Author Archives: Laurel Lindsay

About Laurel Lindsay

Laurel Stark née Lindsay has helped thousands of businesses get better results from their online marketing since she began her career as a web marketer in 2003. As a speaker, author and CEO of The New Media Group, she’s been featured on CNN, Entrepreneur.com, CTV and ShawTV.

The 6 Step Social Media Plan For Business

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Today let’s talk about how to create a successful social media strategy!

The very first thing you want to do before you do anything else is figure out what your objective for your social media plan is.


Are you trying to grow a large community on your social platforms?

Are you trying to generate qualified leads?

Are you trying to get traffic back to your website?

Its only when you know what your objective is that you can then start to put a successful social media plan together.

 

Step 2- evaluate your social media resources.

Is it just you that is going to be engaging on social media for your business or do you have a team of people at your office or perhaps consultants that you have hired to help you with this?

Once you have figured out how much time and energy you have to utilize in social media, then you can go ahead and move on to the next step which is the execution.

Step 3- identify your target on social media & what they care about

So a big part of social media is content. You have to determine what content is important to your target audience and how you are going to get that content out there.

Step 4- curate & create content for your social media platforms

A big way to save time is to curate content which is to share content that has already been posted from other resources onto your own platforms.

The other option is to create your own content, like blog posts, videos like the one below and even images.

Step 5- create a social media schedule.

Then you want to commit to a schedule. Make sure you are posting consistently, whether that is once a day, once a week or once a month.

Consistency is key to building trust with your audience on social media.

Step 6- measure the results of your social media efforts.

Lastly, make sure you are measuring your efforts every single month or at least once a quarter.

Take a look at what is working and what is not working as it relates to your objective.

There, you can find out what posts are getting more engagement, more comments and which ones are driving more traffic back to your site and then you can tweak your strategy from there in terms of what you are posting and when!

Why aren’t we meeting in person?

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You & I have a chat scheduled to discuss your web marketing & I am looking forward to learning how I can help you!

You may be wondering why we’re not meeting in person. 

The way I see it is that we both started our businesses because we wanted to do things differently than the way they’d been done.

web marketing firmBeing in business for yourself can give you the freedom to create a life and business on your own terms.

The web has become a game changer in business.

It is such a powerful tool to help us create the lives we want, the businesses we want & the world we want.

And, I take my role as ambassador of new technology seriously, and I walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

For me, leveraging the power of the web works to free me from the restraints of needing to work from a fixed physical location.

I started off working from an office in Calgary, to working from home in Calgary, to splitting my time between Calgary, BC and Ontario, to eventually spending weeks working from Mexico.

I found that despite my concerns, where I was working from didn’t seem to make a difference to my clients or to the results I produced. 

Additionally, the time I was saving commuting was increasing my productivity & effectiveness.

I also benefitted from the cost savings of overhead, gas and parking- which I can pass on to you.

So, instead of us both spending time sitting in traffic, we’ll be having a phone or video call – whatever you prefer.

From there, we can discuss what you want your life & business to look like in the coming years, and how I can help you get there.

It’s about deciding how you want your business to work for you & us crafting a plan to get you there.

This is the power of the web I’ve experienced, and am looking forward to sharing with you!

 

Win $200, FREE Website Updates & More!

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Let us help pick up the tab on your holiday expenses with a $200 Visa Gift Card.

It’s easy to win!

Simply post your review of The New Media Group on Google  with the following information:

Tell us:

  1. What problem you needed our help with
  2. How we helped
  3. The difference our services made to your business & life.
Each review will be entered to win the Grand Prize of a $250 Visa Gift Card, our Second Place Prize of $100 worth of Free Web Updates and a Third Place Prize which is a Free copy of Laurel’s book SocialIn17

First Draw Is On Nov 31st! Good Luck!

 

Just In-Laurel Will Be At Social Media Camp- will you?

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Social Media Camp is Canada’s Largest Social Media Conference!

This spring the 6th annual conference will take place from May 22-23rd 2015.

And we’re so excited to announce Laurel’s submission to speak was accepted!

social media camp

 

Laurel will be speaking at Social Media Camp on the topic of her book Social In 17 alongside notable authors, speakers and marketing experts like…

Alt

Renowned marketing consultant, John Jantsch is confirmed as Social Media Camp’s opening keynote speaker.

Best selling author of Duct Tape Marketing, Duct Tape Selling and The Referral Engine, John has been called the “World’s Most Practical Small Business Expert” and Forbes has named Duct Tape Marketing one of the 100 Best Websites for Entrepreneurs.

Laurel is stoked to be in the company of such individuals.

Want to come? Get Your Tickets For Social Media Camp Here:

 

3 Guerilla Marketing Techniques for Business Owners on a Budget

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Today we are going to talk about three Guerilla marketing techniques any small business owner can use.

These are free marketing tools you can use to to get more credibility, exposure and generate leads from your web presence.

