The user types what he is looking for and the application automatically uses the GPS location to deliver search results that include names of businesses, locations, and even comments posted by those who have frequented the establishment.

The beauty of this application is the potential business generating opportunities it may offer you. The application employs incentives to get users to sign up and use the application over and over again. For example, let’s say you sell specialty fuels like racing fuel, propane, or lubricants that consumers or even businesses can stop by your store to purchase. You develop an incentive for customers to return to you to purchase these items on a regular basis and to share their experience with your business on Foursquare. Now let’s say you have a customer who is a drag racer and he comes to you all the time for fuel and lubricants, and even propane tanks because he loves to have friends over for BBQ.  By checking in at your location more than anyone else, he is rewarded with the title of ‘Mayor’ for your establishment. He goes onto Foursquare and let’s everyone know how great your business is and more people come to buy from you.

Foursquare offers you a free set of tools to help you attract new customers and keep your best ones coming back. When users check in at or near your venue, they will be presented with the specials you create to get them to stop by such as:

• Discounts
• Mobile coupons
• Free offers
• Prizes

You decide how to tailor specials to meet the needs of your targeted customers and your business. Once you sign-up for Foursquare’s free Merchant Platform you will have access to your Venue Stats dashboard, allowing you to track customer visits (foot-traffic) over time.

You can sign up for Foursquare here.

Just remember, there is no online platform or tool that magically delivers business results just because you registered. Every initiative you engage in must be thoughtfully planned, carefully executed, and closely monitored and adjusted over time to ensure you get the results you desire.

If you’re looking for help or ideas, call 1-800-399-9859 to speak with an Industrial Web Solutions web marketing specialist.

Although 14 manufacturing industries reported growth in February, including Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Petroleum & Coal Products; Transportation Equipment; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Machinery; Chemical Products; Fabricated Metal Products; Computer & Electronic Products; Textile Mills; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Printing & Related Support Activities; Paper Products; Wood Products; and Miscellaneous Manufacturing, the continued weak dollar is being blamed for the high cost of components and raw materials, particularly those obtained overseas. Representatives from Transportation Equipment stated “It is going to force us to increase our selling prices to our customers.” A similar statement was made by representatives from Chemical Products: “We continue to see significant inflation across nearly every type of chemical raw material we purchase.”  Nonmetallic Mineral Products, which is one of the 4 industries to experience contraction last month, along with Plastics & Rubber Products; Primary Metals; and Furniture & Related Products, stated, “Prices continue to rise, while business limps along at last year’s pace.” Plastics and Rubber reported, “Overall demand is off 10 percent.”

While the weak dollar has adversely affected the purchase of components and raw materials overseas it has had a positive impact on exports, which experienced a growth percentage point change of +0.5% with a PMI of 62.5%. Right alongside that of the overall economy, exports have experienced continued month-over-month growth at a faster rate of change for the past twenty months. Both Production and New Orders are up as well. Production experienced an increase of 2.8 percentage points from the January reading of 63.5%, registering a Production Index of 66.3% and continued growth for the 21^st consecutive month. Demonstrating a 20 month growth trend at a faster rate of change, New Orders were up 0.2 percentage points from January.  Thirteen industries reported growth in New Orders, including Apparel, Leather & Allied Products; Petroleum & Coal Products; Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components; Wood Products; Printing & Related Support Activities; Machinery; Transportation Equipment; Chemical Products; Paper Products; Fabricated Metal Products; Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products; Computer & Electronic Products; and Miscellaneous Manufacturing, while Primary Metals; Nonmetallic Mineral Products; Furniture & Related Products; and Plastics & Rubber Products reported decreases.

Despite a +0.5 percentage point rise in Prices, and increases for the past 20 months at a faster rate of change, manufacturing and the overall economy continue to expand. And that is good news. Companies are challenged to find cost saving ways to attract new business to offset any decreases in orders from existing customers that may occur as a result of rising Prices. To manage marketing budgets set aside for new business development, industrial marketers must consider the changing landscape of search, social media, and lead/sales generation that occurs online and offline. Content presented on blogs, websites, text ads, emails, industrial directories, map sites, search engines, relevant 3^rd party sites, Twitter, Facebook and other social media websites, as well as all direct mail letters and brochures, must be current and highly focused on the specific interests of your target audience groups. Market research may need to be done to understand those interests and to uncover the specific language used by your target audiences to search for what you offer. Through careful research, planning, and implementation budgets can be intelligently and carefully managed to nurture leads, sales, and overall business growth, particularly as you strategize to offset the impact of increased prices.

For help with your marketing research, planning, creation and implementation speak with an Industrial Web Solutions marketing expert. Call (800) 399-9859.

By regarding the tool much like the professional networking site LinkedIn, the idea is to establish an account that identifies you with your company. First of all, as always with Google products, you must have a Google Account (Gmail address) to open a Google Profiles account. If you have a personal Gmail account perhaps you would prefer to establish a new account that is used exclusively for this purpose.

