Zima Blog

Website Tip 4 – Take Advantage of the FREE Resources on and off the web

Written by Alen Malkoc Monday, 05 April 2010 07:00

tip4 Hi Everyone. Today’s tip is a big one. Many of us know of a vast amount of resources that can help our business drive FREE traffic to our site and most importantly attract users. However, we choose to ignore them or just not take advantage of them.

We would like to advise all of you to take a few minutes (maybe a bit more than that) and signup and take advantage of the following free services:

Create a Facebook Fan Page – Trust us! This will drive you traffic and most importantly it will make you accessible on the largest Website in the world. Keep in mind that Facebook is STILL in its’ infancy as a product. They are creating great tools for businesses to spread their word at a fraction compared to traditional media/advertising. More and more people are going through Facebook Search to find what they are looking for. Don’t disappoint them.
Create a Twitter Account – Same Reason as above. Give your customers / fans a chance to stay in touch. Nothing wrong with that. Twitter is becoming one of the top real-time search resource. Don’t miss out.
Are You on Google Maps? Well, you better be. This is what will bring in customers guaranteed, especially if you have a physical presence. Consumers are becoming smarter every day as they learn how to manipulate Google by searching in specific queries. For example, people don’t just search “restaurant” anymore. Now it’s something like “French restaurant or taylor street Chicago”. Yes, one of our very good clients, Chez Joel Bistro. Google Places is a place to be if you are a business.
Become a Venue on Foursquare – If you are a business with a physical presence, such as a restaurant, bar, or commerce store, you need to be on Foursquare.com. It’s free and the best part is that you get exposure for just being there doing nothing. The way it works is simple. When a user is in a vicinity on Foursquare (through mobile applications), users see all their businesses in their proximity. Wouldn’t it be nice to get those impressions that could lead to customers? Imagine someone is in your neighborhood and they are looking for a bar to meet up with friends! Could be you!
Create a Yelp or CitySearch Account – We’ve heard some of the horror stories and the reviews. Let’s face it. Yelp and CitySearch provide a lot more benefits than just reviews. The traffic alone is worth doing this. The most important step of making these review sites work is to make sure never to let a bad review get unattended. Answer it as a business owner. We know this world is not perfect and that we all have bad days…sometimes.