maine web development, web design, internet marketing

It was almost 80 degrees here in Maine yesterday. I attribute this to the Spring Inspirations Series! I started this series last year and we picked it up again last week with Mack Collier on Business Blogging. This week I had the pleasure of interviewing the clever and engaging Mr. Jason Falls. Jason blogs regularly at his businesses website, Social Media Explorer, and speaks frequently at conferences educating marketers and businesses on using social media.

Here at Hall we work with our clients and community on some of the benefits of social media. We take a pretty no-nonsense approach about how social media is a new part of your marketing and communication strategy and not a magic potion. What do you see as the number one reason businesses should participate in social media?

Social media puts the consumer at the center of the marketing equation. By approaching communications with a mind for listening first, engaging your audiences in conversations, or even just watching their conversations, then addressing their needs, not that of your product, service or company, you serve/give rather than take. Think back over the last two decades. Corporate mistrust has elevated to an unconscionable level. Social media — opening channels of communications directly with your customers — keeps you out of the clouds of monolithic, faceless giants taking people’s money for profit. It makes you human. And we as humans like other humans.

I think some of the social media hype from the last few years has scared a few companies away. All pom-poms and no numbers. Do you think the social media hype is dying down? Does that mean social media is dying down?

I don’t think the hype is dying down, I think it’s being held up to better litmus tests. I don’t see companies giving up on social media, I see them demanding better performance and measures from it. What is dying down are the so-called social media gurus who have no experience or background in business or marketing but think they can advise companies because they built a successful blog or can drive a lot of traffic with their Digg account. Those folks preach about engagement, conversation and content but have no clue how to drive bottom line metrics for business. It’s the combination of the two that works. The gurus are dying off because they can’t prove their worth. Social media is still growing and strongly so because it’s how communications is shifting and because there are some smart folks out there showing companies how to participate and drive business.

You recently did a webinar ‘Dispelling the Myth of the Repeat Visitor‘ – can you briefly tell us what your research showed you about your website traffic and who is actually coming to your website?

The research I collaborated on with Chris Baggott of Compendium Blogware, corporate blogging expert Debbie Weil and social media thought leader Jay Baer analyzed the web traffic of corporate blogs. The social media purists have always said blogs are used to drive engagement, conversation and community around your brand. They think some great collection of brand ambassadors happens in the comments sections of blogs and that’s what they’re used for. What we discovered, however, is that 85% of corporate blogs get more than 80 percent of their traffic from first-time visitors (those from search engines and links from other sites). So, 80 percent of your audience isn’t your community, ambassadors or even fans. They don’t even know who you are.

What the research supports is that writing for search engines is a higher priority than writing for this “community” which is really mythical. Your blog is a search engine marketing tool. Use it as such and it can better drive your business.

Last week’s Spring Inspirations post was with Mack Collier on business blogging. How important do you think tying your social media efforts and your blog efforts together is?

I think it’s the hub of what you should be doing in social media. Blogs make you discoverable, establish thought/industry leadership, build trust over time that you can be counted on for insights and information and help you rank higher for keywords if you target them correctly. Blogs bring people into your marketing funnel. If done well, they can also move them through it to convert to a lead or a sale. Other social channels can do some or all of that, but none quite so well.

Do you have any words or advice (that you are obviously only sharing with us) on how to make social media work for your business?

Start by learning all the different things social media can do, then decide what you want it to do for your business. Having clear goals for what you want to get out of it better informs your decisions and your strategies. Without clear goals, you’ll think you’ve failed because you don’t know what you’re measuring the outcomes against.

Since this is about inspiration – who inspires you professionally? Who is just doing some really great work that makes you want to work harder too?

Lots of people inspire me. I love Chris Brogan’s humility in his work. I love Valeria Maltoni’s intellect. I love Brian Clark’s purposed prose. I love Malcolm Gladwell’s investigation of behavior. I love Shawn Morton (Nationwide Insurance) and his practical solution approach to social media.

And then, of course, I’m a guy. I have a muse that inspires me as well.

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Jason was very kind to take some time out of his hectic schedule to do this interview. If you want to learn more about Jason and what he is up to check out his website, Social Media Explorer.

Want to know more about Social Media for Business and Jason Falls

Check out: Social Media Explorer
Register for: Social Media Success Summit where Jason will be presenting
Watch: The archived webinar Dispelling the Myth of the Repeat Visitor
Read: Any of our blog posts on Social Media for Business
Sign up: For my webinar on Tuesday – Does Your Business Need Social Media?

You may remember our Spring Inspirations posts from last year when I interviewed Greg Cangialosi and David Meerman Scott for a a little pick-me-up last Spring. Well I am here again…my calendar says Spring but it is still awfully gray and gloomy outside. For this year’s Spring Inspiration series, I have some more very smart folks to cure our winter blues with some food for thought. I am going to kick off this series with the very smart and always helpful Mack Collier.

