Social Media Domination

Book Recommendations, Product Recommendations, Website Traffic No Responses »
Mar 102010

Social media is a hot topic these days.  Should your business be using Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn?  We get asked about this a lot.

Last week I had the chance to interview Lewis Howes and Sean Malarkey.  Lewis is a LinkedIn expert and has co-authored a LinkedIn Success book on the subject.  Sean is a Twitter expert.  He got his experience using Twitter to generate tons of business for a real estate investment company.

We had a good hour together, but a few key points that I’d like to pass along to you are these:

  1. When you start using LinkedIn and/or Twitter be sure to complete your profile.  People read these so it’s your first impression.
     
  2. Be sure to link back to your website in your profiles.  If people like what they read in the profile, they’ll click through to your website to learn more.
     
  3. When creating a tweet or post, add value by providing good information.  If you contribute to the value of conversation, people will listen to you and you’ll gain influence.
     
  4. You CAN make progress with just a few minutes each day.

Lewis and Sean have put together an intense social media bootcamp complete with books, videos, and tools to help.  If you’re interested in some very in-depth training, consider this.  In addition to LinkedIn and Twitter, the bootcamp covers FaceBook, YouTube, and other media as well.

If you’d like to be invited to future interviews on web-business and internet marketing related topics you can register for the Web Genius Summit.  You’ll be among the first to get great information.  Did I mention registration is free?

Posted by Jeffrey Kirk at 3:16 PM Tagged with: , , ,

SEO & Google

Book Recommendations No Responses »
Mar 182009

Google strives for searcher loyalty.  When you do a search, their algorithms sort the millions of potential results into an order and present them to you one page at a time.  Their algorithms determine the display based on what they can glean from the available websites.

You’ve probably discovered that sometimes the results are great, and sometimes the results stink.

What does this mean to you if you have a website?  Of course you think your site is the best site for the searcher.  Now you have to convince Google.

That defines the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  That’s the process which helps Google determine what your site is all about.

Google is continually changing their algorithms so to do a successful job at SEO, you must read and work to get an understanding of how to get your site listed.

Now if you have the time and would like to try optimizing your site yourself, we recommend the book Search Engine Optimization for Dummies.  Taking on this responsibility yourself means that you need to continually monitor the results.

That being said, one of our most important services is SEO for our clients.  Some people read the above book to get an understanding of what goes on but then they don’t have the time to keep up with Google’s changes or constantly tweak their site to improve positions.  That is where we come into play.

If you just don’t have the time to properly optimize your website but need a higher ranking with Google, take a closer look at our Search Engine Information.

Posted by Diana Myre at 1:34 PM Tagged with: , , ,

User Experience

Book Recommendations No Responses »
Feb 112009

“I just love your company’s website!” – When was the last time someone said this to you?

If you haven’t heard this in a while or even worse, ever, perhaps it is time to think about updating your site.  Even a few changes can really help give your website a new feel and increase interest among potential customers.

Knowing what the user experience is like on your site and understanding what the user wants is critical to success.  If you are unsure of your website’s user experience, go to your site and put to test the 5 second rule.  This means that within 5 seconds you need to be able to determine: who the company is, what exactly it is that they do, and why someone should choose them over the competition.  5 seconds is all visitors will give a website to learn this information.

The goal with answering these questions very fast is that you don’t want to make site users think.  The information needs to be clearly displayed.  Make finding information as simple as possible.

For more tips on how to make your site more usable, I would recommend reading the book Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug.  This book has real life examples that you can actually apply to your website.

Make your site more usable and prospects who visit your site will be happier.  This means more visitors taking the actions you desire!

Posted by Diana Myre at 2:23 PM Tagged with: , ,

Tools for Website Planning

Book Recommendations No Responses »
Jan 122009

As you are putting together your 2009 website plan you need to consider how you are going to make your website even more useful to visitors.  Here are some questions to ask and some tips to help you plan.

First, write a plan for how you are going to have visitors move through your site.  Actually map it out or walk through it yourself and see how effective your current site really is.  Next, determine what the navigation buttons should say and where they should lead to.

The most important element of making a website useful is to figure out how you are going to get someone to take an action on your site.  You need to make it as easy as possible.

2009 websites must be interactive!  How are you going to communicate with your visitors?

For more details and ideas, we recommend the book Call to Action by Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg.  They give real examples that you can use for your site.

As always, if you find this type of thing technically overwhelming, just give us a call and we will be happy to meet with you and help you plan.

Happy Planning!

Posted by Diana Myre at 8:08 PM Tagged with: ,
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