Seniors Lead Growth on the Internet

Internet Growth Driven by Senior Citizens

Senior Citizens Lead Internet Growth - Neilsen 2003 Article. Senior Citizens are the fastest growing group online.

Internet Usage Matures Among Mature adults

Turning Silver into Gold

1. Fill out your profile completely.
2. Request your associates and friends to join your network.
3. Build up a list of strong contacts.
4. Join groups related to what you offer.
5. Create your own Linkedin Group.
6. Answer the Questions in the Q&A Section.
7. Make Article recommendations.

More Linkedin Communication Tips

- Use Linkedin to “engage & inspire.”
- Communicate with your network.
- Following up with your contacts is very important.

Sources Cited:
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/21950.asp

- “PRESS RELEASE” should be written at the top of the page.
- Text should be double-spaced
- Generous margins for easier reading.
- Make sure all company information visible within the press release.
(ie: name, logo, contact info, address, etc…)
- Press release should be only one page if possible.
- At end of press release, type “-30-” or “# # #”. This is common press release notation that this is the end and no more text is included.

Press Release Content

Your press release should be written in the inverted pyramid method, giving the most important points first and supporting details second.

A good press release gets to the point immediately and specifies the problem for which a solution is offered.

Use the first two paragraphs for the main message.

Parts of a Press Release

The Headline. This will grab the attention of the press or the attention of potential customers. “Bob Builds A New Building” is not going to attract much. “Building Structure Is The Basis Of A Good Building States Bob Of Bob The Builder” might be a better choice.

Short Summary. Here is where you’ll either write 2-3 sentences on the topic behind the press release or you’ll just quote a small section from the press release. This is a teaser to the topic that surrounds the promotion of the business or product being talked about.

The Release Body. In the body you’ll have about 5 paragraphs (around 400 words) talking about the basic topic that relates to your business or product as well as quotes and other information that leads to what you’re looking to promote.

Optimizing the Press Release for Search
- Include an H1 Title with keyword phrases for which you are optimizing.
- Include H2 Titles with keyword phrases for which you are optimizing.
- Bold keywords and keyword phrases.
- Include Metatags with accurate keywords

Sources
Senior Mag. Press Release

All middle-market corporate executives I meet have the same quandry: Lack of integration between their in-house systems and their website. This “Information Black Hole,” as I call it, keeps you from taking advantage of web efficiencies through internal process automation. Dynamised Data Bridge^® is a custom, fine-tuned solution aimed at helping middle market businesses access their in-house data online–particularly in the areas of sales, marketing, service and communications. The benefits are mind-boggling; and we’re making it easier than ever.

Applications for Dynamised Data Bridge^® Implementing a bridge of data between your corporate systems and your web site could help your company in a variety of ways, such as:

• Lead Management
• Email Newsletter Drip Campaigns
• Order Processing
• Inventory Management
• Returns, Service, Repair Processing
• Account Management
• Customer Service

Of course, you can always go on, “business as usual.” Spending thousands on marketing strategies that produce immeasurable or mediocre results. Ignore the huge sign on the wall flashing: “This could be done better…more efficiently…at a lower cost…on a broader scale.” But ignore it at your peril as new competitors enter the market and shimmy up the pole–cutting the business cycle and making customers happier with increased efficiency. Can you really afford to sit around with gapping holes in your processes when the answer is so near?

Building the Dynamised Data Bridge^® While there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution for building a bridge to connect your data online and off, there are ways to make the process easier. It all starts by answering these simple questions about each of your in-house sales, marketing, service and corporate communications processes.

1. What are we doing now?
2. How are we doing it?
3. How could the web improve the process?
4. What data is needed online to support the process?
5. Does the ends justify the means?
6. What are there legal implications to putting the data on the web?

