Here’s why: the population in the U.S. is older than it was just 5 years ago. The demographics and preferences have shifted, and a lot of it is due to an older customer.  Most were born between 1946 and 1964. Here’s a number for you: every seven seconds another baby boomer turns 50! And over the next ten years, the boomers will grow by 25% – while every other age category remains stagnant. Wow!

The key of course is reaching these people. You have to reach this market in their geographic area. Online ads are a great way to reach these folks, and you can do some niche marketing and targeting to get to them. Another good tool is online video ads – they’re a lot less costly than network commercials, and the cost of producing these ads keeps dropping.

What are other marketers doing? Here’s some more numbers to consider: almost 90% of brands will be using text and multimedia messaging to reach their audience. And over a third of marketers will be spending 10% or more on advertising using smart phones!

But here’s something else you should consider: don’t’ target these baby boomers by their age; instead, target them by what they’re doing. This is a fluid audience, and as they age, they start to lead cyclical lives. For example, boomers in their 40’s and 50’s may go back to school. They could be divorced and remarried and starting a new family all over again. Focus on their lifestyles when you’re trying to reach them.

Another thing to remember is that the boomer audience is very loyal. They appreciate great service, and will gladly tell their friends when they’ve had a good buying experience (as well as a bad one!) This group has a lot of disposable income; and they like to refer their friends to businesses where they feel appreciated. They’re very receptive to direct mail, because they like to be told the whole story, and direct mail is one medium that can do just that.

Surprisingly, a lot of baby boomers have taken to Facebook and other social media venues. They spend a lot of time online connecting with people – and they also spend a lot of time online shopping! If you want to target these folks, you better have a good website and you’d better be using multiple ways to promote it so the boomers know where to go!

While there are as many different approaches to using Facebook as there are companies using it, there are some key points to consider when using Facebook to help promote your business.

First of all, make sure you let everyone know that you’re on Facebook! How? Just send out emails, notes, and any other ways to communicate that you have a Facebook page. And be sure to put the Facebook symbol on all of your advertising.

Be sure to schedule updates to get your Facebook community involved with your page. It may take a lot of time that you don’t have – but there are ways to do it on an automated basis. Just look up sites like Hootsuite or Ping.fm. How do you get people involved with your business? Ask questions, add posts, and send out tweets to invite people to your page.

Here are some other things that most businesses fail to consider. First, you must have constant exposure. Putting up a Facebook page is fine, but without the constant exposure, you’re just another business with a Facebook page. Use social media! Tweet relevant notices as often as practical. Post relevant YouTube videos, always with a mention of your Facebook page. Send out emails to your customer lists. Keep content related to your business, but if you have some useful information to share, people are always interested in finding out new or unique things.

Now that people are coming to your page – grab their attention. You can do this put putting out content on different social networks. There are thousands of them – just Google “social networks” and watch the lists that come up. You’ll probably find several dozen that relate to your business. Use them!

Last but not least, get others to share the content that’s on your page. Have them tweet and post your content on their websites with links to your Facebook page. If you’d like to take a lesson from Facebook, check out their posts on their Marketing and Marketing for Small and Medium Business pages. There are many “how-to” and success stories, even tips on how to use the “Like Button” to your advantage. The more you learn, the more successful you’ll be using Facebook as the cornerstone of your social media marketing program.

The fact is, Twitter can be a huge boost to your business. It’s a powerful marketing tool that lets you connect with your customers. One study shows over 60% of Fortune 500 companies are using Twitter. But things can get tricky. So where are the problems?

You need to have a clearly defined Twitter campaign. First, know what to tweet. Don’t tweet about something that has nothing to do with your business!  Have a specific audience in mind when you tweet; otherwise you’re simply wasting your time.

Make sure you have a well-conceived Twitter profile page. This is where you must make your message clear and concise. Take the time to set up a detailed profile page – don’t use the Twitter egg as your profile picture! Pop your business logo in instead.  Add a custom background to help you stand apart from the competition. And take the time to put in some info in the “bio” field!

Another mistake is either tweeting too little, or too often. Don’t overload your followers with incessant, irrelevant tweets. And don’t hide from them either – if you start tweeting, make sure you continue. Just space your tweets out so you’re not constantly bombarding your followers.

