What if there was a way for you to get more than the average 50+% of visitors from a number one Google ranking?

I don’t know about you, but I really dislike paying a lot of money to advertise my business (or that of my clients) only to have my direct competitor’s ad show up right next to mine. Every directory that you’re business is listed in also has your direct competitors, too. In most advertising venues that get a lot of “eye balls”, you’re going to pay to show up next to your competitor’s ad. This, frankly, stinks.

But there is a new way to market your company that keeps your competitors at bay. But first let me give you some background knowledge first.

LOCAL SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

Google and other search engines want to offer searchers relevant results so that the searcher keeps coming back to their search engine. SEO is the process of manipulating content on a website and on other websites to get top search results. I’m not going to go into the mechanics of SEO or I would be cranking out a book and Larry is probably thinking this article is a bit too long already.

As local business owners, we have a window of opportunity in the search engine game. The reason I say we have just a window is that large national companies are just now waking up to the power of local search and only about 50% of small businesses have websites. Of the small businesses who have websites, most have nothing more than an electronic business card that is lost in the wilderness called the Internet.

Right now you can use search engine optimization to out compete big corporations and your local competition on all your local keyword search phrases and your brand phrases. But here is what is so amazing…you can dominate those local phrases to the point where your competition won’t show up on the first page of the search results—you can own the top ten.

There are two exceptions to you owning all of page one of Google and those are Google’s Lucky 10 (or soon to be 7 in all markets) Local Results box at the top of searches that have geographic modifiers and in the sponsored ads at the top and right. To dominate these you have to do some black hat techniques and I don’t recommend you try them because getting delisted by Google won’t help your business any.

At the time this screenshot was taken, this fitness trainer owned the entire page for his city. The only place he didn’t have a listing was in the right hand sponsored links. You can see he even got two double listings.

DOMINATING LOCAL SEARCHES ON GOOGLE

First you need to do basic search engine optimization on every page of your website. Next build optimized pages for your major local keywords and include semantically related phrases on those pages. Talk to me about getting this done for your site.

Next, set up a Google Local Business listing so your business can show up in the Google Maps local results box. Fill it out completely. Add the videos, pictures and get reviews from your customers. You should be putting almost as much effort into this one tool as you do for initially optimizing your website–it’s that important.

Your goal is to get your main website (your money site) into the top 3 organic search results before you start on the next steps. Doing everything at once will dilute your efforts. I’ll say it again. Make sure you are ranking in the top 3 of your ten most important keywords before proceeding.

The next step is to get as many double listings as possible. To get a double listing, optimize two or more pages on your site for the same keyword. With a double listing for a geo-targeted keyword, Google frequently returns 8 organic search results instead of the normal 10. That means you need to work to own at least the remaining 7 results.

You’re going to build a content network using Squidoo, Hubpages, Youtube, WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and Posterous. There are more, but you’ll start here. You or your SEO will have used some or all of these sites to create some links to your main website to get it to rank.

Now, we want the sites in our content network to start ranking for our major keywords so we have to do all the same steps we take to rank our main site to get each of these pages to rank. See the diagram for a simplified outline of what your content network will look like.

In the Content Network Snowflake you’ll see your main website in the middle surrounded by support sites that in turn are supported by auxiliary sites. Each of these sites are content sites that reinforce the relevancy and authority of each other. What you don’t see in this diagram are the inbound links that support each of these sites. This is nothing new in SEO, but it is new for the purpose of ranking multiple content sites for the same keyword to prevent competitors from ranking.

The reason we are doing all this is to take up as many available organic search results as possible. Don’t allow weak competitors to show up next to you in the search engines. This is the only place I know of where some good ol’ fashioned elbow grease will keep your competitor’s ads (search listing) away from your ads.

In all of your content on your content network, you need to have conversion tools in place. This will include links to free reports, email opt-in boxes where possible, phone numbers, contact forms, your business location and any other way you can think up to get people to leave your content network and connect with your business.

Being better and smarter will pay off in you dominating page one of Google. Once you have control, visitors will have no choice, but to choose you.

I know this was a lot to throw at you and I left out a lot of details on how to do local search engine optimization, but please feel free to ask questions in the comments and I would be happy to answer them.

