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Why Your Website is the Hub of Your Internet Marketing

November 3, 2011 by A2Z Computer Services Inc Leave a Comment

With the rise of social media marketing through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and all of the others, many businesses have forced their websites to take a back seat when it comes to their internet marketing. There are even businesses that opt out of setting up a website because it seems easier and cheaper to just have a Facebook page. While Facebook is a very important tool for companies to embrace, it cannot replace your website. Rather, it should be used to pull more customers and leads to your website where the real sale can take place. Below are 4 basic reasons why your website is the hub of your internet marketing.

1. You own your website.

It’s important to remember that you do not own Facebook, or any other social networking site for that matter. Facebook has strict rules that many business owners either don’t know or simply ignore altogether, especially when it comes to contests, sweepstakes and giveaways. If you break these rules your page is subject to being removed. Facebook is also known to make big changes and updates without warning. Your website only changes when you want to change it. You dictate how your website functions and when changes are made, this is very important.

2. Your website can display all of your information.

Your website can be as large and complex as you need. To give a full presentation of your services and products you need space and organization. A website meets this need by allowing you to have as many pages as you can fill with content. You’re also able to easily make changes and updates as your products evolve. Facebook only allows for so much, which is why sites like Facebook and Twitter are perfect for giving your potential clients a teaser, or sample, and then pulling them back to your website where the real sales presentation can take place.

3. Search Engine Optimization

SEO is king. Being involved in social media does help your SEO, but your website does more. As I mentioned above, you can fill your website with as much content as you want. The more pages of content that you have, the more that search engines such as Google and Bing have to look at. Search Engine Land recently blogged that a new industry report says SEO Beats PPC & Social Media For Generating Leads. Search engine optimization cannot be ignored and the organic SEO on your website is the foundation for it all.

4. Mobile Optimization

More individuals are accessing the internet from their smart phones. Social media is perfect for mobile interaction, but not so much for sales presentations. Keep in mind that making more sales is what drives you to market and promote your business in the first place. Facebook allows you to have custom tabs and applications on your page, but those tabs and applications are not viewable in the mobile version of Facebook or in the native Facebook application. However, your website can be optimized for mobile browsing and allows for consumers to conveniently view your content on the go, which is very important.

These are very basic points, but my purpose in presenting them is to simply remind you of the importance of your website. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and all of the other social networking sites are very important as well and should not be ignored. All businesses and organizations can benefit from using social media in some form. Just make sure that you don’t forget your website, which is the hub of your internet marketing.

Is Facebook Killing the “Like”?

October 4, 2011 by Quincy Zikmund Leave a Comment

Over the last few weeks the Facebook announcement mill has been pretty busy. At their f8 conference Facebook announced the new profile called Timeline that will be released to the public within the next few weeks. However, before the announcement of Timeline and updates to Open Graph, Facebook also released the News Feed Ticker in the right sidebar of your news feed, changes to what type of content you see in your news feed and the ability to subscribe to people in order to see their public posts without being their friend.

Updates to Pages

We now come to a change that has already been made live and is something all Page admins needs to pay close attention to. There were two updates made to Pages recently which are the the Friend Activity tab and the ability for users to comment on and interact with a page without having to “Like” the page.

With the advent of business pages on Facebook, companies and marketers have put a lot of time and money into gaining more “Likes” on their Facebook Page. Getting people to Like your page on Facebook truly has been important because if no one’s on there with you how can it be effective? Unfortunately, a lot of businesses and marketers have put all of their efforts into gaining more Likes. The effect has been a lack of quality content, community and interaction. If you use the number of “Likes” that your page has as your only metric for measuring Facebook success then you’re doing it wrong. The best metric that you can use to measure your Facebook success is the quantity and quality of interaction with the people who already “Like” your page.

What These Changes Mean for Your Business

Is the “Like” button going away? No, not technically at least. With the ability for people to comment on and interact with your brand without being forced to “Like” your page you now have a few responsibilities that are not new but that will now be forced on you in order for your business to succeed on Facebook.

Use Your Page to Create Quality Content

This is something that I have been pushing for a long time. The simple truth is that if you don’t use your Facebook page (or any other social media outlet for that matter) it will be of no benefit to you. If you use your page to do nothing but sell something in every post then you won’t succeed. Content is king and it always has been. But now that Facebook news feeds only show the most popular posts at the top you really have to develop good content that creates interaction for your posts to even be seen.

The plus side to all of this is that once you start engaging the people who already “Like” your page their friends will notice when they interact with your posts. Now that users don’t have to “Like” and promote your page just to comment on your posts you have an opportunity to create even more interaction than what you can project by looking at the number of “Likes” that you have. Now you don’t have to force people to “Like” your page to do what really matters on Facebook – which is to create community and interaction.

To say that getting people to like your page is not beneficial would be a lie. You should continue your efforts for getting more likes on your page by promoting your page in your print media, running Facebook promotions and offering something of value to the users that like your page. Just be sure that you continue creating quality content that keeps your community engaged and participating.

