Hey Folks - getting caught up on my social media side - updating you with our great new clients and great new websites to follow.

In recent weeks Four C Communications has enjoyed a lot of success - signing five new website developments - and booking lots of social media work.

So a big welcome to the Four C Family - to :

www.squidxperformance.com - a Newmarket motorcycle institution! We will be tweeting a lot of great spring bike build specials in the next week or so - and also putting them on the website.

www.petparadisenewmarket.ca - after over 28 years in business at the 404 Plaza (Leslie and Davis - Newmarket) Keith Burgess has brought Pet Paradise into the online world. Check out the always great prices and product selection - as well as a wide array of pets in the form of rabbits, puppies, birds, reptiles and fish!

www.colleenscakery.com - A friend from the rugby community - George Azar tweeted a week ago - that he was pulling his hair out designing a website for wife Colleen's cake business - Say it With Cake - by Colleen. We got it sorted in short order and you can check out her great array of custom cakes and cupcakes for any occasion! Also watch the video of Colleen at the Toronto Bridal Show  - recently featured on CP24 ! Good Luck Colleen!

www.goldenmilecollision.com - A great auto body shop in Scarborough, Golden Mile Collision is a great place to take your car if you have been dented and dinged in typical Toronto area traffic. Dimitri Floros and his staff are pros at taking your busted baby and putting it back together. Check out the new website and give them a call to get your car booked.

Coming soon - a new website for JAD Contracting - a construction company that specializes in something called Level 5 finish - a way of doing drywall that makes for a much smoother look on any wall!

Also -a big shout out to Herb Fung - a new contract add to our group - specializing in graphics and social media. We are putting together great Facebook and Twitter programs for companies who are busy enough serving customers and need someone else to post and Tweet to the masses. Herb is quality people - working for me as an intern at Rugby Canada previously.

So remember - if you are looking to freshen up your website or add social media and video - we do it all - give us a call at 905 717-0124 or email at doug@fourccommunications.com

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The QR Code is an odd looking blob of toner showing up on posters, websites, bus stops and more frequently real estate signs. A lot of my new clients ask about the QR Code within the first few minutes of discussing their marketing needs.

QR is short for Quick Reference  - so a Quick Reference code. Using a QR Reader available on all smart phone platforms (most are free) a person can take a picture of a code where ever they happen to be and the reader will take them to a website automatically. If you have tried to type in a url when it is windy, rainy, people are crowding up behind you - taking a picture is a great alternative to get to a website.

So what are some of the different ways you can use QR codes?

Recently in Walmart my wife and I were shopping for a welcome mat - and one of the mats had a QR code. Curious - I clicked on it - and immediately had a youtube video streaming - showing all the features and benefits of this Astro-Turf mat. (We bought it! - No more sand in the hall way!)

For my predominantly Real Estate clientele using a QR Code on a sign - linked to a custom url for a property, is a great and easy way to get curb side clients looking at homes - rather than noting an agent's name and filtering through a variety of listings to find the home they are idling outside of.

I would also recommend using QR codes in any print ads you run - as people by habit have their phone next to them as they read a publication. Now you have converted that ad to a visit to your website - where hopefully, there will be more information about your product or service  - ultimately converting that visitor to a customer!

Codes are free to create - and require only some planning in terms of the best link to send customers to.

One interesting fact is you can use different QR Codes for different ad campaigns - which can help track the best return on your marketing campaign dollars.

If you would like to discuss how to incorporate QR Codes in your company's campaign drop me a line at doug@fourccommunications.com or via phone at 905 717-0124 .

_For more than 15 years the Real Estate industry has depended on the classic slideshow as a means to sell a house online. A variety of static images - often married with a drab sound track, it is a means to an end - but not the best way you could be showcasing an investment worth a half a million dollars or more.

Four C Communications offers a unique alternative in the form of a video tour of a property. But the main difference is the voice over and the ability to pan through a room and key on certain features.

We recently created a video for a property agent Dan Hickey of Remax Omega was selling in Bradford. Over 200 people saw the video in the space of a few days and there was a firm offer in hand a mere four days after the listing had gone on the market.

See the video below!

We are limiting our video service to York Region for now - but will be rolling it out in other regions around Toronto as we get more resources into place. As an introductory offer we will let a broker or agent try the service for just $149 - which includes production and editing. This is $100 off the normal price - and is good for one production only. To get the special $149 price today - click on this link  ---> http://www.fourccommunications.com/149.html to a special page on our website.

As a real estate agent in a tough market, you know it is the little things that can make the difference on selling a house quickly and for the desired price. A video by Four C Communications is one of those things! Couple that with our targeted Facebook Ad Campaign system, a multi-pronged Twitter communication and using the power of Youtube - this will put a whole new spin on how to get the maximum number of eyeballs on a clients property listing.

