• WHY your business  should be on Facebook
• HOW  to optimize your page to get the best results
• TIPS for implementing an effective Facebook page
• OPTIONS available on the Facebook for advertising, contests & more
• HOW TO MANAGE it all with a easy plan.

Where: CHILDREN WITH HAIRLOSS 12776 S. Dixie Hwy S. Rockwood, MI. 48179 S. Rockwood, MI. 48179

When: Wednesday March 7 2012- 9am-11am

Cost: $25/includes a $5 donation to CWHL

**Business prize drawing for attendees and special bonus for all participants!**

Presented by: Kathy Kane, Market Insights & Tim Somers , Bizarre Marketing

Register online- www.marketinsights.us/programs or 734-676-9561 ex. 2 by 3/5/12

If you have updating your business directory listings as a 2012 goal, make sure that updating The Michigan Business Directory is one of them. The site had over 6.2 million hits the month of December 2011 alone. If you just type in Michigan Business it comes up in the top ten in almost every search engine. They have many features that benefit business, including links to articles with great marketing advice, make sure to check them all out!

You can even boost your marketing by adding coupons, events and even a press release to your www.MichiganBusiness.us listing (The best thing is it’s free).

To get the most out of your listing make sure to do the following:

• Update your listing with your facebook page and twitter handle.
• Go to: http://www.facebook.com/MichiganBusiness and LIKE their page.
• Post your link on their facebook page to get added exposure.
• Follow them  on www.twitter/MichiganBD
• Post your Twitter handle on their Facebook page so others can follow you on twitter!

Just a few minutes will make a big difference in your traffic for the week, keep posting for better results!!

My Best,

Kathy Kane

Market Insights, LLC

Privacy is a big concern for everyone who enjoys the benefits of online marketing and social media outlets. Google has made an important change in their policy. I wasn’t sure how it could affect us, so I did a little research and this is what I think.

On March 1, 2012, Google will roll out a consolidated privacy policy that covers almost all of its products. Currently, it has more than 60 different privacy documents, which you have probably “clicked” the… I read the terms and policy box, but did you REALLY read it thoroughly?

What this change means in practice is that you’ll be treated as a single user across all Google products. You probably also shouldn’t sign up for Google if you plan on committing a crime. They won’t sell your name, but they can provide it to the authorities with valid legal requests. But on a good note, all of your privacy settings will be the same and all your data will available to every other Google service, so that is convenient.

Google says this will create a safer, more intuitive experience for users. With the unified platform, for instance, Maps could automatically provide driving directions based on an appointment you’ve just made in Calendar. Yes, that makes good sense. If you watch You Tube videos on healthy living, for example, Google Search will return healthy lifestyle trips first when you are searching vacation ideas. You can decide for yourself whether that is a neat feature or a just a little creepy.

Google is ultimately doing this to bring in more targeted advertising revenue and to compete with rival…you guessed it… Facebook, which also explains the increased advertising for Google+.

Want to know what’s being shared? Make sure to check your Google dasherboard and set your privacy setting in your account if you would like to limit what is being shared with others. If you don’t adjust it, it defaults to everyone being able to get a look at your stuff. If you don’t do anything else with your Google account do this and enjoy your new personalized searches!

My Best,

Kathy Kane

Market Insights, LLC

Online advertising is what is driving profits for Google, Yahoo and Facebook. It can be very expensive for the small business owner who opts to pay per click or per phone call. Article Marketing may be an effective way to drive traffic to your website with little or no cost at all (especially if you like to write). If you can write articles about valuable information to your readers, you can drive home some web traffic for yourself and build your archives of customer giveaways. These should not be a hard sell but useful and current tips that just so happen to include some keywords that potential customers may be using to find your services/products.

How?

Articles should be 250 to 400 words long, and just mention the “keyword” or main topic a very few times. Your articles should focus on sub-topics that go hand in hand with your main keyword. This will give search engines like Google some great snacks for their spiders. That in mind do not cram your article with keywords and meaningless junk, it will not help your search engine rankings, in-fact they may hurt you more than not posting at all.

Many miss this very important part; make sure you include a resource box or bio at the end of each article. This is how you plug yourself, your product and provide a link to your website. It’s always a good idea to invite the reader to visit your website or blog for more information on your article topic and make sure you have a clickable link!

Now What?

You have completed the hardest part of this marketing strategy, you either wrote it or hired someone to ghost write for you. Now you need to submit it to various article directories. GoArticles.com, EzineArticles and Search Warp are some of the top directories that accept articles for free. You will find may pay to post directories, but we’ve never used them with so many legitimate free resources available. Some guru’s will tell you should submit to 100 or 200 directories for each article, but I have found that submitting to 5 to 10 directories per article is more effective. This will reduce any penalties for duplicate content – which would make all your efforts worthless.

You can keep it real simple and just make it your goal to post a new article to your blog every week.  Trading blogs with a few collegues does the trick too.

