So you have a website that is not doing too great in the search engines, and you have just now heard of search engine optimization but don’t know where to start. Welcome to the party! Or say you’re an SEO beginner who is taking on some websites to optimize — where should you begin? Here is a basic assessment checklist of what you should investigate about the site before diving in and doing any of the actual work.

1. Check the age of the domain

Why? The older the domain, usually the more authority it has and it has a greater chance to rank higher for the same keywords as a younger domain. If the domain is more than a few years old, you know you’re on a good track and should get results faster than if the domain was just registered.

How? Use whois.sc search or a free quick tool on SEOmoz.

2. Is there a canonical issue with the domain?

Does http://yourdomain.com redirect to http://www.yourdomain.com ?

Why? http://yourdomain.com should always redirect to http://www.yourdomain.com OR the other way around. You don’t want two different domain names (with and without www) to be on your site.

How? Just type in both domain names and see if it redirects. If it does not, you can set up the redirect in your hosting control panel, or do it in .htaccess file depending on the server, or just contact your hosting support/admin and let them know about it, if you’re not technically proficient. You can also set a preference just for Google in your Google Webmaster Central account – but it’s best to set it up on your server to serve all purposes, not just Google.

3. Check for ‘pre-existing’ conditions

Why? You want to see if any previous SEO work has put any kind of hindrance or penalties on the website.

How? If the site has been around for a while, just do a few Google searches for your brand and few of the keywords you SHOULD undoubtedly rank for to see if you do come up as #1 or close to it. That way you can get a quick check how the domain has performed in the past and if it suffered any penalties at all.

4. Is the site search engine friendly?

Why? Obviously, if it is not, it will make your work that much harder and you should look to change it up or rebuild it entirely from scratch.

How? Review the source code of the site. This is the only thing that search engines see. Do you see the content, navigation, links, etc. in the HTML code? If not, there can be multiple explanations:

• Is the site in Flash?
• Does it use frames?
• Does it use javascript for parts of the content or navigation?

Ideally all the text and navigation should be in HTML, and if it’s your site you should really look to change the site structure to HTML/CSS. But if you run into a client or developer who just doesn’t buy it or insists on keeping it the way it is, there are few compromises that you can do:

1. For a Flash site, you can suggest to restructure the site as HTML with Flash elements added in to keep the flair they’re looking for.
2. Another compromise can be to build the HTML version of the Flash site to run behind the Flash, but that would mean the developer would need to worry about updating and maintaining two separate websites.
3. For javascript dropdown navigation, you can use or suggest many free CSS menus that are available online and do pretty much the same thing as JS, but are search engine friendly. Or you can redo the JS navigation where it’s a combination of HTML and javascript,  i.e., the URLs are inside the HTML and javascript is only used to move them as needed.
4. For other javascript functions that hide the text within javascript from the HTML source, make sure that the actual content/text is within HTML and then you can use javascript to only move/animate that content as needed. But if the content is within javascript, the search engines cannot see it.
5. Frames just need to be removed. Nobody uses frames design anymore, and if your site is one of the dinosaurs it just needs to be rebuilt. Having one frame within a page for certain functionality is OK, but I’m talking about if your site is built entirely in frames and you cannot see any content in the source code because of it.

5. Has the site been previously optimized?

Why? If it has, then possibly you will need to do less work. Although, most of the time you would probably still need to redo what was done previously if it was done improperly.

How? Some of the quick things to check for are:

• Title tags – are they different for each page? Do they contain keywords?
• Does a Meta Description exist?
• Is there interlinking within the content of the page that uses keywords?
• Are keywords used at all/enough times within the content of the pages?
• Is there a logical navigation structure that uses keywords?

6. Check the URL structure of the site

Why? The URL Structure must be search engine friendly. Google has a very informative article on the URL structure, which you should follow.

How? Change the URL structure to remove characters such as “?”, “=”, “&”, etc. If you have a dynamic website, make sure a sound URL structure is a requirement from the beginning. You will see many dynamic e-commerce sites use something like this for a product page: domain.com/product.php?id=2343&color=23489. That’s an example of a really bad URL. Instead, use product names and keep the pages as close to the root domain as possible – for example, domain.com/video-games or domain.com/video-games.html. Using keywords inside the URLs can help as well, but it’s best not to make them too long. Also, use dashes “-” to separate the words.

7. Check for broken URLs

Why? Having broken URLs means you’re missing out on link juice or potential traffic. It can also cause confusion from the visitors that may not bother with your site if the URL they clicked on is broken.

