Focus Consulting Inc

Be Selfish: Own Your Traffic, Own Your Domain

patrick — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:23:52 +0000

In the wake of the Online Advertising, Social Networking and Consumer-Generated Media sites that are started every day most businesses are forgetting a key objective of marketing on the internet. Businesses are having fun socializing, creating blogs, uploading videos, building amazing Facebook followings, and amassing huge Twitter followings. But most are failing at something that will make or break their business. As you are out sharing company information you should constantly be working on one thing:

Getting people to come to your own website, and keeping them there by having them take action.

You can measure followers all you want. But the reality is – they are not your followers or your connections. You have no control over them. You are at the mercy of a 3rd party to let you interact with them. They are not at yourcompany.com. Most of them probably don’t know if you have a website, or what it is if you do. You are at the mercy of Facebook or Twitter or [INSERT ANY SITE NAME HERE] to let you communicate with those people. If any of the large social sites is attacked or goes down for any reason you lose any and all ability to communicate with all of your connections and followers.

The only place were you have complete and unfettered access to everything about your brand and your customers is on your own real estate on the internet – your own website. Your goal every single day that you are marketing your business should be to get people to your site so they take action there: You want them to bookmark it, put it in their RSS reader, call you, or sign up for your mailing list. When you are sharing items on the various other sites you should have people going to your site to get the full story. Post a teaser on Facebook but link to the full story on the company blog on your site. Don’t keep your blog on Facebook or blogger.com. Keep it at yourdomain.com. It is very easy to get the free version of Wordpress installed on your own domain so you have complete control of your content.

So starting today you need to:

Start directing people to your website via your links that you send out
Constantly remind people of your company website name. Encourage them to visit it often
Encourage people on your site to add you to their RSS reader
Encourage people to sign up for your mailing list so they can receive the latest and greatest information before anybody else.
Bonus: Encourage people to give you their cell phone number so you can text them information that may be timely

If you don’t know how contact me and I will show you how.

Online Video and our seminar in Bartlesville

patrick — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:25:42 +0000

We had a chance to go up to Bartlesville and speak to them about the joys and perils of Online Video. There was standing room only in the room and we could have gone for 6 hours on the subject. But, alas, they only gave us one. Here is a post seminar review.

Quote from the article:

“We’re in an age of relationship marketing,” he said. “A business does a lot better trying to build up relationships and giving out free information than it does trying to sell somebody something.” By sharing information in a personal way through video, potential customers become comfortable with the business owner. “They’re already sold before they ever walk in the front door,” he said. Allmond said he’s not a fan of the company spokesperson, however. Customers want to see who will be in the business when they go inside.

Click here to read the full article

Online Video Questions: Come lunch & learn with us

The New Female Consumer: The Rise of the New Mom

patrick — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:26:28 +0000

Here is a report that we just downloaded compliments of AdAge regarding the changing wants of women. Click on THIS link to download a PDF of the report.

The Excerpt:

“This Advertising Age and JWT white paper explores what multiple generations of American women want when it comes to family, work and life in the 21st century, decades after the women’s liberation movement. It focuses in depth on Generation X (ages 30 to 44) and millennial (ages 18 to 29) mothers and how they differ from their older counterparts. It also examines how marketers can and should improve communications that target this demographic.”

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Online Video Questions: Come lunch & learn with us

patrick — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 04:27:55 +0000

Online video is taking the internet by storm. The latest batch of of online tools has made it possible for any company or brand to create their own internet TV channel. They can then use their new channel to deliver extremely timely and relevant information to their customer base. This takes little money and time to get started, but can have a huge impact on your bottom line.

Patrick Allmond of Focus Consulting will be speaking about online video on 1/14 in a session titled “Online Video: Making Great Impressions Without Breaking the Bank”. He will be covering many areas including:

History of content on the internet
Why you want to start doing your own online video
The equipment that will be needed to get started
How to shoot great videos
How to host your videos
How to do LIVE online video

For more information visit the Facebook event page. If you are in the Tulsa or Bartlesville area we’d love to have you come out and visit us. This is an open event and everybody is welcome.

Come learn Social Media 101 with Focus on 1/12

patrick — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:18:46 +0000

Class is in session again and your bus drivers are stepping on the gas . Come join Focus Consulting at Francis Tuttle on 1/12 at 8:30a and dip your toe in the online marketing pool. If you want a fast-paced introduction to Social Media then this is the class for you.

Focus Consulting will be onsite co-teaching a class with the amazing Shelley Cadamy of Francis Tuttle fame. We will be covering the following topics to help get your business off the ground:

What is Social Media?
Examples of people/companies that are doing amazing things in Social Media
Examples of people/companies that just don’t get it and are really messing it up
How you should approach a Social Media strategy?
Getting started on the popular platforms: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Where to go from here?

