Tag: internet marketing

Choosing a Domain Name

There are still good domain names to be had if you are looking either to start a new business or to claim a better domain name for your existing business.

First let’s examine why it is important to choose a good domain name.  Say you were a church called Mt. Zion Christian Church. You decide to go with mtzionchristian.org. Seems pretty straight forward at first. But then once you start telling people you realize they’re going to mountzionchristian.org. Oops. So it is important to get a domain name that is descriptive of where you are or what your business does.

We had a client whose last name was one of those difficult to pronounce east European names. Though that was the name of their company, we went with a much more generic denvertreeservices.com for their domain. This served them well when they later changed the company name. And “Denver” “tree” “services” rolls off the tongue much more easily. It is more memorable as well.

Sometimes it is OK to have a long domain name if it is descriptive. Imagine if you worked at the Colorado Historical Society and decided to go with coloradohissoc.org to make the domain shorter. How would you say that domain? “Colorado” “his” “sock”? You’d spend all your time trying to spell it out and folks would undoubtedly still get it wrong. But if you went with coloradohistoricalsociety.org it is easy to say and easy to remember.

Not long ago I strongly advised a client to not use hyphens in their domain name. So instead of two, they used one hyphen and thought that was a pretty brilliant idea. Then just the other day while we were meeting with them, they realized how the domain doesn’t roll off the tongue when they have to insert a dash. Just listen in your head: “mybusiness” “dash” “mysecondbusinessname”.  Or, to reuse the example above – “Colorado” “dash” “historical” “dash” “society” “dotorg” doesn’t roll off your tongue very easily.

So here’s what we recommend for choosing a domain name:

1.       Do NOT use dashes or hyphens

2.       Do NOT abbreviate

3.       Do NOT use a name if it is easily misspelt

4.       Do use longer names if necessary and if memorable

5.       Do use something descriptive if the company name is not a good choice

6.       Do consider whether to buy other top level domain names such as .biz, .net and .org to protect your brand.

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Online Cliques

Online Cliques

Sometimes you have to forget what you learned (or were told) in high school. Back then cliques may not have been good for you – contributing to peer pressure and leaving some of the “un-cliqued” feeling left out.

But in the online world, getting into a clique can propel you forward. There are several different ways to create or insert yourself into a clique.

There are three roles that people fill in online cliques. Each of them can help you:

  1. Leader. If you are the leader of your online clique, you get to be the expert. A good way to be an online clique leader is to create a Twitter following where others can’t wait to hear what you’ll say next. This could be appropriate for a restaurant (especially a mobile one), a thought leader (innovator in your field), or a producer of original content.
  2. Connector. If you are an online clique connector, you help others find the right online clique for their needs. This means that you’re out there in the online world and know what is the right spot to suggest for someone. This might be in Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups or even connecting people to each other on LinkedIn.
  3. Participant. If you are an online clique participant, you get to meet, interact with, and “rub shoulders” with others. To be a successful participant, you have to pay attention. Identify who you should be following on Twitter and then do more than just follow – interact with them and retweet them. On Facebook, choose the groups or pages you join carefully, pay attention to the conversation(s) and contribute as appropriate. The same applies for LinkedIn as well.

In high school you usually only had one clique – perhaps two – that you could be a member of. In the online realm, you can participate in several. In fact, you are only limited by the amount of time you have to put into it.

Having said that, I don’t recommend joining every group. You’ll spread yourself too thin. Remember the power of focus. Concentrate on a select few groups or perhaps just one and get engaged. How should you choose the group? Consider industry group(s) or geographic-based groups that are in your niche.

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Building a Successful Internet Marketing Campaign

Last week I gave a seminar on how to build an Internet marketing campaign. I received feedback from one company that was represented that the content was “light” – not enough meat. Later on I visited that company to help them with their Internet marketing campaign.

Here is what I learned:

  • The seminar covered a lot of high level things like setting goals, creating a strategy to attain the goal, deciding on tactics to implement the strategy, implementation and measurement.
  • People like activity which for the content of the seminar translates to implementation.
  • Skipping goals, strategies and tactics may seem like a good idea because then you are “busy” doing stuff.
  • “Doing stuff” without having a goal, strategy or tactics usually leads to nothing being measured which then means no value being generated or no understanding of the value being generated.
  • The high level stuff might not be very “sexy” in the realm of Internet marketing but it is absolutely indispensable.
  • Helping people be ready to think about the high level marketing plan is not a good task to tackle in a 90 minute seminar.

Here’s what I hope I can help you understand from our experience:

1.       Don’t skip the important stuff.

2.       Spend time to determine where you are going and what you intend to accomplish BEFORE you start.

3.       Determine how you will measure success.

4.       Pay close attention to your metrics.

5.       And, because it’s so important, let me restate it: Develop a plan. Create a Strategy. Devise Tactics. THEN you’ll be ready to implement.

