What is LinkedIn and How Can it Benefit My Business?

While you may or may not be familiar with LinkedIn, this is a social media platform that you may want to consider for your business strategy. This blog post defines what this social media platform does and why it makes sense to add to your channels of engagement.

What is LinkedIn?

This social media platform is essentially a database of professionals that provides a way to categorize your professional career and business history by company and by your individual experience. It can also serve as a great search tool to find other

professionals and build a network that can help grow your business.

Why Does LinkedIn Benefit Your Business?

There are a number of ways that LinkedIn can help you and your business:

• It helps raise awareness and furthers your brand image through a professional profile that builds credibility and trustworthiness. Once you have a professional profile, you can set up a company page, which can include information about your company and links to your website and social media pages. You can also raise awareness about your business by joining LinkedIn Groups where you can offer and get advice, share information and ideas, and build credibility within your industry.
• It enables more people to find your business and learn more about you and it. LinkedIn pages do end up in search engine results, especially if you use specific keyword content in your profile, summary, and business description.
• It provides market intelligence on other companies, including the competition. This helps you plan your marketing strategy and find those places where you can gain that competitive advantage.  
  
• It puts knowledge and information at your fingertips that can help you improve how you do business as well as offers tools that assist with the marketing effort. LinkedIn Signal is a great place to start so you can see what type of information is available through this resource.
• It connects you with other professionals you can trust and that may be able to help you with an aspect of your business or spread the news about your business. Being connected to other influential people will move your business forward, including brand ambassadors, employees, talent and more.
• It creates momentum. As more people see the number of connections you are making, they will want to connect with you. It’s like when a crowd gathers. The more people there are, the more others want to know what is going on so they join. It is the same with your LinkedIn profile.

Are you ready to learn more? Flyline Search Marketing can help you set up and manage your LinkedIn profile. Contact us today to learn more.

Benefits of an Internet Marketing Consultant

As a small business owner, you may be used to doing everything yourself or assumed you did not have the resources to have outside help, especially on something like marketing. 

However, you could be focusing on your core capabilities while someone else helps handle expanding your marketing channels to a larger, more targeted audience. This is just one of the many benefits of hiring an Internet Marketing consultant.

Save Time and Money
A comprehensive Internet Marketing program requires time and money – two things you are most likely short on as a small business owner. There are so many channels and tactics to exploit, content to create, comments and engagement to manage, and statistics to study. 

Learning what each does let alone which ones you should choose and how you should use them takes considerable time. However, an Internet Marketing consultant already knows and understands how to work within these channels, platforms, and applications.

Focus on Your Core Business

When you have someone else handling your marketing and advertising functions, you can focus on your core business to make it a place these new customers will want to come back to again and again. 

You can work on making the important decisions that keep your business running at optimum performance, including attention to service, training, strategy and finances while your Internet Marketing consultant brings in your target audience.

Tap into Greater Expertise

An Internet Marketing consultant has specific expertise that they continually hone as the rules of online marketing and advertising continue to change, including search engine optimization rules and new social media platforms. 

Their expertise also transcends industries and niches, so they can work with a number of types of retail operations to help them understand their audience better. They also are more aware at works at moving you up the search engine ranking and how to select content that is relevant and interesting to your audience.

Expand Creativity and Innovation

When you are inside your business, it may difficult to think ‘outside the box’ so having an Internet Marketing consultant can provide you with a unique perspective, ideas, and feedback that can move your business forward and generate exciting new products and service experiences for you.

We’re Here to Help!

We have the team of professionals, experience, training and knowledge to serve as your Internet Marketing consultant. Find out more by visiting our website and seeing how we have helped many other businesses just like yours!

Flyline Offers a Professionally Managed Pinterest Account for Allen’s Flowers and Plants

One of the latest social networking sites that is continuing to grow on a daily basis in popularity among consumers is Pinterest, a site designed for sharing creative ideas, fashion, recipes and more.

Now, Pinterest’s popularity has attracted attention from the business community as a platform for getting in front of targeted audience. 

That has certainly been the case for florists who now see it as a way to show off their floral design capabilities and range of products and services, helping to garner more customers both online and in their stores.

Allen’s Flowers and Plants of San Diego

Like our work for Carithers Flowers in Atlanta, which also has begun using Pinterest as an additional feature of our comprehensive Internet Marketing program for florists, Allen’s Flowers and Plants of San Diego, an award-winning florist with three locations throughout San Diego County, has recently added Pinterest to its cadre of marketing initiatives.

