If you ask your grandma, grandpa or any person over the age of 55, "why is social media important?" they will most likely all have a similar answer: to stay in contact with those you have relationships with.

With Facebook's last overhaul of Facebook pages over 2 years ago, the social media giant has once again decided to make a big change. This change was announced on March 10^th. Why are social media changes so important to watch for? These changes will directly affect business pages on Facebook. If you are a business owner or an Admin of a business page then it is important that you understand these changes and prepare for them. 

You have your new website design up and running.

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You have optimized it for search engines.

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You are blogging and attracting traffic to your site.

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You are getting a huge increase in website conversions.

Nope. Wait…what?

Well what went wrong?

The other day I was having a conversation with two of our writers about this topic. I was giving feedback about a blog post. All of the information was there in the blog, but as I read through it felt boring and stiff. I told the author to loosen up her writing. We talked about other things for awhile, but right before our meeting was over she asked, “How do I loosen up my writing?” Great question. As I thought about my response, I realized there were 3 big things that would help her. Below are a few internet marketing tips to help you loosen up your writing too.

One of the things that many bloggers struggle with is creating that killer content that will help them to really connect with their audience. It doesn't matter how great a writer you are or how much you know about your niche, if you cannot engage the reader then your blog post will ultimately be unsuccessful!

Have you seen Old Spice’s recent marketing campaign with its fake website pages? If not, you need to take 10 minutes and go through them because they are absolutely hilarious! Old Spice definitely knows what makes a good website in this aspect—something that is entertaining to all.

So, you have a blog and you’re writing them frequently. Great! But, what do you do with those old ones? It kind of seems like a waste to let them just sit there and be neglected. Sure, some people are still finding them through search and your posting them to social media sites but why not show them some extra attention? Recycle your blog posts! Why?how? Keep reading!

Internet marketing has switched gears and many marketers who jumped on the social media bandwagon to help increase website conversion are now realizing that getting traffic to a website does no good if there aren’t planned calls-to-action, offers, and conversion processes set in place for visitors before they get there.

You have an internet marketing strategy in place for one simple reason: you want your ideal customers to find you online. More specifically, you want your customers to find you on Google, because, well, Google has the largest market share – like most of it actually. So when Google releases information about a new update, we want to make sure you know about it, which is what it recently did. We’re here to tell you what you need to know and understand about how it could affect your overall internet marketing strategy.

There are many mistakes that an email marketing consultant can make when creating an email marketing campaign. However, there are some top contenders of things you should never, ever do! Continue reading to find out what those mistakes are so that you don’t make them, or so that you recognize them when you see them happen.

There are many “life lessons” I have learned through the years and one of them is that some things are worth the money, while others are not. We usually learn this one of two ways: from our own experience, or if we are wise, we watch and listen to others’ experiences and learn from them.  I suggest the 2^nd route, but most of us learn by doing and experiencing.

I love Post-its. They make me happy. Not the yellow boring square Post-its – although they will do – I like the Post-its that come in fun shapes, sizes and colors. Why am I writing to you about Post-its? Because they help me write my internet marketing tips every week and they can help you write too.

In Matt Cutts' most recent video blog he explained how the team at Google evaluates paid link building services. In the past few months Google has gotten even stricter on link building strategies including backlinking and guest blogging. In this particular video he explains the fine line between paid link building, which can be the difference of receiving a free trial to receiving a gift card for providing links.

Well, let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read you begin with ABC, when you blog you begin with marketing goals. (Okay, so Rodgers and Hammerstein may not exactly like my rendition…)

Let’s start by remembering the overall goal of internet marketing for your business and ultimately the answer behind the question ‘Why Blog?’--

You want more customers and more sales.

To effectively reach the right audience it’s essential to have your buyer personas established and a part of your business's internet marketing strategy. Knowing who your ideal customers are will help you tremendously with your marketing efforts. Many businesses leave this part out or don't realize how important this aspect really is.

In the past websites were built with the idea of an electronic business card, but that's not really the mindset anymore of what makes a good website. Sadly this create-it and leave-it mentality is still lingering in small business owners today.

This past Friday I had the privilege of being part of a group of “experts” at an event that ChicoStart put together called “Spring Training.” It was a bit like speed dating for entrepreneurs and startup companies. There were seven stations with experts in business pitch, funding, strategic planning, human resources, technical, legal and HR/Payroll, and marketing for startups. Each company or individual got 7 minutes to pitch their idea at each station and ask advice or get input. True to the baseball analogy, there were 7 innings, then a 7 inning stretch, followed by 3 more innings where they could go back to a station where they hoped for more input. By that 10^th inning of “overtime” we were all glassy eyed and tired, but what a great time! The participants I interacted with were enthusiastic and engaged, teachable and hopeful!

Today, I was reminded of life’s uncertainty as I realized the unexpected passing of a kind man I have worked with over the last nine months. Even though I have never met him, I feel like I know him, and I’m left with a lump in my throat and a sadness in my heart that I will not be interacting with him any longer.

Twitter is one of the best places to put your lead generation techniques to the test. You have a large audience, it’s a social atmosphere and there are people just waiting to find and learn about new companies and services. If you aren’t already doing this, what are you waiting for? You’re missing out!

In the past three days I have had three conversations with three separate business people who represent three completely different industries. In every case there was a common theme. Why blog? Each of these very bright people who are leaders in their respective buisnesses are convinced that blogging is not right for their industry. They are convinced that nobody they would gain as a client would ever read a blog post so writing blogs would be a huge time suck that would gain them little or nothing.