Read up on the top 5 Social Networking sites and Microblogging in this article by SitePro News. http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2009/sep/2.html .

After talking to many business people here in Homer, I keep hearing the same story. Business is down. the B & B’s, the Charters, Restaurants, even the King Salmon Fisherman had a bad season. All are facing a difficult winter. Those who survive will have to think outside of the box to survive. For a chance to survive businesses must be willing to think outside the box and willing to make changes.

There are several resources here in Alaska that can help you do this. One is the SBDC (Small Business Development Center), they have many ideas that can help you find new sources of advertising and revenue. They also have workshops to help small business succeed. Visit http://aksbdc.org/  and see what they have to offer your business

We are looking forward to hosting a couple of workshops here in the fall focused on Starting a Web Site and Marketing on the Internet so watch the AKSBDC or use our RSS feed to find out more information. These workshop may make the difference  in whether your web site will make or break you next year.

You can visit our web site at http://gtlenterprises.com .

The Internet is changing,  All of the search engines are putting less emphasis on static web sites that don’t have changing content to those that are dynamic and change regularly.  Good news is you can do it for much less that before, however it does require much more of your time.

For blogging to be extremely effective but it needs to be done regularly. The best results come when you do it daily.  It takes a lot of effort on your part but I know from experience it does work.

Here are a few of the thing I have done to promote my business on the web that can work for you as well.

Try joining BuyAlaska, it’s free, put it on your list of friends on your blog and update BuyAlaska daily, it only takes a few seconds. When you have your business and it’s URL listed on web sites that have high “Google” ranking, it lifts the ranking of your site. The same goes for joining your local Chamber of Commerce and having a hot link to your site. I have not got any business directly for either source, but they have been instrumental in how my web site ranks on the search engines.

 Join social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin.  There is an addon you can add to your Wordpress Blog that allows you link your blog to any social networking site you wish.  Again, this kind of linking helps your site rank higher on the search engines. Make sure your blog is attached to your websites URL not that of the blog site.

 Web 2.o is the future of the Internet.  It’s all about social networking, blogging.  When the Interstates Highways started traversing our nation many businesses went under. The main road that carried vital traffic by their bussiness was now several miles away. Your static web site, without the adding of some kind of dynamic support, will be like having your business located on that old untraveled highway.

Yahoo and Bing (msn’s search engine) both recently updated their search engines. Now Google last week tested it’s upgraded search engine “Google Caffeine”.

The one thing all of these search engines have done has added emphasis to Web 2.o.  Blogs and Social Networking sites are getting greater recognition.

Bad new is your static site may not rate as well with the search engines as it used to.  But the good news is, with the use of Blogging and Social Networking you can increase the visibility of your site without paying for constant updates of your web site.

Have a Blog attached to your web site.  Your URL should be http://mywebsiteurl/myblog/,  not that of the blog site. Then sign up to Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, mySpace and whatever Social Networking sites fit your business,  link your blog to each of your Social Networking sites.  Wordpress has a great plug-in that helps you do this.

For more information, you can visit our web site at http://gtlenterprises.com.

Blogging is a great way to keep in touch with current and potential customers. You can upload pictures of the “Latest Catch” or the “You’ve got to see this” sunset! Even pictures of the latest ash fallout – just to show everyone that it really isn’t THAT bad – “Come on up and visit us, we’re still here and everything is fine.” Besides seeing picture of what they could be doing or seeing, customers love to read other customers comments about your business. Often times it’s the comment of others that will bring you additional customers. Share those comments in a Customer Testimonial blog entry.

Constantly updating your Web Site will bring more spiders to your Web Site and gain you a higher rate on their Search Engines. You can pay someone to write a “Dynamic Web Site” (about $3,000- $5,000) and/or pay a Web Master up to $1000 a month to continually update your Web Site which brings those Search Engines Spiders to your Web Site OR, you can add a blog to your Web Site and update the blog yourself. With each update, you will bring the Search Engine Spiders to your Web Site looking for the new content that you have entered into your Web Site! Obviously, it’s much cheaper for you to have a Blog attached to your Web Site and update it yourself instead of paying someone to update your site regularly. Make sure you have a Web Master who is up on the latest Search Engine Optimization techniques and who is willing to help you attain inexpensive alternatives to reach as many customers and potential customers as possible.

One last great feature of a Blog is the RSS feed. You can have an RSS feed put on your home page, asking people to sign up to receive your Blog entries and you have an instant mini-newsletter. Each Blog entry will go straight to your customers In Box! It’s a great way to announce Sales, Specials or Upcoming Events. It’s a lot less work than a full Newsletter and it keeps you in the customers In Box and in their mind. The more you are on their mind, when it comes time for that vacation, guess who they will think of first? The one who has been sending all those great pictures and all those inspiring Testimonials, not to mention the Sales or Specials that you are running! It’s a win – win situation!

For more information visit our web site at http://gtlenterprises.com or email dave@gtlenterprises.com

Offline social networking is not only smart but can affect you web ranking as well.

Join you local Chamber of Commerce. Find different Local or business related organizations to join that post your name and business on the Internet. You’ll also find business opportunities within social clubs such as the Rotary Club or the Lions Club.

Search engines rank  your site higher when you link to other site that have better rankings as long as you share some kind of relationship to your business. 

Participate with these organizations, the more your business name appears, the more exposure you get.

Make sure the different phone directory’s has your business listing.  They too have their phone directory on the Internet.

Don’t be afraid to explore the different offline social networking opportunities that are available in you community. They help you both online and offline.

Social Networking site are an online community of people that share common interest and/or activities.  There are well over 100 social network services available today. Whatever your business interest, you can most likely several that will fit your needs.  You can see a list of these social networking sites at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites . 

 
If you’re a B & B, you might try WAYN at http://www.wayn.com/waynsplash.html  with over 10,000 members. There are at least 5 different social network services for travel.

 For any business there is Linkedin ( http://www.linkedin.com/home)

 These common social networking site can also be used to promote your business:  Twitter (http://twitter.com/login),  MySace (http://www.myspace.com ), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/login.php ).
Be careful not to sign up for too many. Pick one, sign up and give it a try.  Don’t forget to put a link on you web site to your chosen social network site and add your business URL to your social networking site regularly.   Once your familiar with one, add another and regularly check up on how well your network sites help drive traffic to your site using your C-panel or Google Analytics.