First Look at Facebook’s Timeline

September 24, 2011 by Quincy Zikmund 1 Comment

This past Thursday, September 23, Facebook held its f8 Conference where the CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, announced new updates and changes for the Facebook platform. This year marked the biggest announcements and changes that we have ever seen from Facebook. One of these are the new profile design that has been called Timeline, which will be rolled out to all users in the coming weeks. However, Facebook developers gained access to Timeline immediately. This morning I made the switch on my profile, which is only visible to other developers until the official launch. Today I’m going to give you a tour of the Timeline so that you will know what to expect. Let’s start from the top!

Profile Picture, Cover and About Information

The first thing you see on the new profile is a large image that spans the entire width of your profile. This image is called Cover. It’s similar to your Profile Picture in that you set it to be whatever you want and can change it as often as you’d like. The purpose of the Cover image is to introduce yourself in one quick hit. Example: You might set your profile picture as just an image of yourself and use your cover image to show off your latest family portrait. The Cover image is only seen when someone is looking at your profile. The profile picture has had some updates as well. You’ll notice that it overlays your Cover image, which gives a pretty nice effect. Your profile picture’s thumbnail is still what you’re known by around Facebook when you send out posts and comments. However, the profile picture as it shows up on your profile is now a 2″ x 2″ square.

Your basic “About” information (i.e. your job, school, location and relationship status) is now located directly under your profile picture and name. The same information is displayed as before but now it just looks much cleaner. Clicking the “About” link under your basic information takes you to a page that is the equivalent of the “Info” tab that we had before. The same information is displayed as before, only in a much cleaner format that resembles the Timeline. All of your other links that were in the left sidebar on the old profile are now directly under the Cover image and each link includes image thumbnails. By default, “Friends” and “Photos” are the first two listed. Next you see “Map” (see below for information about the Map) and “Likes”. After the first four images you see a button with a number and an arrow. When this is clicked you see all other applications that you use such as Spotify or Nike +. Your featured applications can moved around but your “Friends” link and “Photos” link must stay in the first two spots.

Your Map

The Map application is a brand new addition to the Facebook profile. You can see the Map thumbnail and link as one of my featured applications under the Cover image. When clicked you see a large map full of dots. These dots represent everywhere that you have told Facebook you’ve been. Included on the map are check-ins, life events that you have added to your Timeline and everywhere that you have lived. This is a pretty cool feature, especially if you travel a lot.When others are looking at your map they have the ability to filter the map by month and year by using the navigation links that you see to the right of the map.

Goodbye Wall, Hello Timeline

Say goodbye to your old Wall and hello to your Timeline. Your Timeline is the biggest overhaul to profiles. Rather than showing a long list of your most recent posts and activity your Timeline is divided into two columns and each post or piece of activity has its own box. At the top of your Timeline is the dialog box where you make posts and where others write on your Timeline just they like they did on the Wall.

Life Events

Life events can also be added to your Timeline from the same place that you post status updates. These life events can be anything that you have ever done such as taking a vacation, getting a new pet or buying a home. These Life Events are then placed into your Timeline on the date that you specify. When adding a Life Event you can include a photo, the story, and who you were with. Timeline essentially allows you to create your own autobiography from the day you were born through the present day. In fact, when someone scrolls to the very bottom of your Timeline they see your birthday along with a baby picture and where you were born, if you choose to include those items.

To the right of your profile is a navigation bar that includes months and years. This is how you filter through your timeline. If your friend wants to look at what you were up to in 2008 then all they have to do is click “2008” in the navigation and they will be taken to that year of your life.

Final Thoughts

Please note that this is simply an overview of the new Facebook profiles and Timeline. There is so much more to say about all of the updates and changes coming, which we will talk about in later blog posts. For now I hope that you at least have a better understanding of what to expect in the coming weeks. This new format will no doubt take time for users to adapt to.

What are your thoughts about the new Facebook profile design and Timeline? Let us know in the comments below.

Facebook Contests: Do’s and Don’ts

September 20, 2011 by Quincy Zikmund Leave a Comment

Facebook contests and giveaways are very popular these days. It’s rare to not see posts from friends who have just entered to win a gift card or an iPad. It’s just as rare to not see posts from company pages that you like promoting their latest sweepstakes and how you can win. Contests are a great way to generate buzz about your brand on the largest social network around. However, there are a few problems that many businesses run into when it comes to making Facebook contests a part of their social media strategy. Below is just the tip of the iceberg that I hope will create some conversation and get you thinking about the use of contests in your social media strategy.

You are not allowed to run contests on the Facebook platform.

According to Facebook’s Promotional Guidelines, companies are not allowed to run contests or giveaways using the Facebook platform. This means that you can’t ask a question in a post and randomly pick a winner from the comment thread. You’re also not allowed to run a contest through voting in your photo albums. Essentially, if a tool or feature is native to Facebook you’re not allowed to use it for running your contest.

