Business Blogging Pros

The 'Social' Part of Social Media

Yesterday a colleague was describing her totally automatited social media 'system' to me. She described with great pride how it redistributed her content onto multiple blogs and social media sites. The irony was that she doesn't spend time herself reading blogs, visiting her friends on Facebook, etc.  She isn't being very social.

Images flashed through my mind of zillions of people just like her: publishing, redistributing and resyndicating their content but not actually reading anyone else's content. What is the benefit of that?

WordPress Pros and Cons

Almost every website and blog we deliver is built on WordPress.  Needless to say, we like WordPress a lot. Based upon our experiences, I'd like to give you some things to think about before plunging headlong to bringing up a WordPress-based website.

One of the things that makes WordPress so attractive is the almost infinite supply of nice-looking themes.  It's very tempting to browse the WordPress theme websites, find a nice, theme, buy, it, and presto you have a website.  

In some cases that's OK. If you have zero money, installing WordPress and a $39 theme will get you on the Internet with a website that you are at least not going to be ashamed of.  And once in a while you'll discover a stock off-the-shelf theme that absolutely nails it for your business.

Most of our clients however are beyond the stage of financing their startup with the grocery money.  We want their websites to convey that they are a step above their competitors.  While occassionally you can do that with an off-the-shelf theme, more often some custom design work is necessary to achieve that goal.

Another hazard of using an off-the-shelf theme: Your website will look exactly like someone else's. 

There is a second reason why we like WordPress: Custom Content Management. Some of the under-the-hood functionality incorporated into recent releases of WordPress - like custom post types, custom taxonomies, featured images, etc - allow us to create a website that is tailored to your business.

For example, we delivered a website for a local automobile dealership:

RC Auto Corporation

When the site admin wants to add a new automobile listing to the website, she essentially clicks on a "New List" command. Up pops a form containing all the automotive-specific details (make, model, year, mileage, etc). When she clicks save it will be published to the website immediately.  Visitors can display the inventory and search for specific cars. The point is that a little bit of time and money spent on custom development will reap rewards for years to come.

A Final Caution:

Many older themes have not been updated to take advantage of some of WordPress' best new features. For example, Menu administration was drastically overhauled in version 3.0. The new menu administration panel allows you to easily add items to the menubar, rearrange the menubar, etc. Themes designed prior to WordPress 3.0 do not contain support for this new functionality, resulting - in many cases - to an inability to make the menubar match your needs. 

Not Exactly About WordPress, But...

Your website should be more than a pretty face. Your website should make your target audience say, "I want that!". This reaction usually doesn't happen by itself. Some research and customer-interviews are almost always necessary to get the branding, positioning, and message just right in order to provoke this reaction. We use our Buyer Highway proprietary framework to accomplish this, and there are also a few other people around the country with similar skills in leveraging Buyer Personas that can accomplish the same thing.

Creating a Client Area for FIle Uploads

We are currently creating a website for a printing company who needs an access-controlled area for clients to upload files. One of the best things about Wordpress is the nearly endless supply of plugins that add functionality. And one of the worst things about Wordpress is the nearly endless supply of plugins.

Many are out of date and do not work with the latest releases of Wordpress. Many don't work at all or are not ready for prime time. We expend considerable energy evaluating plugins and running them through our own internal certification process before foisting them on unsuspecting clients. After all, our clients trust us to deliver websites that work.

For providing client upload functionality, we like Smartypants Client Document Manager the best. It does require the use of an additional plugin, Theme My Login in order to make access control be seamless for the user, but the end result works very well and gets along nicely with the other plugins and themes we use.

 

USA Mobile Drug Testing of N Phoenix and SE Valley

Business Blogging Pros welcomes USA Mobile Drug Testing of N Phoenix and SE Valley as one of our newest clients.

This is a good example of leveraging the Buyer Highway framework. While they are a brand new business, we were able to locate and interview customers of similar businesses. We discovered what is important to them about drug testing. They told us what they wanted to know and learn in the process of selecting a vendor.

We used this information and more to adjust the website's messages to directly address the proespect's concerns.

We were also able to create an ongoing social media strategy that is simple to execute and does not waste time on activities with no ROI.

Facebook: The Social Media Dashboard of Choice

Let's step into the Wayback Machine and turn the dial to 2005. Back then social media was the blogosphere. People and companies had blogs.  The tool we used to keep up with what was going on with our favorite people and companies was the RSS reader (sometimes called a feed reader). It was our dashboard.

Today the dashboard of choice is Facebook.  At a glance you can keep up with what's going on with your friends, colleagues, and favorite companies. The Facebook feature that has been the biggest factor in making this possible is the Custom List. You can friend your clients and put them in a list named 'Clients'. Then by clicking on that list your newsfeed is filtered to display items form only the people in the list.

Do the same for your coleagues, vendors, favorite companies, etc and you can quickly and easily keep up with them.