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5 Things to Measure in Social Media Marketing

Most businesses engaging in Social Media Marketing measure things like “Likes” or “Followers”. That’s not bad but Internet Marketing is more than a popularity contest. For a small business

  1. Number of Interactions on Facebook – shows they’re engaged.
    Developing a successful Facebook page where your fans or “likers” not only like a particular item but make comments. Developing a following that interacts with you on social media emboldens them to interact with you as customer.
  2. Number of click-thru’s – from Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn back to your site.
    This is easy to track. It’s also, if something you’re measuring, easier to create ways for people to do so.
  3. Increase in number of people who attend an event or call you after/during a campaign.
    Depending on your business and the appropriate call to action, you might “see” the results as click thru’s but if you hold an event that was properly publicized on social media and see an increase in attendance or participation, you can begin to make the connection.
  4. Number of hits on a landing page on your site from a campaign.
    While similar to number of click-thru’s, creating a special landing page is one way to very clearly check how much traffic you get from your campaign. It is also smart because you can have a page specifically created for that campaign, making it highly targeted.
  5. Increase in customers as a direct result of a campaign
    Ultimately, your social media marketing needs to get you more customers. For each business the method of acquisition is different but you need to measure this or you might as well not even do social media in the first place.

It isn’t a popularity contest, it’s business. It’s important to measure things that impact your bottom line. Need more help figuring out what to measure? Check out our March 15 seminar, How to Build an Internet Marketing Plan.

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Lessons from Conan O’Brien

I’ve never been a fan of Conan O’Brien’s style of humor. But I am now a fan of Conan. CNN Money did a story on how Conan O’Brien turned a “failure” into a new lease on life. I highly recommend this article to anyone interested in how to use social media and in understanding how YOU or YOUR COMPANY is a brand to be nurtured and marketed in new ways.

I learned or re-learned four lessons from reading this article that pertain very specifically to social media marketing:

  1. The old media mindset doesn’t work with digital media – a given time slot (11:35 PM) is old media. Realizing that fans will interact with you whether they watch (and tweet) on TV or watch clips on Facebook or from Twitter is the digital media mindset.
  2. For the kind of content Conan provides, real life fans are eager to become Twitter followers or Facebook fans (or likers).
  3. A strong brand can sell on social media very well – Conan’s 30 city tour sold out. Their method of advertising? Sending out Tweets. Cost = $0.
  4. Failure is an option. Sometimes it is the best option. By “failing” on the Tonight Show, he was in a situation where he and his team could think differently. So they did. And now instead of the old media bosses being in charge, like at NBC, Conan and Team Coco are in charge and blazing the trail that other artists will be sure to try to follow.

I would encourage you to think about what has driven your dream or ideal forward. Does it still make sense in the year 2011? What could you try differently? Want some help thinking this through? Give me (Brian) a call at 303 268-2245 x. 4 and we’ll help you learn what you could do differently.

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Cultivating Customer Relationships Online

One of the most difficult things for most of us to wrap our minds around is that the cyber world of Social Media Marketing works very much the same as the physical world of marketing. Relationships rule. Cultivating relationships online is not really all that different than cultivating relationships in the physical world.

We like to be remembered. We like to hear our name mentioned. We like the personal touch.

But because, in the cyber world, things CAN be automated, many people do so. I have left my Twitter direct message notification on (I get an email when someone direct messages me). Many of the people that I follow have an auto-responder on. Some of these can even capture my real name and send me a response. But the response is general and impersonal enough that I’m turned off by most.

What would be a good response? “Hey Brian, read your latest blog post. Interesting read.” That tells me you’re taking time on our relationship. I confess that I don’t do this often enough but it is taking time for REAL genuine interaction that engages people, lets them know you care, and leads to building a relationship that can turn into business.
How can you cultivate relationships online?

On Facebook:

  • Interact with fans / likers (FB has new ways they are rolling out where, they say, the Fan Page will be able to interact with users just like users can – making comments and liking other’s posts)
  • Accept friend requests and then browse through their friends to see if you have common acquaintances that you might not have connected with yet

On Twitter:

  • Take enough time to respond to followers – this is obviously important for potential customers – in a meaningful way. “Nice Tweet” isn’t particularly meaningful.
  • Follow those who follow you. I actually take time to click through to my followers profile to see who they are and what they tweet about. This would be a good time to retweet something good they’ve said, reply to a tweet or direct message them with a genuine message.

On LinkedIn:

  • If you have a good experience with someone, right a recommendation – everyone likes to have their praises sung to others.
  • Find a good group to join in – one where you can ask questions and learn and then contribute.
  • If there isn’t a group (look around first, there probably is) create your own group and invite connections to join you.

