Social Web Tips

SEO contests are nothing new. Every few months someone pops up with some randomly generated phrase and a pile of prizes so aspiring search engine optimizers can go head to head in a race for top rankings. But when Donna Fontenot (DazzlinDonna) approached me about her latest idea for an SEO contest, I couldn’t resist. This time around, Donna has recruited about a dozen search marketers to go head to head in a two-month, live blogged weight loss competition a la’ “The Biggest Loser.” The cool part? It’s all about raising money for charities.

Dubbed SEOs Fight Fat, the contest pits Donna Fontenot, Debra Mastaler, me, Nathania Johnson and Scottie Claiborne against each other on the women’s side and Aaron Wall, Jim Boykin, Simon Heseltine, David Wallace, Ben Cook and Jeff Quipp against each other on the men’s side.

The goal is to lose the highest percentage of body weight by the end of the two months. Whichever man and woman come out on top will go head to head in a vote. The ultimate winner gets the entire “pot” of pledged donations for the charity of their choice. Long time Search Engine Guide readers won’t be surprised to hear I’m playing for the HMBANA milk banks, an organization I got involved with when my daughter Elnora was a baby. I donated 27 gallons of milk to my local bank that first year and have used my hobby site The Lactivist to spread awareness and raise several thousand dollars for the bank here in Ohio.

You can follow along at the site, or subscribe to direct feeds for any of the players. If you’d like to get involved with a pledge, you can do that as well. If you’re feeling really generous, you can become a sponsor of the entire site for $2000 or a sponsor of an individual player for $500. These sponsors will have a 125×125 ad displayed either across the site, or on all posts made by their sponsored player. Search Engine Guide reader Mike Dorausch of Planet Chiropractic has generously come on board to sponsor my area of the blog as has Robert for the upcoming Small Business Marketing Unleashed conference. The more the merrier on this one folks, so stop by the site and get involved!

It’s no secret I’m skeptical when it comes to social media fads. I’ve never been a fan of Digg, I STILL don’t get the allure of Facebook and I’m more than a little tired of the flood of invites in my email whenever people find “the next big thing.” That’s probably why I dismissed Twitter as a fairly silly idea that was indicative of our need to now broadcast each and every detail of our lives to the world. (Because really, do you care that personX just got home from the gym?)

That said, a few friends in the industry finally convinced me to log on just after the first of the year. After all, you shouldn’t knock it until you try it right? I’ve been “trying it” for a month now. I have to admit; I was absolutely wrong. Sure, there are folks who flood Twitter with mindless drivel, but Twitter also features a vibrant community leveraging the tool in interesting ways and bringing people together the way only really good technology can. I’d vowed to give Twitter a month to win me over. That month has ended and Twitter wins.

Now that I’ve had time to really dive into the service, experiement with it and learn some of the finer details, I figured it’s about time I wrote a Seach Engine Guide style guide to the service. This multi-part series will cover everything from how to get an account and get people following you to the finer points of twitter marketing and networking. It’s not a service that will be worth the time to everyone, but it’s certainly proven itself to have practical application for me.

What is Twitter?

Twitter has been called a form of “micro-blogging.” I get where people are going with this, but I’m really not sure it’s the best description. In the month I’ve been using it, I see it more as an open chat room. The basic idea of Twitter is to allow users to broadcast short messages (known as “tweets”) to anyone who opts to receive them. It’s a free service that was designed with mobile phones in mind, but allows users to connect via the Twitter website, IM applications and any number of Twitter applications as well.

People use Twitter as a form of communication. Think of it as an instant message that goes out to a ton of people at once. If you want to let your friends know you’re headed to your favorite hang-out tonight, you can shoot them all a quick message without having to send a dozen emails. If you want feedback on an idea, you can tap into your network to ask a quick question. If you simply want to learn a little more about people you’ve heard of online, you can follow their tweets and “eavesdrop” in an acceptable way. In fact, I’ve found quite a few practical reasons to use Twitter, which I’ll outline later in the series.

