Spaghetti Works

omOriginals Marketing! is proud to present Spaqhetti Works!

Spaghetti Works has long been a popular restaurant in the Kelso-Longview, Washington area. Recently they have come under new management and with that change, it was time for a new logo and we were glad to help!

Spaghetti Works

1073 14th Ave.
Longview, Washington 98632
(360) 577-1136

Read More About Spaghetti Works on ValleyBugler.com!

Time to Kick the Tires

Greetings!

Can you believe it? September is half over! As we begin to think about getting our cars ready for the fall and winter months, we can’t forget to maintain our client base. I am not just talking about you, our valued Web Site Maintenance and eMail Marketing clients, but yours.

“It is not what you know but who you know…”

On the web there is a bit of reality to this statement. I have been to web sites that were well marketed and easily found on search engines that didn’t have a lot of content. I have also been to web sites with amazing content that no one knew about.

In reality the phrase above should be: With the right knowledge and audience your business can flourish online.

There are a couple tricks to being highly rated with Google that are inexpensive and uncomplicated. When you buy a new car you have to drive it or the tires lose air and the engine coughs and sputters when you start it for the first, in a long time, the same goes with your web site; don’t let it just sit there.

If you have invested in a web site then make sure to use it to get you places on the web.  I understand that the basic content: hours, contact information, even your products and services might not change that much, but even a couple paragraphs in a blog entry about your product or services count as checking the oil. If you or your web master don’t maintain your web site it wont travel very far.

Another way to help your rating with Google continue to gain speed is to find a way to get traffic to your web site; You wouldn’t build your store front in a field with no streets.

There are many ways to do this, but one that seems to be getting the attention of your customers is eMail Marketing campaigns that are interesting and relevant. If you have an eMail Marketing campaign, when was the last time you changed your offer? Our most successful clients have themed campaigns they have helped us to design for them that their clients love.

Not sure what to do? We have a client that gives us the coupons he runs in the local newspaper to send out to his clients via eMail. Another client has us eMail his newsletter and put it on his blog, which not only updates his site but brings more clients to his site for the other important resources he offers.

When it comes to marketing your business make sure you are a resource and that you don’t forget to fuel up your web site.

omOriginals Marketing! invites you to take advantage or our complimentary Annual Web Site Review. If we haven’t gotten to your name on the list, please Call, eMail or Find us on Facebook us to schedule yours. It’s good to get out and kick the tires!

New Facebook Places

Your can now share where you are based on your geolocation.
Really Cool to share or Really Scary?  What do you think?

New Facebook Places is available for iPhone and iPod.
http://www.facebook.com/places/

The Death of FB Application Boxes

Fresh from Facebook….

We announced plans last October to remove application boxes and application info sections as well as reduce the width of application tabs to optimize for the new profile and Facebook Pages format. We will be moving forward with these changes the week of August 23, and want to help you understand what to expect.

Based on feedback from developers, we have committed to the following plans to ensure a smooth transition:

* Boxes. We will notify users via messaging in profile boxes and in the Help Center that the “Boxes” tab, boxes on profiles and Pages, and application info sections will be going away.
* Application Tabs. Next week, we will give Page admins the ability to preview their custom tabs in the new 520 pixel width so they can modify their layouts as needed. All profile and Page tabs will be resized automatically beginning the week of August 23.

These updates are designed to simplify navigation for users, reduce complexity for developers, and enable us to build the next generation of tools for growing your business with Facebook. We’ll share more of our plans for the roadmap in the coming weeks.

Fran, a Platform product marketing manager, is busy updating the roadmap.

Social Networking!

Greetings!

Happy August to all of our valued clients!

This message is going out to all clients that have purchased Web Site Maintenance and eMail Marketing Campaigns.

Please send eMail Marketing and Web Site Updates or let us know if you are needing eClub sign up forms or return envelopes via email.

When you “google” your business name and the city you are located in, you should be right there on the front page. If you are not you may need some help with your web site.

This can also be said, if when you look for yourself, you are no where to be found. I recently went to a Social Networking Seminar given by Frank Kenny at The Kelso Red Lion. Mr. Kenny said, “If you can’t be found on Google some people may view you as not community oriented.”

Oscar says if you don’t exist online than you virtually don’t exist!

The community around you needs to feel they can reach you. You want people to feel a connection with you so they are comfortable trusting you with their needs and expectations from your business.

As I wrote those lines, I was googling myself. I am happy to report, that although my name sounds similar to a favored season of many and Clemson University, Summer Clemenson was the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th link on the first page, I also found a blog entry I wrote on page 2; pretty cool, since I have a distant cousin with the same name and all those links were for me.

Why is this important?

