Our WSI Home office shared this video in Miami Beach, Florida last month when over 500 consultants from all over the world attended the latest Excellence & Innovation Conference. Couldn't resist sharing this great message.

It's my personal passion to share digital marketing philosophy as a Dallas Internet Marketing Consultant. Enjoy!

Is your company ready for a Social Media Plan? That can be one of the hardest questions to ask (and answer) and it's the first step you should take planning your future online activities of any kind and seeing measurable ROI.

Last week's WSI Global Digital Marketing gathering in Miami hosted over 500 consultants. I was fortunate enough to sit in on my second training session with Francois Muscat, a WSI Digital Consultant based in South Africa, whose mission is to teach how to best bring results to our clients.

As an early-adopter of Social Media, I know how to work the social sites and how to engage with your potential customers. My clients are extremely happy with the advice and coaching I've provided them. However - Francois' training forms Social Activities into detailed planning and implementation strategies that are "back to basics" business practices we can now implement for our clients in a more holistic way.

Can you tell I'm excited? My goal is to bring that excitement and desire for action to Your Social Media Plan, becoming your Social Media Manger (for a lot less than a full-time employee). Let's get started, give me a call today.

----------

A big thanks to Eric Cook, a WSI Consultant from Michigan for helping Francois run a truly effective training session. By the way - watch this space for more information on Eric's "Blogging to Build a Reputation" webinar, presented by WSI. More details are at http://www.getwsipowered.com/

If you aren't on my mailing list - shoot me an email at beth@wsiinternetworks.com and I'll make sure you get all the current updates. Or even better - Follow me on Twitter @Beth_Kahlich.

Clear some time this Wednesday, August 18th at 1pm Eastern (12 noon Central) for a great, free webinar on how to stand out in the local search engine results.

Thomas Petty with WSI will be leading this webinar, and has has also written a great whitepaper on the subject.
Download the whitepaper here, even if you can't make the webinar.

See below for a quick summary of what to expect:

Your Customers Are Looking For You! 

For the business owner, it has never been more important to be found in their local town, city or region for people who are already looking for them. Over 60% of us prefer to do business with a local business in our own neighborhood. This includes all kinds of “wallet-ready” businesses such as auto repair shops, electricians, hair salons, attorneys, restaurants, and so on. Each of these businesses has plenty of local competition. Furthermore, competition for placement on the search engines is stiff. How can a business stand out and easily be found by those who are searching for them? 

What's in a name? More than you can imagine when it comes to naming your website.

Several clients right now have us performing extensive keyword research to help determine the BEST names for their websites - in one case it's a blog and another it's an existing company who wishes to increase his online exposure with some smaller micro-sites.

In doing my client's research, I came upon a terrific blog post over at www.seomoz.com - 12 Rules for Choosing the Right Domain Name.

 

I encourage you to read it and also the comments below... a great lively discussion of many of the factors in choosing a website name.

Clients often want to use their business name for their domain, but it may not always be the best domain to use. So advise my clients to go over to Go Daddy and purchase the website name of your company name - but when it comes to online marketing - choose a website name that's really "going to work" for you.

"How can posting a YouTube video help with my ranking in Google?"
Business owners are asking questions - because they may not see the relevance of using YouTube to gain search engine rankings - but it works!

A great article was just posted to Mashable, The Social Media Guide about this very topic. It did a terrific job of not only explaining why it helps to have videos about your business - but even goes into detail on how to increase your SEO with a YouTube video.

The article describes a 4 Step Outline for Improving SEO with a YouTube video:

1. Choosing the topic of your YouTube Video
2. How to record your video for YouTube (hint - home made videos are better, they look less like commercials)
3. Optimizing your YouTube video for Search Engines
4. Getting more people to view your video (hint - over 100 views gets your video indexed on Google)

If you're ready to learn more - WSI is offering two FREE resources:

• Download a FREE Whitepaper on Online Video Marketing for Business
  

• Signup for a FREE Webinar on Online Video Marketing - Coming soon on April 29th
  

Plus, if you ever have any questions - contact me and I'll be glad to give you a complimentary review of what your online competition is doing and how you can compete.

