Let Your Viewers Make The Audio Choice

I recently met with a web designer friend of mine, when the subject veered off on to the topic of uninvited audio on a web site. Sometimes businesses use this trick on their web sites, without a full understanding of the impact it may have on their viewer.

My friend was telling me that she sometimes has multiple tabs on multiple windows open, when she’ll hear a sound. Now she’s forced to dig through each tab to turn the noise off.

I have the same issue. I’m always working with several tabs in several windows, sometimes even in different browsers. If I hear a Youtube video kick in, this can be a real issue. A lot of times, it interrupts the music I had playing, which is a further disruption.

My favorite story on uninvited audio came when I helped a graphic design friend of mine with some copy. I was working with him in his basement, going through the pages on his web site. I was trying to convince him the music he had in the background on his site did not help matters along.

As I shuffled through the pages, I came back to the home page, which restarted the music. By clicking on his home page, I inadvertently woke his newborn baby up in the next room.

I certainly didn’t mean to wake the baby up, but you couldn’t have written a better commercial for why intrusive audio is a bad thing. If you’re building your own site, give your viewers the option to press play.

If you make things automatic, you’ll send a good percentage of potential customers away annoyed.

What's Your Marketing Plan?

Your marketing should make sense. It’s a revolutionary thought, I know. There are so many businesses that bungle this very thing, though.

When a customer clicks on your site, do they know what you want them to do? Are they going to find the value that they are looking for? There needs to be a clear layout and structure. They should not have to scroll through massive amounts of copy to find what you are trying to sell them.

A nice clean layout that is not overwhelming will make a huge difference. Make sure the copy is clear, and the message is strongly worded.

This could mean that you need to back up a few steps. Do you have a marketing plan? Do you know exactly what you want your web site to help you achieve?

No matter how obvious it feels, go ahead and write down that business goal. Now, how are you going to get there? Next time you feel stumped as to what you can do, this document should give you guidance.

It’s a good blue print to have. Maybe you’ve neglected your web site copy, or your social media. A detailed marketing plan can remind you exactly what you need to do to guide your business back on track.

What are your plans for social media? What are your plans for offline marketing? No matter how involved you choose to get online, offline networking, traditional press releases, brochures and business cards should continue to be part of your strategy.

Write it all down and go back to it when you need it. Maybe you need a messaging calendar to determine what you want to push at what time of the year.

This type of organization will help you achieve the success you are looking for.

Importance of SEO Copywriting

There’s a really nice article about the importance of SEO copywriting on socialmediatoday.com from Barry Feldman.

Feldman’s article perfectly illustrates the thin line that copywriters must walk. There is a way to improve a business’s online presence, increase their rank in the search engines, and NOT repeat the same words at least once a sentence, making it sound terrible.

If you stuff your article or web content with keywords, it will be obvious what you are doing. If you picked your keywords right, you should be able to weave them into the natural course of your copy once or twice. You’ll win the respect of the search engines without annoying your human readers by doing things this way.

If you insist on stuffing your content full of the same keyword repeatedly, your readers will sniff you out immediately. The search engines may also find out your game, and in the worse cases, may ban your site.

The immediate temptations are great. The immediate rewards are high. The fall is long and the landing is hard.

The good news is that if you simply write for your human audience, the search engines tend to reward. By all means, use your keywords strategically. Just don’t overdo it. An SEO copywriter can help you figure out what that means for your business.

Next Step For Location Based Marketing

@Chris Brogan just wrote an interesting blog about a new social media company called Local Response.

The company provides marketing services tied to location based interactions. This could be another interesting social media break through. Now it is not just the check in that the retailer would benefit from.

Local Response would offer a way for the retailer to try and bring the customer back. If I check in at a local restaurant for my favorite dish, they could send me a coupon to come back the next time.

As a customer, there might be some privacy concerns, but it sounds like you give those concerns up when you check in somewhere. It also sounds like customers are given the chance to opt out.

For businesses trying to build their brand and engage with their customers, this will be worth monitoring, and checking to see if more services develop.

