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Many businesses are trying to figure out how to use social media to grow their business and increase their revenue. The industries of restaurants and entertainment is no different.

I'm always surprised at how many of these businesses are not using social media, but for most, it boils down to the lack of knowledge on how to use this new medium to create commerce in their businesses. Commerce won't come overnight; that I can guarantee you, but by getting involved and adopting social media as a way to engage and interact with your customers and patrons you will find that commerce will come sooner than later.

Social media works best in this industry because, as a society we attend restaurants and entertainment districts to be social and interact. Those who enjoy these venues also find enjoyment in social media. They will often look for you in these social venues and if they don't find you it can come as a disappointment; after all they'd love it if they had an easy way of finding out what was going on, want new menu times you are introducing or what events are coming up.

I understand your hesitation which is why I want to share with you ten way to use social media to market your restaurant or entertainment district.

Ten Ways Restaurant and Entertainment Industries Can Use Social Media to Market originally appeared on About.com Marketing on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 18:19:44.

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I'm often asked "Laura, what is the biggest mistake companies make when it comes to marketing?" The answer is easy.

The biggest mistake, I see is when a company doesn't track their marketing efforts. They simply spend their marketing budget and then they cross their fingers. There was a time that it was difficult to track marketing efforts, especially commercials and print advertisements. That's not the case any longer, so there is really no excuse to not tracking your marketing efforts.

Tracking and monitoring your marketing efforts and advertisements will help you in allocating your marketing budget in marketing campaigns that you know will work. There is nothing more devastating to a company than to spend money on an advertisement that produces little or no results.

You can track your offline marketing efforts, so that you have the knowledge that you need when it comes to knowing what worked and what didn't. The result of tracking is an accurate measurement of what marketing efforts were effective and no longer depending on inaccurate guesswork to determine where you spend your marketing budget. Let me share with you a few tracking methods that I use when marketing offline.

Your Turn: How do you track your offline marketing? Do you use a different method that I have not mentioned? I'd like to know.

Methods for Tracking Offline Marketing Efforts originally appeared on About.com Marketing on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 13:31:20.

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A properly developed marketing campaign can not only connect you with the right prospects, but it gets everyone talking about your company, your product, or your service. However, marketing mistakes can just as easily cost your business thousands of dollars. Learn about the top 5 mistakes commonly made in marketing. Did I miss one you are familiar with? Feel free to add yours in the comments below.

Marketing Mistakes: Learn How to Avoid the Top 5 originally appeared on About.com Marketing on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 05:00:14.

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It's difficult to start a business, let alone learn how to market it. It's not uncommon for new and small business owners to find themselves in the marketing role and quickly becoming overwhelmed. Don't worry, I'm here to help. There are marketing basics that are important to every small business owner. Marketing is not an expense it's an investment and it's important to have a clear understanding on where to start investing. If you can get this, you are one step ahead.

Businesses typically fail in their first year. This failure is often due to lack of planning and a lack of understanding the consumers they are targeting. If you can jump that hurtle and get an in-depth start in to how to marketing to you potential customers you have a great chance at succeeding and building a business with a strong foundation.

I've created a series that I call the First Steps to Marketing a Small Business that I think will help you in creating that foundation and assist you in gaining a basic understanding of marketing and how to create effective marketing strategies that will help you in reaching your potential customers and ultimately increasing your bottom line.

First Steps to Marketing a Small Business originally appeared on About.com Marketing on Sunday, January 17th, 2010 at 22:09:51.

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In a discussion with a colleague we began to talk about the importance of the way a company treats their employees and how it affects how they then treat the company's clients. He has seen the truth of this principle in the company that he works for and today that company is experiencing ultimate success.

This conversation reminded me of an article I wrote during an epiphany moment called Internal Branding. Truth is marketing starts from the inside out. It' important to realize that if you try to start on the outside first your endeavor will fail.  Branding is not only skin deep it  starts with your employees. If they are not reflecting your brand this could be diminishing your marketing efforts.  It's important to get your employees involved and behind your brand.

Branding From the Inside Out originally appeared on About.com Marketing on Sunday, January 10th, 2010 at 11:25:18.

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I'm a big proponent of social media marketing and I believe it will continue to play a large role in marketing as we move into the next decade. However, with that being said I also know that companies fear social media in general. They fear handing over their brand to their consumers as well as how employees will use social media and how it will affect their brand both directly and indirectly. This is a warranted fear as we've seen in the past year. I can certainly understand where they are coming from and I would like know your opinion since it's something I've been debating for a while now.

Has the line between professionalism and personal been blurred when it comes to social media? While I agree that transparency and authenticity is important in the success of social media marketing at what point can that transparency and authenticity hurt a business?

I'm not just talking about large corporate businesses here, but I'm also talking about entrepreneurs. Is there a line between professional and personal or has that line been blurred when it comes social media marketing and blogging?