One thing you really should avoid is trying not to spam your customers. Listen to them, and what type of content they’d like to receive. It will help prevent you from spamming their Twitter accounts with garbage.

And speaking of listening to your customers, make sure you engage your followers with tweets that have some meaningful content. Don’t make everything a sales pitch. And since Twitter is one of the more active social media tactics, you need to monitor you’re account. There are tools to help, like Brand Monitor and others. Analyze the conversations. You just might learn that Twitter is not where you should be building your brand.

If you’re using social media marketing, Twitter should definitely be at the top of your list. It could be one of the best things to come along to help your business. Just remember the pitfalls and what to avoid, and you’ll be tweeting your way to success.

If you’re an advertiser, it’s time to go mobile!

You can’t ignore the statistics. 50% is a huge number. But reaching those folks isn’t exactly easy, considering you have text messaging, mobile app display ads, search ads, video – the list goes on and on. So here are some tips and suggestions on how to stay connected to your customers and potential customers.

Recognize the importance of text messaging. It’s low cost, easy to use and it’s the most common ways to communicate. 98% of all phones have text messaging capabilities right out of the box – no downloads or installation to worry about. Thanks to unlimited messaging plans from the carriers, text messaging beats out email and phone conversations.  As for using text messaging, well, consider this: 63% of all mobile subs in the U.S. used text messaging last year, and it’s going up.

But here’s the best reason to use it as an advertiser: 99% of all text messages are read within 3 minutes of receiving them. 99%!

Another option to consider is rich media. It offers more than text messaging, like video, sound and gaming, for example. Studies have shown that almost 33% of people pay attention to rich media ads, and 20%+ continuously viewing them. It takes more time and skill to create these ads, but it has a huge potential for attracting your customers.

You also better start planning a mobile website or app. If 50% of the people are going away from their computers, you’ll need a website that meets the needs of a mobile user. The jury is still out on whether to go web or app, but you’d better start planning on one or the other now.

Finally, there’s mobile video to put on your plate. While it doesn’t rank high up on the list of ways to target customers right now, it’s growing and many experts predict that it’s going to become a major force in the coming years. Stats show that currently just under 10% of mobile phone users are watching videos – and that is expected to double in the coming year! Now is the time to start thinking about new opportunities and options to use this growing tool to reach your customers with sound and visuals.

It’s an exciting time for advertisers. Just make sure you’re prepared to meet the challenges.

First of all, you have to understand your target audience. Once you know who your customers are, it’s a heck of a lot easier to market to them. I’m not talking demographics like age, gender and where they live. I’m talking about their persona. Like what do they do to earn a living? How many kids are in the house? And what’s keeping them up at night with worry? Know that, and you’ll begin to understand your customer.

Here’s one: find out who has influence over your target audience, and “influence the influencer!” You could host parties, seminars, and conferences – anything to forge a bond with the influencer. You’ll not only increase your credibility, you’ll also increase your likability. And that will lead to referrals.

Consider using fusion marketing. Find some top, non-competing businesses that are marketing to your target audience and form a partnership with them. You’ll be able to split some of the cost – and why pay 100% of the ad budget when you can get away with paying just 25%?

If you haven’t done so already, start giving back to the community. Donate your products or services to some key non-profit organizations, especially ones you personally like. It’s not only the right thing to do, it’ll end up paying you back 10 times over.

If you can find media who participates in barter, start using it. Many advertising outlets will trade for all or part of the ad costs if you have something of value to give them. And that even includes TV stations!

Finally, you can find out what your customer really wants and begin tailoring your marketing message. You can do this by doing some face-to-face surveying. But above all, don’t try to sell anything during this surveying. Just get the facts. This could be a great way to find out why your client really buys your product or service, and the reasons may not be what you think!

So, welcome to 2012! It’s a new year, the economy’s on the rebound, so don’t be the one who is left behind! Use the New Year as a new opportunity to increase your market share.

Without PR experience, how do you go about developing a PR plan? Here are some suggestions that should help get YOUR PR program off the ground.

