While the numbers show that many consumers are using social media to shop online, another report shows that the consumers are loyal to just a handful of brands. 61% of shoppers focus their attention on 1-5 retailers or brands, while only 21% focus on 6-10 brands.

To find out how you can create a social network marketing plan for your business, contact a&g Digital Consulting.

Your business will want to present a clear path to the visitor which will direct them to whatever you consider your conversion point. This can be anything you wish, but you want to focus on something that is measurable. Some examples include driving a visitor to fill out a lead generation form, make an online purchase or even call a specific phone number on the page.

Here are a few tips to create better converting landing pages:

1. Keep it targeted – Keep the copy on your landing page targeted to the source of the lead. For example, if you are using pay per click advertising, and a customer clicks on your ad for the keyword “Geist Web Design”, the resulting landing page should reflect your web design services that you offer to Geist businesses. Another example would be if you were to send out a mail piece, driving the recipient to a specific landing page with a 25% off discount. For the best conversion possible, reflect that same 25% offer on the landing page and offer a conversion point, such as a lead gen form or online ordering option.

2. Keep it simple – The last thing that you want on a landing page is for the visitor to be distracted. Your goal is to make the page clean and to the point and make it very clear as to what you would like them to do. This would include excluding any loud backgrounds, visual embellishments, online video or animations that could distract them from the conversion point.

3. Track your results – If you are an active follower of your website analytics, you will quickly be able to spot the traffic that is being directed to your landing page. This is typically monitored through the entry page portion of your analytic program. This will help you gauge the number of visitors that coming in to your page, but from there, it is important to monitor your conversions. Again, this can be an online order, an online inquiry or a phone call. If you are using a phone number, try to use a unique number, if at all possible. If you are using a lead generation form, be sure to customize the form so that you know where it came from.

For more information about creating effective landing pages for your online and offline marketing campaigns, contact Angie Commorato at 317-417-7070.

If you are not familiar with the Twitter Counter website, it is a great resource.  Use this website to find out all kinds of great information including individual twitter account stats, most popular accounts and lists and now and twitter account comparisons.  Recently, a new tool was released to allow you to be notified if your twitter username becomes available. There has been recent talk about an upcoming release of a number of old and unused Twitter usernames. When then is going to happen is not exactly known, but if you have been waiting for a particular name, now is the time to visit TwitterCounter.com.

Here is how it works:

Step 1: Visit www.TwitterCounter.com and enter the username in the box at the top.

Step 2:  Click on “Claim this username” on the resulting page.

Step 3:  Enter your email address and click “Notify me”.

That’s all there is to it.  They will now notify you if and when your username is released.

1. WPtouch iPhone theme plugin: Are you unhappy with the way that your Wordpress blog looks on your iPhone, Droid or Blackberry? This plugin allows you to view your site on your mobile device using an alternate iPhone style theme. This theme also allows the user to switch to your regular theme if they choose.

Download it at: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wptouch/

2. Sexy comments plugin: According to the description, this plugin allows you to “sexify your comments” section of your blog, including optional avatars, an Ajax comment preview and CSS override. There are lots of customization options and this plugin will save some coding time.

Download it at: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sexy-comments/

3. My Page Order plugin: If you are not a PHP coder or don’t want to mess with the actual theme code, use this plugin to set the display order of your pages with a drag and drop interface. It’s easy to use and again, saves some coding time.

Download it at: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/my-page-order/

4. Google Analyticator plugin: This plugin allows you to easily implement your Google Analytics code to your blog, adding the necessary Javascript to the pages. It also allows you to pull basic stats through your Wordpress admin.

Download it at: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analyticator/

5. Broken Link Checker plugin: If you are not regularly checking your blog analytics, be sure to download this plugin. It will alert you to any broken pages or images on your blog. No one enjoys the dreaded 404 error.

Download it at: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/broken-link-checker/

These are just a few of the nearly 8,000 plugins available. To shop the full list, visit the Wordpress plugin directory.

1. Get Your Money’s Worth for Your Video Production: If you have already paid to have a commercial produced for television, ask your media company for a web-ready version of your video. You can not only upload your video to YouTube to promote, but you can also add the video to your company’s website, business blog or email marketing campaigns.

2. Invite Your Existing or Potential Customers to Watch Your Commercials: If you are currently collecting opt-in emails from your website or have opt-in emails from your existing customers, send an email, inviting them to watch your commercials. You can either direct them to your uploaded clip on YouTube or to the media section of your website for added exposure. If you are not using email marketing, contact us to find out how you can send email marketing messages to thousand for customers for less a penny an email.

3. Use YouTube to Save Bandwidth on Your Website Hosting Account: Every time a website visitor views one of your videos on your website, you are going to be using bandwidth from your monthly website hosting allowance. However, if you were to add your clip to YouTube and embed the clip in to your website, you will be using Youtube’s bandwidth. This is a great option for small businesses who may not have unlimited bandwidth available.

