Having a presence online has one purpose: to bring potential customers to your door.
If your business is going to have an online presence, it’s not enough to just have a website or a Facebook, Google+ or Twitter page. Your online presence needs to be truly effective and bring you prospects. Your website needs to be searchable for people looking online for the services you provide. And, most importantly, your online presence needs to convert visitors into paying customers.
Learn all this and more through two free online workshops hosted by BodyShop Business and conducted by me! I would like to personally invite you to attend one or both of these online workshops.
The first is Website Essentials, an action-packed hour of all the things your website needs in order to best serve you and your business. The second is Effective Social Media Management, everything you should know about social media for your business and why it’s crucial to effectively participate in it. Here are details on what I’ll go over in each workshop:
Website Essentials
In this one-hour workshop, we’ll cover:
- A foundational understanding of the purpose of having a website.
- The importance of having an effective design that stands a great chance of having the visitor stay on the site long enough for them to do something you want them to do.
- Having “Calls to Action” on the homepage that get visitors to pick up the phone to call you, fill out contact/estimate forms or find your location(s) and drive to your shop.
- Why having a mobile version of your website is more important today than ever. Mobile websites (“Going Mobile With Your Website,” August 2012 issue of BodyShop Business), are special versions of a website that are optimized for a smartphone’s smaller screen. We’ll cover what these should look like and how it’s all about effective “Calls to Action” on these mobile versions of a site.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is where the rubber hits the road. SEO is the science of getting your site to rank as highly as possible. Lots of developers say they will optimize your site, but developers are a dime a dozen. True Web presence managers have taken the significant time required to truly learn the science of SEO.
- Corporate espionage: how your competitors are doing online and how to beat them at this game.
Social Media Management
In this one-hour workshop, we’ll cover:
- Why participating in social media for your business is crucial today.
- Setting up your accounts for success, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
- Promoting your social media, gaining “Likes,” “Circles of Fans,” “+1’s” and “Followers.”
- Killer content that engages your audience in the conversation. Just posting “car stuff” and “Hope everyone has a nice Monday!” doesn’t cut it. Nobody cares. Same for posting constant advertising/promotions. You’ve got to post things that your audience will find fun, things that will draw them in and elicit some responses. If you get 6 percent of your audience engaged, that’s considered a success. Sounds easy, but it isn’t. Engagement means credibility, and that’s getting noticed by search engines.
- The importance of effectively participating in Google+ on Google search rankings.
- How frequently should you post? How much time per week is likely required to do this correctly on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter?
- Social media marketing, i.e. pay-per-click advertising. How to effectively use social media advertising to reach more people and engage them in conversations you have started.
- A quick intro to LinkedIn. See “Link Up on LinkedIn” in the May 2013 issue of BodyShop Business for more information.
Schedule
We’ve made six different dates and times available for each of these two free online workshops. Choose the date and time that works best for you and go to: www.optimaautomotive.com/online-workshops.
Website Essentials Workshop
Wednesday, June 26, 10 a.m. Central
Thursday, June 27, 3 p.m. Central
Friday, June 28, 12 Central
Tuesday, July 9, 4 p.m. Central
Wednesday, July 10, 9 a.m. Central
Thursday, July 11, 1 p.m. Central
Effective Social Media Management Workshop
Wednesday, June 26, 2 p.m. Central
Thursday, June 27, 10 a.m. Central
Friday, June 28, 9 a.m. Central
Tuesday, July 9, 11 a.m. Central
Wednesday, July 10, 3 p.m. Central
Thursday, July 11, 4 p.m. Central
Signing Up
It’s easy to sign up for these online workshops. Simply go to www.optimaautomotive.com/online-workshops, find the workshop you would like to participate in, choose the date and time you prefer and fill out the sign up form. Space is limited for each time slot, so act quickly. Additional workshops may be scheduled at other dates and times should demand be great enough.
Questions? Email us at [email protected]. I look forward to seeing you online!
BSB Contributing Editor Mark Claypool has more than 30 years of experience in the fields of work-force development, business/education partnerships, apprenticeships and Web presence management. He is the CEO of Optima Automotive (www.optimaautomotive.com), which provides website design, development, search engine optimization (SEO) services and social media management services. Claypool’s work history includes stints at Metro Paint Supplies, VeriFacts Automotive, the National Auto Body Council (NABC), the I-CAR Education Foundation and SkillsUSA. He is the founder of Mentors At Work and co-founder of the Collision Industry Foundation. He served, on a volunteer basis, as the SkillsUSA World Team Leader for the WorldSkills Championships from 2003 to 2011.