As with all marketing, you start by defining who your target market is and focus on those people. Find out what your customers like to read, what type of music they listen to on the radio and what programs they like to watch. Once you have that information, find publications that your target audience will relate to. You can search the Internet to find pertinent publications in your business area.

Next, find out what reporters cover your particular business field or industry. Get their contact info from the publications and plan your strategy.

Now that you have the people to target with your PR, you need to determine what PR stories you can submit to those reporters. Using current trends or news stories, you need to develop story angles that that have a strong connection to your business.

Take a topical news story and spin it to relate to your business. If you’re a Relator, for example, and there’s a news story about an increase in foreclosures in your community, submit a story on how you have expertise in short sales and are willing to help people who are at risk of losing their homes.

Next, develop specific key points you want to share with each different reporter or media contact, points you’re ready to share in detail. Contact the reporters and “sell” your story, using the local angle and your willingness to help people in distress. This is just one example, but you can use it to determine how your specific area of expertise can be used to respond to a major news story.

Sending out releases and contacting reporters is just one area of PR. You have to put yourself out there in the community to get potential customers to know you and your business. Attend meetings, social events and presentations. Offer to be a speaker on various panels. Join the boards of community groups and non-profits. It’s all about exposure, and you need as much as you can get.

Finally, realize that public relations is a long-term proposition. It might take weeks or even months to start getting reporters to respond to your releases and your calls. But once they do, you’ll get the exposure you’re looking for.

So what’s on the horizon for businesses – large and small – in the coming year? When it comes to marketing, there are a lot of things to focus on. And a few things to stay away from! We’ll try to sort out the “Yes!” from the “No!”

On the “yes” side, you can count on referral selling. Referrals from friends and customers are becoming more and more important in what is now called the “referral economy.” Use as many tactics as you can to get referrals from your customers!

On the “no” side, forget buying lists and cold calling people. Fact is, nobody wants a solicitation call, and most people won’t answer a number they’re not familiar with.

Another “yes” is your website. Don’t dismiss it because it’s not “social media!” Make sure you optimize your site for the local shoppers who search online but want a local place to buy from.

The “no” to this subject is to ignore the Internet. In the coming year, if you’re not on the web, you’re simply “not” in the minds of consumers.

What about those coupon websites and daily deals? Make sure you follow up to any type of deal you put together. Use Mob Manager or something similar to help build a long-term relationship with customers.

The “no” side of this is using Groupon, Living Social and others as part of your long-term strategy. You’re going to find it’s oversaturated and very unprofitable.

In the coming year, a big “yes” is to hiring a real pay-per=click professional who can really drive traffic to your website.

A “no” for pay-per-click is experimenting with Google Adwords, Microsoft AdCenter and others like it. If you don’t really know what you’re doing, you’ll be tossing money out the window!

A very big “yes” for 2012 is getting an app so your prospective customers can gain access to your company through mobile devices. It’s worth every penny you’ll spend, because that’s the direction marketing is going.

A “no?” Any website that isn’t accessible from mobile devices! Get it updated as fast as you can! Otherwise your competition will leave you in the dust!

Stay tuned – there’s a lot more to come – in the coming year.

Today, there’s a different New Year’s resolution: improve the performance of your website. And since the New Year is upon us, we might as well look at ways to do just that.

The key to a successful website is of course getting conversions. While landing pages are good for getting conversions they’re also very effective tools for search engine optimization (SEO). Here’s why: since your landing page should be filled with detailed information about your product or service, that information is also filled with the keywords that search engines love to wrap their digital algorithms around. And the higher up you rank in search engines, the better!

Another key is delivering a clear, concise message. Most web visitors are impatient, so you have to communicate your message as quickly and accurately as possible. You can do this by keeping your message simple. Use small blocks of text; and the less copy you use, the better. And if you really want to use an effective way to deliver your message, consider adding video to your website. Whatever you create could also be posted to YouTube, increasing the mileage you get out of your production. It’s also not as expensive to produce a video as you might think!

Here’s another key strategy: keep visitors coming back. How? Give them a good reason to return! I know, it’s not an easy thing to do, but if you give your web visitors some good reasons to come back, they will. How about some good “how to” advice about your specific industry; white papers and articles on how to use new technology? They all work! And they bring people back over and over again.

