Restaurant Internet Marketing - It's Not Your Father's Yellow Pages

As a restaurant owner or manager are you taking advantage of all the opportunities offered up by the Internet or are you still counting on word of mouth and a traditional print marketing program to get diners filling your place? Are you even aware of what the Internet marketing can do for you? If you're not you're giving up business to your competition.

Take a moment to Google your type of restaurant (Italian, seafood, deli etc) and the name of your town and see what comes up on the first page. Do you see your name? How many competitors do you see? Now ask yourself "How many potential diners are going to come to my restaurant based on these results"? The answer of course is nada. Can you afford to give that business to your competition?

Location, location, location

Many local small and medium sized businesses have discovered the value of having an internet presence but it wasn't always that way. Most local businesses thought the internet best served big companies. On top of that, most small local businesses simply didn't have a clue how to participate effectively and they were too busy running their businesses to learn how.

The fact of the matter is that 72% of all searches are related to a search for local content. Nearly a year ago the monster search engine Google changed their algorithms so that local results show up on a search inquiry whenever appropriate. That means your shop can be just as competitive as a national restaurant chain when it comes to being found in search.

The difference between search and traditional advertising

So why is search such a big deal? The reason it is so much more effective than traditional marketing is that it responds to a specific need at a time when the potential diner is interested in the information. Unlike a weekly flier that's dropped in the home mailbox every Thursday, search doesn't clutter up a prospective diner's life but rater provides relevant information when the diner wants it not when the USPS delivers it.

When that potential customer is thinking about where to go for lunch he or she is going to search "pizza san pedro, ca" to find what's available in the area. In other words search delivers the information when the searcher is most receptive to it.

But wait there's more

Search by itself is reason to have a presence on the internet but the benefits certainly don't end there.

How would you like to be able to:

- Notify all of your customers what your daily specials are every day automatically.
- Invite your customers to place their order in advance so they don't have to wait for their food and do it without spending any time on the phone.
- Accept and confirm reservations electronically.
- Run promotional campaigns without spending a dime on advertising.
- Build solid customer relationships that will strengthen your word of mouth referrals.

And that's just the beginning. A professional internet presence will cost you significantly less than you are currently paying today for marketing. What's more, professionally managed internet presence keeps on giving even when you stop paying. Can you say that about your Yellow Page listing or print ads?

Online Reputation Management

There can be a potential dark side to this whole internet thing. You live or die on your reputation and it is important that you manage that reputation online. Never has the consumer had such an easy way to post anonymous comments for all the world to see. If you have a customer who has a bad experience don't be surprised if he or she posts it to a blog or a forum or gives you a bad review in the business directories.

Speaking of business directories, you already are on the internet even if you didn't know it. These directories scrape information out of Yellow Pages and other sources and add it to a business profile. You have a right to claim those listings and they are actually a great way to promote the business. But registered visitors also have the right to post reviews and if the only review your store has is from that disgruntled customer...your rep is shot.

There are just too many reasons that you have to get involved with the internet marketing. To not do so is to pass up an incredible opportunity for new business and to cement loyalty with regular customers. It's effective, inexpensive and essential if you want to remain competitive.

WebFrootz is an internet marketing agency, Baltimore website design, and Baltimore web development company MD specializing in comprehensive marketing solutions for small and medium business including branding, Website design and development, graphic design, copywriting, and SEO.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Restaurant-Internet-Marketing---Its-Not-Your-Fathers-Yellow-Pages&id=6498349

Infinity Logo Design Launches Content Writing Service

Infinity Logo Design recently added Content Writing Service to its pool of services, available at a staggering discount of 70%. Following the huge success of its Animated Video Service, Infinity Logo Design has now officially commenced its Content Writing Service as well. With a clientele of nearly a million, Infinity Logo Design is one of the fastest growing design companies of the world. And its recent diversification advocates the fact that the company looks fanatical in achieving its goals and objects with one of them being "to become the number 1 design & development company of the world". Providing a complete range of Content Writing services which includes Web Content Writing, SEO Content Writing, Creative writing, Press Release writing, Article Writing and Brand/Product Name Suggestions, Infinity Logo Design is dedicated to providing a superior experience to the readers.

According to the company's Creative Manager, "We have been offering Content Writing service as a secondary service for quite some time, but following its augmented demand and some great feedback from our clients, we decided to launch it officially. We consider Content Writing as an art that truly fascinates and inspires the readers, and makes them believe in the message that the writer is trying to covey. Our copy writers are handpicked, and have a proven track record. We provide our customers with nothing but the very best!"

