Friday, October 18, 2013

New Web Sites this Week!





Kelly M. Canary, President has over 15 years experience in HR and Employee Group Benefits

NYS Licensed in Life, Accident & Health
KMC Consulting, Inc specializes in custom benefit packages for small and large group employers. We look at each company's individual needs ...


Schur & Rose PLLC 

located in the lower region of the Adirondack Mountains, has been granted the privilege of handling a variety of litigation matters 
including thousands of Matrimonial matters, Domestic and family matters, Personal Injury, Criminal matters ranging from traffic tickets to murder and while collar crimes, Civil litigation, real estate and estate litigation, and in general litigation all relative to the practice of law....

Aaron Mittler - Entertainer

I spent countless hours carefully choosing the songs on my list. I, of course, want to play the songs people want to hear, but also want to enjoy the songs I am playing.


I wanted my show to be different and to fill the void of songs people love by artists such as the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, the Moody Blues, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull....


Adirondack Jim’s Carved Signs

is a home based, part time custom sign carving business located in upstate New York, not far from the pristine Adirondack Mountains. 
My goal is to make original, rustic wood signs of the highest quality and craftsmanship.

I aspire to bring the outdoors to my customers to make their homes, cottages, getaways a place of memories and comfort.

My signs are all hand carved with specialized hand and power tools. I carve free hand and do not rely on any CNC (computer carved) technology.

Advertising Around the Great Sacandaga Lake

Advertising seems to be a bit of a dirty word here on the Great Sacandaga Lake! We spend all this money on an ad, then don't see an increase in our business - or even know if it REALLY worked for us.

Wouldn't is be great if every customer came in and told us how they heard about our special or what made them come in THAT day? Then we would know where to spend our money and what had a good return for us!

I know that most of us are pressed for time, and we generally so what we have always done because those are the people that come and speak with us. HOWEVER, I encourage you to take a look at what you spent on what last year. Then take a look at sales and see if there is a correlation between ads and sales.

Another tool is to look at your web site traffic during the duration of an ad campaign - to see if more people than normal looked at the site. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to see if traffic converts to sales.

So you are looking at the numbers ... and you are not thrilled with the results..... Now what????

It is possible to come up with a plan and allocate your advertising. Print is expensive, but many tourists - and local people pick up the local papers to see what to do and where to go. You can always downsize your ad to a quarter page and still have a presence in these papers. Consistency is key!

Also - USE your Facebook and Social Networking pages. Make sure to get a QR code that drives people to your web site or Facebook page - THEN UPDATE your pages!!!!

Smart phones have changed the world, and even when using print you need to follow through on your web work.

Facebook allows you to set a daily or lifetime budget for an ad campaign, so you can throw $10 at it and see if it works for you. I did - and it did!

I also found a great publication that has done a REALLY great job for many of my retailers, restaurants and crafters. The Adirondack Explorer. It caters to small businesses like ours, has affordable pricing and hangs around for a long time because there are great articles about hikes to do etc. They also work with an online Almanac called the Adirondack Almanac which is a blog with much traffic. Anyway - if you are looking to speak to people outside our immediate area but still visitors to the park ( And IF you sell anything on line) I encourage you to check out this publication.

SO in recap What should your advertising plan be?


  1. Some AFFORDABLE Print with a QR code (you need repetition, so pick a series of ads rather than just one big one)
  2. Use your Facebook and other social networking. Just take the time once a week to post SOMETHING! A new product, daily specials, an old favorite and pf course PHOTOS!!!! People love looking at pictures. Pick a post and test it with a $10 ad - and see what happens!!!!!
  3. If its appropriate - use an area guide like my VisitSacandaga.com People are using their phones to find info now - be where they can see you!

    My site is a little different than most as the focus is to send them to YOUR web site and social networking rather than keep them on the site. We are up to 30,000 unique visitors/month in our top months and looking at 5,000 Facebook likes by January.


    There are also great seasonal guides put out by the local papers. Since they hang around all season and have web support they may be worth it for you.

  4. What ever you choose, make sure to be consistent and repeat your ads. Look at your traffic and see what works for YOUR business!!!
Good Luck!



Monday, October 7, 2013

All right, What is the difference between a Facebook profile and a Facebook page????



This is a Facebook PAGE
Last week not once but twice I had to explain the difference between a profile and a page… so I thought it may be confusing to others as well!
A Facebook profile is HOW you access Facebook and it is about YOU!  Back before Facebook had pages people would create a profile for their business as well. It requires its own email and password and can ONLY have up to 5,000 friends. (Also this is NOT allowed for your business anymore)
Currently, Facebook allows you to create a PAGE for your band or business. Pages have “Likes” and can have WAY more than 5,000. Multiple people can also administer the page, so if you have a tech savy employee ( or web site designer like me) They can   articles and updates to your page AND you can hide them, add to them and add your own!
Confusion with my customers last week came when they wanted a login and password to their Facebook Business Page. YOU MUST HAVE A PERSONAL PROFILE  account to access your business page. Neither of these customers have a profile and therefore they cannot login directly to the page. This is NOT easy to explain to someone who does not Facebook and I think they may be mad at me.
However – what any Admin can do is add ANYONE who has liked the page as another admin. They must have a profile and a password to do this.
Another interesting thing I found out is that if one admin takes out an ad for a page – only their Credit card – and no one but you can approve a charge! ( they can email results of the ads to you though – AND you can see what’s going on through your insights)
We will talk more about insights and advertising at another time!

Anyway – I hope this clears it up for you – feel free to comment and ask questions. Facebook is fluid and constantly changing, so things may be different in the future!