All of these facts and more mind blowing social media statistics can be found here.

So what’s a company to do with all of this Social 2.0 MySpaceBooking at its fingertips?  There are many different theories and methods being employed by businesses everywhere to try and maximize the advantages of social media.  What we’re doing today is looking at a few dos and don’ts by busting a few of the more commonly employed tactics that you’ve probably encountered at some point.

Exxon Mobil wants to find out which type of gasoline I am. I hope it''s 87-grade unleaded!

Myth #1 – I’ve Built It, So They Will Come

You can set up all of the profiles you want on a bajillion different platforms, but in order to maintain a successful social media campaign there needs to be an active presence with the audience.  Networking is what social media is all about, so you’ll need to get out there and interact with people if you expect to see valid results.

Myth #2 – It’s A Public Relations Free-For-All

There seems to be this idea with social media that anything goes.  We can bombard whomever we want with advertising and censor whomever is giving poor feedback.  While social media does put you at the controls of the ship, it’s not necessary to kamikaze that baby into a sea of humanity.  Social media is designed for networking and interacting, not for pumping out offers, games and contests every 20 minutes.  When presented tastefully, marketing your business with social media through an online promotion or contest can yield extremely lucrative results, however there needs to be credibility associated with the campaign.  Would you purchase an item from a vendor in a trench coat that keeps shouting offers at you while you walk down the street?

Get out the pocketbook, honey! This guy looks legit.

Myth #3 – Each Channel Is Its Own Audience

It’s important not to alienate your audience in any way.  The reach of your social media efforts is maximized when you cross-pollinate between all of your different platforms.  Don’t just present an offer ‘for our Facebook group only’.  Make sure that same offer is available on your website, on Twitter, YouTube, or wherever else your online presence extends.  Forcing people to ‘like’ your Facebook page in order to take advantage of a promotion is not only short sighted, but in some cases is also against Facebook’s Terms of Use.

Myth #4 – The More The Merrier

There also seems to be a fascination with gaining more and more followers and ‘likes’ until your Facebook page turns into the Blob, absorbing everyone it touches.  Sure, the ultimate goal of getting into social media is to expand your audience, grow popularity and gain an extra avenue to interact with these groups, however you should be looking for ways to engage these people to interact with your business in some form and not simply clicking a ‘like’ button.  Additionally, once you’ve reached your target following, it’s important not to maintain the status quo.  It certainly should not be taken for granted that the audience that follows you today will still be there tomorrow.  Focus on building the relationships you’ve developed with the followers you have – not on gimmicks – and people will ‘like’ you for all the right reasons.

Social Media gives your business a whole new avenue to reach new audiences and generate legitimate leads.  The potential is too great to ignore.  It can be enticing to get roped into distractions when we see the success of various brands and you just want to get a piece of the action, so make sure that your efforts are concentrated on the goals you’ve set for yourself.  If you’re having troubles getting your social media presence off the ground, contact Point Click Media.

Hey look, it's GeoCities!

A great domain name can be the catalyst to a successful online presence.  So what makes a great domain name and how do you pinpoint them?

They are short and easy to remember

It’s not a coincidence that pretty much every 3 or 4 letter domain name has been gobbled up.  They’re usually quick and easy to remember, quick to identify, and quick to type out.  It’s all about convenience here, so the shorter the better.  But keep in mind too that a domain should be easy to remember.  Zqhgy.net may only be 5 letters, but it’s not easy to pronounce and even harder to recall.  Unless you’re using the domain name for an already established and well branded acronym, try to stay away from non-words.

They are easy to spell

Aardvarkattorneys.com may be a memorable domain name, but it is difficult to spell correctly.  Avoid words with complex structure or words with foreign origins.  What you don’t want to happen is for somebody to misspell your domain and end up going somewhere else.  Also try to avoid using hyphens, numbers or spelling out the extension because the name you really wanted wasn’t available.  If you have to explain to someone how to type out your name, then it probably wasn’t selected very well.

