One big mistake you might make when trying to attract media coverage is to forget that reporters are busy people — stretched with deadlines constantly looming.

Luckily, this problem is avoidable.

Just make it as easy as possible for a reporter to see why covering your story is a good idea.

Here are five tips to set you on the right track.

1) Know why your story matters to other people

You think your business is newsworthy, and you might be right — but would someone on the street agree?

Clearly define why your story idea matters to the people you want to connect with. It doesn’t need to be relevant to everybody, but it does need to impact some of the same people your target media outlet connects with.

2) Focus on your key idea

Once you know why your story idea matters to a particular group of people, stay focused on that one idea. Your press release should:

• Introduce your business and new idea.
• Explain why it matters to people in your community.
• Outline what makes the story newsworthy. (Read: Seven news values.)
• Explain the next steps people can take if interested.

Ideally, limit the length to approximately five paragraphs on one page. For more about how you can structure your release, read this how-to post from Nimbyist Communications.

3) Make sure you’ve covered the basics

Once you’ve created the first draft of your press release, review it to ensure it explains these key questions: Who? Why? What? Where? When? How?

4) Edit, edit, edit

Have somebody proofread what you’ve written: They should ensure it makes sense, and keep an eye out for typos or grammar mistakes. If it’s too long, ask your proofreader whether they can identify any information that can be removed.

5) Distribute your press release

There are a few ways to distribute your press release, including:

• Wire services, like Canada Newswire (CNW Group) and PR Web from Vocus. These are fee-based services, can because they offer such broad distribution can be particularly helpful if your news is relevant to a wide audience — across a larger region or even the entire province or country.
• Targeted personal distribution. Targeted distribution takes time — but it’s also likely to yield better results. Best for local stories, research which reporter is most likely to be interested in your topic and send your release directly to them. You may even be able to connect through Twitter and, over time, build a relationship with them.
• Your website. Press releases make great blog posts! If you distribute them more frequently, consider creating a specific media centre on your site.

Writing your own press releases can seem daunting, and it may require some trial and error. Don’t get discouraged if your story doesn’t get picked up, though: Even professionals can fall victim to hotter news stories of the day!

If you found this helpful then you’ll love the articles linked below. Take a look and get educated.

Calls to Action: What They Are & How They Work
How To Keep Them Clicking: Reducing Bounce Rate
Trust Signals Lead to Online Sales
ABC: About Backlink Comments
Backlinks: More Web Traffic and Authority

What tactics have worked for your small business? Share your ideas in the comments below.

In terms of websites a ‘call to action’ is something that makes a user or web visitor click through to other material. Just like it sounds, a user is taking action within your website. They could be making contact, downloading a PDF, or clicking through to a particular web page you want them to see.

If your website uses calls to action correctly you can convert a lot more visitors into sales and reduce your website’s bounce rate.

Calls to Action

There are a lot of things within your website or business that is worth promoting and almost every website has at least one call to action. The most common version would have to be the suggestion to Contact Us!

If you’ve got a contact page then it’s a sure fire bet that you’re telling people to go there and send you a message. That message prompts people to navigate to the contact page and submit a query.

This is one of the most basic and common calls to action.

Let’s take a look at different calls to action and what pages they are best displayed on:

Downloads and Takeaways

Having info and PDF downloads available is one of the best ways to turn some site visitors into future leads. Whatever industry you’re in chances are you’re more informed that your average human. That means you have knowledge other people require.

Write helpful information, tutorials and online request forms into downloadable documents and give them away for free. Customers love getting free stuff and each download has your contact details and links. It’s like giving them a business card, but with value!

Example: A carpenter with a website could create a how-to document that showed people how to properly sand different types of wood. Each time they produce word-working material, be it a blog post or a web page, they could link that download to relevant content. Each reader is one more chance at putting that e-business card in their virtual back pocket.

Service Redirects

Occasionally, when you’re writing posts for your online blog, you’ll reference some of the services and products you have that on hand. Some of the visitors that read that article may end up being intrigued by one of the services or products you mention and they want to know more or even buy.

If that page or blog post had a ‘call to action’ to lead them the rest of the way, and while their interest is piqued, you could be certain of an increase in sales, web traffic and a reduction in your bounce rate.

Example: Write a blog post about your online services and then create a call to action that links your new blog post with your services page.