Getting An Account

It couldn’t be simpler to start Twittering. You simply need to head to the Twitter web site and look for the “Get Started - Join” button.

You then follow a pretty standard simple sign-up process to establish your screen name and associated email address.

It’s a good idea to give some thought to your screen name when signing up. You may want to go with your full name (for example, I tweet as “JenniferLaycock“) or you may want to carry on the branding of your web site. (Robert tweets as “SmallBizAnswers.”) Either route makes it a lot easier for people to find and follow you than it would be if you signed up as “randomname1234.”

Once you’ve set up your account, you’ll need to get hooked up with some other users. After all, if you’re just out there sending messages to yourself, Twitter is going to get pretty boring. Twitter helps you find your friends as part of the registration process. You’ll have to hand over temporary access to your email account, but it can be a quick way to find people you know on Twitter.

Once Twitter scans your accounts, they’ll return a list of your contacts already using Twitter. You can select some or all and then have Twitter automatically load them into your followers and following lists.

Twitter will also generate a list of your contacts who do not have Twitter accounts and will allow you to select the ones you’d like to invite to the system. If you’re the last of your friends to join Twitter, this will be a short list. For most of the world, this is going to be a very long list. (Tip: Don’t spam everyone you know with a Twitter invite. Take the time to browse through this list and to invite only the people you have a true interest in following and who you think might have a true interest in following you.)

Personalizing Your Profile

Once you’ve set up your account and sent emails out to your friends, you’ll be taken back to the Twitter home page with an invitation to join the conversation. Before you do this, I’d suggest you look over to the right side of the screen at your Twitter control panel. That box will show your avatar (which starts as a default set of eyes on a brown background) and your screen name. It also tracks how many people you are following and are following you, how many direct messages you’ve received and how many tweets you’ve posted.

If you look at the top right spot on the box, you’ll notice a link that says “your profile.”

Don’t be surprised if you see a page that simply says “haven’t updated yet!” when you click this link.

The first time I saw it, I wondered if I had to make a post before I could update my profile information, but that isn’t the case. Simply click on the “add a photo” box next to your screen name and you’ll quickly shift into the full profile area of the site.

Once you’re in the profile update area, you’ll be asked to upload an image to use as your avatar. You might upload a photo of yourself, or you might want to stick with your company logo. Keep in mind this image will show up next to your posts and will also show up when someone views a list of who a Twitter user is following. (Tip: An avatar that stands out from the crowd can really catch someone’s eye when they’re looking to see who a particular user follows.)

Next, you’ll need to create a brief bio and list your web site URL. On this screen, you also have the option of making your tweets private. This means your tweets will only show up for approved followers. You’ll have to take the time to manually approve everyone who wants to follow you, but it does give a nice level of privacy to anyone worried about strangers reading their tweets.

Once you’ve let people know a little more about who you are, you’ll need to let Twitter know how you’d like to receive updates. Sure, you can go to the web site to read them, but believe me, that’s going to get old really fast. While there are quite a few third party applications (which I’ll cover later in this series), the two default options are via your mobile phone and via an instant messenger program.

Getting and Sending Updates (Tweets)

Keep in mind that if you sign up to receive updates via your mobile phone, and you begin following a lot of people, you’re going to get slammed with text messages. (If you don’t have unlimited texting, you’ll also get slammed with data fees on your next bill.) A better option, if you already use an instant messenger program is to simply funnel your messages through it. (You can update to a twitter app later when you get the hang of things.)

Twitter easily integrates with GoogleTalk, LiveJournal IM, AOLIM and Jabber, so if you use any of these IM programs, you can be up and running in no time.

Once you’ve registered your mobile phone or instant messenger program, you’re setup to send tweets from any of them. On your mobile phone, you simply text your message to 40404. Twitter will use caller ID to match your phone up with your account and to broadcast it to the world. If you’re using GoogleTalk or Jabber, you’ll need to add twitter@twitter.com as a friend. If you’re on AOL’s instant messenger, you’ll add “TwitterIM” to your buddy list.

Finally, you can change the settings on your Twitter page to customize it. That way, whenever someone visits your personal Twitter site, they’ll get a taste for your personality, branding, or whatever.