Go Mobile, Or Go Home

By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Internet access device worldwide. Think about what that means for a minute.

More people will be accessing your web site through a screen that fits in your pocket than on a desktop or laptop. We are truly becoming a nation on the go.

Are you ready for this change? There are certain things that can be done to brace for this emerging trend.

First, is your web site optimized for it? Is it readable from an iPhone or Android device? It should be. People need to make sense of that information on the go.

Have you thought about an app for your business? If you are in retail or food, this is especially important. It means easier access to your products for consumers, and that is what will matter.

Do you use QR codes? Those little boxes that you see on promotional material allow for immediate access to your web site. If you’re not using them, you are missing a chance to drive traffic to your web site.

Have you thought about revising your web site content for this phenomenon? People are not going to want to read pages of content. Give them what they want quicker.

There’s a Mark Twain quote about how he would have written less if he had more time. This quote will have a lot of impact as attention spans shrink even further. As the real estate for web content shrinks, it becomes more valuable.

These are just a few things to consider as the market shifts. More and more people are buying smart phones and tablets. Make sure your marketing is tailored to them, or you will be left behind.

Small Businesses Should Take a Page From NFL

The National Football League has one of the best-marketed products out there. The Bears and Buccaneers are preparing to square off in London today at Noon. The game is played overseas so that they can take advantage of a potential new market of fans.

This expands the audience. People who otherwise would not be interested in American football walk away from the experience as fans. An endless array of new customers are at their fingertips…

Any small business could take a page out of the NFL’s book here. It doesn’t necessarily need to be overseas, but is there a market that you have overlooked? Is there another group or segment of the population that could benefit from your product or services?

With social media and other Internet marketing options, virtually anybody is reachable somehow. Maybe there are other networking strategies that could be employed.

If you are struggling for leads, maybe you just need to rethink your marketing strategies. Try increasing your social media presence. Have you been thinking about some kind of blog? Maybe now is the time.

You can use these technologies to expand the reach of your business. Maybe it’s time to hit one town further than you do now. Or maybe it’s an additional segment of the population you should be targeting.

Whatever the case may be, you need to show your perspective audience your product or service. It’s like the NFL. The people of London have no strong urge to align themselves with American football teams if they are unfamiliar with the sport.

Make sure they know that your business is there. To do that, you have to market it to them, aggressively.

Siri Will Change the Game

It’s been less than 24 hours, but I can already tell that having the iPhone 4s is going to be great. The improved camera, 16G of hard drive space and Siri, all make for a fun and exciting experience.

If it wasn’t for Siri, I would have gladly kept the 4 that I bought a few days ago.
But I had to explore the opportunities that the new Siri offers. So as soon as the Apple store had a 4s available, I exchanged it.

First off it’s really helpful to just say “text Meg I’m running late,” and have it happen. Or to ask “What are some pizza restaurants near here?” and get a list. Siri is a good time saver that way.

It’s also like a more advanced magic 8 ball with a sense of humor. Ask it the meaning of life, and you may get the answer “42,” a reference to “Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy.” Or you may get a Wikipedia definition on the word “life.” Swear during your inquiry and it may respond, “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”

Siri has the ability to find the data to settle a disagreement. “Who was the 13th president?” Unless you were a history teacher, you may not remember that it was Millard Fillmore.

If it can’t immediately call up the answer, it offers a quick web search, which is helpful. This tool has the ability to save a great amount of time.

It’s also a matter of time before social rankings factor in to the equation. Businesses will be doing all they can to rank high in the Siri search. We’ll be seeing the Android equivalent soon.

The next leap of social marketing is right in front of us. Enjoy.

Engaging People On Twitter

Earlier this week I posted about strategies to grow your Twitter account. There are lots of ways to find a targeted audience. My favorite is the web site Twellow, which gives you the ability to locate people geographically, or by the type of business they are in.

As you build up a following, there is more you’ll want to take into consideration. It’s important to interact with them, and maximize your opportunity and your presence.