Buyer Persona Institute

We worked with Adele Revelle and Buyer Persona Institute some time ago to create their first website. When Adele decided her messaging needed an adjustment she elected to do a complete website makeover at thesame time.  I was honored that she came back to us for the makeover.

We worked with her preferred graphic designer, taking the designer's raw comps (deivered as PDF files, no less) and from them created a custom Wordpress-driven website.

Some of the interersting features of her website:

• Custom floating social toolbar at the bottom
• Clicking on the Contact links brings up a 'flyout' instead of going to a new page.
• Internal pages can contain a 'photo column' and the width of the column is adjusted dynamically to accomodate the photo.

While all the templates were custom, the most interesting feature is a custom page template used to render a tab on her Facebook page. What this means for Adele is that she can easily manage the content of her facebook 'welcome' tab from within her Wordpress.

As you might expect, Adele 'gets it'.  She understands her buyers, what they want to now, and what is important to them. The result is a website that helps her buyers make the journey from stranger to paying client.

Managing Facebook Custom Tab Content in Wordpress

Facebook's recent changes that brought timelines and cover photos to business pages also impacted custom tabs as well. All that effort you put into using the FB application StaticHTML to create a custom Facebook Tab now has to be revisited.

We can't fix that but there is one thing we can fix: The ability to easily manage the content on the custom tab(s).

Normally, using the FB app SaticHTML required creating the HTML for your page in Dreamweaver ot other HTML editor - a method that is convenient only for the tech-savvy.

What if you could manage that content from right inside Wordpress?

That was the question we asked ourselves recently when we were overhauling the Facebook business page for Buyer Persona Institute. We created a custom wordpress template, and using this template created a standard Wordpress page. Making changes to content of their Facebook 'Welcome' tab is now as simple as opening up wordpress and editing the page.

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

Last week I visited the website of a well-known wine retailer and while there I opted in to their email list for announcements for upcoming wine tastings. Within a week I was inundated with spam from other websites and retailers; wine, liquors, cigars, you name it.  Do you hate that as much as I do?

When is the last time you went to a networking function, exchanged business cards with people there, and woke up the next morning with their email newsletters in your in-box? Do you hate that as much as I do?

Social Media Is Not Another Advertising Channel

Nine of the ten most recent Twitter direct messages I've received are spam.  People are even using LinkedIn to spam their LinkedIn connections. Four years ago, Seth Godin wrote about Permission Marketing vs Interruption Marketing and his wise words are still true today.

When you send someone (I'll call her Sarah) an email, Sarah views your email as an interruption of whatever she was doing at the time. If you expect Sarah to open your emails more than just once:

1. Your interruption must be as short as possible.
2. The value Sarah gains from reading that email must be worth the interruption and the time spent dealing with it from Sarah's perspective.

The first word in Social Media is Social.  That means real people, real relationships, and real conversation.

 

 

 

Social Media Strategy: 'Why' Comes Before 'What' and 'How'

If Facebook is the answer then what exactly is the question?

I'm not taking shots at Facebook. You can accomplish things using Facebook - and other social media tools as well - that only huge corporations could afford to do just ten years ago.

The problem is that most of us are expending significant time and energy (and money) engaing in activities that are completely disconnected with our clients' buying process.

When we truly understand our customers, their needs, why they buy, and what is important to them we can engage in activities that actually help our customers move along the Buyer Highway. (And we may just discover things we've been doing that are causing prospects to swerve off into a ditch.)

Real ROI comes from focusingon activities that directly impact our customers' buying process.

Introducing the Buyer Highway Framework

I confess, I'm on a crusade. Too many business owners are struggling and merely surviving when they should be thriving. Too many people are leaving corporate jobs to start their first business and failing. Too many people are treating social media as if it is magic beans.

I call it 'Committing random acts of social media'.

I don't know how else to describe it except that they are 'putting the cart before the horse'. Or let me put it this way:

If Facebook (or Twitter or blogging or LinkedIn) is the answer then what exactly is the question?

My background and experience cause me to first strive to understand the problem, then pick the tools and/or techniques that best solve that problem. When it comes to social media, most business owners are doing exactly the opposite.  They are energetically operating the tool (Facebook, Twitter, etc) and hoping it will have a positive impact somewhere. They are flailing. They are committing random acts of social media. And expending untold amounts of time, energy, and money in the process.

How about if we try a different, more analytical and methodical approach? 

I prefer to start by focusing on your customer and their journey from complete stranger to paying customer.  Some people call this the customer's buying process. I call it your customers' Buyer Highway. I've developed a framework (hence the name Buyer Highway Framework) that allows us to put that buying process under a microscope and analyze it.

By doing so, we can learn what you are doing that works, so that you know to do more of it. We learn what you can stop doing because it has no effect.  We learn the issues that are causing your prospects to get derailed, or causing them to abort the journey prematurely. 

Then we work together to develop specific solutions to the specific issues revealed by that analysis. Suddenly, you're using social media with precision.  More like a surgeon's scalpel than a broadsword. And because each activity is now tied to a specific issue (such as too many prospects say "I'll have to discuss it with my husband; and then never come back) you'll be able to easily measure their effectiveness. 

