We’ve got a bit of a unique situation here.  Our fair city is one of the few that is searchable in many different ways – saint louis, st louis, stl and so on.  But does it really matter to you how people searching for local merchants?

You better believe it.

Paging Doctor Lou

Looking up a search like saint louis orthodontist and st louis orthodontist may look pretty much the same, but there actually are differences in rankings, sites listed and ranking order.

Do the same thing for stl orthodontist and you’ll not only get s different set of results, but Google doesn’t even provide the 7-pack of local listings.

All three searches are different. So what – right?

In This Case, Hoarding is Good

Have you seen that show where they go into people’s houses that hoard things?  There are items stacked on everything.  You can barely navigate the homes most of the time.  Well, when it comes to visitors and rankings, hoarding is good.  You want all the visitors for all the related queries, no matter how they decide to put in the Saint Louis part.

If they put St Louis,  you want it.  If they put stl, you want it.  So optimize your website and build links for all versions.  Rank for them all.

Zip it Up

Don’t forget zip codes.  I was very surprised at recent data that showed the amount of people typing in service 12345.  People are typing in services and products and tacking on a zip code so they can only get local queries.  If you offer a local service or sell a certain product at a brick-and-mortar store, you should consider ranking for zip codes, too.

Paid Listings Matter, Too

If you’re one of the crazy few that are putting money into PPC instead of SEO, you should note that having all versions of Saint Louis in your keyword list isn’t going to hurt you any.  Same for zip codes.  Do it.

Don’t have time to rank your website for all these local phrases?  Hire me for your local SEO efforts and watch your competitors weep!

In short, the book goes over how businesses (or individuals that want to brand themselves) can use social media in ways that work to their advantage.  Things such as gaining trust with your followers, providing them with value, etc.  It’s an awesome read and one of the very few books I’m passionate about recommending to others.

There’s an etiquette (and strategy) in promoting your business on sites like Twitter, Facebook, etc. You don’t want to come across as a spammer, pushing out sale after self-serving sale and think that your followers will hang around.  Everyone loves to buy, but no one likes to be sold to.

Today’s perfect example of this is a conversation I had with Ferraro’s Pizza, a Saint Louis joint that uses Twitter to promote themselves.  Before this week, their Twitter account was abandoned, unused and dormant since mid-October.  Then today, the account suddenly pipes back into action – promoting their great lunch sales over and over again.  In a matter of 9 minutes, Feraro’s sent out 5 tweets about their specials. That’s. Excessive.

Not only that, but previous tweets were also self serving.  There’s no value.  There’s no recipes or coupons or interesting pizza facts. Just me me me.

Anyway, after the fourth self-serving tweet in 7 minutes, I had to say something. It was getting annoying. So I thought I’d go the “are you paying attention to your followers” route.  Sure, it was vague, but I wasn’t actually expecting them to pay attention anyway.

Two minutes and one more promotional tweet later, I took the more direct approach.

A plea to stop the spamming.

Soon I get a direct message from Feraro (I’m assuming it’s the owner) asking me if I’d like him to stop tweeting.

(from TweetDeck – I couldn’t get twitter to display this DM, not sure why. Maybe he deleted it or something, I dunno.)

The link I sent him goes to Brogan’s book mentioned above.  At this point I’m still trying to be helpful in a somewhat non-asshole kind of way. Well, as best as I can.

So here’s where it gets really interesting.  A minute later, this is posted to Feraro’s main feed:

If I were a female of African American descent, I probably would have just exclaimed “Oh no he di’nt”.  Seriously, Mr. Feraro, you just missed out on a tremendous opportunity to grow your business.

A potential customer asks you to stop spamming, and you go the insult route? Is that how you think you’ll grow your following?

But it gets better.  A minute later, another pizza company in Saint Louis, Caitos, replys with an absolutely beautiful response:

Now there’s a company that understands social media. No pushy sale sale sale, just a polite word at the right time. Awesome.

It reminds me of Southwest Airlines, a very active online brand that monitors their competitors brands on Twitter and such.  If someone complains of their Delta flight being delayed, Southwest will reply with a simple “Next time try us, we’ll give you $xx off”. Smart. Non-intrusive. And the offer will probably be taken up.  They win.

Finally, to finish off this terrific example of how not to promote yourself online, Mr. Feraro adds one last thing to the conversation:

Remember when your sibling used to say “He started it!”?

Good (or should I say bad) job, Feraro’s Pizza. Perhaps you should go get Trust Agents now. And you might want to throw in an extra topping of Trackur too. You’re gonna need it.

UPDATE: Caito’s was nice enough to send me a “Twitter TECHLH Special”. I like to call it the Smackdown Special. Print out your coupon and so getcha some damn good pizza!

I talked to one business owner today who builds inground pools in the Saint Louis area.  For years his business has flourished.  Last year he had to add staff and purchase more vehicles to keep up with all the work.

This year, however, everything has ‘dried up’.  He’s having a hard time paying bills, especially new trucks and maintenace.  No one is buying homes, which means no one is spending on upgrades like pools.  So he’s checking into running a special in the local newspaper promoting a sale which he won’t make hardly anything off of.  Just to get his name out there, and to stay in business.

If you aren’t marketing your business now, you’re in for a shitload of trouble (pardon my French) when the market does turn around.  Those that took this time to start putting money into their Internet marketing are going to be so far ahead of the curve as the economy creeps back up that they won’t be able to catch up.

So, with all that said, here’s a question for you business owners:  Would you pay for a one-day seminar that taught you the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and also exposed you to some other marketing ideas, such as video marketing, email and direct markeitng, and maybe even something on website maintenance?  Would you pay $299? $199? $99? $69?

What would it be worth to you to gain a HUGE amount of information about Internet Marketing for your business at a one-day seminar catered to your needs?