How? Register your site in Google Webmaster Central. It’s a good idea to do this anyway to help your site get indexed, so kill two birds with one stone and also use their tools to see if they found any broken URLs. If there are, make sure you 301 redirect those to matching pages or to the homepage.

8. Run a crawl check on the site

Why? Obviously your site needs to be easily crawlable, and there are some great tools available that will give you a quick overview and suggest how to fix issues.

How? You can use Google Webmaster Central to point out any obvious issues. But also there are other tools available that go in deeper: SEOmoz, Raven SEO Tools, and SEO Book have some great tools that will scan your site and will point out anything that may be wrong with it.

9. Run a backlink report

Why? You want to see how many links are pointing back to the site, which anchor keywords are being used, and the quality of the links you’re getting (PageRank, Link Juice, etc.)

How? The quick and free way is to use Yahoo Site Explorer. If you want to a nice report complete with anchor text and/or link juice, you can use the SEOmoz Linkscape, Raven SEO Tools, Majestic-SEO, or some others that are available. I personally like Link Research Tools, which goes really in-depth.

10. See which keywords the site is already ranking for

Why? This should factor in your keyword research. If you’re already ranking on page 2 and 3 for certain keywords, it should be easier to get those keywords to page 1.

How? SEM Rush is a great tool for this. It will show you what you rank for and can suggest keywords that are related. You can also run this report to see what your competitors are ranking for.

The above is just a start-up list of things to do before you even get to some of the more in-depth SEO research, on-site changes and link building, but you should check all these things and MORE, whether you’re starting SEO for your own site or taking on a new project as an SEO.

424239 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/10/30/optimizing-an-existing-website-checklist/10+Simple+%28but+Important%29+Things+to+Check+Before+Optimizing+an+Existing+Site2009-10-30+20%3A46%3A56Victor+Murygin

Bookmark this post:

Last week James Gurd from eConsultancy.com asked whether speakers need to weave social media into their presentations. With the prevalence of smart phones and real-time updates, it seems as if speaker feedback is more immediate and accessible than ever, and before you even give your presentation you can get lots of advice and help crafting your message thanks to various social networks. Below are some ways you can integrate social media into your presentation before, during and after you give it.

Before

• If you’re pitching to speak at a conference and need to come up with a session or presentation idea, reach out to your colleagues via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and ask them what they think would be an interesting/valuable topic to cover.
• Once your session’s been established and you know what you’ll be talking about, you can pull a Winfield and ping your colleagues again with questions related to your presentation. Feature their responses in your presentation, or use examples or case studies they’ve brought up to help illustrate your point. Make sure you have their permission and attribute proper credit!
• Blog about the upcoming event to build some buzz and awareness of your upcoming speaking gig. Encourage people to comment and leave questions about the panel that you can strive to answer during your session.
• Share tips related to your presentation via your blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc, and conclude with something like “You’ll hear more great tips about how to test and optimize landing pages at my Landing Page Testing & Tactics session December 5th at XYZ Conference!”

During

• Tweet/update Facebook right before your session starts and remind people that you’ll be speaking momentarily and that they should attend if they’re at the conference.
• Tweet to your followers that if they’re shy but have a question or if they’re not attending but have a question for the panel, they can forward it to you or your fellow panelists to address during the session. Try to compile some questions in case there’s a lull during the Q&A portion (this is an especially good tip for moderators, but it won’t hurt for you to do it, either).
• Be sure to use any predetermined conference-related hashtags for anyone who wants to follow all the action going on during the show.

After

• If your fellow presenters did well, give them proper kudos! Tweet something like “@brentcsutoras gave a stellar presentation about social media. Was a pleasure speaking alongside him!”
• Write a followup post on your blog detailing (if you’re allowed to) a couple nuggets of information from the session and the conference. Include your contact information (or link to it) if anyone wants to get a hold of you (Always Be Closing, baby!) and a little call to action like “If you enjoyed the session and would like to get in touch regarding some questions/information, contact me at” yada yada.
• Ping attendees for feedback — ask them what they thought of you presentation, how you could improve, highlights, etc. You should always be striving to make each speaking gig the best it can possibly be, and collecting/listening to feedback is the most important way to do so. Be sure to pay attention to any unsolicited buzz or feedback floating around and act on it promptly — manage that reputation, yo!

What other ways can you think to integrate social media into your presentations? Respond below or tweet at 10e20!