The result has been new customers and greater brand appeal for its florist services, including wedding and events, and its flower products. 

Its existing and new customers have given the San Diego florist rave reviews for its Pinterest boards with great ideas, information, and pictures related to flowers and decorating with flowers.

Our Pinterest Services

The Pinterest account is designed to build the buzz around the Allen’s Flowers and Plants brand, online presence, and its three locations in San Diego. The Flyline Search Marketing Pinterest Services for florists includes the following:

•  We create Pinterest photo boards that are themed to the seasonal and holiday opportunities of the flower business.  These include boards for Mother’s Day, Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day and more as well as boards dedicated to interior and exterior decorating with flowers for events, weddings, and home. Other boards are focused on flower care.
  
•  We fill each Pinterest board with high quality flower images, all of which include alt tags and embedded links. 
• We manage all the boards and regularly update them as the seasons change.
•  We link the Pinterest platform with the website so website visitors can easily connect on Pinterest while those on Pinterest can quickly access the website or blog. The sites are also linked to other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Are you ready to get started with Pinterest as part of a comprehensive Internet Marketing program for your flower shop? If you would like to sign on or have more questions, be sure to contact us here. 

Why Pinterest for Florists?

While many businesses may just assume Pinterest is for crafty moms and burgeoning entrepreneurs, the social media site is rapidly growing in interest for local and national businesses as a way to share ideas with customers and potential customers and help position themselves as the go-to business for a particular product or service.

This presents a lot of opportunity for florists to get in front of consumers who are thinking about flowers for any number of reasons:

• Wedding flowers and event flowers
• Flower décor for the home
• Flower arrangements for gifts, holidays, and special occasions
• Flower and plant care
• Gift ideas and gift baskets

Utilizing both vibrant and attractive pictures as well as informative content, many florists now recognize the value of joining Pinterest.

The Carithers’ Pinterest Account

The Pinterest account is designed to build the buzz around Carithers and get more consumers in the Atlanta area as well as across the country thinking of Carithers as the premier florist to work with on an event, wedding, or gift.

The professional social media marketing team at Flyline creates Pinterest photo boards that are themed to the season and holiday opportunities related to the flower business. 

Each Pinterest board is filled with high-quality flower images all of which include alt tags and embedded links to increase the inbound links to the website and drive traffic and revenue for Carithers.

To date, the use of the Pinterest channel has been successful for Carithers with many users re-pinning pictures and content, which means viral opportunities to further grow this florist’s local and national market share. 

Better yet, the social media marketing channels are linked so that information and updates are shared for maximum coverage with minimal resource outlay.

Are you ready to see what the power of social media marketing can do for you? Contact us today to learn more about our Internet Marketing programs for Atlanta’s small business owners. 

Case Study on Website Development Capabilities: Jay McDonald

Your website is now often the first things prospective clients may see about your business. If that is how they are judging whether they want to do business with you, then you will want to ensure that your website looks incredible and transmits the messages you are seeking to communicate to your target audience.

At Flyline Search Marketing, we’ve been busy putting our website design and website development expertise to work for a wide range of clients. One of our recent success stories is our case study for this blog post, Jay McDonald. Read his story below.

Jay McDonald

Jay McDonald wears many hats. He is a CEO and Business Owner in the Atlanta area as well as Coach, Mentor, Board Member, Strategist, and Confidant and Chair for Vistage International.

He is a successful entrepreneur who provides business consulting, coaching, and mentoring services for some of Atlanta's premier business owners. 

This includes people like Charles Carithers, owner of Carithers Flowers, who happens to be one of Flyline’s longest clients. Other clients of Jay McDonald include the owner of Chateau Elan.

A High-Tech, Responsive, and Scalable Website

When Jay came to us, he was looking for a sophisticated web site that could scale up with his business. Not only is his new website easy to navigate and uses colors and a design that enhances readability, but it was also built on a Wordpress platform that incorporates a high-tech, responsive site design.

The responsive design allows the website to literally morph into a full mobile website when accessed via a smartphone or IOS device, such as an iPhone or Android. The site also integrates when a user is accessing it via a desktop, laptop, or tablet device.  