For example, here’s the default Twitter page from the Search Engine Guide account I just setup:

And now my personal Twitter page which I’ve taken to adorable puppy extremes:

Keep it Short

Remember, tweets are limited to 140 characters. That’s not much in the way of sharing thoughts, but the whole point of Twitter is to communicate in thought bursts. For wordy folks like me that 140 limit can be tough, but it’s a good way to make sure you aren’t saying any more than you need to.

That’s enough to get you started with an account on Twitter. In the next article in this series, I’ll dig a little deeper into the Twitter system. I’ll explain more about the idea of “followers” and “following” and how to communicate publicly to specific twitterers. I’ll also explain how to send direct (private) messages and how to check for replies from people you aren’t following. I’ll also dig deeper into expanding your network of followers and the need to find new people to follow. For good measure, I’ll throw in a little Twitter lingo primer to help you along the way.

I am not a patient person. Perhaps you’ve picked that up by now? I’m particularly impatient first thing in the morning, which is when I do most of my blogging.
My mornings used to go something like this:

Wake up with great entry idea that will revolutionize blogging and make us all millionaires.
Hurry to my desk, […]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Blog From Your Desktop”, url: “http://bloggingforthemoney.com/2008/01/31/blog-from-your-desktop/” });

Countries across the Middle East are sans Internet connections due to a cable break on Wednesday. Two lessons: The Internet in some areas lack redundancy and telecommunications infrastructure is weak. And companies that outsource customer service operations offshore need to plan ahead.
Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology on Wednesday formed an emergency task force […]

The majority of Internet and international telephone traffic travels goes under the sea. When two submarine cables in the Mediterranean Sea were cut (most likely by ship anchors) on Wednesday, Internet connectivity in the Middle East and in parts of Asia cratered.

According to reports, as much as 70 percent of Egypt’s Internet connectivity was […]

Symantec issued its second annual report on IT risk management. Key findings from “IT Risk Management Report” that surveyed 405 IT professionals include:

IT professionals are adopting a more balanced, less security-centric view of IT risk—more of them now see availability risk as critical or serious than any other element.

Compliance risk is more than […]

There was a time, way back when, that I had no idea what PageRank meant. Much like my days of chastity, effortlessly slim thighs and an all-night bladder, I can barely recall that time.
Fact is, if you’re Blogging For The Money, PageRank matters. Yes, in theory PR represents Google’s opinion of your site — as […]SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Blog Maintenance And Pursuit of PageRank”, url: “http://bloggingforthemoney.com/2008/01/31/blog-maintenance-and-pursuit-of-pagerank/” });

When a business starts blogging, there is usually a huge temptation to
use this newly-minted blog as a tool to directly promotion the business
and its products and services.  Unfortunately, this is the quickest way
to guarantee that your blog will be totally useless and irrelevant to
visitors.  So what should your blog focus on?  Providing value to your
readers, of course!

Let’s use a hypothetical example.  Let’s say that Bob’s Lawncare wants to start blogging.  Bob offers lawncare services, but has also developed his own line of lawncare products that he sells locally, but would also like to sell over the internet.  Bob knows that Spring and Summer is right around the corner, which is when people turn their thoughts to caring for their yards.

Bob’s first thought is that he needs to promote his products and services.  That if he can show that his weed-killer works the best, or that his line of pesticides does a better job of ridding your yard of insects than the competition, that he will be set. 

But let’s switch gears for a minute and look at Bob’s blogging plan through the eyes of his readers.  How are Bob’s readers likely to reach his new blog?

There are three main ways that people would arrive at Bob’s Lawncare blog:

1 - By doing a Google search for a term/phrase that Bob blogs about

2 - By clicking on a link to Bob’s Lawncare blog from another blog

3 - By subscribing to Bob’s feed, or bookmarking his blog.

Now since Bob wants to use his blog as a tool to directly promote his lawncare business, let’s say that a typical post from Bob might be ‘How Bob’s Weedkiller Can Give You the Perfect Lawn!”  Bob would then explain why his particular weedkiller works better than the brand names that you are familiar with. 