The most fundamental way to get started, is “mentioning” people. By typing in the @ symbol and their account name, the tweet will show up in a specific location on their feed. You can have a conversation back and for this way.

Maybe you want to ask them a question, or comment on a link they posted. It’s good to be conversational and utilize the contacts that you amass. This is the best way to cultivate relationships on Twitter, which is the whole point.

You can also direct message people. Lots of people kind of view this as spammy, however. Some people have automatic messages sent when someone follows them. These flood a person’s Twitter account, and are rarely useful. For these reasons, many people prefer mentions over messages.

Another great way to engage is to find conversations already taking place. Type in any search words you are interested in, and Twitter will display the most recent tweets that include them. If someone is looking for your services, you can approach them directly.

You may want to try something along these lines:

“I saw you are looking for _________. That’s something I provide. Feel free to check my web site.”

If you have a word in your tweet that you want to be picked up in search, use a hash tag. For example, “I am an #internetmarketer. Can I help you?”

Another tip, you’ll want to keep your tweets down to about 120 characters, even though it gives you 140. This will allow your followers to more easily retweet your material.

It’s also important to keep a human approach. Don’t be afraid to let people know what your hobbies are, aside from the business life. People want to do business with people. Not robots.

The most popular terms show up on the right side of the page. These are what is “trending.” It might be helpful to jump into one of these conversations every once in awhile, to get away from being all business.

I once got a job from a guy that noticed I tweeted about the fireworks, here in Aurora. You never know.

I saw someone tweet that Facebook is where you talk to the people you know. Twitter’s where you find the people you should know. This seems about right.

Building a Strong Twitter Following (the right way)

I recently had someone ask me how I obtained my 1,700 plus Twitter followers. I answered his question and gave him a few tips as well.

First, I want to say that in the Twitter world, 1,700 is not extremely high for followers. It’s a valuable, but also obtainable number. More is definitely possible with a little ingenuity and hard work.

There is a right way and a wrong way to build a following. Some people will purchase followers in bulk. There are many reasons this is a bad idea. First, you cannot prove that they are authentic. The only thing worse than buying followers would be to buy followers that don’t technically exist.

This is also a bad idea because a bulk following built like that is not at all targeted. Best case scenario they may be real. That doesn’t mean that they are lining up to do business with you.

There is a better way. You can search the keywords related to your business. You can follow the people tweeting about the same things that you are. You might even find people actively seeking your services.

I also recommend a web site called twellow.com. This web site offers a local, and category specific search. Both provide excellent ways to find the right kind of people that can help you network, and build a business. The quality of your tweets and value of your content will factor into whether they follow you back.

(Stay tuned. My next blog post will be about how to engage your following. That’s another topic altogether.)

The geographic search on Twellow allows you to find people in your country, state, or even community. This makes twitter a relevant tool for businesses with a customer base as local as their own neighborhood.

A slight word of caution. Just because they are in the same town does not mean you have to follow them on Twitter. If you would not approach them at a networking event, they may not provide much value in your following base. This feature will allow you to develop a local customer base, however.

Twellow also allows you to search by category. This feature is perfect for anyone looking to sell to a specific type of client or customer. Business to business tweeters can find others in similar industries. Unless you are famous or producing viral content, chances are you will be following more people than follow you back, however.

The goal is to shift those numbers the other way around. Twellow will also show you the people you follow, who don’t follow you back. If they provide little or no value, you can unfollow them.

This leaves you plugged in to the relationships you want to develop, with a strong and healthy base. Check back for my next blog. I will offer you some tips and insights on how to engage people using Twitter.

New iPhone Sounds Plain Awesome

The recent Blackberry outage could not have happened at a worse time. The company is in imminent danger of being passed by. Only days before the iPhone 4s release, I’m sure there are customers prepared to head straight to the Apple store.

Yes, the outage is over now. No, it is not the sole reason I’m buying a new phone the day I become eligible. It sure made the decision easier, though.

Two years ago Blackberry seemed the perfect fit. It got me used to portable email, and updating Facebook and Twitter on the go. A lot has happened since then, however. iPhones. Droids. Touch phones. For me, I have to go with the newer, sexier and just plain better.