ROI comes when you focus your marketing efforts on
activities that directly impact your customers' buying process.

To learn for about the Buyer Highway Framework and to attend a free webinar, visit my new website:

http://www.BuyerHighway.com

 

Clients Say the Darndest Things

Most business owners believe that they know the value they provide to their clients.  Invariably however the client's perception of that value is different.  Sometimes quite different.

I was working with Bill, the owner of a company manufacturing soaps and body washes for hard-code yoga enthusiasts (They are called, 'yogis'). Bill wanted to sell his product by the case to yoga studios. His initial proposed value proposition was that his products would provide the yoa studio with an additional source of revenue and profit. Bill had already convinced a few studio owners to try his product.

Well clients say the darndest things.  We interviewed the studio owners and discovered that their perspective was quite different from his: This is a product designed specifically to meet the needs of a hard-core yogi.  It cannot be found at Wal-Mart or Target or even Whole Foods. It brings the hard-core yogis into the studio when they otherwise have no reason to come in.  By carrying Bill's product, the Yoga studio now gets a chance to engage with the hard-core yogis, telling them about new classes, products, etc.

This one little insight drastically changed Bill's messaging and made it more effective.  Our Buyer Highway Framework allows us to uncover these insights and more.

 

Yellow Pages Mindset

A few short years ago, many a business relied upon the Yellow Pages as their only marketing activity.  In fact, they needed to think about marketing just once a year when the Yellow Pages sales guy showed up.  They would spend a couple of hours revising and updating their add and then forget about it until next year. Life was Good.

Today I see far too many people taking that same set-and-forget attitude about their marketing, particularly social media.  I call it the Yellow Pages Mindset.

The first word in 'social media' is 'social', which means conversation with your friends, colleagues, fans, and clients. If you are using social media to just blast out a constant stream of marketing messages then it is almost certain that no one is listening to you.

Think about it this way: it's a social contract. Your audience is giving you some of its precious seconds of their bandwidth.  If you don't give them something THEY perceive as commensurate in value they'll stop listening.

 

Poor Misunderstood Twitter

Yesterday a business owner told me that they are not getting any ROI from Twitter.  When I asked how they were using Twitter, I learned they were essentially using it as a megaphone or broadcasting tool.

No dialog.  No listening.

Aaaarrrgggg. It's called 'Social Media' for a reason: it's supposed to be social. 

I'm sure you've been to a networking function, echanged business cards with other attendees, then discovered the next day that you were receiving several new newsletters that you never signed up for. How did that make you feel?  SO stop doing the same thing on Twitter!

Twitter is a relationship and conversation tool. Use it to have tw0-way conversation with people in your tribe or who are prospects who already know what you do.  It will bring you closer together. And in the process refresh the image in their minds of who you are and what you do.

Twitter is a very efficient tool if you remember what it's very good at: maintaining and nurturing personal connections with the people important to your business.

Why You May want Your Blog Separate From Your Website

A few years ago, both WordPress and TypePad made it easy to use their plaforms as a website as well as a blog. As a result, Wordpress has become the favorite way to quickly build a website. Google has also changed the way they calculates a site's authority so that a co-located blog and website each can benefit from each other's authority.

There are good reasons for having your blog separate (on a different domain) though.  If you anticipate that changes in the market will cause a shift in your business to the point where a new website and new domain name are called for, the separate blog makes sense.

For example, we're about to launch a new website on a new dmain name.  We're also po=utting together several tool-specific websites (the tools being facebook, twitter, linkedIn, etc)  I really don't want to maintain a separate blog for each of those websites.  One blog covering all the topics makes better sense.

Magic Beans

We all know the story of Jack and the Beenstalk. Jack planted magic beans and overnight a giant beanstalk grew.

I see far too many business owners who think that social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc) are magic beans. They're not.  They are just tools.

An analogy I often use is the hammer vs the house.  You can buy the world's best hammer.  I can teach you exaactly the best way to hold the hammer and how to pound in the nails. Knowing how to use the hammer to build a house is a completely different matter.

So stop looking for magic beans. Start thinking in terms of developing a strategy.

Stop Talking About What You Sell...

...Start talking about the problems you solve.

I have a client who has created a really nifty product. I've been interviewing her initial customers and have been amazed and delighted at stories her customers are telling me. I'm hearing how this product solves a problem like no other product on the market.  Her customers are practically delivering this product's positioning and messaging strategies on a silver platter. Three separate market niches have become very clear.

None of this is reflected in the website copy. It's all about the product, not the problem this product solves.

Think about the last time you used Google to search for information or an answer: After Google delivered 30 million search results, you started going through them sequentially, spending a few seconds on each website.  If you didn't find the answer in those first few seconds you hit the Back button and went on to the next one.

Today people will not spend time trying to figure out if your product will solve their problem. You have to tell them.

