Here recently there have been some issues with the 800-Pound Gorilla…Facebook. This led me to think about what would happen if Facebook suddenly disappeared. What would online marketers do if one of the most powerful tools they had was gone? One of the things we would do is put more focus on blogging. The truth is, we should never lose focus on blogging. Don’t neglect home base. Keep it fresh regularly and blog smart.

Here are 10 quick tips for effective blogging:

1 – Decide on a stand alone domain name myblog.com, or directory of existing site: mysite.com/blog. Utilizing a sub-domain is also an option: blog.mysite.com. If at all possible, avoid hosted services that do not allow you to use your own domain name.

2 – Research keywords and develop a glossary using a keyword research tool, such as www.semrush.com, www.wordstream.com or www.link-assistant.com.

3 – Enable your automatic trackback and ping functionality.

4 – Submit your RSS feed and Blog URL to prominent RSS and Blog directories and search engines.

5 – Optimize and distribute a press release announcing your blog.

6 – Research and comment on relevant industry-related blogs and blogs that are popular and get lots of traffic. Always link back, but don’t be spammy when you comment.

7 – Monitor your inbound links, traffic using analytics (Google Analytics, if possible). Also, monitor comments and mentions of your blog using Google Alerts, Technorati, Blogpulse or Trackur.

8 – Put prominent links to your profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr and other social platforms in every post.

9 – Include bookmarking/sharing widgets that allow users to share content on the platform of their choice: www.addthis.com.

10- Post regularly. I’m often asked how often. Once a month is not enough. Once a week is not enough. I’ll cover this more in my next post.

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Here’s a little tip for you…there is no such thing as a social media expert. Social media lives and breathes. It evolves and changes. It turns left and right and this way and that way. There are no experts. There are only some who know more than others and some who pretend to know more than others…otherwise known as a snake oil salesperson (notice I didn’t say salesman or saleswoman).

You can’t read a book and think you have what it takes to become a consultant. Opinion and theory are great, but no match for years of experience and a proven track record of execution and success.

Having said all that…here are a few tips on how to tell if the person calling on you truly knows their stuff.

A snake oil salesperson…

1 - Tweets about themselves and what THEY are doing…constantly.
2 – Uses automated programs like “Top Followed” to grow their list of followers.
3 – Does not re-tweet others and isn’t involved in conversations on Twitter.
3 - Has a Facebook page containing posts with no links, has only been live for a month and only has 20 fans.
4 – Doesn’t have many followers on Twitter. Probably less than 500, or so and doesn’t have a robust FB page.
5 – Doesn’t have a blog on their website, or they haven’t posted on their blog in 2 months.
6 – Isn’t active on Google+ AND Pinterest.
7 – Can’t decipher Google Analytics for you and show you measured results.
8 – Can’t explain ROI.
9 – Checks in from their home and office on Foursquare and other location-based networks.
10 - Can’t provide success stories, testimonials or share any case studies of their work.

The snake oil salesperson is out there and on the prowl. Don’t get led down the primrose path. Do a little homework and make a good call. Work with a consultant you can trust and someone who has a proven track record of success and can back it up.

For more information, or to get help with your social media strategy, CONTACT US!

However, it’s disappointing when I hit the RT and the original tweet is too long. It pains me to have to edit, abbreviate and basically re-write the original tweet in order to re-tweet it.  Remember, you only have 140 characters.

Here’s the thing…if I have to edit or abbreviate your tweet, I’m probably not going to re-tweet it and neither will others.

So, if you condense your message, you’re much more likely to have it re-tweeted by your followers, which should increase your audience even more. In fact, you should really try to get the tweet to around 126 characters. Why not make it as easy as possible to re-tweet?

Another thing…when you share someone else’s content, always re-tweet or us a “via @username.” Never grab the blog title and URL and post the tweet as your own. Cite the source and give credit where credit is due. It’s not your content.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

For me personally, I have many friends and clients on Facebook who are on both sides of the fence politically. From time to time I have posted something politically charged, only to go back a little bit later and remove it after I’ve thought about the possible repercussions. I am now fully committed to never doing it again.

So, I’ve come up with some reasons why you shouldn’t post about politics on Facebook. Here you go…

1. You could lose a friend. Friends should be able to discuss political issues calmly and diplomatically…in person! Most people hide behind their computers and post things they would never say face to face.

2. You could lose a client. It’s not business, it’s personal…right? Bull crap! If a client feels strongly about a political issue and I go on Facebook and post something totally derogatory or counter to what they believe, they might take a different view of me personally and professionally. I want my clients to like me. People do business with people they know, like and trust. Period.

3. It’s a waste of time. You’re not going to change someone’s political beliefs on Facebook. You can debate and debate, but you’re just wasting your time. People are different and believe different things. Accept it, agree to disagree and move on. Life’s too short. Let your vote be your voice.

