Facebook has over 300 million users. This may seem like a huge number for you to target but Facebook offers a very powerful way to build a social marketing presence and connect to prospects at a low cost.

If you’re business is not already active on Facebook; get started right away!

Tip #1:  Search Facebook for your competition and take a look at their Facebook set up. Spend some time reading their posts, looking photos and/or videos and get an understanding of how they’re using Facebook to market themselves. Note the types of Pages they have created, any groups they have created, and how many fans do they have?

Tip #2:  Be aware that if you use your company name for your personal account, you won’t be able to use it for your company’s Fan Page (Fan Pages have special rules).  Create a page before reserving your company’s name.

Tip #3:  Register a Business Account on Facebook.  There are limitations on these types of accounts but you’ll have a Business Fan Page to send out your message. As people register as a “fan” they will view your updates as they flow to their pages. You can also link to local ads on Facebook.

Recruiting from social media is a new venture for many companies. That means they are still in the experimenting phase and there are no strict rules on what to do and what not to do be successful recruiting this way.

There are some tactics, however, that businesses can use to make the right connections with appropriate people in their industry.

Make connections with people BEFORE you need them.  Take a bit of time each day using social media to identify people that have what your business values like graduates of a certain college or technical school, people that work in the same industry, those with certain skills, etc.

 Stay in touch on Twitter and the other networking sites. Join specific Groups on LinkedIn and Facebook.  Be sure to post your thoughts and join in the discussions.

When businesses are actively involved in different networking media, they may be able to avoid hiring the wrong people.  Monitor your potential hires for inappropriate posts or “red flags”. 

Growing your network (LinkedIn) and adding followers (Twitter) and fans (Facebook) will give your company a large pool of qualified candidates when you need them.

Many website builders are free as long as you use the hosting provider that offers that free service. An alternative is to purchase the software and then you have the flexibility of hosting the site anywhere you want.

According the web builder experts, your website builder should:

-          include a good library of webpage templates. 

-          allow you to add scripts such as JavaScript and VBScript.

-          include multimedia such as Flash animation, video and audio.

-          offer ecommerce, shopping carts or the ability to sell goods and services online.

-          include FTP functions.

-          let you edit the HTML code directly, if necessary.

-          come with a large selection of images like clip art, animated .gifs, and buttons.

-          allow you to optimize, resize, and crop images.

-          be easy to use.

-          offer a user guide, an on-line knowledgebase and some limited technical support.

I recently read an ad for a web building tool that claimed, “….you can build a new website in minutes!”  I just shake my head because I don’t know of any do-it-yourself project that can be completed in minutes.  More often than not, overwhelmed and frustrated people call Comstar for help because they’re in over their head using a web builder.   Sometimes the web builder was too limited and couldn’t do the things they wanted it to do.  Or, they got started and discovered that they just don’t have the time to complete such a big project.   

What I hear most from business owners is that they want their site to be easy to manage, easy to update.  And they want to leave the web building to someone else!  If you’ve reached this point, call me, Bryn, at 262-953-6025 or visit me on the web, www.comstar.biz.

As of September 2011, AOL reported they have slightly over 3 million dial-up customers.  By the way, they pay an average of $17.95 a month for that service, which is 50 times slower than a typical broadband connection!

Dial-up is a dying service, however.  In 2009, the number of U.S. households that had dial-up was estimated at 4.7 million. In 2010, the number dropped to 4 million and in 2011, it dropped again to 3.2 million.  Experts predict that by 2015 the number will decline to 1 million households.

For many years, AOL reported losing 5 million dial-up customers a year to high-speed alternatives.

Wauknet was Waukesha’s first dial-up service provider founded in 1996.  Yes, we still have dial-up users!  Many of those remaining customers can’t get access to high speed in the areas they live.  They say dial-up is better than no connection at all! 

Throughout my years as technical support manager for Wauknet, I’ve learned there’s something unique about long time dial-up users’ personalities.  They are so used to waiting that they have become very patient.  Some swear there are advantages to waiting for a web page to load, such as, “it’s the right amount of time to make a pot of coffee or it’s a good time to put dinner in the oven”.   They know dial-up is on its way out, but they don’t care.  They wonder, WHAT’S THE HURRY??

Dial-Up (Analog 56K).