So what is the right way to run a contest? Third party applications. These applications integrate with Facebook but they are not part of Facebook, they are not running on Facebook’s servers. These applications allow you to run fan generated contests, sweepstakes and other types of promotions. This is the only way that Facebook allows you to run contests. Unfortunately, many either ignore this rule or simply don’t know it exists. You’re also not allowed to announce contest winners using the Facebook platform. Winners must be contacted in private through email, phone or some other method.

It’s important to run your contests the right way so that you won’t potentially lose all that you’ve worked for in building your Facebook presence.

The contest is over. Now what?

Picture this: Today is the big day. For the past month your company has been running and promoting a sweepstakes on your Facebook page to give away an excellent prize. You check your page insights and see that your interactions, impressions and new likes have skyrocketed over the last few weeks. You’ve managed to gain hundreds, maybe even thousands of new likes on the page. You’re ecstatic. All these new people have seen your logo and shown interest in your company (or at least the contest). You draw the winner, give them their prize and thank all the entrants for participating. You go home for the weekend and relax knowing that you have succeeded on Facebook. Monday morning comes and you sign into Facebook as soon as you sit down at your desk. You pull up your company page, click the text box to begin writing a post when you suddenly stop and think “What now?”

As I said before, running contests through Facebook is an excellent way to generate buzz, gain more likes and to simply show community appreciation. I also believe that these special promotions can be a part of everyone’s social media strategy in some form or fashion. However, contests cannot be your entire social media strategy. If you do nothing but continually run contests how will your business truly benefit? You may have 10,000 likes on your Facebook page or 10,000 followers on Twitter but are those individuals truly relevant to your business? You need to provide true value to your online community or else they will leave. If they don’t care about your products or service then they will probably leave as soon as the contest is over. Give your followers a reason to stick around, give something of value.

Your business needs a social media strategy that makes education and customer service a priority. Yes, you should grow your page as time goes on with various promotions. But the true value lies in the content that you’re putting out there and the conversation that takes place around your brand daily.

Our goal at A2Z is to help businesses use social media in a way that is effective in giving value to the online community, creating awareness about your products and services and bringing you more business. Contests help but they cannot do it all.

Are contests part of your social media strategy? Based on what you read above, are you running them the right way?

First Thoughts on Google Plus

July 13, 2011 by A2Z Computer Services Inc 2 Comments

Last week, all of us at A2Z finally received our invites for Google Plus (Google+). In this post, I’m going to share a few of my initial thoughts, reactions and expectations after a few days of exploring Google’s brand new social networking site.

The Design

Upon entering Google+ for the first time there were a few things that instantly caught my attention. The first of these being the minimalist design and layout. Everywhere you go on the site, you see a lot of white space and the content is given center stage. A clean and minimal design is not only easy on the eyes, but it also makes navigation simple and quick and lets you focus on the content and interaction. Another great feature to the design and integration of Google Plus is the gray toolbar that we recently saw show up at the of the page when you’re logged into your Google account. This not only allows the user to switch from Google Plus to Gmail to your Calendar and more, but it also sports a notification box for your Google Plus, allowing you to receive notifications regardless of which tool you’re using in your Google account.

Your Profile

As with the rest of the social networking site, your profile sticks with the same minimalist look. You have your information page that displays all of the information about yourself that you choose to put out there. With each piece of information that you place on your About page, you also choose the type of people that you want that to be available to (i.e. Friends, Family, Everyone, etc.). Your Posts tab simply shows all of your posts that you’ve sent out. Your profile does not have a wall for people to write on. All interaction is done from the stream, which essentially makes sharing and interacting a hybrid between Facebook and Twitter.

Circles

Circles have been of the most talked about feature in Google Plus. Rather than sending friend requests like on Facebook, Google Plus allows you to add people to various Circles that you have created. Just because you add them to your Circle, doesn’t mean they have to add you. It’s the equivalent to following people on Twitter and adding them to a list. Another plus (no pun intended) to this feature is that allows you to be selective with who you share posts with. Let’s say that your Circles are titled Family, Friends, Co-Workers and Clients. If you’re sharing an update about your vacation, you may not want that seen by clients, but only friends and family. Likewise, not everything you share with clients may be relevant to your cousins. Circles makes online sharing and interaction a little more similar to interacting with your different circles of friends in real life.

Hangouts

Hangouts allows you to do group video chat with your Google Plus connections. This may not be something that everyone will have need of, but I can see this really being used for online business meetings, study groups, etc.

Closing Thoughts

It seems that after a few failed attempts at social networking, Google has finally struck gold. Google Plus is estimated to hit 20 Million users this weekend and admission to the site is still by invitation only. Admission to Google Plus will be available to the public on July 31st. This makes Google Plus the fastest growing social network ever. There’s a lot of talk about how Google Plus could take down Facebook or even knock out Twitter and to be honest, it’s hard to fully agree with that. Will some people leave those sites altogether to put more focus on this new site? Maybe. Most people, though, will not completely leave Facebook, even the ones who have been feeling “Facebook fatigue” lately. I see great success in Google’s social networking future and look forward to seeing more updates and refinements to the site.