To read the article from Mashable in more detail - click here.

Today is the first in a series - practical tips to break down internet marketing to it's simplest components.

What is the #1 Fastest Way to Get Qualified Leads?
SEARCH ADVERTISING - better known as PAY PER CLICK

When people are looking for a certain product or service, or simply doing research - you can set up your online ad to appear on "page 1" of the search engines. It's just like buying an ad in a newspaper, but it only appears when people are searching for you.

Google AdWords is the #1 place to get started when setting up your own search advertising campaign. There's a lot to learn - check out their extensive help section.

The basic steps to start an Google AdWord Campaign:

• Do keyword research - find out what keywords people use to find your product or service.
• Write an effective online advertisement - you've got a limited amount of text - use it to your advantage.
• Create a targeted landing page - don't just send people to your home page - send them to a web page about the specific offer you are advertising.

Too much to take in?- We've got a simplified solution for your business.

Our service tracks all the way to the number of calls your receive - not just the number of clicks.

Check out this quick testimonial video:




Call me to find out more!

Let's say your in a very competitive industry - such as real estate in Dallas, Texas. We've got several friends in the market, and I trust them all. But they want to stand out on the search engines and don't have a very big budget.

It's a challenge. This could also apply to chiropractors, or printers, or many other types of business that are really saturated in the online marketplace. How do you stand out?

As I was checking out some videos from Google's Matt Cutts, I found a real gem of a video that I'd like to share with you. See below for a quick suggestion on how to make yourself found even if you have a small budget.

First of all Happy New Year to all my readers - here's to inspiration and innovation in 2010.

Since the whole topic of Social Media exploded on the scene this past year, we ended up with some amazing opportunities for our clients - and some ideas I would like to leave you with for January.

Social Media Advertising
We currently have two clients launching Facebook and MySpace campaigns. This will include the actual ad plus what's key - a landing page for each ad that speaks specifically to the offer at hand. I can't stress the importance of tracking your results. Use dedicated phone numbers, contact forms, and if the offering fits, refer-a-friend forms.

My insurance agent client used Facebook Advertising to reach out to a target market and finally asked me to stop the campaign because he was getting too many calls. Truly I wish this kind of success for all my clients.

On yet another Social Media front, I am in the process of setting up accounts and training a local business in how best to use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Linked In, plus all the review sites to maximize their online activity. Should I admit that it's been fun? I'm sure that's OK, because you should love what you do for a living.

As my WSI friend Will Paccione puts it - Social Media is about being SOCIAL. My advice to you is don't jump into engaging with your clients online unless you mean it and you are actually going to devote the time to do it.

As I'm sure you all are asking: Well what's the result - has it been beneficial for your clients? While I'm confident it will be, I'll reach out to you again in a few weeks with an update.

Until then, stay warm and have a terrific January 2010 (that's "twenty-ten").

How do the search engines “find” you? By the words you have in your web site. Not by your home page fancy layout, not by the cool backgrounds and graphics you use – Content Is King.

1. Make a list of all the key phrases that people might use to search for your product.
   
   A great way to do this is with Google's Keyword Tool. Type in your main keyword and then Google will actually help you brainstorm on some new phrases to use in your text.


2. Write using those key phrases - but don't make it seem too fake.
   
   "Cat food vendors like to stock cat food that is made by quality cat food manufacturers because of the consumer desire for cat food." Google can see this type of keyword stuffing and will actually penalize your page in the rankings.


3. Have a separate page for each topic.
   
   For example have one page about "cat food ingredients" and another page about "cat food feeding schedules". Google wants to see many pages of unique content - plus this makes it easier for searchers to find your company based on their specific interests.

Any time you can write about yourself, or your products, or your services that is terrific! Maybe YOU don’t have time to do that, but what about someone else in your organization? Look at your alternatives and use a little creativity to come up with some innovative ways to get the message out about your company.