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KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A number of restaurants and people are helping to celebrate what's been dubbed Social Media Day Wednesday by popular website Mashable.
Cities throughout the country will hold events and meet-ups at various locations and are invited to use hashtags when commenting about their activities on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media platforms.
Most local events start around 5 p.m.
Local events include:
- O'Dowds, 8600 Northwest Prairie View Road, Kansas City, Mo.
- The Cashew, 2000 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo.
- Johnny's, 6765 W. 119th St., Overland Park, Kan.
- Flamingo Lounge, 13520 E. Highway 40, Independence, Mo.
- Pin Up Bowl, 1859 Village West Parkway, Kansas City, Kan.
Other businesses, like Blanc Burgers and Bottles, are giving specials to those that check-in on location-based social networking site Foursquare.
For more information on Social Media Day, visit Mashable.com.
For more information on Social Media Marketing, give us a call at 816.228.1123.
That is one of the most frequently asked questions I get asked by clients.The truth is, it’s not easy. With millions of websites on the internet right now and thousands being added each month, everyone is striving to do the same – to come up in the first spot (or on the first page).
In reality there are only 2 ways you can come up on top:
- Set up a pay per click advertising campaign, such as Google Adwords.
- Optimize your website for keywords (also know as Search Engine Optimisation)
KeywordsBefore you embark on either of these marketing methods, you need to understand about keywords.
Keywords or key phrases are the words that visitors type into a search engine to find a service or product. The best keywords are those that are commonly typed in by your potential customers, but which aren’t used much on your competitor’s websites. In other words, if you optimize your pages for keywords your potential customers use a lot, but your competitors haven’t thought of, you win. But here’s the catch…you’ll never get to know which are the best keywords for your website simply by guessing.
There are many tools you can use to find what keywords people are using, including Google’s Keyword Suggestion Tool.
If you are serious about finding the perfect keywords, I would recommend calling and SEO professional like we have on staff here at Ad Trends Advertising. There are a lot subtle nuances like competition, number of searches, and combinations of words called keyword clusters. (In other words, there is no “guessing” when you use an SEO professional. Everything is based on research and expert level intelligence.)
Best of all, they will help you to find those “best keywords” – the ones your potential customers use, but which your competitors don’t know about. Once you have identified the best keywords, you can either run a pay per click marketing campaign or optimize your website for search engines.
Pay per clickPay per click advertising is when an advertiser (you) pays for each qualified click that sends a search engine user to your web page. PPC requires you to bid on keywords or phrases that relate to your business. The best known pay per click services are Google AdWords and Overture. Generally you can bid from as little as a few cents per visitor. However, the more you bid the higher up in the search engine your advertisement will appear. Pay per click is a great way to deliver targeted and qualified visitors to your website at a very reasonable price.
It is a good idea to experiment with different PPC campaigns to find the one that works best for you. You will need to spend time and money testing your keywords and ads especially in the first few months. However, PPC advertising can be a quick way to get results in the search engines.
Search Engine OptimizationSearch engines prefer to list sites that contain good content. In order to rank high you need to create a website that has maximum content and which uses lots of relevant keywords to your service and products.
Once you decide on the keywords, use them in:
- Your website’s domain name
- The title of your page – This is displayed in the top bar of your browser window
- The heading of your home page
- The first paragraph of your home page
- Meta tags – Keywords, page title, description
- Titles of your graphics
- Alternative (Alt) tags – These appear in place of images when the browser preferences are set for text only.
While it is important to use keywords as much as possible, it is also important you use them only if they are relevant and do not sound awkward. If you spam your keywords you may be penalized or even banned by some search engines.
Another important thing to consider when trying to optimize your website for search engines is to have as many relevant links pointing back to your website from other complementary sites. This can be done through link exchanges or by writing articles/posts and submitting them to article directories or forums. Ensure you include your domain name at the end of each article/post.
If this all seems too overwhelming, you can employ the services of a search engine optimization company, who will make your website’s content more search engine friendly like Ad Trends Advertising.
SEO is a long term approach to search engine marketing, and often takes 3-9 months to see drastic improvement in the rankings depending upon competition. The good news is that once you become ranked high, it is very hard to fall down the rankings and little or no more investment is required for that key phrase. PPC advertising will stop being effective as soon as you stop paying, this is not the case with SEO.
Please remember, having your website listed at the top of the search engines is not the only way to promote your website. There are lots of other ways you can get visitors to your site for little or no money such as:
If you need any help with your online or offline marketing, call Ad Trends Advertising today at 816.228.1123.
A cutting edge web design can be the difference between success and failure for an online company...More and more people are starting their own online businesses, and the competition within any particular marketplace is getting more and more intense. This is why having the right website design is now such an important part of the success of any online enterprise. Remember that your website is your store window, and just like any good store, the best window dressing will attract the customers in their droves.