422911 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/10/29/integrating-social-media-into-your-presentation-process/Integrating+Social+Media+into+Your+Presentation+Process2009-10-29+22%3A23%3A13Rebecca+Kelley

Bookmark this post:

Move over, LL Cool J, because right now Ladies Love Social Media. Numerous articles have come out citing a survey and analysis of social network demographics conducted by Brian Solis of FutureWorks. It appears that for the vast majority of sites, women are the dominant demographic:

Image courtesy of BrianSolis.com and InformationisBeautiful.net. For a larger image, click here.

What attracts females to social networks? Salon.com weighs in:

“The knee-jerk explanation for Solis’ findings looks something like this: Ladies like to chat, share intimate details of their lives and keep in touch with friends they haven’t seen in person since grade school. Menfolk don’t have time for such social frivolity. (Or hey, maybe they’re just too busy trolling the Web for porn.)”

It makes sense. After all, females often seem to be the more social of the two genders, so I find it unsurprising to hear that they’re taking to Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. like moths to a flame. Social networks might end up being a bit of an Internet equalizer. For so long it seemed as if the Internet was a boys’ club treehouse with a “No Girls Allowed” sign hand-scrawled on the front door. Now, however, social networks and social media are being adopted more and more by females and are playing to their strengths.  Suddenly the intertubes seems less like a sausagefest…

As more females become familiar with social networking and incorporate it into their daily lifestyles, what does this mean for marketers? Well, if you’re a business who caters to females or depend on women as your primary customers, the answer seems simple, really: you need to get social, and you need to do it now. The Wall Street Journal cites a study conducted by Rapleaf that states “married women between the ages 35 and 50 are the fastest-growing segment of social-networking users.” That’s a pretty powerful purchasing demographic. You need to flock to where your customers are, and right now your customers are gettin’ social, baby.

Is it enough to register a bunch of social profiles and watch the sales roll in? Obviously not; clearly, the most appealing part of social networking for females is the “social” part. It’s not enough to create a profile, add a bunch of friends and say nothing. You need to be an active participant and engage with your audience. Nobody wants to hear your monologue, they want to converse with you.

Let’s say your business is Cupcake Couture, and you specialize in fresh cupcakes as well as bakeware and cute cupcake and sweets-themed accessories (e.g., aprons, oven mitts, dish towels, pieces of jewelry and clothing).

Mmm, cupcakes…

If you created a profile on Twitter, you’d probably want to track mentions of both your brand as well as instances where people tweet about cupcakes, baking and other related keywords.

Following these folks is just the first step. What about posting pics of delectable cupcakes, tweeting about contest giveaways, and sharing deals, sales and recipes? Well, that’s all well and good too, but the most important thing you can do with your account is interact with your audience. If someone following Cupcake Couture mentions that she’s trying out a new cupcake recipe, respond with “Sounds yummy! Let me know how they turn out!” Is a follower prepping for a bake sale? Follow up and ask how it went. If a cupcake fan laments about how she burned her oven mitt, send her a link to one of yours and offer 10% off.

Engagement is absolutely essential. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have and how many stupid press mentions you tweet about in a self-absorbed manner; if you’re not stressing the “social” part of social networking, your conversions will be nil and your females will spend their dollars on a business that makes them feel like they’re being heard. So what are you waiting for? You better join the party before all your competitors jump in the pool too.

421710 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/10/28/got-female-customers-then-social-media-is-for-you/Got+Female+Customers%3F+Then+Social+Media+is+for+You%212009-10-28+21%3A05%3A59Rebecca+Kelley

Bookmark this post:

I came across a post on Twitter that was written by David Spinks. The entry, titled “DEBATE: Don’t Hire a Social Media Intern,” details why you shouldn’t rely on an intern to work on your social media campaigns. While his list is, for the most part, dead-on, I thought I’d take David up on the “DEBATE” portion of his title and outline some ways an intern can help with social media marketing as well as identify some areas that should be off-limits.

List of Intern Do’s and Don’ts

Don’t:

• Rely on an intern to build your social media profiles. If you haven’t yet dipped a toe into the social media pool, don’t have an intern shove you in headfirst and then abandon you when he realizes you can’t swim. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you still won’t know what you’re doing once that intern leaves and takes all of his social media knowledge with him…and that’s in the best-case scenario. At the very worst, you could be giving an intern the keys to your social media ride, only to see him immediately crash it into a tree. Are you going to trust someone who’s only around temporarily and probably isn’t getting paid with the integrity of your brand?