Real-time Communications

A lot of people surf the web looking for products and services to buy. Some hit “buy now “as soon as they find something they like while others choose to do a little more research before parting with some cash. One or two simple questions and answers is all they need to feel secure about a purchase.

Having a message service like Olark or Skype as well as a 24-hour phone number lets people know you are ready, willing and able to help them at any time.

Example: A lot of websites are starting to post live-chat options on their sites. Having an icon or ‘call to action’ that encourages people to communicate will capture those leads you may have otherwise lost.

Social Connections

These days your website isn’t the be-all and end-all of the web. Social media also help you connect and sell to customers and clients. Make sure your website is capturing as many followers as possible and vice-versa.

Place social media prompts and ‘calls to action’ in all the key locations where users are likely to share. Blog posts, new content and your contact page are great places for the social media icons.

Example: Give your blog readers the chance to share what they like online. Attaching social media share buttons prompt people to connect their daily lives with your business.

User Entries and Contests

Nothing lines them up like a chance to win! Holding on-site contests and competitions gets users involved.

Use that same submission form to capture their email and contact details and you can include them in your next promotional campaign.

Example: Try giving a product or service up for free to the winner. Your overhead won’t be effected much and you’ll have a stream of new leads you can start working over the next few weeks.

Use your imagination. A call to action can be virtually anything that prompts users into the deeper pages of your site structure. A few well placed action items can make all the difference.

If you found this info helpful then you’ll love these website optimizing posts below:

How To Keep Them Clicking: Reducing Bounce Rate
Trust Signals Lead to Online Sales
Backlinks: More Web Traffic and Authority
How to Increase Your Web Traffic 

When visitors land on your pages they are looking for something specific.

If you’re following white hat SEO practices then you’re already on the right track, delivering accurate information about your site’s services, products and content.

Unfortunately, even the most concise info and perfectly optimized pages can’t keep your audience interested forever. You need to have follow up materials, exercises and contact options to keep them clicking through the body of your website.

The more pages and features they navigate through means more chances you have at converting that visitor into a sale, or at least capturing their email for a future campaign.

Reducing Your Bounce Rate

It’s not always easy to keep visitors clicking. We have to produce materials that supports the landing pages and keeps our visitors busy. Here’s some of the best tactics to use to reduce your bounce rate:

Calls to Action

One of the best ways to prompt users into clicking more than one page is by having ‘calls to action’ plastered all over your website. These ‘calls to action’ work the same way as ads. They promote a specific product or feature that solves a problem for the user. Let’s say your business offered free consultations. Here’s an example of what the ‘call to action’ might read:

“Contact Us Today for a free Consultation, No Strings Attached”

This ‘call to action’ compels a visitor into literally another action on the website and gives you one more chance to close the sale.

Contact Options a Plenty

Each mind works differently. Therefore there is no way to accurately predict what sort of questions one user will ask compared to the next. No matter how many FAQ documents you create they never seem to answer all the questions.

If you have contact details of multiple types displayed in key positions around your site you’ll give the user the every chance to contact you if they so choose. Having email, phone and social media contact options allows the user to communicate on their terms, their way.

Free Downloads

People love free stuff, especially when that free stuff has some value. Don’t always hold back every little bit of info and innovation your business has stockpiled. Give some of it away in free downloads like PDF’s and eBook’s.

This is a prime example of support material. If you had, for example, a website that sold cellphones, having a downloadable catalog for users on your side bar might entice a few clicks. Every download from a site visitor is one more chance to recapture them as a sale in the future.

Links to Other Pages

As you build pages and blog posts on your website you’ll be creating one piece of material after another. After a while you’ll start to notice that some topics are quite similar or related in some way. This is the perfect opportunity for some internal links.

Let’s say you wrote an article about an upcoming event your business was attending and you had previously written an article on all the events you’ll be attending in the calendar year. What if a customer wants to attend but they don’t have time on the specified date?

Wouldn’t it be nice if they could find out the next event you’ll be attending? You’ve already created the content to solve that problem so link it and reap the benefits.

Ask Questions

It’s always a good idea to engage your audience as much as possible. Asking questions is a good way to get your audience involved.

Use your social media accounts and your blog roll to pose compelling questions to your visitors and let them know you’ll publish the results if you get enough responses. Giving users the ability to effect your site pulls them into the creative process. In time this builds extra leads and online traffic.

Have a Comments Section

People have opinions and they want to be able to express them at the drop of a hat. Give them a chance to say what they want.