Dynamised Data Bridge^® Considerations Once the right questions are answered about the data you want accessible online, you begin to build the bridge by finding the answers to these questions:

1. Where and how is the data organized?
2. What type of database holds the data?
3. How often does the data change?
4. What level of security is needed to manage the data?
5. What changes are needed to the data to make it fit web protocal?
6. How will the data be captured?
7. Where does the data reside?
8. Where and how will the data be stored during transmission and translation?
9. Is the data needed in real-time (queried dynamically) or will you parse it on the web?
10. Who needs access to the data?
11. Is the same data accessible to all, or are there varying levels of accessibility?

It pays to take advantage of the power of the internet by streamlining day-to-day processes, accessing real-time data worldwide, reaching a broader audience and communicating more effectively with the universe at large? Bridging the gap between your corporate data and your website gives you power–power to make faster decisions, speed-up processes and communicate on a wider scale than ever before in the history of business.

Contact Jenna Ryan today at 972-335-9922 for a free consultation review of how Dynamised Data^® can improve your sales, marketing, service and communications processes.

Representing a company or organization on the Internet is one of a website’s most important jobs. Effectively explaining the company’s purpose and what it stands for provides essential support for all other website goals. Neilsen [1]

Goals of the About Us Page

Questions the About Us Page Should Answer

1. Why the company exists?
2. How the company operates?
3. How the company is different?
4. Who runs the company?
5. How and when the company was founded?
6. What awards has the company won?
7. What social or community programs the company supports?
8. The number of locations the company has?
9. How to contact the company?
10. What is the size of the company?

Tips for Effective Corporate About Us Pages

CREATE A SHORT, DISTINCT POSITIONING STATMENT OF 140 WORDS OR LESS. Condense your company’s purpose, vision, history and mission into a short paragraph. Don’t worry, you can elaborate later. This technique is used by sales people to get a foot-in-the-door and is a great example of the “Inverted Pyramid Method” for web content writing.

PROVIDE A LIST OF BULLETED FACTS ABOUT YOUR COMPANY Bulleted text is more scannable and therefore the most effective means of getting your message across on the web.

ELIMINATE LONG TECHNICAL WORDS. Usability studies show that even well-educated web surfers prefer shorter words to longer words on the web. People don’t read the web, they scan it, so it’s best to use the shortest words possible to get your point across–with the fewest syllables. Long technical words will cause the visitor to click away.

EDIT TO THE BONE. The web is not the place for the verbose. Edit all web content to its bare minimum leaving only the facts for the reader to decipher. Superfluous words, sentences and paragraphs are a nuisance on the internet. (Remember, it’s easier to write long, verbose paragraphs than it is to narrow your scope and write clear copy, even though the opposite seems true.)

The actual content of the corporate site is often an afterthought to many large organizations that prefer to focus on the look and feel of the site or other aspects of the business. However, your clients, prospects, vendors, the media and future employees are reading what you say and will form opinions accordingly. Write an effective About Us Page and achieve respect, recognition and results.

[1] About Us Pages - Useit Jakob Nielsen

1. Join food oriented forums, groups and networks. Don’t just join these groups, but be active. Share recipe ideas, get opinions, answer questions and become the resident expert by providing answers to questions posed by users. Here’s a few forums to try:

• FoodForum
• Epicurious
• BellaOnline Mexican Food Forum.

2. Create a Forum aimed at “Foodies.” You can create create your own forum attached to your website with tools such as vBulletin.

3. Create your own food network through Facebook. Start a group on Facebook or add your restaurant to Facebook so people can become a fan. Encourage your most loyal customers to come into the group and post something favorable. Don’t forget to provide something of value to your members to keep them satisfied. Check here: Foodies.

4. Grow a following on Twitter. Start posting regularly to Twitter and following people related to your restaurant’s theme. Be sure to announce specials, events and upcoming happy hour times for all your faithful followers. If you post a new menu item on your website, point to the page on Twitter for a massive influx of website visitors. It works!

5. Create a blog about your restaurant. A blog is a way for you to personally communicate with your customers. Since it’s less formal than the traditional restaurant website, you can speak one-on-one with your most loyal following.

6. Solicit favorable comments throughout your web network. Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth marketing! It’s easier to publish great comment about your eatery than ever before. Don’t worry about negative comments as you will control what’s posted through web moderation features.