Use those precious first few sentences on your website to talk about the problem your product solves.

 

"My Website Gets Lots of Traffic But..."

I was listening to a podcast buy an SEO expert. He was interviewing a client who said:

"I get lots of traffic to my website but very few of them convert."

The SEO expert began to postulate reasons why, "Maybe it's this", "Maybe it's that".  I found myself shouting at the iPod asking, "Why are you guessing?"

This is a perfect example of why we place such great emphasis on understanding your customers, why they buy, and how they buy.  Don't guess, ask them. A little bit of research and a few skillful interviews and you would know your customers' buying process well enough that the answer would be obvious.

Not only that. You'll know exactly what to do in order to fix the problem.

"I know they need my service, I just can't get them to buy"

That's because while they may have the problem you solve for them, they have not reached that Point of Epiphany where they say "I have to solve this problem, I can't live with it any longer."

Knowing this will prevent you from spending an inordinate amount of time trying to convence them to buy now. This knowledge also allows you create activities designed specifically for people in this stage of their buying process.

 

 

Wordplace Ethics Advice Blog

Steve Mitnz, The Ethics Sage, has started a second blog specifically dealing with workplace ethics issues, called - appropriately enough, Workplace Ethics Advice. When he called upon us to create this second blog for him we were eager to help.

Workplace Ethics Advice is designed in a question-and-answer format with it's own form for submitting your questions.

One of the biggest benefits of TypePad is the ability to create multiple blogs within one account (You need to have an Unlimited account at $14.95/mo to do this) Creating a second - or third, fourth, fifth, etc - blog takes two mouse-clicks. For example, I have about six blogs in my own TypePad account.

Social Media Is Not A Checklist

All too frequently I encounter someone who says, "So-and-so is doing my social media for me."  Usually what that means is that they have someone else doing the same old non-productive Facebook-Twitter-LInkedIn-etc routine instead of doing it themselves.

The first problem is that getting someone else to do non-productive activities doesn't make them any more productive. 

The second problem is that outsourcing social media doesn't make it very social does it?  The real power of social media is it's ability to create and nurture relationships. Using Facebook and Twitter to publish marketing messages every few hours is not going to endear you to your audience. Over time they will drift away and your messages will be doing nothing more than adding entropy to the universe.

Social Media IS a powerful tool. We just need to be smart about how we use it.  Stop treating it as a broadsword and start using it like a surgical instrument.

Focus on your customers and the problem you solve for them.  Focus on their mental journey from "I need to solve this problem" to the point where they write you a check. How did they find you? How did they pick you over your competitors? Pinpoint the specific areas of this process that you can facilitate.  Then and only then are you in a position to pick a specific tool (Facebook, Twitter, etc) and a specific activity you should be doing.

Social Media ROI

ROI will come when you focus your social media efforts on activities that directly impact your customers' buying process.

Buyer Persona eBook

If you've been reading this blog for a while then you know I'm a strong proponent of Persona-Based Marketing.  Well, Adele Revella of the Buyer Persona Institute has just published her eBook on the subject.

It is a must read for anyone who wants to get smarter about their marketing.

Click to open, Right-Click (Mac:Ctrl-Click) to Download:

Dear Delta Airlines: You Disgust Me

I rarely go off topic here, but with a son in the US Army I cannot let this go without comment:

Dear Delta Airlines:

This causes the memories of every wretched experience I've ever had with Delta to come flooding back.

These men are Warriors - men who have dedicated their life's purpose to protecting the way of life that allows you to go home at the end of the day to your airconditioned house and lean back in your easy chair while eating a fine meal from the supermarket.

This incident is not just a reflection of your policies.  It is a reflection of the the mindset of your people. If your front-line people think nothing of treating returning servicemen this way then as he father of a Warrior you disgust me. Every Delta employee should be hanging his/her head in shame. The fact that you are not tells me everything I need to know about you.

I need to make another business trip soon.  If Delta is the only airline flying there then I will drive instead.

Wordpress Security Tip

Here is a security tip that is often overlooked: Change your Display Name so it is different from your Username.

By default, Wordpress sets your Display Name to be the same as your Username.  Your Display Name is displayed with every post as the author name.

If you leave your Display Name the same as your Username then you've cut the effort in half for anyone trying to guess your login credentials.

Wordpress Dropping IE6 Support

That's right.  As of Wordpress 3.2 IE6 will no longer be supported.  I think that is a bad move.  I know of some very large corporations for whom IE6 is the one-and-only standard. I fear this may cause a lot of trouble.

Mobile Website for RC Auto

We are proud to announce that the mobile website we created for RC Auto has gone live.

This isn't just a static website.  It is actually pulling used-car inventory in real-time and displaying it.  Tap on the photo of a car and it displays an entire gallery of images for the car along with specs, price, and contact info.

It is predicted in the not-to-distant future that Website hits from mobile browsers will outnumber those from desktop browsers. We're ready.

