Online Expo Press Release Makes a Big Impact!

As we announced in last month’s newsletter, new Social Networking capability has now been added to all Online Expo booths.

This is of course big news, so on August 18, 2009, we sent out a press release to let the world know about this cool new feature.

Boy, did we ever get some great publicity for the Online Expo Program from that press release! Here is a summary:

• The press release was picked up in six online media outlets, including Google News, MediaSyndicate, PR Log, and Newswire
• The press release was “tweeted” 41 times in Twitter by various users and organizations
• Multiple bloggers writing small business and technology blogs picked up the press release and provided inbound links (good for search engine rankings)

Take advantage of all this great publicity, and add your social networking links to your Expo Booth today!

Did you know that Online Expo booths now have enhanced email protection?

Your Online Expo booth protects your email address and your privacy by:

• Concealing your email address from spammers and data-miners
• Providing booth visitors with a simple, 1-click web form to use when contacting you
• Forwarding messages to your existing email account (no additional email accounts to monitor or check)
• Enabling communication to flow freely between you and your booth visitors, without compromising your privacy

With enhanced email protection now in your Online Expo booth, your email address is protected, and your booth visitors have an easy, secure way to contact your business.

When updating your Online Expo booth, you will notice that the interface includes a field for search engine keywords and phrases, which can hold up to 250 characters.

The keywords (and phrases) that you add into this field will automatically become “meta data” in the behind-the-scenes HTML code for your booth when you save your booth information when making updates or changes.

However, to get the most attention from the search engine spiders that crawl your booth, make sure you re-use your keywords throughout the rest of the text in your booth, as well as adding them in the keywords field.

Here is a simple formula you can use to guide your keyword placements in your booth paragraphs:

1. Select 10 keywords that you think customers would use to find your business when searching

2. Since there are five paragraphs of text in your booth, you can use two of your selected keywords in each paragraph of text.

Did you know that your Online Expo Booth can display online coupons?

You can advertise your current discounts, sales, and specials in your Online Expo booth. and can even change them as often as you’d like, too!

Online coupons are displayed at the bottom of your booth, which includes a spot for a brief text description so you can add your own “marketing spin” to your special offer.

Simply use your Online Marketing Center interface to upload the coupon file, enter the text description in the field, and click on “Update” – and that’s it!

Customers can see at a glance the latest specials available from your business, plus the coupon image and text description are both search engine indexable as well…even more reason to add online coupons to your Online Expo booth!

We are extremely pleased to announce that your Online Expo Booth now gives you the capability to include Social Networking right in your booth!

By now you are probably aware that Social Networking is the hottest topic in online marketing today. By incorporating Social Networking profiles in your Online Expo booth, you can give your business additional exposure online and further integrate this new technology into your online marketing efforts.

Want to learn more about Social Networking for small business? View our Online Presentations here!

Already using Social Networking for your small business? Add your information to your Online Expo booth today!

Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo all have the ability to not only read the HTML code found on a web site, but they can also read and index additional files, such as Adobe PDF files.

Your Online Expo Booth can accommodate two PDF files, and the links to these files display right in the “Additional Information” panel of your booth.

For added search engine “link juice,” try including one or two of your keywords when you type in the Title and Description of your files when uploading them to your booth (the new upload interface makes it easy to do this, too!).

When crawling the web, search engines love to find two things; 1) great content, and 2) links. By uploading PDF files to your Online Expo booth and using keyword-rich links as Titles and Descriptions, you are giving the search engines exactly what they need to boost your business in the search results!

Did you know that your Online Expo Booth can be used as a micro-site for your business?

For instance, if you are introducing a new product or need to focus on one specific area of your business, you can adjust your Online Expo Booth to be a one-topic “micro-site” to focus on that specific topic.

In your Online Expo Booth, you have complete flexibility to change text content, re-optimize the keywords, change the images/graphics, add new marketing pages, and promote special offers to make your Booth a focused micro-site that promotes a single topic or product for your business. Cool, huh?

For an example of using an Online Expo Booth as a micro-site, Five Sparrows converted its Booth to be a micro-site for our newest product, ConnectPLUS Integrated Social Marketing™. Check it out here!

Although we had hoped that the social networking capability would be available in the Online Expo Booths this month, we are still beta testing this new feature. However, we expect it to go live soon, so watch for this new feature next month!

In the meantime, we have released version 4.0 of the Online Exposoftware, which introduces these NEW FEATURES:

• Instant, automated pdf file upload – no more waiting for file validation!
• Instant, automated business photo uploads
• SPAM-protected email links that prevent your email address from being data-mined by spammers
• New categories added for business types

Your Online Expo Booth is an optimized, highly targeted web page that you can use to get the attention of customers as well as the search engines, especially when you add new, updated information to your Booth.

Here are some ideas you can use to update your Booth this month:

• Recycle your advertisements! The ads you use for other publications can also be uploaded to your Booth.
• Add a list of upcoming events that your business is sponsoring or attending this summer.
• Replace your existing (or expired) coupon with something new for July

Remember to update the keywords in your account to match any new terms contained in the updated content.

Did you know that Chamber Online Expo Booths often rank higher than a business’ own web site?

It’s true! Because Online Expo Booths are part of your Chamber’s online web “community,” the search engines see your booth as part of a much larger site. So each time other members make updates to their booths, the search engines give the entire Online Expo community “credit” for the update, which can help boost your rankings.

Your Chamber’s Online Expo Program also brings additional visitors and activity to your booth, and the search engines tend to reward sites with good web site traffic!