Opening up a comments section will expose your business to both criticism and compliments. Take every comment as an opportunity. Positive comments are leads, just waiting for the next free download or blog post, while negative comments are a chance to improve your site and it’s content. Feedback is feedback. Use it to grow.

Keep Learning

Using these simple tasks and tactics will significantly reduce your bounce rate but there are even more ways to cut down on fickle visitors.

How do you reduce your bounce rate? Let us know the best ways to reduce bounce rates that we missed and we’ll add the to our list. Comment below or email us with your ideas.

And here’s some more value from your friends at Canopy Media. Reads these posts and turn your website into a high-traffic hub on the Internet.

Trust Signals Lead to Online Sales
Backlinks: More Web Traffic and Authority
How to increase your web traffic
Online lead generation more generous to your budget
Make More Money With Lead Generation Services

You know. A mechanic, repairman or contractor that does all of your work, otherwise known as ‘your guy’? Every so often your close friend or family member will mention some sort of problem in their life.

Most of the time it’s car trouble or an air conditioning unit on the fritz in the middle of summer. The owner simply doesn’t know what to do or where to take the faulty machine for service.

More often than not we have a solution by way of ‘our guy’. He’s the person we trust to do the work right, on time and under budget. ‘Your guy’ has your trust and you don’t think for a second that he’ll rip you off.

That trust is a major part of ‘your guy’s’ sales.

That trusted mechanic gets new leads just because you tell others. The Internet has trust signals that work for websites in much the same way. Internet shoppers subconsciously react to those signals, making them more likely to be interested in your product or service.

Internet Trust Signals

There are a lot of different trust signals that you can use online. Here’s a list of common trust signals that work:

Direct Contact Details

Make sure that your website has avenues for communication. Nothing pushes people away faster than not being able to ask any questions. Having an email address, contact form, phone number and additional resources puts consumers at ease.

Users like to feel supported throughout their purchase processes even when they don’t have questions. Whether they use them or not, contact details establish trust.

Up-to-date Social Media Accounts

Some businesses run social media pages and accounts in addition to their website. This gives the user a platform for social interactions with your business. Give those users frequent updates and useful posts and the trust they have for your business will grow.

Activity is key.

If you’re going into social media make sure you do it consistently. Mismanaged accounts with no activity can become a distrust signal before long. Show your audience you’re always hanging out online.

Quick Response Times

If you wanted to speak to someone overseas a few hundred years ago you had to write a letter and send it by boat. One sent message and one response could take months. These days we can send and respond in the blink of an eye but strangely enough that doesn’t always happen.

We’ve all be in the position before. An online item has piqued our interest and we want to buy, we just have a few questions before we finalize our transaction. An email is sent and then the waiting begins. Sales are like water. They follow the path of least resistance. Be vigiliant. Be available.

Live Chat Options

Having a 24 hour phone number or a quick chat option on your website isn’t the easiest system to manage but it is a massive trust signal.

If shoppers get the impression that they can call you just as easily as their friend or next-door neighbour 24 hours a day they tend to part with their money more easily. Users don’t want to buy from a faceless entity.

Trust Icons & Logos

There are certain logos that you just trust when you see them. The pink ribbon synonymous with conquering cancer or the universal symbol of the red cross are two prime examples. When we see those icons we automatically trust the event or people associated to that logo.

Logos and icons can work the same way on your website. Security trademarks and Better Business Bureau ratings help drive sales. If your business is respected by the business community at large that respect and trust will trickle down to the people doing the purchasing.

Affiliation & Partners

Having connections to other successful businesses in and outside of your industry lends trust to your online business. The more affiliates and partners that trust you to do business the more likely an online shopper is to make a purchase.

Business History & Reputation

The way you operate is a big part of how much your business is trusted. Make sure that you treat people with respect and process their requests in a professional manner. Nothing ruins a business faster than bad word-of-mouth. It puts off potential customers and doesn’t encourage repeat business.

In-House Policies

Show your potential customers you aren’t a lawless neanderthal. You’ve got some rules, regulations and standards of your own. Publish those standards online and show people there is structure to your business processes.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are even more ways to show customers they can trust you online.

Do your customers trust you? What do you do to establish trust during online transactions? And what trust signals does your website employ? Let us know and we’ll add the good ones to the list.

And here’s some links to other information that will help drive traffic and sales to your online business.

