Monthly Archives: January 2011

Big Picture: What a Web Site Does?

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Big Picture #1:

A Web site must do at least one of two things, but probably both:

• Turn a stranger into a friend, and a friend into a customer.

• Talk in a tone of voice that persuades people to believe the story you’re telling.

Big Picture #2:

A Web site can cause only four things to happen in the moments after someone sees it:

• She clicks and goes somewhere else you want her to go.

• She clicks and gives you permission to follow up by email or phone.

• She clicks and buys something.

• She tells a friend, either by clicking or by blogging or phoning or talking.

That’s it……

If your site is attempting to do more than this, you’re wasting time and money and, more important, focus.

What Word-of-mouth marketing will do for your business?

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Word-of-mouth marketing (WOM) is the process of information exchange, especially recommendations about products and services, between two people in an informal way. In the past, word of mouth has been a spoken phenomenon, but other types of dialogue (such as email and Web postings) are now included in the definition. It differs from other types of communication in that the source credibility is very high. That is, the person giving the information is generally seen as a much more credible source by the person receiving the information. This is especially true when someone knows the person that is giving him or her the information.

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Getting People To ‘Like’ Your Facebook Page

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With Facebook attracting more than 400 million users, the question is no longer if you need to create a Facebook brand presence, it’s how you’re going to use one. If people are talking about your brand, you want them to be doing it on your official page so that you can leverage Facebook’s open social graph and drive users back to your site. But you can only do that after you jump one very important (and large) hurdle.

You have to make people want to join your Facebook page.

It’s simple: You can’t market to or build brand awareness with someone who’s not opted in. What’s not simple is getting a user to hit that ‘like’ button. Users are a lot more discerning on Facebook than on other social sites. For them to opt into your page, they need a compelling reason. It’s a big step from passively liking a brand to publicly ‘liking’ them in full view of friends and colleagues. You have to make it worth their while.

How do you get something to like you enough to make it Facebook official?

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Six Ways to Get Found On Facebook

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Facebook makes the claim on its advertising page that there are 400 million active users. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to learn how to use Facebook for marketing your business. In fact, businesses are giving Facebook more priority over their corporate websites and frequently point to a Facebook page instead of a URL? With over 400 million users, though, you can imagine how many hundreds of thousands or millions or Facebook Pages there are. While Facebook recently confused this process by creating Community Pages that occasionally take priority over the official pages, businesses need to be proactive in order to give their business pages maximum visibility.

How do you do that? Here are some steps:

1. Use a profile photo that tells your followers who you are and what you have to offer: If you’re a single store location, it might even be advisable to put your store hours on the photo. Add URLs to other websites and social presences. Facebook’s limitations on photos vary; some say that they can successfully upload a 200×600 image whereas others claim that 180×540 is the current limitation. Experiment and see what Facebook allows you to do.

2. Choose a name for your page that your customers can identify with: Don’t be cute or silly. This is your brand’s page. Use the name of your business, and if necessary, add the city name as well.

3. Use a vanity URL that your fans may guess to find you: There have been many companies specifically sought out on Facebook by simply typing facebook.com/businessname. It is surprising that some of the business names actually pointed to personal profiles and not the business profiles. Instead, reserve the business URL for your business page. You can allocate a vanity URL by going to facebook.com/username.

4. Give your followers information about you: Fill out as much information as you can in the About box under your profile and on the Info tab, and make sure to offer keyword rich text so that your Facebook presence shows up for search engine queries for your business.

5. Personalize your page: One of the ways to do so is to create a Facebook page with FBML, Facebook Markup Language. This entitles you to add custom tabs. You can create tabs to invite users to connect, let people find your store locations, or offer exclusive features to your fans. Whatever you do, keep the engagement level high.

6. Tell your customers where to find you! You probably have a web presence, right? Make sure to encourage your followers to find you on Facebook. Add links to your Facebook profile (and any other major social presences) in your email signature. When an individual becomes a new Fan, it shows up in their news feed, so others can also find out where they’ve been — and this could potentially have a viral effect. Once you’re found, the rest is up to you. Being actively engaged is a critical part of success on Facebook. Once your fans are there, make sure they stay by giving them reasons to regularly participate. Check out some helpful tips on creating Facebook pages customers want to join and how to use Facebook for business.

Effective Business Blog Designs

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The design of your business blog has a huge impact on how it is perceived by your visitors. A great design instills trust, makes you more credible and invites your readers to participate. A poor design can make your blog and your company look unprofessional.

Just as with regular website design, there are certain best practices you should keep in mind when working on the design of your blog. The best practices of regular website design still apply, of course, but there are also important blog specific considerations:

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