Give Doug Crosse a call today  905 717-0124 - or book an appointment today through our BookFresh system under Book Appointments at www.fourccomunications.com.

_Hey Four C Fans - hope the season isn't grinding you down - but who can beat the weather - at time of writing 12 C in December while Los Angeles reports 8 C and snow.

Last column we discussed how to use Twitter and a Twitter client like TweetDeck to plan you marketing messages to local followers. Today, as promised - I will show you a part of Facebook that most local businesses have not explored - the Ad App.

Most businesses think using Facebook is about setting up a Fan page and encouraging people to 'Like' your page. While that is certainly part of a local marketing strategy - it is not nearly as effective as running targeted campaigns to raise your business' awareness and drive traffic to your website.

For incredibly low investment (I am talking as little as a dollar a day) you can run targeted local ads that will appear on the right hand column of a person's Facebook page.

So what do we mean by targeted? It essentially means you can create a demographically specific ad - so you are not paying money to wallpaper your name to a large audience, many of whom would never be your customer.

Here are a couple of examples. You are a salon- featuring holiday party hair appointments. Using the targeting criteria we can start making some assumptions.  First is zeroing in on your geographic area. We select Canada, and then select a city - type in Newmarket - and it will include Facebook users in a 50 KM radius. Select women only - and then next - lets select an appropriate age - start around 25 - young women have disposable income and start caring about how they look at the office party at this age. The are a number of other criteria that can allow you to drill down even further - based on religion, home owner status, kids or no kids, but in this example - you select that parameter and that is a decent cross section for the market you are seeking out.

As you make selections the potential audience is displayed and refreshed on the right hand side.

Finally you select that amount of money you want to put into the campaign - so you can set a monthly amount - or a daily amount. Then you also select your per click bid. Facebook offers guidelines - but on a local level you could pay anywhere from .37 to 79 cents. How your ad displays also depends on how many people you are competing against in the local market, but also in the national market. Beer, car and insurance companies are all looking to hit some of the same demographic, but luckily the ad generator displays ads based on all requests - so if you bid the minimum - and a local garage is willing to pay .79 cents per click - their ad will trump your ad until they have hit their daily limit.

A second example is a local skateboard shop. Demographically - safe to say we are hitting kids to around age 23 - and probably a good bet to target boys.

What is effective about Facebook is people are generally surprised when they see a local business ad appear in a big international website like Facebook. That lends you credibility and a much stronger likelihood to click through and see what they are all about.

While your click rate might not be huge - and won't cost a lot - the other side of this - is your ad will be shown thousands of times, building brand and familiarity so when people are shopping locally they will have that recognition factor.

In promoting our own website - we set a modest $50 and targeted those of an age to own businesses, and belonging to some business associations. We have had well over 10,00 impressions, and only spent around $27 to this point. Try running an ad in the local free give-away paper - and you will burn that $50 for a tiny classified ad.

A key component to running these ads is to select a good image that is visually captive in that small format (see example) and also writing punchy copy - as like Twitter - you only have a limited amount of characters to get your message out and displaying properly. Facebook also offers the flexibility to run multiple campaign messages concurrently from the same parameters - so you can figure out what is the most effective way to push your ad.

Four C Communications provides Facebook ad services - working with you to create and place the ad - and we deal directly with Facebook - taking all the headache out of setting up an account - awaiting approvals and navigating the ad app.  Give me a call at 905 717-0124 to discuss your local marketing challenges and how Four C can help break through the clutter.

Have a great run up to Christmas or Hanukah and we will talk to you again next week.

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter !

_So can Twitter be used as a marketing tool for your local business? Absolutely. Is it easy? Ummm - Yes? Is it a lot of work -Umm Yes again - but kind of like breathing or walking is work - you just don't think about it too much.

In a previous column we were talking about fictional meatball sandwich shop in Newmarket 'Joe's Sandwich Shop'.  So what is the best way to use Twitter in promoting your business?

The first one may seem glib - but is probably the most important. Use Twitter consistently. Nothing will kill someone following you if you Tweet once a week or once a month. Rule number two - don't tweet so much that people wonder if that is all you do. At a previous employer there was a staffer that was in a fairly high ranking position - but the amount of Twitter and Facebook postings put out by the person had people questioning how effective his role was.

So what is the right amount to Tweet? That really comes down to what your business is and what it is you are trying to promote. At Joe's Sandwich Shop - lunch is the king - but he would like to build his coffee business as well as lunch. So let's take the work week - divide it by six days (he closes on Sunday) and then figure out the amount of Tweets needed for promotion per day. 

1. Just around 7:30 am with the daily coffee and snack special - #newmarket #coffee
2. Another around 11:00 am with the lunch special reminder
3. A final lunch reminder at 12:15 to get any stragglers.

