2012 -Time to Renew with Social Media

December 25, 2011

Happy New Year!  Here we are with 2012 just a week away.  Time just goes by so fast!  Happy New Year!  My calendar just seems to be on Steroids and my life! Do you relate?

With another year upon us we have so much to be thankful for yet our economy is not looking to well these days.  More than ever one needs to market their business as competition is stiff out there.  People are expecting to pay less while still getting more.

It is a great time to renew your Social Media business plan for the upcoming year and take a look back on this previous year in business.

About Social Media:

Social Media – The Next Best Thing to Being There in Person

While meeting with your clients and prospects in person is always the best way to build relationships, you might also consider Social Media.  Facebook is a wonderful place to get to know your clients and engage with your audience.

It has created an opportunity for anyone, anywhere, to have a voice.  Getting a message out no longer depends on how large a marketing budget is; in fact, it’s forced many companies to be creative; many have even hired social media consultants like myself to manage their social media campaigns. The good news is that anyone can learn how to benefit from social media.

You can Blog, Tweet, Facebook or create videos to draw in your targeted audience. What ever you do, you MUST jump on the social media wagon because Internet marketing has never been more necessary for small businesses that want and need an online audience.

Announce new products, post coupons, get to know your clients and their needs.  Don’t just sell them, get to know them!

If you want to brand yourself online please contact me. 

Visit my portfolio by clicking here.

Happy New Year!

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Posted by Jude Hodge

Just put a band-aid on it

June 21, 2011

 Too often people are tempted to put a band-aid on a

 problem instead of really fixing it.

Technology changes everyday.  Websites today are not the websites of the past.  You no longer see a long page of bright-colored fonts and ugly links and clip art.  The tools for web developers are vast today.  You can pretty much have it look like anything you can imagine,  as anything is possible.

Business owners who have the ugly websites of the past need to upgrade as consumers compare your business to other like businesses.  You really may offer the best product and customer service but your website may not reflect it.

I was thinking last night about the relationship each of us has with the internet.  According to Nielsen  92%  in a study in North America shop online and research before we purchase a product, take a vacation, travel etc.  We have a stronger than ever relationship with the internet.


“The Internet is no longer a niche technology – it is mass media and an utterly integral part of modern life. As our lives become more fractured and cluttered, it isn’t surprising that consumers turn to the unrivalled convenience of the Internet when it comes to researching and buying products.”

Jonathan Carson, President, International, Nielsen Online

What kind of relationship does your BUSINESS have on the internet?  That is the real question for business owners.  Marketing and advertising have more opportunity than it has ever had before on the internet. 

You have a problem if:

    1. Your website receives little or no traffic
    2. Your website is out dated
    3. Your website is not generating any income for your business
    4. If the consumer is not connecting with you via the internet.
 Important for your website, not something to over look as this is the one thing that will drive traffic from the search engines to you.  Do not just hire anyone, and do not shop by price.  Shop by the service offered and how willing the web company is to work with you on making your website successful.  If you make more money because of it then the value is endless.
SEO – Search engine optimization.  As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. Optimizing a website may involve editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of back links, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic.

Now lets talk about web design. 

If your site is not generating what you expected it to generate, then consult a web designer / developer for their opinion. Again, do not shop by price or convenience.  Make sure the company you choose understands the nature of your business and can provide you with the quality of work needed. You always get what you pay for, so be choosy!

Advertising

Locally where I live it is nothing for a local business to spend $3500 a year or more on Radio and Print ads.  Neither offer measurable results.  I am not against this type of advertising but when I compare it to a website that offers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week archived material it just does not compare.  People read and throw away news papers, and radio ads are 30-60 seconds long at best.  We live in a world of  iPods and smart phones.  Many of us never tune into the radio and many of us read the news online.  Many news papers are also now online.

What I love about the internet and advertising is that it does offer measurable results as with free services like Google analytics and programs added to sites by web developers you can track all traffic to your site so you know if the advertising you are doing online is working.  If it is not it also displays the problem so you can work closely with your web developer to make changes.

