CT Web Marketing Blog

Social networking is one of the most popular online activities that are carried out today. There are currently many social networking websites that are working and people are just addicted to this craze of social networking. The main concept behind the introduction of social media was to provide a platform to users for communicating and staying in touch via improved and convincing manners. But today in addition to serving as a connecting medium social media have emerged as vital and impressive tools for the promotion and establishment of businesses. The power of social media is very strong the best part about it is that it possesses a great access and reaches the depths of every corner of this world. Stats show that 98% of the youngsters aged 18 to 24 are users of various social networking mediums. Not only young people, but people belonging to older age groups also form the regular audience of social networking websites.

For this reason businesses enjoy the enormous potential to progress on social networking websites because of the fact that they provide excellent mediums for the advertisement and promotion of their offered services. There are many social networks that are operational today, but Facebook has no comparison. Presently, the Facebook is regarded as the king of social networking sites with 1.2 billion users registered at this site. This website was launched in the year 2004, but at that time no one knew that it is going to change the meaning of communication and will turn into a strong influential element for all the people of this world. Monthly 700 billion minutes are spent by people using Facebook with 11% of the population of this world uses Facebook. Can you imagine that what kind of influencing power is possessed by this social network? The stats mentioned above that clearly show how many people are addicted to Facebook.

Especially in the business circle Facebook is extremely popular the main reason behind it is that it makes it much more convenient for the manufacturers and the buyers to get in touch with each other. Every company irrespective of the fact that either it is large scale or small scale maintains its presence on Facebook because it provides it with several opportunities of progressing. The best privilege that is provided by Facebook to its users is that it serves as a very cheap promotional medium for different businesses that is at the same time very effective. If you open a business profile on Facebook then this directly means that you are now capable of targeting 1.2 billion people from across the globe and that too at free of any cost. You can promote your services in a more convenient and effective manner using your Facebook account. It also enables you to directly get in touch with clients that belong to any corner of this world. You will able to directly respond to the feedback that is provided and this will help you a lot in improving.

If you own a small business, you’re no doubt always on the lookout for methods that will allow you to advertise on the local level. Small businesses don’t usually need national attention, but getting exposure on the local level can sometimes feel like it must be far more difficult to obtain.

Fortunately, this need not be the case. Keep reading for some easy, but effective, methods.

Advertise on Mobile Apps

Every month another study comes out that confirms the fact that we’re all addicted to our mobile devices. The silver lining, however, is that this gives small businesses an excellent venue for advertising. Many of us are hunched over our smartphones because we’re busy messing around with some app.

Most of these apps allow advertising on them. Better still, they’ll allow the kind that targets specific areas. So, you can advertise on an app, but it will only appear for people who live in your city. That way you aren’t paying for people who live too far away to ever become customers.

Get Your Company Name on a Grocery Cart

Everyone has to go grocery shopping, and most people use a cart when they do. Ask your local grocery if they’d allow you to have an ad put up on their carts. This is an easy way to get right in front of a local audience, on a regular basis and for a prolonged period of time. The best part is that many locally owned grocers will accept bartering for payment.

Become Involved

If you want to attract locals, you have to get involved with locals. Though running a small business can be a very time consuming endeavor, you need to spare some for getting involved in the community. This is a great way to meet people from all over your area and get them interested in what you have to offer.

Cross-Promote

The fact is you’re not the only small business in the area looking to grab some attention. As long as they aren’t direct competitors, consider trying to cross-promote with other businesses. Something as small as putting up fliers in each others’ buildings can have a positive impact. Of course, if you can be more creative with your methods, you’ll experience even better results.

Advertise on Facebook

Unlike other social media platforms, people within the same network on Facebook tend to share that same network in real life, as well. Put another way, people who are friends on Facebook, tend to actually be friends in the real world, too. For this reason, a good option for advertising locally is starting a Facebook Fan Page. The more people who like it, the more people—within their real life, local network—will see their friends vouching for a small business and take notice.

Also, unlike a personal profile, a Facebook Fan Page can actually be crawled by Google and other search engines. So, if you haven’t already, start a Fan Page for your small business.

While it can certainly be an uphill battle, there is plenty you can do as a small business to get your name out there. Using the above methods, focus on the local level and begin seeing results soon.

Source:

http://yfsmagazine.com/2013/06/08/4-low-cost-local-marketing-tips-for-small-businesses/#axzz2qRtReI2P

http://www.cio.com/article/742129/10_Mobile_Marketing_Tips_for_Small_Businesses

http://www.examiner.com/article/8-ways-to-advertise-locally-for-free-online

What to Look for in a Hosting Company

If you’re building a website, you won’t get very far without a hosting company. Think of your website as a home. The hosting company is the landowner who owns that real-estate you’re building that home on. As such, you pay them regularly for the right to stay there. While this may seem like a fairly straightforward relationship, there are countless hosting companies out there, and none of them are the same. Continue reading to learn about what you should look for in a hosting company.

Attentive Support

No matter how well you design your website, there’s no chance you won’t experience issues at some point. This is just as true when it comes to the server you’re on. The best hosting companies out there can’t guarantee 100% uptime, so your site is bound to suffer some issues in the future.

While your hosting company can’t do too much about these issues, it certainly has a say in how it handles them. You’ll want to research any of your candidates to learn about their technical support’s reputation. Remember, even when your website is down, you’re paying to keep the lights on. The sooner the technical support team can handle the problem, the sooner you can be back up and running.

CMS Friendly

Content management systems have been one of the best things to happen to the Internet. Called CMS for short, the best example of these systems is WordPress. The website started out by letting people easily develop blogs, but over the years it has been one of the favored methods for creating fully-functional websites.

As hard as it may be to believe, some hosting companies still don’t recognize the potential of CMS and haven’t made the effort to accommodate them. Even if you already have a website built, and you’re simply looking for a new host, take this point into consideration. You may want a blog for your site someday, and there’s no easier way to handle that than with a CMS.

Handles Growth Well

If you’re creating a website, chances are you have high hopes for the future. Whether that means a bigger site with more features or a better blog with more readers, you’ll want to make sure the hosting company you’re considering will be able to handle this growth in the future.

For example, you don’t want to be charged for abnormally large amounts of traffic. You might write the perfect blog post, see it goes viral and then find out that all that exposure came with a bill. While this is fairly typical in instances where a significant spike occurred, you should still find out what the amount would be.

Professional Add-Ons

Any hosting company you buy through will try to add to your sale by offering other features. While there’s nothing wrong with that, you should expect a clear explanation from them for why a certain add-on would be worth your money. If you see add-ons that you simply know aren’t worth it at any price, reconsider doing business with the company.

While a hosting company is important, don’t jump into picking one immediately. You can save yourself a lot of money and trouble by considering the above aspects as they relate to any of your options.

Source:

http://www.managedits.com/blog/entry/5-things-to-look-for-in-a-web-hosting-company.html