Category: Internet Marketing

For Your Blog or Social Media: Write What You Know, Not What You Think People Want.

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People often inquire whether a topic is good.  Usually they want to know whether it will attract search engines or an audience.  This is the wrong question to be asking.  The right question is whether this topic directly applies to what my blog or social media site is about.

Why is trying to write for what you think there is an audience for misguided?  Two reasons:

  1. You’re asking an unanswerable question – It’s almost impossible for anyone to predict an audience for a topic.  With enough testing, a conclusion could likely be arrived at but the problem is that it’s just as efficient to just write and post on a topic.  If the audience is there, they’ll show up.  If not, then you still have posted meaningful content that will remain available to anyone interested in the material.
  2. It’s an irrelevant question – There is an audience for any topic if the content is well written, straight forward, and easily acquired.  It might be a small group or take time for them to arrive, but there is always a demand for orginal valuable content.

So how do you select a topic to write about?  Easy, what currently inspires you.  It can be a small tip or a larger essay.  As long as it’s in-line with the subject of the blog or social media site, it’s fair game.

Don’t get hung up on what people might want.  There is likely an audience (no matter how small) for any insightful content you can provide about your selected subject.  Go with a steady constant which is relevant material from a content expert. 

Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

An Online Single Content Source Has Singular Content

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I previously posted about making social networking sustaninable through a single content source.  There is a hidden pitfall here.  A single content source needs to be singular.  That means it speaks to a single topic.  My blog is an example of stretching about as far as possible.  I cover internet marketing, SEO, email marketing, and website maintenance.  These three pieces are pretty closely related.  I could probably include something like web design to stretch it further if I chose.  What I can’t do is make posts about an action movie I just saw, coin collecting, or my favorite recipes.  They aren’t related so they don’t belong.  The single content source needs to have a single consistent topic.

Many people that have social networking sites and point them to a single content source start bending this rule because it saves time.  There professional blog starts getting notes about a party with their friends.  Worse yet the two worlds collide when their crazy friend leaves expletive language about how crazy the party was.  Pick the singular content and never stray from it.

Breaking largely varying topics into categories is not appropriate.  Categories should be very specific and interrelated to other posts, not a whole new topic.

So what if you have a professional blog but want to write about stamp collecting?  Easy, start another blog.  You can write about as many topics as you’d like, time allowing, just make sure it’s in the right place. 

Two problems arise when you break your topic into multiple blogs:

  • The amount of work has just doubled
  • Social networking needs to be intelligently segmented to get that audience to what they want.

For the extra work, there’s no way around it.  Think of it as opening up double the audience.  For segmenting social networking, you can start by reviewing some I covered in a previous post.

Identify who likely wants the content.  LinkedIn likely doesn’t need your stamp collecting posts.  Business contacts probably want info from your professional blog.  Facebook might not be interested in your professional site but your stamp collecting friends will want an update on your stamp blog.  Twitter might need both.  Since commenting is restricted that might not be terrible, just make sure titles make it clear what people should expect.  You don’t want your professional blog readers stumbling into your stamp blog and thinking your business has taken a radical turn in expertise.

The real reason to make a single content source singular is to provide readers with the content they desire.  It promises content about a certain topic.  Filling it with unrelated material is not only confusing, it betrays the people that find it.  Make sure that people who find their way to your single content source via social networking or search engines receive what they were promised.

Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Web Maintenance

Pick Appropriate Social Networking

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After posting about funneling social networking sites to a single content source, I had several questions arrive that showed how expansive social networking has become.  One person had 12 profiles.  Twelve!  While my suggestion was still to funnel to a single content source, simply updating that many sections could still be a maintenance headache.  Make sure that a profile is worth updating before wasting time on it.

A good way to thin out the workload of social networking sites is evaluating which are appropriate.  Below is a sampling of three of the most common sites and my observations on their best use.

  • Facebook – Facebook is great for cultivating an online contact list.  However, it’s suited for the individual and while they are making strides to incorporate company info, it tends to be an afterthought.  It is almost impossible to have meaningful connections while maintaining a “company” profile which forces an individual within the organization to take ownership of the profile. So while it is a great social environment, any business/marketing use has to be monitored as the lines between personal and professional tend to get blurred.   If they get too blurred there is a distinct risk to reflect negatively on the professional.
  • Linked In – Linked In is designed for the business user.  The contacts are designed to be a professional reference and many tools are available to sync the profile up with professional websites and/or blogs.  It’s set up to promote the professional individual but is easy to incorporate into company profile information.  It tends to be a poor fit for personal social interaction and for some professional organizations it can be too sterile.  If your organization has a social aspect to it, the business focus can send the wrong message.
  • Twitter – Twitter is flexible enough to be used in any way.  Since profiles tend to have less one-on-one interaction, personal contacts can bleed into professional ones.  Since posts are less personal, organization profiles are much more feasible.  It’s really up to the poster to decide what focus they want to take.  It is limited by how much can be input and doesn’t have the expansive features that other sites do.

These are just a small sampling of some of the most popular sites.  There are literally thousands of sites with different topic or industry focuses available. 

Before creating a profile, make sure that the sites focus is a good fit for you or the organization.  If it’s not relevant, don’t waste time setting up a profile that other members likely aren’t interested in. 

Secondarily, monitor the activity on the site.  If no connections are made or no meaningful responses result, then disregard the site.  It’s either proving that it doesn’t have a viable user base or that the user base is apathetic toward your content.  Maintaining a socail network profile takes time and energy, make sure that it’s a good investment with potential for a return. 

Internet Marketing, Web Maintenance

Is Your Social Networking Sustainable?

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Everyone likes the idea of using social networks to build business or raise awareness of an organization.  However, most people don’t like the time involved in having a presence in the most popular social networks.  I am one of those people!  We all have a lot of things to get done and social networking is rarely our highest priority.  So how can we leverage social networking without sacrificing a lot of time?  Set a sustainable content funnel to maximize content across social networks.

Here is a common business approach to social networking:

  • I’ve heard people can generate business through sites like facebook, twitter, linkedIn, etc.
  • I signed up for all of them and created a profile referencing my website.
  • I try to keep up with content on all the sites.
  • I’m falling behind on checking the sites.
  • I used to have an account on those sites but they don’t generate any business so I quit

The problem with this approach is that it’s too time intensive.  Few people have enough time available to adequately keep updates flowing over multiple social networking sites. For those that have the time or make the time, congratulations, that is the ideal way to handle social networking.  For anyone who struggles to keep entries current, a content funnel can be a life saver.  It provides frequent updates but funnels all sites to a single content source. 

What’s the source?  You’re reading my single source right now, it’s my blog.  All my profiles get updated with new blog posts and direct people here.  So I write my post once, update my profiles and I’m done.  You don’t necessarily need a blog.  Facebook provides ample areas to make posts (either through a blog or on the wall) that people can funnel to.  The only concern here is making sure that your profile is accessible to all, so that people don’t have to bother with befriending you to see content.

So here’s my funneled approach to social networking:

  • Create a single source for frequent content updates (blog, dedicated website section, open social network page)
  • Create a profile for the sites you’d like a profile on
  • Update those pages with links to your single content source when something new appears.
  • Reply to responses from the single content source and/or from the social networking sites.

This model provides most of the benefits of social networking sites without an overwhelming time commitment.

Internet Marketing, Web Maintenance

Confusing Technical Prowess With Good Internet Marketing

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I’m always cautious when I start working with a person that “knows technology”.  There tends to be a belief that understanding technology automatically translates into expert email/online marketing.  These intiatives typically end up being on what webpagesthatsuck.com call “the bleeding edge”.  Just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should. 

As a rule of thumb before implementing a high tech or new-to-you technoligy ask “How does this enhance or improve my message to my target audience.?”  If you can’t think of a relatively simple answer within five seconds, it’s probably worth rethinking.

Here’s an example I recently encountered.  A client said, “I’m pretty technically savvy.  I can get the images into my emails.”  When I asked what emails were included in the “image makeover” and why, I got a blank stare.  Finally the answer was, “to make it look better”.  I had two problems with that answer.  One the layout didn’t make anything look better and two”looking better” doesn’t help the recipient.  Had he said, “It drew attention to an offer.” or “It instills confidence that the company is legitimate through a professional branded layout.”, I’d have thought he was on to something.  Unfortunately, he had no good reason to ad an image that, in reality, had little or nothing to do with the email’s content and made it look less professional.

Same thing goes for newer technology.  If there is no useful and interesting content that can be updated on at least a semi-regular basis, don’t start a blog.  If time and energy can’t be put into doing a professional video segment, don’t do a video podcast.  And never use a piece of technology because “it’s the next big thing.”  Keep it simple and useful and there will always be an audience.  Anything else will end up being overly complicated, useless, ignored, and potentially damaging to you or your company.

Email Marketing, Internet Marketing

Search Engine Rank Improvements Take Stamina and Evolution

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A lot of people are frustrated with their organic (Not a pay per click service) search engine rankings.  When they finally have had enough the frustration usually takes the shape of wanting to rank first for almost any related keyword.  Barring a massive budget and a group of talented web professionals, that isn’t likely to happen.  Start out gradually with Search engine optimization and gear up.

Think of SEO as a marathon.  No one decides the morning of a marathon that they’re going to do it (Well maybe someone has tried that but I guarantee they had a painful and unsuccessful experience).  It takes months and months of training.  Marathon runners set a running schedule that is designed to get them into their best running shape on that single day. 

SEO should work the same way.  Pick small steps and vital keywords.  Focus on a single geography before hitting wider reaching areas.  As you achieve success you can evolve from there.  Once certain keywords or areas point to your site, put new keywords in place.

There are a lot of Search Engine Optimizing strategies online (several have been covered here).  However, none of them will immediately propel a site to the top of search engines for every desired keyword.  Start slow and use your experiences and victories to achieve more.  It takes some thinking and work but if you stay consistent and keep the stamina up you’ll find that one day you’ll have built your site up to rank among all your desired keywords.

Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

How Should a Struggling Economy Affect Marketing?

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With the economy struggling many companies are looking to trim expenses.  One common target is the marketing budget.  While that certainly might be a reasonable plan, some people undertake it in a panic mode rather than examining it’s effect on the business.  For example, a common method is to simply have a set monthly budget and cut it by some percentage.  Wouldn’t it make more sense to analyse what is resulting in new business and remove the ineffective marketing efforts?  Before cutting marketing dollars to weather the economic climate, make sure you aren’t cutting a valuable vehicle for revenue.

I was recently speaking with a business owner that claimed she had lost a couple sizable clients,  could easily envision losing more in the down market, and was cutting marketing efforts to weather the storm.  I was confused because what I was hearing was that she was losing existing revenue and not putting any plans in place to replace it.  That sounds like a recipe to go out of business. 

No one is actively looking to go under, so be careful in what gets cut.  It is certainly not the time for frivolous spending but haphazard budget cutting can be equally disastrous.  A struggling economy should affect marketing.  It should make it more streamlined.  Analyze what you are currently doing from a marketing standpoint.  What activities are being done just because that’s what has always been done?  What marketing activities are generating leads and sales to keep the bottom line viable through this challenging time?  Remove the dead weight but be sure to nurture the effective strategies.

The worst thing that can be done to marketing is ending it without knowing why.  Many people will make that mistake over the coming months.  Those individuals that take the time to analyze their results will find themselves in an admirable position.  Not only will their marketing dollars be better spent than before, they will likely have less competition as other companies haphazardly cut marketing efforts to decrease costs.

Internet Marketing

Tabless Design is an Excuse to Raise Rates

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Of course there are many web professionals that will honestly and fairly detail the pros and cons of how they build a site.  Furthermore, they will reflect the amount of work in their fees.  However, there is a significant subset of designers and developers that use tabless/W3C compliancy jargon to make their proposal sound ultra official, hopefully enhance their “professional appearnence”,  and raise their price. 

It seems that tableless is becoming the only unique identifier for these groups.  Typically it’s wrapped up in a lot of technical speak that puts down any other way of building a site.  I tend to look at it as a bogus value proposition.  Rather than talking about turn around time, value add services, prices, or long term benefits to having a business relationship, they laud tableless design as the end all in site creation.  If a designer or developer harps on tableless or W3C compliance and doesn’t cover many other issues beware.  There’s a good chance they are trying to make themselves appear as one of a limited group of people offering this service.

The good news is that many designers and firms are beginning to use tableless and W3C compliant code.  Using it a unique identifier will likely disappear over the next few years.

Internet Marketing, Web Maintenance

Tableless Design and Code Compliancy Won’t Help Site Conversions

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Most companies and organizations wouldn’t be content with just having a site.  Many people settle for that, but it isn’t their ideal situation.  Most people want to generate revenue or some kind of action item from their site.  Tableless design does nothing to promote that.  It’s an exercise in clean code and to some extent, accessibility.  That by itself won’t create any conversions on a website.

My rule of thumb is to make tableless or W3C compliant code on the “nice to have” list.  Priority should be placed on meeting business or organizational goals.  Put resources in place to ensure people can locate your site and have clear direction to convert to your desired next step.  If resources are left, then it’s time to explore ideal ways to build the site.  Make sure the end goal is met before moving on to secondary preferences.

Internet Marketing, Site Conversion, Web Maintenance

Tableless Design Can be a Problem Across Browsers

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I think the biggest problem I currently have with tableless design is that it that it can be a problem displaying on different browsers.  Table design has already gone through these growing pains.  I rarely find an issue anymore with a browser or operating system displaying a tabled design inaccurately.  The browser code has been refined over a decade and a half to make rendering HTML pretty consistent.  Tableless design is way behind the curve here.  Browsers rarely render sites exactly the same and tableless design is subject to all the compatibility problems sites used to encounter 10 years ago.

It is common to see rendering mistakes on tableless sites, even ones built by large specialized design firms.  In many cases, it doesn’t bother me. If a picture bumps to the left a few extra pixels, who cares?  The problem is that it can often render so poorly that text gets cut off or overlapped.  That’s a major problem.  That is a problem that can negatively effect the user experience and site conversion. 

Having said all that, designers and developers are getting more savvy at tackling these problems.  The trouble is that it usually requires (what my last post warned of) a stock layout with little variation from other sites or additional coding to render more accurately across platforms and browsers.  Those might not be deal breakers but something to consider.  Extra cose is also a common explanation for increased setup fees.  Usually the problem is that no one can foresee all of these issues.  Even the best designers and developers that test for rendering problems are likely to miss some.  The good news is that the testing can minimize risk of a bad user experience.   The bad news is that some visitors will likely encounter a problem.  I’m not sold that WCC compliance with separate CSS layouts is worth that.  There are few things that compare to a good user experience and site conversion. For me, tableless design is not one of them and often looks like an unnecessary risk.

Internet Marketing, Site Conversion, Web Maintenance
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