Much like high school, the internet is a popularity contest based on how often you show up and how many people are paying attention to you. If you click on any of those links for Summer D Clemenson on Facebook.com, Summer Clemenson on LinkedIn.com, Summer Clemenson on ValleyBugler.com and Summer Clemenson on Myspace.com you will quickly see that I represent my community and most importantly omOriginals Marketing! Funny thing is, it all started by me playing casually online and became more purposeful as I started to see what was happening.

…When I googled my spiky-haired boss, Oscar Myre IV…he was in all the links on the first 2 pages and also found on all the pages following…until I got bored on page 6…he has been doing this longer than me…

Why is this important?

You may not remember the name omOriginals Marketing! but you might remember meeting Summer Clemenson at Downtown Live, the Friday before last, or that guy named Oscar Myre IV with the mohawk, at the last Kelso-Longview Chamber event. You might have googled yourself and found that your business is not where you were expecting it to be found; you may think we might be able to help you with some Search Engine Optimization or a Facebook Page for Your Business or maybe you have been blacklisted because you have sent too many eMails to your clients from your personal eMail account and you need another way to reach your clients quickly and think that an eMail Marketing campaign would help you do that.

Did you know that we regularly give Facebook and LinkedIn for Business Classes and Free Initial Consultations for Online and Print Marketing Campaigns? I know that many of you are not located close enough to be able to make it to a class or face-to-face meeting, but omOriginals has been known to make accommodations for our geographically challenged clients; like phone consultations, eMail and answers to inquiries on Facebook.

Why is that important?

Because we are here to help and we want you to remember that.

Have a Refreshingly Different Day!

Facebook Warning for Businesses

Last week I received 5 friend requests from businesses. Normal friend requests are great. I’m proud to have over 700 Facebook friends! But, when we receive friend requests from a “celebrity, band or business” it means they setup their account incorrectly. They are in danger of having their account revoked because it is a violation of the FB terms of service. It would be a shame for a business to make connections and then have their account and contacts shut down.

This article is not to create fear, just to warn and inform on the proper way to do business on Facebook.
Businesses are supposed to use Facebook “Pages” and not setup the standard personal account. Benefits to having a Page including visitor statistics and the ability to use Facebook advertisements. There is also the benefit of not having their account revoked.  ~:-)

If you have a standard Facebook account for your business I recommend that you create a page ASAP.
You can do so @ http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

If you are Facebook Friends with any businesses I request that you to send them to this article.

God Bless,
Oscar Myre IV

Needs some Facebook help?
Check out our next Facebook class on August 12th. During this hands on B.Y.O.L. (Bring your own laptop) class we help you create a proper Facebook Page for your business.
More info @ http://omoriginals.com/marketing/facebook-linkedin-class/ or call omOriginals Marketing! 360.575.9839!

REMINDER: COUPON UPDATES DUE 7.20.2010

Greetings!

Happy July to all of our valued clients!

This message is going out to all clients that have purchased Web Site Maintenance and eMail Marketing Campaigns.

Please let us know if you are needing eClub sign up forms or return envelopes.

eMail Marketing!

Why should your customer come to see you this month?

Summer is here, kids are out of school and everyone wants to dance in the sunshine!

What do your clients need that you can provide? Let’s tell them about it. Let’s scream it from their eMail boxes:

• We offer great value!
• We have what you need!
• We want to help you create something better!
• We appreciate you!

Have you been offering the same thing for a long time? Let’s shake it up a bit….What’s new?

Web Sites!

Your web site is a vital part of your marketing plan. It is your office online. The virtual office that is open 24-7. Considering the cost of employees, it is a pretty inexpensive way to communicate to your clients, and your future clients, who happen to be surfing the web, looking for something they need, needing a service or product that you would like to help them with.

Have you looked at your site recently?

Is your site up-to-date?

Have you made it a resource so that your client is educated about the products they already have? New clients will appreciate knowing that when you are closed, you have thought about the answers they might have. A blog is a great way to do this.

By putting a short article on your blog every month you have benefitted yourself in at least 3 ways:

1. You are updating your site regularly. This tells the search engines that you are committed to keeping your site fresh and they in turn like your site even more.
2. You are taking care of the needs of your present and future clients by helping them with their questions.
3. You are offering the cyber-world more keyword phrases and ideas and possibly gaining a greater audience because you have the answer they were looking for.

If you have an eMail Marketing Campaign we can even take the article from your blog and make that one of your monthly emails with links back to your site. When it comes to your web site, it is all about getting traffic to your site.

Don’t have a blog? Give us a call!

360.575.9839 or toll free 877.378.4345

If you have any questions we are hear to answer them. Remember, we are here to help! ~:-)

Have a Refreshingly Different Day!

REMINDER: COUPON UPDATES DUE 6.21.2010

REMINDER: COUPON UPDATES DUE 6.21.2010

Greetings!

