Security Business owners who use social media have to do more than just “be on” social media networks in order to grow their business. There are so many ways to use Social Media. There is more to social media than casually chatting with friends or sharing news items ad infinitum.

In this podcast episode, I share several ways in which you can use social media for your security business.

Business Relationship Building

Business relationship building, more commonly known as networking, is one of the dominating uses of social media. Facebook and LinkedIn are the most common social media networks used for networking. Join groups that focus on your industry and business goals. Connect with like-minded individuals. Now is the time not to be a lurker. Share your knowledge and your history, and learn from others.

Brand building – determine and find your target audience. Conduct searches using Google or Bing and see where your audience hangs their virtual hats. Establish your brand on those social networks and engage your audience. Share your knowledge, skill, and expertise and provide meaningful, valuable content to your audience. The content can be informational, analytical, or help solve a problem. No one wants to see and read promotional posts after promotional posts. You will immediately turn off your audience, so giving more is always better than receiving. Use the 80/20 rule: 20 percent self-promotion, 80 percent providing helpful information. Be conversational and relatable. Your audience will start to understand who you are, what you do, and who you do it for.

Chatting with like-minded individuals

This is probably a given, but it is listed as a business use. Informally, casually chat about a particular problem or news story, help solve a problem, and share your opinions. This helps build your brand and may lead to other networking opportunities.

Pro tip: Find and join Twitter chats called Tweet chats. These are conducted at scheduled times, usually with a host, sometimes with a guest, and have a specific hashtag to follow the conversation.

Customer Support

Several brands use social media for customer service. Nike, Dell, and Blackberry, to name a few, are listening to customers’ issues and rants and trying to help solve their problems. My two experiences were with Comcast and GoDaddy, and both were on Twitter. In the Comcast instance, I was complaining about moving back to Boston and having to deal with Comcast, within minutes, Comcast responded and asked if I had a specific problem with the service, I said no thank you, but you’ll be hearing from me after I move. The GoDaddy instance was more recently when I encountered a problem with my website, and a representative jumped in to help resolve the issue.

Marketing

You often read and hear me speak about marketing on social media because it is very effective if done wisely. Marketing your security business and brand on social media is necessary to control your brand, build trust, solve problems, and share the value of your services. Social media marketing is likened to word-of-mouth marketing on steroids because of the virality of the reach. With one tweet, you can reach hundreds of people who could be potential customers. One Facebook post about the quality of your security services can be shared exponentially by shares and likes.

Learning/Sharing Knowledge

Educators can teach students. Online webinars and live videos on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube are all ways to interact with others visually, “face to face,” to share and gain knowledge.

Research

Social media is awash with statistics. Visit places like Pinterest and look for infographics on particular subjects. Slideshare has tens of thousands of PowerPoint presentations on various subjects. If you are still stuck, go to Twitter and pose a question.

Intelligence/Monitoring

You should monitor what people think of you and say about your security business and competitors. There are many tools to monitor various subjects like your brand, company, keywords, or phrases that keep you updated on news and events in your niche or industry. You can’t just have one, but Mention at a decent price is my top choice. Free tools like Google Alerts and individual social media network searches also work.

Links Mentioned

Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook on Amazon

Security Marketing Solutions YouTube Channel

The post How to Use Social Media for Your Security Business appeared first on Strategic Marketing Solutions.

Social media is a driving force when used effectively for all types of business, including security and executive protection services. You’ve identified your goals, found your market, you are sharing and creating valuable content for potential customers, marketing your products and services. You’re interacting with comments and monitoring what is being said about the industry and your business. All of this takes time, money, and energy.

Do those likes and comments translate to new business? If so, how much business? Enough to live on or support your family? If not? Why not?

When was the last time you took a hard look at your efforts on social media and assessed what is and is not working to help grow your security business?

A hard look means looking past vanity metrics such as likes and start looking at reach, engagement, and shares with tools that are freely available.

Facebook Page Insights

Take a look at the Insight Metrics Facebook provides for your business page. View the page summary, which is a quick snapshot of the week. Pay attention to page views, reach, engagement of your post, and clickthroughs to your website. From the left side of the menu, click Posts. Here you can see what day and what time of the day your fans are online. Click People from the left menu. You are now looking at a complete demographic breakdown of your fans, the people you have reached, and the people who have engaged with your posts.