Optimized and Updatable Websites

Additionally, Jay is able to enjoy a website that comes with a Customer Management System (CMS) tool that allows for easy updates so he can regularly update his content for a more dynamic website. 

The cost-effective design can deliver traffic and convert it to sales as soon as it arrives.

Further value comes from the fact that the team at Flyline optimizes (i.e., uses search engine optimization strategies) the web site to maximize the chances of getting free organic traffic from search engines, including Google, Yahoo/Bing, Ask, Dogpile, Anywho and others.

A Comprehensive Internet Marketing Strategy

Along with a comprehensive Internet Marketing program, an optimized website can help quickly direct traffic to a website. 

For instance, Jay’s website has easy buttons that integrate his social media efforts, including a button for Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter and RSS Feed to encourage his clients and prospects to reach out to him beyond just his website.

Ready to roll out a website that shows you are the go-to business for your niche area? 

Contact us today to get started on designing or re-designing your website as well as integrating a comprehensive Internet Marketing program that builds further access to more opportunities and revenue! 

Making Businesses Soar into a Busy New Year

The holiday season has finally come to an end. For the individual, that means they can work on refilling the savings account, and for a business, that means the holiday rush has ended.

 Sure, it won’t be so busy anymore and you can finally take a break, but with the busiest time of the year at it its end, that means sales are going to drop, too.

No matter what, people tend to spend less after the holidays, but your sales don’t have to drop too much. 

With Flyline’s help, we can help keep the sales coming even after the rush has ended thanks to our expert, targeted Internet Marketing programs.

Four Reasons to Choose Flyline

Here are four great reasons to choose Flyline:  Carithers Flowers, Allen’s Flowers and Plants, Allen’s Flower Market and People’s Flowers.

What do they have in common? All four are clients of Flyline that have reaped the benefits of using Flyline’s various Internet Marketing services to drive revenue at the holidays and throughout the year.

That’s right, these four companies all had record breaking sales over the holiday season, and three of the four were voted by their individual cities as the best flower shops in the area. 

These four companies from all over the country have also experienced tremendous growth in website traffic, customers, and sales all year long and into the future.

These companies have continued to trust us into the New Year and will surely see record-breaking sales this Valentine’s Day. Let us do the same for you. 

And, you don’t have to be in the florist business to get the most from our Internet Marketing strategies and comprehensive SEO, online advertising, content and social media marketing programs.

Introducing Your Marketing Partner for 2013

We are Flyline Search Marketing and we specialize in helping our clients achieve their strategic goals for traffic, customers, and sales as well as show them how to build a viral marketing campaign and enhance their brand image. 

We start by developing a comprehensive and customized Internet Marketing program that best fits your business. For instance, with the four flower shops, we have developed the ultimate strategy in floral marketing, which works universally for that type of business. 

However, if you need marketing for your business niche or industry, then we will create a set of tactics that fits your customer base and their interests.

We develop and manage websites as well as fan pages on high traffic social media platforms like Facebook. 

Our team of expert writers and SEO specialists can take care of all your blogging, YouTube posts, and even a press release program. 

Taken altogether, these tactics will help you attract and expand your audience as well as generate new levels of revenue and brand recognition in 2013!

Flyline’s Florist Internet Marketing: Nurturing Ongoing Growth and Targeted Traffic

If you have followed our company blog in the past, then you know that we specialize in Internet Marketing, including social media marketing, SEO, content development, Google AdWords and more for pretty much any type of business out there.

However, you could say we’ve developed an Internet Marketing green thumb when it comes to the florist industry. 

Upon starting with Atlanta, Georgia’s very own Carithers Flowers, a company we have worked with for quite a while now, we were able to practically perfect Internet Marketing for the florist industry that we have now used to grow other floral businesses across the country.

Since then, we have worked with a variety of clients all in different industries as well as added a number of florists to our client list who are all experiencing phenomenal growth. Three clients that we further perfected our floral marketing campaign include:

·         San Diego, California-based Allen’s Flowers and Plants who have with our help been voted San Diego’s best three years in a row now;

·         Long Beach, California-based Allen’s Flower Market who is one of our newest clients and has just been named Long Beach’s best florist for the first time; and

·         Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Florist, Peoples Flowers Shop who, along with Carithers Flowers, was selected as winners by the Conforti Collection this year for their $1,000 giveaway.

The Floral Marketing Masters

With Flyline, the results show for themselves that we really are the best. Through our extensive Internet Marketing campaigns, we have turned four local business florists into household names in their local communities and helped increase their brand equity.  