Happy June to all of our valued clients!

This message is going out to all our eMail Marketing and Boxnet clients.

Please let us know if you are needing eClub sign up forms or return envelopes.

eMail Marketing!

This month we have already sent out over 7200 eMails for you! I have never counted before, but even I am amazed (you think I wouldn’t be since I manage this project)! Wow!

I think that is wonderful. I am excited to say, clients that haven’t sent any new contacts before, have done so in the last month, combine that with the contacts that sign up on your web sites and we have some pretty good communicating happening!

There is a chance we can even do better. When was the last time you checked the eMail accounts in your eMail address book? There may be new contacts in there that have not been added to our managing system. If you have never exported your address book, or if it has been so long that you don’t remember, I want to steer you to our knowledge base at omOriginals.com. For directions to export your address books from Apple Mail, Gmail, Outlook, Windows Live Hotmail and Yahoo! please Click Here.

I will look forward to a few new .csv files with new contacts coming to my eMail box soon!

Later in the month we will be sending The First Day of Summer eMails…that is right…summer is on the way (although when I am around…Summer is always here)!

I would love input toward the Independence Day eMails we will send on July 1st! Please include suggestions with your coupon/info updates due June 21st.

Web Sites!

If you have ever seen an eMail from me, you have seen my signature:

Have a Refreshingly Different Day!

Summer Clemenson
Web Site & eMail Marketing Specialist
omOriginals Marketing!
360.575.9839 | 877.378.4345
705 Vandercook Way | Longview, WA 98632

offering refreshingly different web + marketing solutions for over 11 years
see our latest creations @ http://www.omOriginals.com/blog

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.

There are several key ingredients in my signature.

• My salutation includes words that go with our slogan: refreshingly different.
  
• My name and title tells you what I do.
  
• My company name tells you where I work.
  
• My phone numbers and address make it very easy to reach me.
  
• The link to my web site advertises my web site to everyone I send a message to and whoever the receiver forwards the message to. THIS IS FREE ADVERTISING
• Of course you can tell that I live in a digital world…I will save the paper for other projects…
  

Now, I don’t expect that everyone needs to say as much I choose to with my signature, but I wanted to point out to you that there are a lot of ways to advertise yourself and this is just another way to get people to know about your web site…to have a better chance of getting more traffic to your site. Of connecting with more people.

If you have any questions we are hear to answer them. Remember, we are here to help! ~:-)

Have a Refreshingly Different Day!

REMINDER: COUPON UPDATES DUE 5.20.2010

REMINDER: COUPON UPDATES DUE 5.20.2010

Greetings!

To all of our valued clients, regardless of the services we provide to you…Happy May!

Please let us know if you are needing eClub sign up forms or return envelopes.

eMail Marketing!
You may look forward to a Memorial Day eMail coming out on the 27th of this month. Next month we will be sending out First Day of Summer eMails on June 21st. If you have any suggestions of what you would like to see, I would love to hear them! Please eMail us.

I have two things I would like to talk about this month: Content and Customers. Both are relevant and connected.

Content
It is true that some businesses may have it easier than others in coming up with a coupon to entice people to come back…everyone likes to eat out and everyone has to get their car fixed, but what about companies that offer a very valuable service that is not so easy to make a coupon for? Like insurance or kitchen remodeling or legal representation…how about web design?

Customers want value and we need to create value for them. How much value are we creating by offering free air duct removal to a client that just had a new heating system installed? It is true that that coupon will benefit the person that is still shopping, but once it is done, if we always offer that same deal or something like it, how much significance have we produced? Yes they may forward it to a friend or family member that also needs that service, but what did we give our customer?

What if instead of always offering the same deal, we sent them a newsletter that included a tip on how to better care for the system they spent their hard-earned dollars on? It would only need to have a couple paragraphs, but giving them care tips or teaching them about a related topic would be of greater value to them than a coupon for something they already have. I am sure that your distributors already have promotional articles written up that you could use and maybe even personalize.

If you have a web site we could create value for you by archiving those articles on your web site.  This will give the search engines something new to look at and make your web site look cooler to those same search engines.  It will also show people have not joined your eClub what they will be getting and why they should sign up.

Customers
In case you didn’t know there are 2 reasons that a customer that has signed up for your eClub is not getting the eMails we send out.

If your customer typed in the wrong eMail address when they signed up online, they will not get any eMails…but the person that owns the incorrect email address will. The chance of this happening increases drastically if they fill out the sign up cards with sloppy handwriting…we can’t fix the first by accusing the customer of typing it incorrectly (that is how they will hear it) but if you are able, doing it for them while they stand there will show them that you really care about them.