On Social Media:

  • Keep in mind that Social Media is two way communication
  • Keep in mind that folks might be hesitant to interact with your brand at first. Find creative ways to get them to start – ask your physical network to help get this started by making a comment or responding to a quiz.
  • Provide value. That means providing real content that you have created – not sharing someone else’s or simply copying other’s content (this is usually illegal as well).
  • Search out people you want to connect with – movers and shakers or even potential clients – and, once again, interact with them genuinely. Be honest about why you want to connect (I’ve been following your work / blog / Facebook page, etc and would like to connect directly).
  • Provide original content – I know I just said this but a lot of folks get hung up on this point. “I don’t have time.” “There’s nothing new in my industry” etc. I disagree. There is something unique about you as a company or individual that provides your unique selling proposition. Turn that into original content.

And I would be less than authentic if I didn’t tell you that EduCyber provides these kinds of services, whether it is helping you create a plan (Social Media Marketing Plan), setting up your accounts (Basic SMM setup), or actually implementing your Social Media Marketing plan, we can help. Give us a call at (303) 268-2245 ext. 4.
 

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Does Social Media Drive You?

I came across an article on Mashable from back in November talking about how B2B social media is on the rise.

They make some interesting points that I consistently make with clients and in presentations. Basically the point is “Create a Plan” followed by “Do some exploring to find out what works for your business”.

While there are some interesting statistics and good analysis I must disagree with the quote that says “Why not use free social media tools?” There is no such thing as a free lunch and there sure isn’t any such thing as a free tool. There is a real cost to these social media tools. That cost can be measured in time and should also be measured in $$.

It really takes a professional to make sure your Social is done right. That doesn’t mean that companies shouldn’t be engaged in their own Social Media Marketing either. I don’t change the oil on my car but I do drive it. I don’t rotate the tires on my car but I know how to change a flat when it happens. I even took Auto Shop in high school. I know enough to know I should let the experts handle my car.

In the same way, companies should rely on their Social Media Marketing company to get them set up (I don’t build cars), start the processes going (I don’t work on my car) and then show you how to “drive” (I took Driver’s Ed back in the day): what to look for, where to turn, and what to do when something doesn’t go as planned.

Setting up Social Media is easy. Just like putting a new engine in your car is easy – as long as you know where the connections go and can connect them together in just the right way. Do it wrong on your car and it won’t start or won’t run right. Do it wrong on your Social Media and you might not get any followers or actually drive people away instead of attracting them. Groupon experienced a very red face after their super bowl commercial. They were trying to attract people and instead, because they belittled the struggles of the Tibetan people, drove people away. View the ad at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXGYK1eP_wo

Of course there are different levels of Social Media Marketing as well, just like some folks drive Hyundai, some drive Fords, some drive Mercedes and others are driven around in Rolls Royces. If your company is in high gear, you might need somebody to “drive you around” in your Social Media Marketing – and there are businesses that can help you out with social media from A to Z.

And now it’s time for a little plug. EduCyber can help you whether you need help developing the plan, implementing the plan, or running the whole thing. Give us a call at 303 268-2245 to get started today.

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Cheating on the Internet

No I’m not talking about high school or college students copying papers from the Internet. I am talking about unethical and unscrupulous individuals and businesses that are cheating to get ahead. Some of this cheating is pointless but some of it is very pointed.

I started thinking about cheating when someone who has never walked through the doors of office became the “Mayor” of EduCyber on Foursquare. This is annoying but only to me. Who else would care? Yet I can’t figure out what gratification this person is getting from “checking in” at our office without every coming in.

But the more insidious cheating is that in which businesses are lying and cheating to get more traffic coming to their web site. At the end of December Adrianne Jeffries explained how unethical businesses are getting ranked at the top of Google Maps. Since local search is so incredibly important for most businesses – you wouldn’t want to find a plumber in NYC if you live in Seattle – the pressure is on to get the top listing in Google Local, Google Maps or Google Places. Because if you do, you could make a lot of money. Just like you can make a lot of money in a Ponzi scheme. It works – at least for a while – but it is illegal and you have to lie to make it work.

In essence a company can use a real phone number (or multiple numbers), create a fake address and get listed. Why does that help them? Let’s take a fictitious example for the Denver metro area. If Acme Plumbing, based in Lakewood, wants to get more business in Denver, Golden and Littleton, and perhaps they’re already at the top of the list for people in Lakewood, they create a fake address in each of the other municipalities and get the top listing. If I live in Denver and need a plumber, I’m not going to drive to their shop. I’ll do my Google search and call the top listing. I don’t care where they’re based as long as they can make my leak go away.