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Here is Part 1: How To Dominate Page One of Google So Your Competitors Don’t Stand A Chance 1

And here is Part 2: How To Dominate Page One of Google So Your Competitors Don’t Stand A Chance 2

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Sir Richard Branson Interviewed by Eben Pagan at Rock the Casbah Charity Event. My friend and mentor, Joe Polish is personally thanked for his outstanding contributions to Virgin Unite.

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Gary Vaynerchuk

Personal Branding Expert & Wine Guru

“From Success To Domination!”

Identifying Your Passion

and Turning It Into Rampaging Success

Since I’ve got a man crush on Gary, I asked my good friend and mentor Joe Polish if I could give free access to the Gary Vaynerchuk interview he did for his Genius Network members.  Joe wanted to show Gary some love and support for his new book.  The link is below, but you’ll need the username and password to get to the hour long interview.

Go to Joe Polish’s Genius Network Interview Series to get this awesome Gary Vaynerchuk interview. www.geniusnetwork.com/garyv

You’ll need the Username: success and the Password: domination.

I hope you really enjoy this interview. If you wish to share the interview with others please use the tweet this button below.

Also, please thank Joe Polish for letting y’all have access to this killer interview by tweeting him at @jpolish.

PS. My Local SEO biz partner told me the Vook version of Crush It! was awesome and I should give up books for good.   Go check it out. (Not affiliate link) http://vook.com/product_crushit.php?book_id=5

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If you provide your customers and prospects with the ammunition to make informed decisions that improves their lives they will thank you in the form of buying what you have to sell.

Check the vid to get Gary’s take on it.

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Not long ago, I did a presentation on mindset. The way we see the world is the way we market our businesses. It can’t be helped–we’re just wired that way.

Another way to say it is “we can’t act differently from the way we believe.”

Here are the 10 Guidelines and my commentary on them.  I want you to think of them as Buddhist Koans.  Meditate on them and reflect back on your business.

1. Optimists Find Opportunities
The opposite of this is Pessimists See Problems.  I don’t think I have ever met an entrepreneur who wasn’t an optimist in some shape or form.  However, I have seen business owners who have acquired a negative world view.  Sounds contradictory, but hear me out.

Entrepreneurs believe they can change the environment around them so they start a business to cause a change, which can be to solve a consumer’s problem or to bring innovation to a market.  To believe this you have to be optimistic that you can actually change the environment.

Then hard-knocks come along and a negative perspective starts to set in.

The good news is that we have control over our world view and can become optimists again.  This is best done by focusing on the needs of others and not on yourself.

2. Whatever You Are Thinking–Think Bigger
I can’t remember who I heard this from.  It was either Sean Stephenson, author of Get Off Your But or Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos.com.

I, and probably everyone else, has to remind myself to think bigger.  We try to be rational, logical and realistic, but those important mental tools don’t drive passion.   Sometimes big goals are harder to achieve, but they attract talented, passionate people who will want to help.  Little goals don’t excite anyone–even yourself.

3. Turn Acquaintances Into Allies
To me, this koan means to create partnerships, especially joint ventures.  I have used JVs for my businesses to quickly add customers.  A friend of mine went from $10,000 a month in sales to $70,000 per month from using joint ventures.  I think his business is doing just over a million a year now.

Another meaning could be getting your customers, vendors and employees to be evangelists for your business.

In tough times, we need as many allies as we can get.

4. Always Provide More Value Than The Price You Charge
Zig Ziglar said, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

Too many people mistakenly or purposefully believe that getting ahead requires taking advantage of others.  If you sell a product or service that doesn’t give more value than what you charged, you won’t succeed.  You could probably make a quick buck, but that won’t last.  If you don’t sell a product that is valuable to your market, then make it valuable or find something else to sell.

5. Love The Customers You Have or Get Customers You Can Love
Have you ever or do you have customers you don’t like?  Fire them.  Go find customers you can like.  This goes back to #4.  If you don’t like your customers, you can’t provide more value than you charge.  Also, life is too short to spend time with people you don’t like.

6. You Can’t Bore Your Prospect Into Buying
This is a tough one for most people including myself.  Boring sales literature (Come on, really? It ain’t literature.) is passed out all over the world and people don’t read it.  I’m not saying to be entertaining for the sake of getting attention.  Just speak to the wants and desires of your market.  People find their wants and desires to be very interesting.

7. Forget Being Professional (whatever that means) & Be Human
This is one of the main reasons for #6.  “I want my marketing to be ‘professional’ and not all salesy.”  Every time a prospective client says that to me, I just ask them to define what professional looks like.  Most can’t do it and those that do, show me the most asinine, sleep-inducing corporate brochures and websites.