So three Tweets - we will get into content in a moment - but I know you are doing the math. That is 18 Tweets a week - I have customers - food prep, and I am terrible at using my smartphone to do this - it is just too much. Relax - that is where a free Twitter client like Tweetdeck comes in handy. It allows you to schedule your Tweets - every day to the minute you want to send it out - so while you are serving sammy's - your Twitter account is reaching out to all the people who have Newmarket, lunch, meatball or coffee following your tweets. They are among the technically literate who will now know about your lunch special. So on your day off on Sunday - you can schedule your whole week's worth of Tweets - while you look like you are on engaging the community in a thoughtful manner.  Just don't forget what you have scheduled so you don't Tweet lasagna on Tuesday and it is veal instead!

In terms of content - you could send a pic of the special - along with link to your menu page of your website - or make a call to action - to get people to order lunch early for delivery to your office.  In the US where lunch trucks are king- the amount of social interaction between owners and customers is amazing  - with locations, times, and lunch specials getting followed by thousands of food fans in cities like LA, San Diego or Seattle.

Next time - how to use Facebook Ads - some of the benefits and some of the pitfalls of using the largest social network!  In the meantime - don't forget to drop us a line and we will audit your business website and offer up potential solutions - all for free! Contact doug@fourccommunications.com or visit www.fourccommunciations.com

_All you hear about is Twitter - and one of the most common questions I get from new clients is 'How Do I use Twitter' or 'what is it - and do I need to do it?' .

Let's deal with the second question first. Do you NEED to do it? No - but you also didn't need to get a website, or a phone number or business cards either - but it sure helps in establishing a business presence. Social media such as Twitter and Facebook are just new tools in reaching the community.

So let's set up a sample client with a fictional Twitter account.  They are a restaurant with fantastic meatball sandwiches - and they feature great lunch specials every day. In fact, their lunch trade makes up over 50% of their business.

So what are some of the ways Twitter could help this restaurant owner? Simply Tweeting a link to the restaurant menu is frankly not going to do much.  Tweeting should always be something meaningful and have the relevant hash tags associated so people who are monitoring Twitter looking for those same hash tags will see them.

I know - what is a hash tag? It is # followed by a key word that would help identify a place, product, store name or other search term. Since the restaurant is in Newmarket you might consider the following hash tags #Newmarket #York Region #Restaurant #meatball sandwich #Joe's Sandwich Shop . That sounds like a lot - and it will eat in to your total amount of characters (140) but it will start getting you into new followers.

(As an aside - I recommend using a Twitter program called Tweetdeck. It is free and can be downloaded at www.tweetdeck.com. It sits on your desktop and once you put relevant search terms will show Twitters coming from your area and these can be re-tweeted by your account with additional information.)

So you have put your tags in - now what are you going to say? If you have a special - or you are trying to lure in new customers - consider some kind of promotion for Twitter followers. Come into Joe's Sandwich Shop - today only for Twitter followers - $7.95 meatball sand. for just $5!

I am going to be honest when I say - Likely no one is going to come in after your first tweet, but if you start scheduling and staying consistent with your messaging people will start to notice and give you a try. Then you  build up a following by advertising your Twitter Account above the cash and on your website. Have a contest where people put their business cards in for a free lunch draw. It is a great way to get email addresses - to promote your website -  Twitter Account and weekly specials. 

We will do other case studies with the fictional Joe's Sandwich shop but your homework assignment is to get your Twitter account going - log in to TweetDeck and see what is happening out there. It is the digital equivalent of a CB Radio - and it takes some fine tuning to start hearing/seeing the information relevant to what your needs are.

If you have any questions or would like a free telephone assessment of your website - please drop me a line at doug@fourccommunciations.com

Thanks for reading - and next week - we will help out with more marketing ideas for Joe's Sandwich Shop!  See more of the Four C Communications website - go to www.fourccommunications.com

So much is written about the use of social media in reaching local customers but what does it all actually mean and how do you use it effectively?

The big duo in social media is Facebook and Twitter. But how do you parlay your personal Facebook account where you store your vacation picks - and make this an industry changing social media play?

First - you need a second Facebook account - with your business name, not your personal one. Second - fill it out with the base business info and categorize yourself properly. Then you want to create a page or Fan page. This is the address you will use when you link your Facebook logo on your website and is accessible by even people who are not registered with Facebook.

So - you can't use your vacation pictures so what are you putting on the page to make it compelling. Start with pictures of your business or service in action. People's comfort levels are extremely high when they can see the business up the street on Facebook. Showing your recent promotion, car wash or charity event will get you some social media juice.

So what is happening with the Twitter account at the same time? Your Twitter feed will be used to help drive traffic to both your Facebook postings and your website.