Facebook Group Analytics

Despite several attempts by admins of Facebook groups to plead the case for Facebook to supply the same Insights for groups, it has yet to be. So in order to measure how well your group is doing, you must go outside of Facebook. Two that I know of and have tested are Grytics and Sociograph,  Not as much detail as Facebook insights, but very good metrics nonetheless, and certainly enough data to inform you how well your group is performing.

For a detailed look at Grytics and Sociograph, please watch my review of both in this video.

Google Analytics for your website metrics

Perhaps the most important metric of all is how well your website is performing in comparison to your business goals. Google Analytics is a free tool that analyzes visitor behavior as they peruse your website. Metrics like most popular pages, articles, Google search terms that led a visitor to your website, what Country, state, and city your visitors are from, mobile vs. desktop, and even down to what type of phone and who is the carrier. Basically, an infinite amount of information about your visitors for free.

These three performance metric tools are an excellent start in measuring the effectiveness of your social media efforts.

Connect with me on Facebook and LinkedIn

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Social Media success for your business is not overly complicated. Here are a few steps that I recommend you act upon to use social media as a tool for your security business.

One, Social Media success begins with knowing who you are, what you do, and who you do it for. Three simple questions that are probably the toughest to answer for many businesses. Don’t skip answering these questions. They are the basis of your business and answer honestly.

Second, define your business goals, which are often included in a business plan. What is it you want your business to achieve? What value do you bring to your customers and clients? Be as specific as possible. Although “Make Money” is a goal, you must define how you will make that money, what amount of money, and in what time frame.

Suggested reading –Whether EP Provider or Trainer, You Are a Business

Third, develop a social media marketing strategy based on your business goals. What is it that you’re going to share, and to whom? Social media is a very powerful tool for your business when used effectively. Without a strategy that includes the goals and objectives that you want to achieve on social media, you would have no means of measuring success. And success is measured by your return on investment or ROI.

Fourth, establish your business on those social media networks that best meet your social media strategy. It might be LinkedIn and Facebook, or perhaps Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Fifth – Know, Like, and Trust. Before your market can trust your services and products, they must know who you are and what you’re all about. You do that by sharing information that is valuable and useful to your market. The information may come in various formats – posts, articles, videos, or images. Once your market has begun to know you, they must like you. Like you for who you are, what you stand for, what your business does and does not, and your associations and affiliations. Your market is sharing your content and purchasing your services and products. The final stage is trust. A trusted market or community that shares and advocates your services and products without question.

Suggested listening – Be Smart When Using Social Media for Your Security Business

Although the steps laid out appear simplistic, this process does not happen overnight. Social media success is a marathon, not a sprint. During this process, you are constantly monitoring statistics and metrics to ensure you are achieving your goals and objectives.

You would be very surprised how many businesses simply get on social media networks to just simply be there. No strategy, goals, or objectives, thinking something magical will happen. Instant customers, clients, and fortune will come if they just copy and paste their services and products everywhere on social media.  Just waiting for the phone calls to ring and the emails to ping.

My hope is that you take your social media efforts seriously and use social media as a powerful marketing tool for your business.

I welcome any feedback or questions you may have. You can contact me at [email protected] or Twitter at @lawrenceasnow.

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Be Smart on Social Media

In this podcast, I talk off the cuff about how security service providers  (EP, Bodyguards, event security, etc.)  should be smart when using social media for their business.

I spend a lot of my time on Google to observe how well or not security service providers use their online digital assets. These assets consist of a website and social media profiles and accounts.

I happened upon one security professional on Instagram whose bio was missing a lot of details, and his link (the only link you can have on Instagram) was his Twitter account. Clicking on the Twitter account link brought you to his Twitter profile with a link to his website. Puzzling, to say the least.

With all of these thoughts in my mind, I felt the best way to communicate how to do social media right for your security business was a podcast. There were no notes, just me sharing my observations and knowledge to help security professionals understand how to use social media more effectively.