Hey Dave, check out my site. It’s Batman-RulezDotCom.com… That’s right, rules, with a Z… NO, no, don’t spell out dash, use the hypen! … Ok, dot com, dot com, spelled once then once the regular way. You know what? Screw it, I’ll send you a link.

They are descriptive and easily brand-able

Social media companies are a perfect example of how a good domain name can be memorable, easy to spell and highly brand-able all in one shot:  Twitter, Reddit, Blogger, Facebook, etc.  You pretty much know what you’re getting before you even visit Facebook or Blogger, and even though Twitter and Reddit are not necessarily real words per se, they are appealing and roll off the tongue easily.  Twitter has built an entire social media platform based on ‘tweeting’, and their domain reflects that perfectly.

It’s certainly not easy to find the perfect domain.  If you can’t find your dream name, don’t get discouraged.  You just need to be a little more creative.  There are plenty of highly popular websites whose domain name doesn’t reflect all of these characteristics, so it’s not like Charlton Heston is going to strike you down with a thunderbolt from the heavens if you don’t follow the 3 commandments of domain names.  However, by using these tips as a guide you should be able to find a great little location to set up your online web presence.  For additional help in finding the perfect domain, contact Point Click Media.

1. Poor Navigation

If users are having a hard time finding what they need or can’t manage to navigate around your website in a timely manner (read:  instantly), confusion quickly sets in and they will be quick to move on.  Navigation should be prominent, easy to follow, and grouped together in a logical spot on every page.  Also make sure that text links within your content are clearly styled differently from normal text so that users can quickly identify them.

It's kind of like hiding Easter eggs. You don't want to forget where you put it and find it 4 months later after it's too late.

2. Advertising Overload

Perhaps the biggest shock to the system on the first visit is seeing your site lit up like a Christmas Tree with ads popping up all over the place.  Of course, advertising may be one of your main methods of generating revenue from your website, but it’s important to be tasteful when displaying ads.  Generally, ads should not be the first thing that a user sees when visiting your website.  Remember that your content is what people come to see, so don’t cover it up with blinking banners for Cialis and Warcraft.

3. Intrusive eye candy

Video, audio and animation can be a great way to enhance your web content, however people would much rather have the ability to choose their media.  A video that automatically pops up and starts playing, or an audio track that auto plays in the background can be very distracting and certainly over stimulating if the user is forced into it.  Avoid media that intrudes on the browsing experience.

4. Poor Content Structure & Legibility

Your website may in fact be functional, but it has to look the part, too.  Visitors rely on a memorable experience to return or interact further with your website.  Minimal design can work great when done correctly, but you still need to make sure that all of the proper tools and utilities are in place.  Other key elements like type faces, color choices and simple grammar and punctuation are all very important in creating a great web experience for your users.  Your website should look consistent with your brand.

5. It’s Growing Cobwebs

Your site can look like a million bucks, but if it never gets updated then there’s really no reason for anyone to return.  What’s worse is visiting a website that’s had a ‘coming soon’ message for 7 years now.  It’s a common misconception that your website needs to be updated constantly with new content to keep interest and gain valuable search engine rankings.  In reality, as long as your content is updated with some form of scheduled regularity, you’re still keeping brand awareness in peoples’ minds and not being too intrusive into their regular browsing habits.  Even if the website is only updated once per month, at least people know that you haven’t been blown up in a silo explosion.

Pictured: The Bates Motel of silos. Just don't take a shower. Ever.

Web trending has evolved into visitors having developed certain expectations with their browsing experience.  To make sure that your traffic is getting the real deal, contact Point Click Media.

You see, kids know what works and it usually goes back to the basics.  They won’t let things like pension funds, rising fuel costs or corporate restructuring stand in the way of selling you a 38 degree cup of lemonade lemon-flavoured sugar on a 35 degree day.  Here’s how they do it:

It's drugs, Daddy!