Dial-up access is cheap but slow. A modem (internal or external) connects to the Internet after the computer dials a phone number.  This analog signal is converted to digital via the modem and sent over a land-line serviced by a public telephone network.  Telephone lines are variable in quality and the connection can be poor at times.  The lines regularly experience interference and this affects the speed, anywhere from 28K to 56K.  Since a computer or other device shares the same line as the telephone, they can’t be active at the same time.

DSL.  DSL stands for Digital Subscriber Line.  It is an internet connection that is always “on”.  This uses 2 lines so your phone is not tied up when your computer is connected.  There is also no need to dial a phone number to connect.  DSL uses a router to transport data and the range of connection speed, depending on the service offered, is between 128K to 8 Mbps.

Cable.  Cable provides an internet connection through a cable modem and operates over cable TV lines.  There are different speeds depending on if you are uploading data transmissions or downloading.  Since the coax cable provides a much greater bandwidth over dial-up or DSL telephone lines, you can get faster access.  Cable speeds range from 512K to 20 Mbps.

Wireless.   Wireless, or Wi-Fi, as the name suggests, does not use telephone lines or cables to connect to the internet.   Instead, it uses radio frequency.  Wireless is also an always on connection and it can be accessed from just about anywhere.  Wireless networks are growing in coverage areas by the minute so when I mean access from just about anywhere, I really mean it.  Speeds will vary, and the range is between 5 Mbps to 20 Mbps.

Satellite.  Satellite accesses the internet via a satellite in Earth’s orbit. The enormous distance that a signal travels from earth to satellite and back again, provides a delayed connection compared to cable and DSL.  Satellite connection speeds are around 512K to 2.0 Mbps.

Cellular.  Cellular technology provides wireless Internet access through cell phones.  The speeds vary depending on the provider, but the most common are 3G and 4G speeds.  A 3G is a term that describes a 3^rd generation cellular network obtaining mobile speeds of around 2.0 Mbps.  4G is the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. The goal of 4G is to achieve peak mobile speeds of 100 Mbps but the reality is about 21 Mbps currently.

A website design company is the same as a website development company.

False.  Website design companies create good looking sites that are visually appealing but lack the ability to interest and guide visitors to what they really want to accomplish.  A website needs to be USEFUL and USED, going beyond the look and feel .  The purpose of a website development company is to provide it all; design, functionality, quality traffic and conversion.   

Adding a blog to your website is a waste of time and money.

False.  Nearly 40% of businesses in the U.S. use a blog as a part of their internet marketing strategy and report that it is vital for establishing credibility with their target audience and improving the quality of their website visitors.  These businesses also claim that their website blog increases lead generation by approximately 90%. 

The design elements of the website are the most important.

False.  Today’s web designers have tools with lots of artistic capabilities.  They can use Flash, shadows, even 3D effects to give you the unique “WOW” factor you’re looking for.   Be careful.  Research studies have shown that only 10% of web visitors are awed by the design of a website.  76% of web users are more interested in sites that are easy to use and helpful in finding what they’re looking for.  Visitor satisfaction means user-friendly navigation, painless shopping and up-to-date content.

A mobile version of your website is not worthwhile.

False.   Accessing the web using a mobile device is a growing trend that, in my opinion, is not going to go away anytime soon.  Many professional web development companies offer mobile friendly versions of both new and existing websites.   For some businesses, a mobile version might not be important due to the age of the target market.  But that could change quickly.  More and more older consumers are using smart phones and tablets.

When you advertise online, your message is out there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Online marketing tools vary from banner and pay-per-click ads, to auto-responder and email blasts.

Pay- Per- Click (PPC) ads target the traffic you want.  Advertising in this way means more realistic and relevant results.  Your initial investment for PPC is small.  You pay for only the users that click thru on the ad.  PPC campaigns are just as effective for small businesses as well as large businesses.  Results can be immediate and tracked in real time.

Banner ads can be either Pay Per Click or Flat Rate.  You can place your banner ads on websites that cater to your target market.  Banner ads can be extremely effective if you put them on websites in the right spot.  Banner ads work well because they are highly visible and attractive.

72% of businesses recently surveyed claim that email campaigns bring better ROI than traditional marketing methods.  According to the 8000 respondents of a 2010 Internet Marketing Survey, some email campaigns generate a return of almost 42 dollars for every one dollar spent.  Promotional emails give better results if you are a retail business.

36% of the respondents favor email marketing over SEO and social networking.   40% of the respondents are highly satisfied with the results of their email campaigns because of increased sales conversions.

