by Bob Hazlett on March 8, 2010
If you have a small business, you know you don’t have tons of money to waste on pay-per-click advertising that doesn’t convert. But, how do you target the right local customers in their given location? Here’s a cool hack that uses Google Local Business Center coupled with Adwords to create a hyperlocal, spot-on ad campaign that will crush your competitors.
What you end up with is creating a super-targeted and hyperlocal PPC advertising that focuses directly on the customers that ring your cash register without breaking your budget.
by Bob Hazlett on February 24, 2010
PHP, Web and IT Stuff has a great tutorial on tracking Facebook Fan Page activity with Google Analytics. Yes, Facebook does have Insights tracking that any page administrator can access, but it only shows you data for fans and sometimes you’ll see a couple days delay in getting that information.
In short, here’s how they did it. Facebook pages will limit the amount of javascript that can be run on a page. Google Analytics requires javascript to work correctly. As a workaround, they’ve created a tool that allows you to embed your Google Analytics code in an image instead of using the standard javascript. You’ll have to create an image for each page you’d like to track. 
For example, if you have separate custom tabs set up on Facebook to display your products, talk about your services and give users an option to contact you, you’ll need 3 different image tag codes.
To get started, set up a Google Analytics account or add a new website profile if you already have one. Find your account number within the tracking code they provide. It will look something like UA-1234567-74. Finally, use their tool to create a custom image tag and then place it at the bottom of each page you need to track. FBML is a great tool to add HTML to your Facebook page.
If you’re super-cool, you can even host the code yourself. Hosting it yourself gives you the ability to see traffic to and from your site to your Facebook page.
The biggest benefits to using Google Analytics over the package that Facebook provides is the ability to track all users, not just the few that have become fans. Google also gives you all of the other functions like time on site, keyword tracking and map overlays.
by Bob Hazlett on February 21, 2010
For the 3rd year in a row, I’ll be taking part in 48Hour Launch or what was formerly known as Startup Weekend Memphis. This year, the event begins on the evening of Friday, March 5 and ends with show and tell on the afternoon of Sunday, March 7th. The entire weekend is a set of orchestrated madness where participants pitch their latest and greatest ideas, folks vote and form teams and then get to work on getting the business off the ground in the short span of 48 hours.
48Hour Launch is one of the most unique entrepreneurship programs in the country. People of all skill levels and areas including marketing, development and design are encouraged to attend. Last year, we had some amazing projects come out of the weekend including Mark’s Menus, The Roll Play and Cheezy Weezy. I’ve personally had the chance to meet and work with so many people who I normally wouldn’t. Its great exploring new ideas with people who are passionate making Memphis the best.
I hope you’ll join us for 48Hour Launch over the first weekend in March at Emerge Memphis Launchpad. Get your tickets today!
