Social Media Marketing has baffled business owners since it bomb-blasted its way into our lives not too long ago. By now, most of you realize that you should be doing something with Facebook and twitter….but the question is WHAT??

The Why

I don’t need to tell you that users spend an average of 2 hours a day on the internet, much of that time on the various social media sites. For every 8 minutes, 1 minute is spent on Facebook. Your grandmother is probably on Facebook! So should your business. Adverting 101: You go where the people are!

The What: What to talk about!

Almost daily, I hear the question, “What would I even talk about?”And it’s true, we may need to create some content for you. (You should be doing regular content creation anyway. Read previous post about blogging for small businesses.) With a little creative thinking, this be overcome.

Here are a few suggestions:
1. Sales or promotions. People love being “in the know” and will be more likely to follow you if there is something in it for them.
2. Feature a product. Show off a new element or product, a different product every day. Doesn’t have to be on sale or even new, just something to catch someone’s eye. Part of marketing is brand recognition. Be visible.
3. Industry related news. Who knows your industry better than you, who has lives and breathes your market. Talk about it. Show off your expertise.
4. Local News. Be a part of your community.
5. Promote Others. This is a great way to network. While you might not want to promote your competition, someone related but not in direct competition can be a great ally.

The “How”: How to do Social Media Marketing

Hootsuite is your friend. What is hootsuite, you ask? Hootsuite is online software that allows you to schedule social media posts. Do it an hour or two a week, once a week then sit back and watch.

The Where

Here are the “starter” social media sites. Keep in mind that a solid social media marketing plan is hand tailored to your business. Some businesses may feature one over the other or even ignore another site completely. Being as this may be uncharted territory for you, there will be some trial and error.

Twitter

Twitter is the big unknown. No one understands twitter. Twitter posts, called tweets, are short clips, less than 160 characters that go into the news feed of sorts of your followers and create a continually updating ticker of sorts. Life on twitter moves fast and it can be hard to grab anyone’s attention. Because of this, it is recommended that you post between 5-10 times a day at the least.

Facebook

Facebook posts are also only visible to followers (followers are people that have “liked” your page) and although most people check Facebook several times throughout the day, it is easier to overwhelm users. We recommend 1-3 times a day. Posts have no limit in size and can contain pictures or links.

Google+

Have you even heard of Google+? Most people see it as a bit of ghost town but there are a few reasons to use it nonetheless, the biggest reason being is that it is owned by google. An article posted on google+ is indexed on average in 6 seconds. Lightening fast. The details of this are for another post, but the integration between Google search and Google+ is reason enough to market there.

Pinterest

I like to describe pinterest as bookmarking on crack. It is a great way to organize your thoughts. For example, I have a board of all my favorite recipes, one for all my Christmas presents, articles I would like to read, websites I liked etc etc. While it was mostly known for crafts, it has really expanded into the retail market, cooking and user networking.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is specifically for businesses and networking. Articles that you post will be featured to other users. You can join Groups and feature articles, talk about issues in the industry and general networking.

Others: StumbledUpon, Reddit, Digg

As mentioned before, the best social media marketing plan is hand tailored. With an open mind, test the waters of these sites and see what works. You might find a great niche in Reddit (although occasionally sensitive to spamming) or Digg. Are there any industry-specific forums that you know of? Also a great opportunity for social media.

In June of 2012, Google announced its preference for responsive websites for mobile design. While it may not yet penalize for sites without a responsive design or a mobile friendly content, it seems clear that this is important to them and will somehow factor in the ranking of a website.

So what does this mean for your website?

For starters, it means that you should have a mobile friendly website, built to be responsive. (Click here to learn what responsive design means.)

But let’s take a bit deeper to a few things that we KNOW effect SEO, relating to mobile.

1. Mobile Unfriendly Content

This is one area where Google has been clear that you can be penalized. If you have content on your site that doesn’t work on a mobile device, with no fallback option for the mobile user, you can be penalized. Historically, the biggest example of this has been Flash content. Flash is usually used for animations or that elusive “wow” factor on a website. Unfortunately it is completely useless on a mobile device and will never be supported. Other examples would be videos or interactive functionality that cannot be accessed without a mouse.