Email marketing efforts are more likely to generate repeat sales, cross sell and up sell.

A critical security vulnerability means your computer and other devices can be exposed to download attacks and hacks.  If a browser has security vulnerabilities, an unsuspecting user will surf to a maliciously rigged website where the attackers can steal identity information, banking information and passwords. 

Each year, browsers are tested and security weaknesses exposed.  In Nov. 2010, a list of these browsers and the number of security weaknesses was published. 

Google Chrome ranked number one for most susceptible to attack with 76 vulnerabilities.  Next, Apple Safari ranked number 2 with 60, Mozilla Firefox was number 3 with 51, Microsoft Internet Explorer sat at number 4 with 32 and coming up at number 5 was Opera with 6.

None of the versions of these browsers were indicate but experts are saying that the browsers’ positions haven’t changed much since the report. 

Not all vulnerabilities in these browsers are exploited by the evil doers in this world, but many of them are and thankfully, there are ways to protect yourself while surfing the internet.

One the best ways you can thwart an attack is to keep your browser plug-ins up to date.  Java is one of the most vulnerable plug-ins, but also the most frequently “patched”.  If Java wants you to update, just do it! 

Purchasing an internet security program like Norton or McAfee and keeping the subscription up-to-date can be a big help in preventing your online activities from becoming a nightmare.

One report from Net Applications has Internet Explorer usage at 54%, but that is down from 60% reported at this time last year, in November 2010.  Firefox currently has 22% and Chrome has 16% browser share.

Google Chrome has actually gone up from last year’s 10% to this year’s 16%.  Some speculate there are several reasons for Chrome’s increase:

1)      Benefits from search (after all, Google is ranked number 1 in search engines!).

2)      Runs web apps in the browser, from the cloud instead of your desktop computer.

3)      Aggressive marketing from Google

4)      Quick succession of releases with updates

 Most experts agree that it’s too early to predict if Chrome will push Firefox out of second, but some say it could happen and as soon as 6 months from now.  Firefox is feeling the pressure.  If you are a Firefox user, you can’t help but notice that newer versions of Firefox are coming at a rapid pace!  It seems to me that just about every time I open my Firefox, I have to wait for another update to load.  And that’s just the beginning.  I hear that Firefox versions 8, 9 and 10 are in development! 

As Internet Explorer continues to decline, Microsoft is getting nervous.  You might think that it’s not a big deal to Microsoft because they give the browser away for free.  Would they really lose much if they weren’t number one for browser usage?  The answer is, most definitely, YES.

In reality, a decline in browser popularity means a lot to Microsoft.  IE is the top gateway to the internet and if you control that, you can control search engine popularity (Bing is Microsoft’s search engine) and then you can receive big revenue as you eat into Google’s market share.  In addition to all this, Microsoft wants you to use their cloud services both on Windows Live and Skydrive.  What better way to drive people to those services than to use browsers and search engines they control?

Microsoft also wants to link your Windows Phone and tablet to IE so that if you bookmark a favorite on your desktop, you can see those same bookmarked favorites on your other devices.  So, even though Microsoft doesn’t get a dime from selling IE, there are huge benefits from people using it and serious consequences when people switch to their competition!

I’m betting these browser wars won’t end anytime soon.

Your Internet marketing efforts can benefit from learning as much about your website visitors as possible.  Analytics can show visitor traffic increases or decreases after the launch of new advertising or promotional campaigns.  It is perfect for tracking trends.  Analytics can help you see if changes to your website impacted your sales and conversions.

If your site can make the visitor feel the experience was natural and easy, then you’ve connected with them in a way that will grow your business.  They will visit more often and recommend your site to friends.  Analytics can help you make your site do this by giving you feedback to changes that improve your site.  And improve your bottom line!

Website analytics can help the marketing executive determine which online ad is the most effective, which keywords lead to conversions, what traffic trends do visitors respond to the most. 

Analytics can also point the weaknesses in your site such as visitors leaving the site before taking action, or abandoning their shopping cart in the middle of a purchase process.

Your business wants valuable, loyal customers and website analytics can provide you with enough information to find them and, more importantly, to keep them.  Comstar has experts on staff to talk to you about your analytics options.  We offer both server-based website statistics and  website based Google Analytics.  Visit www.comstar.biz or email Bryn at bkirk@comstar.biz.