3. Always Tag Your Video Posts on YouTube: When you upload a video to YouTube, you will see a field for tags. These tags are very important because they help visitors to the site find your video clip. Try to think about what your customers would search to find you and don’t forget to separate them with a comma. We recently posted some clips for a jewelry store in Logansport, Indiana, which is a smaller town. Here is an example of the tags that we used on their clip:

Tags:
Arnold’s Jewelry and Gifts, Arnold’s Jewelry, Logansport Indiana, Rochester Indiana, Rochester jewelry store, Logansport Jewelry Store, Indiana Jewelry Store

To view their clip, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7ATRrjnKOM

4. Use a Press Release to Promote Your Video: If your company video is something that is particularly newsworthy, consider writing and releasing a press release with a link to your online video clip. Search for press release sites that will allow you to post your press release for free to gain added exposure. Keep the search engines in mind when writing the press release and incorporate pertinent keyword phrases for your business and products or services.

5. As Always, Post A Link to Your Video on Your Social Networking Sites: Add a link to your online commercial on any of your company’s social networking accounts including your Facebook business page, Twitter account, LinkedIn profile and other accounts that you may have.

For more information about how to promote your videos on the web, online video production or how to set up an email marketing campaign, contact Angie Commorato at www.ConsultAGC.com.

Google Sets

Google Sets is a free tool which can help to expand your search phrases for your businesses. This tool allows you to enter up to five keyword phrases which pertain to your business. You can then choose a small set, which will generate 15 or fewer items, or a large set, which will provide a much more extensive list of phrases.

In my experience, you would not want to cut and paste the list of results to your pay per click campaign because the results are not always going to be exactly what you need. However, the results can help you come up with extended keywords and phrases to add to your paid search campaign.

Try it now at http://labs.google.com/sets

Google Ad Preview Tool

If you are a Google pay per click advertiser, how many times a day to you find yourself searching your keywords, just to find out who might be bidding against you? If you are monitoring your placement, as well as competitor placement, Google’s Ad Preview tool is something that you should be using. When you continuously run a search for your bidding keywords, without clicking on your ads, Google may determine your own ads are irrelevant to you and stop showing them to you.

Try it now at https://adwords.google.com/select/AdTargetingPreviewTool

Google External Keyword Tool

I have always used Google’s External Keyword Generator when I am formulating my list of keywords and keyword phrases to target for a search engine optimization campaign, as well as my paid search campaigns. This is a scaled down version of the tool that is available to you when you log in to your Google Ad Words campaign, but if you are not a Google advertiser, you can still use the tool to not only generate ideas for your other campaigns, but also export the results in a easy to manage form. If you are a Google Ad Words advertiser, log in to your account to use their keyword generator. It is much more in depth.

Try it now at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Former Logansport resident helps businesses with Web design and marketing.

by Denise Massie
Pharos-Tribune staff writer

Ever since Angie Curts-Commorato was 7 years old, she knew she wanted to own a business one day.

Growing up, the former Logansport resident spent time in her father’s business, the Gallery Home Furnishings. She recalled the times she would beg her dad, Mike Curts, to take her to work with him on the weekends.

While she didn’t specifically have an Internet-based business in mind, that is exactly what she started.

“I actually wanted to be a veterinarian until my junior year in high school,” she said. “In 1996, I went on the Internet for the first time and thought ‘this is the coolest thing.’”

Curts-Commorato graduated from Logansport High School in 1997 and Purdue University in 2001 where she majored in computer information systems.

“I went to school for computers because they didn’t have anything for the Internet,” she explained.

After graduating she worked for five years at a company in Indianapolis to gain experience.

“That job is what prepared me to do this,” she said.

In March, she finally decided to quit her executive management job to pursue Web design and marketing full time with new business, a&g Digital Consulting. Curts-Commorato decided she wanted to give the business and her customers full-time attention.

“I love it,” she said. “I’m a true geek. I love technology.”

Curts-Commorato wanted to branch out on her own full-time the last couple years, however she said different reasons kept coming up to stop her from going out on her own.

“Everyone told me the timing wasn’t right,” she said. “We’re in the middle of a slow economy.”

Despite what others said, Curts-Commorato had the drive and determination to give it a try.

“I don’t think I second guessed myself, until I pulled the plug,” she added. “It was scary and it’s still a little scary, but I never questioned it.”

Curts-Commorato lives on the northeast side of Indianapolis, but she serves customer throughout the state. She especially likes to work with Cass County businesses, since she is originally from the area and has family here.

The business offers customers a variety of services from Web design to marketing. For example, Curts-Commorato can design a Web site and than market it.

Her focus is on small- to medium-sized businesses, which typically do not have an in-house Web design or marketing departments. She is able to develop affordable Web sites and online marketing packages to fit the budget of businesses.

“I always say you can have the best Web site, but if the customer can’t find it than it’s not working,” she said.

She also designs logos and print designs for customers.

“My customers need a lot of things,” she said. “It keeps me busy, but it’s nice.”

