Facebook is growing by leaps and bounds, for the first time surpassing Google in popularity this spring, according to the web analytics company, Hitwise.  More than 400,000 users log into their Facebook accounts daily to post updates and photos, play games and interact with social and business contacts.

With the popularity of Facebook continuing to surge, Facebook ads have become a uniquely effective way to advertise online.  The ad appears on the sidebar of user’s Facebook page, and includes a headline which is hyper-linked to your website or Facebook page, an image, 135-character message, and a spot that displays Facebook connections who “like” the ad as well as a “like” button for those who view the ads to weigh in as advocates.

Facebook ads can be targeted in a number of different ways: age, gender, marital status, geographic area by country, state or city; education level and even selected schools, and interests.  So if you were opening a fitness center in Phoenix with a target market of busy corporate executives, you could select men aged 30-55 within 25 miles of Phoenix who are college graduates and have listed fitness as an interest in their Facebook profile.

Facebook is now offering a beta version of ad tracking, which reports on the number of views and the number of click-throughs on your ad.  Not getting the results you want?  You can edit your ad at any time to tweak it and improve results. The cost of the ads is based on bidding for either cost per click (CPC) or cost per thousand impressions (CPM).  CPC is recommended when your goal is actual purchases or registrations, while CPM is great for just increasing exposure and awareness of your company.

One powerful benefit of Facebook ads is the “like” feature in the ads. In a study on Facebook ads done by Nielsen, purchase intent increased from 2% to 8% when a Facebook user advocated for an ad – so users are four times more likely to purchase.  The study also showed that ad recall increased from 10% to 16% and awareness doubled from 4% to 8% by including this form of social advocacy.

If you are not capitalizing on the popularity of Facebook, you may just be missing out on one of the most effective ways to advertise in the online age.

Facebook offers a great resource for testing ads: http://ads.ak.facebook.com/ads/FacebookAds/FB_Ads_A_B_Testing.pdf

Public Relations is almost always a key factor in building a successful business, especially in today’s competitive marketplace. Whether you’re just starting up a new company or working to expand an old one, using PR can be especially beneficial in constructing credibility and spreading awareness in the most economic way possible.

Having well-written material that is relevant to your business can not only be used to draw new customers in, but can help establish your company’s credibility. Choosing appropriate and interesting topics for your target market will give you a leg up in attracting new clients. Also, by producing articles that have informative and professional content and sending them through the media, your company will be deemed the expert. This will allow you to better create the image that you want for your business.

PR can also give the perception that your company is active and constantly moving forward. Occasional press releases are a great way to spread public awareness on any related events happening with your business. They can also be helpful if ever needing to manage a crisis happening within your industry. PR tends to be much more effective than other forms of marketing communications like advertising, especially when trying to relay an important message.

As a new, up-and-coming form of communication, PR is a fast and effective way to reach large audiences. You’ll have a much easier time reaching your target market through extensive media coverage, and with different, but relevant, content you’ll be able to better reach out to new clientele. Circulating new blog posts and articles each week or month is a relatively easy way to socialize with new and old clients and business connections.

Online PR can be especially helpful in spreading awareness. By using key words in your website content and a strong site structure, you’ll be able to heighten your search engine rankings and improve your online presence. Having authority content online can also better connect you with other websites associated with relevant and quality businesses. It’s a great way to increase the flow of traffic to your company or keep it at an all time high.

Though you may have to work with a PR specialist to get your desired results, the amount of media coverage you’ll get is well worth the dollars spent. You’ll have a flexible and efficient way of communicating with different markets that other forms of advertising have a hard time accomplishing. Different media like newspapers, magazines, and online databases don’t charge for publishing your articles, so you’ll be gaining mass coverage for next to nothing.

Overall, Public Relations is a less expensive form of paid communication that can leave you with a controlled image of your company and a positive public perception. Companies that rely on PR for getting their message across often reach their initial goals quickly and without complaint. If you’re looking to give your business a boost, consider taking a dive into the world of PR, and discover a new market of opportunity.

Many writers feel that once content has been created and posted to their website, their job is done. That’s not true. If you don’t measure, you can’t analyze. If you don’t analyze, you cannot improve. The easiest way to analyze is by using Google Analytics and implementing it on your website. It’s free so there is no excuse not to use it.