I’ve been counting down the days (19) until my contract runs out. I’ve had my eye on the iPhone 4s since Apple announced it. With Siri, it sounds just plain awesome.

You can give the phone a voice command, and the phone does the rest. Send a text. What’s the weather outside? Where’s the closest pizza restaurant? What’s the closest store that carries Advil? The phone handles the details and gives you the answer.

To me, it sounds like the game is changing again. It’s a matter of time before small businesses need to crack the algorithms for its search. Social will eventually play a heavy part in this. Pretty soon you’ll get your Pizza restaurants back not only in order of closest to you, but also in order of highest favorable Yelp reviews.

The possibilities are endless and the game is changing again. I’m excited to get my new phone. It won’t be Friday, but it will be soon.

Be Human, Not a PR Robot

When people first click on your Twitter account or Facebook profile what do they see?

Do they see a human? Do they see someone they can build a relationship with? Or do they see the voiceless, uninspiring company logo?

I don’t care if you brought on the most talented graphic designer on the globe to redo your company brand, DO NOT USE IT FOR YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS. I’m aware that all caps conveys yelling.

It’s a message worth getting through. Put a human face on your social media. People want to do business with people.

If you don’t believe me, consider this. Say you are NOT in the market for car insurance. Yet there’s an annoying agent from your town who found your Twitter account, and all he’s doing is tweeting you rates and specials.

There’s his company logo, and every link that you find is straight back to his web site. No depth to his efforts, and no personality. It was a fleeting inconvenience. You hit the unfollow button, and the problem is solved.

Six months go by, and you open the mail. All of a sudden your rates skyrocket. You know that it is time to start comparing rates again. Are you even going to remember this previous incident? Probably not.

If you do remember it though, it is in a context that would suggest no way are you going back. That joker annoyed the crap out of you.

Now, what if he had put his face on the profile, so you knew what he looked like? What if his Twitter bio was filled out so that you knew he was an agent in your town, and willing to help? Most importantly, what if he tweeted about his interests?

If you build a relationship, you knew he shared your pain about the sinking chances of your favorite NFL team or the fact that the NBA season just got shortened. Or maybe he went to a concert for an artist that you really like, or something to that effect.

These aren’t the factors you’ll base your decision on, but now there is a connection.
Now, there’s a human touch. Maybe when you call his office you get him, instead of a 5-minute “press 1 if…” menu. This is somebody that you can go with now.

Social media is not always going to be the quick sale. It’s not going to be as direct as some of the marketing channels in the past. If businesses try to use it as a television, radio and print substitute, they’ll fail.

However, if they invest in it the right way, they’ll see the payoff. Treat people with respect. Show interest in what they have to say. One of my favorite analogies is that it is like a 24/7 networking event.

You are not going to interrupt a potential customer while he’s talking to someone else, shove a card in his hand and walk off immediately after. Well, you’re not going to do that and get customers anyway. Don’t do the social media equivalent and solely post about your business.

Listen. Engage. Be human.

Numbers, Now!

Building a web site to increase your small business’s customer base is a smart move. To do it without Google Analytics would be like taking a rowboat out into the ocean. Once you take that rowboat far enough out into the high waves that you no longer see land, you may as well throw your map, or GPS system into the water. You’re lost and you’re guessing.

Anybody maintaining a web site should have a fundamental idea what the main reports in Analytics offer. They can tell you what is working about your web site and what is not. They can tell you specifically what needs changing. They can tell you exactly how to change it.

Analytics provides numbers and a means for measurement in the relatively uncharted territory of Internet marketing. It's what gives small businesses a sense of safety, while taking risk. It's the tie between old world, traditional marketing with print, radio and television, and the new world Internet marketing.

Until now, there was one major drawback getting the numbers. Analytics was a once a day tool. The numbers update at midnight, and at that point, they are right there for you to check. Well in the Google quest for Internet supremacy, that’s the latest thing to change.