1. They give you a taste to get you hooked

Kids are straight up drug dealers, man.  OK, not really, but they’re smart enough to give you a free sample knowing that there’s a whole lot more to be sold where that came from.  When a consumer can test the waters so to speak, it develops a trust between supplier and consumer and allows them to know what they’re getting before laying a cold hard loonie down.

2. They have a ‘special’ little additive

The chocolate chip cookies that your child is selling at the bake sale aren’t JUST chocolate chip cookies, they’re extra special chocolate chip cookies made with love and 42% more awesomeness.  Heck, you’re no dummy.  42% more of anything is better, am I right?  I’ll take 10, please.  You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, just make it better.

I'm not gonna lie though, it's nice to be loved too.

3. They do what they gotta do

Like the mob, kids know when they have to take care of business.  If they have to call upon the big brother to take care of the spying competitors, or if they need to slap some flames and racing stripes on their cardboard box stand to get your attention, they’ll do it.  Kids are persistent.  If cars aren’t stopping and people are strolling by, they’ll get out there and lie down in the street to get you over there.  Just because one method isn’t working, that doesn’t mean you’ve been unsuccessful.  Trying new ideas allows you to figure out just what is working, and how you can maximize your profits.

4. They know how to spread the word

The very first marketing tactic that your kids learn is that “if I tell two friends, and they tell two friends, there’s no stopping us!”  Although that may be a little bit short sighted, the fact is that children also know the value of networking.  They’ll go door to door telling the neighbours and plaster flyers all over the neighbourhood. Networking is a valuable tool in getting people to know your business and to know your product. After all people are 71% more likely to purchase based on a social media referral.

5. They associate themselves with the right people

Your kids know where the money is.  They’ll make sure that you tell everyone at the office about the best darn trail mix this planet has to offer at $3.00 per ounce.  You’re probably even selling it for them while they’re laughing in their tree house in front of a big chart of people they’ve crossed out who have joined the dark side.  You’re one of their best allies and you offer a great testimonial to potential new customers.  It’s important to use your existing client base to leverage new leads.

Sometimes we tend to over-think and complicate things when it comes to marketing, and our children can certainly teach us a thing or two sometimes about keeping it simple.  If you’re consistently allowing your marketing effort to get sucked into a black hole with limited results, contact Point Click Media.

Whether or not you choose Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other social media channel, your efforts can quickly turn into a bottomless pit if you don’t have a method to receive those followers on the other end.  So you’ve built up 1,000 friends on your Facebook page… now what?

Let’s go back to the basics for a second.  Remember your website?  You know, that old beast of a thing that’s clogging up some server somewhere that you had built back in the day?  Wait a minute, that was just last year.  Believe it or not that old website should still be the major player in your online marketing efforts.  Your website is still the information hub that clients and prospects rely on for processing information about your business.  Quality content, usability, and solid search engine optimization is still the backbone of a great web presence.

You should always keep your customers’ experience in mind.  Think about walking them through the customer service process and what questions they are asking.  It’s important to fill those needs and not just keep bombarding them with social media gimmicks.  There has to be a point.  If they’re being overloaded with Facebook statuses with nowhere to go, then what was the point?

Social media is a great tool for generating buzz, but remember that it can’t replace good old fashioned customer service.  Your website plays a big part of that.  If you’ve been neglecting the old girl and feel the need to get reacquainted, contact Point Click Media.

The biggest addition you’ll notice from the old site is that we’ve begun to put some of our portfolio works online rather than the big ol’ cop-out page that existed before, requiring you to call us up like we were guarding the plans to the atom bomb.  We’ve broken everything down by our 3 main services to hopefully guide you in the right direction.  So enjoy!  We’ll also be getting back to our regularly scheduled blogging, bringing you lots of new tips and methods to help grow the strength of your brand.

Of course there are the common sense items to take care of like proper spelling, grammar and punctuation, but here are a few easy little tricks that will help keep your readership interested, informed and excited for more.

