OK, you may not think of yourself as a little guy and maybe I’m being a little bit condescending, but let’s face it - small business owners need every little edge we can get. Can’t we?

There are a ton of social media tools out there that can help you make the most of your online marketing efforts. Some are worth it and some aren’t. Erica DeWolf has put together a little blog post highlighting a few of the tools that you can find useful. Among them are:

• Facebook
• Blog
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Videocasts
• Twitter

I can vouch for most of these myself. For business social networking I like LinkedIn, but I’ve heard that many marketers have been successful with Facebook (it’s probably a generational thing). But I highly recommend blogs and RSS feeds. What Erica says about RSS feeds, that you can use them for anything, not just blogs, is true.

Two things that work really well with RSS feeds are podcasting and videos. Two very powerful methods of marketing that allow you to communicate with your customers as if they were right in front of you.

I don’t have any personal experience with Twitter, but it is a hot item right now. I highly recommend that you include some form of social media marketing into your mix of marketing strategies. For a consultation on which methods might work for your situation, contact Small Business Mavericks today.

If you have a blog and you are wondering what you can do to increase its effectiveness without breaking your budget then take a look at these five free Internet marketing strategies that compliment blogging well:

• Article Marketing - Article marketing has been around for a long time. You can write an article and distribute it online quickly and easily. Totally free unless you use a ghostwriter or hire someone to do the distribution. Even then it’s relatively inexpensive compared to other forms of marketing. It requires consistency and you can use your author resource box to drive traffic to your blog.
• Social Bookmarking - Social bookmarking is the natural sister to blogging. If you have a blog, promote it through social bookmarking. Very easy and free if you do it yourself.
• Press Release Distribution - Press release distribution is more expensive than any of the others on this list. To be most effective, you’ll have to pay something for the best distribution. But if you do this only when you have a great promotion then you’ll get a good response from your efforts.
• Podcasting - To do podcasting correctly you’ll have to spend some time on it, but you can do it yourself for no money. And it does drive traffic right where you want it to go.
• Video Marketing - Many bloggers use videos on their blogs. It’s called video blogging and it’s very effective. If you can speak into a camera you can do this. YouTube makes it very easy to upload your photos and it has a huge traffic base from which to draw.

These five Internet marketing methods are great compliments to your blog and easy to incorporate into your daily routine.

Podcasts are a handy way to connect with your clients or potential clients, but many small business owners aren´t sure how about starting with podcasts. It´s really a great idea, though and one that visitors to your website will enjoy. In fact, many more people are likely to subscribe to a podcast than to a blog!

To make your podcasts even better, here are a few tips.

5 Podcast Tips

• Keep it short. While some podcasts of an hour do well, the majority of people simply don´t have much time to listen to you, so keep your podcast below 30 min. to attract more listeners.

• Make it useful. No one wants to listen to chitchat on a regular basis, though there is certainly room for this in a business podcast. Offering information and tips that your listeners can use will keep them coming back.

• Speak clearly. If you are normally a fast talker, it might take some practice for you to get to the point where you can speak nice and clearly so everyone can understand you.

• Plan it out. You don´t need an exact script, but having a plan for your podcasts is a good idea to keep you from getting drastically off track.

• Watch the noise level. If you are recording at home, make sure you find a quiet room to do so. Phones ringing, kids yelling and the TV blaring is not only distracting to you, it can lower the quality of the podcast.

Podcasts don´t have to be very complicated. You can simply record a 15 minute one to your computer and put it up for your website visitors to listen to. As long as you keep it short and informative, with a good dose of your own personality, everything should go just fine.

While opinions vary about what’s important in terms of optimizing your website (among the hundreds of tactics that exist), there are three components that every site must have to rank well with the search engines. Listen to today’s podcast to find out more!

Small Business Podcast | The Three Prongs of the SEO Fork

Enjoy!

Steve Melberg
More Search Engine Optimization Information
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Speaking of Podcasts… a lot of people think that all the good domain names are already taken. Not so! With a little creativity, you can still choose a domain that is not only easy to remember for your visitors, but great for the search engines as well. Listen to today’s Small Business Podcast to learn how!

Steve Melberg
Visit My Small Business Podcasting Directory
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Podcasts can provide your customers and website visitors with more value when they visit your site. But not every business is suited to podcasts, right? Well, you could actually turn any business into podcast material, if you know how to spin it!

