BEND, Ore. – G5 Search Marketing, Inc. – a leader in local search, advertising and measurement solutions – announced the addition of social media to its Local Marketing Platform. With the rise of the “social” Internet, businesses have an opportunity to differentiate themselves from the competition. This new offering allows G5’s clients to advertise to local customers on social sites as well as interact with those customers to deliver a superior experience.
“There is a big difference between advertising on social sites and really getting in there and interacting with your customers,” said G5 CEO Dan Hobin. “The G5 platform now handles the advertising piece and our tool kits provide direction on how to get in there and interact with your customers. You cannot automate the interaction piece as the conversation has to be authentic.”
The way people find local information is changing. Currently, algorithmic relevance through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the most important factor in finding a local company. However, as the Web moves to a more social setting, social relevance through channels such as Facebook and MySpace will play a key role in local search.
G5 is leading the way by equipping its clients with a full social tool kit – advertising, tracking, measurement, analysis and training which includes G5’s Quick Start Guide: Finding Local Customers with Social Media. This tool kit increases clients’ presence in selected social media communities while delivering effective reach to existing and potential customers.
“Targeting social communities which are highly relevant to your business and popular with existing customers increases the likelihood of conversion,” Hobin said. “Most people tend to form stronger social ties with those similar to themselves; members of these groups tend to influence each other through word-of-mouth communication and engage in collective purchasing behaviors.”
G5 has provided client Collegiate Management Group, which focuses on the student housing market, with a social media outreach and interaction program aimed at current customers and prospects.
“Social media is a great way to touch the college market in an unobtrusive way,” said Collegiate Management Group Marketing Director Cliff Sandlin. “With students, social media recommendations from friends are second nature. There is an inherent amount of trust in interactions on Facebook.”
G5’s addition of social media to its Local Marketing Platform supports the company’s leadership position in local Internet marketing. Algorithmic relevance is today’s leading way of optimizing local search but as social relevance plays a greater role, G5 will be there.
About G5 Search Marketing
G5 Search Marketing is reinventing Local Marketing by giving business owners visibility into what advertising efforts produce their most profitable customers. U.S. businesses spend over $100 billion annually targeting local and regional customers. As consumers shift from more traditional types of media consumption to the online world, there are significant opportunities to measure and improve the efficiency of local marketing and advertising. The G5 Marketing Platform was developed to help manage the shift from off-line to online advertising, measure what works, and optimize to the sources that provide the best return on marketing. For more information, please visit www.g5searchmarketing.com.