2. Mobile URLs

Because of the difference in screen real estate between mobile and desktop, many sites opt for a completely different site for the mobile device. When visiting a site from a mobile device, the user is directed (usually unbeknownst to them) to a whole separate site at a different URL, such as mobile.yoursite.com or yoursite.com/mobile.html.

This can cause problems for a few reasons. Firstly, the user probably doesn’t realize that they are getting a separate site. If the site has different content or a different layout, they can be confused, thus degrading the user experience. As preferred by Google, the site should be responsive (the same URL) and built to fit all devices from the ground up, instead of tacking on a mobile site after the fact.

Secondly, the different URLs count as different pages and can actually divide up your SEO power between pages.

3. Download Speed

Phones do not have the same processing power or connection strength as desktops. There is no way around that. Because of that, it is important to make sure your site still loads quickly and smoothly on a mobile device. Not only does this enhance user experience, Google can and will penalize you for slow loading sites. Nothing irritates and distracts a user more than a slow loading site.

4. Door Slams

A door slam is a practice that I am sure you have seen before. When navigating to a site, instead of viewing the mobile site, you are directed to a page asking you to download their mobile app instead. while it is understandable that a business would prefer a user use the mobile app instead of a mobile website, this practice is discouraged. It requires extra work for the user, directs users elsewhere instead of where Google wanted to send them and is in general, annoying.

With an average of 30% of users browsing the internet on a mobile device, you probably don’t need Google to tell you you need to think mobile for your website. But now they have made it even more compelling. More and more evidence suggests that mobile is the way way things are moving. Don’t be left behind!

More Resoureces
Click here to read more about Google penalties.

Nothing stops a potential client quicker than suggesting they start a blog.

“What would I write about?” “I’m not a writer.” “Who has time for that??”

But before you dismiss the idea, let’s talk a bit about Google. Google is constantly banging the drum of CONTENT. In order to increase your rankings (and in turn, traffic) you need to have relevant useful content, and continually be serving that up to your clients. See where I’m going here?

Blogging is the number 1 way to increase your relevant content.

Instead of a stale and static website that even you haven’t even looked at in weeks, you have a site that is constantly being updated, with new and relevant information a you are continually providing more pathways and more “searchable keywords” for your clients to find you.

What do I mean by this? Imagine you sell a product such as ski bindings. Obviously you will have a product page detailing the ski binding. If you have a blog, you might also write about a new feature on that binding. You might write a post reviewing and comparing your binding to other bindings. You might feature a client review or post a photo of someone using your ski binding. Instead of one page of content, you now have 4. That is four separate keyworded pages, all with a different angle to drive traffic to your site.

Not sold yet? Linkbacks. What better way to generate links than through blog posts? Talk about something relevant to your clients and other people will notice. People with active social media plans are continually looking for good content to recommend to their clients (I know I am). Be that good content!

Boost your site via social media.

Blogging goes hand in hand with social media. Rumour has it that google ranks sites higher that have been posted on social media sites such as twitter, Facebook and Google+. On average, a blog post that has been posted on Google+ will be indexed in 6 seconds. 6 SECONDS. That is lightening fast. Not only are you continuing your advertising, putting yourself at the forefront of people’s minds via social media, your site will be rewarded by search engines!

Still not convinced? Here’s two more.

Establish yourself as a authority in your field

Most people google and research before purchasing a product. Long before they click that “Buy Now” button, they will see you as the market leader and authority on that product.

Humanize your company

You cannot overvalue the human element in sales. Blogging helps give your company a personality, allowing you as the expert to appear more approachable and in turn, more trustworthy.

If you are anything like myself or other small business owners, the one thing you never have enough of, is time. There is no clocking out for the small business owner. So I understand the resistance to adding another task to your never-ending list. But blogging and content marketing should be at the top of your marketing plan. It cannot be ignored. In practice, I have found that once a rhythm has been developed, blogging comes naturally. You are knowledgable about your field. You have a wealth of experience and information to share. Now let’s figure out the best way to share that info and make that info and knowledge work for you. Sidebar: Skillful content writers can also be hired!