The first thing you want to start doing as a small business owner is start blogging.

Essentially that is just writing articles and posting them on your website. – See? Marketing can be that easy!

What that is going to do is attract your qualified prospects and help build trust that you know what you are talking about and you are a leader in your industry.

As a bonus this will also increase your visibility on search engines and increase the odds that google will place you on page one of their search engine which will give you lots of visibility to your existing and future customers!

The second thing you want to do is start video blogging which is what I do here:

What this does is help you build trust with your future customers, because they get an idea of who you are and start to get to know, like and trust you.

As well it gives you exposure on Youtube which you may not know is owned by Google and increase the odds you show up on the search engines.

The third thing you want to start doing is use Google+ local which gives you a free listing on the Google Search Engine and is also tied into Google+ the social media network.

Also this is tied in with Youtube so you can have your video blogs automatically posting to Google+, your presence on Google Maps and Google+ Local for free, and use Google+ the social network to connect with future prospects!

Keep Reading For Detailed Instructions on Exactly How to Implement These 3 Digital Marketing Techniques Yourself:

Website Hosting Fee Increase: Effective Jan 1 2015

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Since I formed The New Media Group in 2006 it’s been of the utmost importance for me to provide high value, low cost technical services for my clients.

I believe no cost, lifetime support is just the right thing to do and is one of the ways we show we care about your success.

I haven’t increased my web hosting prices, ever.

But, after 9 years, this too must change.

The advent of newer, more interactive technologies necessitate a far more vigilant approach to web hosting, and our costs have gone up.

As of Jan 1 2015 all standard email and web hosting packages will now cost $299 + GST for the year. 

This package is still incredible value as it includes website hosting, email hosting and live-person support from real people who care.

For those who need more email storage, we now offer a 3 Gig Mailbox for only $5/user/month.

For more information, please contact me directly.

 

WordPress Whisperer Wanted

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Your passion for good code, clean lines and an intuitive user experience runs deep.

WordPress Whisperer Wanted

In fact, you abhor the mediocrity in much of what’s on the web.

As an experienced and successful web development professional, you hold yourself personally accountable to a higher standard than many.

You attribute your success to your trifecta of skills- you’re a competent business person, you possess above average technical skills AND solid design/UX abilities.

Because of your skills and quality of output you’re already successfully contracting for clients and agencies alike. The result- you have a solid portfolio which shows competence and cleverness in applying the latest in SEO, social and conversion techniques.

What you’re looking for is an opportunity to supplement your existing work and pay with a hassle free, steady, ongoing contract with significant growth potential.

You want people that are easy to work with and have been doing this for long enough to get our of your way. You want the wireframe, the content, the keywords and the freedom to show us how it’s done.

If this sounds like you, then you may just be the web whisperer we’re looking for.

We’re a busy yet organized web consultancy with operations across Western Canada and clients worldwide.

We are expanding our development team to meet increased demand. Projects would be smaller to start and expanding and increasing in scope as our working relationship grows.

The Skinny on the Day-to-Day::

  • Designing & Coding Custom WordPress Themes.
  • Develop & Maintain WordPress Websites; ensuring responsivity as well as browser compatibility.
  • Installation, Testing & Debugging of WordPress Updates
  • Installing, Updating, Testing & Debugging WordPress Plugins
  • Configuring the hosting environment for maximum performance in preparation for development.

Technical Skills::

  • CSS/CSS3
  • HTML/HTML5
  • Basic to good PHP
  • Basic MySQL skills
  • Basic JS skills (nice to have but not required)

WordPress::

  • A strong knowledge of the platform and it’s hooks
  • Custom Theming/child-theming
  • Good knowledge of plugins and their basic configurations
  • Able to work within the PHP files of a theme to create new templates and functionality
  • Able to create simple plugins

Joomla::

  • A basic knowledge of it’s interface and file structure.
  • Able to work within the Joomla Database

Other::

  • Have worked through the entire process of a website from Design to Development to Production.
  • Willing to provide URL’s to samples of work.
  • Good abilities within Photoshop/Illustrator
  • Familiar with Webmaster Tools/Analytics

To Apply, Email laurel @ thenewmediagroup . ca with the following:

  1. The url of the worst website you know of
  2. A link to your portfolio/5 websites you’ve built
  3. A funny picture of a cat
  4. 4 sentences as to why you would be perfect for this gig
  5. Hourly rate.

Should Your Business Take a Selfie? Capitalize On HOT Social Media Trends.

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Today let’s talk about Social Media trends and how you can capitalize on them to grow your business.

The first thing people talk about all the time is the selfie-so how can you use the selfie to actually promote your business and connect with your future customers.

Image credit Social Media Today

Fact is, people like to see photos of other people.It helps create connection.

Tip #1: Take A Business Selfie.

