It goes without being said that social media is anything but traditional for insurance marketing strategies. Whether you’re posting on Facebook or tweeting, your mindset should also be anything but traditional. Instead of just thinking outside of the box, use it as a soapbox. Stand above the rest and shout your message to a mass audience. Demand attention! Realistically, you want to reach as many people as you possibly can, in the shortest period of time with the best results – astonishing results!
How can you do this? You can take your social media content to the next level in three simple ways:
Get creative with what you already have.
You don’t have to go completely back to the drawing board, but take a different approach to what you’re already doing. For example, if you’ve already posted photos of the office, switch them up for the season. Showcase what’s going on! Or, use tools to enhance and add graphics to previously posted photos, this is eye catching for seasonal events and holidays.
Another way to use what you already have, is to piggy back off of a previously successful concept. For instance, if you had great traction with a call to action post or contest, entice people for the next one, by mentioning how successful the previous one was. “Since you all enjoyed last week’s tasteful debate, we’re interested to hear how to feel about…”

Be positive! Positive energy is infectious; it’s something worth spreading!
Positive and motivational statements can be used for all of your insurance marketing strategies, but are they known as some of the most shareable content posted on social media.  Be sure to give credit to the author of the quote. Aside from a reference point, the use of the specific author could become a conversation starter on your pages as well!

Be unpredictable! Consistency lays a foundation for a solid follower and fan base, but you have to keep your audience’s attention!
It’s great that your fans have something to look forward to, whether it be your weekly call to action post, or your motivating Monday quote, but it is just as important to be spontaneous, as it is to be consistent! Enlighten your audience with random facts and tid bits of knowledge they may not know. Or begin a conversation about a tasteful topic that people may not expect to hear about from an insurance company! Prove to people of all ages that you are “in the know”! Turn a few heads with a simple Facebook post or tweet!

Social media is an amazing non-traditional marketing tool to reach clients and prospective customers. Once you’ve become comfortable with the basics, stand on that soap box of yours and let people know you’re there. Be anything but traditional, you may even surprise yourself!

In the wake of recent Google algorithm updates and other search trend changes, you may be asking yourself – how can I help my SEO strategy?

There are 3 things that you can easily do to help compliment a quality SEO strategy.

When asking how you can help, consider the following:

It’s important to make sure that your SEO and content efforts are in line with the ever-changing guidelines of the major search engines and the Google updates especially. It is expected that such updates will continue on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. This is a good thing – these updates are done to ensure that spammy sites and content farms don’t beat you in the search rankings.

Have any additional ideas on how to help your SEO strategy? Tweet them to me @Astonish_Shawna.

Not known for having “hashtags” or “likes”, LinkedIn is quietly becoming the next best thing in Social Media.  Today, more corporations and recruiters are utilizing LinkedIn to get positions filled, and potential candidates are taking notice.  Launched in May, 2003, LinkedIn has become omnipresent in today’s business world.

Building a quality network is the greatest value a company has in using LinkedIn.  The easiest way to build your network is to work at it all the time.  We’re not saying that you should spend all your time on the site, but make time every day for building connections.  Also, including a link to your profile in your email signature lets your professional contacts know you’re “linked in.”

With the ability to search for second and third degree connections through your immediate network, don’t run right out to talk to these people.  Ask those in your network if potential candidates would be a good fit for you and your company.  Much like dating, use your “matchmakers” to get you an introduction, or at the very least introduce yourself to the candidate by mentioning your mutual contact.

Once you contact a potential candidate, connect with them.  Not only will this build your network, but this will lead you to other candidates with the right qualifications for your company.  Once you hire a candidate and you’re ready to move on to the next, don’t forget the connections you made during the hiring process.

LinkedIn is not a replacement for the way you currently recruit.  It is, however, a way to do it better.  At the end of the day, you will still have to make phone calls, interview candidates, and hire the best person for the job.  With LinkedIn, the recruiting process becomes more efficient and more effective.

Last month, Google announced they would be shifting the location of AdWords text ads that appear on their search results pages. Instead of ads on the top and side, ads now appear on the top and bottom – no side, depending on the search term. Google made this change so they can begin offering helpful content on the right side where AdWords used to be.

This change has both upsides and downsides. The downside is that there will be less positions on the first page. Instead of up to twelve ads, there will now be just six. This will result in higher bids and a more competitive landscape for advertisers who wish to appear on the first page of results.  However, moving the side ads to the bottom will likely increase click rates, since the ads will now fall inline with organic search results. Despite the labeling, people in a hurry tend to ignore the fact that these are ads and assume they are part of the actual search results, leading them to click thru more often. So moving the ads in line with these results will have a positive effect in terms of driving traffic to your site…provided you are on the first page.

