Social media and marketing expert educator, Tamara Patzer, M.A., recently launched authority marketing agency Blue Ocean Authority named for her sunny home in Englewood, Florida. Patzer’s business helps local businesses become market leaders and recognized industry experts by managing their online reputation and getting placements for clients in well-known media outlets. She works with plumbers, hair salons, gold and diamond stores, cosmetic surgeons, non-profits, and even audiologists.
Patzer says that the best place a local business can start building up their online presence is with Google + Local Places. She explains, “Google + Local Places is free and it is Google’s way of offering the traditional brick and mortar company a way to get found online. If you are not familiar with Google + Local Places, it is basically a really cool directory for businesses because not only is your name and address and phone number listed, you also get up to ten photos and five videos. You can put tons and tons of information about your company on this free Google + Local Places site and people can find you.”
She adds, “The reason that it is so important that you get on Google + Local Places is because it is designed specifically for local businesses. So when someone types in, for example, air conditioning Apple Valley, Minnesota or Englewood, Florida which is where I am from, a list of people or companies come up and it is typically seven. You want to be in that top seven because most people will look at those top seven in Google + Local Places and call them.”
After a business has established their Google + Local Places entry, Patzer recommends they begin to build their social media presence. “I think that Facebook is very, very important because as a business you can create a business page and talk about the business, get friends and fans of that business, and tell everyone what they are doing. It gives them a way to go to where the people are.” She doesn’t want businesses to be frightened by the sheer volume of social media possibilities because there is no need to use every social media platform in order to find new clients online.
“YouTube for local businesses is a very powerful tool,” she says, “and it will continue to be a very powerful tool. As a matter of fact, YouTube is owned by Google so of course Google loves YouTube videos. YouTube is the second most powerful search engine, meaning, people actually go to YouTube and search for information.”
Patzer is also a big promoter of video for local businesses. “If you remember, I talked about Google + Local Places and the fact that you can have five videos connected to your Google + Local Places which is a way to optimize it. So think to yourself that it is not about having one video or even five videos, it is about having many, many, many videos. Videos will do more for your search engine optimization more quickly than almost any other method of what is called Search Engine Optimization or you might hear it be called SEO.”
Setting up Google + Local Places, building up a social media presence and creating videos for business are only a few ways for local businesses to get found online. Even more important than getting found online is being able to present a business as an authority and expert in their industry. Patzer’s new marketing agency, Blue Ocean Authority, focuses on building up authority and expertise for clients once their initial online presence has been established. “When a potential customer finds two similar businesses online and sees that only one has been recognized and featured in the news media, only one has many entries about their company listed on the Google page, wonderful reviews are front and center, which company do you think they call. If I need a problem solved, I’m going to call the expert,” Patzer says.
Learn more about social media expert and educator Tamara Patzer, M.A. at: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=46997239.