You don’t necessarily need to make ridiculous poses in your bathroom mirror. But you can take pictures of yourself with your customers, with new products and suppliers and on location to help create connections with your future customers.

So go ahead and selfie it up and see what kind of reaction you get! I am betting it is going to be higher than posting information about your business that is text related.

Tip #2: Use Multimedia.

My next point is multimedia. Multi media is a huge trend in social right now, especially the use of video and photos.

So wherever possible, make sure you are using multi media instead of text. So you can take quick videos on your smart phone and upload them actually right from your phone to your social networks which take up more space on the social newsfeed, which basically gives you more visibility to your target audience and community you have already built on social.

Tip #3: Capitalize on Theme Days.

The third thing you want to do is engage in theme days. You may have heard of “throw back thursday” and other Trending Topics

These are conversations already happening on social & they’re easy to capitalize on.

Simply join the conversation by using the hashtag to get exposure to an increased audience size.

Foy using the hashtag throw back thursday – #tbt, you can get more traffic simply because people are already having a conversation about it instead of having to start from scratch!

Tweet This!
#Biztips: Join Conversations On Trending Topics To Get More Exposure on #socialmedia via @new_media_group

That’s your one minute tip! Remember, if you liked this tip, please share!

 

 

The difference between domain registration & hosting

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Domain registration and website hosting services are a necessary component of your website design process.

Once your new website has been launched, the bulk of the costs associated with a new website design are over.Social-Media-Marketing-Set-Up-Cheat-Sheet

However, there are two fees that you must continue to pay in order to keep your new website live and accessible on the internet.

They are domain registration/renewal and website/email hosting.

Before we get into the difference between the two, let’s start off with some definitions.

What is a Domain?

This is also called your url and is the name you registered that usually starts with www. and ends with .com or .ca .

Some companies have more than one domain name registered so as to have ownership over specific niches as well as their company name.

What is Domain registration?

The purchase of your domain name is also called domain registration and can be done through providers, or domain registrars like godaddy.com or webnames.ca and are generally for the period of one year.

This means each year you must renew your domain name each year in order for you to maintain ownership. This is typically a nominal fee of under $40 per year.

What is Website and email hosting? 

Simply put, website and email hosting is essentially renting server space online for your website files to live.

In addition to the actual space, a host will provide band with, or data transfer services.

For example:

Your website files are stored on a server and whenever someone types in your website address, these files are sent to that user’s computer over the internet, using bandwidth.

The same goes for email associated with your domain name.

When someone emails you at yourname@yourcompany.com files are sent over the internet to that user’s computer.

The service that sends those files is your website and email hosting service.

It requires a lot of hardware and expertise to provide reliable web hosting services.

A good web host will actively update their servers to guard against spam, viruses and hacks. These are just some of the things happening behind the scenes at your website hosting provider, but they are very important ones.

You must continue your website and email hosting services for your website and emails to remain functional.

We are an authorized reseller for rackspace email and website hosting, and as such can guarantee 99% uptime.

ProTip: We recommend that your website and email hosting provider be the same as your web design provider. 

3 reasons why to source your web hosting and web development services from the same company:

1. If your website goes down or breaks, it’s just one call to one company. This saves you time and headaches when you just need it fixed.

2. Your website design may require very specific server configuration in order for it to function. Not all web hosting companies offer support of all technologies which will cause delays in your web design project, and may result in additional fees.

3. You don’t know what you don’t know about website hosting.

Your website developer will have the technical expertise and experience to recommend a hosting company with a solid reputation combined with great support and an infrastructure big enough to not disappear into the night.

Most of the time you’ll rely on your web developer to communicate with the web host on your behalf, so it’s important to consider your web developer’s recommendations for a web host, as they have a vested interest in keeping your web design online, functional and virus free.

 

 

The #1 Marketing Tool For Business You Need To Start Using Right Now

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Today I want to share with you the Number one most effective and free digital marketing tool that you can use as a small business owner or do it yourself marketer.

You may not be surprised to learn it is Video marketing! Just like this video here:

It is an incredibly powerful tool that is free to use, I actually filmed this on my smart phone!

3 Reasons Video Marketing is so effective.

Number 1 – Video is the next best thing to meeting someone in person.

A lot of our communication is non-verbal so watching a video of someone is a really great way to get to know them and get a sense of who they are, its very similar to meeting someone in person.

Secondly, people are much more prone to watch video or look at photos than they are to read text or a long bio about you. It is a very easy way to communicate information and have people consume it in this day in age when people have increasingly short attention spans.

Thirdly, videos are much more likely to be shared and have a much higher conversion rate in terms of people who watch the video are much more likely to act and take the next step in the buying cycle.

Lastly, not many people know this, but Youtube is owned by Google and is the second biggest search engine in the world!

So by posting videos to Youtube, you increase your exposure across the search engines and generate more traffic back to your website!

Those are all the reasons I recommend you start video marketing right now.

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