Social Media is a Conversation

My premise is that social media is a conversation that takes place on these networks. It’s a conversation — it’s hello, how are you, and how can I help you, and how can the other person help you or your business? Then you’ll have a nice little conversation, you discuss things, you might get referrals, you might get a word of mouth option, you might get some sales for your business, you might get some leads, you might get some clients, and you might sell some products. All great stuff, and social media is a wonderful tool to accomplish that effort and those goals.

But there is kind of like a right way to do that and a wrong way to do that. I guess maybe that’s how I’ll say it, a right and a wrong way. Now, granted, those with other experiences and knowledge different than mine might have a different opinion of this. But based on my experience, there are quite a few security providers and security businesses that are marketing on social media in an incorrect way.

Links mentioned in the podcast

Copy Paste, and Hope is Not Marketing

The post BoS Podcast – Be Smart When Using Social Media for Your Security Business appeared first on Strategic Marketing Solutions.

In this episode I’ll answer an email from a podcast listener, we’re I’m heading to this week and why, and share my thoughts on exceeding expectations.

First up the email a received last week from Chris Kirkland:

If you have any questions about marketing, social media, website design or comments about the podcast please send me an email at [email protected] or call the podcast phone line at area code 781-369 -5185.

Where am I going to this week?

So where the heck I’m I going next week and why? Well I’ll be heading to Las Vegas for the International Executive Protection & Secure Transportation Conference. The conference is jointly hosted by EPI and ESI held yearly and focuses on the critical issues that are confronting security professionals worldwide.

I’m attending because this year’s conference has lined up a few great can’t miss speakers like Joe Autera, President and CEO of Vehicle Dynamics Institute,Filippo Marino, Director, Executive Protection & Intelligence McDonald’s Corporation and Richard Woods, Microsoft Global Security Department to name a few. I’m also attending to network, and to really talk about the issues from the guys and gals that do, not from those that pretend to do. I’ll have a full wrap up podcast in the next couple of weeks.  The conference dates are Dec 5 – 7.

The main topic for this podcast is Exceeding Expectations.

Here is a question I want you to honestly ask yourself: Are you Needs Improvement, Proficient, Outstanding or Exceeding Expectations in your personal and professional life? Are you exceeding expectations in all that you do?

There is a poignant poem that I mention in my Branding and Marketing eBook that is a must read. It’s called the Man in the Glass by Peter Dale Wimbrow Sr.

When you get what you want in your struggle for self
And the world makes you king for a day

Just go to the mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.

For it isn’t your father, or mother, or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass

The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.

He’s the fellow to please – never mind all the rest
For he’s with you, clear to the end

And you’ve passed your most difficult, dangerous test
If the man in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass

But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.

I want to thank you all for listening. If you are attending the EPIC conference this week give me a shout out on twitter at @lawrenceasnow and let’s meet up at the conference. I’ll see in the next episode.

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On to the main topic of Twitter tips and tools. It’s still amazing to me that I can connect and engage with folks I don’t know from Adam, and chat about subjects that I am passionate about. Like social media, internet marketing and the security industry. I think that Twitter is misunderstood and has received this bad rap that it is nothing more than teenage diatribes on what they ate for lunch. Well, there are those types of tweets but they are in the minority and if you are plagued with these tweets in your timeline you are just not following the right people. Twitter is so much more than that. It is the undisputed news source – before you see it anywhere online – you’ll see on Twitter.

If you are on Twitter I hope you are using it to its fullest potential.

If you are not on Twitter here are a few reasons why I think you should be:

• Sharing your own business and industry news;
• sharing your story of who you are, what you do, and who you do it for,
• sharing of valuable information,
• engaging and networking with like minded individuals in the industry.
• Branding opportunities – cover art profile photo, sharing of images, and videos of what your business is and does.
• Monitor your brand and your competitors. Who is talking about your company and what are they saying. Do they wish harm on my principal, where are they tweeting from? These are just a few of the reasons why you should be on Twitter.

