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How Social Media Can Impact Your Business

February 24th, 2010

Fragment of an artifact from 2006

photo credit: dno1967 - "You pressed... 998#24%*00 - Thank you for calling Unorthodox Jewish Tech Support for the hearing impaired."

By Matt Cook
Point.Click Media

“It’s just a fad.”

“This will never catch on.”

“This won’t last.”

We said it about The Simpsons, we said it about grunge music, and at one point it was even said about the internet itself. Many of us are still saying it about social media. There’s no denying the fact that social media is here for the long run, and without even knowing it your business is likely being impacted by it as we speak. The internet is now a giant forum where people – your customers – are gathering to chat about anything and everything, and eventually your business will become a topic of choice.

So what’s being said about my business?

The internet has a place for everyone. Whether you’re manufacturing proton accelerators for use in swallowing the planet whole, or printing t-shirts sporting Tony Danza and the slogan “I’m the Boss”, there’s a fan club, forum, chat room, Twitter feed or Facebook group for your niche. Social media is a great way to find out what people are saying about your product or service and to generate valuable feedback in improving your customer relationships.

But even with the vast universe that is the web, your business can still keep in close personal contact with your clients. For example, with Facebook groups you can interact directly with your clients. Allowing people to interact one-on-one with your business goes a long way toward establishing customer loyalty. It can act as an extension to your public relations. After all, nobody likes calling up a corporate hotline to listen to this:

“Welcome to the redundant, soulless, throw yourself in front of a Greyhound bus, service hotline.
For Shipping Inquiries… Press 1.
For Billing Inquiries… Press 2.
For Tech Support… Press 3.”

*Several Hours Later*

“For Customer Service… Press 473#**901.”

There’s no point in dismissing social media as a marketing tool. I’m reminded of those television interviews in the early 2000’s with the Iraqi generals who claimed, “We are not being invaded!” when you could clearly see American paratroopers launching grenades at the presidential compound in the background. Those that choose to simply ignore new avenues for generating interest in their business can expect the same results. Try searching for yourself or your company name directly and see what comes up and what’s being said about you. It can be a good indicator of whether or not you’re on the right track. If you’ve got a bomber full of exclusive information to drop on your client base, contact Point.Click Media.

Posted in Branding Tips, General News

Point.Click Media Has A New Location

February 22nd, 2010

Point.Click Media is proud to announce the opening of our new location at 108 High Street in Moncton. Located within the Trimedia Atlantic building, we’re looking forward to working alongside their team and the prospect of offering a complete range of media services to businesses in the Greater Moncton area.

Want to drop by?

Point Click Media Productions
108 High, St Suite 205
Moncton, New Brunswick Canada
E1C 6B5

newlocation

Posted in General News, Point.Click News

Last Weeks Twitter Updates for 2010-02-22

February 22nd, 2010

  • CTV is making a HUGE case for Silverlight over flash for video content! Go Canada! #
Posted in Twitter Updates

Sniffing Out A New Home

February 17th, 2010

Not Me. I'm an Angel.

photo credit: Patrick Hoesly

By Matt Cook
Point.Click Media

Everyone wants to be the top dog when it comes to search engine rankings. It’s a highly competitive field out there. But for small businesses who are just beginning to establish a web presence, it can be like trying to observe the constellations through the Hubble Space Telescope. You can see it, but how will we ever get there? Proper Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not something that just magically happens. It’s not as simple as placing some keywords underneath your pillow and hoping that the SEO fairy pays you a visit with a nice new ranking.

In reality, search engines are more like an abused dog that you’d adopt from the local animal shelter. He’s very hesitant to trust anyone due to years of being beaten and mistreated by others and it will take time to earn that trust. So you put food and water out for him, take him for walks, pet him and scratch him behind the ears, but in the end, he’ll come around when he’s good and ready.