How to increase your web traffic
Online lead generation more generous to your budget
WPO: Optimize Your Web Presence

In business it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that you need a website to run a successful venture in the long-term.

Unfortunately some businesses don’t even attempt at a web presence and their sales suffer as a result.

Getting placed on business directories and local websites such as government and municipal sites is a start, but it only directs people to your contact info and that isn’t nearly enough to coax the average savvy online user into a purchase.

As basic as this sounds, if you’re not online, you’re losing sales.

How a Website Works for Business

I can put this into perspective with a recent experience of mine over the holiday season. I had a close friend come and visit for a few days over the break. We both enjoy Asian food and my friend is a vegetarian so eating at an Asian restaurant gives him a lot of options.

I knew of two different Asian restaurants in town, situated very close to each other geographically. Before we left to collect our meal we decided to look at their online menus. It was possible that one restaurant offered something the other didn’t so we investigated.

What I found was a little shocking. Only one of the two restaurants had a website. The second was only listed in business directories. I could see their phone number but that was about it. Their store hours weren’t even listed.

The other restaurant had done a little better. Contact info, social media trust signals, hours of operation were all there on their website, and easy to find as well. They also had their entire menu listed on a separate web page with a downloadable PDF version on the sidebar.

Of course we took a quick look. It appeared that the restaurant with the website and full menu had everything we wanted so that’s where we ate. We spent approximately $40 plus a modest tip. Not a bad sale for 2 minutes of website time.

The Point

There’s a simple lesson to be learned here. The business that had the website earned my business by making their information available online. I have no idea what the other restaurant offered. They may very well have been the better eatery of the two. They might have had a more diverse menu, better customer reviews, more attentive staff, and so on.

I’ll never know, until they have a website of their own.

According to current statistics 62% of businesses use their websites to drive sales while 61% plan to increase their online and marketing efforts in 2012, meaning the competition is just heating up.

It doesn’t take much of an online presence to capture real world sales. Being there is half the battle. Here’s a few links to help you win all the other online wars once your website is up and running.

Respond to Your Customers: Automate Your Social Media Solutions
How to Increase Your Web Traffic
Bad Customer Service Costs You Sales
What Makes a Good Website Work?
Make More Money With Lead Generation Services

All the on-page and off-page SEO won’t help you if you don’t rub elbows with others online.

As you know, once your material is optimized it’s increased authority you’re after.

Every backlink gains you a bit more ‘street cred’ online. The more ‘street cred’ you can snowball the bigger your website’s influence becomes with keywords its trying to own.

Backlinking ain’t easy

We’ve gone over some detailed ways to garner more backlinks for your websites. By now, if you’ve followed our advice, you should have a decent backlink campaign underway. You’ve also probably noticed how much work every link takes to get posted online.

Luckily there is an easy way to grab some quick links that will increase your ranking on search engine results pages and drive a little extra traffic.

Enter the comment stream

If you’ve been surfing the net looking for free info on SEO related topics there’s a good chance you’ve been told about the value of commenting and leaving links to your own website and/or material on other people’s comment streams. There are some do’s and don’ts that most SEO gurus fail to mention.

Not all comments streams can produce the same results. As with do-follow and no-follow websites, individual comment streams operate in much the same way.

Do-Follow vs No-Follow: ‘Do-follow’ and ‘no-follow’  are coded directives designed for web crawlers from Google and Yahoo. Do-follow tells these crawlers or search engine bots to scan the page and look for new info each and every time it comes to read your website. Therefore do-follow backlink comments will have any new comments and links added to Google bots scans.

No-follow is the exact opposite. The comment and links that you leave can still drive some traffic to your site but it won’t help better your page rankings.

The Best Places to Comment

Now that you know what works, what doesn’t and why, it’s time to find the best places to get started. Keep in mind that websites and comments streams that you submit to should cover subject material similar to what you are posting.

For example, don’t post comments about web services on a clothing website. The visitors of that site aren’t concerned with your products. But other comment streams might welcome your help. Post your info where it will add value to the conversation.

Here’s a quick list of places to look for comment streams:

• blogs
• websites
• youtube
• bulletin boards
• conversation groups
• online forums

Using these online resources, your business can link to a massive host of sites and groups. And there are even more places to look than we’ve mentioned above.

What are your favourite places to drop comments and what are the benefits? Let us know and we’ll add them to our list!