Infinity Logo Design believes that Content Writing in an effective tool for customer retention and generating a profound user experience. Infinity Logo Design is offering this service at quite a substantial price, and its exceptional discount of 70% is a bonus for all those who are in pursuit of quality content at an affordable price. Judging from the company's recent endeavors, there's no denying that we'll be seeing some great things from them in the years to come.

About Infinity Logo Design:

Infinity Logo Design is one of the world's leading design companies. The company offers a wide range of services including custom logo design, website design, brochure design, banner design, stationery design and promotional items. ILD provides high-quality designs to small- and medium-sized businesses at the most competitive prices. In addition, the company engages the services of skilled and talented designers who can create your design exactly according to your specifications. The Company also offers 100% satisfaction and 100% money back guarantee, making it one of the most sought-after design companies in the world.

Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1985193

Why I Use an Anonymous Web Proxy Service

I've been using an anonymous web proxy service for some time now and I don't think I would ever go back to ordinary surfing.    It's not that I am some sort of shadowy cyber criminal with some secret online life, no I pretty much surf the same web sites as everyone else, I certainly don't go to illegal or criminal sites.

If you want to know why, it's simply because I value my privacy and I know what data is stored in the average organisation and how it is protected.   Take your ISP for example, they logs pretty much everything that passes through them - every single request, every web page, every email and even every image is logged.   The vast majority of this traffic is in cleartext so the majority of it is instantly readable and can be matched to your address. 

It's amazing what these logs can tell about people you can build up a lot of information about someone from what they do on the web.  So do you know who has access to these logs at your ISP, what controls are in place, how is this information stored ?

If you don't know your not alone but after 25 years working in IT, I'll pretty much bet you wouldn't like to know the answer anyway.  This is the problem with much internet communication, it's so completely open - occasionally you'll obviously use a secure site to type in your credit card details.   Yet up to the point all your information is flying across the internet ether completely unprotected and accessible to anyone who has the will and the knowledge to intercept it. 

Believe me there are plenty of people who do have an interest in your information

Why do you think a European Directive was recently passed - Directive on Mandatory Retention of Communications Traffic Data.   It's  a bit of a mouthful but what it's  actually doing  is forcing your ISP to keep a record of every email sent, every internet session and web site visited for two years.   So think back at every web site you've ever visited for the last two years and it's on record and can be matched to your own little electronic profile.

How does that make you feel?

Even if you've done nothing wrong it's bound to make you feel a little uneasy after all why do Governments want all this information about us?   If you want to feel a little more uneasy, many Governments are looking at the UK Governments idea who are going to store all this information in a central database accessible to certain organisations.     Fear not US citizens you'll not be left out - the FBI are pushing hard for similar data retention facilities.

Storing data is dangerous

If you store data you have to be prepared to take good care of it.   All the privacy erosion concerns aside, the more personal data is stored about us, the more people will have access to it.  How thorough do you think is the vetting procedure for an ISP Technical engineer ?  Who potentially has access to huge amounts of this data.    Even if implicitly trust our govenrments with this tremendous invasion of our privacy - fraudsters, identity thieves and others can create mayhem with this sort of information. 

These logs are gold dust to anyone trying to steal our identity for example - they can match up users, with web sites, pick up password and all sorts of personal information.  Even  though a small part of this information is encrypted when you're actually using a secure web site (with the padlock below) there's plenty of other personal information available to compromise your usernames, password etc.

An identity thief can pick up huge amounts of data about the average person all ready, an hour or two picking up all your web traffic and they'll also have where you bank, what web sites you visit and logon to and a whole heap more.  This unfortunately is the tip of the iceberg and I suspect you'll see many, many people protecting  their privacy online soon from identity thieves, hackers and even our friendly snooping governments.

Everything I do online is private, I use a fast professional service that anonymises my connection and encrypts all the data.  My web logs sit next to yours in a server room at my ISP however mine are all completely encrypted and unreadable by anyone, whereas yours are in clear text.

One thing I should warn people about is the use of free anonymous web proxy services which you see all over the web.   Be very, very careful about these and think why are they supplying a very expensive and resource hungry service for free?   Remember also that by using one of these free proxies you are redirecting your traffic via this server whose owner can capture and log your data himself.   Many of these are owned and run by Eastern European Hacking groups as an easy way to gain peoples traffic, so be careful.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-I-Use-an-Anonymous-Web-Proxy-Service&id=1679289

What to Look for When Hiring WordPress Developers?