Do:

• Allow your intern to contribute to an already thriving brand. If you’ve already got an established list of profiles and know what you’re doing but need some help consistently updating content and engaging with others, here’s where an intern can step in. You don’t have to have him or her make direct updates and changes if you’re not comfortable assigning such a big responsibility that has close impact to the brand. Instead,you can  instruct your intern to create a list of news, ideas and things to blog, Tweet and post about on Facebook and then hand the list over to your main editor or writer.

Don’t:

• Assume your intern is a born brand evangelist. He may have said he was Company XYZ’s biggest fan when you interviewed him for the internship, but don’t assume that to be fact. Just because someone is familiar with your brand, doesn’t mean he’s qualified to speak confidently and in great detail about what your company does.

Do:

• Teach your intern the ropes before sending him out to fight. Better to be safe than sorry — have a mandatory training day where you teach your intern the brand culture and how you want the company publicly portrayed. This is especially important if you decide to entrust your intern with direct updates. You may want to have him “shadow” you for a few days so he sees how the brand is handled before you let him get behind the wheel (if you do at all). Even after training and shadowing, you’ll still want to monitor what he’s doing and act quickly on any slip ups that may occur (he shared a broken link, answered a question incorrectly, etc).

Don’t:

• Allow your interns to create or change any passwords without permission. Be organized and keep track of the logins you’ve created for your interns, and don’t allow them to change them without getting an approval from you first. It’s easy to fall behind and just let your intern take care of a lot of things, but when it comes to profile access and your brand, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Do:

• Change passwords between interns. If you have an intern leave, change any logins he has access to for the next intern or for your staff. You don’t want to forget about the part-time dude who doesn’t work for you any more but still has access to your accounts…especially if you parted on bad terms.

Don’t:

• Overload your intern and expect him to handle everything. Just because it’s free (or cheap) labor doesn’t mean it’ll be any good. Start your intern off with small tasks and don’t throw every social media assignment his way. Figure out what he’s especially interested in. Does he have an active personal Twitter account? See if he’ll bring some knowledge to the company Twitter profile. Don’t overlook your intern’s strengths, and certainly don’t expect him to successfully manage multiple social media profiles. If you don’t have someone in-house full-time to manage them, what makes you think a part-time intern can do the job adequately?

Do:

• Consider giving your intern the spotlight in some way. Victoria’s Secret PINK Twitter account is run by the interns, and they’ve gotten a positive response on both Twitter and Facebook. If you’re a fun company who likes to “think outside the box” (sorry, it’s cliche, I know), consider letting your intern shine in some form or another. One suggestion is to set up an “intern” blog profile and let your intern post a blog entry chronicling things from his perspective. Your intern will likely appreciate the kudos and it will make the internship more fun and rewarding, and your audience will probably find the new point of view to be refreshing and interesting.

What other social media do’s and don’ts can you think of when working with an intern? Drop your comments below! Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed and follow 10e20 (and our awesome Charlie avatar) on Twitter!

420820 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/10/27/should-you-hire-a-social-media-intern/Should+You+Hire+a+Social+Media+Intern%3F2009-10-27+23%3A09%3A11Rebecca+Kelley

Bookmark this post:

When you’re networking, you want to make it easy for the person you’re meeting to remember you and to find you later. Having a business card is integral to this process, and not having a card could lead to a missed opportunity. The card should be a reflection of your ideas, style and the way you want to be perceived by any new contact that you hand it to.

Social media sites are the places to make contacts and keep in touch with them. If your business cards have multiple social site URL’s on them, you need to make sure that these accounts are syncing with each other and with the printed word.

Usernames and Vanity URL’s

Having your Twitter URL, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. on your business card is important. You want people to connect with you and interact with you after you meet, and this is done with social media. Including your Twitter URL is especially important. If someone forgets who you are when looking at your card, the easiest way to get an idea about you is to check out your Twitter profile. They most likely won’t call you or IM you and say, “Hey, I met you but forgot who you are. Who are you again?”

Having vanity URL’s on all of your social sites is a great idea. Especially if these names are the same, they help contacts find you much easier. For example, you can find me at Twitter.com/patrickwinfield or at Linkedin.com/in/patrickwinfield.

With LinkedIn you must enable your LinkedIn page to have a public profile. Then you simply enter either your username or the URL of your public profile. This way, the URL to your profile page is something other than random numbers and associates with you, making it easier for contacts to find you.

Facebook also allows you to register a vanity URL with your profile name or a similar name. To learn more about this and how to prepare/secure them, read Greg’s post on Facebook usernames.