On the same token, if someone has given you a card you can’t read and later complains about not getting any emails from you, suggesting signing up online or doing it for them would help the situation. (Those of you that have received new sign up forms may have noticed that your contact information and web address are on them so you can let them take it home and sign up there if they want to.)

Another reason your customers are not getting ALL of their emails is that they want eMails sent to 2 people at the same eMail address. The system we use can only acknowledge 1 contact. They may be able to get an eMail to Dear Ed and Sue because we put Ed and Sue in as their first name but they will only get one birthday eMail because they can only enter one birthday per eMail address into the system. Please educate your customers that if you update the eMail address with a new name, it only kicks out the first contact person and replaces it with the second. Suggesting that they enter the second person with a different eMail address is the only way to ensure that each person gets a birthday offer on their birthday.

Web Sites!
Many of you have helped us keep your web site fresh and new…or at least bring it up to date…AWESOME!

I know there are several web sites that I haven’t even tackled yet. You might want to take a moment and look at it. Are the prices up to date? Are you offering new services that are not on your site? Are your bio’s or About Us pages still current? Are there some pictures we could add to make the site more interesting to your clients? If you have a testimonials page or a place to list articles, when was the last time we added anything?

The internet is like a popularity contest. The more people visit your site, or the more sites link to you – or you link to them, the cooler the search engines think you are. You get more people to your site by eMail Marketing or just advertising your web address but also by giving them content that is valuable…like tips to care for your custom granite countertops or how being a safe driver benefits your insurance coverage.

If you have any questions we are hear to answer them. Remember, we are here to help! ~:-)

Have a Refreshingly Different Day!

Jump into Facebook!

If you still haven’t immersed yourself into Facebook, then this article is for you.

WHO
Facebook.com, FB is the most popular web site on the planet. They claim to have over 400 Million active users! That is up 50 Million from January.

It is crazy how quickly Facebook has grown. There is a strange status attached to being a user. It is understood by people that are connected as well as those that aren’t.  I was recently speaking to a group of professionals and one lady admitted to not being on Facebook. She is an educated and accomplished lady, but she was a little embarrassed that she wasn’t on Facebook yet.

WHAT
Facebook is free web site where people and businesses connect. For a business you can post content about your company/services, interact with current and potential customers and learn valuable info from your fans. Create a plan and execute.

Facebook’s got Game
They also play a bunch of games! Our fearless editor especially enjoys Farmville. A game where you create a virtual farm. Sound like fun? over 80 Million people think so. If you want to learn more about Farmville ask Summer from omOriginals. She is our resident FV expert. I must admit I play my fair share of Texas Hold ‘em at night.

WHY
Everybody uses Facebook. Connect with Everybody, I recently read this in ‘Six Pixels of Separation’, a great book written by Mitch Joel. The bottom line is to be where your customers are and Facebook is THE place to be.

There is some esoteric coolness about being on Facebook. It is a great way to communicate with friends and family through Facebook that we rarely interact with in the real world. Many young <you define young as you wish> people use Facebook as their desired contact method.

Why? because you can interact on your own terms. Read and respond when you have a moment and your friends can do the same.

This works for business too, repeat clients and potential clients check our our FB to learn about what omOriginals is up to. Again on their own terms, people can check a business and it’s culture and engage if and when they wish. Businesses should definitely consider getting their own free FB Page. Businesses should create a basic FB plan and consistently deliver each month to their friends and fans. Check out the Bugler’s Facebook at facebook.com/valleybugler.

It is a nice way to see what is coming up and sometimes get your comments posted in your favorite newspaper!

WHERE
You can sign-up directly at Facebook.com or have a friend send you an invite. If you’d like you can send me an eMail or call my office to get an invite. Just call 360-575-9839 and say please send me a Facebook invite.
We will ask for your eMail address and get you pointed in the right direction.

To get setup with a “Page” for your business you can point your browser to www.facebook.com/advertising/?pages …or call us and we’ll get you hooked up.

FB on the Go
Don’t forget your mobile. Yes, there is an app for that. If you phone is smart you can download an app to take your Facebook with you. Most of my FB time is on my phone.

Hire a Pro
If this sounds good, but you are overwhelmed you might consider hiring a professional. An hour or so of insight and planning with a professional geek can save you time and get you off to a great start.

I hope to see you on Facebook soon!

~:-) God Bless, Oscar Myre IV
omOriginals Marketing! & Valley Bugler Newspaper.
You can reach omOriginals at (360) 575-9839 or online at omoriginals.com

As promised here are amazing stats about FB. Google — eat your heart out.
FACEBOOK Stats as of 3/22/10

• 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
• More than 35 million users update their status each day
• More than 60 million status updates posted each day
• More than 3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
• More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
• More than 3.5 million events created each month
• More than 3 million active Pages on Facebook
• More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
• More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
• Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans