Power of Pinterest for small businesses

Get on the pinterest bandwagon

In between the heavy usage and still growing usage of Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest another social media site based on sharing interesting content from all over the internet by the user and to his / her5 followers. Pinterest is also growing in accounts in terms of Filipinos trooping there.

What this means for you, the dear small business owner is that Pinterest is open for business!


HOW Small Businesses can make the most of Pinterest

1. Business Coordinates

Once you start pining and gain a following, don't forget to include your contact details plus your website URL. Makes it easier for your coordinates to be visible when your content or pins are shared by your followers. 

2. Promote your site

Don't be lazy and be creative. These are your products that you are promoting, so spare some photos and do not share generic photos that we see all over the internet. Original and creative photos drive interest, visitors from your pins and potential sales.

  
3. Awesome Images = WIN
Pinterest is  all about good imagery and vivid visuals. Again, don't be tempted to save time and use photos found all over the internet. Instead, take the extra mile and do it yourself. Be creative with the images, maybe hire a professional photographer and give it an artistic take based on what inspire you. Creativity and powerful expression goes a long way.

4. Be Searchable

Don't forget to use them hashtags! Example #Spring2013Fashion. Try to post something about trends or what is trending. Use it to motivate your pins' artistic take. Hashtags are tagging for what your content contains or expresses.

5. Follow also

It is not always about you and your brand. Add the human touch and remember to follow interesting people based on your industry and your products. Follow your most avid customers. Follow your partners. You will be more visible that way.

6. Use other social media accounts

Pinterest alone is good, but you can reach out wider with a facebook page and a twitter account. Remember to cross promote in a meaningful take. Pinterest behavior is different from the ones in facebook and twitter. Pinterest is about imagery and conveying an expression. Facebook is essentially communicating with your audience and twitter is being concise. Don't be lazy and copy-paste what you wrote on pinterest towards facebook and others, be creative.

7. Be Active

Once you roll out good pins, don't stop. Keep on pinning with artistic creativity. Your reputation and followers will grow over time. Pinterest is all about passion.

Pinterest is also for fashion

Better Blogging for Local Businesses

The Wonders of Blogging for Small Businesses

           Filipinos are avid bloggers in different scales. Bloggers just can be just about anyone, from students to professionals. Some even make blogging as a profession. But what about the start up and small business owners in the Philippines? Do they have the time to blog given their passionate hands-on approach in conducting business as well as balancing family time?

We skimmed through the blogs of the small business sites of the respondents who said yes and we saw blogs that are not frequently updated. One blog was updated way back in 2011.

Why Blog?

             Blogging happens to be the most cost-efficient PR and self-publishing for all scales of the enterprises. Small businesses who has a dedicated blog to their site can make it the platform on which to publish news stories, upcoming products and events or company news. Blogging can substitute for paid PR in the local marketing scene. With the integration of social sharing buttons like Facebook Likes, Tweet this, Pin it from Pinterest alongside others, you can get the word out much quicker to the route of blogging.


What's in it for Small Businesses?

1. Blogs can build your community 

     Business influence cannot be bought, it is attained through sharing of expertise and knowledge about the industry. You can use blogging to share your knowledge and field of expertise that could benefit your community and build a solid business following. This builds influence for not only your brand, but the proprietor as well.

2. Self Publication is self-empowerment

    You can easily integrate a blog if your website is a Content Management System like Wordpress, Blogger or Typepad. Self-publication with blogging is a paid PR alternative. Writing stories or articles for your site generates influence and can be a source of information with regards to your industry.

3. Low Cost Publication

     Paid media can be expensive. Small business owners need to be cost-efficient and self-sufficient when it comes to PR and self-publishing. Blogging is the answer where it is also more time efficient. Large enterprises or established brands have dedicated copy-writers while you do not. With blogging, you don't need to hire a publicists or a writer. Small business owners who are passionate about their businesses blog about it. 

4. Blogging is Communication

      Blogging is not only a publication or promotion, but it also serves as a communication medium to your customers or your market. State your message in a blog and respond to comments or inquiries made. That makes small business owners much more sociable compared to figures of large scale enterprises.


Also, you can read about How to Blog Effectively for Businesses and how blogging can benefit your Business' Search Engine Optimization to be competitive from our main site. Blogging helps your brand to communicate, your personal influence sphere and is a potent tool for internet marketing for small business owners.



