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As business gravitates toward the Internet, developing online leads has become a priority. We work with home-improvement companies to discover ways to encourage Web visitors to sign up for an estimate, promotion or sweepstakes. It is imperative to make the most of the traffic on the site. We do not want the visitors to just come to the site, look at the products and then leave. We want them to be encouraged by our professionalism and message and feel comfortable leaving their personal information so we have the opportunity to contact them and start the sales process.

Internet marketing and advertising has come a long way over the past five to ten years. The methods used to communicate with consumers shift as each new social medial Web site reaches critical mass. As a company aspiring to embrace online marketing, you will need to continue to spot these trends and learn how they can benefit your business or adversely affect how you are perceived by consumers.

"The Internet and social media have not only changed advertising and the way businesses communicate with customers, but they have also changed the way we communicate with each other."

There has been a critical shift in the way we communicate with each other and our customers. The Internet and social media have not only changed advertising and the way businesses communicate with customers, but they have also changed the way we communicate with each other in our daily lives. This is a pivotal juncture in society as more people gravitate towards the Internet for every aspect of their lives. It is time to effectively communicate our businesses, services and products to consumers where they are spending a majority of their time — online.

In its simplest form social media is word-of-mouth communication. The online world is reality and reputation has the same values in both worlds. The way your business is perceived is critical when someone is choosing to do business with you or your competitor. Whether it’s choosing a restaurant when dining out, finding a vacation destination or choosing what car to buy, many decision-making processes start online, including home repairs, updates and remodeling.

Not only does your content and communication matter on the Internet, but your personality makes a difference as well. In other words, you need to be accessible and approachable in all of your social media marketing communications. Don’t talk at people; talk with them and do so in a manner that makes it clear you’d like them to join the conversation. Your online reputation is critical. There are many sites where users can leave comments; let negative comments go without a response from the company and you have lost your chance to make it right with the customer. When other consumers are doing research on your company, they’ll find these negative comments and take the advice from your unhappy customer. Be proactive. Get involved and try to offer a solution, apologies or simply state your side of the story. Let these negative comments go untouched by your company and they become a permanent scar on your social, online and overall reputation.

The online footprint of social media is huge and there are probably many sites you visit that you didn’t consider to be social media, but are in fact social in many aspects. A site is considered social if information is disseminated through social interaction. Here are a few examples of how Internet users are finding information about your company, services and reputation.

Local search

This includes Google Local, Yahoo Local, Yelp, FourSquare, Yellow Pages and more. Local advertising is where Internet users are going to find specific information relevant to their community and the area they live and work in. Business ratings and user comments are the currency for your business. Positive reviews will always help encourage a potential customer to do business with your company.

Twitter

New Twitter users sign up at the rate of 300,000 per day. Users post an average of 55 million tweets a day. Twitter experienced an annual growth in 2009 of 1,382 percent.

Yelp

Claim your business when a site reaches a critical mass. Update your Yelp profile and add photos and relevant information about who you are as a business and what you offer beyond products. Encourage your customers to add reviews with incentives and promotions. Yelpers have written over 10 million local reviews, over 85 percent of them rating a business three stars or higher. Every business owner (or manager) can set up a free account to post offers, photos and messages to their customers. Yelp is a place for a conversation between the prospective customer and the business owner. User reviews create a defacto reputation system.

Facebook

Facebook is the largest social networking site with more than 400 million active users.

The fastest growing segment is 55 to 65 years old, the target demographic for contractors.

Fifty percent of Facebook users log on during any given day. More than 20 million Facebook users become fans of pages every day. Sixty-one percent of Facebook users are middle aged or older, with the average age being 37. Males and females almost equally use social sites (47 percent vs. 53 percent).

LinkedIn

The purpose of the site is to allow registered users to maintain a list of contact details of people they know and trust in business. The people in the list are called Connections. Users can invite anyone (whether a site user or not) to become a connection. LinkedIn has over 65 million members in over 200 countries. A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members. Your professional network of trusted contacts gives you an advantage in your career and is one of your most valuable assets. LinkedIn exists to help you make better use of your professional network and help the people you trust in return.

Foursquare

Foursquare is a location-based social networking game. In the most basic sense, it allows you to use your phone to alert your friends in real time of your exact whereabouts. You can build a friend network on Foursquare and simply elect to alert those people as you check in. As you begin to use Foursquare you can earn yourself badges (remember this is a game) which tell fellow Foursquarers exactly what kind of Foursquare user you are. Then if you go to a venue enough times, you become the mayor of that venue. Many companies have already started integrating Foursquare into their customer loyalty/rewards programs where regular customers are rewarded for their social media involvement. This tactic can be used in showrooms and at events to provide additional incentives and build customer loyalty.

Blogs

Blogs are a great way to personalize your company. Connect to blogs, connect to your audience and connect to people. There are two ways to connect to blogs: Build a list of news and event blogs in your region or national ones that will talk about the unique programs you are running, or start your own blog — you are an expert so now it’s time to publish. You know your business and trade better than anyone; let the public know. While maintaining a blog, conduct interviews with industry influentials and turn them into blog posts. The more active your blogging, the better.

Social media advertising

Peer recommendations are proven to be more trustworthy than advertising. Many social media sites offer demographic based advertising. You want to aim your ads, incentives and promotions toward prospective buyers, and you now have the ability and power to do this on a local level. The entry into social media advertising is relatively inexpensive, and you are able to measure statistics and ROI easily.

Business reviews

Set up Google alerts with your company and industry specific keywords. This will help you keep track when an article or blog post is written about your company. It can even alert you when someone writes a negative comment about you. When something positive or informative is written about your company, repost it to your Facebook, Twitter or blog. If someone posts a negative comment about your services, respond. Be quick and offer a remedy or explanation. This will demonstrate to prospective customers you are alert, professional and concerned about the opinions and experiences of your customers.

Assets

Have good assets such as high resolution photos of your work, products and staff. This will give you an advantage when posting information about your company online or when media outlets want to write a story about you or your company. Keep current content and copy readily available. This will save you a lot of time and effort when it comes to building a Web site, ad, article, blog or social media profile.

What is necessary today is an acknowledgment that even the term “social media” undergoes a change (or even the more extreme paradigm shift) whenever a new and more accessible forum for communication presents itself. Almost everything that was once addressed exclusively by the service economy is gradually being absorbed by a highly technical and (regretfully) often impersonal network of conduits. We too often presume that “the message” is being acted upon the very moment it sets sail on the Internet. This is not the case. It’s a busy ocean, the sizes of the respective vessels vary, and more than one individual in the marketplace has complained of sea sickness.

The people who are in the business of bringing products and ideas to clients and customers must never forget that the most crucial elements are the simplest. Understand what the client produces, familiarize yourself with everything that touches directly or indirectly with the target audience, become that target audience in scenario and (if possible) in fact, and learn from the established companies that make a point not only to think outside the box but shred the box if no other plan presents itself.

"It’s a busy ocean, the sizes of the respective vessels vary, and more than one individual in the marketplace has complained of seasickness."

Home construction and improvement are concerns where these objectives are easily realized. You don’t have to retake your Anthropology 101 class to grasp the simple truth that shelter is a basic need of the human condition. Nor that making a man or woman’s home into a comforting reflection of self-worth is a key drawing card for the industry.