Today is an interesting day for me. Over the last months I've been actively learning how to use all the major social media tools that have become popular...Twitter, Facebook, HubPages (goodness I could make a really long list here).
I realized that I had gotten used to all of my OWN social media tools and how they feed each other feeling like a fuzzy maze in my mind. That all stopped after I committed to spending some quick time each morning evaluating where I am at with each of my social media outlets (Twitter, Blogger, Facebook etc...).
Maybe you can relate to that fuzzy feeling? If you'd like to do something about it, I have a few tips for you that might help make everything a bit clearer and a bit easier to manage (for your customers too!).
1) Create a login sheet for all your social media outlets.
List each site name in bold and beneath it, the URL of your direct address (if you have one, such as on Twitter), and your username and password. If you've signed up for more than a few networking sites, this list will come in handy in a pinch!
For sites like Twitter, if you're not sure what you're address is, it's typically Twitter's URL followed by your username. For instance my Twitter address is: http://www.twitter.com/kgarren
2) Create a "Social Media Map."
Using a blank sheet of paper, draw your Social Media Map using circles to represent each social networking site and a square for your blog(s). Connect the sites together if a particular site feeds your iformation to another.
For instance, my Social Media Map starts with my blog. I currently have circles representing my accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Squidoo and others. Because my blog is fed to Twitter (via TwitterFeed) and Squidoo, I draw a line with an arrow from my blog to the Twitter and Squidoo circles. This tells me that information flows from my blog to Twitter and one of my Squidoo lenses.
With each new network you join, add it to your map. Spend 5 minutes a day reviewing your "map" and revise as necessary to stay current and in focus.
3) Show Your Customers How To Find You.
You'll also want your customers to know where you are online. To help them see your social media networking tools of choice, create a "Connect With Me" page on your website. For each of the sites your use that provide direct access to your profile or content (such as Twitter or Facebook) list these sites along with your unique URL.
Not only will customers who enjoy spending time on the Internet probably like to connect with you this way, the search engines will pick up and index your links as well.
p.s. don't forget to check your site statistics each month to verify what site is sending you the most traffic. Once you know, you are in a position to maximize the traffic and potential targeted customers you can receive increasing your efforts at networking and building relationships using that site or sites.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
How To Build Income With Your Website - Even In Tough Times
I recently took a trip to Fry's Electronics which is like Disneyland for computer and techno geeks. My eyes always glaze over upon arrival at the nearly 30,000 square foot store that's packed from top to bottom with technology and tools I LOVE to have for my business and my websites. In past times I would wander through the aisles collecting goodies that I would take home and "try-out." Sometimes they were expensive, sometimes affordable, but more often than not they were things that I wanted to have but not necessarily things I needed to have.
Although instinctively I know the difference between want and need, but never had it been clearer to me than when the economy began to shift and people began to get nervous about keeping jobs, finding income (forget about building a savings account!) and spending money. I found myself faced with some tough decisions about where to focus my attention dollar-wise. What I once spent money on, I now had to figure out how to find alternatives for little cost or *free*.
Last week I received an email from a client that had me downright frustrated. My client is a wonderfully intelligent and hard working gal who has been diligently building her business. With the economic setbacks in the US she is struggling as her client base is shriveling up. As I read her email I was near tears. All of her hard work and dedication would be lost if she were to virtually close her doors due to the economy and the drop-offs in sales. Times are so tough that she cannot even afford to continue with her current paid marketing efforts.
Does this sound like you? Many of you are also entrepreneurs who might be facing similar worries about your business. You might also be considering cutting back on things like advertising or little freebies for your customers in order to make ends meet. Worse yet, you might be closing up shop altogether.
During this tough time I've begun to go back to basics with my client's websites. Specifically, I've gone back to recommending that sites be optimized organically for the search engines. What is Organic Search Engine Optimization you might ask? SEO is an "on-site" marketing technique that was extremely popular before anyone had even heard of social media.
