Walk away
One of our SEO strategies is to migrate all of our blogs over to a CMS Platform (WordPress or Joomla!) to enable SEO features and tagging. I was working on one of our sites which had about 350+ entries, when in the process – the screen went blank. So, I fiddled with this, mess with that and still blank. You know that queasy feeling in the bottom of your stomach? 3 years of entries down the drain? Ugh!
I went online and begged one of my Facebook buddies for help. He didn’t have an immediate solution, but he offered some sane advice – take a break. Walk away, come back fresh. A cool and calm approach – I’ve just lost 3 years of profound words of wisdom – I am not calm!!
Despite my inner control freak – I followed his advice. I took a break.
I came back – reinstalled WordPress 2.7 and there they were – 350 or so of my most profound postings just waiting to be shared with the world.
Sigh!
Popularity: 4% [?]
Google dethrones Yahoo!
Top 10 Websites
Also interesting is who no longer on the Top 10 – MySpace so two years ago – bye,bye. AOL? Who? What? Distant memory. Seriously, when was the last time you checked your Myspace account? Actually, MySpace is #11 and AOL is #35. Twitter is #13 – expect Twitter to surpass MySpace in no time.
Microsoft Live is #5 – I’ll be talking about some of their cool tools in upcoming posts – I never rule out Microsoft.
What does this all mean? Google is still King and social networking is taking over. Making Google happy should be the goal of your SEO efforts. And if you haven’t gotten on the fFcebook bandwagon, what are you waiting for? Facebook allows you to integrate with your own blog and your Twitter account – post once – send it across all your networks – Interactivity is tbuzz behind Web 2.0!
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Google
google.comEnables users to search the Web, Usenet, and images. Features include PageRank, caching and translation of results, and an option to find similar pages. The company’s focus is developing search technology.
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Facebook
facebook.comA social utility that connects people, to keep up with friends, upload photos, share links and videos.
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YouTube
youtube.comYouTube is a way to get your videos to the people who matter to you. Upload, tag and share your videos worldwide!
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Blogger.com
blogger.comFree, automated weblog publishing tool that sends updates to a site via FTP.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Undertanding Social Networking
And they told two friends
When I was a kid, you know back in the stone ages – there used to be commercial for Breck Shampoo - “and you told two friends, and they told two friends, and they told two friends . . . The idea was that happy customers would share their experiences with friends, who in turn would pass it on. Ultimately, this became known as viral marketing.
Fast forward to the 21st Century, and this is the premise behind using social networks for marketing. You post something, your friends read it and pass it on to their friends. Great! Marketing all done! Well, not exactly.
The problem is not every thing you post is compelling enough to repeat. Trust me, it’s not.
In order for social networking to work as a marketing medium for you – what you post must be interesting, have value and be compelling to pass on. Let’s go back to the ladies of Breck. If Becky simply told Jan and Sue “I went shopping for shampoo, today,” then Jan and Sue would have nodded approvingly (actually Sue would have rolled her eyes) and the subject would have quickly moved on to Jan’s new Dorothy Hammill do. But instead, Becky told the girls that this new product left her hair soft, shiny and cured split ends and they should try it. Now this was different – the value? soft, shiny hair and a call to action – you should try it!
While your fan base may put up with your posts about what you had for breakfast – they really want to know what is in it for them. Soft, shiny hair? Sign me up! Emerging technology that solves all of my business problems? Where do I invest?
The next time you post to Facebook or Tweet on Twitter or what ever it is that you do – makes sure it’s worth sharing. Oh, and seriously stop sending me Mafia Wars, already!
Popularity: 2% [?]
Internet Strategies
It’s not about building websites – it’s about building online businesses . . .
How many of you have a website? Uh huh. How many of you have updated it in the last month? Exactly. What is your page rank?, your Alexa ranking? or even your link building strategy? Not sure, call us we can help!
