Last week we began our discussion on the importance of how you use social media in your business and your web development and web design efforts and examined the first two of the four most important social media dynamics. Now we will examine the other two…
Be willing to give truly useful information through your site. It’s why people will come back. This is probably the biggest roadblock for most businesses. The idea of GIVING away information. As a business, you can either accept it or fight it. If you fight it, you’re fighting a losing battle as it’s too easy to click away from your site and find your competitor online.
If you’re a real estate professional, have a mortgage calculator that people can use on your website. Have free information buyers and sellers can use on preparing for the transaction, getting the house sell-ready, etc. It will save you time in the process and establish you as a reliable source of good information.
Same if you’re an accountant, a financial advisor, architect, mechanic or whatever. Heck, we’re a web development and web design company and we’re giving away a lot of free advice on our site.
Why?
Simple. It’s the right thing to do, and from a business sense we’re getting on the radar of potential future clients. They may not need us now, but if they take our advice, use it on their current website and are happy with the results, we’ll be on their radar should a need arise in the future.
Post consistently on your website…at least once a week. Once a business has decided to put real focus on their website and sharing information, all too often the business starts off a little TOO gung-ho with a lot of posts in the first couple of weeks and then the process tapers off and is forgotten.
Once you make the commitment to sharing good, truly useful information through your website, commit to a reasonable schedule that you can keep up. It’s better to have one good, useful post per week on your site and be consistent than to start off with guns-a-blazin’ and then disappear. Then you wind up looking like you REALLY don’t care. By all means, the more the merrier, but consistency is the most important thing.
There is a pervasive mentality among some business owners and CEO’s that amounts to a short attention span. The mentality where that person will try something briefly and if he/she doesn’t see results fast they move on to something else. This mentality and the negative connotations that go with it are magnified in the communication arena of social media and Internet marketing.
Competition has never been greater with the Internet turning the world into a market for most businesses. Even if you’re a more localized business, you still are in competition with these more global entities when it comes to being found online and establishing ROI with your website.
Patience is a virtue now more than ever, and you must treat your online business presence with the knowledge and understanding that what’s important today is the Internet has made it possible for people to get to know you and your business on their own time…with you nowhere around.
Good business has always been about relationship building. Through the decades, this has evolved from the simple handshake to wider reaching methods including direct mail, telemarketing, email and now social media and your website.
It’s important in your web development and web design work to understand the dynamics of social media and Internet marketing. Social media is an arena that is becoming more and more a part of your actual website through things like Google’s “+1” button and Facebook’s “Like” button as well as social bookmarking like StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit and others.
What has happened over these past decades is a widening of the gap between consumer and salesperson/business. That gap has been caused by pollution of all the aforementioned communication methods to the point where consumers are saying “Enough already! Leave me alone and let me make my decision in peace. I get it…you’re ALL the best.”
This is what social media is all about and why every “consumer’s” social media account is a safe haven for them. You’re a “friend” or “connection” in that person’s social media world only because they’ve allowed you in. Most businesses that have trouble with social media have trouble because once they’re accepted in a person’s social media circle of friends, they resort to the same ol’ blind “junk mail” or “spam” tactics.
There is no quicker way to get blacklisted in social media circles than to abuse the privilege of being in those circles through spam and consistently “salesy” posts. Anyone who views you as “spammy” or simply want to tune you out can easily do it with the click of a button. This really renders the more “type A” aggressive approaches to communication powerless.
So what are the important dynamics of social media and Internet marketing with regard to your business? Here are the four most important ones:
- Care first and people will care more about you.
- Recognize social media as top of mind awareness and stop being “salesy” in your posts and messages.
- Be willing to give truly useful information through your site. It’s why people will come back.
- Post consistently on your website…at least once a week.
Care first and people will care more about you. Perhaps the most simple aspect of the whole social media process is the one businesses ignore most. Care first and be responsive to your social media connections. Yeah, yeah, yeah…we hear it all the time. “I don’t care about what so-and-so had for breakfast.” “I don’t care what so-and-so is doing tonight.” Okay, fair enough. Keep in mind, though, that “so-and-so” is a potential customer/client and they don’t necessarily care about YOUR business, either.
So now what?
It’s important to remember that when you’re dealing with an easy-to-use open forum like social media, you will be connected with all types of people. This holds true for your website, too, as social media bookmarking and sharing buttons like the Facebook “like” and Google’s “+1” are morphing websites into the new wave of social media. You may see Tweets and Facebook posts from some connections that leave you rolling your eyes or shaking your head. Just ignore them, because tomorrow they may post something about their daughter/son’s upcoming graduation or a birthday, etc. and it’s important to respond to these whenever you can because it let’s people know that you care about more than just selling them something.
Care first and people will then care about you. Take that first step. It’s the most positive top-of-mind-awareness there is.
Recognize social media as top of mind awareness and stop being “salesy” in your posts and messages. The Internet is a forum where you can put your business in front of millions upon millions of potential visitors and customers or clients. Why, then, do so many businesses forget about people in this forum and focus on “ME ME ME”?
There is virtually no spin or sales pitch you can throw out there that people haven’t heard before. In fact, many potential customers know the pitches by heart either because they’ve heard them before or they’ve been through the same sales training as you. Sales has by far the highest turnover rate of ANY mode of employment, which means there’s a good chance that many of your prospects are or have been in sales themselves.