Many newbies tend to make the same mistake, and that is to scrimp on the amount of money they spend on their website design. The problem is that there are a number of online businesses that offer cheap or even free website design. But the truth of the matter is that is that these low or no cost websites are very basic. Often they are simply templates that you can personalize in a limited way with choice of colors and font styles, but if you are serious about wanting to run a successful website, and your ambition is to handle lots and lots of traffic, you need a website that is capable of handling that sort of activity.
Finding a good website design company is not hard, and the website that you commission doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. But for a small outlay, you will be investing in your own future and your own online success. You must have the right tools for the job, and quality website design is fundamental to that success.
A good website design company will give you two essential things. The first thing is a website that looks aesthetically pleasing, and the second thing is a website that incorporates cutting edge technology and state-of-the-art knowhow. Let’s examine these two elements a little more closely.
Your website design needs to be aesthetically pleasing because you only get one chance of capturing a visitor’s attention. When traffic first arrives on the chosen landing page of your website, it is vitally important that you capture their immediate attention and interest. You need a visually stunning website that not only grabs and holds their attention, but also leads them further into the website to eventually clinch a sale. Lose them and they are gone forever.
But as well as being visually stunning, your website design must also include cutting edge technology. For example it should have the capability of streaming video, which is superb for great advertising and marketing messaging. It should also include state of the art coding in its links and structure because it is these links that enable search engine spiders to crawl all over website, indexing it for the major search engines which will enhance your website’s search page rankings.
A good website design company will also help you with your content, making sure that it is interesting, relative and informative, because this too will increase your website’s search engine ranking, making it much easier to find for customers seeking out the sort of products and or services that your website promotes.
Finally the right website design company will design your website making sure that it operates at a high conversion rate, meaning that it takes newly arrived traffic and stands a much better chance of converting casually interested visitors into cash paying customers.
The best website design companies are not just there for the short ride. It’s not just a case of design a website, then leaving it all up to you to make the best of it on your own. A good website design company will be a permanent partner to you, always being there when you need them to tweak your website in one particular direction, or to insert some new form of technology that keeps your website at the cutting edge of current effective website design.
Click here to view our services and portfolio.
Check out a new web store we just launched for B Side Record Cleaner:http://www.bsiderecordcleaner.com/proddetail.php?prod=BsideBottle
B Side Record Cleaner Is Specifically Created For Cleaning & Protecting Records. Our Formula:
- Eliminates Static
- Removes Dust, Fingerprints, Oil
- From Fingers, Smoke And Fog Residue
- Extends Needle Life Up To 50%
- Improves Record Fidelity For
- Deeper Base And Better
- Overall Sound Quality
- Powered By Nano Technology
A very cool product and a very cool website! If you own vinyl records, make sure you try some B Side Record Cleaner!
$.39 each includes the schedule,
sales tax and shipping costs.
Available in increments of 300 ONLY! 
Included on the schedule are the football schedules for the Kansas Jayhawks, Missouri Tigers, Kansas State Wildcats, and Monday Night Football on the back. Simply peel off the protective liner and press your business card onto the exposed adhesive on the front of the magnet for a instant imprinted specialty item.
If you are paying by CREDIT CARD you can pre-order by faxing this form to 816.228.3011.
If you would like to pay by CASH OR CHECK you can mail your form to Ad Trends Advertising, Inc., 1001 NW Vesper St, Blue Springs, MO 64015 or you can drop it off at the same address.
Please note: Only prepaid orders will be accepted. Please include your telephone number in case we run out of the schedules we can notify you.
Social Media Tools To Use In Your Marketing PlanCreating a "buzz" around products, services, businesses or an event is a requirement for all business. There is no social media marketing wand that someone will wave and a target audience will automatically start coming to your site, and what works for one brand may not work for another.
The process of creating buzz doesn't start from creating a blog or creating a video, it's a social media strategy that encompasses social media and word-of-mouth marketing. We have compiled a list of social media tools that companies use to build their social media marketing mixes:
1. Blogs
Blogs have become a great tool for social media marketing. First because, if optimized correctly, they can be used to drive traffic to a website. A good blog will help in creating internal links, fresh content, active community, or non-search engine traffic.
Examples of popular blogs where you can create your account are: Wordpress, Blog.com, Bloggers.com, Typepad, etc.
2. Micro-blogging
Like blogs, micro-blogs offer huge opportunities for business promotion. That is both through content consistency and good optimization. Two of the most used are Posterous and Twitter.
3. Online Video
The importance of online videos has rapidly increased during the last few years. Popular video sharing websites include YouTube and Vimeo.