I hope I’ve sold you on the importance of a blog as part of your small business marketing plan. Here is a few tips to get you started on what to write about.

Teach. Tutorials are a great way to share information and nothing does better to establish yourself as an authority in your field than teaching. Be careful not to become too preachy.

Answer questions you hear frequently. Again, you know your business. You know your clients. Keep hearing the same question or concern over and over? Blog about it!

Industry Information Information and changes relating to your industry are also a great topic for blog posts. Help keep your clients informated while continuing to establish yourself as an authority in your field.

Photo Credit: Webdesigner Depot

How do you communicate with your clients and potential clients? Do you ever feel like you are shouting in a loud crowded room? Using cans on a string? Carrier pidgeon? What if you could get your message directly at the fingertips of your clients, exactly when it is most relevant to them?

A mobile app can do just that.

Push notifications are a feature of smart phones, that allow an app to push up a notice (similar to a text message) directly to the lock screen of the phone, forcing a user to respond.

Tell them about sales, send a 24 hour coupon, track previous purchases, the possibilities are endless. And with the newest iPhone software update, it gets even better.

iBeacon is a new framework for iOS 7. iBeacon allows you to communicate with a phone when it is within a specific range of you. Starbucks uses this (although sometimes annoyingly). If you walk by a Starbucks, you might get a notification on your phone that you are near a Starbucks and to stroll on in.

So how can you use iBeacon for your small business?

I’m sure you are starting to see the benefit. iBeacon is the digital version of a guy in a sandwich board on the street corner. A customer walks by your store and iBeacon automatically sends out a notification for a 10% coupon or a notification of today’s featured product.

Previously, push notifications had to be scheduled and you had to guess when would be a good time for the client to receive the notification. They might be sleeping, they might be on vacation. Now you can send it when it is most relevant to them, when they are right there in front of you.

This feature is incredibility powerful, as well as cost effective. Decrease staff overhead by using an automated service. Maximize the potential of impulse buyers. Again, endless.

Leave us a comment and tell us how you would use a mobile app to market your business!

In case you haven’t heard, Google has issued some new info in regards to link backs. This news has taken the SEO world by shock as it will force a lot of SEO experts to revamp their format a bit.

But let’s discuss the changes and break it down.

Linkbacks. What are they?

Traditionally, linkbacks have been at the cornerstone of any SEO plan. When someone links from their site to yours, google considers that endorsement and uses it to calculate your page rank. If a high ranking page links to you, it passes some “SEO power” to your site and increase your page rank. Consider it your online reputation or referral. Along with good content, links have always been one of the most integral parts of SEO.

And they still are important. Except according to google, you can’t look for them or try to obtain them! In google’s own words, “Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site’s ranking may be… a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.”

Here are some examples of links that could be penalized.

1. Buying or selling links. This has always been penalized. Nothing new here.

2. Link exchanging. Mutual linking has been in practice for a while although it is less popular than in the past. Nonetheless, you might see a “Resources” page or “Friends of this website” page that would be considered link exchanging and could be penalized, even though no money was exchanged.

3. Guest Posting with keyword rich anchor texts. Up until now, this has been accepted as good SEO. It’s a way to get solid links as well as exposure. Not any more.

4. Directory or bookmark sites. Do you have a resources section? Links? Friends? Call it what you want, if it is obvious that it is only for linking purposes, you could be penalized.

5. Optimized anchor text. This one is throwing a lot of people into a frenzy. No longer can you add keywords and link them to external sites.

6. Forum comments with optimized links. Think of the footer or signature in a forum post. it’s been pretty common to add a link to your website in the signature if you comment on forums. It’s good business to talk about who you are.

Basically, anything that is obviously created for search engine optimization purposes can be penalized. So how then do we optimize? Do we have to be more ninja about it? Well yes, we just need to rework things a bit. In the meantime, it’s best to go over your own site with these new rules in mind.

So you’ve got a business. Most likely, you even have a website. But the question is how do you make your website work for you? How can you get the most from your website?

Lately, I’ve had a lot of people ask me about online marketing. This is sort of generic question that reveals the desire to have a better performing website. Online marketing simply means marketing that occurs over the internet. Usually, small business owners don’t know quite how to successfully market their product or website online. We can help with that.