If you would like to see an example of ads on the bottom, do a search for the word “pizza”. Compare it to ads on the side by searching for the term “insurance”. As you’ll see, the bottom ads format runs right up against the regular search results, making it harder to distinguish them as ads. On the other hand, the side ads are well-known to most as ads. The bottom line is, advertisers can expect to pay more per click depending on the search term, but will enjoy higher click rates on terms where the ads appear on the top and bottom.

Social Media isn’t just for Twitter and Facebook anymore.  More people are utilizing Foursquare to let their friends and family know what they’re up to.  This application is a location-based check-in system allows customers to boost your business’s status in the community.

“Foursquare unlocks your city and makes your world a more interesting place,” writes Carmine Gallo, author of ‘The Power of Foursquare’.  He continues, “It informs, illuminates, and inspires.  For small businesses, it can help attract, reward and engage customers in ways that were never possible.”  Gallo’s book give seven tips that educate business owners how the application can help them.

• Connect your brand
• Harness new fans
• Engage your followers
• Create rewards
• Knock out the competition
• Incentivize your customers
• Never stop entertaining

With the November 15, 2011 revamp of Foursquare.com, your business has the opportunity to get noticed without a customer “check in”.  Users who sign onto Foursquare via the web at certain times the website will suggest places they should visit.  For instance, sign in at 11:30am and they will suggest great lunch spots near their office.  The same will occur later in the day around dinnertime.   Foursquare is committed to helping your business connect with your customers.

Compatible with other Social Media tools, when your customers “check-in” they are able to notify not only their friends who utilize Foursquare, but Facebook and Twitter.  For every check-in, Foursquare users have the ability to “unlock” different achievements:

• Mayorships
• Reward points
• BadgesDeals

Foursquare helps your business connect with your customers in a new way.  It also brings attention to your business and community.  “Unlock” the possibilities.

Businesses of all sizes have embraced social media as a way to build communities, market their services, and form relationships with customers. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even Google+ are popular. However, one platform that is often misunderstood is LinkedIn.

Officially, LinkedIn is a professional networking site. The site allows users to input their work history in a resume-like format and form connections with others, much like the Facebook friend system. However, that’s usually as far as most people take it. But if you’re a business owner, you should know that LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for generating business.

If your LinkedIn profile is sub-par, you may be damaging your credibility. By maintaining your profile and remaining active on the site, you will show potential customers that you are a credible expert in your industry. This way, they’ll remember you next time they need someone in your field. Here are some tips:

If this seems overwhelming, don’t worry! LinkedIn is actually extremely user-friendly and will guide you along the way. The most important thing is to keep up with it. Sign in a few times each week, participate in discussions, and you’ll be on your way to building your business in no time!

Last week Google released information about another algorithm change that will have an effect on their search results. Their algorithm is an intricate set of instructions and functions that helps Google determine how certain sites should rank in the SERPs, or search engine results pages. Precisely how the Google algorithms work is highly confidential but every once in a while we’ll catch a glimmer of insight into what Google is looking for from us.

The current algorithm update is focused on the freshness of content on the web – it’s being referred to as the “Freshness Update”. Google wants to gear their search results toward the most relevant AND up to date information available. This is not a new initiative for Google, but simply an improvement to their ongoing efforts. Google reports that the percentage of effected queries has doubled, meaning that 35% of searches will now see fresher results.

So, what does this mean for you?

For those of you who are clients of Astonish Results, you’ve heard over and over again how important and beneficial it is to be involved in blogging and social media. Our nagging is being reinforced by this Google algorithm update. Keeping up with your blogging and social media efforts is the easiest way to continuously send updated content to the web. So log into your onsite blog and make sure you’re giving Google what they want – fresh and exciting content!

Bringing it back to the basics, the search engines are looking to provide searchers with the best experience possible. So whether you are trying to keep up with Google’s algorithm updates or are looking for best practice tips from Bing’s webmaster guidelines, it’s important to make the needs of searchers a priority. If you’re providing searchers with up to date, useful information then you have a solid platform to build off of.

Utilizing social media can be instrumental in increasing your company’s exposure, but you must utilize social media strategically! The first step to a successful social media strategy starts with community building. Community building ensures not only that you have a significant fan and follower base, but that the individuals you’re connecting with are the right fit for your business. The use of social media is meant to be an interactive initiative, so it’s important to interact with the correct users in order to maximize your results.  There are certain ways to successfully build a strong community that will contribute to the success of your business.

Community building, like anything else, starts first with identifying your objectives.

• What are you trying to achieve from this and what goals are you going to set?

This leads into phase two of community building: you must know your audience. This is a crucial component in achieving success. You have to know who you are communicating with. Do the research!  The more local your content is, the more relevant it will be to your specific community. Understand the likes and dislikes of your fans and followers, but also give them a place to voice their opinions. Just as you want to be relevant in the real world, you need to be relevant in the digital world! Your friends, fans and followers will become more than just social media users in the end!

