Internet and Social Media
A Handy How-To
Hope Mora, Brandon Hilton, Dylan Parmeter, and Ryan Zimmerman
Using the internet can be a very helpful means of promoting your business and activities. By using a domain service such as Bluehost, a domain costs approximately $328.26 for three years. This is a relatively cheap expense for the budget, and with the ability to pay itself off by expanding your business’ exposure, it can prove to offer you a powerful, long-lasting tool to promote and expand your business with. However, in order to appropriately use social media and the internet, you must be smart about what you’re dealing with! To educate about the proper usage of the internet as a promotional tool, this page includes excellent information and helpful advice for using this great means of media.
What To Include on a Website
1. Address
2. Contact information
3. FAQs
4. Mission/Vision statement
5. Links to other social networks (such as the business Facebook page)
6. “About Us” page
7. Customer testimonials
8. Hours of operation
9. Prices
10. Photos of services
Attracting Customers (And Keeping Them!)
Attracting Customers
Keeping Customers
1. Get listed in search engines like Google and Yahoo. To use these search engines effectively submit your domain name to various search engines.
2. Use a paid search service.
3. Use local search engines advertising.
4. Affiliates
5. List your site in web directories.
6. Join forum sites and blogs.
7. Have a Facebook page.
1. Address visitor’s needs effectively.
2. Send an e-mail with new promotions to customers.
3. Offer rewards for customers that online shop.
4. Personalize your webpage for different visitors.
5. Make connections with hyperlinks.
6. Have an easy navigation system on your webpage so that customers can easily find what they want.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Your Website
As a business owner, you want to make sure that the website you’re paying for is well worth the money it took to create it. There are several ways to evaluate how much your website is affecting your customer base! One such way is using online-specific, printable, redeemable-in-store coupons. Such a method could show how many people in our customer base are using the website and finding the coupon. Another way is simpler and easier – simply adding a hit counter onto the main page of the website could do the trick!
Social Media Examples
Three examples of social media tools that a business could consider are Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Facebook is an excellent example, as it can bring a large amount of attention to our business by spreading the name of the business and raising awareness. Twitter can help to promote awareness of any special events a business has planned, as well as keep in touch with customers via simple and easy messages. Tumblr can reach out in a way that can make a connection with a large community, making use of a tagging system for individual posts, that can be searched for by users.