There are 4 major areas of online marketing: search engine optimization, social media, email marketing and pay per click advertising. Which of these (if not all) and how much of each you use depend on your business and target market. The ratio is not important yet so let’s be sure we understand what each of these are.

Search Engine Optimization

Simply put, SEO is the art of driving your website higher up in the rankings of search engines. Ideally, we want your site on page 1 of google and the top 3, as the top 3 results get the lion’s share of the traffic. Search engine optimization is a method of coding and promoting your site that helps achieve this process. I won’t get into the nitty gritty of it as it can get technical. All you need to know is that it rarely happens without some sweat. The old adage of “if you build, it will come” does NOT apply here. You do not want to get lost in internet obscurity.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

PPC is paid ads, like Google AdWords, that show up with targeted keywords. This puts your site at the top for specific keywords of your choosing with short ads for your business.

Social Media

Does your grandmother have a Facebook? Mine does. There’s no question that a huge chunk of people’s day is spent on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or YouTube. Social media is a great way to connect with your audience and build personal relationships with them. There is also evidence suggesting that content posted on social media sites rank higher in search engines.

Email Marketing

Often hailed as outdated, email marketing should NOT be overlooked. Because people have to opt in to your email list, you are able to create personalized promotional material that they are literally asking for!

A lot to take in? Now we’ve given you the general overview, what’s the next step to having a successful website? Combined with your knowledge of your business and our expertise of online marketing, let us tailor an online marketing plan specific to your business. Contact us today for a free project consultation to reveal ways we can make your website work for you!

Rosaleen asks…

Hello, I’m creating a professional training website where one of the pages will be dedicated to the bios of the trainers. What size and resolution photos should I ask the trainers to send me? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Kristy Lee answers…

The answer to this question is a bit tricky, as the different sizes will look better or worse depending on the real estate you are working with. Generally, images come in pixels. Pixels are a unit of measurement that is standard amongst graphics. A good thumbnail is 150 pixels high and 150 pixels wide. If you want something a bit bigger and clearer, 300px x 300px is also a good size.

To give you an example, see the photo on the left sidebar of me wearing a cowboy hat? That photo is 250px wide and 140 pixels high. I chose this size because it was the size of my sidebar. If you are putting the photo within the body of the content, you have more flexibility and more room so I would probably go with 300px wide.

Secondly, you don’t necessarily need a square image. Most photos are rectangle shaped and it is customary to design according to the width. So if you designate that you want photos of 300px wide, the bio holder can choose the height based on the aspect ratio of the photo.

In regards to resolution, as long as the image is clear to the naked eye, you are fine. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Because these images are smaller and will be the exact size you need, resolution is less of a factor. If you were adding photos to a gallery or using them for artwork, it would make a difference. But in this case, it is not so important.

The main objective here is that the photo adds to the content without dominating the design. You won’t want your photo to take over the page and get in the way of other content! Nor do you want it to be so small you have to strain to see it.

Lastly, keep in mind that search engines cannot read images or text on images. Don’t forget to add alt tags to your images with your keywords and add good on page text for those search engines!

Let’s learn a bit about fonts. There are two main categories of fonts: serif fonts and sans-serif fonts. Serif fonts have small lines attached to the end of the characters, like a small tail or stroke, that give it a bit more flair. Sans-serif is a simpler, cleaner font without any extra added strokes.

While sans-serif is a bit more common, both can reasonably be used in websites. Which you choose depends on the style you are aiming for, your audience and personal preference.

The world of web design is constantly changing and how fonts are handled on websites has made some broad strides in recent times. In order for a font to be used on a website, the font needs to be installed on the viewer’s computer or installed within the website. In previous years, installing on the website was labor intensive and unreliable. Generally, you were limited to a small set of fonts that were installed by default on most computers.

Google Fonts has completely changed this, making it simple to install as well as a lightweight for the user to download. This busts open wide the world of fonts you can choose. Click here to take a look at some of the fonts that google allows you to easily install to your website.

Handwriting fonts, whimsical fonts, calligraphy fonts, character based fonts, geometrical fonts: the choices can seem endless. You can choose the spacing between letters, the slant, the thickness of the stroke. So which font should you use for your website?

