Making Web Sites Work

Making Sense of Facebook's "Like" Button

Before we go any further, I've just got to ask, "Do you like me?". Do you really like me? Even more important than the answer to this question is, how do you feel about me asking that question right up front?

I was recently invited to visit a Facebook page so I could "Like" the organization. When I arrived I learned I really didn't have a choice. I was instructed to click the Like button before I would be allowed to access the content.

If my opening question caught you off guard, I'm not surprized. In most social settings, people like to get to know you before commiting to a "Like" relationship. The same is true with online Social Networking. Many novice Facebook business marketers use the Like button inappropriately. Not only are they unsuccessful, but it's such a turnoff they lose ground from the very start. Sounds downright needy to me.

Academy Award winning actress Sally Field was ridiculed for her acceptance speech for Best Actress for “Places in the Heart”. She is often quoted as saying “You like me, You really, really like me."Not only was she misquoted, but like Facebook's Like button, terribly misunderstood. I think she was acknowledging Academy members liked her performance, not her as a person.

What's missing? Your visitors really don't care how many folks follow you, or which color scheme you used to build your site. What they really Like are your blog posts or funny YouTube videos. They respect your community involvement, not your mission statement.

Tips for Using the Facebook Like Button

• Change your frame – switch your thinking from Like Me to Like This.

• Place the Like button after blog posts or announcements of your organization's accomplishments. Turn it into a Call to Action.

• Remove it from your home page. Do you really want visitors to leave your site?

• Before you place the button, ask yourself, “What is there to like right here?”

 Reference: Facebook Like Plugin

Virtual Visibility and the Art of Becoming a Media Darling

Can you imagine the impact to your organization of being mentioned on the front page of the Wall Street Journal? For Lydia Ramsey, author of Manners That Sell, adding the Polish that Builds Profits, it's more than wishful thinking. Lydia is quoted in today's edition in an article on one of Lydia's favorite topics, business email etiquette. In Hey, Folks: Here's a Digital Requiem For a Dearly Departed Salutation By DIONNE SEARCEY Lydia is quoted on her take on the use of "Dear" as an email salutation, "People who don't start communications with dear, says business-etiquette expert Lydia Ramsey, "lack polish."

Lydia's appearance on WJS.com is neither an accident nor a fluke. It's simply a product of her Internet marketing strategy. It's great to have client testimonials you can publish on your site. It's even better to have them mention you in their blogs or provide you with a Amazon review, LinkedIn testimonial or Facebook "Like". The sweet spot in virtual visibility is when a respected publication elevates your brand from expert to recognized expert.

It's more than just recognition. Whether Lydia is featured in the Journal, Inc, Cosmo, or on NPR, the emails from well wishers are soon followed by subscriber confirmations, orders from new customers and booking inquiries for speaking engagements.

Wish You Were a Media Darling?

Following in Lydia's footsteps is really very simple, even if it's not easy. It requires a commitment to knowing what's going on in the world of business and not being afraid to "tell it like it is".

To improve your "Virtual Visibility, you need to:

• Write about what's going on in your area of expertise.
• Increase the frequency of your publishing and balance it against the quantity of content.
• Be consistent in the words and phrases in your message. Lydia uses my Key Phrase Thesaurus to ensure important words like Polish from her book title: "adding the Polish that Builds Profits" are repeated in the published interview or blog post "lacks polish".
• Seek interview opportunities where your expertise can shine. Reinforce the linkage between your published blog posts, articles, white papers, products and services.
• Create an easy to follow linkpath from:
  • The content distributor, the magazine or network site, which leads to
  • Your published content including "Owned Media" like Twitter feed, Blog posts or Articles which leads to
  • Your product or services landing pages which leads to
  • Your bank account.

Although it's not easy, the interview strategy produces results in a relatively short time. Lydia has accomplished front page status in less than a year.

So when are you going to get started? Give me a call at 727-278-9382 and let me know how you are doing.

 

How to Jumpstart Your Digital Day

Did you have a little trouble getting started this morning? It may have more to do with your work environment than a lack of caffeine. Whether your morning commute takes you across town or from the kitchen to your home office, at some point we all sit down, boot up and launch a software tool.