Managing all that can be very time consuming. Fortunately there are several tools to help. One such product is Hootsuite – free and for pay (about $9 a month). I recommend the paid version. HootSuite provides a nice dashboard interface (recently redone). On one page, you can view different “panes” for your Twitter feed, Facebook feed, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc. It also lets you schedule your Tweets, which is very helpful, so you’re not tweeting throughout the day.

However, despite the automation and scheduling of tweets I recommend that whenever someone shares what you have posted, mentions you, or comments on something you do, follow up with them personally. Don’t ignore them.  Otherwise you are wasting your time using social media.

Managing your followers is another time consuming task. How do you know when someone unfollows you, what if all a follower is tweeting is spam? What if a follower stops tweeting altogether?

There are few great tools out there that can help you manage your followers and following. Manageflitter is probably the best Twitter cleaner – most of the functions are for free and it is the one I use exclusively. One click of a button and Manageflitter analyzes your followers and who you are following. Runner up to Manageflitter is Friendorfollow https://friendorfollow.com/.

Twitter Tools mentioned in this Podcast

• Lists
• Saved searches
• Twitter widgets
• Analytics

What I  share in this podcast is just the tip of what there is to know about Twitter.  My goal is to help protective services companies succeed in establishing and strengthening their brands on social media platforms. I am here as your guide to make that happen.

That’s a wrap for this week. If you have any questions or comments please reach out and contact me at [email protected] or call the podcast phone line at 1781-369-5185 and leave a question or a comment.

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In this podcast, I’ll share my feedback on the ASIS expo, from which I just returned, and a pretty hard-hitting, tough-love business talk on giving people what they want for free.

ASIS, or A-S-I-S, stands for the American Society for Industrial Security, and for the last 60 years, the society has held an Expo. This year, I was in Atlanta; this is my second ASIS in Atlanta. The first was a couple of months after the Summer Olympics in 1996. Over the last 20 years, I’ve attended probably about 6 ASIS expos, and as technology has grown in our personal lives, so has it in the products and tools for security. The last ASIS expo I went to, which was previously this one, was in 2011 in Florida, and this one seemed a bit smaller in attendance and the number of booths. Most of the expo was made up of cameras and mobility of those cameras. The next most significant section was gates – for people and vehicles. The rest was a hodge-podge of companies ranging from EP services and training to 5.11 tactical clothing. Insurance companies and universities like AMU, Texas A&M, and Brandeis. But despite all the technology, data, and apps, it all comes down to handshakes, introductions, and exchanging business cards to network, tell your story, and share information.

A bit of advice for any conference: Before you even set foot into the hall, especially one the size of ASIS, do your homework on what businesses are going to be there and what value you can bring to them and vice versa. ASIS had an app just for the expo, so it made it easier to plan your route and write in some notes. Make sure you know what you’re going to say before you meet folks who represent that business.

The most important takeaway from any expo, convention, conference, etc., is to follow up with those you met. Send them a simple email. In that email, remind them who you are and what you talked about. Give them your contact information. When should you follow up? As soon as possible.

There is much more that goes on at ASIS than the expo. Check out asisonline.org for more information. The next expo will be in Anaheim, CA.

On to the main topic of today – Giving people what they want

Of course, by people, I mean your market – clients, colleagues, potential clients.

How do you know what they want? You ask!

Ask by communicating with them via email, social media, newsletters, and magazines. Use a feedback form or a small survey online, or print it and mail it back to you. Hearing from your customers supplies you with what they need and what their issues are, along with other demographics like business type, line of work, and location.

Organize this data and find commonalities. Based on your knowledge and experience, find ways to create content that will help solve your clients’ current and potential problems and other issues.

Then, share this valuable, useful content with your market freely and without any expectations to get in return. Sharing your knowledge on relevant subjects does 4 things: keeps your business top of mind, builds trust with your market, grows your business as the content is shared through word of mouth on social media networks, and separates you from your competitors.

What kind of content is considered valuable? Guy Kawasaki, a former evangelist at Apple, shared that there are three forms of value:

• information,
• analysis, and
• assistance.

Information is defined as what just happened. It’s the essential things you should know about. The analysis explains the information. Assistance explains how your company can help clients avoid dangerous situations. These types of value should be unique to you and your brand and should have a positive influence.