"Nobody ever taught us Why"

One of the biggest benefits - after time savings - of our framework is that clients know WHY they are performing each task.  For example, they're not just spending time in Facebook.  They are in Facebook to perform specific tasks for specific reasons.  The choice of the tool (in this case facebook) and the specific activity can be related directly to a goal they want to achieve.

Once you understand the 'why', the 'what' and 'how' become a lot more interesting.

Aerisa

Business Blogging Pros welcomes Aerisa as one of our newest clients.

Aerisa eliminates odors andremove toxins in the airspace using cold plasma technology. Their customers include industrial waste water treatment plants, airports, arenas, casinos and commercial offices. 

Originally pioneered in Europe, Aerisa products have been successfully deployed in hundreds of applications worldwide, providing dramatic improvements in indoor air quality, simultaneously lowering facility energy consumption and reducing harmful environmental emissions

A Multi-Tabbed Custom Facebook Page for Aerisa

SInce Facebook has depreciated FMBL and the old standby static_fbml application, a lot has changed.  We're on top of it.

We recently create a custom Facebook Fan page for Aerisa, Inc.

This custom page has it's own set of tabs prominently at the top. Each tab addresses one of Aerisa's target markets.

An Application of Our Framework

“I’m blogging, tweeting and updating but without a strategy, so it seems like a huge waste of time.”

A familiar refrain. Is it yours?

We’ve developed a systematic framework we teach to all our clients. It’s purpose is to provide a system for reaching the right people with the right message, and do so when they want to buy. It eliminates the wasted energy of trying to be on every social media site. It eliminates the frustration of feeling like you are wasting your time.  It allows to to say - for example - "I need to be on Facebook today for just three minutes to perform a specific task for a specific reason."

We're in the middle of an engagement with a client right now that illustrates the value of tis framework.  Our client is interacting with three distict groups of people:

The Tribe

These are people who have bought from my client multiple times and are raving fans. If you ask these people about their experience they'll say "I'll never buy this product anywhere else."  They are part of the 'family. They are already steeped in my client's business culture. It is this culture that keeps them coming back.

New Clients

These are people who have bought from my client once, probably as a referral from someone in my client's tribe, but are not yet steeped in the culture.

The Public

These are people who are expressing a need for my clients product but are unaware of my client's existence.

The Strategy

In accordance with our framework, we define a set of goals, tools, and tactics for each client persona. While exploring these personas it became clear that my client's overall strategy needed to look something like this:

The primary goals for each persona are:

Our Tribe

Energize Tribe members and turn them into evangelists. Create tools and an environment that boosts their natural tendency to engage in word-of-mouth advertising on my client's behalf. 

The Public

Reinforce the impression of my client provided by Tribe members.

New Client

Inculcate first-time-buyers into the culture, turning them into Tribe members.
 
Tactics and Execution

Now that we have distinct, understandable, and easy-to-articulate goals for each group, we then determine the specific social media tools and tactics to use for achieving those goals. This is so very different from the scattershot approach we see others typically take.  It narrowly focuses your time and energy. More importantly, you'll know why you are doing what you are doing.

 

BIATWC Disease

'BIATWC' means 'Build It And They Will Come', but the reality is that they won't. Too many people suffer from the illusion that all they have to do is to build the website and the business will come pouring in. I call it the BIATWC Disease.

A few days ago, I met with a bright ambitious lady with a wonderful product that has tremendous potential. Her marketing plan consisted of:

1. Build a website

I asked, "Tell me about your customers who buy this."  she didn't have any yet.  She had no idea of the kind of people who would be buyers.  I asked, "What motivates someone to buy a product like this." She didn't know.  I asked her what sets her company and product apart from her competitors. She didn't know.

I don't want to denigrate this lady because she really is a talented and ambitious woman.  She has spent enormous amounts of time on the product.  I told her that before she did anything else - especially before she spent any money on advertising - She needs the answers to three questions:

Who Are Your Buyers?

Find out what kind of people buy from you.  What are their circumstances? When is their mindset?

Why Do They Buy?

What is that 'moment of epiphany' that causes them to decide they need to buy a product like yours.  Why do they choose to buy your product instead of your competitors? In other words, What problem do you solve for your clients and how do you solve it better than anyone else?

How Do They Buy?

What is their buying process? Where do they look for a solution?  What criteria do they use to decide among several solutions?

As social media becomes less of a bright shiny new object and more of one part of an integrated campaign, it becomes more and more necessary to think like a marketer. Not until you know the answers to these questions can you create a plan of action that has any hope of success.

Social Media: Don't Start With a Strategy

Raise your hand if you've been told that you must have a social media strategy. Good.  And it's true, you need a strategy.  The mistake is thinking that developing a strategy comes first.

Your strategy supports your goals.

Your goal might simply be to boost your Google page rank.  Or your goal might be to energize your most loyal enthusiastic customer and turn them into evangelists for your company. These two goals require entirely different strategies.

Now I hear you saying, "OK, let's set some goals first."  we're making progress here, but we're not ready to set goals yet either.

