Small Business Saturday

As some of you might know today is Small Business Saturday. I definitely went out and shopped small today…but I do on a regular basis. I love my local stores like Tres Bellas, Hendersonville Produce, My Hot Yoga Place and G’s Meats and More to name a few.

What I actually love more than the stores themselves is helping small businesses with their online marketing. If you area small local business looking for that extra edge online I would love to come in and give you the help you and your business needs.

A few tips to being above the rest online:

1. Own and update your local listings

2. Create and maintain a website with a blog

3. Be active on social media platforms

These are just a few ways you can stay ahead of the game with your online marketing. I would love to help your small business today! In what areas does your business need the most help?

Google+ Vanity URL

Google just released the capability for everyone (if you’re eligible) to get their own vanity URL for Google+. So instead of that lengthy plus.google.com/123456789387129487123497123498 that you previously had you can now have a pretty URL like google.com/+MeganWage. You should have received an e-mail from Google+ linking you right to the steps of confirming your URL and then getting a PIN text to you and… VOILA!

For more information on getting your Google+ Vanity URL and to see if you are eligible see this post. Oh and I didn’t forget about you brands out there…..vanity URL’s are also available for established verified businesses! So get on it! Do you have your URL yet?

Instagram Advertisement

I recently came across a sponsored post in my Instagram feed from none other than Instagram. They will be slowly introducing sponsored posts or advertisements into your feed. I’m sure this immediately infuriated most that have seen this but not me. Instagram which we all know is owned by Facebook is just another free platform trying to figure out how to survive. I will be interested to see where they take this and if these sponsored posts stay modest and engaging or spammy as I feel most Facebook advertisements are. Are you one of those who are enraged by this next step for Instagram or do you get it?

New Google Lay Out

Did you recently log into your gmail and can’t seem to find your documents, google+, calendar and the rest of your links that used line the top? I know at first I was a little confused. Google made an update these are all now on the right next the bell showing notifications for Google+. Click the button that is a ton of little boxes and the drop down will appear.

Hope this helped anyone who might have been confused like I was for a short second!

Facebook New Page Guidelines

Facebook recently announced they have changed their page terms. Some of you might not have realized that previously running a promotion or contest directly on your page timeline was against Facebook’s policies and your page could have been deleted without question if discovered.  Others of you might have known this and been using approved app’s to administer these contest and paying subscription fees.  The guidelines now show that running a promotion such as counting “likes or comments” on an image or post as entries or posting directly on your wall for an entry into a contest is acceptable.

So now the questions are: how will the apps you previously paid for adapt to this? With not many other options is running contest free but  having to manually keep up and pick winners worth it? Who ran contest on their page before and disregarded the guidelines?

New Journey

A few weeks ago I made the decision with the support of my amazing husband to quit my current job and pursue a solo career. I believe there are some companies that hiring a full time employee or outsourcing online marketing tasks simply isn’t the best option…or even feasible. My goals in this solo venture are to take the skills young entrepreneurs and small business owners already have and build upon them.  I am genuinely excited to take my skills and experience with social media, SEO, web design and much more and pass that on to businesses who need it.

 

If you are in need of online marketing assistance I can help! You might be wondering how we can work together. I am a consultant on an hourly basis who comes in and evaluates your online presence. From there I hands on help you clean up your social media, search engine listings and website as well as train you on how to manage them yourself. No one knows your business better than you…..so who else should manage it on a day to day basis? Contact me now to see how I can help your business grow!