At the top of the profile there is a space to add 10 words that describe you best. Here’s where you put good old fashioned search engine optimization (SEO) to work for you. Select keywords that will identify you and your role with your company. For example, “CNC Machining Expert.” Add some photos of you in your factory where you are using or at least standing near a CNC machine in operation. Keep your Introduction personal but make sure you use your keywords again: “Since 1985 I have been running my own CNC machining shop in Corning, NY, where I live with my family.” You can use Bragging Rights to identify your professional successes: manage 50 employees, ‘Supplier of the Year.’ Occupation, Employment and Education are pretty straight forward but try to include your keywords.

If you look over to the right you will see Links. If you use other Google services such as the online photo album Picasa Web, it will be associated automatically as long as you are using the same Gmail account. If you haven’t opened a Twitter account, now is a good time to do so. You will be able to add a link to your Twitter account here as well. You will also be able to add Custom Links such as a link to your profile page on your website, or to your business if it can be identified as ‘About You.’ If it is not about you it may be removed. Once you add the Custom Link you will have to check a box that says: This Page is Specifically About Me.

At the bottom of the page you will find Profile URL. Here you will be able to select the url that contains your Gmail account name instead of the long impersonal numerical identifier. Lastly, I would like to mention how you can use Buzz, which is another Google social networking tool like Twitter. You can establish your Buzz account within your Gmail account. Look to the left for a link and click on it. Once it is established, it will be automatically associated with your Google Profiles account. You may wish to encourage your customers to join Buzz as well and use it as a way for them to post questions about things for which you are the expert within your company. Begin to establish your authority online for the type of content offered by your company in the areas you can strongly and consistently represent.

Remember that Google Profiles is a social networking site not specifically designed for business. So absolutely do not “sell” or “market.” Instead you are going to use it to “identify” who you are and your area of expertise. Respect the way in which Google wants this service to be understood and you will be able to benefit from the publicity it affords.

Our industrial clients at Industrial Web Solutions are starting to approach us, instead of the other way around, about ways to build their brand and hopefully generate leads using social media. The first place we begin with clients is to uncover and define their goals, both long term and short term, objectives, and metrics for success. Understanding why you are doing something helps you to effectively design the ways in which you are going to achieve your objectives and exactly what metrics reveal your progress. Sounds simple but it is a step that is often avoided because clients get stuck on the bigger picture – make sales. Of course we all want to make sales but there are so many goals that have to be achieved that affect our sales success. And a well-thought out strategy makes sure all of the goals are accounted and planned for.

In addition to all the ideas offered by Della Penna, I would add a reminder to be consistent. Remember, you are concurrently trying to build your perceived authority for the products and/or services represented by your web content. Referred to in search engine optimization as your ‘authority score,’ which is in addition to your ‘link authority’ (hyperlinks that identify your content as relevant to and an authority of the products and/or services represented), your brand name or company representative is associated by the search engines with the content discussed in the Twitter post, for example. Pick your areas of expertise and stick to them and you will build your authority score, which affects indexing and rankings in the search engines. After a comprehensive research and development to identify the keywords used by your target audience groups to refer to what you offer, use those keywords strategically in the posts and other web content you present on the various social media channels you have decided to focus on. Create strong and compelling content that accurately reflects the interests of your readers. The more your content is referenced the stronger your authority score will be and the more likely it is that your content will rise to the top in the search engine results.

An oxymoron perhaps, but social media means business. Use it with intelligence and planning and it can be an effective way for you to build your brand and increase your lead acquisition online.

Contact Industrial Web Solutions with your questions 1-800-399-9859.

Given the changes to Google’s indexing system and the introduction of the ‘authority score,’ which seeks to determine the level of authority of a content source for the keywords and phrases relevant to the content by evaluating the number of links and references to the content from off-site sources, industrial businesses could potentially increase their web ranking results by creating highly focused, search engine optimized content and placing it on social media sites where they have uncovered their target audiences are spending time.

Crispin Sheridan made a recent Clickz post about SEO and Integration with Social Media that offers some great ideas. I would add that social media is now part of the search engine optimization process. Not only is it beneficial for branding and expanding your audience, but frequently and regularly creating and posting off-site content according to a set schedule is essential if you plan on establishing or maintaining your competitive edge in the search engines for the keywords and phrases relevant to your content.

Audience engagement is key so try to be topical. You want your content to be read, commented on, and to be shared. Be sure to follow a cross-linking strategy so you get the most mileage possible from your content. Include links to your blog posts on Facebook and Twitter, for example. And submit blog posts to Digg and Reddit. Also, be sure to include links on your website to your Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn accounts, and any other social networking sites where you post content.

If you need help developing your social media strategy or content, give Industrial Web Solutions a call at (800) 399-9859.