You’re excited about trying some Social Media Marketing. You’ve got your Facebook page and Twitter profile ready to go and you can’t wait for all those hot new leads to come pouring in.

Whoa….hold on there just one minute. If your website is screaming 2003 it’s time to go back to the basics and fix your foundation first.

Here are a few questions you should ask yourself before launching your Social Media Marketing campaign.

1 - Is my website visually appealing? - Do the colors, layout and images look like a nice, new Web 2.o site…or is it plain, rigid and templated? Are there scrolling marquees? Do you have multiple navigations? Are there little pieces of clip art that flash and float around? …There’s your sign.

2 - Is my website set up to “convert”? – Is there a prominent phone number in the top right corner? Do you have a simple contact form on every page of the site? How easy have you made it for users to contact you? Remember, they may land on any page of your site based on their search results. Can they easily get in touch with you from every page?

3 – How well does my site come up in the search engines? – If you’re “Joe’s Crab Shack in Myrtle Beach”…does your site appear in the organic results when someone searches for “seafood in Myrtle Beach”? What other keywords or search terms do you think users would type in when searching for a business like yours? Check all those out also.

4 – Do I have enough content on my site? – Is there robust, relevant content on every page of your website? I’m not talking about a 700 word mini-novel. You need a couple of specific, well-written paragraphs that incorporate those keywords and search terms the search engines will be looking for. (Contact Me to learn more about making sure your website is coded properly for the search engines.)

5 – Do I have analytics installed on my website? - Before starting any kind of internet marketing campaign you have to make sure you’re able to measure results. Google Analytics is free and easy to install on your site. This way you’ll know how many people are coming to the site, what they’re doing while they are there, how they left, where they came from and how they found you. Analytics are imperitive.

Granted, there are tons of other issues and questions we could cover here. However, if you get these basics down your site will be more effective. We can drive tons of traffic to the website, but if it’s not visually appealing, set up to convert and easy to use…we’re wasting our time.

Remember also, fixing your website is probably one of the most cost-effective marketing solutions to your multiple business challenges. Fix your foundation first. Then, build your dream house.

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

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Over the past couple of days 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.

To learn how we can help, CONTACT US!

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By: Scott Dickson

When asked if they’re utilizing the power of social media and relationship marketing, many business-owners and CMO’s will reply, “Of course! We have an awesome Facebook page and we’re getting started on Twitter.”

Well, that’s great. But, setting up a Facebook page and linking your posts to a Twitter profile doesn’t mean you’re “on Twitter.” It means you’re doing it wrong.

In my opinion, you’re putting all your eggs in one basket by relying too heavily on Facebook. Don’t get me wrong, Facebook is a huge piece of the puzzle. But, if you’re not executing effectively AND not implementing other social media platforms, you’re missing opportunities to engage your potential audience.

YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine on the planet. If you do a search for your company, will it appear in the search results? Better yet, if you own a restaurant in Charlotte, do you have a video tagged appropriately that shows up in a YouTube search for “restaurants in Charlotte”?

If you’re business to business, you must be on LinkedIn, right? Are you a wedding photographer with pictures saturated and tagged on Flickr? If you’re a movie theater you must be using Foursquare to reward your mayor and other customers checking in. And how about Twitter? Are you engaged? Do you really know what it means to be engaged on Twitter, or are you just pushing out content?

Are you utilizing the power of social bookmarking sites like Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Propeller, Stumbleupon, etc.?  Have you claimed your blog at Technorati? Do you even have a blog? Is your website set up to convert visitors into potential customers?

Is your head spinning?

Chances are pretty good you’ve watched this video ad nauseum. But, it does drive home the point that there are other platforms to pay attention to.

So, yes…Facebook is gigantic and amazing.  You’d be crazy not to work very hard to have a commanding presence there. However, you shouldn’t stop at Facebook.

Take the time and do the research on the other opportunities…or, you can always just contact me!

A shameless plug, no doubt. But, hey…it is my blog.

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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…preferrably 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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