SEO works much the same way. Due to years of people trying to cheat search engines to obtain a higher ranking, search engines will not begin ranking you until they see what you’re all about. When search engine robots are sent out seeking data across the world to index pages, they’re looking for certain things such as:

Are you new?
Are you a legitimate business?
Are you spamming or trying to cheat me?
Have you done anything to your site lately to make me come back?

As these robots keep returning to your website and seeing that you are in fact a legitimate business and are not looking to beat the system for a few extra ad impressions on your website, they’ll begin to come around and you’ll start earning brownie points over time. As you keep performing credible updates and keeping solid content flowing throughout your website it adds to your online reputation with search engines. The process takes time though, so you’ll need lots of patience.

But I need traffic now…

Most search engines now have what are called ‘artificial rankings’, whereby a business can purchase a top ranking. Many companies prefer to purchase a higher artificial ranking while they wait for their organic search ranking to climb the ladder. The cost for these rankings are dependent on the competitiveness of your industry and the keywords you want people to find you with, however many artificial rankings can be had for merely pennies a click.

The days of filling the background of your page with white text to trick search engines into thinking you have loads of important content are long gone. Google and the like don’t care much for the funny business and you’ll find yourself blacklisted pretty quick for trying such techniques. Much like our canine friend, he’s been through a lot of trauma in his life and he’s not ready to start wagging his tail when you come in through the door just yet. All you can do is keep treating him like the best friend that he is until he returns the favour.

If you’re in need of some Kibble n’ Bits for your search engine ranking, contact Point.Click Media.

Posted in Tips and Tricks

Last Weeks Twitter Updates for 2010-02-15

February 15th, 2010

  • 7 Million people in Dec tried to download Flash to their iPod or iPhone.. I guess we'll still have to wait http://bit.ly/93po3r #
  • Google is launching Automatic Captions on you tube with real time translation. Very Cool! http://bit.ly/4d1ls3 #
  • Checking out Street view in Moncton.. Finally http://bit.ly/FbrP1 #
Posted in Twitter Updates

Bourgeoiseyewear.com Launches

February 10th, 2010

Point.Click Media extends our kudos to Bourgeois Eyewear of Dieppe on the launch of their website at www.bourgeoiseyewear.com.

ProjectsImage_bourgeois

With a need to  facilitate communication with their international client base, Bourgeois Eyewear came looking for a solution that would allow their clients to fill out orders online, all while keeping their product data in-house in order to render problems between time zones irrelevant.  The goal was to have a system that was very user friendly. Based on a clean, crisp look developed by Ovidesign, we set out to ensure that the Bourgeois Eyewear website had not only the front-end to allow clients to submit orders online, but also a back-end engine that would allow staff to update products and content and process orders easily and efficiently.

Points of Interest

- Clean design & layout
- Integrated frame ordering & invoicing system
- Customized Content Management System for product catalog & ordering
- Search Engine Optimization
- Photography setup for uniform product images
- Training materials and seminar given to staff

Posted in Point.Click News, Projects

Why Hire a Photographer?

February 10th, 2010

By Matt Cook
Point.Click Media

Last week we took a quick peek at the advantages of hiring a copywriter to help ensure that your message speaks the right words to the right people. It’s important to have the right pieces in place when connecting with your demographic, and the photography and imagery that you present to your clients can have an equally significant impact as your message. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Branding Tips

Last Weeks Twitter Updates for 2010-02-08

February 8th, 2010

Posted in Twitter Updates

Why Look For a Copywriter?

February 3rd, 2010

1994 Dodge Shadow

photo credit: davef3138 - "Listen to that baby PURRRRRR!"

By Matt Cook
Point.Click Media

For small businesses, justifying the hiring of a professional for your marketing purposes can sometimes be a little difficult. They are usually rationalized by the business owner in the same manner: “I can just do it myself. I’ll reuse our old materials. I know the business better than anyone so it should be no problem.” While this may be true, the owners’ expertise is usually tailored to the product or service they’re trying to promote and not necessarily in trying to connect with their demographic on their level. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Branding Tips