 By Jim Gibson – Publisher, Online Media Today As a part of Online Media Today’s continuing effort to share valuable internet marketing education with business owners, while, at the same time, allowing our readers to gain a little more insight into the personalities of professionals in our industry, we are pleased to introduce internet marketing expert, Zeke Camusio. Zeke is a serial entrepreneur, Internet marketing expert, published author, speaker and CEO & founder of The Outsourcing Company. His company provides a full range of internet marketing services including social media marketing, search engine optimization, pay per click and conversion rate optimization. But Zeke’s real passion lies in helping business owners realize tremendous returns using enterprise social media as a low cost marketing channel and community building platform. Looking like he just stepped off the cover of GQ (are all the social media pros like this? I cite Mashable’s Cashmore, WebSeries, Mbariket, etc.), I recently sat down with Zeke and discussed how and why local business owners should consider incorporating a social media strategy.  Zeke Camusio - CEO & Founder, The Outsourcing Company OMT: How important is social media for smaller business owners? ZC: It's very important. Most small business owners don't have a lot of capital but they have some free time. Social media is free and all it takes is time, so it's a great match. OMT: What is the most important first step for a small local business that is considering a social media strategy? ZC: Let's say that you do the taxes for small businesses in Seattle. The first step is to understand who your audience is (business owners in Seattle). The second step is to find out where these people are (look for Seattle small business message boards, LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, etc.). The third step is to understand what they need (advice on how to pay less in taxes maybe?). Once you know who your audience is, where they can be found and what they want, all there is left to do is for you to give them what they want. OMT: How has social media changed the way businesses market online? ZC: Never before in history was it possible for a business owner to reach thousands of qualified prospects for free. OMT: How does blogging fit into a social media strategy? ZC: Your blog should be the hub of your social media campaign. Invite people to your blog for more content and on your blog, tell people how they can follow you, subscribe to your content and share it with their friends. OMT: For a business just starting a social media strategy, which social media platforms would you recommend focusing on to start? ZC: Start with LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Use forums too. If you want to do videos, YouTube is a must. OMT: What metrics should a business owner consider when measuring social media ROI? ZC: There are a lot of metrics but there is one that is more important than all the others combined: profits. Ask your clients how they found you and segment your profits by marketing campaign. Write down how many hours you've worked doing social media marketing and assign a dollar value to each hour. That will allow you to see how much money social media cost you and how much you got in return. Don't expect social media to be profitable the first month. Commit to it for at least six months if you want to see real results. OMT: Can social media be integrated into traditional marketing campaigns? How? ZC: It's all connected. Someone finds you on Google, sees your Twitter badge on your site and decides to follow you. A week later, he re-tweets one of your posts, his friend sees it and she happens to be a journalist. She thinks your company is really cool and writes a story in the local paper. Someone reads that story and markets your company through word of mouth. I could go on and on... It's all connected and you couldn't separate it no matter how hard you tried. OMT: Where do you see your company in the next 5 years? We don't want to grow much more. We're happy helping only 30 clients make a lot of money. I like working with people who appreciate the fact that we help them skyrocket their sales, and that's hard to do if you have 100 clients. I love consulting projects because I can create step-by-step Internet marketing plans for business owners to follow and it doesn't require a lot of ongoing work from me. This way, I can help a lot of companies instead of just a few. In five years, I see myself doing a lot more consulting work and a lot less campaign management. OMT: What area of online marketing that you are currently not servicing do you see your company moving towards in the next 3-5 years? ZC: We won't add any more services. We believe in doing less, not more. That way, we can be the best at what we do. OMT: What are your company’s core strengths? ZC: We're business people. We understand it isn't about "having 10,000 Facebook friends" or just being first on Google. It's all about increasing profits. Our goal is to make our clients at least $3 for every dollar they invest in marketing. OMT: What is your company’s primary product/service and what makes it unique? ZC: We do Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Marketing. What makes us unique is that we measure profits, not just traffic. Driving qualified people to your site is important, but converting them into paying clients is even more important. We think as business owners, not IT people. OMT: Relative to what you are doing today, what is your educational background? ZC: I went to business school, but 95% of what I know I learned from trial and error, reading books, going to seminars and talking to mentors. Business school was great to network with link-minded people but the lessons they taught me there rarely apply to the real world. OMT: What is your professional background? ZC: I'm a serial entrepreneur. I've started seven Internet companies and I've helped over 200 business owners to grow theirs. OMT: How long have you been involved in social media marketing? ZC: Four years. OMT: Do you have a mentor or someone who influenced you tremendously in your life? Is there someone who is an influence in your industry? ZC: I have two mentors but they asked me not to tell who they are because they're really busy and don't have time for more "students" at the moment. People whom I really admire in my industry: Rand Fishkin, Aaron Wall, Eric Ward and Lee Odden. I'm sure I'm missing at least 20 people I really look up to. OMT: Tell us something unique about yourself. ZC: I'm weird! I travel all over the world doing the most incredible things. I spend a lot of time reading. I love sports. I don't talk much. I work too much sometimes. I'm still trying to figure out what I can do to make this world a better place. If you are an industry professional and would like to be considered by the publishers of Online Media Today for an interview for our blog, please email us at: info@onlinemediatoday.com. One of our staff will get right back to you to set up the interview. If you are in Los Angeles and want to be included in our Spotlight Video Series, please let us know and we'll send a video crew out to conduct the interview.  