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By Frank Reed -

Internet marketing is one of those strange things. It is so easy to talk about at high levels and feel that you have enough information to make important decisions with some level of comfort. Everyone throws around terms like SEO (search engine optimization), paid search (PPC), social media (in all its various forms) and then has the classic two-part reaction.

1. I can do this
2. It won’t cost much, if anything at all.

This is where the trouble usually starts. Many SMB’s are really smart people and they actually do understand Internet marketing better than some so called experts. Their understanding of the tools is clear and they may even know some of the secrets of the trade. But they all run into the same roadblock: time. No matter how much you think you know you cannot opt for a 35-hour day. The demands of being a small to medium business owner often don’t allow for one of the most important aspects of Internet marketing (or any marketing for that matter) which is research.

I perform MarketView Reports for SMB’s that looks at their website, their competitive environment and any other element of the online world that should impact their future Internet marketing decisions. I do this because it is the biggest gap I see in the SMB’s process as it relates to online marketing of all stripes. There is considerable demand for this service now because time is money and SMB’s just don’t have the time. They don’t have the time to “deep dive’ on their overall Internet marketing strategy and they certainly don’t have time to analyze their competition in any depth.

SMB’s instead they turn to tools. They put up a Facebook page for their business or they go on Twitter or they start a blog but they do it because in their mind there is a “if I do it they will come” hope. What if they made a decision based on research that all they truly needed was a Facebook page for now? The time and effort saved could end up being what is needed to close more deals using that Facebook presence. There are an infinite number of combinations of what can be done to promote and sell online and each SMB owner / marketer has to discover where they will be the most effective. There really isn’t the luxury of making a wrong guess.

So what’s the bottom line on this? I truly believe that a small up front investment in time and money to truly understand what is happening in the marketplace in great detail will result in long term savings in time, effort and money. It could also lead to some self-discovery that can be invaluable as the marketplace continues to evolve. if this sounds like a veiled pitch for what I do then so be it. It’s important for the SMB to know the “lay of the land” before they commit to a course of action. Otherwise, money and time are sacrificed with little or no return. That hurts any business.

Informed decisions minimize the wasting of valuable resources. No truer words have been spoken especially as it relates to Internet marketing. If there was ever an industry where the cliché of “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” applies it is in the online space. I hope more SMB’s take the time to get the facts because the upside could be the difference between survival and success.

Consultant Drives 90% of Her Business from Facebook

In my last article, I asked, “Is Facebook as important to your strategy as Google?” Whether your answer    to this is yes or no, there are a variety of reasons why Facebook can be a useful part of your mix. I was looking at an article I wrote about a year ago about driving traffic to your site with Facebook, and I noticed a comment left last month that tells an interesting story.
Allow me to pull an excerpt from the comment. A consultant named Heather O’Sullivan Canney talked about the reasons she created a Facebook page and why it has helped her business:

As a result (IMO) of creating the page with the INTENTION of engaging and not merely as an advertising platform, I now receive nearly 90% of my business via facebook. Even those who I know personally in my local market, and network with on a daily basis, hire me as a result. They often say “I didn’t really think I needed you, but I was sitting there stressing out about my marketing plan and there you were…” (or something along those lines).

I don’t sell internet marketing products Chris, although as my international fan base continues to grow as a result of facebook, I am being asked to create online products.

The key (IMO) is having the intention of building a community, and engaging with them. Nobody wants another place to be advertised to in the ‘in your face’ sense of the word. We want to buy things, and we need to know that they exist, but we want to buy – not ‘be sold to’.

Let’s not get too consumed in the Facebook vs. Google aspect. It is an interesting discussion, but there are no rules (luckily) saying you have to use one and not the other. They are both your friends. And they both provide different ways of getting your business and your message found by potential customers.

As long as I’ve brought it up,however, Facebook does appear to be coming quite the competitor to Google. This week, Nielsen shared some data about time spent online by U.S. Internet users, and the average Facebook user spends about seven hours a month on Facebook. The average Google users spends about two.

It is true that you don’t have to spend much time on Google if it is doing its job right (at least with regards to the search engine), but the fact that  Facebook is where people already are for that amount of time says a lot about its potential. On top of that, Facebook continues to find new ways of keeping users around even more.

Is Facebook a waste of time? It can be, but not to everyone. It’s how you use it. As I mentioned in a comment on the article I linked to above, you can waste a lot of time on Google too. It comes down to personal discipline.

Chris Crum

By Chris Crum – Mon, 02/15/2010 – 3:59pm.

Some Things About Facebook to Consider

According to data from Compete, Facebook has surpassed Google as the top source of traffic for major portals like Yahoo, MSN, and AOL. In December, 15% of traffic to these sites came from Facebook and MySpace. 13% from just Facebook. They say it’s among the top traffic drivers for other types of sites as well.

In a recent WebProNews article, I asked if it is becoming increasingly less critical for businesses to have websites, when they can just have things like Facebook pages and Google Place pages. The discussion is more complex than just that (feel free top participate here), but the general point is that you can have a strong web presence without having an actual web site (although I still recommend having one in most cases).

By Facebook’s most recent stat counts, the site has over 400 million active users. Half of them log on each day. Over 35 million upate their status each day, with over 60 million status updates posted each day. Over 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) are shared each week, over 3.5 million events are created each month, and there are over 3 million active Pages on Facebook.

Over 1.5 million local businesses have active pages. Over 20 million people become fans of Pages each day, and Pages have created over 5.3 billion fans. The average user has 130 friends. These last few stats say a lot about the power of Facebook for businesses.

Facebook pages can be found in Google (often near the top of results pages), and there are things you can do to make them more powerful. I discussed this in more detail here. Basically, it comes down to participation, integration with other online presences, not being annoying to your fans, and hosting events (which can also lead to participation).

Promotion of your page is key as well. Use prominent links on your site(s), use the Facebook Fan Box or something like it. You can promote it in your author bio on articles/blogs, in email newsletters, on other social media profiles, in your Google profile, on your business card, in your signage, in your email signature, and in your ads, to name a few.