As the host of the popular #blogchat and blogger for the Viral Garden & MackCollier.com you have a lot of experience with blogging and social media. How do you see the relationship between a business’ blog and their social media strategy?

I think for many businesses, a blog is a logical ‘central hub’ for their social media strategy. Now if a company doesn’t want to or can’t blog, then that central presence could be a Facebook fan page, or Twitter presence, or even a Ning site. But I think that all the components of a social media strategy need to work together. What’s happening on Twitter should feed into the content on the blog, and vice versa. The efforts should work together as much as possible. And to extend that, what a company is doing via social media should also be in sync with its other marketing and communication efforts.

What are some of the biggest things to keep in mind when developing a blog for your business?

I think the biggest thing to remember that applies specifically to a blog is to realize that a blog is a long-term commitment. Blogging is probably the most time and labor-intensive social media channel a company can utilize, so they need to understand going in that the blog does not have an expiration date. If they can’t commit upfront to blogging from now on, then they probably shouldn’t launch the blog.

In your experience, what are some of the biggest challenges you see small businesses having to overcome to have a successful blog?

Usually with small businesses, the biggest obstacle is simply finding the time to create and maintain a successful blog. This is a big reason why you see Facebook being so popular with small businesses, because it offers some of the functionality of a blog, but is much easier to update, and takes less effort.

Speaking of successful, what do you think a company needs to measure and gauge to see if their blog is successful or not?

Ok, here is where I take a deep breath and pull out my heavy soapbox… (clunk!) Ok…

First, the company needs to establish WHY they are blogging and what their goals are. Some of the possibilities include:

• Sell more stuff
• Establish thought leadership
• Increase company awareness
• Provide customer service

Now once you’ve picked the goal for your blogging effort, then you can decide what you want to measure. Let’s say you decide you want to launch a blog to sell more stuff. Some of the things you could measure in that case would be:

• Traffic referrals to a product page on the website from the blog
• Including a special percent-off code on the blog, then tracking how many times that code is redeemed on the site when placing an order
• Number of email requests or comments asking for more information about purchasing products

But even here, you need to be careful. Let’s say for example that you note that the blog is increasingly sending more traffic to a particular product page on the blog, but since you aren’t seeing any sales as a result, you might conclude that the blog isn’t doing its job. But if the product page on the website has no place to actually PLACE an order on that page, then the problem is likely with the product page, not the blog. So when determining the effectiveness of your blog, you have to take into account if any of your other marketing and communication efforts play a role as well.

Another quick example, if your goal is to increase company awareness via your blogging efforts, then you could track metrics like total number of online mentions and total number of inbound links.

But in general, this is not one ‘this is what your company should be measuring’ list to decide if your blogging efforts are successful. It all depends on what you are trying to accomplish via your blogging efforts. Then you track metrics associated with those goals.

I am just returning from SXSW and we are gearing up for a large industry conference next month. You attend lots of conferences and events speaking and participating. Do you have any advice for how people can use social media and their blog to get more out of the experience?

Oh I am jealous cause I had to miss SXSW this year! My advice is, and this might tick some people off, but forget about social media when you get to these events. Focus on connecting with the people you are AT the event with. You can always go back later and get on Twitter and trade key takeaways, but the best part of most social media conferences is the time you get to spend actually TALKING to speakers and attendees. Don’t take that time for granted. I rarely tweet sessions I attend anymore, simply because I want to pay attention to the speaker and what their message is. When I get back home, then I can blog about what I learned and share any key nuggets. But while I am there, I want to BE THERE. Social media will still be there when I get back home

Since this is an inspirations post who is inspiring you lately? Who is putting out some really good work that inspires you and really makes you think?

I always love reading bloggers that talk about how companies can have passionate connections with their customers. I am a big fan of Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell at Church of the Customer. I also love the work Brains on Fire does, they are truly inspirational. And I think Kathy Sierra, who hasn’t blogged in three years, is absolutely brilliant. I still spend time going through her archives, she is such a genius, here’s an example – http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/01/death_by_riskav.html

What exciting things do you have coming down the pipeline that we should keep an eye out for?

Well nothing I am ready to go public with, but I have a few side projects that should go live in the next 2-3 months, stay tuned

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I can’t thank Mack enough for taking the time to kick off this series. If you want to know more about Mack you can read all about him on his website.

Want to know more about business blogging or Mack Collier now?