Simply put, today’s consumer really HAS heard it all before.
When you go to make a new post on your social media account or website, think of your audience as collectively thinking “Blah, blah, blah…yeah, I know you’re the best. How can you help ME?”
Transparent, consumer-focused marketing has never been more important than it is on the Internet, because as soon as someone gets a bad feeling about you and/or your business they can click away from your site in a millisecond. Eliminate sales pitches from your social media and website communication and focus on giving information…and perhaps a little entertainment when warranted.
Next week, we will examine in detail the third and fourth most important social media dynamics.
If we step to the edge of the chasm that has developed between consumer and sales/business professional in all realms over the last few years, we would undoubtedly see a big “F-U-D” at the bottom of said chasm.
Yes, sales and business “pros” now have to deal with the aftermath of decades of “training” that have led to the distrust so rampant now from consumers.Unfortunately, many are incorporating the same methods on their websites.
Yes, it’s the aforementioned principal of FUD – Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Creating a need where there really is none…a need born out of the salesperson creating uncertainty and doubt in the mind of the consumer about their current situation, which in turn creates fear that the sky will fall if the consumer does not act quickly.
The web development and web design on your business’s website should never incorporate methods that are manipulative or negatively “salesy.” In fact, it is these factors that will drive people away from your site in a millisecond.
If you have been disappointed with the results of your website, take a look at your site analytics (Google Analytics is a good tool for this). Look at how long visitors stay on your site and how many pages they look at.If people are leaving your website after a very short time, it might be a good idea to look at your content and how it speaks to people.
Look for FUD. Is there anything in your content that speaks fear, uncertainty, doubt or all of the above? If there is, remove it and simply replace it with information with legitimate value. FUD doesn’t work on the Internet. Information sharing does.
FUD is a tactic born out of selfishness, which makes it a tactic that will ultimately defeat itself through poor service and lack of referral business. Instead of FUD, create a blog page and post useful information regularly every week. This will create an interactive information hub that will allow you to connect with customers and potential customers/clients better than ever.
Remember that on the Internet FUD means “Friggin’ Useless Domain.”
Ok, we know it’s not the New Year yet and resolutions don’t really matter unless they’re serious commitments, but we have a New Year’s Resolution challenge for you and your business.
Look at how your business is represented online through your web development and web design strategy and make this simple commitment: I Will Care.
I Will Care enough to put thought into my website and how it represents my business online.
I Will Care that my website doesn’t look or feel like an afterthought.
I Will Care enough to put some of my own thought, time and energy into my website so it truly represents me and my business.
I Will Care to envision my website as an interactive forum with legitimate, current and valuable information people can use because I know this is what will create the “top of mind awareness” that I need.
I Will Care to seek out legitimate SEO and Internet marketing and NOT seek out the magic pills that tell me what I want to hear but ultimately don’t deliver.
I Will Care enough to be patient with my SEO if I’m just starting with it and active with my SEO to be sure it remains Google-friendly.
I Will Care enough to work with my web development and web design team on creative and valid new material to keep my site fresh.
Your site will be as successful as you want it to be…and that requires your input because no one knows your business better than you. Communicate clearly with your development and design team and with your SEO/Internet marketing specialist, as this connection is what results in the best and most powerful websites online:)
Do you feel like you’re spinning your wheels and accomplishing little or nothing in terms of tangible results with your web development and web design efforts?
The old adage of keeping it simple is the key. All roads lead to Rome…Rome being your website.
The ultimate goal is to earn a higher ranking in the search engines through both onsite and offsite SEO (search engine optimization).
And that’s where it gets confusing, thanks to the myriad “solutions” available online and the unfortunate promises they make in their sales pitches.
Always remember: The purpose of your website is two main things: get people to call you or get people into your business/on an appointment with you. It’s really that simple.
So where does all of this SEO crap fit into the picture? Your onsite SEO ensures that all of your titling and content contains the proper key words and phrasing in the proper amount. Too much can kill your ranking. The right words have to be balanced with the right presentation so people will like what they see when they find you and, thus, stay longer.
Your offsite SEO is mostly links back to your website. Yep, you want a whole bunch of fingers pointing to your website because that tells Google that you’re both relevant and popular. Links can come from a variety of sources, and making comments on other relevant blogs is a good place to start.
Each comment you make is a link back to your site. Now, that being said, make sure your comments are relevant and add to the conversation. ”This was a nice post” or “You have really made a good point here” (or any of the other lame generic comments you’ve undoubtedly seen) are both thoughtless and worthless. Compliments only count when they’re followed by thoughtful comments that add to the conversation.
Guest blogging is another great way to generate links. Think of some of your favorite blogs and contact the owners. Simply ask if they accept guest blog articles. Some do and some don’t, so find the ones that do and get writing:) It not only gets you more links to your site, it exposes you to an entirely new audience as well.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a presence in social media forums for both linking and interaction with your target audience.
And if you remember nothing else from reading this, remember that all roads lead to Rome…Rome being your website. You want a lot of fingers pointing at you so you’ll be noticed.
Just make sure you have the right web development and web design team to create the kind of site people will truly like when they discover it.