So, I recommend speaking to your prospects and customers as one human to another.  Turns out people like that sort of thing.

8. Education Is Good For You & Your Customer
I learned education-based marketing from my friend and mentor, Joe Polish, the President of Piranha Marketing, Inc.  I have found over the years that a well-informed customer is a better customer.  I don’t mean just telling them what you do, but providing an education on how you can fulfill their wants and desires.

9. You Make a Sale to Get a Customer; You Don’t Get a Customer to Make a Sale
Many businesses operate with a transactional business model.  They sell something to someone and then go looking for someone else to buy from them.  If a customer buys again–woohoo, bonus!  In consulting, I have found I have to drag someone kicking and screaming to get them to spend money marketing to their current customers, but they will gladly drop thousands a month on the hope that their lame yellow page ad will bring in new customers.

There is a term in internet marketing circles called a continuity business.  This typically refers to a membership website, but it means that your customers buy over and over on a regular basis–hopefully by letting you automatically charge their credit card each month.  Not all businesses can get their customers to buy monthly, but what if you could get every customer to buy twice instead of once?  By making a sale to get a customer, you have less resistance from your customer to purchase more from you.

10. Chase The Vision, Not The Money
This I am sure I heard from Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com.  People, whether customers, employees, vendors, family or friends, will get behind a vision.  They will support you.  They will go out of their way to help you to succeed.  People love dreams and they will help you achieve yours if they believe it is bigger than you. If it’s a selfish dream such as “I want a ton of money so I can buy a Ferarri.”  They won’t be too interested in helping.  But if you are out to make a difference in your community, your industry or the whole world, people can visualize that future and how they would fit in it.

Too often we use money as our scoreboard when we should be counting all the lives that we have improved by chasing our vision.

Just the list:

10 Marketing Mindset Rules for Local Businesses

1. Optimists Find Opportunities

2. Whatever You Are Thinking–Think Bigger

3. Turn Acquaintances Into Allies

4. Always Provide More Value Than The Price You Charge

5. Love The Customers You Have or Get Customers You Can Love

6. You Can’t Bore Your Prospect Into Buying

7. Forget Being Professional (whatever that means) & Be Human

8. Education Is Good For You & Your Customer

9. You Make a Sale to Get a Customer; You Don’t Get a Customer to Make a Sale

10. Chase The Vision, Not The Money

This is not a definitive list.  Please add your Marketing Mindset Guidelines in the comments section.  Also, feel free to share this list.  If you do, please be kind and link back to me.  I can’t wait to hear what you have to share…

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It’s true that it’s important to be online, keep in mind that what you write matters. To get a regular following, you have to give customers and readers a reason to come back to your blog.

Make it relevant

Choose topics that are useful to your customers. For instance, if you own a Web design company, your customers and readers will probably come to your website to learn about Internet-related issues.

An article about a software system that claims to make users’ lives easier, is the perfect article to discuss in your blog if you do Web-related work. As in the case of Local Marketing Mastery, we discuss social media, search engine marketing, WordPress and other Internet marketing topics for local-based businesses.

Because you’re a subject matter expert your readers will be interested in your views about an area of your expertise. A well-written comment about something in your area of expertise serves to boost your authority and would be of interest to your readers.

Link your blog to the article. This is a smart local SEO marketing move, but it also allows readers to gain greater understanding about a topic that is important to them.

Make it interactive

Ask your readers to leave their opinions and make sure the comments are visible to other readers. This will encourage readers to come back to your blog to review the opinions of others.

If appropriate, you can comment on your clients’ opinions. This is a great way to create an online conversation which can lead to deeper relationships.

Polish your writing

After writing your first draft, look it over to correct grammatical errors, misspellings and get rid of any extra words and phrases that don’t contribute to your core message.

It’s amazing how many writers—amateurs and professionals alike—who skip this step. The least you could do is run a spell-check, but remember that it’s not perfect either. Spell-check could miss the distinction between “for” and “of” if one is used in place of the other.

If misspellings are noticed by readers, it can impact their opinion of you. They may think that you’re careless or sloppy and wonder if that attitude spills over to your work. Take an extra five minutes and keep their opinion of you high.

Add keywords

Blogs are perfect to help you increase your local SEO marketing. By adding a few keywords, you may be increasing your Web site’s positioning on search engines.

