2011 Growth Report

One word continues to crop up in discussions about doing business online and capturing sales leads through websites: social. More than any other shift in how businesses operate, online social networks are the new yardstick against which businesses and organizations must recalibrate their sales and marketing operations.

“I gave probably a half-dozen presentations on social media in 2011 alone,” recalls Tyler Clark, a consultant in digital marketing and online sales lead generation.

“With the yellow pages dead and forgotten, there are two ways to find a business online: One is by ensuring your website gets found on Google for those searching for what you offer. The other is ensuring your blogs and news are showing up on Facebook for people to stumble upon. Readers who may not know they’re looking for you have an opportunity to become interested once they read about you.”

As a result of feedback from so many local businesses and organizations in social media workshops and seminars in the past three years, Tyler Clark Consulting introduced discrete service packages for websites that need to be updated for the social web. The packages, called SharePacks, include integrating websites with social networks, optimizing Facebook profiles, installing Facebook comments on websites, reviewing search engine optimization, redesigns and content management solutions.

“What I heard from business owners is that they don’t have time to figure out all this stuff,” Clark explains, “and we want to help them get up to speed quickly and understand the strategy for how to manage it effectively going forward.”

In his “Point, Click, Profit” Business Journal column in June, Clark outlined the steps to generating leads through blogging and social media:

1. Publish great content on a company blog.
2. Share it through social networks.
3. Capture leads from visitors through simple forms, in exchange for enticing offers.

For those without the internal human resources to execute this strategy, the company also offers concierge online lead generation services in blocks of 10, 20 and 40 hours per month. Clark reports these new services have been a growth engine for the company, “We’ve successfully transitioned from the first few years of unpredictable, project-derived revenue to a solid year of recurring revenue from a stable and growing base of clients.” He adds, “Looking forward, I see the SharePacks as a key to growth in the new year.”

During 2011, the company launched new websites for the Mahoning County Convention and Visitors Bureau (youngstownlive.com), Eastern Ohio P-16 (easternohiop16.org) and M7 Technologies (m7tek.com), among others. Upcoming sites include notable e-commerce projects and a networking hub for area educators.

Education is among Clark’s top areas of focus for 2012. “I’ve gotten great feedback from my columns in the Business Journal, so I hope to do some more writing and create resources that area business and non-profit leaders can rely on to keep up on leading-edge strategies in technology, especially in the area of social media.”