Or check out these stories for additional information:

Backlinks: More Web Traffic and Authority
How To Increase Your Web Traffic
What makes a good website work?

On-page and off-page optimization, using the social medias and simply producing well written and useful content are some of the best ways to gather results, customers and sales.

Some of these online tactics gain you traffic, others collect you more web authority which places your site higher in search results, which in turn gains you even more traffic. But there’s one process that builds the flow of inbound traffic to your site while simultaneously adding authority to your Internet business.

Backlinking, pure and simple.

What is a Backlink?

Everyone who’s ever used the Internet has clicked through from one piece of online content to another page and each time they made that ‘jump’ they used some form of link. These links are small bits of code language that Internet browsers interpret as portals that lead elsewhere online. Click that link and you’ll travel to the assigned website.

Links that lead back to your website are called backlinks. Pretty straight forward really.

As mentioned before, these backlinks can do two things for you.

1) Send you more web traffic (potential customers)
2) Increase your website’s authority (which translates to higher SERP rankings).

Unfortunately these backlinks don’t always happen all by themselves. You’ve got to shake a few hands and meet the right people to get the ball rolling.

Building Traffic and Authority Through Backlinking

Every single link you finagle, barter, coax and collect will increase your web traffic. But not every link will gather you additional authority. This is the difference between no-follow and do-follow backlinks.

No-follow backlinks are good for more traffic, but that’s it.

Do-follow links are harder to collect but they’ll get you authority in varying amounts, depending on which websites are linking to you. Finding websites that use do-follow links can be a challenge.

Fortunately there are a load of tools that can help you locate blogs and websites that use do-follow links. Using specialized queries in Google searches is one option while many others opt for browser plug-ins and extensions that highlight do-follow and no-follow links in different colours, making it easy for you to pick and choose.

*Note: Remember that each browser works a little differently. Some browser extensions work for only one browser while others are cross-compatible. Try and find the solution that works best for you.*

How to Build Backlinks

Now that we know how to track down the right websites for backlinks, its time to start building both traffic and authority. The only thing left is to contact the right people or comment in the right place to gain some nice juicy backlinks. Here’s a list of the best methods:

Do-follow comments streams: Some comments streams on blogs and websites are actually do-follow. Any comment you make gets looked over by Google bots every time they visit that web page. Drop a link and some useful keywords and bingo! You’ve got yourself a healthy do-follow backlink.

Direct Communication: Backlinks aren’t always as easy as dropping a comment. You can get right into the body content of a web page if you contact a decision-maker directly. Simply craft your message explaining who you are and what you’re after. If you can make the process benefit both sides you’ll have more success. Sometimes a thank you via Twitter is all it takes.

Guest Writing: One of the best ways to offer something of value while getting do-follow backlinks in return is by writing guest material. The recipient website gets a free piece of content to post online while all the backlinks in your post and the backlinks remain intact. This takes more time and effort but has some of the biggest returns.

Do-follow Forums and Message Boards: Similar to do-follow comments streams, there are also do-follow forums and message boards online. Any content you add becomes part of the content searched by Google bots on a regular basis. Beyond the added authority you can direct traffic from a conversation related to your business if you find the right forums. That means even more traffic and that’s never a bad thing.

There’s more ways to build backlinks than we’ve listed here. Now it’s your turn. What’s the best ways to build do-follow backlinks?

If you haven’t started backlinking then do your website a favour and start building some web authority today!

Want to learn more? Check out these helpful links below and make your website work better.

Make More Money With Lead Generation Services
Using Social Medias Consistently
Online Lead Generation More Generous to Your Budget

Or subscribe to our blog for regular updates on how to increase your sales online.

A more recent theory states that when you give some things away for free you end up earning more in the long-run.

The Benefits of Sharing

There are a host of benefits that arise from being an open and honest sharer online. Here’s a few of the benefits you get from sharing what you know.

Generate Some Buzz

Every time you share some useful information for free people take notice. As consumers, when we find things for free we tend to grab as fast as we can while the getting is good. No one knows how long your 100% off sale will last so chances are they’ll tell all of their friends. This snowball can grow mighty fast so be ready for a swell of new users and followers, all of whom you can passively sell to for years to come.