Look at one of Zappos’ new Twitter-styled business cards with the Twitter id and “Powered by Twittering” verbiage. Since Twitter is such a big part of the Zappos culture and brand, they know that featuring the URL is enough (in addition to the normal information) and added a little tagline on the back that reinforced this idea.

By blending your business card with your social media accounts, you are creating more opportunities for potential customers and contacts to find and converse with you. Just be sure to sync these accounts and various usernames so that the connection is in place!

41579 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/10/26/blending-social-media-into-your-business-cards/Blending+Social+Media+into+Your+Business+Cards2009-10-26+20%3A27%3A20Patrick+Winfield

Bookmark this post:

*This is a guest post from Chris Goddard from Affilorama, an affiliate marking training portal.

“Focus on where the money is!” That’s something a successful businessman once told me. “It’s easy to get distracted, but at the end of the day, where the money’s coming from is where you ought to be focusing.” It’s a sound business rule, and it works – today. The trouble is with this rule is it doesn’t ask a really important question – where will your money be coming from tomorrow?

Although social media use has exploded in the past 5 years, it is still seen by a large portion of the business community as a ‘kid’s thing’. Granted, Facebook’s fastest growing demographic may be women between 55 and 65*, and social media is growing in all demographics, but largely, it’s still the domain of the young.

As many businesses inherently focus on the middle aged (that’s where the money is!), many have been slow to recognize the importance and influence of the web on their customers. Fortunately for them, a large proportion of their market is as unfamiliar with the web as they are, so there hasn’t been much fallout from doing nothing (with the exception of the music and newspaper industries – but more on that later!).

But All That is About to Change…

The funny thing about those kids is that they have a tendency to grow up and become your core market. A new generation of consumers is nearly here… and they’re like no other generation the world has ever seen.
Generation Y, or the ‘Millennial’ Generation (children born in the 80’s and early 90’s), are going to be bigger than the Baby Boomers by 2010, and the fact that approximately 94% of Millennials have joined a social network cannot be overlooked.

This generation communicates differently – more likely to send a text, or message over a social media platform, than make a phone call, even considering email old-fashioned!

Gen Y’s consume media differently too. Why watch your favorite TV program at a specific time when you can watch it online for free with fewer ads, whenever you want? Even better, how about watching it on your mobile phone? Instead of having to learn and adapt to new technologies as they appear, Gen Y’s seem to have an inherent ability to embrace new technology with ease.

How Exactly Do You Advertise to this Generation?

Don’t bother with print ads. We don’t read newspapers – we get our news online, not just from news sites but through virtual word-of-mouth.

Don’t bother with TV either – we don’t watch it.  We watch tons of TV shows, but not on TV when the TV Guide says we have to.

And forget radio – we download our music. Yes, often illegally, but we also subscribe to streaming services like last.fm and Pandora.

What Does That Mean for Businesses in the Future?

It means advertising as we know it is going to become obsolete. Instead of a one-way torrent of promotional messages, consumers will begin seeking companies that actually engage with them, and more importantly, actually listen to them.

You might be thinking, “Ok, social media’s where it’s heading – but why start now? Can’t I just wait until everything’s been figured out and all my customers are using it?” Yes. But why don’t you ask a music exec or a newspaper mogul how that whole ‘waiting until everything’s been figured out’ thing is working out for them?

In my opinion, the reason why the average teenager’s iPod contains 800 illegally copied songs (British Times Newspaper… via their website… oh the irony!) is that it wasn’t Sony or EMI that figured out to leverage the power of the web to distribute music – it was Shawn Fanning with Napster.

It wasn’t even a music company, but a technology company that finally figured out an effective way to monetize online music.

Imagine a world where iTunes, or some variation had preceded Napster. It’s not that people just wanted to get their music for free – that’s been available since the cassette recorder – they wanted to get their music online, instantaneously. Napster delivered – iTunes came too late.

In business there are no prizes for second place. You have to be first and you have to be better than everyone else. Someone will figure out how to leverage social media in your industry. Will it be you, your competitor, or some kid in his dorm room with nothing but an idea and a laptop – potentially your most dangerous competitor yet?

Starting now is essential, because there is still room to make mistakes. It will take trial and error for you to find the strategy that suits your business. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but there are some good principles:

• Social Media isn’t PR – it’s direct interaction between your people and your current and potential customers, so leave the over-polished releases for the press; on social media they’ll appear disingenuous and fake.
• Don’t hide behind your company name – let your people front your company online. People talk with other people, not with brands.
• Listen! The most important thing that you may get out of social media is the ability to hear what your customers are saying.
• Don’t freak out about negative comments! This once private conversation is now public for you to hear, so appreciate the opportunity to hear criticism. Work to solve the problem, and then respond over the same channel as the complainant used – video for video, blog post for blog post, tweet for tweet.

