online visibility
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How to attract business with your website and social mediaTRANSCRIPT
Online Visibility How to a'ract business with your website and social media
What We’ll Cover Today:
How to increase the effectiveness of your website
How to build brand engagement with Social Media
How to set goals and measure results
How to increase the effectiveness of your website
Know your goals.
Sample goals: Universal goal:
“I want a site that looks professional, loads fast, and tells our story.”
Show up in search engines so more people visit my website and more prospects call me
More interaction with customers (project tracking, etc.) Sell more products online Provide resources for employees Shows off our portfolio and helps me close more sales
Spy on your competitors Look at other sites in your industry – What do they
include that could help you achieve your goals?
Think about your brand What is your value statement? Why should potential customers buy from
you? What makes your company different? S.W.O.T. Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, Threats Your site has to convey your brand in all
areas: look, content, tools, etc.
Conveys your brand in colors and style (Modern? Friendly? High tech? Personal?)
Clean and simple
Keep navigation consistent
Make contact information obvious, on every page
Use good design
Use Good Quality Photography
istockphoto.com
Hire a professional
If you are taking the photos yourself: Good lighting Consistent backgrounds for products Watch the shadows – be thoughtful
Plan your home page
Logo, contact info, a brief intro to your company, navigation bar
Identify a few top places in your site you want visitors to see
What else needs to be on your home page? News? A log in screen? Twitter feed?
Make it easy to navigate
Choose your main level navigation carefully
Use consistent sub-navigation
Develop your site map by organizing other pages under these main areas
Home About Us
• History • Staff
Services • Web Design
• Portfolio
This determines page count (and usually cost)
Make a list of any applications you want and add them to your site map
Photo gallery Calendar Password protected log in Facebook or twitter feed Videos Blog
Provide good content.
First name your site audiences Businesses? Consumers? Customers? Employees?
Investors? Potential Employees? What Industries?
What are they looking for? What content do you need to serve them? Write
down the top messages for each audience.
Next, if Search Engine Optimization is important –
choose your top ten: Choose ten top key phrases Be REALISTIC – not just “engineer” but rather
“huntsville engineer”
List variations of these too such as engineer in huntsville, huntsville engineering company, engineering company huntsville
Write your content Use your top ten SEO key phrase list and
make sure you use these statements on almost every page within your content, several times if possible, but don’t overdo it
Keep it simple - short text sections broken up by sub headers - bullet lists are great
Make sure all of your key messages are told
Big part of this is navigation structure Watch file sizes No splash screens Add applications that encourage
interaction Direct visitors to top content or contact info
Make sure your site is functional and usable
Make sure it is well-programmed and reliably hosted
Use a CMS = Easy to maintain
Content Management Systems
Opensource CMS systems (Joomla, Wordpress, Drupal) – you will need a programmer
Hosted CMS systems – you can build your own
Build Your Own Website
Industry specific websites
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Put search words and phrases in your content
Make a list of 10-20 search phrases
Use these (and variations) throughout site, combine with location
Put in page headers and image ALT tags (don’t go overboard)
Other things you can do: Get as many reputable sites as
possible to link to your site Association listings Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Use bullet lists <ul><li> Use <H1> title tags
Ways to push traffic to your site
Social media Permission-based email newsletters Press releases Advertising Business cards
Run an AdWords Campaign (pay-per-click)
Run an AdWords Campaign (pay-per-click)
You can set your own budget You can determine how long and how often
you run your campaign Ability to target specific customers through
location and keywords Often has a positive impact on organic
Google search results
Pay per Click (AdWords) Trackable results, ability to modify the
campaign at any time – integrates with Google Analytics
Needs to be actively monitored by tracking results and adjusting campaign
Create landing pages to increase conversion rates and (sometimes) lower cost of campaign
Blogging is great for SEO Short articles – very personal,
conversational – your thoughts on your business, your industry, your life
Cross link with all other social media and feed into your website
According to emarketer, 53.5% of internet users read blogs
Link/integrate with your social media sites
Integrate Facebook into your site
Integrate Facebook into your site
Integrate your site into Facebook
Embed Flickr galleries on your site
Brand your Twi>er Page
Brand your YouTube Channel
Cross Link Everything!!
Facebook feed and/or “like” button integrations on your website
Facebook posts links about news on the website
Youtube channel has a video that promotes the company – and website
Flickr feeds photo galleries on site
Case Study: Red Sage Christmas Giveaway 2010
Facebook Advertising
Make sure your site works on various devices
Mobile Friendly Templates
Keep your site updated!!!!
With social media and so many opDons now,
do you sDll need a website?
How to build brand engagement with social media
Know your goals. (sound familiar?)