Grow Your Audience

We just eluded to it in the previous point. Having a large audience is almost like cash in the bank. Just look at Facebook and Twitter for inspiration. For the longest time they have been giving away valued services free of charge. What’s in it for them you might ask? It’s simple. They’ve built a massive audience and that’s massive marketing leverage. They can instantly access all of those users with passive sidebar ads that entice users through to purchases. How much can you charge for an ad that hundreds of thousands of people will see on an hourly basis? Our guess is quite a lot.

It’s no different for you and your business. The larger your base audience the higher the chance you have on capturing sales.

Backlink Opportunities Abound

When you start to share what you know you’ll invariably run into others who are doing the same. Each one of you is already on the same page mentally so there’s no reason you can’t take this opportunity to gather some powerful backlinks. Your content or subject matter is already similar so creating connections should be easy. Everyone wins when you support each other with links.

Grow Your Professional Community

Similar to the point above, consumers won’t be the only people you reach. Other businesses are doing the same things. After making a connection you can forge simple partnerships that benefit everyone.

Let’s say you sold water bottles in Ontario. A customer from Alberta finds your website and wants a bottle but you only service Ontario. You can’t help him, but someone in Alberta could. If you connected with the equivalent business in Alberta you could send them that lead, free of charge, with the proviso that Ontario based leads that find the Albertan business get sent your way.

One hand scratches the other and everybody is better off. The customers got what they wanted, and you either made a sale or garnered positive favour from an associate for the future.

Become Trusted

People tend to gravitate to honesty. If you and your business are always handing over useful information, answering questions when asked and providing real solutions you’ll gain the respect of your peers.

Trust goes a long way. Show your audience that you’re not holding back. You’ll be recommended more often and the first stop on the list when people are after what you sell.

Sharing Begets Sharing

We were all taught the concept of sharing when we were children. It’s a straight forward idea. When you give something to another person that helps them out, free of charge, you gain a friend. When you share freely in business you can gain a contact or a lead.

What’s even better is the people you share with tend to share right back at you. When you show you’re online to help and that not everything has a price tag on it others want to return the favour.

Feedback for Improvement

There will be times when you’ll get negative feedback, no matter what. Think of it as a sort of crass advice that you can use to improve. Every comment your users and customers make is helpful, positive or otherwise. Complaints help you weed out weaknesses in your business processes.

Become Recognized

The more you’re out there talking and sharing the more people will come to recognize you and your business. Remember that out of site is out of mind. If nothing else, putting yourself in the thick of conversations keeps word of mouth moving and your products and services fresh in the mind of consumers.

All this social clout comes with time. There’s no tricks or quick fixes but if you put in the time and effort your results can look like magic.

Stay honest and in the conversation and your lead generation will increase!

Respond to your customers questions and interact with them directly.

Canopy Media has covered social media on more than one occasion on our blog. We’ve told you what accounts work best for which business situations, what accounts are the most important and how to manage those accounts individually.

Keeping in touch with your social media visitors is important, but out of sight is out of mind for most humans. Everyone’s business day is full to the brim with tasks and to-do’s so it’s pretty easy to forget your social medias and not sign in to monitor activity.

Wouldn’t it be great if you knew when you had new messages without signing in?

Well, the future is now. All of the ‘big four’ social media clients have some automation features you can use to keep you in the loop and responding to customers without wasting needless time signing in and out every hour.

How to Automate Your Social Media Notifications

First things first. You need a central email that either already is, or will be, associated to each of your personal or business accounts. It’s easiest and the best practice if you use the email address you answer the most.

Crowding your inbox with more messages may not be desirable but missing possible sales due to online inactivity is even less desirable.

*Note – Segregate your personal life from your professional one. An email account for home and work life keeps you from working at home and playing at work. It’s also the easiest way to group two sets of inbound messages. *

Once you’re squared away get ready to automate!

If you’re creating a new account simply use your predetermined email account during the account creation and verification process. For those of us bringing all of our accounts into harmony follow these steps:

Twitter: Twitter is a hotbed of social activity. With short messages being the main avenue to communicate on Twitter it’s no wonder why the volume of messages is much higher than other social media clients. The user actually has a lot of control when it comes to notifications for account activity. Simply sign in to your profile and click on the settings tab found underneath your profile name and picture in the top right corner of the page.

Once you’re into your settings click the notifications tab. Here’s where you can pick and choose what gets emailed to you. Both messages and general activity can be ‘pushed’ to your email, keeping you in the loop.