Short Sentences

Sentence structure goes hand in hand with punctuation.  If you’re trying to make a few different points all at once, break it out into short sentences instead of using a bajillion commas or constantly using the word ‘and’.  Remember that readers on the web are used to skimming pages so dissecting larger pieces of information into smaller bite-sized morsels will be easier for them to digest.

Make Proper Use of Headlines

Your headline is essentially your selling point on the web so you’d better make it count.  For example, I could have titled this article “Writing For the Web”.  Lame.  Every day there’s already a dump truck and a half full of articles about writing being published to the internet.  By tailoring the headline to a specific audience you’ve got a much better chance of striking a chord with the reader.

You could be thinking “Well I AM a newbie at writing and I LIKE tips, but I also LOVE Cheetos.  WOW!  This guy knows 2 of the 3 best things about me!  Wait a minute…  Are you Criss Angel?”

In addition to pimping out your own headlines, when linking to another source in your work be sure to include the headline in the link and not just the words “click here.”  By incorporating an already existing headline you’ll help your organic search ranking.  All this talk about links leads me to the next point:

Use Hyperlinks

Links add extra interactivity to your article but as mentioned they also help with search engine optimization, especially when you’re linking to some of your other works.  Perhaps you’re bringing up a point that you’ve talked about in detail previously on your blog.  Linking back to that article will also allow your reader to gain more information on the subject if they wish.

Also try to keep in mind that if you’re using obscure references that your readership might not always get the reference.  Hyperlinks are a good way to help paint a picture for your readers who may be on the outside looking in.  For example:

“Did you hear the new Justin Bieber single?  That track is hotter than Canis Majoris.  AMIRITE?”

By simply adding a reference link you’ve instantly helped illustrate a point and brought your fellow Bieber fellowships’ IQ up a couple of points with an astronomy lesson.

As you keep developing content for the web you’ll begin to figure out what your audience responds to best and that will help develop the style of your work.  These 3 quick tips hopefully gave you a little bit of insight about how users generally process information on the web and how you can learn to put those habits to work for you.

If you’re looking for some more ways to establish or improve your readership, contact Point Click Media.

Don’t just wing it

A web marketing plan is just as important as your traditional business plan and marketing plan.  93% of business to business marketers are frequently using social media to produce new leads and new business.  Before firing off a canon full of random babble at your audience consider asking yourself a few questions.  What is your social media goal?  Who is my audience and what do they like?  How will I measure results and what kind of results should I expect?

SEO doesn’t just apply to your website

Social Media Optimization is the new Search Engine Optimization.  Begin creating your social content with keywords in mind.  Finding out just what keywords you should be targeting can be researched during the above planning phase.  Also make sure that your social content allows your followers to easily link back to your website or desired landing page.

Don’t swat a fly with a hand grenade

"They said I was a womanizing, rumor-spreading, beer-guzzling, thief. That's harsh. I don't even drink alcohol."

As we’ve discussed before, dealing with negative feedback is something you’ll most certainly have to accept at some point.  Although you can’t control what people are saying about your business online (good or bad), what you can do is ensure that you respond to unwanted negative criticism in a timely and most importantly professional fashion and help build and solidify those client relationships.

In the end, the telling tale on the success of your campaign comes in the form of measuring and studying the results.  To effectively gather results we must revert back to the planning phase once again when outlining your goals.  What sort of metrics do you want or need to keep?  Was the goal to increase online conversions?  Increase newsletter signups?  Generate more visitors to your website?

You’ll be much more confident in sticking with social media if you’ve planned your campaign properly and gathered the appropriate data to learn and improve for next time.  If you’re looking to get your social media efforts off the ground, contact Point Click Media.

Attention to detail

Steve Jobs was a notorious micro-manager, but his extreme attention to detail and design, and even that stubbornness and swagger, has led to some of the most innovative products of our time.  His vision for making technology as simple and easy to use as possible combined with the sexiness of design is widely visible today.