Know Your Audience

The real place to start is to ask yourself two questions:

1. Who are my customers?
2. What problem do I solve for them?

Who Are Your Customers?

Who are they, really? Not just at a superficial demographic level, understand them at a deeper level.  What is her job like? If your customer is someone in a corporation, what goals is she being measured against during her annual review? Is your product or service and integral part of meeting one of those goals? Or is the problem you solve simply one of those things getting in the way of meeting her goals?

What Problem Do You Solve?

Be able to articulate it in your customer's words, not yours. You want the description to resonate with your future customer on an emotional level. When they read the words on your website or tweet or Facebook page you want them to say to themselves, "Oh man this is it!". 

When someone is using Google to search for an answer to their problem, Google presents them with millions of websites. I know you spend a lot of time and money getting that person to click on your link. Think about this: She is going to spend just a few seconds scanning your website to see if it is the answer to her problem.  Make those seconds count.

If you can't articulate the problem you solve in your customers' words then you are just adding to the noise.

Here are the magic beans: Learn to ask yourself these two questions and you start to understand the real value you bring to your customers.  You begin to see how you are different and better than your competitors. 

When you learn to ask yourself these two questions it will change the way you think about your business. 

What Happens When You Don't Listen To Your Customers

If you've been around me for a while you know that I am a proponent of using Buyer Personas as an integral part of your marketing.

Ask your customers, "Why did you buy our product/service?" Why did you choose it instead of our competitors'? Equally important, ask "Why didn't you buy our product" of the ones that got away.

And so here we have Aston Martin, preferred supplier to Her Majesty's Secret Service. Builder of some of the fastest, most powerful, most gorgeous automobiles on the planet. And they're making an econobox.

Not just any econobox, mind you:  It's a rebadged Toyota at twice the price. 

Do you think the people who chose not to by an Aston Martin told them, "I was really looking for something slow, ugly, and overpriced instead of gorgeous and fast."?

Buyer Persona Coaching from THE Expert - Free

If you have been around me for any length of time then you know that I am a strong proponent of developing Buyer Personas to help you reach the right people at the right time with the right message.  Much of what I advocate and practice has been learned from Adele Revella.  

Here's your chance to get 30 minutes of free consulting from the preeminent thought-leader and practitioner of buyer personas.

Click Here to learn more

 

Companies Who Are Serious About Their Business Don't Do This

A few weeks ago we evaluated several wordpress mobile plugins and Wp-Touch Pro edged out the competition.  We've been playing with it for several weeks and we were about to go live with it on a client's site.

WP-Touch Pro couldn't be activated.Stymied, I went to their support site and saw that it was dark.

Here is a company that obviously has other higher priorities than its customers.

Baby Boomers Together

Business Blogging Pros welcomes one of our newest clients, Bob Lansburg and Baby Boomers Together.

Bob's vision is to provide a source of information for baby boomers that essentially answer the question, "Where do we go from here?"

It is an advertising-supported website containing information about retirement, travel, finance, and other issues of interest to baby boomers.

RC Auto

Business Blogging Pros welcomes RC Auto as one of our newest clients.

I've never before experienced a car dealership anything like RC Auto.  They offer:

• New cars of any make and model.
• Leasing
• Premium-quality certified pre-owned cars.

RC Auto is not tied to any specific manufacturer and as a result can get you just about anything you want, configured the way you want it.

RC Auto's motto is "It's not just a set of keys, it's a relationship." And they mean it.

RC Auto wanted to replace their static website with one that could be easily updated by their staff.  We surveyed all of the available Wordpress themes designed for automobile dealerships, evaluated the best, and chose the one you see here.  Yes, this is Wordpress.

Over the next several weeks, we'll be working with RC Auto staff to develop a social media strategy tailored specifically for their business, industry, and clientele.

Buyer Persona Institute and Adele Revella

Business Blogging Pros welcomes our newest client, Adele Revella and the Buyer Persona Institute.

I believe that buyer personas are a critical element of marketing, and no one is better qualified to teach us how to build them than Adele Revella.

Adele and her blog have had a tremendous impact upon me and the methodologies we employ here in our business.  So when Adele called me to upgrade her Buyer Persona blog to a complete website, I was honored.

The challenge was that her blog was on Typepad and the the new capabilities she needed were beyond what Typepad offered.  One of her biggest concerns was that the hundred of inbound links to her blog remain intact, and we were able to accomplish that pretty easily.  We also were able to keep all her trackbacks intact and mimic the way they were displayed by Typepad.

As you might guess, the project involved significant custom development of Wordpress templates and plugins.

TypePad's Widget Gallery Goes Poof

A recent post on Everything Typepad informs us that TypePad's Widget Gallery has been pulled down.

I know I'm not alone when I wonder if we're seeing the decline of TypePad.  Turnaround time on help tickets now seems to be about 72 hours.  It's been nearly two weeks since I sent my email to TypePad's new GM and I've not received a response - a world of difference since the days when a comment on Twitter would prompt Anil Dash to call me on the phone.

