Real Social Media SEO for Local Businesses

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I have counseled my real estate agent clients to be their neighborhood advocate. That means be the online source of hyperlocal or neighborhood information. This advise really can apply to any local business from the dentist, to the plumber and even restaurant, and more.

What most people think is that what I mean is to post dry boring statistics about home values, and recently sold homes. Of course for a home owner these things are a big deal when they are considering "hows the market?". However, they are a mere blip on the radar for most of the time. Thus, your message is wasted.

Instead, any local business can stoke community pride by video taping the events they participate inside that community.

If you properly tag your YouTube video you will get local folks watching your video about their town.

This was brought home to me the other day as I posted a video of our local home town parade we attend most every year.

I put the video up on YouTube late Saturday night. By Sunday morning it was already at 37 views. As of  right now Monday morning it is 126. Based on experience it will keep growing. I also posted pictures of the parade and the video into Facebook.

So imagine if I would have put Tim's Real Estate, Or Torrance Dentist, or Torrance Fill in the blank,  as a watermark, or bookend on either side of the video? 126 People would see my message so far. The marketing benefits of doing this are delightful.

• Branding
• Community involvement
• Socialized SEO as the video gets picked up by the social nets
• Its cheap
• Its ongoing
• You are not always selling, youare perceived as a community advocate
• Its more fun!

Imagine if I hammed it up a bit as roving reporter and placed the branded bookend and footers?

Here is the short clip and a photo taken by my daughter.  Turn your speakers down.

You can also post your photos and watermark them with your appropriate branding. Put them on photo sites like Flikr with full creative common rights so people use them on their website. Post them across the social media and your message spreads virally.

Comments

[Allen Gingrich]

We, too, do this. We've found that by capturing local events and putting simply the city/neighborhood/town in the tags and video info, we are able to attract around 50 people to our website (not to YouTube, but our actual site at http://3bsells.com).

Good info!

[Coach Tim SEO]

Allen that is awesome. Some many people shy from videos as they get discouraged from the time to process them. But with a flipvideo it is pretty easy right now.

[Account Deleted]

You are think correct,I agree with you, The most people think is that what I mean is to post dry boring statistics about home values, and recently sold homes.But with a flipvideo it is pretty easy right now.
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