So you want to win, succeed, crush it at social media?

The best way to start is to figure out just what “success” actually means for you and your team – and what metrics to track to see if you’re actually making progress.

Here are five excellent social media marketing goals to consider as you get started with digital marketing, as well as a few ways to break down these abstract goals into workable measures and gauge your success – whatever that means:

1.) Increase Brand Awareness

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You've heard it all before (probably from this very website): Having an active and engaged online presence is a surefire way to boost the image of your business - and generate new leads via inbound marketing.

But here's the thing. In today's digital landscape, what it means to be "active" is a little different than ever before. Social media platforms, for instance, have changed and adapted with the times, and users are more sophisticated than ever before.

But still, we're willing to bet you're at least keeping up with the basics. You know you're supposed to create original content, post on Facebook, tweet, and maintain a super awesome website that keeps bringing customers back for more.

But all of that - the creation and sharing of content - is just one piece of the puzzle. 

Your social media voice has been active - but how much have you really been listening?

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About Blanton’s Blossoms

Decades after launching one of Chicago’s premier plumbing companies, Stacey and Jack Blanton decided to start a new chapter in their lives by launching Blanton’s Blossoms. Based in Woodstock, Illinois, their new flower farm offers a wide variety of floral products, as well as farm experiences including photography sessions, U-pick outings, workshops, and more. 

The Project

Geek Chicago’s connection with the Blanton family runs deep, and we were honored when Stacey and Jack entrusted us with the development of their new website, leveraging a gorgeous style guide and design template by our longtime friends at Angela Carpenter Creative and stunning photos from our frequent collaborator Nathanael Filbert Photography.

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About Karen Leuschow

Based in New Glarus, Wisconsin, Karen Leuschow Attorney at Law is a solo practitioner law firm focused on providing client centered legal services that make even the most complex legal issue manageable, with areas of practice including juvenile law, family law, special education law, and criminal law. 

Karen came to Geek Chicago looking for a modern website that would reflect her core values while being clean and easy-to-navigate for her clients. 

The Project

Geek Chicago worked closely with Karen and our design partner to develop a new style guide that would present a fresh and appealing image to her target audience, complete with a new brand color palette, typography guidelines, patterns, and a refreshed logo.

Next, Geek Chicago leveraged this new style guide to design and develop a custom, user-friendly, and SEO-ready site that promoted Karen’s experience and qualifications, while offering users a streamlined experience, intuitive site navigation, and accessible contact forms. Concurrent with launching the new site, Geek Chicago’s development team provided education and training to the client on content management and local SEO to ensure a successful and impactful rollout.

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What is the value of SEO? 

To answer that question, it helps to understand what SEO is all about. For businesses of all sizes, SEO - shorthand for “search engine optimization” - means executing a strategy to help position your website highly on search engine results pages, or SERPs. It’s about making sure that your brand is visible to searchers who turn to Google or Bing looking for general information, specific answers, or a local service provider. 

SEO is a complex and ever-evolving process, which involves many moving pieces - like audience research, keyword analysis, industry research, content creation, backlink building, page optimization, and technical website improvements (to name just a few parts of our typical day). 

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Website builders like Squarespace or Wix make building a web presence for your business seem quick, painless, and cheap. They promise simplicity, clarity, and tools to help you design your site that are so intuitive, even the most inexperienced user can feel like Mark Zuckerberg. And all of that for only a few dollars a month. 

The appeal is obvious, whether your business is well-established and you’re looking to overhaul your website without a major headache, or you’re a start-up operating on a shoestring budget. Website builders, also known as “WYSIWYG editors,” look like a way to deliver a slick website without making a major investment.

WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get

WYSIWYG editors have been around for a long time, and they always make the same promise: that anybody can build a website. And while that’s true in essence, a good website is a lot more than a few pages with a URL.

Like any promise that sounds too good to be true, the promised “simplicity” of using a website builder comes with some major drawbacks. And if you aren’t careful, the low price of choosing a WYSIWYG editor could lead to costly headaches down the line. Here are 6 hidden drawbacks of website builders to consider before you decide to stake your company’s future on a website you built in the time it takes to make a sandwich.

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What does your business email address look like? Is it something like - [email protected][.]com? [email protected][.]net?

While names like this seem fine on the surface, using email addresses like this for your company can easily cause your company to lose business.

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The Company:

Geek Chicago is a digital marketing agency and web development firm that is committed to serving growing businesses and the political world. Geek specialized in website design & development, as well as inbound marketing - including content writing/creation, search engine optimization, social media, digital communications, and reputation management.

Geek helps clients enrich their brands and grow their audiences. Our clients work across multiple industries including real estate, architecture, law, politics, financial services, and home services. 

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The Company:

Geek Chicago is a digital marketing agency and web development firm that is committed to serving growing businesses and the political world. Geek specialized in website design & development, as well as inbound marketing - including content writing/creation, search engine optimization, social media, digital communications, and reputation management.

Geek helps clients enrich their brands and grow their audiences. Our clients work across multiple industries including real estate, architecture, law, politics, financial services, and home services. 

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In real estate, a lot of buyers dream of their “Forever Home.” It’s a place where they can live… well… forever! It’s a consistent, lifelong investment and source of equity. It’s something that owners can pass on to their children or grandchildren years down the line.

In short, a Forever Home is about stability and security. And it doesn’t just apply to real estate and families. In fact, your brand can have a Forever Website. And it’s easier to build and maintain than you might think – as long as you think and work strategically.

Want to create the unique site that’s comfortable, accessible, and, above all, valuable for your brand? Here are four important things to keep in mind as you craft your Forever Site:

Include a CMS for Your Content

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