Social Networking for Your Coffee Shop Part 1

How do you advertise? How do you market your coffee shop? How do you market so customers can buy coffee beans from you? If you are like most shop owners you are being very careful how your marketing dollars are spent. If you are just planning to open a coffee shop, these tips can lead you to a smoother open.

No wasting money on typical coupons or door hangers right? In this three part article series, we?ll talk about social networking and how it can benefit your business.

There has been a whirlwind of potential customers coming to light in social media. This medium is very overlooked but when it?s used it is usually either overdone or done incorrectly. If you utilize it to the best of its potential you should see an increase in customers and sales. Here is the first of a few ideas for you to consider:

Blogging

Talk to the world online. You may just develop a following not only local, but around the world. If customers buy coffee beans online from you the national spotlight may just work in your favor. Google BlogSpot and Word Press are good blogging sites and are very user friendly. I use Word Press and I really like it. I actually write several blogs and the user dashboard is very easy to set up, even for multiple blogs.

The idea about blogging is to just write what comes to mind, but be careful to keep focused on topic and in most cases, talk about your specific business or its mission, vision and activities. Whatever you do, don?t trash other businesses or individuals no matter how tempting it is. Things like that will certainly show immaturity and kill your business.

However, you can blog about specials, events, the way you compost or recycle or how you use only Fair Trade or organic coffee. You can blog about your baristas latte art or the fact that you are also an artisan roaster that roasts in small batches. Announce a new coffee varietal that has just arrived or that you now serve lunch. If you are not open yet, you can blog about how you are starting a coffee shop. Live it up!

The best part about blogging is that unlike a standard website update, immediately after you click ?publish?, the blog sends a ?ping? to the search spiders saying ?hey, there is new information on this blog, come and get it!? You will see your post show up in relevant search results in a matter of minutes so blogging is great for specials and things you want people to know about right away.

So be sure you use your tags wisely. Tags are keywords that the search engine filters and stores for your blog. Keywords enable your posts to come up in search results for a relevant search term when a user types it in to Google or Yahoo! An example would be ?Colombian French roast? or ?farmers market in Cleveland Ohio? or whatever you put in for your tags. Also be sure to use these keywords in your blog post copy as well as the search engine bots will pick them up and index your blog accordingly. Be sure everything is relevant for your post.

Next time we will discuss Facebook and Twitter and how to use them to your advantage. More social networking awaits!

Tony DiCorpo is a coffee roaster, barista trainer and coffee business consultant. He has authored many articles on coffee and the coffee business. Tony has extensive experience in business and collectively more than 20 years experience in sales, business management, entrepreneurship and the coffee business.

He is a coffee shop business consultant and has an eBook on how to start a coffee shop. He also owns Troubadour Coffee Roasting Co. where he sells coffee and espresso equipment and where you can buy coffee beans.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/http://tonydicorpo.articlealley.com/social-networking-for-your-coffee-shop-part-1-2207345.html

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Increase Web Site Traffic by Writing Your Own Ezin

Increase Web Site Traffic by Writing Your Own Ezine Article
Copyright 2003 Herman Drost

If you want to increase web site traffic without spending a
dime, then write your own ezine article. It’s one of the most
effective web site promotion strategies you could use. It can
even be more effective than paid advertising.

Not convinced?

Well, as you read Part 1 of this article and later Part 2, you
will gain a deeper understanding of why you SHOULD be using
this method to rapidly increase web site traffic.

The first part (Part 1) of this article will give you deeper
insights into the benefits of writing an ezine article.

Part 2 will cover the formula and format you can use to write
your own article as well as provide valuable resources where to
publish your articles for maximum exposure.

7 ways to benefit from writing an ezine article

1. Reach 1000s of targeted prospects by submitting your ezine to
online publishers. Ezine publishers are constantly on the
lookout for articles with good content that will educate their
subscribers.

2. Free advertising – instead of paying hundreds of dollars
placing ads in some of the top ezines, your article is
published free and contains much more valuable content than a
few lines of ad space.

This obviously aids in preselling your product or service to
your customer.

3. Increase link popularity – you can include a link back to
your web site in the article resource box. When web
sites publish your article, you will automatically have your
link placed on their web site.

This saves you time searching for links from other sites to
increase your link popularity in the search engines.

4. Gain immediate high search engine ranking – convert your
article into its own web page on your web site with it’s own
set of well placed keywords in the meta tags and throughout the
text.

Upload this new web page to your server. Your web page will be
spidered within a few days or weeks (depending on search engine
spider activity) and already gain high rankings in the search
engines resulting in an instant increase in web site traffic.

5. Improve search engine ranking – getting your article
published by many ezine publishers, will naturally improve your
search engine rankings, because of the many links pointing back
to your own website.

6. Be seen as an expert in your field – writing numerous
articles helps others recognize you as an expert in your
business. Include each new article in your own ezine or
newsletter.

People love originally written articles instead of rehashing
others articles which they may have already read in
other ezines.

This instills confidence and trust within your future customers
making it easier for them to do business with you.

7. Gain references and testimonies – record the places where
your ezine article is published (especially the popular ones
with 1000s of subscribers).

Record testimonies from those folks who give you enthusiastic
feedback from your articles.

Use these references and testimonies in press releases about
your product or service. Include them on your web pages and
public stationary. Your credibility and trust will be greatly
enhanced in the eyes of your potential customers.

Now that I have convinced you of the benefits of writing an
ezine article, be sure to read Part 2 of this article. I will
give you the formula, the format and the resources where to
publish your ezine article so you can drastically increase your
web site traffic.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/http://hermandrost.articlealley.com/increase-web-site-traffic-by-writing-your-own-ezin-122.html

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