The fresher and more unique the content the more Google loves it – just remember, duplication and plagerism, just like in school is a big Google no– no.

So if you don’t write but see the value of article marketing, hire it out and watch the results you will get from even posting one new fresh article, once a week!

My Best,

Kathy Kane

Market Insights, LLC

Over 500,000 visit the Kennedy Recreation Center annually. With over one million impressions a year, arena sponsorship advertising is effective!

You are invited to advertise your business in a non-traditional setting to build brand recognition. Your community involvement will receive media exposure through the many events including tournaments, skating shows and more. (updated events calender here)

Programs include dasherboard ads, banner ads, zamboni, signage in ice and in suite, as well as, outdoor water park opportunities.  Major sponsors also receive a choice of web site links, lobby commercials, brochure rack display, event table displays, restroom ad placement, inside and outside marquee placement, Twitter and Facebook mentions and more!

More about KRC…

150,000 sq ft facility

13,000 sq ft outdoor pool

Home Ice for:

Trenton Hockey

Grosse Ile Hockey

High School Hockey:

Trenton

Riverview

Grosse Ile

Gibraltar/Carlson

HS Hockey Showcase

Adult Leagues

Drop In Hockey

Group & Corporate Outings

Birthday Parties

Fitness Classes

Figure Skating Lessons

Ice Shows

Public Skating & More!

Yearly Rates!

Full Color Banner Ads- $600

AD’s for less than $42/mo!

(additional years only $500)

Outdoor Pool Signage- $600

(Full color banner May-Sept)

Dasherboards- From $1,350 (1 arena)

Signage- From $3,500

Full payment = Waived sign and set up charges

Personalized monthly or quarterly payments available

For your personal business package contact: kane@marketinsights.us

734-676-9561

Your sponsorship professionally managed by Market Insights

Aw! Click "Like!"

Customers always want  my opinion on how to get more likes. It is interesting to me  how a simple video might attract 40,000 impressions and a hundred new likes , while other engaging and clever posts do not. While it is not an exact science and never will be, here are some thoughts to put into action! Remember to also test the time of day you are posting, some work better in the morning, some afternoon and some (amazing to me as a early riser,) evening posts often go wild!

1.       Use Facebook as a Page-Switch to your page and post as your page on relevant walls (Your target market). If you post relevant information on pages with thousands of fans you will get a percentage of those to like your page.

2.       Use tags (@)-When helping to promote another page use the tag feature to create better links. When others see you are posting nice things about them, you will get more likes.

3. Create a contest- You can create a contest many different ways, but the easiest is to post what you are giving away and asking fans to like the post or share the post. Depending how long your contest goes and how meaningful the prize to your fans, the more likes you will get.

4. Use the (new Sept. 11) Share button- Ask your friends to help spread the word about your business! If you share your business post on your personal wall or ask fans to share the post, you will get more likes.

5. Use your notes-If you think about the notes section as your tips or blog section, each time you create a note it should help your fans in some way. If it does, they will share it and you will get more likes.

6.       Use the (new Sept 11) Questions button- Another great tool to interact with your fans is asking them what they think. When you ask a question that is interesting to your fans, and they respond, their friends will see it and if it is interesting to their friends you will get more likes.

7.       Ask for a Review (new Sept 11)- This is a great opportunity for testimonials. Make sure to ask your fans for a review, they are powerful, you can use them for other promotions and they will bring you more likes.

8.       Use apps to get more exposure through You Tube Twitter, RSS feeds ect. For the best provider and you can get up to 2 free try http://involver.com/ .  If you have interesting video, tweets or blog, it is just another way to drive them to your fan page and another reason for them to like you!

You can always call us too, we are here to help implement for you!

My Best,

Kathy Kane

Market Insights, LLC

In our business of assisting clients make the most of their time and social media potential we have come up with a guide that helps them focus on implementing their plan with ease. We are happy to share it with you and as always welcome your comments about tools you may use to maximize your social media exposure with time efficiency.

Daily: 15-20 minutes

__Facebook (copy and paste daily post) This posts to Twitter which posts to Linkedin. Include pics, video, links, urls. (5 min)

__Who can you promote AS Your Business Page? On customers, organizations, associates page (switch profile) or by using @ on your page? (10 min)

__ Share your business page with friends and implement other ideas to get “likes” (5 min)

Weekly:

__Web Site Blog- Updated weekly (1 hour)

__Linkedin- Add network members- add company post- share other members info (20 min)

Monthly:

__ Eblast or E-news (Constant Contact) (1-2 hours)

__Plan posts for approval- Ideas for posts- Tips, events, questions, news related to business, video, pictures, testimonial, associations, organizations, use keywords in posts, link to email or website pages, contest. (30 min)

__SEO checklist- ask for reviews, write reviews, post pictures, video to at least one account a month (1 hour)

__Consider Facebook- Welcome Page/ giving something for liking the page. Consider Facebook ad from $10/budgets (15 min)

__Twitter- Follow others and re-tweet other info. (1 hour)

__You Tube- Set up Account -post monthly video or link to other videos. (1 hour)

__Google+ (Set up personal profile, set up business profile) Post monthly (15 min)

My Best,

Kathy Kane

Market Insights, LLC

1. We said… The economy IS going to improve.  Keep the faith.  We still have faith and clients who moved out of the comfort zone and tried new service or products experienced growth in 2011, our business did too.

