ODX Fusion Quoted in Student’s Final

At ODX Fusion, we cherish the little things.  Of course we love “Boosting Brands Online,” it’s what we do.  But when college senior Delores Huffman asked to interview our Patrick Shaughnessy for her Business Management final we thought it was cool.  When she sent us the term paper itself with a big red “A” stamped on it, we got a little giddy.  We offer you the excerpts (with links, of course):

“…the internet can work for small business owners, you have to know where to look and who to ask.  There are businesses dedicated to building webpages that are eye catching and informative.  There are also businesses that develop online strategies to bring customers to your small business website.  One such company that does all the above is ODX Fusion Internet Marketing based in Syracuse, New York.

As a young and upcoming web development, enhancement and marketing business, ODX Fusion helps small businesses reach their customers online.  They believe too many businesses build online fliers for their products and services, they never solicit any traffic and definitely do not bring qualified traffic.  Additionally, the ODX Fusion website includes a blog on how to make the internet work for small business and they answer common questions of the small business owner.  Their posts include, “Why Every Small Business Needs a Website“, when to use a shopping cart on your website and the ins and outs of using PayPal.

…they also cover the ever so intimidating social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and how a small business owner can leverage the power of social media.  They also offer their services to those who are less computer and internet inclined, which describes many business owners.

Their motto is simple: “Boost Your Brand Online”.  They’re able to design a business webpage, optimize potential on the most popular search engines, link in to the social media networks enhancing popularity, assist in content development and put your brand anywhere your customer may be.

So why do small business owners need the internet to market their business and products online?

ODX Fusion has broken it down into ten very simple reasons listed here in no specific order:

• your competition is already marketing online,
• your website is open 24/7 when your storefront isn’t,
• sharing information with your customers online has never been easier,
• it keeps you competitive in your market and lends credibility to your offering,
• it sells your product,
• it allows your business to be found online when customers search for your product/service,
• enables you to offer specials and coupons without print and distribution concerns,
• provides descriptions and pictures of the products/services you are selling,
• helps others to promote you,
• an online presence helps you expand beyond your current offline market.”

Delores goes on to explain Patrick’s take on Search Engine Optimization and Social Media:

“…is Google is number one?  Mr. Patrick Shaughnessy, the founder and co-owner of ODXFusion.com believes so.  He quotes a recent article from Searchinsider which states that Google holds over seventy percent of the market share and the other top three search engines are losing large percentages of users to Google.  While Google’s usage is rising, Yahoo Search, MSN and Ask.com are decreasing by 17%, 20% and 10% respectively.

To the small business owner this may mean Google delivers while other search engines don’t, so why look anywhere else when Google is obviously the search engine of choice.  Mr. Shaughnessy’s answer is that you cannot ignore other search engines like Yahoo! and MSN because there are still customers loyal to those services.  Many small businesses make the mistake of only targeting Google.

Where else might a small business owner who is looking to expand their client base to include customers from the internet look to find these customers?   The social networking phenomenon of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace are also on the rise in business marketing.   There are many blogs about how these websites and how they can help the small business owner.

Mr. Shaughnessy from ODXFusion.com recently posted a blog on his website that told his users not to listen to him talking about how great Social Media is for business but to experience it themselves.  Mr. Shaughnessy chose Model Airplanes as his test subject.  He then described how each of the above listed social media networks had vendors blogging, tweeting and posting about Model Airplanes.  This little experiment proved that even for something so obscure as a Model Airplane business, there is still a market for it online and there are customers out there willing to buy Model Airplane products.

Incidentally, there were more than just those four social media networks talking about Model Airplanes.  Other websites like Digg and Google Blog Search also came up with results to the Model Airplane search.  As Mr. Shaughnessy points out “get connected or get left behind”. (Shaughnessy, 2009) Imagine if you had a more mainstream business and what a social media network could do for you.  It could help launch your site, your brand and your product into a whole new market and bring business like you have never seen before…”

We happen to agree… And we’re done bragging.  Thanks Delores – we were glad to help!

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Tags: online marketing, small business, social media   Posted in online marketing