Once you’ve established who your audience is, it’s important to retain the members of your community. How can you do that? Be creative!

• Use “call to action posts;” give your fans and followers a reason to comment.
• Use tasteful humor and enlighten people with unique information.
• Most importantly, be reputable. Once it’s out there, it’s out there! Be well aware of what you’re posting and where you are receiving your information from!

Once your community is built to the best of your ability, you can’t just stop there. In order to take it to the next level, you need to further your interaction. The best communities are those that merge their social and real world relationships together! Allow your users to put a face to a name, humanize your page by stepping out from behind the computer. Attend local events, participate in things happening in the community and interact with fans and followers on a personal level.

Community building is essential for optimizing your presence in social media. Identify your goals, do the proper research to understand your audience, get creative, and finally, get involved!

When optimizing your website for the search engines, a good starting point is to work with a basic recipe. You want to optimize your content with good keywords, follow the webmaster guidelines established by the search engines, format your content and links so they can be easily crawled by the search spiders, and implement an integrated strategy including blogging and social media that will help catapult your site toward the top of the search results.

It’s Halloween, so I want to have a little fun today. Some furry friends are going to help me tell the story of a basic SEO strategy. I hope you enjoy these photos as much as I have!

Find and optimize your content with long tail keywords that will help you emphasize your specialized focus.

Your content should be user friendly. You need to avoid the use of ghostly tactics such as hidden text.

You want to be sure your site uses the proper keyword linking strategies so the search spiders will deem your content worth a high ranking in the search engines.

Make sure you read up on and are compliant with webmaster guidelines to avoid being penalized.

Implement an integrated strategy with blogging, social media and linking that will help your keyword strength and web presence bloom.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Every industry has its own language – the Internet Marketing world is no different. For those of us who work in the industry, it can be so easy to get swept up in the jargon that we forget not everyone uses these terms on a daily basis. At Astonish Results, we’re constantly communicating with clients who do not have backgrounds in Internet Marketing, so it’s important that we stay away from the lingo we’ve become accustomed to and speak in plain English.

My goal for this post is to translate some of the terms we throw around most often into basic English. Here we go…

Internet Marketing

The practice of marketing products or services over the internet. It is also referred to as online marketing, web marketing, or digital marketing. Internet marketing includes websites, email marketing, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and social media.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization – The practice of helping a website show up in the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Search engine optimization is an internet marketing strategy that analyzes web searches – from determining how the search engines are ranking websites in the search results to figuring out what people are searching for and what specific terms (or keywords) are being used.

SEM

Search Engine Marketing – also known as Paid Search – is the practice of increasing a website’s exposure through paid search tactics such as PPC (pay per click). In a very general overview, SEM involves paying to have a search result appear when a search is done for a certain keyword term. If someone clicks on your ad, you pay an agreed upon price. The goals are in line with those of an SEO strategy, but SEO involves organic results and SEM involves paid results.

Link Building

Link building is the practice of getting other websites to link to your site in order to boost rankings in the search engines. Having a relevant, quality website link to your site is like getting a vote. If the search engines see that other websites want to share your information and promote your website, then they are more likely to deem your site worthy of a higher search ranking.

Search Spiders

When we refer to search spiders, or web crawlers, we’re referring to the computer program that can browse the web to find search results. The search engines use search spiders to come up with a quick, up-to-date, organized list of what’s available on the web so the search engine can then determine how relevant the content is – this turns into the search results you see on Google, Yahoo! and Bing.

Unique Content

We all know about plagiarism and the negative consequences associated with it – providing unique content for your website and blog will keep you out of trouble. The search engines love fresh, honest, helpful content – doing so will make your site seem more useful. Every page on your website and every blog post should say something different. You cannot copy content from your website and post it on your blog – the search engines will recognize this as duplicate content and you could be punished. The best way to stay in the search engines’ good graces is to create unique content every time you write.

Search Volume

Search volume is the number of times a certain term is typed into the search engines on a monthly basis. When we decide which keywords should be used in your SEO strategy, we are comparing the search volume for hundreds of terms to determine which are the best fit. In addition to the search volume, we need to look at a term’s search competition before we decide to select it as one of your keywords.

Search Competition

A term’s search competition lets us know how many other sites are trying to be found for the term. If we find that a term has a search competition of 100% then we know it will be very difficult to rank for that keyword because a lot of other sites are also trying to rank for it. We want to find a term that has a high search volume and a low search competition when we are selecting your keywords.

There is much more internet jargon that we use on a daily basis, this was a peak at the topics we reference most often. What are some of the Internet Marketing terms you hear on a regular basis? Let us know if there are any terms you need clarification on and we can feature them in a future post!