Have been ever since I was 13.

I just had my bar mitzvah and was the proud recipient of manhood…and an Apple IIe.

Technology has progressed at an incredible rate since then and Apple has always been on the forefront of simple, easy to use, cutting edge design.

When they recently released the iPhone 4s, on the outside, it looked much like my iPhone 4.

On the inside it had an even better camera, a much faster processor, and an operating system upgrade that made easy, even easier.

Certainly not the complete redesign that everyone hoped for or expected.

Then why the heck has this been the biggest iPhone release since the original iPhone???  I can sum it up in one word.

Siri.

This piece of  software  that is incorporated into the iPhone 4s is Apple’s attempt at integrating some artificial intelligence into a smartphone.  And it has done an incredible job of doing so!

Apple is not first to market with a voice activated phone, but once again Apple has trumped the competition.  Siri doesn’t just do voice dictation.  It understands what you say and it knows what you mean.   Here are just a few examples:

So How Will Siri Affect Content Marketing?

Initially you might think that your inbound and content marketing efforts would be fine in a Siri driven world.

Ask Siri a question and she spits out the familiar search engine results.  Right?  Wrong!

You see, Siri acts as a filter of search.  If the software can provide your answer from a website database, it will provide those results instead of offering web results.

Currently Siri is pulling information from sites such as Yahoo, Yelp, and Wolthram Alpha.

What this means is that your page 1 ranking may eventually no longer have the same weight in Apple’s view of the world.  Right now the database driven answers are somewhat limited, but expect to change as Siri is still in “beta”.

A Real World Example

I don’t know what it is with me and using plumbers as examples, but let’s see how they fair in a Siri based world.

Let’s say I’m hanging at my house in Philadelphia and one of the pipes burst.  I could go scrambling for the oh-so antiquated Yellow Pages, or fire up my computer and type in a google search.  No need for either since I have my iPhone with me and say to Siri “I need a plumber in Philadelphia”.  Siri has found 16 plumbers for me (from Yelp).  Within seconds I have an answer and the phone is dialing!

Now lets take a look at the same search term if Google had provided the results from the same search:

Lastly, how most people are searching for the term on Google based on their Adwords Keyword Tool.  I typed in “plumbers Philadelphia”.

What Did We Learn?

Saying is Not Typing

For me, I wouldn’t say “plumbers Philadelphia”, but that is how I would type the search, and according to Google, how most people are typing the search.

Eventually I might even tell Siri what type of problem I am having instead of the solution.  That does work to an extent now.  If I tell Siri I have a flat tire, it recommends several towing services (once again from Yelp).

Siri vs. Google Results

If you compare the plumber results of Siri and Google, you see there is huge variance.  Only one of those listed in Siri’s results are also on the Google search result.  That is most likely because the results produced by Siri are coming from the Yelp database instead of Google’s.  So in the case, your potential page 1 results may be squashed with Siri.

Dude, Where’s My Reviews???

Since credibility, reviews, and other trust signals have been proven to be a large determining factor in choosing a provider, product or service, we need to take a look at Siri and how they are handled.

Glancing over the Siri vs. Google results with these plumbers, you’ll see many more reviews on the Google listings.  Siri is pulling reviews from Yelp and in this case, only one plumber had any reviews.

Although Yelp is a wildly popular review site, I would certainly expect to see more reviews on Google just by the sheer amount of traffic it receives.

Next Steps

Siri, although new, looks to be a force to be reckoned with and I’m sure Apple already has their eye on porting the software into their other products, Safari web browser and future offerings (TV is the latest and great rumor).

You can bet that Google and Microsoft won’t be sitting still.  Any searches that Apple filters is one less opportunity for Google to sell ad space.

With the expectation that all the major players will be improving their voice integration and artificial intelligence, here are steps you can take now to help ensure your content continues to rank for results.

1. Start thinking in terms of speaking search terms when planning your content (ie blogs, landing pages,on page SEO).

2. Create a Yelp account if you haven’t done so already.  Be sure to do a thorough job of completing the business profile and incorporate some keywords for your industry.

3. Solicit your customers for Yelp reviews along with your Google reviews.  As with the Google local listings, you really want your business to stand out by having the most amount of (hopefully favorable) reviews.

4. Keep an eye on what databases Apple incorporates into Siri.  You’ll want to ensure a presence with those as well.

5. Review your analytics for changes in search patterns.  What was once was your most effective keywords may eventually lose some juice.

Batter Up!

What do you think of Siri so far?  I’m already typing much less than ever before!