The toughest part about hiring WordPress developers is that you don't really have an idea about what you don't know! Quite evidently it sounds like stating the obvious. Some of these "how to do" tips are really practical and will be easy to follow.

So this is what to look for when hiring WordPress developers:

Portfolio:

OK - this again may seem supremely obvious - but I have seen a lot of people offering WordPress customizations or design services (especially as WordPress grows, there are plenty of people jumping into this arena) - however, they don't have any sample work with them.

What's the Process?

a. Are you going to communicate over the phone?
b. How frequently are you going to do that?
c. What is the time period?
d. Will you receive updates?
e. Which kind of communication processes can you expect?

Design/Graphics:

When your graphics are finally done and your site looks fantastic - who ultimately owns the right to the final work? Do you have the right to use the artwork/graphics however and wherever you want to?

If you have paid for custom graphics, you have to make sure that you have the luxury and liberty to use them as and when you want them to! However, on the other hand, if you are using stock pictures, then you have to strictly follow the copyright guidelines enlisted on the site from where you have purchased the work.

Skills:

Yes, this is indeed another point that seems pretty obvious, isn't it? I had a few clients who recently hired individuals to make WordPress customizations, however surprisingly enough; they were not really acquainted with WordPress.

There are situations where the clients hired individuals who were graphic designers. They worked mainly with Dreamweaver; numerous client pages were made in Dreamweaver, and then pasted on to the WP editor. In such instances, if the client attempted to adjust things without understanding the HTML, they ran the huge risk of throwing the entire page off.

If you bring in somebody to help create a custom WordPress theme or create a WordPress customization, ascertain the fact that they really understand the features of WordPress! If you can't use the things that make WordPress what it's intended for - it is defeating enough and it seems like a vain uphill journey.

Functionality:

This relates straight to training. If additional features /options are uploaded on your website (as for example: shopping cart, video & audio plugins etc.), are you aware as to how to use them productively?

What exactly is included with set up? Let's take a shopping cart for example:

- Is the autoresponder integrated properly? (If at all possible)
- Are your products being effectively added?
- Is the Thanks page for purchases being set up?
- Are Product images (cropping/ editing, etc.) included?
- Is the Payment gateway installation included?

Many of these functionalities demand additional effort and time. Strive hard to understand in a crystal-clear manner what is being included for any such additional features.

Support:

When your website is done completely and your contract also is complete, is there any support available?

a. Enquire whether the support is handled through help desk, email, or a phone call?
b. Enquire about the charges for support?
c. Can there be an option for monthly maintenance/ support?
d. In case your designer does not offer support, are they able to refer someone else?

So, these are some of the important criteria, I would suggest that you consider when hiring anyone to create a WordPress website for you. Hope this can help!

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?What-to-Look-for-When-Hiring-WordPress-Developers?&id=8047568

Social Media Marketing And What You Can Do To Get Help

Social media marketing gives an indicator of the most popular trends today. You have to understand how much success social media marketing but it's best to include it. The advice here should help you begin if you know nothing about social media marketing.

Widgets can help out your site's visibility of site.

Facebook makes it fairly simple for your followers to share your content. If somebody leaves a comment on a post, all their friends will see a mention of this in their feed.

These tools allow you find users who belong to your target audience as well as influential followers. You can subscribe to the users you find, and hope they will follow your updates too.

When you post your article, it appears automatically as a LinkedIn update. This helps to save time and you'll enjoy more exposure in the blogging community.

Be flexible with updating your page is updated. When you are promoting an important new product, your customers will want to be updated more frequently. If you frequently find that you have nothing to post, you may want to post less often.

Make it a habit to respond to all the comments that pop up on your social media pages. You should do this for negative comments also. If your followers know you care about what they say, they will be more likely to stay loyal to your brand. Always respond to customers as soon as you can so they don't feel ignored.

Be prepared for the negativity that goes along with social media. Social media is awesome when you get praise, but there is also a negative side to it.Do not ignore them but answer them and help those customers who are unhappy.

Keep checking on your competitors' activities. Find them on social media sites and pay attention to their methods. You could either use a similar method or think of something outside the box to outperform them.

Social media is a powerful way to help with company brand very recognizable. Your logo should serve as your avatar and/or background of all profiles. Keep the same color scheme among your various social media profiles. Be consistent and use branding to your business's advantage.