I recently read a great article on Google Analytics in Website Magazine and they had some great advice on how to measure the results for Google Analytics that I wanted to share.

There are many key indicators that Google Analytics relies on that can be measured, if you are unsure of how to install the program or read the reports and know what to look for let us know, we are here to help!

6 Measurements to Maximize Impact

1) Readings per writer and writer impact – Find out how many times a particular writers articles or posts are being read.

2) Page impact – You can find out how frequently, and during which visits a certain page was viewed and led to completing a goal.

3) Satisfaction – Measuring visitor satisfaction per writer and page.  Implement a way for visitors to rate pages or offer a survey.

4) Time spent writing vs. reading – This measurement will show if there are pages that readers spend less time reading.

5) Unread Pages – Pages need to generate at least one page view to be included in Google Analytics.  Pages with no views will not be listed.

6) Cost per reading – This means the writers cost/number of times the writer’s articles have been read.

Using web analytics, you can measure the effectiveness of content.  It is possible to measure how well the content is performing even for purely informational websites.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away I was a naïve 23 year old Assistant Brand Manager for a large multi-national company. One day I had a brainwave, or at least so I thought. My brand was a dehydrated packaged soup in multiple flavors and every winter a special promotion was developed to capitalize on the seasonal spike in sales.

My idea was to design and build a mock fireplace around our soup display stand that would be featured at aisle ends in supermarkets and would convey the concept of winter warmth over a hot bowl of soup.

I presented the idea to my brand manager, who loved it. We approached our Product Group Manager – he loved it. I thought,

“Great! Our Marketing Director’s bound to love it too!”  Wrong!  He said the concept was OK, but it was impractical and would cost far too much.

Even though I was young and inexperienced, I knew that relevant brand promotions boost sales and enhance brand image, so I persisted. I approached a local printer with the idea and to my delight costs came in at about one tenth of our Marketing Director’s estimate.  Not only that, but the printer offered to build us a mock-up too.

When the completed mock-up was presented, our Marketing Director was a little annoyed that I’d pursued the idea despite his earlier disapproval. However, when he learned how little it would cost, he agreed to let the promotion proceed.

The next hurdle was getting the sales force excited about the idea.  Traditionally, sales people think that marketing people are full of hare-brained schemes designed to make their lives more difficult and this fireplace idea was no exception.  For a start, they would have to transport these contraptions to the supermarkets in their rather small sales vehicles.  Admittedly, I hadn’t thought of that, but luckily the fireplace fit with inches to spare!

Our sales of packaged soup soared that winter and the following year our sales force was demanding we bring back “that wonderful fireplace promotion.”

When it comes to relevant brand promotions, never give up on a good idea.  Persistence pays!

Take responsibility for everything. Don’t blame anyone or anything. It’s easy when you feel stuck or things aren’t going the way you want to start to feel resentful or stop trusting people. Usually this is because of misplaced expectations. If you put your expectations in people or the economy, just to name a few, you lose focus on what you are uniquely made for in business. It’s important for you to be fully empowered to grow your business quickly. If you come from a place of feeling sorry for yourself or that the world isn’t fair … it will suck the power right out of you. I stay empowered by taking responsibility for me, making a conscious effort to have a positive attitude, looking for who I can help, focusing on solutions in the marketplace and most important … stay focused on God and ultimately fulfilling what he created me for in this world.

In tough economic times it’s tempting to take whatever business comes your way, even if it means compromising your values. If "EXCELLENCE" is one of your business values, don’t succumb to the temptation to drastically reduce your price or quality just to get the job. The compromise will hurt you in the long term – either your quality will suffer or you’ll reduce the price so much that you’ll make very little profit. It’s not a good recipe for long-term growth.

Recently a customer asked one of our sister companies us to do a wrap job in which they supplied the artwork. The design was mediocre, so I suggested that I would pay for a professional design. They agreed that if they liked the design, they’d pay and if not, we would pay. I said “You’ve got a deal!” They loved our design and our sister company has since wrapped over a dozen vehicles for them.  In fact, the customer says they get more inquiries from their wrapped vehicles than any other form of advertising and promotion they’re doing.

Standing firm on “excellence” led to a great design for our customer, even at the risk of having to pay more, not less.  This led to more business for our customer and a need for more vehicles. Naturally they wanted these extra vehicles wrapped too, so it came full circle.  Who knows what might have happened had we accepted the mediocre design to start with?