Last week I attended a meeting of search professionals and the presenter, from Findability Group, blatantly encouraged those in attendance to break the Terms of Service for Facebook if it helps clients get more business. I was shocked. She justified this by painting Facebook as a giant evil draconian HOA. While I disagree with the terms that Facebook has, it is their right as a private company to set the terms the way they want. It is unethical for Findability Group, or any company, to knowingly and intentionally break those terms to get an unfair advantage for their client.

Want to work with an ethical company that can help you get the traffic and exposure you want? Call us at 303 268-2245. We’ll help you grow AND you’ll be able to sleep at night.

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Web Design Key: Clarity

Clarity

It’s something we all seem to appreciate.

At least we appreciate it until we get to the front page of our web site. Then there are so many things we want to share with our visitors, tell to the world and shout from the mountain tops.

So we cram it all in.

A local realtor’s web site screams out with no fewer than 14 calls to action. It is so crammed with ideas that I have no idea where to click. I’d share the site with you but he’s a decent guy AND he sold me my first house when I moved to town.

Anyway, this site has everything. Everything but clarity. A few years ago we designed a real estate site for a large brokerage that faded away with the recession. We went for clarity – the assumption on the front page was that there were two kinds of folks that came to the site: buyers and sellers. So we set it up so that there were essentially two choices – a link for sellers and a link for buyers.

As we delved into the site further we made a critical assumption: the deeper I go into a site, the more willing I am to have to make more than one A or B choice. So at the next level we offered more choices but those choices were specific to whether you were a buyer or seller. So for the homeowner who was looking to downsize or upsize, depending on their needs, was offered the choice of finding out what their home was worth, learning about how that agency could help them, viewing testimonials from happy customers and more. Buyers on the other hand were offered a way to search for home geographically, a request form, calculators, and other resources specific to being a home buyer.

Is there clarity in your site? Can a visitor look at your site and pick out what you want them to do in a second or two? If not, you need to try again.

Throw away superfluous stuff. I recommend starting with a blank page and putting the one or two call(s) to action on the page. Then add other supporting elements IF necessary. If they aren’t necessary, don’t put them on your site at all.

We actually have four on our home page. Can you tell what they are? There is one for each of our four main services.

If you want help with clarity for your site, give EduCyber a call at 303 268-2245.
 

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Change Drives the Internet

The way the Internet works today, in January of 2011, is different from the way it worked in January of 2010 and so completely different from the way it worked in January of 2001 as to be completely unrecognizable.

One of our clients made the comment “I hate old-fashioned web sites” the other day.

And then we all laughed. But it’s true.

Take a look at these shots of the Amazon Web Site

Circa January 2001:

Amazon2001

Note how text heavy the site was. Since most folks were still dialing up to the Internet, it was important to have only a few pictures. Even the navigation was text heavy and designed to get you to a category quickly. Notice also the prominent search box in the upper left hand corner – some things haven’t change and the value and importance of search was well understood even back then.

Circa January 2010:
Amazon2009

Now we’ve got a lot more and larger graphics in order to showcase the products. Now the search bar is considerably longer. In all likelihood in the 10 years ago site, I would have only typed in one or two words. Now I’m comfortable typing in the whole title of a book or model of an item that I’m looking for and can see the whole thing in the search bar.

Amazon2011January 2011:

Looks pretty similar doesn’t it? Even the Kindle is prominently featured. Notice in both last year and this year how the immediacy of an experience things are. You can see what other customers are looking at RIGHT NOW. While there is more “stuff” in this year’s page, there is still a good use of white space to focus attention – that Kindle really stands out. Amazon has figured out though how to add more advertising on the right without overwhelming the page and they have tightened up the navigation on the left opting for pop-out menus instead of a longer listing of categories.

So what does this mean for you and your site?

First it means that if you haven’t changed your site in a few years, the time has come. It needs to be refreshed. Like your logo? Keep it. But consider what you want your site to do and then look at it and ask yourself if it is helping you do that? How can it be done better? Have you changed your services or products? Do you have something you should be featuring as prominently as Amazon features their Kindle?

Next it means you need to stay on top of (but not necessarily on the bleeding edge of) change. What is happening that will affect your business and your web site. When the automobile was first invented, how many blacksmith’s thought it was a passing fad? When the computer was invented how many typewriter makers thought it was just a flash in the pan? Don’t be left behind because you’re not staying on top of change.

It also means that some of the things you try might not work. Over the years Microsoft has had some spectacular failures (anyone remember Microsoft Bob?) but they continue to be a very powerful force because they try new things. Right now social media marketing is all the rage. Passing fancy? Who knows? The one thing I do know is that 100s of millions of users are out there so we’re engaging because that’s where our potential customers are.

If you want help changing your site, call EduCyber at 303 268-2245.

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