The other day I made a foray into TypePad's Advanced Templates to see if we could use them to solve a specific customer's problem.  While the documentation for Advanced Templates was never great, almost all of it has been removed.  Advanced templates are now pretty worthless.

All this leads me to worry that TypePad's best days are behind them.

Use Google Analytics to Build a Better Blog

Google Analytics is a powerful feature-rich tool providing great insights into what your readers are reading and want to read. You can easily use it to create a more interesting blog that draws more traffic.

The problem most people have is that Google Analytics provides so much information that they are overwhelmed.  I believe you should use Google Analytics to answer four questions:

• What are my visitors reading?
• How long are they staying?
• Where are they coming from?
• If they are coming from a search engine then what were they searching for?

What Are They Reading?

The Content Overview box displays the top five destinations on your blog. (You can click the View Report button to reveal a longer more detailed list.) For example, I can see that this post is the post popular one on my blog by an overwhelming margin.  

Now that you know what people are finding the most interesting, you can start to provide more of it.

Of course, you should ask yourself, "Does it reinforce my desired brand image to provide more of what they are reading?" Consider that your readers' view of your brand may be different from yours.  You'll have to decide how to handle that.

How Long Are They Staying?

Let's find out. At the bottom of the Content Overview box there is a "view report" link.  Click on it. When the page refreshes click on the View Full Report Link.

Example the Bounce Rate column.  Bounce rate is the percentage of people who left your site after visiting that page. Pages with a lower bounce rate indicate content that is interesting enough to motivate your visitors to explore your site further. You should probably start providing more content on the topics with the lower bounce rates.  What if the content you really want them to read has a high bounce rate?  Figure out how to make that content more interesting.

Where Are They Coming From?

On the Dashboard, click on Traffic Sources, then click on Referring Sites. When you see a significant amount of traffic coming from another website or blog you should make it a point to reach out to that site or blog owner and develop a relationship with them. Get to know that blog or website and try to reciprocate.

If They Are Coming From a Search Engine Then What Were They Searching For?

On the Dashboard, click on Traffic Sources, then click on Search Engines. This will tell you which search engines are sending you traffic. Click on a search engine in the list to reveal the actual search terms entered by users coming to your site.

Now that you know what they are looking for you can provide more of it.

Brand Alignment

Throughout this process you should be viewing this data as a measure of your brand's alignment.  What do I mean by that?  The most popular articles and search terms give you some insight into the world's perception of your brand.  Is that the perception you want them to have?  If so then fantastic.  If not then you' have some work to do. (Years ago, we paid gazillions of dollars for focus groups to give us this information.  Now we can get it for free.)

 

The Power of Video

I was reminded again today of the power of a simple video.

You probably know that I am a gourmet chef. Lately I've been toying with the idea of making my own doughnuts.

Here is a link to a great doughnut cookbook on Amazon

Now watch this video:

 

Which one better motivates you to buy the book and/or make doughnuts?

Social Media Marketing Doesn't Have to be This Hard

"I'm tweeting and blogging and facebooking and I'm spending a huge amount of time but I don't seem to be getting anywhere."

One of the most satisfying parts of my business is to work with business owners who are saying this and transform them into marketers with a focused strategic plan.  It really is possible to reduce the time you're spending on social media and be more productive at the same time.  It's not rocket science.  I promise.

If you feel like you are on a hamster wheel it's probably because you don't have a clear strategy that is tailored to your business.

First, Know Your Customers

Go beyond the normal client profile and get to the point that you understand them on an emotional level.  Understand the problems you solve for them on an emotional level. Understand why they buy from you and not your competitor.  Understand why they choose to buy at all (instead of just living with the problem). 

It's the Message

Remember that problem you solve for them?  Be able to articulate it in your customer's words. Your goal is to be able to see their world through their lens and articulate their problem using their language structures.

Research

Now that you know your customers well, it's time to switch gears.  A little research combined with some right-brain intuitive thinking will reveal the right tools and the places you need to be online.

Our Framework

We've developed a fraamework that we work through with each client. The framework's purpose is to produce a social media marketing strategy that meets the client's goals and is tailored to the client's business. 

Why Don't We Call it a Methodology?

Perhaps it's a matter of semantics.  To me a methodology implies a set of defined specific steps.  While our Framework does have steps, they are at a higher level - meta-steps, if you will.

For example, our framework entails developing "Buyer Personas" (A buyer persona is a detailed profile of an imaginary individual who is representative of a group of customers possessing the same characteristics.) We have several methods for developing buyer personas and we plugin the method that best fits you, your customers, and other specifics of the situation.

The beauty of this is that once you've learned our framework you can use it in any other business you decide to start in the future. 

 

 

Decline of Facebook - NOT

Douglas Rushkoff posted an interesting article a couple of days ago predicting that Facebok's days are numbered. It's an interesting article and worth reading.