Back in the "early days" of the Internet (before blogs, podcasting and social media) webby gurus focused a majority of their marketing effort time on search engine optimization. We worked on building a list of keywords for your site which relayed information to the Search Engines on all the special products and services you provide. The search engines then use these keywords to determine how to feature a site in the results list when a user performed a search. Your overall placement was determined using an algorithm that takes into account the keyword search the user completes and your keywords and content. Specifically, you could influence where in the list your site showed up based on where you placed your keywords (meta-tags) and also where you used them in your content. The best part is that unlike Pay-Per-Click you don't pay to have your site featured in their results list.
With the invention of social media however I've seen a sharp drop off in SEO - a lot of marketing efforts have been shifted towards "off-site" marketing techniques (blogging, podcasting, social media) to build incoming traffic to websites.
Ideally, you would combine both methods to have a complete marketing system in place. If you're not already doing so, I want to encourage you to consider Organic Search Engine Optimization as an option for getting your website seen in these tough times.
Just in case you need a bit of encouragement, here's some reasons organic search engine optimization is well worth the effort:
Although instinctively I know the difference between want and need, but never had it been clearer to me than when the economy began to shift and people began to get nervous about keeping jobs, finding income (forget about building a savings account!) and spending money. I found myself faced with some tough decisions about where to focus my attention dollar-wise. What I once spent money on, I now had to figure out how to find alternatives for little cost or *free*.
Last week I received an email from a client that had me downright frustrated. My client is a wonderfully intelligent and hard working gal who has been diligently building her business. With the economic setbacks in the US she is struggling as her client base is shriveling up. As I read her email I was near tears. All of her hard work and dedication would be lost if she were to virtually close her doors due to the economy and the drop-offs in sales. Times are so tough that she cannot even afford to continue with her current paid marketing efforts.
Does this sound like you? Many of you are also entrepreneurs who might be facing similar worries about your business. You might also be considering cutting back on things like advertising or little freebies for your customers in order to make ends meet. Worse yet, you might be closing up shop altogether.
During this tough time I've begun to go back to basics with my client's websites. Specifically, I've gone back to recommending that sites be optimized organically for the search engines. What is Organic Search Engine Optimization you might ask? SEO is an "on-site" marketing technique that was extremely popular before anyone had even heard of social media.
Back in the "early days" of the Internet (before blogs, podcasting and social media) webby gurus focused a majority of their marketing effort time on search engine optimization. We worked on building a list of keywords for your site which relayed information to the Search Engines on all the special products and services you provide. The search engines then use these keywords to determine how to feature a site in the results list when a user performed a search. Your overall placement was determined using an algorithm that takes into account the keyword search the user completes and your keywords and content. Specifically, you could influence where in the list your site showed up based on where you placed your keywords (meta-tags) and also where you used them in your content. The best part is that unlike Pay-Per-Click you don't pay to have your site featured in their results list.
With the invention of social media however I've seen a sharp drop off in SEO - a lot of marketing efforts have been shifted towards "off-site" marketing techniques (blogging, podcasting, social media) to build incoming traffic to websites.
Ideally, you would combine both methods to have a complete marketing system in place. If you're not already doing so, I want to encourage you to consider Organic Search Engine Optimization as an option for getting your website seen in these tough times.
Just in case you need a bit of encouragement, here's some reasons organic search engine optimization is well worth the effort:
- You don't pay a per-click "fee" to the search engines for visitors to your site which means it can potentially have a higher ROI than pay-per-click search listings.
- When done properly it has an advantage over Pay-Per-Click since PPC allows anyone to increase their bid for a search term you use thereby passing you in the results listing.
- Software makes it easier than ever to track your results and to influence your search engine position.
If you'd like information on how to get started with SEO one of my favorite companies, Wordtracker, has launched a step-by-step instruction toolset (complete with videos, reports and guides) to help you learn Organic Search Engine Optimization - and best of all it's FREE. Checkout Wordtracker's Top 10 Free SEO & Keyword Tools And Reports From Wordtracker for further information.
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