Do you really need a website + blog and social media?

Prospective customers are looking for what you offer. You have a base website with your credentials and general page content a gallery, your availability calendar and so forth.   The pages aren’t going to change all that often in any grand scheme,  whilst you can add new content to them, the overall purpose of those pages won’t change.  This used to be fine, however now that the search engines are looking to offer their users the best of the bests.  It’s no longer just a set and forget process.

The search engines are constantly receiving new and improved content and improving their algorithms. This means they will be ranking your website pages with relevance other sites, where users are spending most of their time in addition to their own continually improving checklist. ‘They’ are looking to give their users the best experience and want to ensure the end user keeps using their services – so it’s all about the benefits their users get. If the searches can see users going to your site, exploring it and continually coming back you will see more of a result in the search rankings. This means in order to keep up, you are going to want to ensure that your users have a reason to keep coming back to your website. If you’re not adding new content… Then WHY would they come back?  There’s nothing additional to explore…. What now? This is where the blog comes in…

Whilst it may seem like a complex process, what you need to understand here, is that things have change dramatically for websites and website technology. There’s a whole process now, to what you need to have on your website in order for it to be seen as legitimate – most people base the authenticity of a business as to whether they have an active social media page – because “EVERYONE” is on Social Media… – A Stereotypical response – yes… but it’s how it is…  And through the diversity of creating additional resources for the search to explore, this helps to keep your business on top of the search engines.

Whether we like it or not… we either have to take the leap and implement new measures in order to stay current or get left behind.. and whilst you may be apprehensive at this stage, you never know, you may find that this becomes something you enjoy.  A creative outlet.

BLOG:

What is a blog?  A blog on your website allows for content creation.   By producing content ON your own website, you’re creating more of an authority.. Each blog post has it’s own link, which means there are more “pages” online for people to explore.. The more times people are going to your website to view things and exploring the more you’ll see positive interaction on your search engine rankings….  When Google sees that your website is getting more interaction it will move it up the ranks.   

Content for your blog can be done monthly or more frequently if you feel comfortable, It’s basically a case of ensuring you’re creating and distributing your content on a regular basis.  For example:

On the 3rd Wednesday of the month every month, you sit down and write 3-4 paragraphs about a topic of interest to your market;
For example:  
Events on in [Your Area]  or other topics of relevance

You’ll then pick :

• A focus keyword or phrase relevant to the article.

• A title.

• A Call to action some sort of message or call to encourage them to take action on your site.  (we can discuss)

• A picture/s that suits the article

And from here we hit publish and that post is visible on your website.

NCD NOTE:
You can go through and write a heap of posts ahead of time and set the publish date at a later date – this will mean it won’t be released until the publish date.. So you can plan ahead and create content ahead of time.

Once you have your content – it’s time to distribute it.

FACEBOOK / SOCIAL MEDIA DISTRIBUTION:

Facebook and Social media platforms in general are also important. They are designed for distribution and engagement. Here posting to these platforms IS exceptionally beneficial to your business, however if your social media platform was to close down ( I can’t see it happening but if it did) – how would you get in touch with people who have begun following you?? How would you encourage engagement and also reach those potential customers when you have openings for them.  It would be VERY difficult to reach all of them.. In most cases we don’t know the people personally who follow us on social media.  If you haven’t been building a following for any length of time, those efforts would still be ruined simply by not having a means to communicate with them if those  social media platforms were to vanish tomorrow…

With your blog post written, You  then talk about the post on your social media platforms.. aiming to encourage the users to take action on your site  ( I discuss this further down)-  Like it, Share it, Sign up for an email List, Contact You or Make a booking etc….
 

To distribute the post on your social media platform – ie Facebook 

1. Write your status for example if you were offering accommodation in Lake Macquarie:
   • “Who will be heading out to Lake Macquarie  for Catalina Festival?  Have you got your accommodation sorted??  Check out our blog post  on our website about the history of the Catalina festival.   Link in the comments below. ” 
2. Then include your link in the comments
3. [Optional – Recommended] Choose a picture relevant to the social media platform  (For Facebook – 851px 315px )

YES it’s going to take some planning,  but I can guarantee you, you will see a lot more interaction with your business simply by visible to your prospective customers.  

Your website is an important tool which allows connection to your business, but it can be SO MUCH MORE than that…  

The aim of the game is to create engagement...connect with users on social media and likewise, draw them into your content on your website, and then eventually get them to take one  or more of the available calls to action, these include but are not limited to:

• Making a booking, purchasing or contacting you

• Sharing your content with their networks  to build your reputation and presence.

• Obtain their marketing information – for example their email -getting them signing them up for a newsletter so that you CAN market to them directly to their inbox.

• To develop rapport with your audience.

• & delight your customers.

These are just some of the targets most businesses would consider.

Whilst it all seems overwhelming with all this information to consume, it’s truly something you CAN master.. .you can utilise and you can truly benefit from it.. You’re already updating Facebook, it’ll be just a case of writing a little more information for a blog post and then incorporating that into your Facebook posting schedule – which there are plenty of ways we could improve this process as well.

If you’d like some assistance getting this process under control please make an enquiry via  our contact page.