Every web developer is going to have a different opinion on this. So instead of giving you my opinion, I’m going to give you a few guidelines to help you choose the best font for your business. Keep in mind, that when it comes down to it, there are many good fonts and sometimes it comes down to personal preference.

Readability

Readability, readability, readability. I can’t stress this enough. Never should the choice of font or style come at the price of readability. The quickest way to lose visitors is to make the website difficult to use. Keep in mind that your viewers will have different screen sizes, different resolutions, can change the size of the font rendering, even different colors! Your font choice should be clear and legible in various sizes or colors.

While more creative or unique fonts can be used for accents, the base font should be something basic. Generally, you should have no more than 3 fonts per website. Too many fonts will be confusing for your viewer and the lack of consistency gives an image of lack of stability. As with all design, your fonts should be consistent and not overpowering. They should add to the design but never detract.

Style

Just like colors or graphics, your font set is part of your overall branding and can be a part of presenting a message about your business. What message are you trying to portray? In my experience, things like banks or financial organizations tend to choose serif fonts. The formality of serif fonts adds a bit of extra seriousness and security. Organizations such as schools or teaching based sites use sans-serif fonts, helping to bring the message of “putting the cookies on the lower shelf”. More whimsical fonts are common on artistic or creative sites. Fancier fonts also can portray the message of skill and effort.

Ask yourself a few questions.

Are you trying to present an image of fun and flavor or stability and trustworthiness?

Function or fashion? Are you viewers coming for fun or do they have a task to complete and then get out?

What style is your current branding and what fonts would support that?

Still with me? Now that you know some guidelines for choosing a font, the rest is personal preference. I’d also like to add that it can be counterproductive to over think it. First and foremost, you want a font that is readable and portrays your message. Function over fashion. Keep that in mind and the rest will fall into place.

Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome back. Hanging out with Kristy Lee from KL Creative Design. First of all, let’s just tell everybody what KL Creative Design is.

Kristy Lee: KL Creative Design is a full service web development group. We do everything web related and mobile related.

Speaker 1: OK. Now, the reason that I know about Kristy Lee is because we actually when we first moved here about, … well, really long time ago. We taught snowboarding together over in Breckenridge but obviously have moved on to other things. Kristy Lee actually happens to be redoing our website right now here at TV8 Summit. Still have some things to do but certainly needs some improvement. Besides just revamping an entire website, what are some other things that might be good for some small businesses out there that they could really help that would be web related?

Kristy Lee: Right, well you can definitely do some marketing. We’ve got search engine optimization, we would do general optimization of your website. We also, depending on your business and what you’re looking for, we also offer mobile apps. Those can also be a fantastic way to reach out to new customers, to reconnect with your clients and to keep them loyal to you, as well.

Speaker 1: OK. Definitely a lot of different things. Well, let’s kind of back things up. When it comes to mobile apps and mobile websites, what’s the difference?

Kristy Lee: A mobile app is something that lives on your phone. It’s coded in a different language and it’s presented to you via the app store, only the app store. Whereas a mobile website is you navigating to your website with your mobile phone.

Speaker 1: A mobile website is actually different than what you would …

Kristy Lee: It is.

Speaker 1: … typically have on …

Kristy Lee: Yes.

Speaker 1: … your computer. How so?

Kristy Lee: Your mobile website is just the mobile version of your website. The content is slightly optimized, but it’s technically the same website. Whereas a mobile app you can do a lot of different things with it. You can send notifications to your clients, if someone has it on there and you got a sale coming up, you can tell them about it with something called a push notification. Which comes up almost like a little text message or any one of those banner notifications on there and you can talk to them that way. They can interact even without internet, as well. It’s a whole ‘nother way to interact with your clients.

Speaker 1: OK. Now when it comes to the mobile websites, if it’s just the same thing as your regular website, why do you need one?

Kristy Lee: Well you would want that because the last thing you want to do is have somebody go to your website and get turned off because they can’t find what they’re looking for or certain technologies do not work on the mobile phones.

Speaker 1: Hmm.