Some of what you try will work, and some of it definitely won’t, but if you don’t start trying now, in 10 years you’re going to have a customer you’ll be clambering just to communicate with and a competitor who’s already figured it out.

*Special thank you to Socialnomics by Erik Qualman for most of the figures in this post.

399914 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/10/23/why-investing-in-social-media-now-will-keep-your-business-alive-in-10-years/Why+Investing+in+Social+Media+Now+Will+Keep+Your+Business+Alive+in+10+Years2009-10-23+18%3A11%3A48Guest+Author

Bookmark this post:

There are thousands of businesses on Twitter, and certainly many businesses are doing a fine job of connecting with their customers. Still, many organizations large and small, from Fortune 500’s to mom and pop shops, can reach farther and do better at communicating and building an audience on Twitter. Several are simply unsure of how or when to enter the network and what do once they are there.  And many companies want to look at Twitter as a place to sell, when in fact Twitter is a communications tool, a place to build relationships.  When companies set aside selling and employ Twitter for communications and relationship building, they tend to find long-term success.

A Twitter account is meant to be a place where you can network, communicate messages and gather feedback from the people most interested in your business. It’s also a place discover potential new clients and to inform followers and media to help spread word to those who have never heard of you. All too often businesses are not making the proper time investment in this important social network, thereby not getting the most out of Twitter.

Here are some basic rules of thumb to remember when entering this social network which may help you and your business connect better with your target market and the Twitter community at large.

Invest

By invest, I mean spend time, and we all know time is money, so this is your investment. Spend time watching how others use Twitter and spend time tweeting yourself. Or, spend time to work with an employee to get them tweeting in a meaningful way. A good time investment for a small business may be a few hours per week, and for a larger company it can range right up to a few hours per day depending on your business vertical.

Manage

Manage your account from a more robust application than the Twitter web interface itself.  Tweedeck is a good starting place as a basic application. If you’re a smaller business or frequently “on-the-go”, working with a hand-held application such as TwitterBerry from Orangatame is great to keep your account up to date and relevant while on the move.

Watch

Follow ongoing hashtag #conversations with #Keyword and respond in a helpful manner, but not by hawking your products. Be a resource rather than trying to sell. For example, if you run an auto parts supply company, try #carchat and help debunk myths in conversations about car repair, or offer up suggestions on ways to handle auto-repair problems.  Again, don’t look to sell, look to build relationships.

Listen

Listen to what your customers are saying about your company, services, brand or products.  This is an opportunity to build loyalty. Offer responses and feedback in a meaningful way, either through public (@reply) or private (direct message) channels. Followers gravitate to true and honest customer service.

Listen to the content of other tweets. Twitter SEARCH!! – use the Twitter search function relentlessly. While it needs polishing in terms of overall functionality, it has a tremendous ability to help you mine data and measure sentiment and perception about your products, services and industry. One of the great things about Twitter search is it is pretty much real time, up to the minute indexing of tweets, so you have the opportunity to find some of the most current feedback about a subject.  Beware of Tweetspam where spammers #tag popular subjects for the sake of getting clicks to their sites.  A keen eye can quickly sift through the BS, and I’m sure Twitter will be working to remedy some of that over time.

Speak

Establish a voice. Create a regular “editorial calendar” for your account so that you have relevant content for your business which can be posted.  Why not discuss the latest news from your events department?  Recently finish a major project? Perhaps it’s worthy of a brief announcement.  Have you established a new strategic relationship in your industry?  Perhaps you can tweet their account and get some public synergy.  Any big game-changing news in your industry?  You can link to your company blog post where you discuss that.  The opportunities for an editorial calendar are endless.

Optimize for Keywords

It’s worth it to include relevant keyphrases which users may search for in Twitter search to find related information.  Others are listening to keyphrase conversations, so why not take advantage of that?  Don’t go nuts with plugging in industry keywords into your posts and don’t keyword spam, but be cognizant of how you are phrasing your tweets.  For example: “We’ll be speaking at upcoming conferences (link)!”  vs “We’ll be speaking at PubCon, SES and other events this year! (link)”

Identify

A company is made up of people. Don’t be a afraid to say who you are or where your tweets are coming from. Even though you’re a company you shouldn’t be afraid to say who your tweets are coming from.