Facebook: There’s a lot of choice to be had in your Facebook account. You can automate most aspects of your account to send you push notifications if you know where to find them. Sign into your account and click on your account tab, again in the top right corner. You’ll be sent to a page with a few options along the left-hand side of the page. Click notifications, under general and security.

There are close to 100 options to toggle on or off. Make the choices that best reflect your ‘need to know’ and have those items pushed through to your email account.

Linkedin: Linkedin by comparison has less users than the two afforementioned social medias but it has a benefit that the others don’t. This is social media for businesses and professionals. The traffic may be light but they are actively looking to do business, so make the most of Linkedin’s audience.

Setting up email forwarding from Linkedin wasn’t as obvious as the others, due in large part to it’s initial setup process. When you sign up for the very first time you are prompted to choose your email and forwarding settings. Most of us simply roll with the defaults which sends notifications directly to your associated email’s inbox.

You can turn forwarding and notifications features on in the account panel found in the right hand corner at the top of the page by your account options.

Google+: We’re still figuring this one out ourselves, but it does have value and it’s growing daily so there’s really no reason not to get involved. Google+ is unique in that it is already tied to a Gmail account by nature.

Notifications can be configured to send you messages based on account activity. If the Gmail account associated with the Google+ account isn’t your central ‘catch-all’ email simply set up email forwarding from the Gmail account and again, you’ll see all your messages in one place.

It’s also a great idea to have your website’s contact page, blog and comment stream hooked up to the same email so all you have to do is check one inbox and respond to everything all at once.

Managing all those account by your lonesome is tough, we get it. Here’s a little more help to get your social media organized and driving sales.

Social Media Management Software

Setting up email auto-forwarding and equivalent services isn’t the only way to stay organized. There’s a host of software and services that help you manage all of your social media accounts and your staff.

Tweetdeck - Certainly one of the best known social media management tools, Tweetdeck makes posting to your various pages easy.

All of the main social medias are accessible from the same spot. Easy in and easy out.

Hootsuite - This is our go-to software service. This panel can do just about everything in terms of social media management, especially if you spring for their premium services. Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin accounts can all be integrated into the Hootsuite panel.

You can also add multiple accounts, say for additional businesses or clients. Posting, watching your message feeds, scheduling your messages, and quickly switching between Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin makes Hootsuite a winner.

CoTweet - Some businesses manage their social media accounts collectively. Each employee gets access to your accounts including Twitter. One by one they make posts to your feed with everyone signing in through the same panel.

This works for some businesses to be sure, but others with a large volume of employees desire a more comprehensive way to see who has said what and when.

CoTweet allows managers to see who has made which post and when, keeping your workforce accountable for their messages, all in one place.

Now that all your social media notifications are filtering to one centralized email or social media suite you don’t have any excuse to miss a message, tweet, shout out or online comment.

Staying connected with potential customers means more sales in the future.

In October, Jamie and Grant Murray of Meaford Ontario won top prize in front of local businesses, friends and family. Included in their prize was a website design package donated by Canopy Media. The package included a full website that featured a full content management system, website consultation, internet marketing advice, and Google analytics setup. While there was no mention of a 10-day turnaround, when Grant and Jamie indicated they would prefer the site was up sooner than later, the Canopy Media team jumped all over the project.

A discovery meeting was set up for November 28th and the website was launched on December 12… a 2-week turnaround.

And the results? We’ll let Jamie Murray tell you how they felt about working with us.

“My husband and I had the pleasure of working with the crew from “Canopy Media”. They helped us not-so-technical people design a web page for our new business. They not only were patient with me and my lack of knowledge but helped me develop a few more computer skills. This company is a caring, understanding and helpful company. The truly want what us best for both their clients and their own name. We are very pleased to have worked with such a great team. Sincerely Jamie Murray Meaford”

Another satisfied client? You bet.

And we’re satisfied too. At Canopy Media, we take local business and the local economy seriously. We know that our skill set helps grow business, whether it’s in Meaford Ontario, or Rhode Island. But ultimately, we live and work in Ontario. So generating revenue for small business that keeps our local economy growing is what we like to do best. That’s why we’ve been excited to partner with Dragon’s Den Meaford for two years running.

Here’s to you Dragon’s Den. Congratulation on helping a 3rd local business launch in the Meaford area.

And here’s to you Jamie and Grant – welcome to the small business club. Your efforts over the years will help grow our local economy, and make Grey Bruce a better place to live.

Cheers,

The Canopy Media Team