“Why Getting on the Map Matters”
Some of the basics that are important to small businesses — yet I find them so often overlooked. How can your small coffee shop stand out when you haven’t claimed your Facebook page, or have several auto-generated sites floating around on Google? An organized, established presence online is key to the visibility of any organization in today’s world. Make sure you are getting noticed!
Recently I became involved with a local company which doesn’t seem to be at all well positioned in the social media department. While that information shouldn’t the sole criteria in judging their ability to provide services, the fact is that our joint venture does involve an upcoming event. This means that promotion, online exposure and connections will all play an important role — so could their seeming reluctance to be on social sites be an issue? Let’s consider what I found while doing some quick research.
- a number of “dead sites”
- an outdated twitter account
- multiple unclaimed Facebook pages
- broken links to social networks from their website
In addition, while searching with a few different sets of keywords, I found far more results for other companies in different locations. Failure to claim physical sites for check-in purposes is in today’s world, just sloppy positioning of our business. Why? Since we are all so connected and geared towards our devices and telling people where we are, tagging photos with locations and sharing everything and anything, companies which lack the correct information are missing the boat. Will that cause customers not to visit you? Probably not, but when searches for similar businesses are coming up well-listed, with high numbers of visitors and interactions, that can certainly hurt how you are perceived. Here are some of the important places to list your nonprofit or small business.
Skipping the essential steps of “establishing your brand”can be dangerous. If you don’t have time to explore all the channels and details yourself, hire someone to not only set them up but maintain an active presence. This type of connection is important for branding in today’s world, and a virtually non-existent presence can speak volumes about your future. Here are a few resources offering more insight on the importance of place-claiming.
- “5 Ways to Promote Your E-Business Locally: Why Marketing Matters”
- “The Top 20 Places Your Business Needs to Be Listed Online”
- “The Concept of Online Location Management”
I hope you found some useful material in this post. Good luck with establishing and growing your online presence and please stop by my Facebook page to let me know how this helped you. Have a great week!
Marketing Delmarva | Social Media Tips & Tools for Everyday Situations