One strategy that comes as no surprise is getting down to business with social media. I’m not talking about sticking some LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook icons on your website. Surprisingly, most visitors don’t click on them. The real trick is to integrate social media by having really engaging content on your website! For example, provide a very informative article, and watch people start spreading it using their own social media platforms. All of a sudden those visitors become your marketing department – and there’s nothing smarter than that.

Last but certainly not least, be sure to measure what you’re doing. Track your results – know what traffic you’re getting and where it’s coming from. Know your conversion rate and how much time visitors are spending on your site. Learn what they were reading before they clicked off – and maybe change the content.  The more you know about your visitors, the more you can tweak, change and alter what you’re doing to bring them back and get more conversions. Now that’s how you improve the performance of your website!

As I was saying, 2012 is almost here. And I’m excited because if the predictions for social media in 2012 come true, it’s going to be a very exciting year. Let’s look at what some social media gurus are predicting…

Can you say one billion? 1 billion Facebook users is the target for 2012. That’s an awful lot of likes, unfriends and friends. Of course, they’re adding countries like we add salt to soup, including Brazil – where the population is drooling at the chance to use it. But 1 billion folks will be using Facebook!

Right now, everyone wants REAL-TIME information.  Where’s the best neighborhood restaurant? Where can I see a play that’s close to home? Watch for intelligent Push technologies to come on the scene in an awfully big way in 2012!

Forget about the media behemoths – people will be getting their news from social media like Open Graph (there’s Facebook again) and iPad’s Flipboard The Washington Post’s Social Reader gets it – hopefully, other huge media giants will get on board in 2012, too. Another thing to watch for – people will be emailing, texting and Tweeting you to read what they’re reading. Recommendations from friends are going to become EXTREMELY popular – and very important.

Here’s another word to learn for 2012: eCommerce. I’m talking about the NEW era of eCommerce where you can make purchases directly from your Facebook account. It gets a bit complicated, but to sum it up, you’ll be able to purchase items using Facebook credits based on recommendations from your friends. (There are those popular recommendations again!) It’s already here – the tools and platform are working. And the partnership between eBay and Facebook will only make it bigger.

All of those zillions of mobile apps will become more social and deeply embedded in social networks. I hate to say this yet AGAIN – but you’re going to be sharing with friends and trusted colleagues more than ever in 2012 – using their recommendations and suggestions for just about everything.

This list can go on and on, but I’ll give you some time to digest this material before leading you further down the 2012 path. No matter what you think of social media, there’s a lot to get excited about in 2012!

Why do virtual events? It’ll save you money – and it’s extremely convenient for all who decide to attend. And we’re not talking a Webinar or Telesummit. We’re talking almost anything you would do with a typical event you can now do online. The biggest reason to hold a virtual event? Build your customer and potential customer lists. Because the more customers, prospects and interested parties you can get who are willing to be on your list – the better it is for your business.

But before you hire someone to plug you in to the technology that you’ll need to hold virtual events, let’s take a look at some tips that’ll ensure success.

The worst thing that can happen is that you host a party and nobody shows up. Well, the same thing can happen with a virtual event. What will make people show up? Design it for the audience, not for yourself. To get it right, ask! Reach out to your list and ask what they’d like to hear. Learn what issues are keeping your target market awake at night, and design an event to meet those needs.

Next, create a virtual event plan. This is how you’re going to let your people know about your event, what marketing channels to use and how much it will cost you. Channels include all the usual suspects; Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other online communities. If it seems like it’s going to be quite costly, find yourself some joint venture partners. Here are some examples:

• ask your speakers to promote your event
• ask people in your network who have their own audience to promote your event
• find and ask people you don’t know who have big lists to promote your event – it’s added value for their people

Finally, you need to plan out your virtual event. You need to invite speakers, get their content or create special materials. You have to let people know about the event, so you’ll need to create marketing copy and design materials and email invitations. You may even need to create a shopping cart, and an RSVP program. Plus, you’ll need to plan on contacting attendees after the event.

You’ll probably need some outside help, from web and graphic designers to event planners and virtual assistants. But if you do it right, you’ll reach your goal of building your list – and possibly making some money in the process.