Value might include industry news, how you solved a problem, your perspectives on a particular product or service, a safety checklist, or a how-to on a new product or service.

Stand out as a real human being who has faced and overcome challenges. Tell a real story from your heart and gut, a life lesson.

How do you share it? Through social media, email newsletters, white papers, blog posts, videos, podcasts, interviews, and more. Some of you reading this will think that you are not a writer. You don’t have to be Ernest Hemingway – try it. A typical article on the Web is roughly 500-800 words. It doesn’t have to be perfect.

Although I have talked mostly about sharing content for free – you can also share your time and resources. Take time to talk to your clients, potential clients, and colleagues – whether through email, on the phone, or in person. Be accessible and available for questions and feedback, and give honest answers. Make connections even with your competitors. For example, a competitor has assembled a small seminar and asked you if you’d like to speak at it for free. If you’re available, why not? Each connection allows you to share your story, brand, and what makes you – you.

Creating valuable useful content built on strategic goals , on a consistent basis, and marketing it correctly – takes time and energy and money – but it is very worth your investment as it will build your business, increase brand awareness, build trust among your market and will make you an authority on content topics.

That’s a wrap. Thanks for listening. I’d love to hear from you. You can send your comments to [email protected] or call and leave a message on the show’s hotline – 1-781-369-5185. For show notes and to read more about the business of security, go to larrysnow.me. I’ll see you in the next episode, in which I’ll share a few Twitter tips.

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Introduction to the Podcast

I’ve been in and for the most part around the security business for close to 20 years. I In 2008 I started my company to help EP and security businesses with web design, internet marketing and over the last few years social media. I want to help security businesses succeed through their online presence. So many security websites are lacking the basics and now with social media there is even more of a way to succeed or fail miserably.

The podcast is to help those security businesses that are looking around at their competitors and saying we need to do more with our website, we need to get on social media and don’t have a clue  or the time to start.  Maybe you are just starting out in the protective services business as a per diem, contractor or sub contractor. I share my tips and advice and provide you with information so that your business can succeed online. From tech related gadgets to how to formulate a business plan. If you have any questions or comments about the podcast please send me an email or call 781-369-5185 and leave a voice mail which I’ll air on future episodes.

Podcast is also available on iTunes, Stitcher radio and Spreaker.

On to the main topic – Stop Being Stupid on Social Networks.

There are several components to you being on social media – networking, Word of Mouth marketing, sharing ideas, sharing value to others, enhancing and growing your brand. All positive – business oriented.

Then there is the personal side – selfish narcissistic selfies, pets, children, kicking your feet up and relaxing on a summer evening, sunsets, parties with friends and relatives. All shareable – mostly all positive – but it isn’t business oriented.

I’m all for transparency and authenticity when it comes to who you are and what you are all about – but please don’t mix the two sides (personal and business), on social media. You are two distinct different people – business and personal. You have to remember to keep them separate. You are a security service provider, a EP specialist, you have been to specialized training. You should be thinking and seeing things differently – with a keen eye on those that want to do harm – to you, your client, and your brand. Slightly similar to police officers you are held to a higher standard. People expect you to act in a “do the right thing” only mode.

So when I start to see posts and tweets like check-ins at airports, during a job or even while doing an advance ;  complaints about long work days, that you just ate at a restaurant, pictures of beer and broads, I shake my head – what they heck are they doing?

Listen in to the podcast where I share my no nonsense advice to keep your personal side offline.

The post 013 – Stop Being Stupid on Social appeared first on Strategic Marketing Solutions.

This podcast is a bit of a rant. I really try to provide useful and critical information to help you do your job better but this is something I needed to share with the EP community.

Finding your way through the minutia of social media information overload, literally,  you happen upon some photos of a guy/woman who you respect in the EP industry and who you think by looking at the photos, that he/she is making it.  But is he/she really or is it just Marketing by Innuendo.