Inspiring others

Let’s even forget about Apple for a second.  After Jobs was booted from the company in 1985 he purchased a little known computer graphics company called The Graphics Group.  Today that company is responsible for completely changing the way we watch movies.  The group has now become Pixar, and with Steve Jobs at the helm for the 1995 release of Toy Story, Pixar has helped inspire a whole new generation of animated films that focus on perhaps Steve Jobs’ most intriguing personality trait – storytelling.

Being a visionary

His track record speaks for itself.  Jobs had an uncanny ability to envision a product that people needed and bringing it to them.  He wasn’t the first to create a computer, but he saw the vision of bringing them into the everyday home.  He also wasn’t the first to create a device that could play music, but foresaw the potential to have a single device that could house a person’s entire individuality right in their pocket.

Forcing corporations to become innovative

Just ask the other techno-giants how tough it has been to knock Steve Jobs off of the top of the innovation tower.  Jobs was never one to be content with what was already here. He was consistently stepping up the game and getting everyone to play catch up, and not only in the computer industry either.  Jobs almost single-handedly forced the entire music industry to conform to a new digital age and also forced cell phone companies to change the way they operate with data plans.

Proving that a turnaround is possible

When Apple nearly bit the dust in 1997, Steve Jobs struck a deal with Microsoft that would help keep the company alive by cooperating on a few different technology fronts.  Apple would then start producing some of the fastest and most powerful computers at the time and a whole new line of personal computers called the iMac.  By the time the next annual report rolled around, Apple was worth nearly $6 billion.  Then came the real revolution with the portable iProducts we know today.

There’s no debating that the man knew how seize an opportunity.  For this lesson we thank Steve most of all.  I know we at Point Click will miss you but we will keep the these lessons we learned from watching you with us.

Perhaps the Apple slogan used during their greatest turnaround period sums up arguably the greatest technological mind of our generation.  Steve Jobs certainly knew how to “Think different.”

Myth #4: I have to post every day

Unless your blog is part of a bigger network of authors that post daily news as a sort of media outlet, it’s pretty unrealistic for a single author to devote time to posting daily blog articles, especially if you’re trying to run a business at the same time.

Remember that quality trumps quantity.  Focus more on producing quality content than cookie cutting as many topics as you can to get them out the door.  Although there’s no need to make your blog a daily news outlet, it is still a good idea to schedule regular updates, so that your readership knows when they can expect to hear from you.

Myth #5: I’ll have time to write that later

On the opposite end of the time spectrum is the procrastinator.  If you have multiple tasks at hand to concern yourself with, as most business owners or managers do, you’ll find it extremely difficult to regularly schedule time to do some creative writing.  Even if you are disciplined enough to set aside time every week or couple of weeks, chances are that when you do get backed up with other work, your blogging time will be among the first items to be sacrificed.

A good solution is instead of taking an hour every week, sit down for an afternoon once a month or so and crank out as many topics as you can to be published over time.  Not only will it save you valuable time, but once the creative juices are flowing you’ll find it much easier to get those articles flowing.

Myth #6: I need to be a professional writer

Contrary to what you may believe, most bloggers start writing while having no previous writing experience.  Many successful blogs are written simply by people who have extensive knowledge on a certain subject and are willing to share it.  A Masters degree in literature certainly isn’t a prerequisite in the blogging world.

Even Mittens is writing his thoughts on the internet

There’s also no shame in having someone else verify and edit your work if it will make the end product better.  Also, you’ll begin seeing improvement as you gain experience.

Hopefully we’ve debunked enough of these blogging myths so that you can see the potential that blogging can bring to your brand.  Today’s web users are thirsting for information, and if you’ve got it sitting atop that delightful little coconut of yours, perhaps it’s time to share some of it and help yourself make a few bucks in the process.

For more tips on how you can improve the content on your blog, contact Point Click Media.