Introduction

Lebanon’s area is ranked 170th in the world (CIA, 2014). It is smaller than the size of Connecticut, one of the smallest states in in America. Moreover, Lebanon is one of the few democratic countries in the Middle East region. Regarding its economy, Lebanon is a free market economy and has a very long tradition of laissez-faire economics. In addition to its coastal location on the Eastern Mediterranean coast, Lebanon is considered as the central ‘window’ of the Middle East to Europe, North Africa, and the rest of the world. Because of this, its economy has gone through some very prosperous times and was even once called the ‘Paris’ of the Middle East before the nation’s 15 year-long bloody civil war which ended in 1990. As a social media Sydney agency we have 5 years of dedicated social media marketing expertise, we know what it takes for social media marketing to have a measurable impact on a business’ growth, it’s all about the strategy we implemented.

Also, although Lebanon is tiny, it is also one of the most diverse nations in the world. Christians, Muslims, Druze, and other minority sects are spread all over the small nation and even Lebanon’s political system is based on sectarian power sharing.

However, this diversity had played a pivotal role in the nation’s problems. This diversity was a necessary condition of the country’s sectarian civil war and currently plays an important role in its political paralysis, although other factors (mainly foreign) are to blame as well. There is currently no acting President and the country’s rival political parties keep bickering and preventing rather than facilitating the country’s development.

Furthermore, Lebanon’s proximity to Israel has made it a foreign policy/proxy battleground for foreign nations, each using Lebanon for its own selfish ends.

The sad political realities of the country have significantly hurt the country’s economy. Also, since Lebanon is a service-based economy, this particular sector has taken the largest hit.

Tourism plays a significant role in the nation’s economy. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Economy & Trade (MOET), “Tourism has long been one of Lebanon’s leading economic sectors” (Economic Research Unit, 2010).

Furthermore, The World Travel & Tourism Council estimated that the travel & tourism sector in Lebanon contributed over $4 billion dollars in 2013 (World Travel & Tourism Council, 2014).

The travel & tourism sector made up about 10% of the economy in 2012 but that share dropped to 9% in 2013 (ibid, p. 14). This is due to the political situation in the country as well as some other factors. Moreover, the number of tourist arrivals in the country kept decreasing from 2011 to 2013.

Since the tourism industry has been somewhat floundering in the past few years, the room for error becomes very small for businesses in this industry. The political & economic situations are squeezing tourist-related (TR) businesses in Lebanon. This means that these businesses are forced to do more to make up for increasing losses (or decreasing profits) and with fewer resources. There is no telling when the political & economic situation in Lebanon will improve especially since the civil war in neighboring Syria shows no signs of abating.

There are many ways that Lebanese TR businesses can adapt during these times such as implementing downsizing policies and cutting back on marketing & advertising budgets. When economic recessions and tough times affect businesses, the first things to get eliminated are usually marketing budgets. But especially since TR businesses need to do more marketing to make up for lost businesses, this may not be a good idea.

One solution to this problem is to take advantage of Social Media Marketing strategies since they cost little to no resources, perfect for the current economic situation in Lebanon. Social media marketing allows TR businesses to overcome obstacles of limited budgets and decreased business.

Problem Statement

During the past few years, the positive effect of social media on business has been extremely high (Kaplan et al., 2010; Stelzner, 2010; Treem & Leonardi, 2012, p. 143; Baker & Green, 2014).

Moreover, Facebook and Twitter fans of a specific brand are much more likely to recommend and buy from these brands than non-fans (Cruz & Mendelsohn, 2011). But, we don’t need to make sure of social media’s impact on business through research studies. For social media users, which include over 30% of the world, this fact is known. More and more businesses are inserting Social Media marketing tools into their marketing strategies and, in some cases, have even become an integral part of their overall business strategy.

Naturally, one would expect that Lebanese businesses would quickly adopt Social Media Marketing as a key role in their overall marketing strategies but this is not the case. When it comes to the Middle East and especially Lebanon, the region is far behind the West in social media usage. Not only that, when it comes to businesses involved in the tourism industry, there is much room for growth. Little investment in technology is keeping tourist businesses away from maximizing marketing opportunities given by social media.

The Lebanese tourism industry is not taking advantage of social media marketing tactics even though the advantages of doing so are apparent. This presents a great problem especially since the economy is going through a very rough time.