But is this the type of content that would build Bob’s blog?  Would this type of self-promotion draw visitors from Google searches?  Probably not, since most people won’t be searching for ‘Bob’s Weedkiller’.  Would this type of content be what other blogs would want to link to?  Probably not, since it’s a promotional piece that doesn’t really offer any value.  Finally, would this type of content be likely to grow Bob’s subscriber base?  Probably not, since it’s basically an advertisement for Bob’s products and services.  Bob’s friends and family might be ok with that, but everyone else could probably care less.

Now let’s look at what might happen if Bob switched the focus of his content.  Instead of a post about ‘How Bob’s Weedkiller Can Give You the Perfect Lawn!’, what if Bob blogged about ‘10 Steps to a Weed-Free Lawn By May 1st”. 

Notice that the tone of Bob’s posts has completely shifted.  Bob has gone from directly promoting himself, to now he is telling his blog’s visitors how to solve a problem.  How many people want to learn more about Bob’s Weedkiller?  Probably not too many.  But how many people want to learn more about having a weed-free lawn?  A whole lotta people!

By shifting to focusing on how he can solve problems and provide value to others, Bob has suddenly greatly increased his blog’s relevance with readers.  Now people that search for terms like ‘getting a weed-free lawn’, or ‘how to remove weeds from your lawn’, might end up at Bob’s blog post about ‘10 Steps to a Weed-Free Lawn By May 1st’ (And search traffic suddenly helps Bob sell his lawncare products over the internet).  Other bloggers might see the value in this post, and link to it on their own blogs.  And finally, visitors that are interested in caring for their lawn will probably see the value in this post, and are much more likely to subscriber to Bob’s Lawncare blog.

The key mistake that many businesses make when they blog is that they attempt to put themselves first.  They want to use their blog as a tool for self-promotion, which provides almost no incentive for visitors to become readers.  When a blog instead focuses on providing value for its readers, then it begins to grow.  People that will come to Bob’s blog don’t care about hearing about Bob’s products, they care about hearing how they can solve a lawncare problem they are having, or how they can improve their current lawncare efforts.

View your business blog as a tool to provide value DIRECTLY to your readers, and you will INDIRECTLY see your business grow as a result.  

Sites that require users to log in to access certain information and/or purchase products add an additional layer of potential complication to the usability process. To avoid potential visitor confusion and
the possibility for errors, it is important that any login process requires little or no thought on the part of the site visitor.

Once logged in, you must be sure that visitors are able to find the information they want and expect to find. My Account pages need to provide visitors with access and ability to view and change personal information, as necessary.

Login Access

Access to any login page (or the login form itself) should be available consistently across all pages of the site. Be sure the form or link is obvious and easily differentiated from other areas of the web page.

Security

If the information behind your login contains sensitive data, you need to use the appropriate security protocols, assuring visitors that that you take their information’s security seriously.

Registration

If visitors are not already registered a link to a new user registration form should be present. It’s also smart to have a global link to “register” for any new visitors to the site.

Account benefits

Non registered visitors should be treated to benefits of account registration. This information should be located on the same page as the new user registration form.

Lost password

All login forms should contain an option to reclaim passwords and/or username should they have been forgotten. This information must also be passed securely.

Remember me

You can provide additional convenience (though less security) by giving visitors the option of checking a “remember me” box which will allow them to stay logged in indefinitely.

Privacy

Provide a link to your sites privacy information/policy near the login form submit button or email field. This gives your visitors confidence that you will treat their information with respect.

Status

The visitor’s “logged in” status should be displayed at all times with a ready access to logout at their convenience. When additional security is necessary it’s a good idea to automatically log them out after a set period of inactivity.

Change info

Once logged in, visitors should have access to change their user information, including usernames, passwords, contact info, payment details, etc.

Change confirmation

Once the visitor has submitted their information to be changed, provide a confirmation screen that shows the old and new info. This prevents errors and helps insure information remains accurate.