So post photos of your recent charity event - and then copy the link to the photo album and paste this into your Twitter feed with a brief description of the event. Most importantly - and underline and hit this with a yellow highlighter - use the relevant #hash tags.  What is critical about using these is it gets your tweet streaming into other people's feeds that are following similar topics. I use the Twitter App  - Tweetdeck - (free to download) and using the search terms I follow any tweets about Newmarket, York Region and local marketing and communications trends. By using the hash tag #Newmarket - hundreds of people who have that as one of their search terms for following local trends will now see your tweet.

So you do this - where is all the business. Slow down Chester - you need to build your audience and the people that follow you - and trust me - this could take a while. That doesn't mean it is not worth doing - but do not look at Twitter and Facebook as a quick solution to getting new customers. They are just a tool like newspaper advertising or buying a yellow pages ad. The upside is all it costs is sweat equity. The downside is like a garden - it requires constant attention, weeding, watering and looking out for pests. 

Explaining the metaphor a bit more - weeding-  finding relevant results on the Twitter Feed - in amongst all the spam, retweets - geographic confusions (Newmarket, England, New Zealand, Ireland all trend with Newmarket as a search term.) . Watering is putting relevant tweets up about your business or about the community. If you spot an announcement about the Santa Claus parade taking place at the weekend - you look like a good corporate citizen spreading the word about the parade. Re-Tweeting other people's local tweets can get you juice - but don't just parrot anything you see - it has to make sense. Finally weeding - eliminating the spammers from your life. If you follow a person from an interesting post but all their subsequent posts are irrelevant and spam like - un-follow that person.

Back to Facebook - make sure you are promoting your Facebook page (and Twitter account) on your website, any printed material and at your place of business. If you are a retailer - even have giveaways for people who Like your page - it is a way to get people to see your page - but more importantly it now has your Facebook posts showing up in their newsfeed. Then all that person's friends also see that information about your new sale that takes place this weekend. Get enough people doing this - and the relevance of social media starts to take shape.

There is a lot to cover but here is a great article form Brian Solis - with some tips on engaging a new audience.

http://www.briansolis.com/2010/05/21-tips-for-using-twitter-for-business/

Four C Communications provides complete social media integration along with good looking, simple to use websites. Drop us a line at doug@fourccommunications.com to have us audit your site and offer up some free changes.

Follow us on Twitter at @FourC_Comms and at Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Four-C-Communications/260506260666788

Next week - using Facebook Ads to drive local business!

So the earth did not rumble with the enormity of the announcement that there is yet another internet/website building firm in York Region. Why did we create a company that seems to have plenty of competitors in place already?

A couple of reasons. The first - in a recent comscore study on local business search trends - 70 per cent of consumers go online first for local business information. In exploring the merits of Newmarket and area's nearly 9,000 businesses just over half of any type of web presence. A staggering 45 per cent do not - and that presents a great business opportunity. (http://smallbiztrends.com/2010/10/key-takeaways-from-the-2010-local-search-usage-study.html)


Second - while there may online - appear to be plenty of companies around to build websites - they are generally too expensive for most small businesses to engage them. Having built websites in a corporate environment I was blown away by the range of pricing available for the same service. Inevitably I would get around to asking why a company was worth all the extra cost and there rarely was an answer that didn't hover around 'experience, 24/7 coverage, top notch service'. 

Those are nice platitudes but when it comes to building a website - the raw materials are not titanium, wood and concrete (if they are you are using the wrong company). It all boils down to labour and what that company feels is a price the market can bear. When I hear small companies boast they only spent $5,000 on their website I wonder what the web company did with the $4,500 after they spent the actual $500 in labour really needed to build most simple websites.

Now don't get me wrong - if you are a big bank, go open that vault and spend the money. Millions of people are keeping their banking on your website and need the security and experience to keep their information safe. 

But a local restaurant, hardware store, tire shop or bistro does not need the firewalls, back up fail safe hard drives on a server farm near the arctic circle and a staff of ten on stand by in case there are problems.

What we are trying to achieve by being a local web company is help local businesses improve how they display themselves to potential customers. 

We will also be working with clients to help cheaply shoot photos or video of their businesses and also help incorporate important social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook. While most business owners can lay claim to having an account for both - how they are used and what audiences they are exposed to can have a huge impact on the goal of attracting new customers.

One of the new services we are introducing to the local real estate market is video tours of homes. Just as slideshows were ground breaking ways of displaying a house online fifteen years ago - now a well produced video with voice over is a much cleaner and transparent way of displaying a house for sale.

I will be making regular posts on my blogs using real examples from the Newmarket, Keswick and Aurora business community. Giving kudos to those who are doing a good job - and also pointing out where some companies are falling short reaching the local consumer.

If you would like me to provide a free audit for your website - drop me a line with a link - and I will take an unflinching look at what you have. Email me at doug@fourccommunications.com !

Next article - we will look at how to use Facebook for something other than looking at your embarrassing college pictures.