It looks like the fight is on! It’s direct marketing versus social media! Bang, zoom, Pow! But before we actually come to blows, let’s check some facts about both approaches.

Here’s what’s great about social media: it’s pretty cheap. You get to have a one-to-one contact with your customers and potential customers. Go ahead, talk to them! So, what’s the downside? If you’re not too careful, you run the risk of alienating your customers. It’s also high maintenance, requiring constant massaging and work. If you don’t, you’ll be sitting there watching a one-hit wonder fizzle out. And everything you’ve worked so hard to build up will be gone.

And what about direct marketing? Well, the rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated. Yes it’s been around a while, but guess what – it’s still working, building customer loyalty and making money. It’s extremely measurable – you can test and measure just about everything with direct marketing.

The downside? Time. Forget about instant results. You have to plan out your campaign before you implement it. You have to allow time to measure a return on your investment. Finally, it’s going to cost you more. If you’re a start-up, the upfront costs can really hit you hard.

But rather than battling it out – don’t come out swinging! What if you put the two together, working synergistically to build your brand and sell your products?

It can work! Use direct marketing to invite customers to join your network, and then use social media to thank them for coming to visit. Or vice-versa: use social media to tell your customers and/or prospective customers when you’ll be sending something important to them via direct marketing. And when it comes to customer service, well, you’ll have an unbeatable combo working for you.

Most marketing directors think that pulling a 3% response rate on a direct marketing campaign is awesome. But hey, that also means you failed to get 97% of your audience to respond. Ouch!  Start telling your brand story and your unique selling propositions via social media BEFORE the direct marketing campaign is launched and watch those numbers really soar!

So what’s going to happen to social media in the New Year? Good question! If I was a fortuneteller, I’d be jotting down some predictions – most of which wouldn’t come to pass. But some things are pretty obvious as we end 2011.

Next year will see email use decline substantially. Here’s why: those Facebook folks are using less and less email to communicate, and more and more Facebook. The only group where email increased is 55-64, and 65+.

Another decline is predicted for website traffic. That’s understandable, as more and more content is heading over to Facebook, LinkedIn and other places. The technology is there – and designers are busy designing multi-media applications to run on those places.

Another huge trend is that video as a communication tool will soar. Some big players (can you say, “Cisco?”) claim that most Internet traffic in just a few years will be video. Mobile networks are becoming more able to handle video calls, and those smartphones will continue to sell, accounting for over 90% of all mobile phones sold.

If you think that’s a bold prediction, think about this – just over 3 years ago nobody heard of the “App Store.” Today, there are over half a million apps available, with over 10,000 new ones submitted each month!  Wow! That doesn’t include the Android, by the way.

While Facebook will rule, there’s going to be a surge in private social networks. That means big companies will start their own internal version of Facebook, enabling their employees in faraway offices to talk to one another over their own social network.

Another trend is at the retail level, thanks to Google. Yes, they’re in our pockets again, this time with their Google Wallet. If all predictions come true, this will replace the credit card, as we know it. And you can kiss your literal wallet goodbye, because you’ll be using your smartphone or iPad or (put name here) to pay for things.

It’s pretty scary to sit here and wonder just what will, and won’t come to pass in the coming year. One thing is certain, however: change is inevitable – and it’s happening at lightening speed. So buckle up, grab a glass of the bubbly and wait for
12am on January 1^st 2012 to arrive!

Well, even the big companies and the huge marketing staffs are asked to do a lot with social media these days. So here are some cool tools that will help you get that social media out there, saving you some time, some money and a whole lot of effort.

