Holistic Technology Enabled Internet Marketing Solutions

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

I am sure that somewhere in Santa’s workshop there is a Testing Committee that spends all day testing the toys to make sure they look good and work the way they are supposed to. Testing is an important part of creating toys; I know those elves want to make sure the kids are happy on Christmas morning and not crying over broken toys.

Testing is also an important part of the website business. You want to make sure your website looks good and works too! But what about your mobile site? We talked a lot about mobile this year and encouraged you to check out what your website looked like on a mobile device. Did you?

If you were on the Testing Committee for mobile sites this is what you would test:

1. How does it look? If it doesn’t fit within the tiny screen very well or different elements are overlapping each other, send it back to the work shop!
2. The speed. Recently graduated from Google Labs, Google offers Page Speed testing for mobile.  Simply put the URL into the form field, click “Analyze,” and  make sure the “Mobile” option is selected in the right hand corner. The overview will give you a score out of 100. Did you get an F? Are there any high priority items to fix?
3. Is it broke? At Hall, we like to test the validity of site code using the W3C code standards. Now there are W3C standards for mobile so we can check out the code using that tool.  Same as Google Page Speed you just need to put the URL into the form field and click “Check.” Again, you get a score kicked back out of 100%. How’d you do this time? Similar to the Page Speed Test, they try to prioritize the edits you need to make to your mobile site in order to have it comply with mobile standards. If you’re still seeing critical errors, you might need to send it back to the work shop.
4. How does it look on different devices? Does it look good on some devices and poorly in others? Depending on your industry you might want to ask other people you work with to test it on their devices and report back. If your industry requires more extensive, ongoing testing you can purchase different devices for testing or (probably a cheaper option) download a device emulator. We like MITE (Mobile Internet Testing Environment) a lot because it has a huge device library. Using MITE, you also get a grade based on Content, Performance, and W3C best practices; plus you get a visual of what your site looks like in a particular device. But there are also other device emulators that you can download  and even some good Firefox add ons that we have found helpful.

Your mobile site is more important now than it has ever been. By now you should have a clear idea of how much traffic your site is getting from mobile browsers and how that is growing over time as well as how to review your site’s performance. Don’t overlook testing your mobile site; just like the elves you want to make sure that it looks good and works properly for everyone that uses it.

Photo Credit: Elf Yourself by JibJab & Office Max

Read more from our Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series!

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

You many have noticed something kind of cool on Monica’s post yesterday. When Monica referenced Elisabeth Osmeloski’s tweet about Google+ effecting search results, instead of being a hyperlink to the tweet on Twitter, we could actually embed the tweet right into the post!

In the past few weeks Twitter has done a lot of design changes to it’s mobile applications and website. One of these changes was making it possible to take a single tweet and embed it onto a website. All you need to do is copy and paste the line of code and you can have the tweet right on your website. If you have a WordPress blog, all you need to do is copy the link and paste it. Now from your site people can reply, retweet, favorite and follow the person who wrote the tweet.

Pretty cool right?

Read more from our Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series.

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

I am going to bypass the first 17 tips on why Google+ is important to get us straight to this one. This is an important fact, and I’m sure many haven’t seen it .

Did you know that you can see how Google connects you socially with your contacts? Google combines your Google contacts, contacts via connected accounts (for example, if you have your Twitter account linked to your Google profile), and secondary connections, and uses this network of Google contacts who have a profile in order to deliver more relevant search results.

Anyone can see their own list if you’re logged into Google, just go here, you’ll see something similar to what you see below. This is my own personal social data, so you can see how socially active my friends are. At least my friends that begin with the letter “A”.

Drilling down a little deeper, I can see how Amanda has been sharing content, as well as how her Google profile is linked to other profiles.

Seeing expanded views of social sharing like this demonstrates a bit how Google+ Circles and Ripples work. As more and more people start using Google+ these connections are going to expand dramatically, providing insightful social value to search results. And ads – don’t forget the ads.

One moment, you say you are still on the fence on how Google+ may influence your search results?

To translate what Lauren from google just said – yes, +1 & Google+ pages for brands will become a significant ranking factor #mpsis

— elisabeth osmeloski (@elisabethos) December 10, 2011

(Lauren Kelley, Social Media Lead for Google+, Mediapost Search Insider Summit, 12/10/11)

That should clear thing up enough to get you started.

You can learn more about Google’s social search here:

Read more from our Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series!

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

Happy Holidays everybody! As the new guy here Hall I have spent the last few weeks cutting my teeth on all things Internet Marketing. Needless to say, it has been busy. All of sudden, we are knee deep into the holidays and I haven’t done a lick of shopping.

I need a plan, and I need it now!

Rather than totally freak out. I look to Santa and all the elves in the North Pole for lessons to make my plan successful. You’ve seen the Christmas shows, all the elves running around crazy trying to build the toys, load the sleigh and get Santa off and running out the door. It looks like total chaos. What the TV shows do not show you is the full project management department and the comprehensive project plan that is behind the holiday festivities.

There are lots of little kids depending on Santa. For that very reason, the entire elf team follows the methodology developed at the American Management Association and their process for the “Accidental Project Manager”.  And Santa’s elves know that following a process is the most predicable way to be successful on a project. Let’s face it; projects are about creating a defined deliverable, within a reasonable time and within a reasonable budget. With the holidays looming, there isn’t much time to fumble around without a process.

Their plan looks something like this: Happy Boys and Girls – receiving toys on Christmas Eve without bankrupting Santa’s account.

The way they do it is to break the process down into four parts.

Initiate (Why, What) Build a business case defining the customer, problems, solutions and estimated costs.

Make the list and check it twice.

Plan (How long, How much) Create a schedule breaking down tasks, predecessors, estimates, timeline and risks.

Work backwards from Christmas Eve, determine timelines, costs and potential problems that may occur in assembling something like a toy truck.

Execute (Do) Turn tasks into action items, addressing any issues that arise and resolve any questions that occur. These get tracked, assessed and recommendations made to keep the project on track.

Coordinate and create all the parts and pieces that go into a toy truck; Build the chassis, wheels, assemble the parts, painting, quality control, packaging, processing and handling.

Close (How’d you do?) Use actual data that is captured during the process, and determine what went well and what can be improved.

Review how happy the little boy is with the truck. Determine whether they were delivered to the correct house at the correct time. Make note on how things can be improved in the future.

While I only have one household to spin my holiday magic, I am still going to break down my efforts into the distinct phases. Make my list, check it twice, review my time available and budget, and head down to my local shopkeeper to help me make my purchases. I am also going to remember to review my process- hopefully before my credit card statement comes in January.

Happy Holidays everybody- Wish me luck!

Read more from our Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series!