Our expert marketing team, comprised of SEO experts, content developers, social media masters and website development brains, has discovered that, unlike many other industries, the floral industry in its sales at least, is practically universal.

In other words, what has worked for Atlanta, Georgia-based Carithers Flowers and our west coast clients also works for People’s Flowers in New Mexico and will work for your floral shop wherever you are in the country.

Our floral marketing platform is designed to bring in business and capitalize on your company’s overall product and service offering.  One example of our success is, that since 2009 when we started working with Carithers Flowers, we have helped the company more than double their revenue.

At Flyline Search Marketing, our floral marketing campaigns get you the results you deserve. Let’s grow your business together!

The Online Advertising Steps to Success: Social Media and SEO

At Flyline Search Marketing, we spend a lot of time talking about Internet Marketing and how, without it, a business’s online presence will surely go unnoticed. 

We constantly promote the use of social networking and various other tactics whose sole purpose is getting a business name out there for the whole world to see.

Sometimes, we concentrate on explaining an individual part and others a whole section. 

Social Media, SEO and others tactics are all gears in the machine that is online advertising.  When all these components are put together into a targeted online advertising program, it increases the speed and performance of your online advertising, growing traffic and potentially increasing your customers and profits.

At Flyline Search Marketing, we are solely focused on Internet Marketing tactics like these and have the team and expertise to create an online advertising program that works specifically for your industry, your company, and your target audience. Here are the steps we use to get you there.

The Online Advertising Machine

Like a motor vehicle, online advertising has many parts and while sometimes you can run with a couple things missing from the equation, you will find that when every part is in play things will run much smoother than when a few nuts, bolts, and gears have gone missing.

The first step to Internet Marketing is to have an online presence. At Flyline, we can design a website that fits your business and budget that will surely dazzle anyone who sees it.

Once your company is actually accessible over the Internet highway, you absolutely cannot stop there. Think of the website as the foundation of the company’s online presence. From there, you need to bring in customers and luckily there are more than a few ways to bring them in by the droves.

Social Media

If you have followed our blogs, then you know just how much we love social media. At Flyline, we use it ourselves for the very same reason we are pitching it to you. Social media works -- end of story. Let us create your presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and any other site imaginable so that It all comes together in a consistent presence with messages that appeal to your audience.

When it comes to social networking, the more places your business is present, the better off you will be. Exposure and easy communication with customers are probably two of the best parts of social networking.  At Flyline, we can make things even easier for you by creating and managing business pages on all the top social networking sites, including updating them with fresh and relevant content.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a very complex science that you cannot easily manipulate without the help of pay per click platforms. One such platform is the Google AdWords program and simply put, it works. 

The best part though is that, as a Google AdWords certified partner, our expert marketing team understands what keywords and keyword frequency works to get you the ranking you need in a search engine. Our SEO strategies extend to everything we do – from articles and blogs to press releases and website content.

Ready to get started? Find out how we can customize an online advertising machine that generates the traffic and business you have been seeking while staying within your marketing budget!

The Great Tweet Guide to Twitter Marketing

At Flyline Search Marketing, we live and breathe the realms of social networking because we know that, without social media, businesses would truly struggle to succeed in the online world. With that in mind, we have always encouraged the use of sites like Facebook and YouTube.

That’s because these platforms enable businesses to more personally interact with their customers and use these channels as an effective medium for online advertising. 

Even when working to create personalized marketing strategies for each of our clients, we always suggest creating and managing a variety of social networking channels. This helps spread the good word on the business we are working with.

In this blog post, we explain how Twitter can help build up your following and brand.

Using Twitter to Build Your Business

One such social media site that is especially effective in advertising is called Twitter. When on Twitter, users follow each other to receive updates on what is happening with friends, family, and colleagues.

Businesses can also use Twitter’s simple update interface to tweet about new products, sales, and more. By more, we mean more -- a whole lot more.

All about Twitter and the Fine Art of Tweeting

By itself, Twitter can be pretty effective as it is an easy way to get more free exposure to the public. Let’s explain how this works.

First, we create and manage a Twitter account for your business. At this point, you can post the link on your business website, Facebook page, or any other site that you use.

