1. Online
Visibility
How
to
a'ract
business
with
your
website
and
social
media
2. What We’ll Cover Today:
How to increase the effectiveness
of your website
How to build brand engagement with
Social Media
How to set goals and measure
results
5. Sample goals:
Universal goal:
“I want a site that looks professional, loads fast, and tells
our story.”
Show up in search engines so more people visit my
website and more prospects call me
More interaction with customers (project tracking, etc.)
Sell more products online
Provide resources for employees
Shows off our portfolio and helps me close more sales
6. Spy on your competitors
Look at other sites in your industry – What do they
include that could help you achieve your goals?
7. Think about your brand
What is your value statement?
Why should potential customers buy from
you?
What makes your company different?
S.W.O.T. Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, Threats
Your site has to convey your brand in all
areas: look, content, tools, etc.
8. Use good design
Conveys your brand in colors and style
(Modern? Friendly? High tech? Personal?)
Clean and simple
Keep navigation consistent
Make contact information obvious, on
every page
9. Use Good Quality Photography
istockphoto.com
Hire a professional
If you are taking the photos yourself:
Good lighting
Consistent backgrounds for products
Watch the shadows – be thoughtful
10. Plan your home page
Logo, contact info, a brief intro to your
company, navigation bar
Identify a few top places in your site you
want visitors to see
What else needs to be on your home
page? News? A log in screen? Twitter
feed?
16. Develop your site map by organizing
other pages under these main areas
Home
About Us
• History
• Staff
Services
• Web Design
• Portfolio
This determines page count (and usually cost)
17. Make a list of any applications you
want and add them to your site map
Photo gallery
Calendar
Password protected log in
Facebook or twitter feed
Videos
Blog
19. First name your site audiences
Businesses? Consumers? Customers? Employees?
Investors? Potential Employees? What Industries?
20. What are they looking for?
What content do you need to serve them? Write
down the top messages for each audience.
21. Next, if Search Engine
Optimization is important –
choose your top ten:
Choose ten top key phrases
Be REALISTIC – not just “engineer” but rather
“huntsville engineer”
List variations of these too such as engineer in
huntsville, huntsville engineering company,
engineering company huntsville
22. Write your content
Use your top ten SEO key phrase list and
make sure you use these statements on
almost every page within your content,
several times if possible, but don’t overdo it
Keep it simple - short text sections broken
up by sub headers - bullet lists are great
Make sure all of your key messages are
told
23.
24. Make sure your site is
functional and usable
Big part of this is navigation structure
Watch file sizes
No splash screens
Add applications that encourage
interaction
Direct visitors to top content or contact info
25. Make sure it is well-programmed
and reliably hosted
27. Content Management Systems
Opensource CMS systems (Joomla,
Wordpress, Drupal) – you will need a
programmer
Hosted CMS systems – you can build
your own
32. Put search words and
phrases in your content
Make a list of 10-20 search phrases
Use these (and variations) throughout
site, combine with location
Put in page headers and image ALT tags
(don’t go overboard)
33. Other things you can do:
Get as many reputable sites as
possible to link to your site
Association listings
Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Use bullet lists <ul><li>
Use <H1> title tags
34. Ways to push traffic
to your site
Social media
Permission-based email newsletters
Press releases
Advertising
Business cards
36. Run an AdWords Campaign
(pay-per-click)
You can set your own budget
You can determine how long and how often
you run your campaign
Ability to target specific customers through
location and keywords
Often has a positive impact on organic
Google search results
37. Pay per Click (AdWords)
Trackable results, ability to modify the
campaign at any time – integrates with
Google Analytics
Needs to be actively monitored by tracking
results and adjusting campaign
Create landing pages to increase conversion
rates and (sometimes) lower cost of
campaign
38. Blogging is great for SEO
Short articles – very personal,
conversational – your thoughts on your
business, your industry, your life
Cross link with all other social media and
feed into your website
According to emarketer, 53.5% of internet
users read blogs
46. Cross Link Everything!!
Facebook feed and/or “like” button
integrations on your website
Facebook posts links about news on the
website
Youtube channel has a video that
promotes the company – and website
Flickr feeds photo galleries on site
57. Sample goals:
Increase traffic to a store
Create brand awareness
Promote a cause or campaign
Provide customer service
Generate business leads
Encourage customer engagement
58. Know who you are
trying to reach
Age
Gender
Geography
Interests/Hobbies
Industry
Business people
General public
60. Facebook
Largest social media networking site right
now
Primarily business to consumer
86% - 25 years and up
68% - 35 years and up
46% - 45 years and up
61. Facebook for Business
Best Practices
• Post 4 – 7 times per week
• Know your goals
• Advertise specials
• Share new products
• Build a friendly, personal brand feel
• Share news
• Convey your brand
69. Twitter
Growing social media networking site
Primarily business to consumer
81% - 25 years and up
58% - 35 years and up
33% - 45 years and up
70. Twitter for Business
Best Practices
Post several times per day
Know your goals
• Connect with others with similar interests
• Follow topics and contribute thoughts
• Share education, quotable quotes
• Share news, blog postings, etc.
• Keep top of mind awareness
• Grow your network with others
71.
72.
73. Pinterest
Great for referring links
Primarily business to consumer
Mostly females with interests in fashion,
cooking, and DIY
90% - 25 years and up
64% - 35 years and up
35% - 45 years and up
74. Pinterest for Business
Best Practices
Consider this if trying to reach women
Know your goals
• Showcase products
• Showcase ideas
• Showcase projects
75.
