Social media evaluations for small businesses…

Are you a Sonoma County small business trying to immerse your brand in social media, but don’t quite know what you are doing right or wrong? If you have been trying to reach new and returning customers on the internet with little results, let Ajalon Print, Web & Social Media evaluate your current social media status.

We will determine what you can do to create conversation with your clients, define your business as an authority in its field and establish lasting relationships with local customers.

New to social media? Ajalon will help you to figure out which social media outlets are best for your brand. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest might just be your biggest referral!

Contact Ajalon today for your free small business social media evaluation!

How can you improve your business website?

If your business website has been gathering dust at the bottom of the search engine results, consider a free website evaluation by Ajalon! There are several simple ways to clean up and improve your website, ensuring you attract customers, communicate with clients and get found on search engines.

In your complimentary evaluation we’ll cover the basics, as well as elements of your webpage that will bring your business to the top.

Design
Ajalon will evaluate your business website’s design, including graphics, navigation and content.

SEO
Your search engine optimization is critical for your business website. Ajalon will determine how your keywords, tags, descriptions and content can be improved upon.

Social Media
Ajalon will evaluate the share-ability of your website’s pages, ensuring your goods and services can be shared on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Request your free website evaluation by Aug 31, 2011!

What’s a Bing Local listing?

If you are looking to improve your local search engine optimization Bing Local lets users find businesses near them, or near where they want to go. Because listings are returned in search results, businesses don’t have to search for new customers—the customers have already found them.

Why list your business on Bing Local?

• It’s free

  It’s like free advertising! The more information you provide, the easier it is for customers to find you.

• It’s fast

  Improve or update your listing anytime to suit your needs. There’s no schedule or hassle.

• Reach your customers

  Customers are already searching for what you provide. What better time to reach them?

• List all of your locations

  Expanding your business? Congratulations! Bing  listings can accommodate all of your locations.

• You control your data

  Bing’s verification process helps protect your listing against unauthorized changes.When you finish adding your information, they tell you that they will send you a letter to your address and in that letter they will give you a PIN number so that you confirm your listing.  I like this feature because they are trying to make sure that only legitimate businesses get listed with their service.

• Full business information

  It is possible to list just about anything you would like to about your business. There is a place to add supplemental phone numbers such as 800 numbers, or customer service lines or lines for any other purpose. You can list supplemental web pages or email addresses, add a link to a catalog, menu or other information your customers want most.

  There are provisions for a detailed list of business hours, payment methods, and the ability to add photos, full business descriptions and brands carried.  To add legitimacy you can include professional affiliations.  If you offer services in foreign languages those also can be listed.

• Select categories

  When people are searching for your business, what are they looking for? Search for the categories you want, or select them from the browsable list. After you make your selections, you can prioritize them from top to bottom, placing  your favorite category at the top.  You can select up to 6 categories.

  Bing is very similar to the services offered in Google Places, more than the free listing in Yahoo.  I have to admit that I was annoyed by Bing because it would not support use of Safari, the web browser in Apple computers.  It was a nuisance to have to download Firefox to sign up for their service or even access my account.

  I would still recommend listing your business with Bing.  It is a popular search engine and it will help people who use it to find your business.

Yahoo Local Listings Basic Is Free

Yahoo offers a free listing with your basic information for free, but charges $9.95/month for all of the features that Google Places includes for free.  I would still advise you to use their basic service.  It is free and it puts you in front of people who are using Yahoo and looking for local businesses.

With your free business listing in Yahoo Local you can display your address, phone number and web site URL if you have one.  As Yahoo says, this is just basic information, but you can put your business in up to 5 categories.  This is helpful.

For example, at Ajalon we could be under printers and we could also put an entry into copying, graphic design, wedding invitations and letterpress.  That would mean that if a person searched for any one of those terms our business would likely come up in a Yahoo search.  You can do this for your business also.

You may sell flooring. But you could have listings under carpets, hardwood floors, floor refinishing and commercial flooring.  All of these additional listings would be available to you if people were searching for these items.

Included in this basic listing is the ability to list the products, services or brands that you have.  For example if you carried garden equipment who could list all the brands like Toro, Black and Decker, Stihl, Snapper and other brands.  Or if you were a spa you could list all the services you offer such as facials, manicures, pedicures, massage and other offerings.

People from your area are searching every day for the products and services you offer.  Yahoo knows this and has built a service to help them find what they want.  Yahoo invites you to cooperate with them in meeting the needs of people searching.  For free.  This is really unprecedented.  When was the last time the newspaper, tv or radio asked you to advertise your business for free, so that their patrons could satisfy what they were looking for or needed?

If you would like help in setting up this free service from Yahoo give us a call.  707.528.0288.

Written by David Walrath

Ajalon Printing & Design