As the sole owner of the company, Curts-Commorato also has a team of four additional workers for larger projects. Her team consists of two designers and two developers. When focusing on smaller companies, she is usually able to complete the project on her own.

Curts-Commorato works with all budgets and is able to work within a specific price range.

If a business is interested in her services, she will meet with the owner face-to-face in order to get a feel for what the business does and to see what the business looks like.

Her biggest challenge r so far is adjusting to the freedom the job provides. She does not have set hours or have to go to an office daily. This allows her to spend more time with her family.

Managing her new full-time business is also rewarding, especially since Curts-Commorato knows she is building something she can do for a long time.

Her main goal, other than building a strong business, is to make enough money to buy a large farm for her family.

No matter how large her business may grow, Curts-Commorato wants to remain the only person meeting with others for consultations.

“I love what I do,” she said. “I wouldn’t have started the business if I didn’t.”

• Denise Massie is a staff writer at the Pharos-Tribune. She can be reached at 574-732-5151 or denise.massie@pharostribune.com

New business

Name: a&g Digital Consulting LLC

Phone: (317) 417-7070

Web-site: www.consultagc.com

Blog: www.commorato.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/commorato

http://www.pharostribune.com/business/local_story_296165041.html

1. Ask for Retweets: The goal of this type of contest is to ask your followers to get your message in front of as many of their Twitter followers as possible. The idea is for a company to post some type of promotional message and when a Twitter follower Retweets that message, they will be entered to win a prize. When asking followers to retweet, realize that they are going to putting this message in front of their loyal followers. Try to make the message have some sort of meaning or interest and hopefully you can get a chain reaction with the retweets.

(What is a retweet? A retweet is when you republish someone else’s tweet. The most common way to retweet, is to start your tweet with RT followed by the username of the original poster. For example, if I had a tweet under my username commorato that says “a&g Digital Consulting is the best!” and you wanted to retweet, you would tweet the following: RT @commorato a&g Digital Consulting is the best!)

2. Using Hashtags: Asking Twitter users to use hashtags is similar to asking for retweets in that your Twitter followers will be doing most of the work in the contest. If you have never used hashtags on Twitter,  a hashtag is when you use a pound sign (#) before a particular word in your Tweet. Once it the pound sign is added, it becomes a hashtag, which becomes a clickable link to all other mentions of that word. A user can click on the hashtag in someone’s twitter stream and see everything everyone else has said with that hashtag. In contest use, a company will usually allow a customer to Tweet whatever they want as long as they add a particular hastag to their post. For example, Live Nation, an online ticketing company, recently ran a contest asking their followers to post a Tweet about a recent contest, adding the #LiveNation hashtag somewhere in their post. This would enter a folllower in a contest to win free concert tickets.

3. Use Sign Up Forms: This is a new spin on the classic online contest format. In this case, you would be asking Twitter users to come to your website and sign up for the contest. This can be a great way to get more exposure for your website, especially if you can incorporate a trivia question, requiring the user to hunt around your website. For the best results, keep your entry form short and to the point and include contest terms which address how the participants personal information will be used after the conclusion of the contest.

4. Gathering More Followers: The final way to start a Twitter contest is to announce that your followers are going to be entered to win a prize once your number of followers reaches a certain level. The idea is that your followers will tell their followers to start following you to help you reach your goal and in turn, give out a prize. There are also varieties of this contest where bigger and better prizes are given as your different goals are reached.

No matter which type of Twitter contest you decide to run, expect to get your brand name in front of a lot of people in a relatively quick period of time. Aim to offer some desirable contest prizes and your name can spread very quickly across the Twitter network.

Our new affordable website design package includes the following:

• Your choice of two designs, complete with your logo and color scheme

• A contact form to allow your potential contacts to email you directly from your website

• Up to 5 pages of client supplied information for your website. (Page examples include Home, Contact Us, Services, FAQ, About Us)

• Basic web hosting for just $15 a month – If you already have web hosting, we can work with that as well

• Add a blog for an additional $199 – add the ability to easily add news, updates and information to your website

• Add additional pages for just $75 a page

Here are a few website design samples built with this package:

Starter Web Design Sample 1

Starter Web Design Sample #2

Starter Web Design Sample #3

Our goal is to have your website online in just 5 business days. When you sign up for this package, we will work with you to gather the information for the website. While that is happening, we will create your designs and have those to you for approval within 2 business days.

If you thought that it was too complex or time consuming to put together a website for your business,  let us assure you that we want to make the process as easy as possible. Contact us today to get started on your website design.

a&g's mascot, Hugo, getting ready to attend the Fishers Chamber of Commerce Pet Day and Business Market

Many local Fishers business's displayed their products and services at the Fishers Business Market.

Hugo makes some friends at the Fishers Chamber of Commerce Pet Day and Business Market

For more information:

www.Consultagc.com – Indianapolis web design and website marketing

www.fisherschamber.com – Fishers Chamber of Commerce