Kristy Lee: Sometimes the content needs to be rearranged or the screen is super zoomed out and you get this tiny little version of it. We would make it so that way everything is right at their fingertips. It’s optimized for the smaller screen. Optimized for what content they are more likely to be looking for and it just works better them for them.

Speaker 1: Got you. Basically just making it so that people don’t immediately just turn away because I think we all know how that works now like you’re looking something up, if you can’t find it, like OK on to the next thing.

Kristy Lee: Right. Exactly.

Speaker 1: You guys are local, which is fantastic. Right here in Summit County., so you don’t have to go down to the front range to get these kind of services. How would you recommend that somebody maybe get in touch with you? How do they get started with either redesigning their website? Maybe ..

Kristy Lee: Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1: … just looking into mobile apps or mobile website;, how do they do it?

Kristy Lee: Well, we can sit down and talk about it. If you have a project in mind, I offer a free project consultation where I will sit down for 30 minutes and discuss your project and I can offer you some advice and some steps to move forward. What you might need to do to get ready. We have that. You can also check out my website at KLCreativedesign.com.

Speaker 1 All right. You guys, great way to get started. Non-intimidating, you can ask all those questions, you can kind of see where to begin and you have that free consultation. Thanks for coming in this morning, always a pleasure to see you.

Kristy Lee: Yes.

Speaker 1: We’re going to take a break here on Summit Sunrise, we have more coming your way on this week long edition.

www.tandemdesignlab.com

I want to talk briefly about website hosting, as I get this question a lot and it can be a bit confusing. Most of my clients already have a website of some form when they come to me, but rarely understand how to access it or what info we will need in order to make changes to the existing site. Several of my clients were even overpaying for their hosting or paying for 2 hosting servers without even knowing what they were paying for!

Website Hosting

In order to be viewable on the internet, the files that make up your website have to live somewhere. Website hosting is space that you rent online to store the website. When someone types in your URL and attempts to visit your site, this hosting server will receive that request and send back the appropriate files. You can also house files, documents, databases, or even just use it as storage. Your email can also be hosted here, although you may download it to your computer via a mail client such as Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook.

Domain Name

You will also need a domain name. Your domain name is your website URL or address. (www.yourwebsite.com). This domain is often registered elsewhere (with a domain registrar) and is different than the website hosting. In order to have a website, you need both a domain name and website hosting.

FTP and cPanel

If you are planning on doing some work on your website or building a website soon, you will need access to both of these. If you have a current web developer, you can request cPanel access and FTP access. cPanel is the backend to access all the services your web host offers you. You can install databases, create directories, install software such as WordPress and set up email accounts from here.

FTP stands for file transfer protocol. This accesses the actual server space where the files will be stored and allows KL Creative Design or your web developer to make changes to the files.

Email Hosting

Your email can be hosted with the domain or with the website hosting server and would have your url in the email address (yourname@yourwebsite.com). You can also have external email through a service such as yahoo or gmail, although these tend to be less professional and are more vulnerable to hacking. We don’t suggest keeping your important documents with an external free service because if something goes wrong, there is little that you can do about it.

Everyone seems to be talking about it but no one quite knows the difference. So I would like to break it down nice and easy.

Firstly, what is a mobile website? A mobile website is a website built specifically for the mobile platform. Usually this is a version of a normal website that a user is directed to if they are viewing on a mobile device such as a phone or a tablet. Not only do they have different content and a different layout, they often have a different url than the standard website, such as mobile.yourwebsite.com or yourwebsite.com/mobile.html.

Responsive web design differs from this in a few key points. Let’s define responsive web design. In short, responsive web design is a method of building websites wherein the website responds to the screen size it is viewed on. For example, a 3 column website might become a 2 column website for a tablet or a 1 column website for a mobile phone. It is the same website, but the content is rearranged to fit the screen size. Specific styles are applied to the site, per the screen size, but the content and the code is exactly the same.

The main difference that you need to keep in mind is that responsive websites have the same URL and most, if not all of the same content. This is essential for search engine optimization. Different URLs split the SEO ranking juice, which can lower your rankings in search engines. They can also confuse a user, or cause problems when linking or sharing the content. Responsive website design is the Google recommended method for building websites.