Most businesses would like to know what people are saying about them in the social universe – as well as what they have to say about their competitors. Hook up with Monitter – a service that gives you a real-time look at Twitter mentions. You can add research terms, add and remove columns – and get a clear picture of what’s being said about your brand.  Check it out at www.monitter.com

Everyone knows about YouTube, but are you using it to your best advantage? Instead of just showing commercials, offer your customers visual walkthroughs of new products; show the CEO giving speeches and public presentations; and produce some interesting content that can get people talking. That could be part of your viral video strategy that could give you a huge amount of exposure. www.youtube.com

Want to know what your customers really think? Want to learn what new features are in demand? Get yourself on UserVoice! You can start improving on your product by listening to what people have to say about it. Plus, you can use it to get feedback on a beta test product by sending invites to specific email addresses. Check it out at www.uservoice.com

This next one is something special, because in addition to being helpful to your customers, it’ll save you some big bucks, too. It’s Get Satisfaction – and it’s not a Rolling Stones song. It’s a forum where your customers can get answers to questions, find solutions and send product or feature requests. Those answers and solutions are stored and are searchable over time, cutting down on your customer support costs. All the details are on their website at www.getsatisfaction.com

Finally, here’s one that’ll show you a great way to track projects, deadlines and project costs. It’s Basecamp – a web-based project management tool that has a long list of features, plus extras and add-ons to use if you’d like. It’ll run a small biz about $24 a month, but it’s worth every penny in time and effort savings. www.basecamp.com

These are just a few of the remarkable tools available to integrate into your social media marketing efforts. With a little research and a few dollars, you can play in the social media sphere just like the big guns. Get going!

Let’s take a look at what is really happening out there in social media land.

Engaging customers is becoming a bigger and bigger challenge. There is so much “noise” out there as more brands go social that it’s harder to have a meaningful dialogue with customers.

Some of the smaller social networks are going to disappear. It’s ridiculous to have to put dozens of profiles on many different social networks. The social giant Facebook is leading the charge, but many others will need to begin offering more useful tools to compete for business’ business. LinkedIn, one of the few survivors of the first social boom and bust, offers a professional alternative to Facebook.

Since so many people are now using smart phones and portable devices like iPads, social media is going to have to be “always on” – connecting with customers and putting out loads of info on a 24/7 basis. That’s not always easy – but it’s now become necessary.

It’s going to be harder and harder to do social commerce unless businesses learn how to harness the power of mobile coupons and discounts. Social connections on ecommerce sites are becoming increasingly important, because recommendations from friends are still the most powerful sales driver.

Speaking of social commerce, Facebook Places has been all but shut down, but other location-based services are finding ways to provide benefits to businesses. Loopt has partnered with Groupon to offer real-time coupons local to users and Foursquare has struck multiple deals with companies to offer brand recognition and local deals. Other small niche players are going to have to find ways to make their services useful to businesses and users alike. So far, there’s a lot of excitement, but little else. The only ones making money are the investors.

Monitoring a brand is now more important than ever. Even if a company doesn’t have a huge social media program, they still need to monitor what’s being said about themselves in social media circles.

Finally, websites are not going to be of much value any longer unless they’re integrated with social media in order to make them more appealing to users. Pretty soon, people logging in to websites will be doing it through their social network identity, so it will be harder to capture website visitors for follow up marketing campaigns.

All in all, though, social media is booming! And it will do so in the foreseeable future.

Once your target audience is on Facebook, your first priority is to get their attention on your page. Otherwise, how can you share what you have to offer them? Plus, the longer a viewer stays on your page, the better chance they’ll click and poke around to find out more about you and what you can do for them.

So how do you get your target audience to your Facebook page? The strategy is simple: you have to be THE PLACE people go to get information. We’re talking about people who really need what you have to offer – aka your Target Audience. Once they’re there, you’ll have an opportunity to build a relationship with them.

Here’s another key: whenever you post something on your page that may be of interest to your target audience, be sure to alert people using other social media – like Twitter and LinkedIn. Use link shortening tools to track click-throughs to see where people are coming from, and what is working to drive traffic to your page.

Another key is get to your target audience to comment on your wall. That will increase your EdgeRank for those fans on Facebook: build relationships! To invite those reader comments and make your page a “must see,” here is a strategy to employ: use the “Questions” feature on Facebook. Come up with a question that is of interest to your target audience. Also send out the question via Twitter and LinkedIn with a link back to Facebook.

Another trick is to post a link to an article or video that your target would like to see, but  be sure it ties into what you have to offer. Once again, use other social media platforms to point folks back to your page, using some type of teaser about the article or video. Using the Questions feature, ask a question that people can answer without watching the video or reading the article. That way it’s more likely to get a comment.

