This weekend I attended the Future Midwest Conference. The conference had two main objectives from my point of view. First was to learn how other companies are using different tools to make their business better, and secondly was to show the world that Michigan and the Midwest are tech savvy, and need to recognized. I found the conference very informational and found some great tools that I will be sharing with you in the future. Once I get a chance to play with them and show how they can really build your business. The one underlying theme that I thought really resonated with me, was that there are many really cool things going on with Social Media, but it still comes down to building and maintaining a relationships. We talk a lot about the online community, what is this online community that we speak of. When I was growing up I lived in a small city that had a tight community. People watched out for each other. To be considered part of the community, you had to add value. It is great if you have thousands of followers on Twitter or friends on Facebook, but if you are not adding value to them, what are you getting from this relationship. Social Media is still new and is growing up. I believe that in the future to be successful on Social Media, a person or business will be accountable for what they do in the community. As Chris Barger, the Global Director of Social Media for General Motors said in his presentation, “Social Media needs to use basic business practices”. You need to conduct yourself on-line just as you would with a face to face meeting. There is no magic elixir in Social Media, there is only hard work and sweat equity. What is your secret behind Social Media?
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The Secret Behind Social Media
Six Pixels of Separation-Highly Recommended
When I founded NxtGen Marketing, I knew very little about how to actually code a website. Actually I never had any intention of building websites, I had planned on helping small businesses to use the power of the internet to strengthen their marketing plan. After only a few weeks, I came to realize that to help small businesses to succeed I needed to start at the basis for every good internet marketing plan, a website. Even though I had earned a bachelors degree and a MBA, I went back to community to college to begin my training in web development. As I have stated in an earlier post Education Goes A Long Way, I am a big believer in never stop working to educate yourself. This is especially true with social media, since it is so new and is changing on a daily basis. I went to my local bookstore a few weeks ago looking for a new book to read, and came across Mitch Joel’s “Six Pixels of Separation”.
How does Google rank your website?
The other day I was sitting in a coffee shop trying to get some work done, while there was a meeting at the booth directly in front of me, that I just could resist to eavesdrop on. It was a women trying to sell her services to an owner of a company that sold automotive springs. She was selling him on her SEO and PPC services. She was explaining to him the difference between the sponsored links and organic search results. The business owner than asked , “Is there a human person that looks at the sites and decides if they are relevant to the search?” Then to my amazement, she told yes. “That is why Google sponsored links are so effective.” I wanted to jump out of my table and offer my services to this business owner. One of the main reasons that Google is such a powerful company, is that their algorithm can look at sites keywords, content, links, along with other factors, and with in a split second know how relevant the site is to the word being searched. So no there are not people who review every site that is submitted to them.
Let this story be a warning to anyone that is looking in to SEO, and does not know anything about it. For small business owners, if you are looking into SEO, take sometime and do some research. You should have an understanding of what you are looking for and what can be expected. When done correctly SEO is time consuming and almost an art form. As a consumer, you should at least be able to talk to your service provider and have some checks and balances with them. Here are a few resources to help get you started.
A quick check list things that will help your website do well or poor
http://www.webconfs.com/15-minute-seo.php
For the do-it-yourself-er, some sites to help with your SEO
http://www.blogtrepreneur.com/2010/03/10/12-no-cost-tools-to-help-improve-your-seo/
This is my turn to blog on SEO, if you have question it usually it is here.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog
Personal Side of Social Media
Social media is a great tool for any small business owner. It does not require a large amount of capital to get started, is easily measurable, and the more time you put in the more you get out of it. Social media is a great way to connect with your customers. It is really predicated on the honor system. As long as a company is completely up front with their social group on-line, then it can be a successful avenue. A report from eMarketer, shows that most people including social media users, still rely face to face word of mouth to suggest products. The first on-line entity is internet advertising coming in 4th with 28.3% of social media users and 23.1% of average adult respondents. Social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace came in at 22.6% of social media users and 14.6% of the average adult respondents. To see the whole story go to “Spurring Social Users to Search“
The lesson here is that social media is not any different than networking in the real world. Even though it seems to be a little more anonymous because you are sitting behind a computer, the social interaction of the these communities is still the most important part. It is important for your business to build a trust factor. The customer should feel that they are getting something out of their relationship with you, just not a sales pitch. In my business one of the best feelings is when I get a phone call from a referred customer. It lets me know that I have done a good job. It is very important that you treat your social network just as you would treat your next door neighbor. You never know when they will give out your next referral.
New Focus
I started NxtGen Marketing just over two years. I have learned many lessons over the years, and still have much to learn. One of the hardest leasons that I have had to learn is focus. I am no exception to any other small business owner. I have a milllion things going on at once. I am trying to run my business, help my customers to better manage their online presnence, and keep my personal life active. There are a lot of balls in the air at one time. Time management can be a bitch. My goal for 2010 is to work harder to manage my business. Some of the steps that I have taken are to limit the amount of time that I spend on Twitter. I have allowed myself a few minutes in the morning respond to any comments overnight that I need too, then at lunch I look again, and later at night is my last check. I have also been aided at this by using tweetdeck, which allows me to see all my twitter acounts at once, and also see when and who has mentioned me on Twitter. Another step that I have taken is to make Friday my catch up day, this is when I work on my blog postings, along with working on my account. So far it has helped me to be more productive, and am having a good years so far.