Building Online –
We assist clients in making the most of their web presence. Internet strategies are more than putting a website online and hoping for the best. Internet marketing includes web site design, communication plans, branding, search engine optimization, e-commerce solutions, pay per click and integration with existing business tools for inventory control and financial reporting. We emphasize content driven web sites with the latest search engine optimization techniques to target your customer base.
We know it takes more that a pretty home page to launch a successful site. We emphasize planning, research and critical analysis. And once it’s launched we work with you to develop the content and optimize the site.
Bottom line is you need to know that your strategy is working and that requires testing and measurement. What is you site rank? What kind of traffic visits the site? What is your bounce rate and why are they leaving?
Building Communities –
Stickiness is key. Your site should be a valuable resource to your visitors. If it’s not, why would they ever come back? You visitors are real people with real needs. Do you meet them? What do they like? Where do they hang out? Do the Tweet? Does it matter? It should!
You can spend gobs of money advertising on traditional media or you can go to the sites where your customers hang out. Social Networking sites that target your demographic can be a direct in. How are treating your Facebook buddies? Do you have a MySpace page? Have you launched your Internet career on YouTube?
Building Businesses –
There are two types of websites – those that make money and those that are hobbies. Which is yours? Is your website adding to the bottom line or is just an online brochure? When you want to get serious about the Internet call us . . .
By the way – we don’t believe in “get rich” quick schemes – unless of course you thought up the scheme and have sold it to the lemmings. If it sounds too good to be true – it probably is. We will never promise to get you the #1 ranking overnight; we will never use Black Hat techniques to try to beat the system. Honestly, the system is pretty smart! But, what we will is guide you through a cost effective solution using the Internet to tap into customers around the world!
Popularity: 4% [?]
Does your business use Social Networking?
We asked, here’s what you told us –
- LinkedIn is my preferred professional networking site, followed by xing.com and then by Twitter and Plaxo. Facebook is only used for private networking to stay in touch with family and friends. Oliver Schmid
- I don’t like Twitter at all! LinkedIn works for me – just have to sift through the spam which can be frustrating and time consuming. Laura Beken
- I use Facebook, Linkedin, Plaxo and Twitter. I use ping.fm to post to all of them at the same time. I find Linkedin and Twitter very useful for biz and Facebook so far has been a great social network for me. Diane Helbig
- Obviously, I use LinkedIn given we’re all here and I think it works well for business and I’m starting to use Facebook for business too as there’s often related groups that I can contact regarding campaigns we’re working on.
The last show I produced for SmallBusinessAdvice.tv just before Christmas was on this exact topic – have a look at http://www.smallbusinessadvice.tv/chat/using_social_networking_for_small_businesses
Be good to get your comments on the show too – Russell Goldsmith
Popularity: 1% [?]
Social Networking – Marketing Magic or Time Sink?
A long, long time ago – at least in Internet years – the way to drive traffic to your site was write a blog. Check. Then we sent you a newsletter – opt in of course. You read it once or twice and you stopped reading. Don’t you love us? We linked to our business contacts on LinkedIn. Seems you already knew us. Then we were supposed to join MySpace. Check – met lot of twenty somethings, but not a lot of marketing bang for the buck. Then it was Facebook. Check – now we spend unthinkable amount of time trying to make what we are doing now sound interesting – do you really care that I am staring at my computer? Now, the rage is to Tweet on Twitter, really?
What works and what doesn’t? I guess it depends on your audience. Our blogs and newsletter are content we create, which tend to get read and drive traffic. The other sites tend be popular until the next shiny object come along. Right now, we get a fair am amount of visibility from Facebook and Twitter – but that will likely change in six months.
A very long time ago – especially in Internet years – I belonged to a business exchange group. We met twice a month and actually at down face to face. I still get business from that group. Call it doing business the old fashion way, but it works. Sure, online social networking can drive traffic to your site, but in the long run it’s the people that you do business with. So, back away from the laptop and go out and talk to a real live body – you may be surprised – you might even get some business!
Popularity: 2% [?]