4. Photosharing
Social media is all about sharing! Therefore, there are numerous platforms that allow photo sharing with your friends. Some of them are: Flickr.com, Memeo.com, and Photobucket.com.
5. Podcasting
Podcasting is part of the new media tools that are offered to both promote your brand and your products/services. Check out Blip.fm or RadioPodcast.fr.
6. Presentation Sharing
Another great way to put your brand's name in the spotlight is by offering presentations on topics of interest for your audience on presentation sharing websites. They are increasingly gaining in popularity nowadays. Some of them are: SlideShare.net, MyPlick.com, Scribd.com, or AuthorSTREAM.com.
7. Social Networks: Applications, Fan Pages, Groups, and Personalities
Social networks are the place to present and promote yourself as well as to keep in touch with your targeted audience.
8. Crowd Sourcing/Voting
Crowdsourcing is an effective model because it can be used for developing programs, marketing efforts, research, and education. For example Dell has used Crowdsourcing as a distributed problem-solving and production model and has reduced costs and increased their efficiency. Also look at the Grand Challenge for FNIH to see a crowd sourcing campaign.
9. Bookmarking/Tagging
Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to share, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web resources. Examples of popular social bookmarking websites: delicious.com, Digg, Diigo, Fark, Mixx, MyBlogLog, Newsvine, Propeller, Reddit, Slashdot.org, StumbleUpon, Yahoo!, and Buzz.
10. Discussion Boards and Forums
Online forums are a great way to market your products/services and interact with other professionals or your audience. Engaging your audience in your niche forum can bring high value to your site and brand too.
11. Content Aggregation
Content aggregation offers you the chance to bring all news and feeds around your online community accounts in one place. Some say this is the future of social media. Emerging content aggregation websites: Bloglines, FriendFeed, Lifestream.fm, Lijit. 12. Brand Monitoring
Social media is also offering a variety of tools that help businesses understand the positioning of their brand. Popular examples are: Buzzlogic, Radian6, or ReputationDefender.
13. Ratings and Reviews
The best way to find out where your website stands or how your brand is perceived by others is through ratings and reviews. See Yelp, or GetSatisfaction.
14. Widgets
For those who are trying to promote their own brands, they can create personalized badges, using interesting widgets on Facebook, Twitter, and other networks or by simply using WidgetBox or SpringWidgets.
15. Wikis
Wikis are our online encyclopedia. A short list of wikis: Wikipedia.org, Citizendium.org, AboutUs.org, Pbwiki(PBworks.com), or Wetpaint.com.
Along with all the new ways of publishing your content on networking sites, it is important to publish your articles on publishing sites like EzineArticles, eHow, Google Docs (docs.google.com), IdeaMarketers, Yahoo Articles Group (groups.yahoo.com) and submit your press releases on important specialized sites like i-Newswire, PR.com, PressReleasePoint, and PRLog.org.
Social Media Marketing can be very confusing at times. There are lots of networks and channels to choose from. Creating a presence on all the channels is very time consuming and randomly choosing a network is not a good social media strategy. Companies are struggling to understand what social media marketing mix they should use to make their brand successful in the online world.
We suggest it is important to identify which channels are suitable for your business depending on your target audience. Businesses must plan a step-by-step online marketing strategy and brainstorm ideas with their online marketing agency that will work for their products/service.
If you need help making this happen, call Ad Trends Advertising today at 816.228.1123 or email our Internet Marketing Director, michael@adtrendsinc.com
While supplies last only! Massive discounts on a variety of promotional products... Contact Ad Trends Advertising Immediately 816.228.1123 or email customerservice@adtrendsinc.com
Ad Trends Advertising is a proud partner of the Blue Springs Wall That Heals. We have been working hard on the website at http://bluespringswallthatheals.net/. In addition, we have been assisting the City of Blue Springs with the marketing campaign for the wall. We have also helped create the sponsorship engraved granite plaques and the giant check seen here.
We encourage everyone to visit the Wall That Heals this summer, sign up to volunteer on the website, or explore sponsorships for this amazing program. About the Blue Springs Wall That HealsAlthough millions of visitors experience the healing power of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial annually, millions more have not yet had the opportunity. Many do not have the resources to make the journey to the nation's capital, while others may find the war's legacy easier to confront within their own communities.
The Wall that Heals, an exhibition featuring a 250-foot replica of the original Memorial in Washington D.C. will travel to Blue Springs, Missouri in September 2010, addressing not only the loss, but also the lives of more than 58,000 men and women whose names are inscribed on The Wall.
In 2010, Blue Springs will host this monumental exhibit, helping Kansas City veterans, parents, children and friends find healing and a powerful connection as we join together in saying, Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans, Welcome Home.
Read more at http://bluespringswallthatheals.net/
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