Financial details

Provide links to relevant financial information such as transaction history, invoices, balances, payment methods, etc. Provide printable version of this information.

Up-sell opportunities

Visitors that are logged in provide you an interested, captive audience. Consider discreetly utilizing up-sell opportunities - without being overbearing.

Subscribed services

Provide visitors access to the information/services to which they are subscribed. Also provide additional subscription options, if applicable.

Information management

Allow users to change the way they receive information, providing alternate methods such as snail mail, HTML or text based emails or to turning off communication entirely.

When visitors create an account with you they are making a commitment to you to enjoy the services or information that you provide. It’s important not to let the usability process break down after visitors are committed. In fact, it’s even more important to treat registered visitors respectfully and appropriately, ensuring they have access to the information they need. This develops long-term relationships and keeps them coming back.

Coming from both a programming and public relations back ground (odd mix I know),
I tend to get really annoyed with PR Firms that think they can just
jump right into online marketing by adding it as a “piece of our
services”, when they really have no idea what goes into an online
marketing strategy.  The see blogs as another place to send their press
release, they see Facebook and MySpace as just another place to get an
ad or message slapped on a web page.  They think that because that new
hire right out of college has over 100 friends, they know how to work a
social networking campaign.  They think its something “so easy” and
“fast”.  That’s where they go wrong.

So what do you look for
when a public relations company who claims that blogging, social media
and online marketing is their specialty?

• Is There Website All In Flash?  Is It Image Heavy?  Does the Site Work?
  If
  there website is all in flash, and they do not offer an html version of
  their website, then you know this isn’t a serious area of practice for
  them.  They only flirt with online marketing, because if they truly
  understood online marketing, they’d understand that entirely flash
  sites have difficulties with the search engines.  Same for image heavy
  sites, if the keywords are embedded in images and those images don’t
  have alt text, you might want to rethink using this company for
  optimizing or marketing your site online.

  Doe their own site
  work properly?  You may think this is a really silly question, but walk
  through their site.  Is it easy to navigate, do they have unique title
  tags, are their broken links?  Do things look “right”?  If their own
  house isn’t in order, how can you expect them to make sure yours is?

• Is There Website Comprised with Fluff?
  Is
  it all about the awards and honors they won?  Is it about the client names in their portfolio?  Is there anything of
  substance?  Are you immediately greeted with the fact they won 5
  awards?  Very typical of most PR firms is to tout the awards they won,
  over results they gain for their clients.  They spin the fact they won
  an award for a PR campaign that was OFFLINE, not online and try to turn
  that into you thinking that will help your campaign.

• Do They Have a Company Blog?
  If
  they don’t even run a blog for their own company, how in the world do
  they REALLY know what goes on in the blogosphere?  Don’t let them snow
  you with buzz terms like ‘technorati’, ‘feeds’, ‘rss’, ‘web 2.0′,
  ’subscriptions’, ‘widgets’.  Unless they can point to their own blog
  and the successes they’ve had with it, how can you truly expect them to
  know what they are doing with your blogging initiatives?

• Success Stories - Real Live Success Stories
  Ask
  them what their success stories are.  Ask for references, as for
  statistics and ask to speak to those clients.  Again, don’t just
  believe the hype, go out and do the research yourself.  Armed with the
  company name, a search engine and a few other tools like Alexa, Yahoo
  Site Explorer, Technorati, and the ability to look at social media
  sites, you can really get a feel for just how successful (and truthful)
  the success story is. 

I’ve got many friends are in
public relations that truly know they aren’t equipped to handle online
PR strategies, they know that the offline world of PR and the
strategies they use handling crisis or promoting clients just doesn’t
translate to the online world well.  It’s why these PR strategists work
with online marketers to do what’s best for their clients.  If the PR
company does truly know online marketing, you might be waiting in line
for their services, as undoubtedly, everyone will want their
expertise. 

Is there a solution to the predicament?  When it comes to looking at
online marketers for PR related issues, be just as careful - do you
research.  Not all online marketers understand and know Public
Relations.  Just as with any company you deal with - do your homework
before you sign on that dotted line.