by Scott Howard | Jan 6, 2012 | ScLoHo's Web World
I’m going to keep this pretty basic.
This is stuff that I originally learned before I joined Cirrus ABS last year.
- Content, Content Content
- Promote, Promote, Promote
Now there really are a whole bunch of other things you need to consider when you are wanting a successful website, and I’d be glad to talk to you about them. Just contact me.
But for now, I’m going to share something from my own experience.
I launched this website 3 months ago after about 3 months of planning and preparation.
I redesigned the layout last week.
Before I had this website, I had 5 active blogs.
The most popular, Collective Wisdom has nearly 6,000 articles on it that I posted from 2004 thru October 3, 2011.
It still gets between 300 and 500 visits a week.
Why? All the content about advertising, sales and marketing that I posted over the years.
Now this website, https://www.scotthoward.me/ is getting more weekly visits.
What helped it grow so quickly, considering I have no products or services for people to buy on this site?
All the promotion I do on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Content and Promotion.
More in the weeks ahead..
Your comments are always welcome.
by Scott Howard | Jan 3, 2012 | ScLoHo's Web World
I was living in the outskirts of Warsaw, Indiana when I got my first email account.
We had dial up and a Gateway computer running the latest and greatest Windows 3.0 and we were always dealing with the 3 fingered salute due to the blue screen of death.
We’ve come a long way in the past 20 years.
My old dumb phone had more power than that first computer in our home and I have flash drives with more memory than some of the computers I used to own.
20 years ago, heck 5 years ago, we had a much different web world than we do today.
Take a peek at this history of “Social Media” if you want, but the direction is clear.
As consumers of the web, we have stopped thinking in the silos of the past.
When asked I asked a university class last January if they were involved with Social Media, most really didn’t think of it in those terms.
Everyone had a Facebook account, but we were introducing them to Twitter, LinkedIn and blogging.
Now days you can set up a website for your business or hobby or club using WordPress, which is a blogging platform!
By the way, if you really want results from your online presence, just setting up a website won’t cut it. There is an incredible amount of work that goes into a successful online marketing program. Contact me and my team at Cirrus ABS can set you on the right path for success, as we have for hundreds of other clients the past 15+ years.
Here’s what I see as the current factors that are melding all things web related:
- The rise of smartphones (iPhones, Droids, and the like).
- The huge rise in tablet computing (iPad, Amazon Kindle Fire, to name a couple).
- The growth of cloud computing where your stuff is stored online instead of in your computer.
Also consider that static webpages are not as valuable to Google Search as sites with fresh, current content.
Your website needs to be alive. You need to feed it. If you don’t and your competitor feeds his website, they win. It’s that basic and simple.
Social Media follows that same methodology naturally.
20 years ago, my youngest daughter was 5 years old. She has grown up with this evolution. She is now a Mom of a 7 month old and expecting her second this summer. Those kids will know nothing about a world without the web.
It is because of all of these changes going on now and in the future around us along with the change in my own career when I left the world of radio to join the web world professionally, that I’ve dropped ScLoHo’s Social Media Adventure and instead created ScLoHo’s Web World.
Daily at noon, I’ll be updating this column with insights from me and others as we venture forward in this new year. Join me, won’t you?
by Scott Howard | Dec 15, 2011 | ScLoHo's Web World
It’s an interesting relationship.
Not many businesses know how to use Social Media properly to improve their business.
Next week I will share a few tips but today take a look at this recent survey:
Small Businesses Like Facebook, Hate Groupon
One out of every four small business owners doesn’t trust social media, according to a recent survey by iContact, an email and social media marketing company.
The reasons for the distrust ranged from businesses believing social media was “an enormous time commitment” to the belief that social networks benefit only those that can “manipulate the system.”
“Small business owners are a great barometer for these social products and platforms, because when something helps them hire, sell, or otherwise proves valuable, they’re passionate proponents,” said iContact CEO Ryan Allis in a statement. “But when they are strapped for money and time, they’re quick to say if something is not worth the investment of either.”
Seventy percent of the small businesses polled said they “hated” Groupon. The survey also revealed that while 76 percent of respondents favored Facebook, only a third of small business owners in finance and insurance were fond of it. The biggest fans of the social network were in the nonprofit and education categories.
Other findings from the survey:
- 54 percent of small business owners “love” Twitter; 46 percent “hate” it.
