Dotcomify My Small Business

About a week ago I was making some visits to some local small businesses in Salt Lake. I went into a massage therapy studio and was visiting with the office manager.

I told her about how I help small business dotcomify. In other words I help local business take their business online. It’s like internet marketing but customized to the small business owner.

She said, “We’re satisfied with our website the way it is.”

The tone of voice that she used was saying, “we don’t need what you do because we already have a website.” I was floored by this comment. I thought, “Is that your idea of web marketing? Is that what you think it means to dotcomify your business?”

The scary thing is that 95% of business owners and marketing professionals think that marketing a business online means to throw up a website. Another 4% think that you throw up a website and then pay for google adwords.

They couldn’t be more wrong.

Less than 1% of business owners really know what it takes to successfully market a small business online.

The fundamental chest pass.

In basketball one of the first things you learn is the fundamental chest pass. It is the base of everything you will do on the court.

Most small business owners and marketers don’t know how to correctly execute the the fundamental chest pass of internet marketing.

So here is the fundamental chest pass of marketing your small business online and offline.

1. Expose

2. Involve

3. Upgrade

If you are going to successfully dotcomify your small business. If you are going to increase revenues during a time when everyone else is downsizing you must learn to market your business online.

You have to develop a system that allows you to first expose, then involve and then upgrade your prospects to paying customers.

I call this system the 3 Pillar success System.

I teach my 3 Pillar Success System in detail in my weekly webinars.

You can view part of one of my webinars here.

To view the full webinar about the 3 Pillar Success System and to attend future Dotcomify My Small Business Webinars register at go to http://www.LagoaMedia.com/dotcomify/webinar

As I hang out on Social Media Sites I begin to feel as though they are a waste of time.

I once saw an article title “Social Not-Working” and it had a twitter badge that said “Come Waste Time With Me on Twitter.”

That was clever, I thought, since I often feel that way as I hang out on twitter, facebook, cafemom and others.

So is Social Media Marketing a waste of time?

I some times feel it is. I am constantly looking for quality training on how to use the social networks effectively.

A while ago I came across this video by Perry Belcher. I thought that it was a good video to help a person get the overall picture of what their mindset and strategy should be when approaching social networks as a marketing channel.

If you have not yet seen Perry’s video then watch it now and then continue reading.

Where’s the Nuts and Bolts?

I’m constantly looking for the nuts and bolts. I don’t feel that I have found it all, but I am finding bits and pieces of it and will gladly share what I can.

This video you just watch is great from a broad overview of how we should approach social media as marketers, but we sometimes need the nitty gritty. We sometimes need to be taken by the hand and told, here’s what works and here’s what doesn’t.

I’m still in search of good training on this so feel free to recommend resources to me.

Twitter, Here’s my system.

I’m going to share with you my twitter system now. All I ask is that you share some of what you have learned and what is working for you in the comments section.

Now, this system is constantly changing, but I try to use twitter consistantly, but not for long periods of time. I recommend using twitter every day for between 15 to 30 minutes. Some times you will use it for more than that depending on what you need to get done.

I recommend using it every day because consistancy over time is where you will see results. I recommend using twitter for short periods of time because it is easy to waste a lot of time on Twitter.

Here are a few things I try to do everyday on twitter.

1. I try to find like minded individuals and I follow them.

2. I try to interact with them by commenting on their tweets. I try to network with those individuals.

3. I research what is hot in my industries and niches and sometimes blog about that or create training and or marketing materials around those topics.

4. I post tweets with links to my sites, landing pages, special offers etc. This is my advertising.

5. I ask a lot of questions. I try to create interaction between me and my followers.

Here is a great tool for scheduling tweets to tweet at different times and to tweet multiple times if they are important. There is a free version and a paid version. I recommend at least using the free version. Click on this link to try it out http://www.tweetlater.com/86792.html

So what tips and resources are you willing to share?

Well, there’s a little bit about how I use twitter. So please share your twitter tips and advice for any other social media site in the comments. Also be sure to post questions that you have about the nitty gritty on specific social sites and I will try to answer them or find answers.

This is the first of what will be a series of posts on this topic.
Don’t forget to register for our next LIVE Webinar and receive special bonuses. Register at http://www.DotcomifyMyBusiness.com/webinar