 

 

Local Marketing Game Changer: Virtual Guide for websites

Virtual Guide Powered by FORWARD SOLUTIONS

     In our commitment in bringing the most ground-breaking technologies affordable and attainable for the SME's here in the Philippines, we unveil the Virtual Guide, an innovative web technology that is designed to impress, engage and aid the customers visiting your site with a grand welcome.

    For your business, it will help drive conversion and assist potential leads into navigating the online sales process. First impressions last and make it a lasting impression for new visitors with an online figure that serves as an online receptionist; showing them the way to your site's wonderful attractions.

  

The Virtual Guide | Powered by FORWARD SOLUTIONS

    Having this innovative feature not only gives you an edge over your competitors, but it helps you as a Filipino SME, be marked as an innovative site for commerce.


Imagine the Possibilities:

  Homepage Assistant - Visitors or the first time ones are in for a pleasant surprise when they have seen a friendly virtual assistant that welcomes them warmly and guides them with high regards on which are the best features or pages to visit. You have them ensnared in awe and it leaves a lasting impression.

Welcoming you in style and with a warm smile

   Testimonial Assistant - Put in the good word with a realistic effect. Have the virtual assistant convey what customers say and rave about your service. Realistically conveyed with emotion that places emphasis on the medium of pure human interaction. Make this your outlet speaker to vouch for you.

The good word told by the virtual guide

    Transactions Assistant - Customers are valuable to us, and we know that you value them just as we. Let the transactions assistant be the friendly virtual guide in helping you make the sale and have the customers make the online purchase process much easier, hassle free and memorable.

Guide them for the sale.

   Other possibilities:

• Promos and Events
• Virtual Product Demonstration 
• Virtual Tours 

      VIEW THE DEMO HERE

Facebook Graph Search and Local Marketing in the Philippines

Makati City

With facebook making graph search available in the entire US, digital marketers must take note of its potential for local marketing. That means also you, the SEO specialist, digital marketer or social media specialist employed in various companies here in the Philippines. 

But what about the small business owners who have a facebook page and are either tech or non-tech savvy? Forward.ph has got you cover with this starter post about optimizing your facebook brand / business pages in preparation for the graph search when it rolls forward in the Asia-Pacific area. 

1. Where are you?

      Since graph places a huge emphasis on geo-tagging of photos and check-ins, make sure that your business address is correct and present. No business address and your establishment not showing up on check-ins and photo tagging maps means you're not ready for graph search. Get it now. 

2. Vanity URL a must!

     This is important as having a vanity or customized URL makes it easier to find your page. We recently posted about how you can secure a vanity URL and its other benefits about local marketing. When graph search was introduced in concept, it was optimized for better visibility of pages, people and photos in a specific area and other places of proximity.

3. Tag Pictures of you, people and places

      The facebook graph functions like a search engine (i.e. Google, Yahoo!) that is aimed in finding content extensions made by friends, pages and groups. Aside from typing a friend's name or specific place, there will be commands for much more exact and specific searches. Here is the tutorial from facebook in using those basic commands. (Filipinos will have them imprinted at heart in no time.)

Back on topic, if you are among those who have Graph search available when you chose to try it out for BETA, here are basic commands that gets brands excited for social vouching, that is as potent as word of mouth marketing when it comes to facebook habits.

Places that my friends visited - Lists the most recent places where your friends checked in. Be sure to tag those content images / photos for events and as much as possible, have some connection facebook with the people in attendance.

Photos taken by (Insert Friend's Name) in (Insert Location) - This is a very specific command that searches for photos taken by a friend in a defined location. Now there are a lot of reasons behind typing this command as per facebook user, but in a local marketing standpoint, this gives ample exposure for your brand. For example, you have a great restaurant with a lot of photos being taken by customers (They are sure to post and tag it and check-in) and when a friend or family searches for it, you are getting the exposure via the social vouch. 

Events with a lot of pictures are searchable in Graph

4. Tags and Check-Ins

       As we pointed out earlier, local marketing based on social influence whose requirements  are check-ins and tagging areas on where those photos / videos are taken. So begin tagging geographically and make sure that it is genuine and accurate.

5.  Rules of Engagement

     With so many brands and pages being added everyday, facebook introduced an algorithm called EdgeRank that significantly cut timeline displays of commercial posts and placed much more emphasis on friend / connection posts for the sake of facebook's intended function. This does present challenge for brands and pages about the visibility of their posts. EdgeRank favors posts by pages that have people "sharing" it and "commenting" on it as well as number of LIKES that are taken in consideration. The more shares, comments and LIKES means greater chances to be visible over a period of time. Remember, you are not the only brand or type of page that your followers LIKE.

