maine web development, web design, internet marketing

Photo Credit: tapasparida

A couple weeks back, I blogged about the importance of engaging the visitors that come to your website and enticing them to convert; SEO is only a part of your overall web marketing strategy.  Search engine optimization gives you the opportunity to be found when someone searches for the keywords related to your business, but it can’t convince someone to sign up for your newsletter or contact you for more information.

In fact, just because you come up on the first page of a Google search, there is no guarantee that someone will click on your site to see what it’s all about.  Use the meta description tag to make a great first impression before they even see your website.

Think of it as your first conversion opportunity.

Meta Description What?

You may not be familiar with the term, but I am sure you’ve seen them a million times:

In the simplest terms, all the meta description tag does is describe what that particular web page is about.  The example above, taken from the famous celebrity gossip blog perezhilton.com, is the meta description for the homepage of his site.

On the “techie” side of things, it’s located in the header of the HTML code and looks like this:

<meta name=”Description” content=”Since 2004, Hollywood’s most hated website has been delivering the juiciest celebrity gossip. The blog is The go-to source for daily happenings in Hollywood. Written by the internet’s most notorious gossip columnist, Perez Hilton (Mario Lavandeira).”/>

Search engines often take the information in the meta description tag and display it as a snippet in the results underneath the link, so this is your chance to tell people what the page is about and that it’s worth the click.

Meta Description Basics

The meta description for each page needs to be unique.  Why?  Well, aren’t all of the pages on your site different?  Exactly.  You’ve got between 20 and 40 words to state the facts and you need to keep in mind that the search engine often doesn’t use the entire text – you can see that by looking at the Perez Hilton Google results snippet and comparing it to what’s in the code.  Use the important keywords in the beginning of the statement if possible to ensure that they appear in the results snippet.  Google will also  bold the words in the description that were used in the search query.  I searched for “celebrity gossip blog” to get to Perez Hilton’s site and Google bolded those exact words for me in the snippet.

Be Specific

Put your web copy skills to work and be concise; this isn’t the time to use industry jargon.  Think of the person who might be visiting the page – what kind of information do they need?  What are they looking for?  If you’re a florist in Boston specializing in wedding arrangements, then be sure to say just that.  When someone searches for “Boston wedding florist” and your website comes up in the results, having a description that says something like “We specialize in custom wedding arrangements in the Boston area…”, you’ve got a good start.  You’ve just reinforced to the searcher that you provide the service that they are looking for.

Whenever I do a search, I always scan the description underneath the link to see what I’m in for and whether or not I want to check that site out.  It may be a bit time consuming to have to write a meta description tag for the pages on your website, but it’s well worth the effort.  After all, it could be the deciding factor as to whether or not you get a visit.

Simple Minds, live: They could have streamed this concert
on YouTube

“Why don’t you post some videos of yourself on YouTube?” “You really should set up a Facebook fan page to promote your skills.” These are some of the things that I said in a conversation with my drummer friend this week. As you might have read in my last post, he is a social media skeptic. The same might be said for a band called Simple Minds. They are a highly successful live act, but only in Europe. The band hasn’t toured the U.S. or been offered record distribution in North America in almost nine years. They have minimal social media presence, so perhaps a Facebook page or YouTube channel would help in these matters. With a solid following, they could tap in to the eighties nostalgia market.

I digress.

A lot can change for the subjects above if they took the time and made the effort to market themselves with online video. Online video can be the quickest, cheapest and simplest way to generate traffic to your website and create exposure for your brand.

Whatever your vision is for introducing web video into your marketing plan, one thing is clear – it must capture the viewer’s attention in a matter of seconds. Here are some technical and marketing items to consider when using online video for your small business:

Editing

Because hiring a film crew can sometimes be costly, you might want someone in your organization to learn the basic tools involved in film editing. Editing takes care, time and patience, but with a well thought-out strategy, the video concepts you come up with will become easier to produce.