Back in the day all our apps were neatly organized under a start menu or arranged (not so neatly) on our desktop. With the evolution from desktop to web-based software, today your morning started with a web browser. The problem is that although installing a desktop application includes the creation of a Start Menu shortcut, opening a web-based business account does little to organize your digital toolbox.

Using web-based tools means you're stuck trying to remembering how to spell the URL or trying to find a bookmark in a haystack. Once you finally arrive at the right site you still have to jump through hoops to get past the login screen (Now where did I put that sticky with the password?) All of this frustration was brought into focus for me by an attendee of last weekend's OSAP Symposium in Tampa, Fl when she said, "I can't spend my whole Friday on Social Networking". 

Sound familiar? If you find your mornings starting at a crawl, consider investing a few minutes organizing your browser instead of springing for that double mocha latte. All it takes is two steps:

Setup your Browser

• Choose a Browser Start Page - I start each day with my web-based calendar and contacts organizer (SugarCRM). Choose your "Go-To" web app and set it as your browser start page.

• Create a Favorite's Bar Folder - Create a folder on your browser Favorites tool-bar. Create bookmarks for your top five web destinations like Skype, Facebook, your shopping cart and blog login.
  Need more that five? I've created sub-folders for Research, Social Networking, Writing, and Reference and add bookmarks to your web-based tools.

Organize your Web Logins

• Stop carrying that huge digital keyring in your head. Ditch the yellow stickies and go digital instead. I use a secure password vault called SplashID because it provides both AES and 256-bit Blowfish encryption. It allows me to sync my logins between my computer and smart-phone. Now I only have one password to memorize.

How do you kick-start your computer in the morning? Post a comment below to let me know how you make technology work for you.

Social Networking, the New Engraved Invitation

My Space, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. It wasn't but a few minutes after each of these popular social networking sites were launched that business owners started thinking about ways to use them to market their products and services.

Aside from a few, well publicized successes, most of the audiences I speak to report their encounters with social networking as falling somewhere between ineffective and obnoxious. They frequently lament that social networking requires too much effort for such a small return. The blame often get attributed to the overall concept of social networking, or on the tools themselves.

Back in the days when I carried a tool-belt to work, I learned that the person who blamed their tools were probably using their wood chisel as a screwdriver.

Are your social networking tools getting the job done?

Like the carpenters I met in my former career, if find yourself using brute force to market your business with social networking, it could be one of three things.
Your tools need sharpening, your using the wrong tool, or you're holding it wrong. Here are some tips you can use to increase the value of your social networking marketing (without breaking a sweat).

Sharpen Your Tools

It's popular right now to create a social networking warehouse on the home page of a website. Businesses invite visitors to become a fan on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and connect with us on LinkedIn. It simply doesn't work. It's easy for the businesses to publish in this format, but impossible for the visitor to jump through all the hoops to complete the sign-ups.

Sharpen your focus by providing invitations in context. If you want people to follow you on Twitter, tell them where you are going. Invite them to check out the coverage of your corporate, charity or community events. If you want visitors to become a Facebook fan, tell them what's special about your fan club. Invite them to request discounts, tell them how to get first crack at tickets or request a signed 8 x 10 glossy photo.

Choose the Right Tool

Since all the tools mentioned above fit into the social networking category, it's easy to simply reach into the the SN toolbox and grab the one on top. In a pinch you can use a pipe wrench as a hammer, but it requires a lot of effort and produces poor results. The first step to creating effective social networking marketing is to match the tool to the task at hand. Twitter works best when used to create mobile, mini press releases in the form of, "I'm here, this is what's going on, won't you join me?" Facebook is most effective when used to tell prospects and clients what happened, "It was a great event, check out the photos". Consider using Facebook to publish how your helped a client. LinkedIn is a powerful platform to connect with resources or become one yourself. Use it to invite collaboration.

Master the Tools You Already Have

I had the good fortune to work with Dean, a master carpenter for Marty Azola, one of the nation's leading historic restoration firms. While most of us spent our breaks talking about sports or our plans for the weekend, Dean sharpened his tools. Funny, but I never saw him break a sweat laying out a set of stairs or cutting a hinge mortise by hand. Invest time learning how to master the social networking tools you already use. They are constantly evolving so "read the manual" and leverage the value of your investment.

Is your Social Networking Working?

I invite you to use the comment form below to share your best practices or ask me a question.

Join me next time to learn how to Use your Blog like Super Glue to connect current events with your future success.