Forward.ph who specializes in Local Marketing in the Philippines for SEO, Social Media and PPC can implement graph search optimization alongside Local and geographic SEO for the best results.

       

Are you on instagram?

Filipinos are the most avid users of instagram in this far side of the world. In a marketing sense, local businesses can explore this potential avenue for marketing by having a solid presence in the photo sharing community. You can maximize your instagram presence with the following tips:

1. Feature your business as a whole

In the United States, local business tend to focus mainly on their catered services; as per local cafes or restaurants it is limited or majority of the posts revolves around food and drinks. But don't let that limit you, you can present your business much more than your core services or products. First, you can feature the ambiance, the events or the interesting personality in your business. Promoting a balance of pictures geared towards services or products alongside other "human" elements of social interaction will give your business a personality.

2. Use Hashtags # for tagging your photos.

Hashtags are integrated on instagram's main search where trending ones or a particular subject can be found my millions of users. So this is a good practice for visibility. The challenge will be not dilluting the photos with too much hashtags, but be concise and discern the best two or three tags for your photo.

3. Avoid Filters

While filters are a cool way for an artistic showcase for users in presenting their photos, the same cannot be said for you. As a brand, present your products or services without the filters, it was meant to be presented bare with artistic inclinations for photography.


4. Share your instagram posts on your other social media accounts

If you have facebook, twitter and pinterest, that is great. More visibility for your instagram photos. Instagram can easily be linked through facebook and twitter in each of the photos prior to be posted. Photos appear in facebook timelines and tweets.

5. Post a message about your photo

Write something, say something. Hashtags as we pointed are good, but don't let that be just the description of your photos. You need to connect with your followers and audience through writing. Convey a message and you'll see that people can connect with you.

6. Engage with your followers

Tag them with instagram's people tag. This will give your brand a huge social leap on which that person has followers (the more the better) and putting the spotlight on your customers gives them that sense of being regarded by a brand. This is a part of why your instagram is human; able to appreciate.

7. Encourage your followers to post photos.

You can run a contest or give special incentives for people who post photos of you or your products / services. People who post photos of you extends your brand awareness more than ten fold as that person's followers may follow you or check you out later out of curiosity. This is also encouraging the love to use instagram by Filipinos and how they serve as an unofficial brand ambassador where trust through peer to peer vouching is a form of word by mouth marketing.

Facebook Page Fundamentals for Local Small Businesses and Brands

Facebook for local pages

The growth of local business is attributed to the Filipino entrepreneurs, the driving force of the micro and small enterprises that not only provides employment to Filipinos, but also generate revenue for taxation. We have met a lot of amazing entrepreneurs with the GoNegosyo movement that empowers Filipinos to build their dreams through pursuing passions and transforming it into a sustainable livelihood source.






With such movement and more Filipinos such as the Overseas Filipino Workers returning home to finally start their own businesses, the youth being more inclined to being entrepreneurs than pursue a corporate career and the power of the internet that makes information much more accessible for resources, small businesses and brands are booming in the Philippines.

We take pride that we are helping various companies in the Philippines reach their target markets, sales quotas and defined ROI with our distinctive SEO brand tailored for the dynamic Philippine search culture.

It is not just SEO that we offer, we also help small business owners level the field through defining their strengths, agility in the changing consumer preference and emerging online cultures. Here are our Five Star Facebook Marketing Tips for Small Businesses in the Philippines:


1. Create a Facebook Page and NOT a Profile Page

We see a lot of small businesses in facebook that does not have a facebook page, instead they have a profile page. Instead of adding more likes, they are adding friends. Facebook pages are intended for brands as well as commercial products and services. Facebook profiles are personal by nature and should not be your brand's entity on Facebook. If you are thinking about creating a facebook page for your business, we recommend it. You can use your personal profile to manage it with one navigation instead of logging out an logging in to your Facebook Profile for your business. Consumers would rather connect with you commercially by LIKING and not share their privacy by accepting you as a friend.



2. Impressive Facebook Cover and Profile Photo

First impressions last and the same applies on Facebook. The cover and profile photo are the first thing that Facebook visitors to your page see. So make an impression with the first glance by carefully designing those. Are you a small business owner with no graphic design skills? No problem, a lot of stalls in commercial printing have logo design that they can print and give you a soft copy. You can avail of those services for cheap and that bodes well for your logo and branding aspirations to be identified.