I’m talking about Posers. By definition, a poser is:

1. One who pretends to be someone whose not.
2. Who tries to fit in but with exaggeration.

EP/Bodyguard guys and gals who by way of images/content and stretching the truth imply that he/she is:

• At the the political/celeb event
• Providing EP services
• Interacting with celebrities
• Successful in the EP industry

The idea is to imply to the uneducated, uninitiated in the market that he/she is making it. Fake it, until you Make It will only take you so far in the bodyguard industry and in my opinion, despite the ever growing numbers in the bodyguard industry it is still a community where word of mouth will get you hired and fired. So faking it with photoshopped images will only take you so far.

Now not all posers are faking it. Posers could be legitimate EP guys and gals that think posing is the best way to market your services.

In my opinion, posers are doing more damage to the bodyguard industry by perpetuating the myth that bodyguarding is all glory, rubbing shoulders with celebs and politicians; that’s it’s an easy profession and you’ll be making millions.

How do you know if an image has been photoshopped? Every image taken by a camera has metadata or EXIF data. This data may also provide the last software to be used – ie Photoshop. Fortunately, there are free tools to read this data. This isn’t to say that the photo is fake, just that it’s been edited. How do you tell if it is fake? Look at the shadows and lighting.

What are your thoughts on what I call Posers? Post in the comments below.

The post 012 Business of Security Podcast – Marketing by Innuendo appeared first on Strategic Marketing Solutions.

When I was creating notes for this podcast and planning out these steps, I got curious as to what others would say so I asked “What would be the first step to branding and social media marketing success?” in Google + community Social Media Professionals and on a LinkedIn post by Joe Pulizzi who was sharing “Why Most Branded Content is Awful” which is a great read and I highly recommend.

I received a few responses and all varied as to the very first step would be – which I thought would be the case – as each individual is responding based on their own experiences through their brand and niche. And I’ll be sharing those responses throughout the podcast. A couple responses did match what I consider your first step to be and what I will share with you a bit later but I think before you take your first step it is best to do a little pre-planning.

Pre-plan

The pre-planning I’m talking about is what I consider your number one brand asset and that is your website. Your website is your hub with all social media channels as the spokes; your website must be more than just a brochure on the web; it has to be interactive; with resources – articles, blogs, news items, a hook, etc. Your website is your rock, your anchor, your number one asset for your business. If you don’t put the time, energy and yes money into creating, designing, and molding it into what you are all about and sharing valuable information with the community and market to the right people you are trying to reach, then you won’t be found.

Buy a domain name in your name regardless if you are going to use it (get one for kids too); Domain name should represent you and what you do – you’ll need to be creative as the dot com’s are getting fewer and fewer.

Ten Steps to Branding and Social Media Marketing Success

Step 1

Identify your brand – your personality and values; what makes you different/unique? Who are you? What do you do? And Who Do you do it for?  Be honest with yourself; look at yourself in the mirror and ask what I’m I all about? What are you passionate about? Fred McClimans – the basis of a successful strategy has to reflect (and reinforce) the core drivers and values of the business.   If you can identify who the business is, the value proposition it wants to deliver (the benefit a business brings to its customers, not just a product or service) then you have the foundation of a brand.   Another perspective: be true to who you are.

Step 2

Define your audience on social media – where are they? (clients, business partners, etc). Do a search on various social networks to find your audience, customers. See what they are talking about – can you be successful on those networks? Will they be interested in what you are sharing?

Step 3

Set goals and expectations (sales leads, clients, customer service, networking); what is it that you want out of social media channels. What is your strategy? Joe Pulizzi – social media strategy first starts with a content strategy. Create a compelling, consistent content initiative that answers problems (real or conceived) and position your organization as the go-to resource. Social, search and lead generation initiatives start with a content strategy first.

Step 4

Identify which social media channels based on Step 2 to utilize to achieve your goals (not etched in stone as you may need to be flexible in re-acquiring an audience that might transition from Facebook to Twitter, to Google +)

Step 5  

Establish your brand on social media – Why –  Recruiters, Networking, Word of mouth marketing, global competition. How do you do that for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube. Follow and comment on the top 10 – 20 blogs, LinkedIn groups, forums, etc where your customers are at. Be consistent with your brand across all social media networks.

Step 6  

Find like-minded individuals, clients, competitors, etc on social media channels.