Don’t automate: Try not to automate responses or direct message replies, either. This wears thin on users and often turns them off and may result in someone un-following you.

Learn

Watch Twitter leaders and how they handle their networks. You can learn a lot and apply that back to your business. Some well executed business accounts are Dell, Zappos, etc.  Watch how others form their tweets and the tools they use to handle various announcements, broadcasts or replies.

Grow

Grow your account following by creating awareness of where it is.  It’s important to grow your account following and influence so that you can reach a larger audience.  Not every business needs huge audiences (hundreds of thousands of followers), but you need an audience large enough to get word out and have an impact.

How can you grow it?

• Let your customers know you are on Twitter and what they can expect by following you.
• Place a Twitter badge on your website with a call to action prompting them them to click over to your account.
• Place a badge with a call to action in your email drops.
• Add the Twitter handle or address on your print material communications.
  • Catalogs
  • Menus
  • Business Cards
  • Newsmailers
  • Special offers
• Show or talk about your Twitter address (where appropriate) in your media-buys, whether it’s online or offline in TV/cable/radio spots.
• Use search to follow others who are discussing your subjects related to your business vertical and follow them.

No matter your business vertical, whether B2B or B2C, there is fantastic opportunity to connect with your current and future customers on Twitter. Part of the success of Twitter is overcoming the fear, learning by trial and beginning to listen and act on the conversations taking place in this important social network.  Overcome your fear of Twitter, be sure to make the time investment, reference these handy Twitter rules of thumb and your company will reap rewards over time.

41008 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/10/22/connecting-with-customers-on-twitter-%e2%80%939-tips-for-success/Connecting+with+Customers+on+Twitter+%E2%80%93+9+Tips+for+Success2009-10-22+20%3A50%3A25Jake+Matthews

Bookmark this post:

Instead of simply sending a visitor to the homepage of their site from a social site, a great idea is to tailor a landing page that speaks directly to the user of that social site. This is a great way to reinforce the relationship and further promote the brand and the various ways to continue to follow them. Let’s check out some great examples of landing pages that companies are creating to receive some of their social media site traffic.

Whole Foods

Whole Foods has a great approach to the landing page they designed to receive the traffic from their Twitter profile page. Instead of the link being right to Whole Foods homepage, they send you to http wholefoodsmarket.com/twitter/.

If you click on their profile URL in Twitter, you are taken to a page that is designed with the Twitter fan in mind, along with specific actions that can be taken.

With this page they accomplish the following:

1. They’re encouraging the conversation. “Hey, we know you may be following us on Twitter and we would like to hear from you!”
2. They list topical tweets and all of their regional stores that you may be closer to and want to follow on Twitter.

On the Facebook fan page for Whole Foods they have a different approach to giving out information to fans.

Here they list the obvious URL’s like the homepage and blog, but they also link to the Twitter landing page example above and a Flickr page that would take you to some of their photos. With Facebook the information and links can be more inclusive and broad.

Jet Blue

Jet Blue also has a landing page tailored specifically for Twitter traffic.

1. They’re letting their Twitter followers know that they get special deals and great fares if they follow them. By using the Twitter logo and style, they are making the Twitter connection that much easier for visitors landing on the page.
2. As a bonus to following them, they also give out ‘Cheep deals’ on this page and also ‘random-day-of-week Cheeps’, as well as all the other great things they offer.
3. “Hey, why not book a flight while you’re here” — great way to convert visitors coming in.
   

As these two examples demonstrate, having a tailored landing page for your company’s social media traffic is a great strategy. A page that reinforces or encourages the conversation can be very helpful to the brand.

406518 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/10/21/the-art-of-the-social-landing-page/The+Art+of+the+Social+Landing+Page2009-10-21+13%3A52%3A58Patrick+Winfield

Bookmark this post:

When I spoke about Facebook marketing strategies at SMX East, someone asked the panel of speakers this question: “If you had to do only one to help your business, would you start a blog or focus on social networking?” The answer, I feel, is not necessarily a black or white issue. Obviously, if you can handle running a blog and social networking, the easy answer is “both,” but there are situations where one is more suitable than the other.