Let´s say that you are a florist . . . you could easily do podcasts on how to choose the right flowers for special occasions, the meanings of flowers, how to care for your cut flowers, the advantages of live vs. cut, the possibilities are endless. What you need to do is put yourself in the mindset of your customer and then record information they can use to use your services or products better.

The advantage of podcasts is that people tend to subscribe to them (via iTunes or another distribution method), so you have repeated chances to get your marketing message to them, a big advantage, no matter what your industry. However, podcasts shouldn´t be pure advertisements. It´s fine to mention your business or website throughout the podcast, but keep it in context, otherwise give a little “ad” at the end of the episode.

People like newer mediums of communication like video and podcasts, so bring your business up to date by adding in a podcast or two. You can do them on a regular basis, if you like, or just whenever you have something valuable to say. Your visitors and clients will appreciate the additional information.

Many small businesses don´t think too much about podcasts, focusing instead on their website and SEO. However, while these things are still the most important, a small business podcast can help boost your company. There are several ways to do a small business podcast.

Small Business Podcast Options

Small Business Conference Podcast
The next time you have a brainstorming session or hold a small conference, record it and offer the recording as a podcast to your website visitors. This will give them a reason to visit your site, plus, it offers extra value to anyone who stops by your website. You can even stage a conference specifically for the purpose of giving your clients more information about your product or service.

Regular Informational Podcasts
Offering a weekly or bi-weekly small business podcast that focuses specifically on informing your clients is a good method of gaining more visitors. Make your small business podcast available on other people´s websites and blogs or places like iTunes to gain even more exposure. You´ll find that people who would have never normally found your website will be learning about your business.

Small Business Podcast Interviews
Doing interviews with top people in your industry can be a great way to offer high value content to your clients as well as pulling in more attention. People will link to you if you have an exclusive interview with the biggest name in town!

Small business podcasts let you communicate ideas that wouldn´t convert well to text and are a wonderful manner to create a bond with your clients. Hearing someone´s voice makes for a very different experience than simply reading an article they´ve written. So, if you haven´t thought about it already, why not consider doing a small business podcast and expanding your business reach a little?

Caroline Melberg
Small Business Mavericks
Small Business Mavericks Blog

Back when television made its first appearance, people claimed that radio would die out. It couldn´t hold a candle to a box that showed pictures as well as producing sound. But the radio hung in there and even now, in this age of amazing technology, we listen to the radio online. Podcasts are not radio, exactly, but they certainly offer a great opportunity for small businesses to connect with their clients.

Advantages of Small Business Podcasts

• Give your clients another way to identify with you. A voice is far more personal than just writing.

• Offer a hands-off medium to get your message across. People can be washing dishes or folding laundry while listening to your small business podcast.

• Perfect for non-readers. There are plenty of people who learn better by listening, and you can cater to them with a podcast.

• No skipping ads. If you choose to put ads in your small business podcast, it´s a lot harder to skip over them than it is if you have visual ads on your webpage!

• Quick and easy manner of educating people about your small business. Podcasts are easier for many people to create. You might not be able to write very well, but nearly everyone can talk.

There are plenty of advantages to small business podcasts, but the most valuable is the connection you´ll make with your readers. Through your podcasts, they will get a feel for you as a person and will come to trust you far more than they would by just reading what you write.

Caroline Melberg
Small Business Mavericks
Small Business Mavericks Blog

Yesterday, my husband Steve wrote a post to let our readers know that we’ve created a new podcast on blog post optimization. You can listen to the podcast here.

It really isn’t hard to create a podcast. All you really need is a digital recorder and some audio editing software. Audacity is a good open source brand, which is free. Audacity is compatible with Window, Mac, and Linux. You can also use Audacity to record your message, but to do so you’ll need a microphone. That’s really all you need to create a podcast.

That doesn’t mean it’s easy. You’ll need to learn some audio editing techniques so you can get rid of the heavy breathing, ahs and uhs, and create a professional audio recording. But once you learn it you can become an expert in your niche simply by creating your own podcasts and uploading them to your website. You can have your very own daily or weekly radio show and broadcast it right on your own website! Plus, there are some very creative ways you can market your podcasts to attract more listeners. Go ahead, try it!

Caroline Melberg
Small Business Mavericks
Small Business Maverick Blog

One of the best things you can do to improve the search engine optimization of your website is to have a blog that you post to frequently, with keyword-optimized links to your website. Listen to today’s Podcast to learn how you can create keyword optimized blog posts on YOUR blog…

Steve Melberg
Small Business Mavericks
More About Blogging for Small Business
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