More SEO? Facebook Personal Graph

Introducing the Graph Search by Facebook

Great, just want a bar owner needs! A new search option/way to be found online. What does this mean for you?

1. Well, people will now be able to search through you through their friends. 
2. The other big thing is that keywords/search profiles will be necessary in your business page.
3. My personal favorite though, is this: Businesses will not be able to reap any rewards from having a personal page

What are the 3 things you can do to ensure you're found more?

1. As always, good, engaging content is a must
2. Rewrite your "About" to ensure you have accurate keyword listings
3. Grow your network

We'll be setting up a class to discuss this soon, so keep your eyes open for an email next week. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please give us a call at ThriftyHipster, 612-246-4373. We'd be more than happy to help you work it out.

Mobile Stats you Should know

As you know, I spend way too much time reading online guides and references, but what I can't escape is this: More people are using phones to hit the internet.

I know, I know, you've heard this all before, but what does this mean?  Well, read on, and I'll condense 100's of hours of technical reading to a few short facts for you.

As it applies to a bar/restaurant, it's important to remember:

1. What are people searching for?
2. What information do people need to come in to my bar?
3. What sites are they using to do this?

STOP. Think about this for a minute and I think the answers will become clear to you...

Now, let me back this up with what we think are the answers at ThriftyHipster, the stats that prove it, and what you can do to respond and capture these patrons.

SOME MOBILE FACTS

1. 70% of all mobile searches result in action within 1 hour (Source: Mobile Marketer)
1. On ThriftyHipster.com, 92% use the site the day of going out, most go out within the hour.
2. 91% of all U.S. citizens have their mobile device within reach 24/7. (Source: Morgan Stanley)
3. There are more mobile phones on the planet than there are TVs. (Source: Jupiter)
4. There are 6.8 billion people on the planet. 5.1 billion of them own a cell phone, but only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush. (Source: Mobile Marketing Association Asia)
5. Only 1 in 5 websites are mobile optimized (Source: dobMobi)
6. MN: 42% of Minnesotan's use Smartphones (Source: bizjournals)

For MN, this is HUGE. I shouldn't have to tell you. Look around your restaurant one night and see how many people have smartphones.  I bet in the Twin Cities, the number of smart phone users is closer to 70%....

But that is WHY you need to be mobile.  What are people searching for and how are you making sure they find you?

Again, stop and think about this.

At ThriftyHipster, we can make people can find you, yes, but also, that they can read up-to-date information about you. 

Mobile Application (part of the HUB)

Fans. Fans. Fans.

I love this.

I saw it yesterday and thought I'd throw it out there to y'all.

Want to know how to get more fans and actually drive them to your business?!?!

• Do Cool Shit.
• Post Cool Shit.
• Support Local Businesses.
• Make sure you're visible.

That's pretty much all there is to it.  People don't want to be marketed to. They want to feel like you know them.  That is why, ThriftyHipster is just a few local dudes that hang. We know people, we try to introduce them to you.

Read this Post From THE OATMEAL

2012 New Offerings

Here are just a few things we have for the 2012!

New site, fully designed and customized to make new technology easy.  We have a philosophy here: Accessibility is king.

• When someone is searching for a patio in uptown, do they find you?
• When someone is on thriftyhipster.com searching for a 7pm happy hour in Nordeast, where you at?
• When someone is on Facebook and meeting friends later and is looking for your menu, do they see what they need?
• Is someone getting the tips they want from foursquare about you?
• Do you have time to manage your social media every day? Are you using it effectively?

The new ThriftyHipster makes solving these problems a breeze, and we'll forever grow with the technology.  We just want to say to you, you have a friend to help you deal with it all.

Tuesday Seminar Recap

Thanks to those that made it! Was a fun and informative session!

In case you need it, here is the handout: Timeline Cheat Sheet

Save a copy or pass it to your designer! This should be helpful as you start using the Facebook Timeline.

Customers Cocktails Handout Time Line Setup

Mobile Site vs. Mobile App

Local Twin Cities Stats

• 40% local residents own smartphones
• Search volume on mobile increases 300% per year
• 9 out of 10 smartphone searches result in a purchase or patronage

Which is best for you?

For any local business (and most national businesses to be honest), the answer, is You should have a Mobile Site! (view our option)


Why Site over App?  First, understand the difference between "Mobile App" and "Mobile Site" 


Of course, this really varies with the way you use a site and what you hope to get out of it.  Yes, I know iPhones are popular, millions of people have them... But should YOU have an app?

Before Investing in any Mobile Platform, understand it.
Mobile App
Is a specific piece of software created and custom-coded to work on various phone platforms (Android vs. iPhone, etc)

Mobile Site
Viewable when a user tries to go to your site on their phone. It will reroute them to a special site formatted to fit on a phone screen and work on all phones with internet.

Here are some interesting things we've been reading:

• 9 out of 10 smartphone searches result in an action, such as purchasing or visiting a business. (Clickz) 
• Mobile Internet use is set to overtake desktop use in the next four years. (Search Engine Land)
• Webmasters no longer need have to have a separate mobile site – they simply need to have mobile friendly pages that can be housed under the same URL. (Google)
• Mobile search is different from device to device and will present different search engine results.
• The most used mobile apps in the U.S. are games; news; maps; social networking and music. Facebook, Google Maps and The Weather Channel rule. (mobiThinking)
• M-commerce (mobile shopping) is predicted to reach $119 billion in 2015. (mobiThinking)
• HTML 5 can be incorporated into mobile SEO practices to enhance a mobile site’s usability and performance, resulting in higher page rankings in search engines. (Mashable)
• The level of search personalization in mobile browsers will be higher because mobile phones are personal. (Search Engine Land)

Naming your Social Media

One of the biggest problems I see when working with local businesses is just simple name confusion.  MAKE SURE YOU GET FOUND! You want to make this easy for people, so you want to make sure everything matches and lines up.

NEW FOR TIMELINE! For those of you stuck with the wrong page name before, you can now change it when you launch your Timeline page! We'll walk you through this at class next Tuesday at Demand Quest 



You should get the option to change your name when you launch the page.  

(note: you can always change your name from this form, HERE)

Although you cannot change the URL, you can at least set one up and correct anything you messed up with the titling.

TITLE: choose the full name of your business.  They only time I would suggest NOT doing this is if you're known as something else, which, is just ridiculous anyhow.

ie. Shouthouse Dueling Pianos - should be called - "Shout House Dueling Pianos"

Vanity URL: Url is how people will find you.  Best practice = match site domain and twitter name.  (http://facebook.com/Vanity_URL)

ie. ThriftyHipster.com = @thriftyhipster = facebook.com/thriftyhipster