Swamp Ass Tip: Use Social Media to Introduce Your Business

For many entrepreneurs and SMBs, introducing their company to Internet consumers, has proven to be a demanding and discouraging experience. In most instances, their failed attempts at social media marketing, can be attributed to the lack of proper market research, and the implementation of a poor campaign strategy. As such, to avoid becoming further discouraged by repeated social media failures, it is recommend that businesses focus their efforts, on these three fundamentals; of social media marketing success:

1. Firmly establish your corporate mission and consumer message. Determine the principles of your brand, and clearly define your campaign goals. Then, when communicating with the consumer audience, ensure that your message consistently conveys the morals, ethics and standards; that drive your brand.
2. Generate meaningful and relevant content, that will inspire your consumer audience to share with others. It should come as no surprise to learn, that people like remarkable things and more importantly; they like to talk about them. This is why many of the branding strategies applied in social media marketing, are (somewhat) similar to polished political speeches, that provide the audience with an exciting and inspiring message; that creates awareness and encourages conversation. Businesses must repeat and reinforce, their focused campaign message, and remain loyal to the principals of their brand, in all methods of communication; with the consumer audience.
3. Participate in your social community, by actively contributing to the conversation. Your social media audience can provide valuable information, about what customers are talking about, and looking for. Take this opportunity, to develop a successful content strategy, and personalized social media marketing plan; that satisfies your friends and followers.

During challenging economic times, Swamp Ass Marketing's brand managers have created some really innovative methods, of reaching their apprehensive audience. The Internet marketing strategies employed, have captured the attention of motivated consumers, and successfully conveyed a focused brand message to the Internet audience; that was consistent, relevant, remarkable and endearing.

Exact Match Domains Not The Favorite in Swamp Ass Search

There have been countless instances, where search engine marketers have seen an exact match domain name, out-perform a branded (non-keyword related) URL; in Google search results. When the search giant was questioned about the practice, they indicated that the influence that exact match domain names had, would (at some time) be eliminated by an algorithmic update. In the meantime, just how much weight does it carry and is the favoritism absolute, or can it be overcome with clever search engine marketing an optimization strategies?

In an International SEO competition currently underway, a majority of the participants believed that Google does favor exact match domains, and chose one or both of the competitive keywords; for their website's URL. Probably a wise choice. Why? Recently, the search engine has returned results for the term "ramadama dingdong", that clearly favors exact match domain names; in the search result pages.

So considering all of the mounting evidence, is there any stopping the power and influence of a domain name, that matches the search query exactly? I believe so. Thankfully, the Google search algorithm is far more advanced, than simple URL vs keyword recognition. The other factors that the search engine takes into consideration, can be exploited to gain a competitive advantage over exact match domains. In fact, only one website ranking in the top 10 for term swamp ass, has the keyword phrase in the primary domain (see below). This demonstrates that by utilizing the principles of good search engine marketing, like generating meaningful and relevant content and developing a credible linking strategy, search marketers can improve their odds; against an exact match domain.

For more Internet marketing tips and advice, join Ramadama Dingdong on Twitter.

Share Stories That Surprise, Inspire and Delight Your Audience

One method of encouraging Like-ability for your company or brand, is to consistently share and encourage inspiring stories, about your business, products or service; that repeatedly surprise and delight your Internet audience.

Using traditional advertising, businesses and corporations would normally purchase a 30 second ad spot on TV or radio, to share these personal messages. Today, popular social media tools like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, offer valuable opportunities to interact with consumers, and build credibility and trust; based on the meaningful content that is shared. You see, the traditional approach to marketing/advertising provided a one-way communication, whereas social media marketing is a back-and-forth conversation; between brands and the consumer audience.

Businesses that are promoting a more personalized approach to social media, can introduce these stories to bring their business or brand "to life." By sharing stories about struggles and obstacles that have been overcome, like the one told by the Swamp Ass, businesses can instill a deep emotional attachment with consumers; who can very closely relate to them.

For more Internet marketing tips and advice, join Ramadama Dingdong on Twitter.

The Benefits of Blogging

Starting a company blog is a great way to create valuable in-bound links to your webpages, and promote consumer awareness about your company, brand and products. Effective blogging will provide your business with a platform, in which to share ideas and Industry advice; with like-minded businesses and consumers.

Before rushing in, eager participants should consider that this approach to marketing, is expected to (nearly) double their online workload. Furthermore, ambitious bloggers should heed a warning from the Swamp Ass, that a poorly maintained blog, that does not provide current, meaningful and/or relevant content; has little or no value to consumers.

By consistently generating meaningful content for your blog, you will remain current, active and knowledgeable, in a specific topic or general field; related to your business. And, by building and maintaining an image as a dependable source of industry information, friends and followers will visit your website more frequently; and engage in conversation routinely. In addition, this approach provides you with an excellent opportunity to gently promote your products/services, build your brand and motivate consumers to make a purchase; or contact you.

Commenting on Facebook Comments

I am a bit apprehensive, about implementing Facebook comments, into my blog, blog posts and pages. The fact that I rarely leave comments myself, and I make only a modest appearance on Facebook, is probably the reasoning behind it. Nevertheless, to appreciate the benefits that Facebook comments can provide, you must take a moment to participate in the community, by providing meaningful feedback of your own; on interesting posts and pages.

Considering that the motivation behind the content that you generate daily, is to inspire visitors to share their experience with their friends and followers, you must offer your webpage visitors; the easiest methods in which to facilitate this. Unquestionably, Facebook comments provides just such a method. Here is how... When a visitors leaves a comment, the content of that endorsement is displayed on their wall, as well as their friend's feed. In many cases, this encourages other members of the community to comment back and forth, which repeatedly inspires conversation and word of mouse marketing. Furthermore, anyone who operates a WordPress blog, knows the hours spent moderating comments and reporting spammers. Because Facebook members must be logged in to participate, Facebook determines if a real person or anonymous user is commenting.

All things considered, the only drawback I can identify, is that not everyone is a Facebook community member. Aside from that, I think that Facebook comments is a great way to showcase rich and meaningful feedback from the community that supports the Swamp Ass, and genuinely enjoys the Internet marketing advice; that I openly provide.

For more Internet marketing tips, join @TheSwampAss on Twitter.