Step 7

Engage in conversation – be positive, ask questions; build trust in your brand; Jim Cole – Be reliable. Reliable advice that delivers long-term benefits to a brand. Share valuable information – information, analysis, etc.– do a Twitter search for a particular subject or hashtag and Politely and respectfully respond to topics that you can share your knowledge

Step 8

Manage your brand through social media tools such as Hootsuite, use Google alerts, Twitter search, Buffer app, IFTTT.Com; Monitor your brand through Google alerts, Mention, and social search – such as Twitter, Google trends, Google blogs searches.

Step 9

Market your products and services – notice how this is step nine? Imagine walking up to someone at a cocktail party and having that person say – hey how are ya? Do you want/need my EP services? Start the relationship first in Step 7 – this takes time to cultivate!

Step 10

Hone your process; tweak, as new social media channels are established you may need to establish your brand (Google +,Path, Foursquare, Yelp, Chime.in, Quora, Instagram) – you will need to diversify your brand to several channels to gain maximum exposure – but do so with a plan.

I want to thank the members in the Social Media Professionals community in Google + for their responses and insights, and I’d like to thank Joe Pulizzi, Jim Cole and Jim McClimans who responded to my question on LinkedIn.

If you wish to subscribe to this podcast it is available on iTunes, The link is https://larrysnow.me/itunes. If you don’t have iTunes available to you this podcast is also available on Spreaker, Stitcher, as well as Blackberry Podcasts and Zune for Windows.

Thanks for listening to this podcast. I appreciate it. If you have any questions or comments please email me at [email protected] or give me a call at 1-781-369-5185

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I recently received an email from a client who was asking how to improve their website to achieve a higher rank on Google search results.  This is the bane of every website owner – how do I rank higher in Google search? A collective chant of “I want to be number one on Google.” It is not impossible, but it is very difficult especially in a  highly competitive market like executive protection services.

In this podcast I share ways that I think will help your website get you closer to that elusive number one spot in the search results.

1. Look at the data. Google analytics and Google webmaster tools. Analytics provides very detailed information on your website – visitors, countries, how long visitors are staying, what they are looking at the most, and keywords visitors used to find your website. Google webmaster tools helps improve your website.

2. Keyword Adwords Tool. Also a Google product. This tool helps you find keywords for your market – what is being searched and how competitive are the keywords. Input your website and your competitors website to get some ideas on what keywords will help your website be found by searchers.

3. Search Engine Optimization. Optimize your website content with specific keywords you found from the Keyword tool. Place keywords in page title, meta description or excerpt, and the content itself.

4. Create Content.  The more the content, the more the keywords. Helps you stand out as an authority. Content should provide value – information, analysis, etc. Doesn’t mean a blog post. If writing is not your thing try video or audio.

5. Share Content. Share your content via social media networks, newsletters, etc. Always include a link back to your website.

6. Google authorship. Tie your Google + account with your website. Some say this will help your rank – calling it Author rank. Very simple to do.

7. Your website linked on authoritative websites. Authoritative meaning those websites who are authorities in your market or niche; a.k.a “link juice.”  Create a simple directory of authoritative websites, mention those website owners; try link swapping; conduct interviews with authoritative website owners – will share your link (interview) on their website; comment on authoritative websites.

8. XML sitemap. eXtensible Markup Language. An XML sitemap uploaded to the root of your website will help the Google bots do their job easier. You can create an XML sitemap here. Connect your XML sitemap to Google webmaster tools.

9. Google local. Used to be Google places. It is a half a page free ad on search results. Simple to set up. Need verification pin.

10.  Mobile. Mobile friendly website – adjusts size on mobile device. Smartphones and tablets are dominating the market – start thinking mobile for your business. Get your business listed in Yelp, Foursquare, your community on Patch.com, local newspaper online directory. These are all free and necessary – a wider search net – more opportunity for your business to be found. If your website is on page4 of search results, perhaps your Yelp business listing is on page 1.

Lastly, it takes time to increase your website’s page rank. Think of it as a marathon not a sprint, which I’ve mentioned before in my advice with social media marketing. The above recommendations should start you on your way to the finish line.

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