Facebook Cover = A good photograph with Hi-Resolution image is best. There are free photo editing software online such as Pixlr that will help you embed graphics or texts without the need for photoshop skills. 

Facebook Profile Photo = The small boxed photo that appears below your cover. A logo or brand image is recommended and is advocated by branding gurus. 



 3. Claim your customized URL

Make your Facebook page easier to remember by potential referrals for more LIKES and social participation. facebook.com/Cafe for example is more digestible than facebook.com/Cafe8727978 certainly. Make your customized or vanity URL be the name of your brand or establishment name. If you will be printing banners or locally known as tarpaulins, you can have your Facebook page address be printed for more LIKES with people who can access Facebook over their phones using mobile internet.




 4. List your business address correctly.

This is very important. People will refer your page to friends and associate where an incorrect listing of your business page can hurt your brand. 

Here's How:

1. Click EDIT PAGE
2. From the drill down menu click Update Page Info.
3. From the Address section fill out the form correctly. 
4. In the interactive map, drag and drop the pointer to your correct location. Note: It may take a few hours for the business address information to appear on your page, so be patient and just correctly point your location.

As a bonus, people can check in on your business establishment once they visit. "Check-Ins" in most status updates where friends can tag friends and those updates can be seen. Curiosity stems that could lead to more likes for your page. In the Facebook mobile apps, there is a function called Nearby Places that makes it easier for searchers to navigate establishment and hopefully, find your brand.


 5. Post Regularly.

The more you post, the better that your followers can LIKE and comment on your posts. It enhances your page's visibility with their respective timelines and their connected peers. Posts must not always be pure promotional. You must appeal to their needs and be timely with it. Example is a posting about the current chilly rainy season. You have a cafe, post a heart-warming message with a cool photograph. I guarantee more LIKES and shares for it. Keep an open mind and an open heart, you are essentially communicating as a brand, and not a pushy salesman. They will appreciate you for it. Bottom-line is be creative in both expression and communication, the types of posts that engages your audience are endless.

  
Knowing the best practices of the bigger businesses and established brands through social media will help your business be agile and operate in good standards, regardless of the industry.
 






 

SEO Philippines: Link Building Best Practices 2013

Search engines are continuously updating their algorithm for better search results and ranking of websites. For search users, these updates may pose more positive effects. For the SEOs’ side, however , after Google’s Panda and Penguin updates, optimization has become even more complicated. One of the SEO strategies affected by the Penguin update is link building. This specific update aimed at decreasing the ranking of websites that use blackhat SEO techniques such as cloaking, keyword stuffing, content duplication, unnatural backlinks and others.

Black hat SEO techniques, while giving quick-results for short-term goals, can harm your website in the long-term.The backlinks used will become devalued and website ranking will drop. Majority of sites that practice black-hat SEO techniques are now adjusting to the changes and removing all unnatural links to their website, or continue to suffer zero visibility to customers SEO experts continue to find new link building techniques; and here are some trends / observations to take into consideration in 2013: Press Releases for Link Building

 1.)  Press Releases for Link Building

According to Matt Cutts in this forum, press releases are not that effective as backlinks as before. However, based on a test done by Search Engine Roundtable, Matt Cutts’ blog ranked for the keyword “sreppleasers” – the group experimented on the claim by putting a link redirecting to Matt’s blog in a press release. Though it is not yet clear whether Matt Cutts was pertaining to competitive keywords in his specified scenario, there’s still a possibility that press releases are still effective based on the test results. In any case, I recommend a well-written, accurate, and newsworthy press release to share to your audience.

2.)  Analysis of Competitor’s Backlinks 

Every website has its own different SEO techniques and tactics. Researching and analyzing your competitor’s backlinks is a good start linkbuilding; to help gain competitive advantage in SEO. You can use backlink tools such as Open Site Explorer or Majestic when doing this activity. Also, when reviewing at your competitors’ backlinks, observe what top backlinks they use, how they are obtaining links from these sites, and whether they are contributing guest posts, and if the site contributing to the backlink is their clients. These will help you get ideas on the SEO tactics they are doing.

3.)  Start Blogging 

One of the known effective strategies in link building is the link bait. Link bait is the practice of creating blog posts to attract visitors. As more and more people search for information using search engines, SEOs are taking advantage of blogs as link bait to gain more traffic.  Some SEO experts’ blogs use infographics, famous names, newest gadgets, and other attention-grabbing content to get virality from readers. To make sure that your link bait will be effective, write on topics that will entertain your readers, or those that will provide relevant and comprehensive information to your target market.