About the Author: Jim Gibson is a certified search engine marketing professional and serial entrepreneur. In addition to Online Media Today, Jim is a principal at GibSEM Group (http://www.gibsem.com) and has founded several internet properties including online B2C directory, Service Omni, Inc. (http://www.serviceomni.com) and QuakeDog, Inc. (www.quakedog.com), a network marketing company focused on the sale of personal survival gear. You can follow Jim on Twitter: @GibSEM.  By Pauline Monot – Content Manager, Online Media Today After reading my previous article summarizing the 5 reasons why you shouldn’t be afraid of becoming a new Twitter user, I hope you’ve made up your mind to start tweeting. Yet, even after reading my last post, some of you might ask how you should proceed. Well, there are simple steps to follow. The most important things to remember when reviewing each of these First Steps to Using Twitter is to always think like you would have when developing new face-to-face relationships. Below are the steps I recommend following when starting on Twitter:  By Jim Gibson - Publisher, Online Media Today Rich Mbariket is the founder of Webseriesnetwork.com, a site that keeps visitors fully immersed and informed of current events in the emerging web series video culture. According to Mbariket, the site is the most frequently updated web series news site in the world. Mbariket uses video and social media extensively and blogs daily (and often many times within each day) in order to keep the site fresh with content for his viewers who thirst for the latest scoop in web series TV.  The Fastest Growing Site Devoted to Web Series TV  Rich Mbariket - Founder, Webseriesnetwork.com In our first installment of our new Spotlight Series, I sat down with Rich Mbariket, to talk about his growing community that connects worldwide audiences to news and information aimed at a fast-growing internet phonomena - Web Series TV. A quaint Los Angeles café (Nats Early Bite Coffee Shop) served as a backdrop to an interview that lasted a little over an hour and gave Online Media Today some insight into how Web Series Network leverages the power of social media and how Rich uses guerilla video to build a vast community around this trendy topic. Mbariket is active on the social web and uses Twitter, Facebook and Youtube to engage his extensive audience. This affable entrepreneur with model-like looks and charming personality was kind enough to share some of his experiences (and secrets to his success) in our interview. Here is a condensed version of our extensive discussion on how Web Series Network uses social media and video to promote their business. Check out the cool behind the scenes look at yesterday’s video shoot. A special thanks to RMA Productions and Flip Video for helping make this interview happen. Stay tuned for next weeks Spotlight Series installment. We're headed over to Pasadena to interview a big name retailer and social media maverick. If you are a Los Angeles business owner who is interested in being profiled in Online Media Today’s Spotlight Series, shoot us an email and we’ll call you to discuss getting your business profiled on our blog and our YouTube Channel.  By Jim Gibson – Publisher, Online Media Today To people who are already familiar with us, Online Media Today is known for our dedication to local business owners everywhere. As our mission states, we are focused on providing internet marketing education to local business owners in unique and highly personalized ways. From our digital magazine to our area live workshops, OMT delivers actionable advice for companies looking to increase their visibility online. Don’t Confuse Twitter with the Lottery 04/07/2010
 By Jim Gibson – Publisher, Online Media Today Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of grumbling from people who use Twitter who say that it’s a complete waste of time. With Twitter constantly in the news and so many people talking about it being the holy grail of social networking, it’s no wonder the immensely popular micro-blogging site has gained so much attention. Yet, you don’t have to look far to find a bevy of disenchanted Twitter users who claim the social networking site is not worth the bandwidth (both physical and mental) it consumes.  By Pauline Monot - Content Manager, Online Media Today Launched in July 2006, Twitter is now one of the trendiest social media sites, with around 75 million users according to Computer World. You may still not be one of them, but for sure, you’ve no doubt heard experts discuss the benefits you can take from Twitter to help market your business online. Maybe you are afraid of taking the plunge when everybody around you seems already familiar with it. Well, you shouldn’t be and here’s why.  By Jim Gibson – Publisher, Online Media Today Being that I am an intense hockey fan, it only seemed fitting to take a page from my friends at NHL Home Ice (thanks Boomer!) and adapt their regular feature to the world of online marketing. Last week, I posted the first in a series of blog articles in what we hope will become a regular component of our blog - our “5 Burning Questions”. The article titled “Love Your Blog” naturally focused on blogging and was geared towards those new to blogging in general. I discussed the increased use of blogs for business and in asking the first of the 5 Burning Questions, “Why Blog?”, outlined what I feel are a few great reasons why it’s so important to get in the game now. This week, we’re going one step further and answering the next important question: Which Blog Platform Should I Use?  By Pauline Monot – Content Manager, Online Media Today As I outlined in my last blog post “An Introduction on the Use of Hashtags on Twitter”, hashtags are becoming more and more popular on Twitter. Indeed, they prove to be powerful tools to keep abreast of what is being said in particular communities and also to extend your reach on Twitter. Any business owner, even those with limited online visibility, can leverage hashtags to improve communications with followers and even help to promote their brand. Keep An Eye On Your Competition! 03/25/2010
 By Michael Gier - Publisher, Online Media Today One thing I love to do with any business I own is keep an eye on what my competition is doing. I do this because I want to know what they are offering or changes they are making or new programs they are implementing that could take business away from me.  By Jim Gibson - Publisher, Online Media Today Imagine for a moment you are able to connect with millions of people – your customers, partners, employees and even the media. What if you were able to instantly tell your new audience something about your company, product or service they didn’t know? Or, what if you could listen to what people think about your business or more importantly, your advertising? Would that interest you? I bet the answer is a resounding yes! Does this sound too good to be true? Actually, it is true and it is a real possibility for those who have adopted blogs as a way to communicate with audiences around the world. |  About our BlogThe Online Media Today Blog aims to deliver informative and educational content on a wide range of topics covering the online marketing industry. Our blog features articles written by OMT's Publishers and it's staff as well as from our network of regular contributors from the world of online marketing. ArchivesApril 2010 CategoriesAll  |
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