Moreover, Lebanese TR businesses and businesses in Lebanon in general are not adopting social media tools as they should. This presents a huge problem in the waste of resources as well as significant missed opportunities as a larger target audience can be reached via social media enabling businesses that adopt social media marketing tools gain a better chance of success and prosperity.

Purpose of the study

The fruits and advantages of social media marketing tools may take significant time to come about in Lebanon if we are ignorant of the factors that have led to the prevention of widespread social media marketing adoption.

Also, as long as no study goes into the issue of effectively implementing a social media marketing campaign in the Lebanese context, many TR businesses may be lost even if they decide to adopt social media marketing tools.

Additionally, even though there have been numerous studies in the West about effectively implementing social media marketing campaigns, the results of these studies may or may not apply to the Lebanese context. Therefore, it is also the purpose of this study to find out those factors related to effectively implementing social media marketing among Lebanese TR businesses.

At the end, there is no doubt that social media marketing plays an extremely important role in the marketing campaigns and even in the overall success of tourism-related businesses.

Lebanese Tourist-Related (TR) businesses fall far behind the developed world in investing and using SMM. Since there are many benefits of SMM, why is this so? Also, to catch up to the rest of the world, what is the most effective way for Lebanese TR businesses to deploy an SMM campaign? So, it was the study’s purpose to find reasons linked to such low investment & use of SMM by Lebanese TR businesses and to help guide these businesses in effectively using SMM.

Methodology

The purpose of this study is twofold. This study aims to find out exactly what those factors are that are preventing the widespread adoption of social media marketing tools among Lebanese TR businesses. The philosophy used is interpretivism, for an inductive approach to go from specific to general research, the strategy is ethnographic, and the methodology is qualitative. In-depth interviews are used with ten participants from ten different companies. Five companies had high social media ‘visibility’ and the other five didn’t. So, the participants’ answers provided very useful information and solutions for the research problem.

Findings

The results found that among the most relevant factors of little SMM investment & use by Lebanese TR businesses are that many don’t see benefits to using SMM and so don’t support it.

The results also provided useful information on factors for effectively implementing SMM by Lebanese TR businesses including the acceptance of SMM by ownership/decision-makers and the importance of these people in seeing the benefits of SMM. Also, problems with implementing SMM include negative customer feedback and inter-departmental power struggles.

Recommendations include communicating the benefits of SMM to Lebanese TR businesses which is of such high importance to get them to use SMM. There should also be an SMM plan with a consistent schedule outlining the days to add content to social media sites as well as comprehensive monitoring of SM user comments about the business.

At the end, it is the researcher’s hope that the study helped shed light on important aspects of SMM and its relation to Lebanese TR businesses. It is also hoped that the recommendations be taken into consideration by Lebanese TR businesses. If you also ready some tips with some social media experts you can never go wrong with your marketing campaign.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9405389

What You Don’t Know Online Can Hurt You

How do you know if you need a local SEO strategy? The critical word in this question is “local.” Do you own a business that draws in customers from zero to 15 miles away? Would potential customers looking for your products and services drive up to ten minutes to get to your business? If you can answer yes to these questions, chances are you need to manage your local SEO strategy. Guys from SEO consultants Brisbane develop their local strategy using internal linkings.

So, what is local SEO? And why is it important?

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO involves optimizing your online presence to attract business from local searches on Google and other search engines. According to Hubspot’s local SEO statistics, 46% of all Google searchers are looking for local information. And 72% of consumers who searched for a local product or service using local SEO near me searches visited a store within five miles.

So, does local SEO work? It sure did if you were one of those businesses. Are you wondering where to start? To illustrate the benefits of focusing on local SEO, we’ve put together a list of five reasons why it’s essential for your business success.

5 Reasons Local SEO Is Essential for Your Business Success

Reason #1 – Your Business Details Appear in Front of Consumers Looking for Your Products and Services

Remember the good old days when you scoured the yellow pages to find businesses offering the products and services you needed? Today, all you do is type the product or service you’re looking for into a search engine on your laptop, desktop, or mobile device. The businesses that provide those products or services will pop up. And, if you type “near me,” it’ll show you everything close enough to drive to from your current location.

Pretty slick. Those local SEO “near me” searches save you time. Just choose what you like, pull up the map and directions, and you’re good to go. If you look at those results carefully, you’ll see they’re populated by online business directories, much like the yellow pages of bygone days.