1. Final Cut Pro/Final Cut Express: The best of the best. Final Cut gives you the most options in terms of effects, editing capabilities, titles and much more. The Express edition is more consumer driven and user-friendly when it comes to converting videos for web optimization.
2. iMovie: Apple’s proprietary software. The iMovie editions up through “HD 6″ acted very much like a less feature-enriched and less professional version of Final Cut, but worked seamlessly with all of Apple’s iLife applications. Since the introduction of iMovie ‘08, the software is geared more towards web uploading capabilities – perfect for the short web video marketing pieces you might want to create. iMovie is bundled with new Macs.
3. Adobe Premier Elements: A direct competitor with Final Cut and iMovie and one of the most popular programs for those using Windows machines.
4. Windows Movie Maker: I hesitate in recommending this software, but it’s a) most likely included on your PC (if you’re a PC) and b) it’s free! Movie Maker will undoubtedly provide the basic tools you need to edit and promote your work, but won’t offer nearly the same amount of features as the programs above.

It’s important to point out that online video doesn’t need to have human interaction to be an effective marketing tool, but it does need to tell a story. Graphics, images, animation and even a PowerPoint presentation, with the right amount of music and voice over, can be just as exciting. If you think you’re a boring person or no one in the company is eager enough to jump in front of the camera, then the latter might be the way to go.

The Importance of Audio

Chances are, if you’re using low-cost digital video equipment like Flip Video, your audio will be spastic and produce sound in a variety of levels and qualities – especially if you jump from scene to scene or location to location (and if your subjects use highly different methods in projecting their speaking voice). Your video editing software can also take care of audio, so you’ll want to focus on maintaining proper levels throughout the video clips and make sure your subjects are speaking clearly and succinctly. Many viewers will be listening with headphones, so any burst of loudness will create an undesirable jolt in their experience and soft-spoken dialogue will be a turn-off to the viewer almost immediately.

If you’re using a camcorder, a good way to avoid volume fluctuations and overall audio weirdness is to attach a shotgun microphone. Shotgun mics work with a “narrow acceptance angle,” which in loose terms means that there’s lower risk for interference (air conditioning vents, people walking and so on). Hopefully, the videos you shoot will be in 1080p HD, so you’ll want professional-sounding audio to go with that crisp, professional-looking video.

Branding & Messaging

Branding in online video is almost an oxymoron, because users now have complete control over what they watch (see: DVRs). Distractions on the website in which the video resides and placement of the video on the web page also come into play in the overall viewer experience. The first question you must ask when molding the messages in your video is “What kind of response do I want to elicit from the viewer?” This can be a very hard question to answer, but perhaps better approached with these other questions:

• Do you want the viewer to take immediate action? Such as visiting your website, downloading media, or commenting on a blog?
• Do you want to retain the viewer in the long run? For instance, will your video be the first step in the purchase cycle?
• Do you want the viewer to provide you with their contact information (a qualified lead!)?

Another important part of the branding process is the health of the video’s hosting location. The best place for housing videos on your website is a dedicated media section, devoid of any distractions (such as irrelevant links or ads). Then there’s YouTube, of course, where you can create a company channel with its own avatar and background consistent with your website’s graphic design elements.

Don’t discourage viewers from watching all the way through. You only have a few seconds to capture their attention, so be imaginative.

Future

The emergence of new technologies and capabilities for online video for small businesses is a weekly occurrence. More and more, web users are looking for the quick fix – and in many cases, prefer video over reading text. Our computers will eventually become our televisions, so businesses not in the business of producing TV shows will have to take it upon themselves to market themselves with video.

More advanced blog posts about the future of online video will include hiring a media production firm, video search engine optimization (VSEO) and online video editing. Look out for them.

Photo Credit: ilevin

Perhaps you are just now getting to signing up for a Twitter account. More likely is that when you joined Twitter, you were not sure what you were going to do with this space so you chose a name you are less than excited about now. Many people choose a nickname or a confusing combination of numbers and letters, and find that it’s not appropriate to be using for marketing their business.

So what happens when you find a username you want and someone else is using it? Even worse, what happens when someone has your company name and they aren’t even using the account?

Name squatting is against the Twitter rules. Unfortunately there is little Twitter can do about the inconvenience unless you are covered under the terms of service or if someone is impersonating you. If you have your name trademarked you can email terms@twitter.com to let them know that you own the trademarked name. With any type of interaction like this you should provide all documentation you have and perhaps screen shots of the account you are discussing.

Before making your claim, it is important to understand what you are asking for. For more information about the difference between name squatting, impersonation or trademark infringement read this post from how-to-blog.tv, which also includes Twitter’s snail mail address and fax number.