4. It’s the wrong platform. If you’re bound and determined to spend time arguing over political issues online, go to a political blog or a news site and do so. Don’t ruin everyone’s experience on Facebook with your rants. You may have a specific list of friends on FB that you only share political information with, but you never know what someone else might share.

5. There’s enough politics in the media. One of the reasons I use Facebook is to laugh, have fun and converse with my friends and family. I don’t use it to get worked up or stressed out over something I see that I disagree with. There’s enough political coverage in the mainstream media. More than enough. Keep it there and leave the politics to the pundits.

If you’re marketing your business on Facebook, you absolutely NEVER want to go down this road on your Facebook business page.

Now, I know there are a lot of people who are going to disagree with me. And that’s fine. You have every right to disagree. This is America. But, can we agree to disagree and keep it off Facebook?

What do you think?

By: Scott Dickson

Your employees should be some of your biggest evangelists and ambassadors. When launching a social media marketing plan, it’s very important to get those employees excited about engaging and interacting.

Let’s look at one example…Facebook. Your employees can be very effective at facilitating the growth of your Facebook page or group. But, why would you even need their help?

Here are five reasons why you should encourage your employees to get involved:

1) Great ideas can come from any level of an organization. Encouraging employees to engage on Facebook fosters collaboration and allows workers at all levels to contribute ideas.

2) Encouraging employee awareness of the Facebook page/group builds morale and boosts confidence. It shows the public and the employee that the organization is forward-thinking and takes itself seriously when it comes to new media.

3) Employees engaging and becoming more active on the Facebook page/group will help the organization project a more positive image to the public, therefore enhancing the public’s view of the organization and its transparency.

4) Customer support. An employee can provide support and feedback online through Facebook by responding to complaints and thanking customers for comments, etc.

5) Employees suggesting their friends to “like” the page or join the group, helps it become more “viral” and facilitates a stronger growth of the audience on Facebook.

The next question should be, “How do I GET my employees to engage on our Facebook page or group?” That’s another blog post, but I’m thinking time off would be a great way to do it! Just kidding…well, sortof. Stay tuned…

To learn how we can help, CONTACT US!

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Maximizing your social media marketing is hard to do if your website is not set up to convert.

You can Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr yourself to death…but, unless your potential customers are landing on a page or a site that makes it easy for them to contact you…it could be a waste of time and money.

Some key questions to ask include:

1 – Is there a prominent phone number on every page of my website?
2 – Are there simple contact forms strategically placed on my site…preferably on every page?
3 – Does my site make it very easy for anyone to contact me?
4 – Are there strong headlines and calls to action within the content?
5 – Are the colors and images on my site inviting?

Addressing these 5 simple questions will help put your website on track to turning visitors into potential customers. Of course, there’s much more to it. These are just some of the basics.

Don’t have the budget right now to redesign/reconfigure your website? Try custom landing pages with analytics instead.

To learn more and get a free, no-obligation analysis of your website, CONTACT US!

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Linking all your social networking profiles is just bad practice. Please don’t do this. I enjoy checking into Foursquare, but I realize that my Twitter followers don’t necessarily care that I’m still the mayor at Bruegger’s Bagels. Don’t link every check-in to Twitter, much less LinkedIn. In the same sense, every tweet shouldn’t automatically be sent to LinkedIn.

And now, LinkedIn has apparently heard the many complaints and has made an adjustment. I was glad to receive this notification from them today…

“Dear Scott,

At LinkedIn, we want to provide a simple and efficient experience for members like you. So from time to time, we take a look at our set of features to evaluate how they’re being used by our members. Part of this process sometimes means we decide to eliminate a feature, so we can better invest those resources in building more great LinkedIn products.

Recently, it was decided that the Tweets application, a LinkedIn feature that you’ve used at some point, will no longer be supported as of January 31, 2012. Starting on that date, you will no longer be able to post recent tweets in a module on your profile or view recent tweets in a separate module on the home page. However, you can still display tweets on your profile by binding your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts and then tweeting with an #in hashtag.

Thank you for your continued support of LinkedIn. If you have additional questions please visit our Help Center.”

This is great because it eliminates useless tweets from LinkedIn feeds. If your tweet merits exposure on LinkedIn, simply include the hashtag, #in. Please, please, please….only include the hashtag if you feel like the tweet will be interesting to LinkedIn users. Think business, professional, informative, helpful…not playful, whimsical or silly.

And by the way, I do think it’s OK to link your Facebook page posts to Twitter, as long as you check Twitter often for replies and RT’s.

Is your head spinning from all this social media linking info? Give me a call with your question at 336-331-2185.

Contact me to learn more.

Following quality people on Twitter is just as important as having quality people follow back. And always remember, just like anything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it. Don’t set up the profile, follow 100 people and wait to get followed back. Probably not gonna happen.