When you compare local SEO vs. organic SEO, both are still important. You want a content marketing strategy that helps your pages rank in search engine results for specific keywords and keyword phrases (the goal of organic SEO strategies). But local SEO is critical for businesses that serve a localized community. It’s somewhat less important for global companies that draw customers from all over.

Reason #2 – Consistently Accurate Online Directory Citations Boost Your Organic and Local Pack Rankings

You must list your business name, address, and phone number accurately and consistently across the top-ranked local citations and business directories. That information is referred to as your NAP Data (name, address, phone). A search engine bot is more likely include your business in the search engine results pages (SERPs) if it’s confident that your information is consistent and accurate.

That seems fair. Do you think you might get frustrated if Google sent you to a business that isn’t there or gave you a phone number that’s no longer in service? Search engines want to find this basic information about your business in numerous places throughout the internet.

When they find that information in several places-and it’s all consistent and correctthey trust the data. But if Google or Bing, for example, see confusing, inconsistent data, they consider it less valid-less reliable. Therefore, search engines are more likely to bypass you in favor of a business with more consistent NAP Data.

Reason #3 – Your Business Site Gets More Links Back to It from Authoritative, Trusted Sites

Backlinks, or links pointing to your site from trusted, authoritative websites, play an essential role in SEO. They validate your website’s existence, proving that your site is a viable force in the vast internet universe. Additionally, some directory citation sites add a website URL field to their listings and display these URLs as ‘dofollow’ links. That passes valuable link equity to your site. Search engines use backlinks to determine your domain authority, boosting your SEO (as opposed to ‘nofollow’ links, which are nice but don’t give you any juice).

Want another great way to snag a backlink while doing something else worthwhile to build your business? Join the local chamber of commerce or other business group. Doing this will provide a relevant local link back to your website, and you can network at local events. While you’re at these events, you might pick up some business or even more backlink opportunities.

In addition, if you have vendors or are a product provider, you may want them to link to your website as well (with a dofollow link, of course).

Reason #4 – Your Business Will Be Closer to Landing on the First Page of Search Engine Results

Online business directories take up quite a bit of real estate on search engine results pages (SERPs). As a result, local businesses they list in their directories get top billing on local search queries. If you’re not on those lists…

You need to know how to get your business listed in these local citations business directories because you’ll lose out on valuable business. And what you don’t know online can hurt you.

You might have the best pizza in town, but if the guy across town doesn’t find you when he searches for “pizza near me,” he’s going to go buy his pizza from your competitor. And that brings us to Reason #5.

Reason #5 – Your Business Will Gain Opportunities for Third-Party Reviews

Here are the three core pillars for ranking well in the Google Local Map Pack.

• Relevance

How well do you target the keywords or topics your potential customers would search for on your website?

• Prominence

How well does your business stand out online?

• Proximity

How close is your business to the potential customer searching for your products or services?

We’ve touched on relevance and proximity. Now it’s time to talk about prominence: the positive reputation and comments your business enjoys across the internet. How do search engines find this information? Many citations and directories allow customers to post reviews and grade their experiences with local businesses.

If you deliver excellent service, your business will benefit from this added perk. But it’s not enough to get good reviews. You should also respond to them. And, if you get a negative review, don’t sweat it. Just be sure you keep your cool and respond appropriately. Work on resolving the issue as quickly as possible. Even a simple apology is better than no response at all.

More Tips for Local SEO

Local SEO for multiple locations, list all of your staffed locations, including the complete name, address, and phone number on a Contact Us page on your site.

For businesses with 10 or fewer locations, list the complete name, address, and phone number of each location in the sitewide footer.

Make sure people can easily find your phone number on your website-and that it’s clickable on mobile devices.

Just as you want to be consistent on the directories, make sure your NAP Data is consistent across all pages of your website.

If your business serves multiple locations, you need a separate page with unique content for each site. Avoid copying and pasting from one page to the other.

Customize Your Local SEO to Your Business Type

So, what you don’t know online can hurt you. If your business isn’t working on a local SEO strategy, you’re leaving money on the table that your competitor across town will pick up.

Local SEO works well, but it takes time and patience just like organic SEO. That’s why many businesses hire a local SEO agency to put all the pieces together.