Twitter is always working on releasing all usernames attached to accounts that have been inactive for more than 18 months. An account is considered a squatter if the account hasn’t been logged into or updated for 6 months. An account that has no activity, followers or people they are following can be immediately removed because they are considered squatting. Finding and ousting squatters is a manual process and can take weeks for Twitter to implement.

If you think you deserve a username that looks like it’s being squatted you can submit a request for someone to review the account.

Taking matters into your own hands

In some circumstances people feel it is best to take matters into their own hands. If you want you can contact the user and ask them to drop the name (politely of course). Send them an @ reply or DM (direct message) pleading your case. If you don’t hear from them on Twitter, try following the link to their website and see if there is a better way to talk to someone there.

If you think it would be easier to reach out to the account owner on your own you should also be aware that any attempt to buy, sell or solicit compensation for a Twitter username is also considered a violation of policy and could be grounds for your account being suspended.

Lastly, if you have the people skills to pull it off, here is a Twitter list of staff members at Twitter. With a little time and networking skills you may be able to make a personal connection with someone in-house that can help you resolve your name squatter issue.

Few other things to remember…

• Try to get there first – Twitter will do its best to do what is right but the easiest way to avoid any of this hassle is to make sure you secure your name first. If you are not ready to take on a full Twitter strategy for your business just set up the account with your information, website, upload a logo and put one post up to secure your name and make sure you aren’t deemed a squatter. For a first post just say ‘Thank you for visiting us on Twitter. We are not quite up and running but if you have any questions please email us at email@company.com’.
• Keep your username short – Usernames can only be 15 characters long. The longer the username, the harder to RT someones content due to lack of spaces in a standard tweet.
• Pay someone else to secure your company name – It is possible to secure your company name on social networks with services like Claim.io
• Check the copyright of a name you want – Before you make a stink, check to make sure someone else doesn’t have the name you want already copyrighted. You can go to the United States Patent and Trademark Office and search for existing trademarks.

There has been so much “buzz” about Google Buzz, and the 100 other things Google launches every week, I’ve been wondering what Bing has been up to lately.  I’ve seen various blog posts and comments from people stating they are becoming less endeared to Google due to all the new features they’ve introduced into the SERPs (such as the real time results) and that Bing may becoming a more viable option for search.  With this in mind, I found some very interesting Bing developments in its quest to steal some search market share from the almighty Google.

Bing Provides Facebook Web Search Results

Did anyone else notice that the new Facebook layout now displays the Search box at the top of every page you’re on?  Kind of like a search engine, no?  But that’s a topic for a whole different post.  For now, check out the “Web Results” for a search I did in Facebook on Google Buzz:

Yep, Bing’s search deal with Facebook allows it to power the web portion of all searches people type into the social networking site.  Plus, when you click to the next page for more web search results, the top of the page says “Find more Web Results on Bing.com“.  This could definitely result in an increased search volume for Bing if Facebook really starts emphasizing the search feature.

Bing + iPhone

It’s rumored that Apple will make Bing the default search engine on the iPhone with its next software update, replacing Google.  Apple and Google used to get along and play nice, but now they are competing in the same markets (phones, browsers, operating systems, etc).  If the deal goes through, Bing will start covering some ground in the mobile search area as well.  Obviously, it’s not going to oust Google from the top spot, but it would take a nice bite out of the search numbers if this comes to fruition.

Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal Finalized

The news dropped in July 2009 that Yahoo will be ditching its search technology in favor of Bing’s.  What does that mean exactly?  You will still be able to go to Yahoo.com and do a search, but the results returned to you will be provided by Bing.  Essentially, Yahoo and Bing will have become one and Bing will be the #2 search engine in the game.  The two companies finally came to terms with exactly what the deal will encompass back in December.  The only thing left is an investigation by the US Department of Justice, which is mandated when two businesses strike a deal of this nature.  Microsoft and Yahoo don’t anticipate any problems with the review and are hoping to make it all official in the first quarter of this year.

I do not believe that Bing will ever be numero uno when it comes to search engines, but Microsoft is not letting any opportunities go to waste.  If Bing is the default search on the iPhone (and it’s already the default on various non-Droid Verizon phones), it could potentially start cutting similar deals (Firefox maybe?) and really start to put some heat on Google.  And why not? I think it’s nice to see some healthy competition and give searchers some different options.