Google announced real time numbers will be coming soon for its analytics program. For the Internet nerdy in the culture of now, that makes a lot of sense. Post a blog on your web site and get immediate feedback. Throw up a Facebook post or Tweet a link back and see who is following it.

Now you can see what works immediately and be able to adjust accordingly. This makes this necessary tool more invaluable. In the past I’ve run my sites with other analytics tools in addition to Google simply for the immediate numbers. Now there’s no need.

For the web master this will be as addictive as checking email. It’s validation of your efforts, now. Good move, Google.

Social Sharing Keeps Me In New Music

We are now a few weeks into the great Facebook/Spotify experiment. When I first heard about the open graph idea from Facebook, I cringed. The world does not need to know when I listen to washed up 80s pop music and watch romantic comedies. Such media cocktails are best consumed alone, in the privacy of your home, in a locked bedroom, under the covers with the lights out.

There is a lot of music out there not made for consumption within visibility of my 600 closest friends on Facebook. There are ways around this dillema, however. Spotify now has a private listening feature, legitimizing their presence independent of Facebook. Now, they need to free the service up so that you can sign up without the Facebook account. The social aspect is nice, but it should not completely define this program.

The privacy feature makes it a lot easier for people to take advantage of their wide search feature. It makes them more likely to sample an album they may be 50-50 on. This will only increase the usability of Spotify. Now you can enjoy the music of the Village People as well as Led Zeppelin.

There’s also a powerful search feature that allows you access to just about anything you want. This can be reason enough to stay holed up in your house for long periods of time doing nothing more than listening to music. There’s no reason to ever buy an album without listening to it first.

If you can’t get enough of an album you don’t want to share, you can also listen to it on iTunes, or whatever music software you had on your computer before social sharing. This is another easy way to dodge the watchful eye of the Facebook posse.

I have to say I already made a few additions to my music collection thanks completely to this new way to share music. They were albums I noticed on friends’ playlists that I had to have for myself. I generally had a pretty good idea of the friends that I share a similar music taste with. That gives me a good idea of whose Spotify activity to monitor.

Spotify means a better soundtrack for being plugged in at the computer, and that’s a good thing. Facebook’s open graph idea will bring you ideas you may not have considered for any media consumption. In the end, this is a good thing. As long as there are methods available for taking evasive action, enjoy finding what your friends want you to see. Have you discovered any new music this way? If not, why not?

What Is Your Klout?

Have you hooked up your social media accounts with the new Klout.com? This site measures online influence through Twitter, Facebook and a handful of other social media accounts.

Businesses love something measurable. Klout provides a way to rank your social media influence through conversations, and interactions that you should be having with potential customers.

The site formulates a score based on the size of your network and the level of interaction that you have with friends and followers. Don’t get too caught up in the size of the network aspect of the score, however.

If you have a huge network and never do anything to engage other followers, a high score won’t necessarily equate to social media being good for your business. What good are thousands of Twitter followers if you don’t talk with a single one?

Actively engaging people will deliver better results. One hundred tight-knit, engaged followers will do more for your business than 100,000 who don’t care what you tweet.

If you integrate your accounts and immediately have a high Klout score, that is excellent news. If you integrate accounts, and discover your score is not where you would want it to be, then you need to keep treating social media the right way—by engaging friends and followers.

Do not simply use your Facebook and Twitter accounts as press release platforms. Find people having other important conversations, and talk with them. Maybe the subject is not immediately related to your business or your field, but that will show people that you are human as well.

Guy Kawasaki writes about how important it is for your network to know about your passion, in his book Enchantment. It puts a face on your business, and in this era of one-on-one micro communications, people want to do business with other people.

The truth is that social media may not produce immediate results. You may not gain a client the next day because your Twitter connection also likes NFL football. Look at his network however, and notice that it’s large. Trust that he knows what you do. Interact, and share interests, and it may just be you that they remember six months down the road when they end up needing what you happen to provide.

It is not always the quick and easy road, but cultivating these types of relationships is what social media is all about. These networks mean that businesses now have access to a 24/7 networking event. Be human first, and your Klout score will follow.