Who NOT To Follow

Don’t follow someone who hasn’t tweeted in several months. The chances are they’re not very active and won’t be of interest to you. If you’re so inclined, go ahead and follow. But, check back after awhile and if they haven’t followed back or tweeted…un-follow them.

Also, before you follow someone, check their tweets. Are they actually engaging people on Twitter, or are they just pushing out information? If there’s no conversation, they probably won’t be interested in you…even if they do follow back. They don’t get it. They’re not communicating with their audience. Many times these people have linked their Facebook posts to Twitter, so they’re not technically “on Twitter.” Traditional media is notorious for this.

Every newspaper, radio and TV station tweets about EVERY robbery, car accident, arrest, stabbing, etc. and it drives me nuts. This is not what most people want to see when they come to Twitter.

Quality or Quantity?

My suggestion is go after a quality audience, but also work hard to grow the number of followers. The goal is to get the audience as large as possible with quality tweeters. You may have to work harder if you’re only looking for people within a specific geographic region. But, don’t give up. Keep using the search tool and look for your target. They’re out there, but you have to go find them!

According to a recent media study conducted by the Council for Research Excellence, advertisers need to keep traditional media in their marketing mix…for now.

While it’s true, there is phenomenal growth online with the explosion of Social Media…overall reach is still dominated by broadcast television with radio coming in second. The most notable development in this research is that the web has surpassed newspapers and magazines as the third best way to reach the masses with your message.

The study produced numbers based on the following key “advertising-based” media platforms:

• Television had the highest reach & daily usage among users (95.3%)
• Broadcast radio (77.3%)
• Web/Internet [excluding use of email] (63.7%)
• Newspapers (34.6%)
• Magazines (26.5%)

The print medium is dying. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing anyone can do about it. It’s not going to die today, but it’s hard to believe that it will be around in its current form ten years from now. Real growth amongst these platforms is only happening on the internet and the difference here is with engagement.

Think of engagement this way. Can you email a TV spot to a friend? No, but you can send a YouTube video link to your buddy via email or share it through Facebook and other forms of Social Media.

Did the newspaper ask your permission to send you that load of inserts in the Sunday paper? (Tell the truth…do you really look at every one of those?) No, they didn’t ask. But if you follow the independent, local furniture store on Twitter…you’ve given them permission to communicate with you.

Therefore, as an advertiser, the audience on your blog, fans of your Facebook page and followers on Twitter are incredibly valuable to you.  They want your marketing message. Don’t just spam them with discounts, etc. Engage them socially.

So, yes….traditional media still has the reach. Keep it in your mix. But, spend the time and make the effort to build a loyal audience online. The landscape will continue to change. Everybody’s getting in the boat. Don’t get left on the beach.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

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Most people don’t like change. And these changes caused quite an uproar amongst users, even to the point that users were fighting with each other about whether or not the changes were good. I must admit, I joined the debate.

Tickers, Timelines and Top Stories

Personally, I really like all the changes, except one…top stories. There are some pros and cons to this one.

Basically, Facebook picks which status updates/posts should be your “top stories” based on the relationship, number of people who like it, etc. and puts those at the top in the news feed. Most would argue they would rather see ALL of their friend’s updates, as well as updates from the pages they’ve liked, chronologically. That’s certainly how I feel.

What does this do to marketers who have worked so hard to grow their audiences and cultivate communities on their Facebook pages? The jury is still out, but I see some issues.

Pros and Cons

The bad thing: This means the likelihood of their audience seeing their posts will go down. In fact, I can see in the analytics where site traffic from Facebook has already started to decrease.

The good thing: Marketers who count on their business pages for website traffic and customer interaction will now have to work much harder to generate relevant, interesting, sharable content. Better content means more people will “like” it and be more likely to share that content with their friends.

Where Should We Focus?

The biggest takeaway for me in regards to the explosion of Google+ and the significant changes/updates to Facebook is the fact that regardless of social media evolution, everything always comes back to your website. Social media will continue to change and develop, as it should. Your website should also  improve on a regular basis, but IT should be your top priority…not mastering social media marketing. Your website is Base Camp. It’s a platform that YOU can control. The visitors generated from Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. should land on a website that doesn’t look like its straight out of 2004. Basically, it’s very important that your website doesn’t suck.

Make sure your website is at the top of its game. It needs to be visually appealing, have modern architecture, be search engine friendly (do the keyword research) and social media friendly, incorporating all the latest widgets and buttons that make for easy sharing. Your website should have a blog integrated within the site, not separate. It should also have analytics installed and you should be posting on the blog regularly, if not often.

Roll With The Changes

Don’t freak out when Facebook makes changes. This wasn’t the first and won’t be the last time they do. Also, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Get active on Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, YouTube, etc. and get familiar with Google+. But, most importantly…have a website that stands out amongst your competitors. Make “Base Camp” your top priority and then put the icing on the cake with an awesome social marketing campaign.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or to learn more.

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