Stressing about getting your company’s information entered into business directories? Let our local SEO experts take care of it for you.

Are you looking for a digital marketing agency to help you optimize for local SEO? Precise Creative Is Your Local SEO Solution! Follow these tips for local SEO solutions.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10456948

The Value of Art is in the eye of the beholder. The intrinsic value of art is in the eye of the artist. The Value of Art is in the eye for the seller. It was once believed that artists are all suffering, tortured souls because this makes art more marketable. The fact is that artists are suffering, tortured souls because this makes art more marketable. Without suffering, there can be no creativity. Artists are not in it for money. They do it because they have to do it. There are two kinds of artists: selling out artists and starving artists. When an artist sells out, he becomes a selling out artist, which is the biggest insult you can give to an artist. An artist who sells out is someone who has lost his passion for art or his love for humanity, or both. If an artist sells out, he becomes a business man. There are three kinds of business men: rich business men , poor business men and middle-class business men. Creating a unique concept boards can attract your audience in your movie.

The Value of Art is in the eye of the beholder. The intrinsic value of art is in the eye of the artist. The Value of Art is in the eye for the seller. It was once believed that artists are all suffering, tortured souls because this makes art more marketable. The fact is that artists are suffering, tortured souls because this makes art more marketable. Without suffering, there can be no creativity. Artists are not in it for money. They do it because they have to do it. There are two kinds of artists: selling out artists and starving artists. When an artist sells out, he becomes a selling out artist, which is the biggest insult you can give to an artist. An artist who sells out is someone who has lost his passion for art or his love for humanity, or both. If an artist sells out, he becomes a business man. There are three kinds of business men: rich business men , poor business men and middle-class business men.

Art is the expression of our values, but what are art’s value? What are the value of literature? Many people will say that art is utilitarian, that it has value because it teaches us things. The word “utility” here means something more specific than usual, though. It does not mean the usefulness of a hammer or a book of poetry, which can be evaluated on its own terms. Here “utility” means “teaches us something useful.”

Art is hard to value because it’s hard to compare. A painting has no clear price; it’s worth what someone will pay for it. The value of a song or a movie is in proportion to how many people watch it, which depends on how much advertising money the artist can get someone else to spend on making the song or movie popular. Once you start comparing one artist to another, or even one piece of art by one artist to another, you have already lost track of what the art is really about. It’s similar to when you try to put a price on a place. Suppose you have a nice lakefront cabin in Wisconsin and an ugly mansion in New York City. You could ask two real-estate agents how much each place would sell for. The concrete numbers they come up with will be bogus, but that doesn’t mean the question itself is wrong. It is a way of asking whether your cabin is more valuable than a mansion in terms that everyone understands. Art is like that. It has an intrinsic value that is clear once you put it into context, but not otherwise.

Art is a way of seeing or doing things. Art is a type of knowledge. Much art is explicit, but much art is implicit and untaught. There are many ways to be an artist, and no one can force you to be a good artist. You can’t really talk about what art teaches, because it’s often the same as what it does—art is a way of seeing or doing things. You can learn from books, but books are not art. In fact, you can learn from almost anything if you look at it as an example of how to do something better. The people who have the most power to block artists are those who have the most power in general: governments and large corporations. The government has a lot of power over what people think and do by deciding which ideas and products get tax money and by passing laws that affect what goods people can buy. And large corporations have power over artists by deciding whom they will hire and promote and buy from; they also have power over the public directly through advertising budgets larger than those of most countries. The effect of such power on literature is clear: governments and large corporations want stories that confirm their values, not stories that undermine them (though they’ll take those too).

The visual arts and literature and music and theatre and dance are not quite like other things. For one thing, you can’t eat them. And for another, they do not always serve the same functions as other things. You can compare a painting to a meal or a house. You can enjoy both of them, or you can try to persuade someone else that they are worth enjoying, or you can use both of them to tell stories about how the world works. But really they are different. A meal is an object; it has mass and volume; it occupies time; it must be made from ingredients that grew in the ground or which were killed by hunters; it has calories; it must be prepared by someone who was trained to do it. Another difference between arts and other things is that they tend to matter more than their contenting would seem to indicate. I mean that if someone says “I don’t like that painting,” you can look at the painting and see what he means, but if he says “I don’t like broccoli,” there is no broccoli you could show him that he would agree was good. This article will give you an idea about the art value.