Creativity.   Some people have it, some people don’t.  Does it matter?  Is it necessary?

Like with many questions the answer is a solid… It Depends.

If you’re a businessman, creativity doesn’t matter.

If you’re an athlete, it doesn’t matter.

If you’re a marketer, it doesn’t matter.

Or does it?

If you’re a businessman – you will argue that your bread and butter is how well you run your business.  How successful a business is.  The numbers are proof of everything.

And that is entirely true.

But do you do it alone?   No.  You have a team of people including a few creatives as well.

And odds are, how you became successful had a fair amount of creativity in it as well.  Did you do something that was ahead of its time?  Did you involve a certain department or technique that others thought was crazy?  You were clever and you used creativity to make your business just that much better.

Same goes for marketers and athletes as well.  IF you do everything by the book, if you pay attention to every rule, and every guideline for how you’re supposed to do something you are only as good as the person telling you.

You have to believe that you can be and do more.  Boundaries must be pushed. Limits have to be surpassed. Ideas need to be created and followed up on. Creativity is in every breath you take if you have a dream and a goal in mind. Devising a plan to get where you want to be is nothing less than integral and you won’t get there by going with the status quo.  Be different, do things differently, don’t follow the herd.

Your business will be that much more successful.

You’re races/contests/games/matches/etc will be that much more fulfilling.

Your marketing campaigns will be fresh and pop and receive the recognition they deserve.  All because you took a few minutes to explore your creative side.

Go ahead – develop that fun website, interesting blog, unique project.  What do you have to lose?  And what is there to gain all because you took a step in a direction that most don’t.  Isnt that what sets apart the winners from the losers?  Hard work, determination, and creativity?  I’d think so.

Regardless of the type of business you have, your presence needs to be online. You now know that you need your SEO to be up to par and whenever anyone searches for you on Google, you must be one of the first page results. You also should know by now that you cannot in any way shape or form pay Google to have this done, so now you must solely rely on keywords to get you where you want to be. But where do you start?

Well, in any good online marketing plan your website first must be excellent. That goes without saying because it acts as your homebase, and a functional, well thought out page will make or break your whole initiative. But then what?

Well there’s Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, You Tube, just to start and a dozen other places that your business probably fits into. Get yourself a Facebook fan page first. It’s an easy enough service to set up that you can plug in your information and start a small Facebook ad campaign to amass some people to “Like” your product. Simply update a status everyday to remain relevant, and as a bare minimum.

And/Or go to Twitter. Twitter is NOT a place for you to advertise. It is a place for you to connect with your customers or clients and build relationships. Think of it as a sophisticated customer service center. It’s a place where you can monitor what’s being said about your company or industry. Interact… do NOT send automated messages.

LinkedIn is for your professional base. Create a company page – add a career page tab onto your career profile to enhance it and add videos of corporate culture, or to talk about your employees doing excellent work. The key to LinkedIn is joining and participating in groups.

YouTube is an excellent place to post your videos – especially if you have any kind of How-To’s involved in what you do. YouTube needs to be broadcast to other platforms though, so make sure your presence is already set up and functioning elsewhere.

So your website might be the first place to go, but you must follow up everywhere else. And make sure to search out those niche sites that will be oh so important to you!

You’ve done all the necessary components for getting your web presence up and running.  You’ve created a twitter account, a Facebook fan page, you remodeled and branded your website, and wrote a blog.  You keep checking Google to see where your business ends up when you type in Keywords, but it just won’t climb and get onto that first page.  Now what?

Google will never accept money in order to put your product or search item higher on the ranking list when someone performs a search.  Working with Google’s search engine means you have to prove to them that you’re worth having a  high ranking.

There are a few things you can do.   If you remodeled your website on your own, pay a company who specializes in web re-design to help you, or at least give a quick consultation on the things that you could do better to draw in customers.  If you are up and running on all the social media networks, dedicate various members of your marketing team to be in charge of the specific areas.  One of the best things you can do, is hire a Community Manager.   This person sits as a part of your marketing staff, and their entire job is to do online marketing.  They will coordinate your efforts, live, eat, and breathe your brand, and put your name out into the world.  They will interact with your customers and THAT is how you become more SEO friendly.

Social Media is a conversation that happens on line.  Keywords are flung around everyday, and the ones that are used most often are the ones that Google rewards with high rankings in their search engine.  In order to achieve this, you must be active in your community and participate in daily goings on with your customers.