- Businesses with 25 employees or less were more likely to “hate” Twitter.
- Businesses that made more than $100 million were more likely to “love” Twitter.
- 52 percent of respondents were not convinced of the potential of Google+.
- 63 percent were fans of LinkedIn.
- Businesses with fewer than 50 employees were more likely to “love” LinkedIn.
- 82 percent of people in the professional services sector said they “loved” LinkedIn.
“Social media is a great way to be a part of a conversation that is already happening about your brand, products, or industry,” says Chelsea Clements of Tarte Advertising. “Users will have the conversation whether you are a part of it or not, so why would a brand not want to take part?”
Clements also feels that social media should be seen as a way to build relationships with customers, and not as a platform to solely promote one’s business. “Yes, social media does require time, but so does face-to-face interaction with customers who come into a store,” she says. “Why should a digital interaction lack the same attentiveness that one receives in-store?”
Clements also notes several stats that jewelers should consider when planning their digital strategy:
- 61 percent of people plan to research the perfect holiday gift via social networks. Of those, 72 percent will start on Facebook.
- An average of 32 percent of “likes” on a brand’s Facebook page come from current customers.
- Online luxury purchases rose from 68 percent to 83 percent from 2010–11.
(Source: Jewelers’ Circular Keystone, 11/23/11)
by Scott Howard | Dec 14, 2011 | ScLoHo's Web World
As a kid, I learned lbs (non-caps) was an abbreviation for pounds.
Which is silly since the only common letter in pounds and lbs is the s.
You have to know history to know that it goes back centuries before we were roaming the planet.
The Latin phrase “a pound weight “was “a libra weight” when translated to German and so on….
But now LBS stands for something different.
Location-Based-Service, referring to the social media platforms that are based on your “checking in” to a location.
In my world, Four Square is the most popular.
Google+, Facebook, Twitter and a few others have this as part of their options, but I choose not to participate in those.
Ricky Potts and I have talked a few times about how to make Four Square check ins more fun and Kevin Mullett has spoken quite a bit about the bigger picture of how business are a little slow on the learning curve of how to use LBS effectively as a marketing tool and to build relationships with customers.
Last week I discovered two opposing viewpoints on the subject sent to me in the same newsletter.
First the Con: “Only about 5% of U.S. online adults said they use location apps at least once a month”
And the Pro: “Just a small sliver of adults online in the U.S. are actually using location-based apps like Foursquare, but a new report says that group wields a good amount of influence.”
Wanna know the freaky side to these two reports?
If you click thru the links you’ll see that they both drew their conclusions from the EXACT SAME research report!
Say, if you want to truly learn how to use this and all the other technology that we have at our fingertips, come talk to the experts, (Sorry Kevin).
I’m referring to the ones who are doing it, not those who are clueless.
Contact me using the contact form and I’ll be sure to get back to you or you can find me on Twitter too.
by Scott Howard | Dec 13, 2011 | ScLoHo's Web World
Sunday was my birthday.
And as someone once said, “Never let a crisis go to waste” or something like that, I decided to do a social media experiment.
(No, my birthday was not a crisis.)
One of the ways I use Facebook is to wish folks a happy birthday. It’s real easy as Facebook will alert you, so as long as you check daily.
I spend more time on Twitter and have stepped up my use of FourSquare, neither of which have automatic birthday reminders.
But on Friday a friend took me out to lunch for my birthday and when I checked in to the restaurant I mentioned I was there for a birthday lunch. I didn’t mention whose birthday, but still 3 folks wished me a Happy Birthday.
Sunday however was a busy day on Facebook and Twitter.
When I checked into the Firefly Coffee shop and I used Four Square combined with a pic and linked it to my Twitter account, I mentioned that I was having a raspberry white mocha for my birthday. The Birthday wishes started rolling in. I replied back with a “Thanks for the Birthday Wishes” off and on all day on Twitter.
But the biggest response was from Facebook Friends. I stopped counting after 100 birthday wishes but because Facebook makes it easy to do, I commented back to each and every one of them.
Why? Why not just do a group “Thanks everyone” type of post?
Because Social Media is about building relationships in my book.
Even if it only takes 10 seconds for someone to send the message, I wanted to spend at least that amount of time, sometimes more to really personalize my response.
Are you using Social Media to build relationships?
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