Increase traffic to a store Create brand awareness Promote a cause or campaign Provide customer service Generate business leads Encourage customer engagement
Sample goals:
Age Gender Geography Interests/Hobbies Industry Business people General public
Know who you are trying to reach
Go where your targets are
Largest social media networking site right now
Primarily business to consumer 86% - 25 years and up 68% - 35 years and up 46% - 45 years and up
Facebook for Business Best Practices
• Post 4 – 7 times per week • Know your goals
• Advertise specials • Share new products • Build a friendly, personal brand feel • Share news
• Convey your brand
Good post examples:
More than words:
Growing social media networking site Primarily business to consumer 81% - 25 years and up 58% - 35 years and up 33% - 45 years and up
Twitter for Business Best Practices
Post several times per day Know your goals
• Connect with others with similar interests • Follow topics and contribute thoughts • Share education, quotable quotes • Share news, blog postings, etc. • Keep top of mind awareness • Grow your network with others
Great for referring links Primarily business to consumer Mostly females with interests in fashion,
cooking, and DIY 90% - 25 years and up 64% - 35 years and up 35% - 45 years and up
Pinterest for Business Best Practices
Consider this if trying to reach women Know your goals
• Showcase products • Showcase ideas • Showcase projects
Newer social media networking site Primarily business to consumer Much younger, male audience A lot of techies 50% - 25 years and up 22% - 35 years and up 11% - 45 years and up
Google Plus
Google+ for Business Best Practices
• Post 4 – 7 times per week, like Facebook • Know your goals
• Advertise specials • Share new products • Build a friendly, personal brand feel • Share news
• Convey your brand
Great networking tool Primarily business to business 64% users use it for business growth 96% - 25 years and up 81% - 35 years and up 49% - 45 years and up
LinkedIn for Business Best Practices
Use daily or several times per week Know your goals
• Recruit employees • Target prospects and find common contacts • Portray and active, professional personal
image • Request testimonials
Create your own community through a blog
Growing your Audience
Follow industry leaders on social media and on their blogs
Promote those already championing for you
Be an active follower by retweeting, sharing, and commenting
Actively participate in LinkedIn Groups Continuously find and add LinkedIn
connections
Follow to be followed:
Use press release distribution services like PRWeb.com or PR.com
Share your own web and blog content through your social media networks
Encourage people to connect with you by adding icons to your website and online/print communications
Be your own distributer:
Be sure you know (and follow Facebook rules)
Host a contest using a 3rd party app (North Social, Wildfire are good options)
Offer a social media follower only promotion
Conduct a promotion on Facebook to gain fans
Google AdWords
Bing/Yahoo! paid ads
Facebook ads
Facebook sponsored posts
Other online advertising
Pay for exposure:
Give it time!
It can take up to a year of diligent work to see the results of a good social media campaign
Monitoring your Brand Online
Know what is being said Whether you use social media or not,
people may still be talking about you on it
What is being said may change your business model
Monitor all social media platforms for comments about you or your company and respond quickly if the site will allow you to do so
Do not get into a “he said she said” argument if the post was negative – respond professionally and move it offline
Respond quickly to any negative posts
Don’t say that!:
A textbook best practice response:
If at all possible, respond to negative posts rather than delete them
Turn a negative into a positive by offering stellar customer service to right the wrong (where possible)
Make changes in response to common complaints
Find the silver lining:
Got a good comment – don’t forget to respond to these too!
Good to great:
Offered by Constant Contact Monitors:
• Facebook • Twitter • LinkedIn • Foursquare
Reports are emailed to you
NutshellMail.com
Search for variations
Find people singing your praises and follow them
Search for your competitors
Search for industry terms
Twitter.com/Search
Set up alerts for your company name, products, and other identifying keywords
Set up alerts associated with your competitors
Set up alerts for terms associated with your industry
www.Google.com/Alerts
If you have Google Analytics or another visitor tracking service, watch for articles, forums, and blogs linking to your site
Google Analytics – Referral Sites
Tips, tricks, & timesavers:
How to make it easier to manage all of this work
Choosing How to Participate
What do you have time to be consistent with? (Don’t start a blog if you aren’t committed to keeping it going)
Where is your audience?
Decide what topics you’ll cover
Use an editorial calendar to keep things organized
Be prepared to change, add, or completely deviate from the plan to respond to current events
Take your cue from the magazines:
Encourage ideas from employees or members of your organization
Give others a chance to create blogs, posts, videos, photos, and more
Share the floor with other industry experts and guests
Share the load:
Find your muse through sites like: • LinkedIn Answers
• Yahoo! Answers
• Twitter Searches
• Industry blogs and news sites
• Competitor sites
Find the buzz:
ReTweet Share Repin Link
Borrow from others:
Devote a realistic amount of time for social media each week – half hour a day? One hour a week?
Make it a priority and be committed to it Scale back and focus on one thing if time
is an issue Don’t forget to take the time to plan in
advance
Carve out time:
Great free (to cheap) tools for this: • Facebook – allows scheduling now
• CrowdBooster.com – Facebook Page & Twitter
• HootSuite.com – Facebook and Twitter
• TweetDeck – Facebook, Twitter
Schedule ahead:
Track changes in web visitor statistics (Google Analytics is great for this)
Track which posts, tweets, etc. get the most shares and comments
Track which blog posts and authors get the most readers, shares, and comments
Check your goals and modify your actions as needed
Review and adapt:
How to set goals and measure results
Increase # of visitors each month at least by 5%
Maintain 55% of traffic coming from search engines
First page rank for “Huntsville Web Design”
10% of site visitors convert into leads each month
Sample Website Goals:
Increase the number of people who actively engage with a like or a share or a mention by 5 each month
Get three-four responses on average for all posts within one month
Gain 10 new followers/fans each month
Sample Social Media Goals:
Answers questions such as: How much traffic is coming to the site? How did visitors get to the site? What keywords are working best? What content is working best? How did social users engage with the site?
Measuring Website Results with Google Analytics:
Google Analytics - Referrers:
Google Analytics - Keywords:
Google Analytics - Social:
Facebook Insights Answers questions such as:
• How did people respond to my posts?
• How far is my reach?
• How much has my following grown?
• Which types of posts are the most shared and commented on?
Measure your personal online influence with Klout.com
• Measures engagement with your personal social media accounts
• Measures reach by the number of people who share your posts and how many followers they expose you to
• Requires very consistent effort and very high quality posts to score high
• Great way to look at who is most influential online and how they are using social media
Thank you! Ellen Didier
[email protected] 256-560-0098
twitter.com/ellendidier facebook.com/redsage linkedin.com/in/ellendidier