A photo contest is a fun way to increase excitement and exposure of your brand.Offer followers an appealing prize for the user that posts the most entertaining and creative picture including your products or logo. This will help others to see your page as the users post them, exposing you to new markets.

If you are thinking about creating a Facebook page for business promotion, you should take some time to investigate what other businesses similar to yours are doing. When you go over their pages, and what isn't, and what isn't going to work. Make your page appealing and appealing.

Marketing via social media can be quite easy once you really learn the ropes. The truth is, marketing through social media is a great method of offering a useful, interactive experience for your advertising audience. If you thoughtfully implement the above advice, you will enjoy fresh and continued success from your advertising efforts.

Source:http://blogs.siliconindia.com/imperiastructuresltdcomplaints/Business/Social-Media-Marketing-And-What-You-Can-Do-To-Get-Help-bid-s8IU6SOv3998351.html

Smarter Web scraping from Connotate

Connotate has significantly upgraded its technology with the introduction of Connotate4, which, the company explains, simplifies and streamlines the “Webdata” extraction process and ensures full coverage of a website. It adds that the key component of Connotate4 is a custom browser that uses the Webkit engine powering such browsers as Safari and Chrome.

Connotate states its core technology is based on visual abstraction techniques that allow machines to view Web pages as humans do, enabling high-volume extraction of data from Web pages to be automated through a point-and-click interface. Further, it says, because “agents” are not relying on HTML code to find the data to extract, they can easily adjust to moderate site changes without breaking.

In addition to the custom browser at the center of Connotate4, the company highlights the following capabilities:

    Inline data transformation within the agent development process is a powerful new capability that will ease data integration and customization.

    Enhanced change detection with highlighting can be requested during the agent development process via a point-and-click checkbox, enabling highlighted change detection that is illustrated at the character, word or phrase level.

    Parallel extraction tasks make it faster to complete tasks, allowing even more scalability for even larger extractions.

    Build-and-expand capabilities turn the act of reusing a single agent for related extraction tasks a one-click event, allowing for faster Agent creation.

    A simplified user interface enables simplified and faster Agent development.

The new release allows Connotate’s intelligent extraction Agents to access about 95 percent of Webdata. And the adaptive platform can quickly accommodate new Web properties and technologies as they emerge, providing the ability to scale far beyond the competitive landscape. Existing customers of Connotate’s hosted solution will not be affected by the introduction of this new platform. On-premises customers will be migrated on an as-needed basis.

Source: http://www.kmworld.com/Articles/News/News/Smarter-Web-scraping-from-Connotate-96637.aspx

Five tips to get started with big data

Everyone seems to be talking about "big data" these days. Do you wonder what you’re missing out on? Let’s take a look at how you can get started with Big Data.

    Learn what it is, and what it is not. While we are all comfortable with the concept of data, why the emphasis on "big" data now? The world of data has changed. The speed at which data is produced and often is required to be consumed is nearly at the speed of thought. With data from sensors, geo-spatial tracked data and the discourse of human conversation being captured in social media today, our heads are left spinning with the amount of data being collected. And this is not just facts about dollars and cents or counts of activity. These are complex data points, often verbose text data that must be interpreted to identify the relevant meanings to your business. Big data simply means that you have a lot of data, and it is quite complex to use.

    Get with the program. Organizations can no longer stick their collective heads in the sand about the amount of data they must handle.

    Find the right people. Notice people come before tools. Data analysis tools are often touted as the “magic solution” to big data. While they will help you get there, you must have the right people that understand business strategy and data analysis (including statistical analysis, business modeling, and data mining).

    Find the right tools. The centralized IT group cannot keep up with the business’s demands for data and analytics. Self-service BI and analytics is the name of the game here. You want tools with features such as in-memory analytics that provide high-powered analysis on desktop-sized machines that your analysts can use.

    Be an IT-hugger. So often, once the business users and analysts get their hands on high-powered tools, they decide that IT is no longer needed. This could not be further from the truth. Often, IT has developed complex solutions to integrating data from large and diverse systems, providing standard methods for retrieving the data you need. In addition, IT is trained to plan for critical elements of your environment such as security and scalability. Figure out what the business needs, develop solid business rules around these requirements and learn from IT all you can.

Not so hard, right? Now, the next step? Go analyze. Go figure out how to turn your good company into a great company with the power of analytics.

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/blog/2014/05/five-tips-to-get-started-with-big-data.html