Finally, demonstrate just how smart you are in your particular field by posting tips your target audience can really use. Just be sure not to use any links to someone else’s articles or videos – because you’ll just be sending YOUR TARGET over to your competition. And that’s something you really don’t want to do.

Increase page views, generate comments, and show the world your expertise – all using Facebook. That’s the way to get social media working for you.

Get involved! Join and follow the conversation on Twitter and Facebook or leave a comment below.

• Must know CS5 Suite
• Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Flash

• eBlasts
• Building HTML eBlast from Photoshop file
• List management, clean up, segmentation, backup locally, and so on

• Landing Pages

• Flash
• Building Banner ads and other projects with ActionScript where average knowledge required

• Build-Out of websites
• Must know HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and be familiar with MySQL databases
• Must know how to build a custom theme in WordPress
• Working knowledge of WordPress for content update

• Website updates for various clients—these happen fast

• Work with creative department to provide limitations on website, elements, and deliver solutions to get done what is needed

• Design skills are a huge plus

Please send letter of introduction and resume to Drew Palmer.

Don’t forget to get in touch with us on Twitter and Facebook!

So what should you be doing now? Right – social media! You see, social media isn’t just a great way to promote your business; it’s also a great way to recruit for your business. And if you’re not using social media for recruiting, you’re probably missing out on some of the best candidates available.

How do you target candidates for your next hire? Like everything else, you go with the “big 3.” That’s LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Why? Well, for starters they have over half-a-billion combined users. That’s an awful lot of potential marketing directors for your company! But how do you target the right person for your position using social media? Read on!

Let’s start with LinkedIn. Prepare to cough up $195 to post your job for 30 days. There’s also a free way to use LinkedIn for recruiting using your “network activity box” to broadcast your marketing director’s position. Best part – check out their profile to see if they’re a good fit before contacting them.

For Facebook, start with the Facebook Directory to search for users, pages, groups and more. You can post a job for free using the Facebook Marketplace; but you can’t target it to a specific group like you can with an ad. A Facebook Ad gives you targeting capabilities – you can choose the exact candidates that you’re looking for. You can opt to use their pay per click, or pay per impression. You can tailor your ad – for example, if you’re business is in Chicago, you can target the ad to be seen only by people who live in the Chicago area (unless of course you’re paying to relocate the new hire).

Using Twitter can be powerful, especially for small companies. Just tweet something like, “looking for a marketing director in Chicago, great salary, apply at URL). Twitter lets you do a quick search, using “search.twitter.com for anyone using specific keywords that’ll get you lots of contacts. You can also search for candidates by location, by industry, interest or hash tag.

Hash tags, # – are used to filter and find info on Twitter. If you include a hash tag with a keyword when you tweet, it becomes searchable. Here’s an example:  #job, #jobpost, #marketing #director, #benefits, #NAJ.” (That’s “need a job”).

As you can see, a whole new recruiting world has opened up, thanks to all the new social media tools that are available to you. So forget those “help wanted ads,” and stay connected!

If you took marketing courses in college, you probably remember having the “four P’s of strategic marketing” drummed into your brain: Probe, Partition, Prioritize and Position. Just in case you’ve forgotten, Probe is for market research – looking at as much data and information as you possibly can. Partition is all about segmenting your market. Prioritize is where you determine which targets to pursue – and you do this AFTER you probe and partition. (But you knew that!) Finally, there’s Position, and this is probably the most critical: defining who YOU are to your target. Are you the “low price leader, the quality standard or just about any other statement that defines who you are?

Well, now that I’ve brought back those wonderful memories of Marketing 101, there are some other “P’s” that you should know about. Call these the four P’s of tactical marketing, and realize that they work in tandem with the original four P’s described above.

First up on the stage is “Product.” Yep, it’s what you produce. But you can no longer build something and try to sell it. Today, you have to find out what people are looking for, and then source the product from someone, somewhere. Or, build what people are looking for. Otherwise, you’ll be dead in the water.

The next new P is Price. Just remember that Price is NOT about affordability, it’s about value. Because if you don’t understand that the client attaches a value to products, you’re going to be in trouble. Big trouble.