76.
77.
78. Google Plus
Newer social media networking site
Primarily business to consumer
Much younger, male audience
A lot of techies
50% - 25 years and up
22% - 35 years and up
11% - 45 years and up
79. Google+ for Business
Best Practices
• Post 4 – 7 times per week, like Facebook
• Know your goals
• Advertise specials
• Share new products
• Build a friendly, personal brand feel
• Share news
• Convey your brand
80.
81.
82. LinkedIn
Great networking tool
Primarily business to business
64% users use it for business growth
96% - 25 years and up
81% - 35 years and up
49% - 45 years and up
83. LinkedIn for Business
Best Practices
Use daily or several times per week
Know your goals
• Recruit employees
• Target prospects and find common contacts
• Portray and active, professional personal
image
• Request testimonials
88. Follow to be followed:
Follow industry leaders on social media
and on their blogs
Promote those already championing for
you
Be an active follower by retweeting,
sharing, and commenting
Actively participate in LinkedIn Groups
Continuously find and add LinkedIn
connections
89.
90.
91. Be your own distributer:
Use press release distribution services like
PRWeb.com or PR.com
Share your own web and blog content
through your social media networks
Encourage people to connect with you by
adding icons to your website and online/
print communications
92. Conduct a promotion on
Facebook to gain fans
Be sure you know (and follow Facebook
rules)
Host a contest using a 3rd party app (North
Social, Wildfire are good options)
Offer a social media follower only
promotion
93. Pay for exposure:
Google AdWords
Bing/Yahoo! paid ads
Facebook ads
Facebook sponsored posts
Other online advertising
94. Give it time!
It can take up to a year of diligent work to
see the results of a good social media
campaign
96. Know what is being said
Whether you use social media or not,
people may still be talking about you on it
What is being said may change your
business model
Monitor all social media platforms for
comments about you or your company and
respond quickly if the site will allow you to
do so
97. Respond quickly to any
negative posts
Do not get into a “he said she said”
argument if the post was negative –
respond professionally and move it offline
100. Find the silver lining:
If at all possible, respond to negative posts
rather than delete them
Turn a negative into a positive by offering
stellar customer service to right the wrong
(where possible)
Make changes in response to common
complaints
101. Good to great:
Got a good comment – don’t forget to
respond to these too!
102. NutshellMail.com
Offered by Constant Contact
Monitors:
• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Foursquare
Reports are emailed to you
103.
104. Twitter.com/Search
Search for variations
Find people singing your praises and
follow them
Search for your competitors
Search for industry terms
105.
106. www.Google.com/Alerts
Set up alerts for your company name,
products, and other identifying keywords
Set up alerts associated with your
competitors
Set up alerts for terms associated with
your industry
107.
108. Google Analytics –
Referral Sites
If you have Google Analytics or another
visitor tracking service, watch for articles,
forums, and blogs linking to your site
109.
110. Tips, tricks, & timesavers:
How to make it easier to
manage all of this work
111. Choosing How to Participate
What do you have time to be consistent
with? (Don’t start a blog if you aren’t
committed to keeping it going)
Where is your audience?
112. Take your cue from the
magazines:
Decide what topics you’ll cover
Use an editorial calendar to keep things
organized
Be prepared to change, add, or completely
deviate from the plan to respond to current
events
113. Share the load:
Encourage ideas from employees or
members of your organization
Give others a chance to create blogs,
posts, videos, photos, and more
Share the floor with other industry experts
and guests
114. Find the buzz:
Find your muse through sites like:
• LinkedIn Answers
• Yahoo! Answers
• Twitter Searches
• Industry blogs and news sites
• Competitor sites
116. Carve out time:
Devote a realistic amount of time for social
media each week – half hour a day? One
hour a week?
Make it a priority and be committed to it
Scale back and focus on one thing if time
is an issue
Don’t forget to take the time to plan in
advance
117. Schedule ahead:
Great free (to cheap) tools for this:
• Facebook – allows scheduling now
• CrowdBooster.com – Facebook Page & Twitter
• HootSuite.com – Facebook and Twitter
• TweetDeck – Facebook, Twitter
118.
119.
120.
121. Review and adapt:
Track changes in web visitor statistics
(Google Analytics is great for this)
Track which posts, tweets, etc. get the
most shares and comments
Track which blog posts and authors get
the most readers, shares, and comments
Check your goals and modify your actions
as needed
123. Sample Website Goals:
Increase # of visitors each month at least
by 5%
Maintain 55% of traffic coming from search
engines
First page rank for “Huntsville Web
Design”
10% of site visitors convert into leads each
month
124. Sample Social Media Goals:
Increase the number of people who
actively engage with a like or a share or a
mention by 5 each month
Get three-four responses on average for
all posts within one month
Gain 10 new followers/fans each month
125. Measuring Website Results
with Google Analytics:
Answers questions such as:
How much traffic is coming to the site?
How did visitors get to the site?
What keywords are working best?
What content is working best?
How did social users engage with the site?
130. Facebook Insights
Answers questions such as:
• How did people respond to my posts?
• How far is my reach?
• How much has my following grown?
• Which types of posts are the most shared and
commented on?
131.
132. Measure your personal online
influence with Klout.com
• Measures engagement with your personal social media
accounts
• Measures reach by the number of people who share your
posts and how many followers they expose you to
• Requires very consistent effort and very high quality posts
to score high
• Great way to look at who is most influential online and
how they are using social media