This class always has a waiting list. To your name on the list and guarantee yourself a spot then drop Shelley Cadamy a line at SCadamy@francistuttle.com

Why we avoid the term “Social Media”

patrick — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 08:49:02 +0000

When you sit down with Focus Consulting one of the things you might immediately notice is that we shy away from the term “Social Media”. Considering it is plastered all over our website you’d think that we have it tattooed on our arms like some kind of like Social Media Navy Pirates. Arrrrgh!

The real truth is this: Social Media is a press buzzword that is hard to quantify – like Web 2.0. Want proof? Take a second and read the Wikipedia definition of Social Media. Then think of how that applies to your business marketing strategory. Confusing? Yeah – we think so too.

Most of the time when you talk to a consultant and they start throwing around phrases like Social Media and Web 2.0 you should be a little… no VERY cautious. These are buzzwords that have no concrete definition, or that have such a vague definition that they are often used to impress and wow people without actually saying anything. What is really impressive (tongue in cheek) is when someone throws all of the latest buzzwords in a sentence together such as “We use the latest Web 2.0 Technology to build your Social Media Engagement and create synergy between you and your customers”. When you hear that run, don’t walk away.

We feel that our customers deserve more than buzzwords; they deserve to understand measurable terms that they can apply to their business strategy. You don’t want a social media website – what is that anyways ? What you’d rather have is a site or a destination where your customers can interact with you, and you with them. A place where your customers can have unfettered conversations about your brand and your industry.

How do you feel about this topic? Please leave us a comment below – we’d love your feedback.

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Focus Celebrates 11 Years in Business

patrick — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:57:49 +0000

November 2009 marks the decade + 1 mark for Focus Consulting.

It is hard to believe that 11 years ago this November we chose to break away from the corporate world and start our own consulting business. Since that time we have grown, shrunk, traveled the country back and forth, and even consulted overseas. Times have been great and times have been hard. But we would not go back and change any of of our experiences. They have shaped us as individuals, and as a company.

Our roots still hold true in the great state of Oklahoma. Here is to the next 11 years, and a great upcoming 2010.

Are you ready for your Social Media 101 Lesson?

patrick — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:27:12 +0000

Class is in session again and your bus drivers are stepping on the gas . Come join Focus Consulting at Francis Tuttle on 7/27/2009 at 8:00a and dip your toe in the online marketing pool. If you want a fast-paced introduction to Social Media then this is the class for you.

Focus Consulting will be onsite co-teaching a class with the amazing Shelley Cadamy of Francis Tuttle fame. We will be covering the following topics to help get your business off the ground:

What is Social Media?
Examples of people/companies that are doing amazing things in Social Media
Examples of people/companies that just don’t get it and are really messing it up
How you should approach a Social Media strategy?
Getting started on the popular platforms: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Where to go from here?

This class always has a waiting list. To your name on the list and guarantee yourself a spot then drop Shelley Cadamy a line at SCadamy@francistuttle.com

Social Media 101 Class is back in session on 6/23

patrick — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:24:08 +0000

Class is in session again and your bus drivers are stepping on the gas . Come join Focus Consulting at Francis Tuttle on 6/23/2009 at 8:30a and dip your toe in the online marketing pool. If you want a fast-paced introduction to Social Media then this is the class for you.

Focus Consulting will be onsite co-teaching a class with the amazing Shelley Cadamy of Francis Tuttle fame. We will be covering the following topics to help get your business off the ground:

What is Social Media?
Examples of people/companies that are doing amazing things in Social Media
Examples of people/companies that just don’t get it and are really messing it up
How you should approach a Social Media strategy?
Getting started on the popular platforms: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Where to go from here?

This class always has a waiting list. To your name on the list and guarantee yourself a spot then drop Shelley Cadamy a line at SCadamy@francistuttle.com

3/31 Social Media Class in Session for NW Oklahoma City Chamber

patrick — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:25:14 +0000

Focus Consulting will be teaching the Social Media Marketing class for the Oklahoma City NW Chamber of Commerce . Come join Focus Consulting at Francis Tuttle on 3/31/2009 at 8:00a and dip your toe in the online marketing pool. If you want a fast-paced introduction to Social Media then this is the class for you.

Focus Consulting will be onsite co-teaching a class with the amazing Shelley Cadamy of Francis Tuttle fame. We will be covering the following topics to help get your business off the ground:

What is Social Media?
Examples of people/companies that are doing amazing things in Social Media
Examples of people/companies that just don’t get it and are really messing it up
How you should approach a Social Media strategy?
Getting started on the popular platforms: Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Where to go from here?

This class always has a waiting list. To your name on the list and guarantee yourself a spot then drop Shelley Cadamy a line at SCadamy@francistuttle.com