2.       We said…Collect emails! Didn’t start collecting yet? There is still opportunity here. Start now by collecting at the point of sale or at networking events and trade shows, we saw great results from enews and eblasts in 2011.

3.       We said…Companies, small and large, need to create a social media strategy.   Still true! Don’t have a plan?  Make sure to have one in 2012.  Some interesting predictions for social media trends here. Make sure to write it down, whatever you do, do it consistently, weekly, monthly or quarterly!

4.       We said…Manage Your On-line Rep- If you set up a Google alert, you had an opportunity to respond to any thing being said about your business. You can also use the alerts to also check on what your competition is doing.

5.       We said…Face-to-face networks will continue to grow. This worked too. For those that went to a meeting and then touched base with them on-line, you grew our network and developed new business.

6.       We said….Go Green! If you found a way for your business to go green and then promoted it, you did well this year!  Keep up the good work.

7.       We said…Don’t have a web site yet? Guess what? One-way web sites are now OLD Fashioned!  Hopefully you did create a blog or at least a Facebook business page this year. Don’t forget you can now add your company profile to Linkedin and make sure to get set up on Google+ soon too!

8.       We said…Companies that succeed in 2012 will continue to focus on relationships. Technology is a tool but relationships are what keeps them coming. Look at Dominos Pizza creating conversation, even if it might not have been in their best light, they corrected their shortcomings and are selling a bunch of pizza.

Your comments and opinions are always welcomed.

My Best,

Kathy Kane

Market Insights, LLC

Have you started planning your marketing strategy for 2012? What will likely be the next big thing to effectively promote your business?

My bets are on Google+ and Linkedin to give business a boost in 2012. Along with your traditional marketing plans, I would suggest getting your Google+ account now and getting familiar with the similarities and differences compared to Facebook. Start inviting friends to be part of your circles and set up your business page. Get a Free Guide at Hub Spot

The cool thing (or not) about Google+ is you can’t hide here, you actually have to be a “person” first then create your business page. Of course I am sure there will be ways around it, like so many set up their personal page as a business in Facebook.  But on Google+ profiles can only be made for People while the Pages , can be made for a variety of entities. Google+ also features a video chat application for your circles, this will be very useful for business, family and groups.

Another unique feature on Google+ is that Pages have a +1 button where profiles can click if they like you. You can add the code to your web site, blog and of course the more +1’s the better for Google searches. According to Hub Spot, Websites using the Google+1  button gets 3.5X more Google+ visits.

Linkedin created a new Company feature this fall which many smaller businesses have still not taken advantage of yet. You can create a company profile, add employees and post business information for really effective networking results. More ideas here for Linkedin company profiles. Linkedin is a great resource when searching for a contact with a new potential customer and networking possibilities and revenue potentials are vast on this social media site. Make sure to get your fair market share on Linkedin!

As with anything, the more you plan, the more you take the guess work out of how your business will fare in the New Year’s economy. My best wishes to you and your business success for many years to come!

Happy New Year Planning!

Kathy Kane

Market Insights, LLC

Stuck on a theme for your next business video? We all know that the most clicks are generated by cute and funny entertainment on you tube, so what can your business use to create some CUTE exposure?

Have a cute nephew or a special animal that you can “talk into” performing? How about a sweet little family singing trio or an adorable new puppy? Think about how you can incorporate them into a script that sells your service or products.

Here are some things to consider for your script and video to get the maximum laughs and clicks….

• What is your theme? Baby, Dog, ect. Brainstorm with friends and family!
• Location- Will you shoot at your business, in a park, or in a studio?
• What is your message? Could it lead to a Series? For example, for our paper we will be featuring a baby growing up reading the paper at different stages in life.
• Music (remember about the copyright laws), Words on Screen, Graphics needed? What will make you message “pop” and create conversation?
• Is there a punchline? Is there a “Awww” moment or a “ Oh! My! J
• What are your actor (s) wearing? Is the baby wearing a suit?
• What props will you need? Does your doggie need a desk?
• Are you using your logo/tagline throughout?

Once it is created and uploaded to your You Tube channel make sure to…

• Post it on your social media, blogs and web sites
• Email the link  to friends to share
• Ask for comments and likes on your You Tube channel
• Send a release to local media

No one knows what will attract then next million video hits, keep creating and posting and your business could be next!

My Best,

Kathy Kane

Market Insights, LLC