Write your blog first, and then add the key words where they fit. This helps to keep your writing fluid.

Quality always matters

Approach blogging as if it’s an important part of your local internet marketing—because it is. It can say as much about your approach to customer relationships and communications to your readers than any other element in your marketing tool box.

If you take the time to communicate directly, spell correctly and put every apostrophe and comma in the right place, then you’re telling your readers that your message matters. Believe me—they’ll pick up on it.

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Displaced workers are forced to find a new way to make a living. Some have returned to school to get an education in a field that is growing, like the medical field.

Some have become new business owners, creating a more competitive local market. There seems to be a lot more graphic design firms, marketing firms and consultants in various service fields. And, franchising seems to be another popular option.

What does this mean for a local small business owner?

Refine local internet marketing

Greater competition means you have to work harder to stay in front of your customers. Instead of launching a new advertising campaign with lots of expensive brochures, print and broadcast ads—take a look at your best marketing source—your Web site.

If it’s been several years since you’ve updated the look or copy of your Web site, consider that things have changed in the market. This means that things should change in your internet marketing message.

Refine your message to better fit the times and attract your ideal customer. Then, create copy that speaks to the specific benefit that your business or product brings to your customers’ lives.

Reassess keywords

Review your site’s keywords. Do a little market research and choose the words that are most likely to attract your perfect customer in your local market. Sprinkle in the keywords into your marketing copy.

Choosing the proper keywords may also help you improve your site search engine ranking.

If all of this sounds daunting, consider hiring a local seo expert. You’ll reduce stress in your life and have copy that is more likely to attract business—it’s a win-win.

Be unstoppable

Our new economy is here to stay. Many economists and experts have said that the old days of plenty of jobs and an abundance of discretionary income are over.

Don’t hide out—stand out! It doesn’t have to cost you a lot to attract new customers. Just look at what you already have and make the adjustments that are necessary to keep you at the top of search engines and at the top of your customers’ minds. It’s worth the effort!

If you’d like to read more about how the recession is changing the face of the U.S. economy, click here: Recession and Small Business

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It’s not just about getting a well designed Web site, a good designer brings your message to the visitor so that the benefit is clearly understood and received so that they can make a buying decision.

SEO draws visitors to your site

If your objective is to get new business from the Internet, you must have a web design company that can attract visitors through search engine optimization and then influence them to take a desired action using great copy. If your copywriter is not the same person who’s doing your SEO, put the two of them in touch with each other. You must have targeted keywords in your copy that allow you to be found on search engines.

Your SEO expert will be able to help you select the keywords that many people use to find companies like yours.

The keyword selection process can be involved, with lots of research. Your SEO expert will know where to find the information that will help him or her make the right choice so that your new clients can find you.

Good design enhances SEO

There are tons of cheap and free Web templates available—why pay more for a web design company? Because, a site template cannot take into consideration your business’ unique selling proposition like an expert website design company will.

When your new prospects arrive at your website, it’s your site’s job to point your visitors in the areas that will help them make a buying decision. The site itself will lead the reader through your USP, benefits to doing business with you and address any potential objections.

Finally, it will lead the visitor to the call to action and a decision about whether or not they’ll do business with you. This is very important—to you and your visitor. You want to tell anyone who visits that you want their business, because you’ve presented all of the information for them to decide on whether they want to do business with you.

Even if you have the rare product that everyone needs, you will not get everyone’s business. But, if your website was designed by an Arizona web designer who knows design, SEO and copywriting, you’ll be providing the information that will attract the perfect customers for your product and business.

Don’t cheap out by doing it yourself… it will cost you in the long-run. You’ll have less traffic, fewer sales and lower revenue.

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The same is true when you don’t use SEO on your Web site. There are hundreds of thousands of pathways for these customers to take to get to your doorway. If you don’t develop the right Search Engine Optimization techniques and strategies to give them a clear path to your business, then your customers and sales will go to someone who has.

These winning techniques involve Arizona Search Engine Optimization strategies and proper SEO copy to ensure your prospects are captured by your compelling Web copy. This is measured by an order or call to you for more information.

Arizona SEO–The Key to Business Success on the Internet
What are you doing to improve your site’s Search Engine Optimization—and why is it important?

Today there is simply too much competition for business on the Web. Traffic has increased exponentially; and, so have online businesses. You might argue that there are more people searching for information and products on the Web. It’s true, but the competition online is fierce.