Check out: #blogchat on Sunday nights at 9PM EST.
Check out: Mack’s 2 websites he blogs at frequently Viral Garden & MackCollier.com
Read: Any of our archived posts on Business Blogging

Watch: SEO, Analytics, and Online PR: Strategies for Better Blogging In this intermediate level blogging webinar, we’ll discuss some of the strategic decisions you can make when it comes to blogging and what tools you can use to monitor and assess your performance. Learn how an aggressive attitude towards analytics, built-in SEO optimization, a full editorial calendar, and ongoing outreach to other bloggers will help you turn your blog from a passive news feed into one of your most powerful marketing tools. View Webinar

Watch: Get Your Business Blogging Is a blog a worthwhile strategic marketing investment for your company or a waste of time? Find out what your should know about blogs in order to make the most of the technology, and how to avoid common pitfalls of newbie bloggers. View Webinar

The days of the creative/marketing department living differently than the rest of the company are over. The creative department on staff needs to be intertwined in all aspects of your business; in business development, marketing, client relations, technology development, content creation et al.

Creative/Technology Department

The new creative department needs to work hand in hand with the technology department (if not be one and the same). Technology, services and content all become a part of your business’ marketing. Your marketing department doesn’t just need creative thinkers but they need to be tech savvy now too. They need to also be publishers. The role of a marketer is getting tougher, the price to participate in the new mediums may be cheaper but that may not make your bottom line any lower.

Being Creative is ‘Free’…

True, being creative is ‘free’, joining and participating in social networking sites are ‘free’ but these things take time and valuable resources (your staff and technology) and they are very labor-intensive. In Joe Burton’s, A Marketer’s Guide to Understanding the Economics of Digital Compared to Traditional Advertising and Media Services, he states “the high-volume, low-dollar, high-complexity nature of Digital programs makes it the most labor-intensive medium in the advertising industry”. So is the most labor-intensive medium really free? It actually costs you a lot.

There are shortcuts but remember it is hard to be genuine and produce good quality content with automation.

Engaging Your External Creative Department

If you do participate in social media for your company, have you ever considered letting your fans and followers be a part of the creative process? I have heard and been a part of lots of brainstorming/crowd-sourcing sessions where a company lets its brand evangelists do the creative work and then they bring back the ideas to their shareholders and associates. If you leave the conversation open to the public, they may come up with things that you may not have ever considered.

What All This Means for SMBs

This change in mediums and reliance on content and creative could actually be very good for SMBs. The playing field is more even, and with the right staff you can put out as much quality content as a larger company (please note I said quality content, not just content – the quality is what makes it valuable). When you are small and nimble you can react to the market and your consumers needs much easier than the big guys.

Whether you’re sick or not, most people go to the doctor for an annual check up. Your doctor will check your eyes, ears, heartbeat, lungs, and discuss anything else you may have concerns about. Even though your website is not a living, breathing, organism, it does need to be an evolving, expanding, entity online to reach its full potential. Every now and then, it’s good to give your site a check up. Here is a five-point check up you can complete on your own website to make sure it has a clean bill of health.

1. Blog Posts
   Check to see how recently you have updated your blog. If your blog hasn’t been updated since 2009, you need to add a new post. Consistent weekly posts are suggested to create a steady stream of new content growth on your website. This is helpful to optimizing your site for search as you’re expanding and validating keywords on your site. Consistency is also important; it helps search engines build trust in your website.
2. Social Network Connections
   If you are marketing your business on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you should ensure that your web traffic can connect to those outlets and vice versa. You can even connect events to Facebook using Facebook Connect. When people sign up for your events it posts a notification on Facebook’s News Feed. Attendees’ friends are then able to see the event and are more likely to attend.
3. Title Tags and H1 Tags
   First, check and make sure you have them (these are tags that tell search engines what your website is about and can be found in the source code of your site). Second, make sure they are unique to each page. These are the most important tags to search engines, they tell the search engine what your site and each page are about so users can find the information they are seeking. The tags should be keyword rich and in harmony with the content on the page.
4. Calls to Action
   Are there clear calls to action on your site? You need to ensure the visitors to your site recognize what you’d like them to do on each page. Whether it’s signing up for a newsletter or downloading a whitepaper, each page should include a call to action that stands apart from the other content on that page and draws attention from the user.
5. Website Analytics
   Make sure you are measuring your calls to action and that you have conversion goals that you are working towards. Gathering website data is so incredibly important; it helps you find out what pages your users visit most and least and what they do while they are on your site. It gives insight to what kind of content your users are looking for and helps you make informed decisions about updates to your website.>

There, that was painless right? How did your website fare? If the results of your site check up passed – that’s great! Be sure to schedule your next regular check up -  if you miss an appointment problems can arise and will get worse the longer it takes you to get them checked. Those of you that found you may be missing some of these elements, no need to worry, the doctor can prescribe a remedy for that (what I mean is, talk to your web developers and they should be able to help you out).

Regular check ups are important and taking a step back to review your site as a whole every once in a while helps you assess where you are in accordance to the goals you’ve set out for your site.