Third up is Place. Where do prospective buyers get the product? Is it online? Through a distributor, or a brick and mortar store? Place plays a big role in the overall marketing equation, so be sure to give a lot of thought to the “where” that prospects have to go to purchase what you’re selling.

Finally, there’s Promotion. And while a lot of people confuse Promotion with marketing (no, they’re not the same at all!) Promotion simply tells you what the product is, how much the product costs, and where (or how) your prospects can get their hands on what you’re trying to sell. Promotion isn’t “25% off” – Promotion IS about communicating with your audience.

So there you have it. The four, no, make that the eight P’s of marketing. See why marketing is spelled with a “P?”

Now comes another blow, courtesy of Google. The mainstay and real moneymaker of newspapers has always been the massive Sunday paper that had circulars and pounds of inserts. I’m sure that you, like me, have fond memories – especially around the holidays, of lugging in a 2- or 3-pound Sunday newspaper chock full of brightly colored inserts that you just couldn’t wait to wade through.

Well, back to Google and what appears to be a dagger in that holiday tradition. They’ve introduced a way to make Internet advertising look a lot more like the inserts in that nostalgic Sunday paper. And advertisers are enthusiastically joining the parade.

Google is of course the world’s biggest search engine. And search advertising is now shifting around, using more visual elements like videos and product images, leaving behind those text-only listings of the recent past. Over 33% of Google’s search ads are now using the newer formats.

Now, web users will see the circular-style advertising, viewing multiple photos and large type by clicking on the search ads. And Google will automatically tailor the promos based on factors like topics entered and the location of the user.

So who is on board Google’s new venture? Oh, just Best Buy and Macy’s to start. Not bad for a new venture. Which makes a lot of sense, considering that Google is gobbling up 76% of the U.S. market for search-based ad revenue, a huge number indeed.

What this gives Google is more than one click option on an ad. Let’s say, for example that a company provides links to different products it produces. Smart strategy – because it increases click-through rates from about 15 percent to more than 50 percent! That’s a mega number – and it’s good for Google, because the advertiser generally pays them after a user clicks on an ad; and it’s certainly good for the advertiser, because they’re getting an amazing click-through rate on their ads.

But before we erect a tombstone for Sunday newspapers and their wonderful color circulars, take note that Google itself isn’t abandoning the print media. In rolling out its new ad formats, Google is using a marketing campaign that includes both Internet ads, as you would imagine. And print advertising as well!

But like everything else, the costs have soared, and it’s no longer economically feasible to “test” key words, landing pages, etc. Why? First of all, you’ll be lucky if you can find a niche where you pay under $1.00 per click. There are bidding wars between advertisers to push their ads towards the top of the heap. And sadly, the big brands and large corporations with much deeper pockets are the ones who will be sitting at the top. With costs passing $3.00 per click and more, it’s kind of hard to keep it cost effective.

So what’s the alternative to devoting about $3,000 per year to Adwords for a small business? If you can’t afford Google Adwords, try and tap into the newer ways to drive traffic to your website. Try Facebook Ads or MyAds (the ads from MySpace Ad Network). The cost per clicks on Facebook Ads are reasonable, there are many different targeting options to use, and of course, Facebook gets zillions of users every day.

Just because Adwords has soured many small businesses with their bidding tactics and “money talks mentality,” small businesses should still consider paid search as a valuable marketing tactic. Facebook Ads and MySpace Ads are half the cost of Adwords, which can make the return on investment quite attractive.

There are many other ways you can use the net to drive traffic to your website – which in turn will help build your business. Common sense ideas like relevant landing pages, strong calls to action, and timely promotional specials can move people to action. And there’s always “free content” that you can use as a means of lead generation. Possibly the most important thing you can do to drive traffic to your site is SEO – and that takes a lot of knowledge and effort (or a good consultant)!

Here’s the thing to remember: if you’re a small business without a strong social marketing person on board, you would be hard-pressed to try building your own Pay Per Click campaign. There are too many factors that can impact your results – the industry you’re in, the product, price structure and other factors.

Don’t completely give up on Adwords; just be sure you don’t get into bidding wars for keywords and make sure you know who you’re trying to target. But at half the price, (and better targeting options) Facebook and MySpace sure look good!