While it's inevitable that Facebook will fade eventually, I don't see that happening in the foreseeable future.

MySpace, AOL, et all declined because (1) they failed to continue to innovate as an earlier commenter pointed out, and (2) there was 'something better' for users to migrate to.

I don't see the 'something better' on the event horizon.  And my sense is that the innovation continues.  My opinion?  FB has plans for all those 'Like' buttons we're putting on everything and those plans mean that if anyone should be worried about a decline it's Google.

 

TypePad vs WordPress vs WordPress.com Redux

Two years ago I wrote an extensive article describing the pros and cons of TypePad, Self-Hosted WordPress, and WordPress.com.  That article has consistently been the top-rated article on my blog.

A lot has changed in the past two years and so I thought it was time for an update.

Read The Updated Article

 

 

Your Own Custom Website Owner's Manual

	We want you empowered and in control. Every website and blog we deliver includes one-on-one personal training so that you are in charge and in control of your online presence. Not only that, we provide you with an owner's manual containing illustrated step-by-step instructions for updating and maintaining your site. You're not stuck trying to remember what we taught you a year ago. You're not stuck trying to decipher your months-old notes. You're not dependent upon someone else to make the updates for you. You are in control.
Customized to Your Website or Blog Almost every website and blog we build is custom. Your owner's manual is custom too. We start with our standard content that is common to every site and then write specific instructions for the functions and features specific to your own website or blog.
	Prefer Video? We've got you covered.  We include our own custom WordPress plugin to the Admin Panel containing all the same step-by-step instructions in video form.

Online Image Resizing Tool

I found a great (and simple) online tool for resizing images.

While both Typepad and WordPress can automatically resize images in the body of a page or post, often you need to resize an image manually for placement in the sidebar.

This tool at http://www.photosize.com does exactly that and nothing more.

Website Instruction Manual for our WordPress Clients

At last!  Our step-by-step instruction manual for for WordPress-based websites and blogs is ready!  The Typepad version has been available for several months but the WordPress version has been a long time coming.

We'll be giving a copy of this manual to every client in addition to the one-on-one training and coaching we provide.  It contains step-by-step instructions for every common task you need to perform in Wordpress, highly illustrated with screen shots.

We customize this manual for each client so that it includes documentation for any client-specific special features we may have incorporated in their website or blog.

 

 

And this is in addition to the video-help plugin we provide as a part of every one of our WordPress installations.

All this is part of our effort to provide a premium-level service to our clients.

Sorry, this manual is not for sale a a stand-alone item.  It is available only as part of our Social Media Marketing package.

iPad Wordpress App

The Wordpress iPad app appears to finally be working.  I tested earlier versions and was unable to connect or was unable to login.  

This app provides an easy way to edit and create posts and pages.

 

If you install it, be sure to FIRST log in to your wordpress admin panel from your desktop and turn on XML-RPC Remote publishing on Settings->Writing.

Studeo Legal

One of our oldest clients, Studeo Legal recently asked us to give their websites an overhaul.  They have two websites StudeoLegal.com and TrialBriefPro.com, each addressing a different problem faced by trial lawyers.

Our objective was to:

• Provide websites with a Content Management System so they could easily me maintained and updated.
• Give each site a unique appearance, yet:
• Provide a 'family resemblance' to both sites.

As is our custom, the wordpress theme was highly customized to provide Studeo Legal with a unique appearance as well as something that met their needs far better than a stock off-the-shelf theme.

iThemes Mobile Plugin

In a previous post I briefly talked about WPtouch-Pro. The other top contender for a wordpress mobile plugin is iThemes Mobile pluin in their PluginBuddy series.

I think the time will be here soon - maybe not in 2011 but soon - that mobile compatible sites will be a must-have feature.  We're already seeing that in some verticals.

I also believe that mobile users want different content that desktop browser users.  For example if you are visiting a restaurant's website on your mobile device, you most likely are interested in:

• Location (including map)
• Hours
• Menu
• Specials

As a result, your mobile site needs to be structured differently than your main website.  One of our primary criteria when evaluating mobile plugins/themes was that:

• Be able to create mobile-specific pages with content specifically aimed at the mobile user.
• The mobile site's menu can be configured to display only the mobile pages
• The main website's menu does not display the mobile pages

In other words, it's like having two separate sites in one wordpress installation.

Does iThemes Mobile meet this criteria?  Splendidly.  This theme may not look flashy out-of-the-box but it is very customizable.  Anyone used to tweaking wordpress themes will be very comfortable with iThemes Mobile - more so than WPtouch-Pro.  

iThemes Mobile also seems to have fewer compatibility with main themes that have a website-like front page.

One area that I think is giving many mobile theme developers heartburn is plugin compatibility. You may have a plugin that works great in your main site but would prefer NOT to have in the mobile site.  WPtouch-Pro has a mechanism whereby it tries to ignore plugins that you specify but the mechanism seems less than 100% effective.  iThemes Mobile doesn't have such a function at all.