Tasks to Market Your Business Online

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

You own a business, you get up every morning with the realization that you have to do something with regards to marketing your business online, but you are just not sure where to start. Is this your current situation? Watching all your competitors roll past you online and you are still not sure what you should be doing? It can be difficult but here is an outline of what you should be thinking about on a monthly basis.

1. Links: Let’s assume for a minute that you have already optimized your entire website for search. Building links through a variety of sources is important to get your website moving. Things like profiles, articles and press releases are a great way to get started with link building. Let’s go ahead and break down those components below:

• PR- Write a press release and distribute it through a few good quality PR distribution sources. Services like PRWeb and PRLeap are great places to get started with your PR distribution.

• Articles: Position yourself as an expert and write articles that position you as an authority in your industry. Using websites like Hub Pages and Ezine you can submit your articles while leaving behind links embedded in either the body of the article or a special article section.

• Business Profiles: A business profile might not necessarily deliver the best amount of traffic but the link in the profile and the profile itself ranking in the search results for your name is an important effort. These profiles will appear in search results for branded searches which will help you strengthen your brand management.

2. Social Media: Social media has become a very important part of a business’s daily and monthly routine and should be utilized by all websites and business owners. Social media can often times really confuse people, so many ways to communicate which is the best approach?

• Blog Posts: If your business does not have a blog it should. Every business should have a blog that they write in on a weekly basis. Ideally writing everyday would be the best case scenario but with time constraints that can be difficult for some businesses to handle. 2-3 blog posts a week should be the goal for any blog owner. A blog post is an amazing way to really pull in great traffic when used properly.

• Social Bookmarking: Social bookmarking might be a bit outdated in some ways and it is an effort that is simply not that “hot” anymore in the industry but it is still a great place to put your blog posts for others to be able to read. It does require patience and consistency to really develop stream of traffic.

• Twitter: Twitter is probably one of the most important areas to be visible in. Every time you log into you your Twitter account you should always make an effort to follow new people. I am not going to put a number value on how many you need to follow but somewhere in the ball park of 15-20 new people every time you log in will be a good start if you are just getting involved with Twitter. You will want to take your blog post and drop a link and the title right in your Twitter wall stream. Over time as your followers build the traffic will increase to your website.

• Google Buzz: Google Buzz is more recent social tool but quickly gaining steam in the industry. With the ability to follow other people Google Buzz is starting to really gain momentum as a new place to spread the word about a message, business or brand. Your blog posts should be tagged in Google Buzz right along with Twitter. You can even sync the two accounts together to streamline things.

• LinkedIn: If you are not a part of LinkedIn yet you should be. LinkedIn should be a part of your monthly social media marketing. Join some like minded groups and start posting your blog posts into the groups and see your visitor stream really pick up the pace.

• Facebook: Of course Facebook is important as well but Facebook fan pages have to be approached with a very tasteful mindset otherwise you could see your account disappear. Launch a page and start by posting your posts into your Facebook account.

It is important to put together a plan for every single month to market your business online the right way. Putting together a schedule will allow you to really stay on track with your branding efforts.