things you should know which will already give you a head start if you are planning to hire someone to help manage your SEO.

• Flash may have to go. Some sites are flash based. Take www.kenwoodvineyards.com. This is a beautiful site, however it is not recognized by some spiders (Google's system name for "crawling" pages on the web, or finding your site so it can show up for a related search query). Some Java could also have the same negative affect.
• Bad links. Make sure all your links work and each page of a website links from a static page somewhere on the site.

No one can guarantee a #1 ranking

No matter how awesome the SEO company seems, there is no way any could guarantee the no. 1 organic spot in search engines. Don't believe it!

SEM goes beyond search engine advertising

SEM isn't just about placing ads on search engines or Facebook. Companies can benefit from ads on other news sites, blogs, etc. Like planning a search engine or Google ad campaign, set a budget and draft a plan with objectives in advance.

Avoid being boring on Facebook for business

Business owners, marketers and PR people, did you know text-only status updates and links shared on Facebook are nowhere near as popular as videos and photos shared in your Facebook business timeline?

Of course, plain text updates are the least relevant posts, and there are ways to make links to articles and other posts interesting. Over 60 percent of your fans prefer video and photo posts from the businesses they "like" in their news feed.

For example, if you're a car dealer and you shared an article from Forbes about the top fuel-efficient car, tell fans and page visitors why this is relevant to them. Mention the spike in gas prices with statistics (if you dare), or mention something, which speaks to the commuters. Of course, always relate your posts to your industry and your business when relevant.

Spice up your links

• Tell people the who, what, when, where and why in one sentence or less when you post a link
• Tell them why it's important they read the link. Does it contain something funny, a special offer, or an opportunity for them to vote?
• Keep in mind, people don't read every word of every post on FB, they will look for intriguing key words

Use Photos whenever you can

• Did the executive chef at your restaurant recently receive an award? Include a photo of your chef cooking or interacting with clients. The news will get almost 40% more eyes becauuse it contains a photo. 
• Post albums, when you can, which include captions.
• Try to avoid duplicate photos in albums or albums without titles and descriptions
• Don't post pictures without a caption and relating its relevancy
• Keep things professional and appropriate

Video sells

• If you want to introduce a new product or service or even try and persuade someone to buy it, use video to uniquely engage the potential or existing customer
• Make sure the video is brief and to the point, no more than a minute and a half
• Entertain people, don't be boring, but don't be too silly
• If you want someone to view a segment of a video to reach your point, tell them where to forward to in the video
• Like links and photos, don't post without telling your fans the relevancy of wathcing your video.

 

Brunch and beer tasting highlight restaurant anniversary events

 

Over 30 years ago, Marco Zapien fell in love with cooking while in his grandma's kitchen where he learned to make Mole for the first time.

Twenty years later, Zapien graduated from Culinary school and began his career as a chef.

Zapien's dad, Jess opened Zapien's Salsa Grill & Taqueria in Pico Rivera, CA in 1994. A few years later, after Zapien gained industry experience, including a few years as Executive Chef for the former Anaheim Angels, he joined the family business as co-owner and Executive Chef.

Brunch Special & Craft Beer Tasting

He refers to the restaurant as "The Grill," and April 14 marked the 18th Anniversary with a special brunch, buy-one, get-one half off, and a beer tasting paired with a special menu including Hangar 24 Orange Wheat Marinated Chicken and Pale Ale Battered Tacos de Pescado.

Creative Touch & The Grill

Creative Touch signed "The Grill" and Zapien's catering company, Black Tie & Blue Jeans Catering as its first two accounts in 2009 just weeks after becoming a business.

Zapien's restaurant is a neighborhood favorite and has since been voted "Best Mexican in the LA Area" for four straight years.

"The Grill" has increased its community presence consistently offering guests special prices on some of its most popular items. Certain events are paired with outside happenings such as Chef Zapien's Super Bowl Cooking Demonstration prior to Super Bowl Sunday, and a summer-themed Cooking Show where Zapien provided drink and food recipes for fun, easy entertaining. 

Utilizing Social Media, Web & Community Relations

Social media and the restaurant website, www.thesalsagrill.com, both managed by Creative Touch are his main avenues of communication for all the restaurant happenings. 

Chef Zapien is also a Corporate Chef for Los Angeles-based Melissa's Produce, creating menus, consulting and managing chefs at sports and entertainment venus nationwide.

Through Black Tie & Blue Jeans Catering, Zapien has expanded his private chef and corporate and private party gigs. He personally crafts the catering menu for Los Angeles Dodgers home pages and is an in-demand chef for other clientele including San Diego Chargers head coach Norv Turner.

Creative Touch and Zapien have worked together to build a solid relationship with the local community surrounding "The Grill."

Some initiatives include toy drives to local churches, blanket drives for Covered in Love L.A., and support of the culinary programs at local high schools.

Zapien's Pollo Con Mole Poblano, which includes "Just like grandma used to make!" in its description is a favorite on the Chef's Specialities menu at "The Grill."