SEO and Marketing Strategy
There are a lot of steps that contribute to outstanding tactics to attract new customers. Among the elements that you need to consider: your USP (unique selling proposition), who your customers are, your competition and what they’re doing, and what your goals are for your Web site.

An expert can help you to map out all of the elements and help to create effective copy and placement strategies to help your business site land at the top of search engines and stay there. They’ll assist you in selecting the keywords and steps to bring more traffic to your virtual door.

Most Arizona Search Engine Optimization and marketing experts would agree that the overall goal of business Web sites would be to bring sales revenue to your business, whether that’s through proven sales techniques, customer friendly service copy or a combination of both.

The point is searching for sales on the internet without the help of an Arizona Search Engine Optimization expert is like fishing for minnows with a shot gun. You’ll just be shooting in the dark and hoping to hit something that will sustain you. Let an Arizona SEO expert help you find the right net to bring in a slew of new sales.

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twtBizCard home page

I just signed up for a Twitter software application that lets you send a business card to another Twitter user.  It’s called twtBizCard.com.  I haven’t played around with it yet, but wanted y’all to know about it.

Cool thing is, just like Twitter, it is really easy to do.

1. Go to twtBizCard.com.
2. Click on Create A Business Card in the upper right of page.
3. Follow the instructions to set up your card.  Takes about a minute.
4. Use @reply function in Twitter with #twtbizcard to send your business card.

That’s it.

I really dislike business cards so having a simple way to exchange info at a networking event is fantastic for me.  How ’bout you?

Tim Conley

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Also, I’ll talk about how to stop killing yourself with ungodly hours and increase your income.

Let’s get rid of the weakness first.  No sense in continuing something that is harming ourselves and preventing the success we want and deserve.

Think back to when you started your business, did you know how things would turn out?  You had a goal, but did you know you would succeed the way you imagined it in your mind?  For me things never turn out the way I planned.  The end result is typically a surprise.  My friend, Joe Polish, marketing genius extraordinaire, calls it a strategic byproduct.  You set out to achieve one thing and end up with a different yet better result.

Somewhere along the way, you started trying to control the outcome to the point of not taking action.  Conservatism can easily go unchecked.  On one hand, you need systems to run your business so that you can scale and leverage your business to greater heights.  But what happens with most small businesses is the owner clamps down on the business trying to keep things the way they were or working in a certain manner.  If you have ever thought, “Why should I hire someone who can’t do it as well as I can?” you are falling victim to your own conservatism.

The best way to handle your conservatism is to get outside your comfort zone.  Doing something you are afraid of, no matter how small, works your ambiguity coping muscles.  I’m not saying to embrace the unknown just to embrace it–no, you still need a plan as to where you want your business and your life to go.  Without a plan, you will just be wandering aimlessly outside your comfort zone.

For a business to grow, the owner must leverage other people, knowledge, equipment and systems so that she can stop wearing all the hats and focus on her vision of the future.  Two things I have seen prevent growth is the business owner lets expenses expand as more sales are made and not understanding how much her time is worth.

With the first, it is so easy to justify spending money…on anything.  Sometimes it is for business other times it’s to buy groceries or pay the mortgage.  I have met too many entrepreneurs who are spending their early stage business income on living expenses when they should be using the money for growing the company so they don’t have to be a slave to their own business.

If you commit your company’s income to too many expenses, you’ll never have enough to use for leverage.  I’m saying this from experience.  I’ve burned myself out of two businesses by spending ahead of my revenue.

As for the second, you might think my prior advice would conflict with knowing how much your time is worth.  You should get paid for your work, but sometimes that payday comes 3, 6, 12 or more months from your start.  However, if you know how much you want to earn and how much each of the jobs you are currently doing, you can determine quickly if the work should be hired out to someone else.  I haven’t met any business person yet who isn’t spending a significant percentage of his or her day on tasks that someone else would be willing to do for much less than the owner’s time is worth.

Getting out of this trap of working long hours with little time off each year can be accomplished with small steps.  First, set aside at least one hour each week for vision planning.  Vision planning is deciding and articulating why, where, what and when of your business and your life.  It is not for making to-do lists for the week.  You can make those after you have dedicated an hour of focused thought on your goals and direction.

Second, find out how much you are worth per hour and then list all recurring tasks/jobs you do that can be accomplished by someone else for less than your hourly worth.

