by The Boomer Gal | Sep 11, 2012 | Mobile
Mobile Apps – Local Business Marketing
Mobile Apps For Business
Part of marketing for small business today is the consideration of mobile apps. What is a mobile app? App is short for application. An app is a program on your phone or other mobile device that makes it easier to do tasks.
We use mobile apps to email, text, play games, check the weather, read news, track finances, keep a calendar and address book, and to find local businesses just to name a few tasks. Every mobile device uses them and many come free with the device or are free to download from the app store associated with your particular device.
In the last 60 seconds, over 13,000 mobile apps were downloaded from the iTunes store.
An app is not a website. Your small business website is accessible on the Internet from a computer or laptop. It can also be found over an Internet browser app on your mobile device. For best results, your website should have a mobile version designed specifically for Internet access via mobile, but that’s another post for another day.
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by The Boomer Gal | Jun 26, 2012 | Marketing
Google Local Search
There has been a lot going on with Google local search lately. Maybe you’ve heard the uproar all along Main Street USA, but if not, here’s a little background.
Local search is a rather new phenomenon to small business marketing. You may have heard it referred to as local search engine optimization or reputation management. No matter what the insiders call it, the bottom line is, it’s revolutionized small business marketing at the local search level and given a distinct advantage to Main Street.
It all began in November of 2010 when Google recognized that 30% of it’s users were forcing the algorithm to return local search results. Google wisely decided that if 30% of users had figured out how to game the system, then how many more users might want Google local search results rather than broader more global results.
That’s when another Google generated shift occurred that forever changed marketing at the local level. And until recently, that system which we called local search generically and Google Places at the behemoth level, put local small business locations on page one of the search results. This was done not just as a courtesy to you and I, but also so that Google could grow it’s virtual real estate.
Google gave every local business that you might find in every Yellow Pages in the nation and the world, a page on the Google website. (Hence the rapid demise of both Yellow Pages and Super Pages). It was GENIUS! But what was once just user centric embraced feedback and interaction has turned into a multi-billion and perhaps trillion dollar marketing opportunity.