Why You Should Blog

Adding a blog to your site can be beneficial to your business in a multitude of ways, a few of which I’ll highlight below:

• It builds unique content. By posting new entries on a regular basis (daily, weekly, etc), you’re creating new, unique content for your site. You’ll get more pages indexed, meaning popular posts can pull in some good search traffic and other posts can rank for long tail search terms.
• It’s a great launchpad for linkbait and viral content. If you’re developing linkbait or viral content for your site, a blog is a great, easy way for you to launch the content. Deploying a piece of content via an active blog makes it seem less orchestrated/intentional than if you were to set up a separate page just for a list.
• It’s a good brand builder. Giving your company a voice via the blog can make your business stand out among the competition. If you provide really helpful information and stand out as an industry leader, your blog will become a valuable resource. Also, establishing a personality on the blog will create emotional ties to the reader and you can develop positive relationships with your audience (which can lead to sales!). You can also use the blog to address any reputation management issues and share company news with the public.

Why You Should Do Social Networking

One drawback to blogging is that it is time consuming. If you can’t devote the time to blog on a regular basis or if you don’t have the writing ability to crank out an interesting blog post, you could turn to social networking. While social networking can also be extremely time consuming if done properly and consistently, at its most basic level it still has some benefits:

• You can rank various profiles for your company name. Social networking can be great for reputation management — if you build profiles on strong domains like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, you can get those profiles to rank for your name in addition to your company website, thus taking up more real estate in the SERPs and potentially pushing down any negative mentions/results (check out KnowEm to register your business profile across multiple social sites).
• You don’t necessarily have to be creative to participate. While blogging often requires you to put on your thinking cap and come up with interesting topics to write about, social networking isn’t quite as demanding. Many sites (like Facebook and Twitter) involve having short conversations with each other (in the form of wall posts or 140 character tweets), so you don’t have to spend time researching ideas for posts. Of course, very successful accounts get more involved (sharing links, offering tips, etc), but if you just want to be active, it’s quite easy to do so socially.
• You don’t have to do anything on your website. If you’re taking the DIY approach and don’t know how to install a blog on your site or can’t build something custom, or if your site can’t handle large amounts of traffic, or whatever the reason, you can turn to social networking and not have to worry about hosting and all that other nonsense. By using other platforms to get in touch with your audience, you’re able to focus on more pertinent issues for your website, like improving the checkout process, testing landing pages, addressing dupe content, and so on. (Of course, a more savvy social media marketer will integrate social elements on his/her site via widgets/RSS/share buttons/etc.)

Why You Should Do Both

Obviously, if you can do both, absolutely blog and participate in social networking. You’ll reap great benefits from both strategies, and if you’re successful in one arena, it’s not very hard to incorporate the other. You can blog about starting a new social account and your first impressions, hold contests or release news on the blog and share it via social media and social networks, spread blog posts using your accounts — the list goes on and on. Marketing has evolved thanks to the Internet, and if you’re not evolving your strategies as well, you’re likely going to fail as your audience moves forward while your business stays frozen in time.

Why You Should Do Neither

If you can’t do it right, don’t do it at all.  Don’t join a thousand social media sites just because everyone else is, and don’t start a blog because it’s what everyone else is doing. If you don’t have anyone on staff who has decent writing abilities and can devote the time required to maintain a blog and interact with the readers via comments and feedback, you shouldn’t start a blog and just let it sit there and gather dust. The same goes for social networking and social media in general– if you’re going to start a bunch of profiles and then do nothing with them, it’s almost worse than not joining in the first place. Make sure you’re doing these things for the right reasons and that they make sense for your business — don’t just hop on the bandwagon and expect the money to come pouring in.

404710 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/10/20/blogging-or-social-networking-which-is-better/Blogging+or+Social+Networking%3A+Which+is+Better%3F2009-10-20+17%3A20%3A49Rebecca+Kelley

Bookmark this post:

Last week I wrote an article over at Search Engine Land that addressed a number of concerns that I have heard from users who have Pages that are not showing up in Facebook Search.   The article breaks down how exactly you can get your page to show up in the search with 8 different tips and tricks.  Here is a high level overview of them:

1. Use your brand for your Facebook page name
2. Build your following
3. Create a branded Facebook username
4. Create fresh content regularly
5. Leverage domain equity to boost Facebook pages in SERPs
6. Advertise on branded “interests”
7. Fill in all information about your brand/company
8. Spend a little time optimizing your site for Bing

Want the skinny on each point? Head on over to Search Engine Land and check out the article: 8 Tips For Getting Your Fan Page Found In Facebook Search

40386 Commentshttp://www.10e20.com/blog/2009/10/19/how-to-get-your-fan-page-found-in-facebook-search/How+to+Get+Your+Fan+Page+Found+in+Facebook+Search2009-10-19+22%3A01%3A35Greg+Finn

Bookmark this post:

Next Page »