7. Send out regular press releases. Make a big deal about every announcement you can fathom through press release newswire services such as PR Web Direct or CaymanMama.

8.Make it easy for people to copy your logo, brand images and food products.Making your images readily available online increases the chance that they’ll be put to good use on other sites. This will increase brand awareness and get traffic to your website.

9. Post videos of your chefs cooking a delicious dish on YouTube. YouTube videos are easy to post throughout the web on various networks and can show up in search results.

10. Advertise your web presence everywhere. Invite people to join your networks, from your website, to visit your website from your networks, to go to your blog from your direct mail campaigns and to visit your Twitter account from your YouTube videos. It’s all connected.

11. Use the Twitter Search feature. See who’s doing what related to your keyword phrase. It’s bad-to-the-bone. http://search.twitter.com/ Then jump into those networks or figure out a cool way to get their attention. At the least, get a gist of your industry, genre and network!

12. Brainstorm APIs that you can build in Twitter or Facebook. APIs are small custom programs that your programmer (me!) can build to bring your web advertising to life. The options are endless, all you have to do is use your imagination and think of something easy that would benefit your network and attract people to join in.

If you have any more ideas for marketing your restaurant through Social Networking, please take a moment to comment below. We value your opinions and thank you for taking the time to write to us.

Twitter is a social networking network that allows you to login and keep other people informed about what you are doing. On first glance, it seems that Twitter is just a dumb, stupid website aimed and wasting your time. If you’re new to the game, you’ll think Twitter is for people who have nothing better to do than to tell others about what they’re eating for lunch, or other boring data on trivial matters that don’t pertain to you. Once you’re past the newbie stage–if you have a little vision and imagination–you’ll begin to Twitter as a whole new way to market your real estate practice online.

Twitter only has about 2 Million users at this time, compared to Facebook’s 90 million users, however, this will change as people become more aware of social network marketing. I believe this is the beginning of something–what the web is becoming; so it’s important to get on board now if you want to be effective later. Learn the social networking ropes at the ground-floor so you’ll be on the higher floors when the elevator goes up.

How does it work?
Twitter is very simple. All you do is sign-up, login and type in the little box: “What are you doing right now?” That’s it. Just describe what it is you are doing.

Why is what you are doing important?
What you are doing is important to people in your life. (If it’s not, you need to get a life!) You can use Twitter for personal, business, hobbies, news info, and more. Since I’m a real estate web marketer, I’m going to discuss Twitter for marketing your real estate practice.

What should I do to market my business on Twitter?
The best way to market yourself on Twitter is to (again) provide valuable information that is interesting and informative to your target market. If you sell homes in McKinney, Texas–Twitter about McKinney. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter away. It may seem like you’re getting no where, but in truth you are. You’re discussing your service area and this will eventually tie into everything else you are doing. Use the same good web marketing acumen that I taught you in my Do’s & Don’ts for Facebook Article.

Establish your credibility. Show your personality and style. Offer value. Don’t just post ads saying, “Looking for real estate leads in Ten-Buck-Two. That’s a total turn-off and you’ll find no true followers. Be informative, snazzy, interesting, fun and sassy. Have a little personality please! And whatever you do, don’t try to sell us anything.

Following Other People
The premise of Twitter is following people who are involved in the process of telling you what they are doing. Once the ball gets rolling and people start to come on board, you will be able to get pretty good insight from other top-real estate agents, and other people who share what they are doing to your advantage. You can pick and choose who to follow. The options are endless.

Getting Followers
Another aspect of Twitter is getting people to follow you. Ideally you want your target market to follow you, but they may or may not be online yet. In the meantime, you want to attract followers to your Twitter handle using the following methods:

Letting people know you’re tweeting on Twitter.
Inviting people to follow you in person, via email and providing a link on your website.
Doing a “Follower Push” by following a bunch of other people in hopes they’ll reciprocate the follow.
Have a very popular blog or website already and tell all your users you’re on Twitter. Let people on Facebook know you’re also found on Twitter.