What are your thoughts? Can being too personal harm your business or marketing efforts? Should there be guidelines and if so how should they be defined so that they protect the brand represented without losing personality?

I want to your opinion. Share your thoughts by posting your opinion.

When It Comes to Social Media Should the Lines of Personal and Professional Be Crossed? originally appeared on About.com Marketing on Sunday, January 3rd, 2010 at 00:45:18.

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I'm not psychic nor do I have a crystal ball, but I've made some marketing predictions I think you will not only find interesting, but you'll want to be aware of. I've been in marketing for the past decade and boy, have we seen some changes. We've from having our toe dipped into the interactive world while holding onto our traditional means of marketing with a death grip. I'm happy to say that is starting to change.

We are getting braver when it comes to marketing. I don't know if that's because we realize that the traditional means of marketing are not as effective or that we have just started to find more of our customers online. Truth is, the reason doesn't matter - it's happening.

I've made my predictions of the marketing methods that are phasing out as well as the marketing methods that I believe will continue to grow and soar in the next decade. You are welcome to hold my feet to the fire on this one; I'm that confident in my projections.

How will your business do in the next decade? I think that all depends on how you market and the relationships that you create and cultivate. It's time to pull those marketing dollars back that aren't working for you and begin to invest them in ways that will give you more of a return. If you are ready, what are you waiting for? I give you my Marketing Predictions for 2010 and the decade that follows - out with the old and in with the new.

Your Turn: What are your marketing predictions for the upcoming decade? What do you see staying and what do you see going away?

Marketing Predictions for the Upcoming Decade 2010 originally appeared on About.com Marketing on Monday, December 28th, 2009 at 00:59:45.

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We've seen some changes in the marketing industry in the last decade.  We no longer tell consumers what to buy with our marketing efforts, we advise them.  Potential customers are more inclined to listen and ask the advice of  their peers when it comes to determining their choice of not only what to buy, but where to buy.

In recent years with the advancement of social media marketing, word-of-mouth has become even more important, because your customers don't just tell a few people about a positive or bad experience, they often tell thousands if not millions.

This decade is coming to a close and it's a good time to review your own reward marketing program. Are you rewarding customers for telling others about you?

Referrals are the most powerful form of marketing that you can use and it's also the least expensive. Your referrals have more of an impact than any other marketing strategy or advertisement.

What does a referral mean to your business?  It's a warm lead to a sell of your product or service.  Don't dismiss the value of those referrals and be sure to reward those that send them your way - you'll be glad you did.

Your Turn: How do you reward people for sending those referrals in your direction?  I'd love to hear about your referral programs and how you reward customers for sending business your direction.

Asking for a Referral is Easy with a Reward Marketing Program originally appeared on About.com Marketing on Sunday, December 20th, 2009 at 23:45:22.

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Real time search is now a reality. Google rolled out their new  real-time web and personalized search last week and the marketing world is buzzing about it.

Why?

Real time search is the integration of social media networking feeds into search engine query results.

What does this mean for you?

That's easy, it means that if you haven't embraced social media as part of your marketing plan, it's time to start if for no other reason than to protect your brand and monitor what's being said. The feeds that are being put into the search engine results don't necessarily have to come from your company; they can come from anyone.  That includes those who may be complaining about your service or your product and you need to be aware of the buzz, both the positive and the negative.

Protect your brand by gaining an understanding of what real time search is and what it means for you and your company.  You'll be glad you did.  Your brand is in the hands of your customers and that's now a real time search reality.

Your Brand in the Hands of Consumers a Real Time Search Reality originally appeared on About.com Marketing on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 00:04:30.

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It's been a rough year for many of us that work in marketing.  We've had more pressure put on us to make things happen and increase the bottom line of the companies we own or work for.  Marketing is often looked at as an expense, rather than the investment that it is.  It's time that we start showing the return on investment that marketing plays in our businesses, the best way to do this is to create an annual marketing plan.

An annual marketing plan will assist you in figuring out what it is that you need to do, how to do it, and when to do it. This marketing plan should go hand-in-hand with your business plan and development.  It keeps you and your marketing team in check and enables you continually monitor and evaluate your marketing efforts.

I've created a 6 day intensive annual marketing plan course that can help you in developing your own marketing plan. In this course we will revisit your marketing goals and determine what it is that you hope to achieve in the upcoming year with your marketing efforts. We will then chart the course on how you can achieve those goals and objectives. I have found that many people avoid this process because they don't know where to begin the process. The good news is that's what this course is for.

Over the next six days I will walk you through the steps of creating a solid marketing plan. Sign up and let's get started in developing your annual marketing plan for 2010 today.

Develop Your Annual Marketing Plan - 6 Day Online Course originally appeared on About.com Marketing on Sunday, December 6th, 2009 at 00:00:43.

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