Chances are many of your business customers are to some degree apart of the social media realm and when they ‘follow’ your Twitter page you will become visible to their followers. This can lead new customers to your doorstep and, in some cases, create a viral effect when it comes to spreading the news about your products or services. 

Take a look at some of the most popular Tweets in history to get a better idea of just how many people are online.

Another great aspect of Twitter is the website’s ease of use. When you have followers, you can tweet to them. These can be anything from a simple “Happy Holidays” message to something that everyone finds appealing like information on an upcoming sale or change in product line.

At Flyline, we whole heartedly endorse the use of Twitter for social media and advertising purposes as it is extremely effective. Still not convinced? Check our very own Twitter to see just what you have been missing out on.

Marketing to a Holiday Audience

The holidays can be so different in nature to any other time of the year when it comes to marketing. Other times throughout the year, it is normal to for any attractive marketing to bring in customers. 

For example, if you own an HVAC company and advertise “free quotes and consultations” on your vans, website, and all over the city, then you will find yourself getting business.

People like the sound of “free,” but during the holidays people become more and more picky as about to whom they give their business to. Whether it is because they want to save or have a more stringent moral compass around this time of the year is irrelevant.

Ultimately, what matters is that, to stay afloat, you need business whether you are selling products or services like the HVAC company we mentioned in the example.

This blog describes some of the key holiday marketing strategies you can employ to attract your target audience and get them to buy, buy, buy.

Holiday Marketing

While we used service companies as an example and while it is true that a service company will benefit more from a festive marketing campaign, companies that sell products may still reap the benefits as well. Service companies are put more at a disadvantage over the holidays than product companies and here is why.

People have saved up for the holidays so they can buy gifts, go out, and celebrate. Essentially, if they want to get someone a specific gift, they are going to buy it, meaning many companies that offer products will get good business over the holidays just by advertising. 

However, when something goes wrong and requires a service call, people are going to be far more reluctant in making that call over the holidays as they want to spend their money on gifts and festivities rather than, say, a backed-up toilet.

At Flyline, we have the solution. Sure, some people are going to just get it fixed to get it over and done with and others have their companies they always use, but others may find themselves with a choice to make. Flyline wants to help that choice to be your company and, best of all, we can. Let us develop a festively themed marketing strategy that can help your business.

Whether or not your company is already signed up with us doesn’t matter. We would be happy to take on any new clients and work with them to develop an advertising campaign that best fits their needs and budgets. 

Even better is the fact that we have the knowledgeable and creative staff to design the perfect holiday ad campaign to help draw in more festive-minded customers. Ask us how!

Come Tweet with Us

If you have followed our blogs, then you probably have become aware that that we live and breathe social media. 

At Flyline Search Marketing, time and time again, we have stressed the complete and utter importance of online businesses being socially active and having a dominating social media presence.

Then it hit us -- at Flyline, we have a massive online presence and take pride in being socially active on sites like Facebook, YouTube, and now Twitter. 

That’s right, Flyline Search Marketing is cordially inviting you to check us out and follow us on Twitter. Be sure to follow us at: @FlylineSrchMktg.

Having a Twitter Account

Do you love tweeting, or do you not know what it is? Well, if you are constantly trying to tell your customers and fans about new deals, specials, and products or services, then we can pretty much guarantee that you will love tweeting.

You see, like the status updates on Facebook, Twitter lets you tweet about whatever you want and it shares it will all your followers. 

They can then share it with their followers and if it’s an unbeatable deal or an awesome new product, then chances are they will do just that.

We use our Twitter handle to keep our clients, fans, and followers informed on the new services we offer. Or, other times we like to inform them of the various specials we are constantly offering throughout the year. 

Twitter, like all other social networking sites, is an amazing way to get your business name out there for all to see.

In fact, we are so confident in the effectiveness of Twitter and social networking that we make the most of it ourselves on a near daily basis with regular tweets.

Getting a Twitter Account

By now, you may very well be considering a Twitter account. Well, you have nothing to lose as an account is free and only takes minutes to set-up. 

For businesses, Twitter is a great way to reach out and keep others informed, but it is understandable that, as a business owner, you may wonder when you have time to update your account and keep the social aspect of your business humming along.

That’s why, at Flyline, we offer various Internet marketing strategies, including a social media package. 

The best part of such a package is that we literally take care of everything for you so you can focus on growing your business and working with all the new customers that find out about you on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube! Then, you’ll be able to tweet all about your new success!