Take the band-aid off of your website today, or lack of online marketing and get it fixed.  Invest what you are spending otherwise into a healthy website.  Add social media to that website along with better than good Search Engine Optimization and reap the results.

If you would like more information about the services I offer, consultations are always free. Does not matter what country, state or city you are in we can do business together as this is the internet!

Jude Hodge

541-933-5833

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Posted by Jude Hodge

Facebook

May 25, 2011

What a feeling of accomplishment Mark Zuckerberg must be feeling. Everywhere you go, everything we read and hear leads us to Facebook! He does not have to advertise as he has the entire world advertising for him!

He co-founded and launched Facebook in 2004 and was the worlds youngest billionaire by 2008! In 2010 he was named Time Magazines Person of the Year. As of 2011 his personal wealth is estimated at $13.5 Billion. Quite an amazing accomplishment for the last 7 years of his young life and career.

He is young and wealthy today because he was passionate about his product and mission to see it accomplished.  Nothing comes easy, or without hard work and dedication.  We may believe it was an overnight success but the process and dedication had to be solid to launch a product of this size,  not to mention the marketing and networking that originally went into it.  Good for you Mark! Thank you for creating this free stellar product and networking the world together! What an awesome networking tool he has given us!


I love Facebook!

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Posted by Jude Hodge

War of the Mind -Part 3

May 19, 2011

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. He will put something behind, will pass an invisible boundary, new, universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him, or the old laws will be expanded and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense and he will live with the license of a higher order of beings.”

Thoreau

Remember, our goal is simple: KEEP OUR MINDS ON WHAT WE WANT AND OFF WHAT WE DON’T WANT. This is a journey and it begins NOW. Keep our minds on what we want. One thing I know—one thing—we have to have something to keep our mind on and that is GOALS and if you really want to start this trip right—written goals. A recent article stated that most people spend more time planning for vacation than their business??? When we don’t have goals we dream and dreams have a way of going back to our past failures.

The first step in changing our thoughts is to have written goals. Chapter two of Think and Grow Rich is not only the best way to set goals but Andrew Carnegie said it was the only way. Using Hill and some of his past writings lets look at step
one.

STEP ONE: SHORT TERM GOALS

First of all lets talk about our vision, what we want. Some teach that goals have to be attainable so not to discourage. Others
like myself believe that goals have to stretch us–I would rather aim at a star and hit an eagle than to aim at an eagle and hit the ground. Which is right–goals we can obtain or those that push us??? I believe goals should push us and we can achieve them. So called impossible dreams are met when one sets goals that get us out of our comfort zones—challenge us—make us think about WHAT WE WANT day and night. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Jude Hodge

War of the Mind Part 2 Continued…

May 18, 2011
Illustration depicting thought.

Image via Wikipedia

The question is NOT do we have negative thoughts or do things we wish we had not done; the question is how do we overcome them and have positive thoughts with positive results. I know nobody wants to hear this BUT — we have to CHANGE. CHANGE what? CHANGE the way we think so lets get started.

We start with this: Every single person in the world can CHANGE their situation IF IF IF they CHANGE their thoughts. It is called cause and effect. All we do and all we are starts with a thought. This used to be a conflict of beliefs with churches but today the best selling books to church people are—the battle of the mind and other books that address the power of thought. Think not? Thought is mentioned in the bible 81 times, thoughts 54 times, think 65 and so on. Enough on that.

It is also fact that we all can change our lives if we think on what we want and keep our mind off what we don’t want—BUT—we have a problem doing this. Again, this is the answer BUT it is not that simple for most of us. It is the DO part that gets us. I was really “lucky” years ago when I was given the book The Power of the Subconscious but millions read the same book and had zero effect on them—and this is what set me on a journey to find out why. I think we all know the right thought gets us the right results but we don’t always do it? We call up things that happened years ago and get our minds on the past which changes our future.

This is a journey and not a quick fix so get ready to get ready. I will leave you today with this thought–-if you want to build muscles do you.

A sit on the couch and eat bon bons all day.
B.exercise
C.think about it

We are going to go on a thought building exercise program that will do what it always does—it will up those of us who really really really want to change—CHANGE.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Jude Hodge

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