Here’s an example: If you want to make $100,000 annually and take 4 weeks off for vacation, your time is worth $52/hour.  Any recurring task that you can hire out for less than half your hourly worth should be outsourced.  Meaning the person you hire should have a total cost to you of less than $26/hour.  Many, many tasks in even the smallest of businesses can be outsourced for under $10/hour.

So, you hire someone for 4 hours per day 5 days per week.  That saves you 20 hours that you can now use elsewhere.  At a cost of $200 per week.  Here’s the best part: your worth is still $52/hour which gains you a potential to bring in $1000 more per week.

Here is what you do with the newly acquired time:

1. Dedicate at least 5 hours to working on your business–marketing planning, improving your sales funnel, creating joint ventures, etc.
2. Dedicate 10 hours to selling–not working on a sale, but actual selling.  Getting face-to-face with people that are 8,9, & 10s on a scale of ‘ready to buy’.
3. Reward yourself and your family by taking the remaining 5 hours as personal and family time.  This is a must!  The whole point of having a business instead of a job is so you have the freedom to build the life you want not live for your business.

Let’s play a little more with the numbers.  You bring in $1000 more per week minus your cost of goods sold (hypothetical: 50%) leaving you with $500 minus the $200 for your part-timer for a profit of $300 per week or $14,400 per year in increased profits.  Just need to do that 7 more times to have an annual net profit of $100,000.

I can hear your thought, “Yeah, right!”  It may seem impossible where you are right now.  The power of leverage also gets compounded.  I won’t talk about compounding in this article, but once you build momentum, you’ll find that you can reduce your workload down to 4 days a week and 40 weeks each year and still make the income you desire.

When you are able to work on your business, you’ll see new ways to leverage your time, the time of others and automation.  This leveraging will compound.  You’ll have more time to work on your business, which will uncover new leverage points.  That will lead to more sales and profits allowing you to outsource more of your workload and the cycle continues.

Back to not having any time.

If you literally can’t afford to hire someone else you have two things that you can do that will have an immediate impact.

1. Calculate how much time you spend selling.  Not talking with prospects, getting to know people, etc, but face-to-face closing—asking for the sale.  Got that number?  I bet it is a really small number and that’s why you can’t afford to hire someone.  Now, double the number of hours you are asking for the sale.  As in Glengary Glen Ross, you should be ABC: Always Be Closing.  “Coffee is for closers only.”  (I love that movie.)  Don’t tell me you don’t have time to sell.  Procrastinate everything else if you have to, just close more.  Stop chatting with prospects and start closing them.
2. Can’t do #1 for some reason?  Go get a job.  Seriously.  You’ll work 40 hours a week instead of 112 and probably take home more money.  If you don’t want to give up your entrepreneurial dream, spend your evenings and weekends managing other people who will do the selling and the administrative work.  And don’t tell me that would be a lot of work, because you’re already working more now.

OK, I’m off my soapbox.

Let’s recap.  Embrace ambiguity.  The unknown isn’t that scary.  Don’t be too conservative.  Life is ever-changing and you should change with it.  Sell more.  Hire people to replace all tasks that have to be done to people who can do them for less than your hourly worth.

I am willing to answer any questions or comments.  So, please participate and comment below.

Tim Conley

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Those uses vary even more widely than the sites themselves, which include explosively growing newcomers such as Facebook and Twitter, and the older sites MySpace and LinkedIn. While some companies use social media to advertise specific promotions, marketing professionals say the sites are especially effective in allowing customers to interact and to develop a sense of participation.

Facebook has proven particularly popular for catalyzing word-of-”mouth” advertising.

To get the rest of the story click here:

http://budurl.com/fpld

In a world of connections, if you aren’t trying to stay connected to your customers, your competitors will be able to connect with them.  Break out of your old way of thinking.  Business has changed.  Customers want to be connected to the people who run the companies they patronize.  If you aren’t willing to connect with them in a meaningful way and in the manner they want to be connected, they will go somewhere else.

Read the article to see how some local businesses are using social media to grow their businesses.

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You should watch this video. Gary gives and gives in his presentation. Very inspirational with killer business insights. I know this talk was aimed at web companies, but everything in it relates directly to your local business. Seriously. Watch it and then watch it again.

Tim Conley

EDIT: for some reason the video I embedded in this post screwed up the formatting of my site.  Above link takes you to the video.

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