How do you see it affecting search, content and inbound marketing?

I’d love to hear (and read) your thoughts on this.

If you found this article of value, go ahead and subscribe for all the latest web marketing tips that add up to big results!

Dear Blog Post,

May you rest in peace.

You have lived a long and fruitful life.

You were loved by many as told by the website traffic you continually generated, the many inbound links that were bestowed upon you, and the countless leads you facilitated.

You always rose to the occasion as demonstrated by your perpetual Google Page 1 presence.

You will be missed…

If that were the eulogy for just one of your blog posts, you would be thrilled, right?

I am here to today to tell you that once a blog post is published, the post itself shouldn’t be it’s final resting place.  There are so many more ways to reuse, recycle, renew, and repurpose your blog articles.  Some of the incredible benefits to doing so are:

• Prospect Education
• Establishing Credibility
• Getting Found
• Promoting Content
• Lead Generation

When done properly these benefits will up add to sales, customers, and clients.  A win, win, win!

What’s In It For Me?

Okay, if those benefits I laid out weren’t enough for you, here’s one more benefit that I think will be an eye opener:

IT’S LESS WORK FOR YOU MR. & MRS. BLOGGER!

Yes, to be successful at content and inbound marketing, you need to continually feed the machine.  That unfortunately is what keeps most small businesses from getting started, and what causes most to quit.

For those who see the possibilities and the benefits of content and inbound marketing, reusing etc makes life just a bit easier.  Besides that, it just works!

How to Make Life Easier and your Website Much More Effective

Here are twenty super awesome ways to reuse, recycle, renew, and repurpose your blog content that will get you more traffic, more links, more leads, and more customers!

They are listed in no certain order, just the order in which they came to mind.

1. Form Completion Thank You Pages – It’s always a great idea to redirect your form completions to a thank you page.  Now instead of just thanking your newly acquired lead for completing the form, put some related blog content in front of them.  Since they are already engaged with you, they are much more likely to continue the thirst for content education.

2. Form Completion Email Autoresponders – Just because you sent your lead to a thank you page, doesn’t mean you can’t send an email as well.  The lead might click off your thank you page, and the email will provide a nice backup.  Once again, provide related content in your email autoresponse.

3. Lead Nurturing Campaigns – These were meant for reuse of blog articles.  Since the idea of a lead nurturing campaign is to soften the lead and move them towards the sale, post links to sales funnel related blog articles (ie. top of funnel, middle of the funnel, etc).

4. Followup Emails – Just have a great conversation with a phone call prospect and looking to followup with an email?  How cool would it be to send an email that not only links to trusts signals and social media, but also blog content that will provide value, educate,  and establish your credibility as an expert!

5. Email Newsletters – Blog articles are an awesome way to engage prospects and customers.  Most aren’t seeing all of your blog content anyhow, so sending a monthly e-blast of your the previous months most popular content is sure to drive clicks and calls.

6. Email Signatures – Think about how many emails you send a day.  Now multiply that by everyone in your organization.  A well worded email signature has the potential to drive tons of traffic to your blog.  Be sure to adding tracking codes to the links so you know which links are working.

7. Custom RSS Post Feeds – Have a wide variety of blog topics but you would like to segment a specific one?  A custom RSS Feed may be just the thing.  Either use the feed as a related posts widget or email out the feed to a segmented list of subscribers.

8. Twitter – As far as social media sharing is concerning, Twitter may be the king of  social sharing platforms.  Because of the nature of the shortened posts, Twitter is great for recycling interesting links, including your blog posts.  Also, no reason here to just stay recent.  If the content is still relevant, it will make for a great tweet.

9. Facebook – Use your blog posts a points of discussion for your Facebook friends.  Use the blog links on either your personal page, fan page, or even both.

10. Linkedin – Blog content when posted with care on Linkedin can make for a great discussion, without coming off as a spammer.  The idea is not to simply post the link, but actually engage the audience; post a question, solicit responses and ask for feedback.

11. Google+ – The newcomer but fastest growing of the social networks, Google+ is a more serious version of Facebook.  I think you’ll find people who are more apt to engage in conversations about a wide range of topics.  Post your blog articles, but like on Twitter, be sure to share other interesting content, not just your own.

12. Slideshares – What a better way to repurpose your content.  Take your most heavily trafficked blogs posts and turn them into a powerpoint presentation.  Upload to Slideshare and away you go.  The site gets a ton of traffic, and your slideshares even have the potential to rank highly in the search engines.

13. YouTube – As the second highest volume visited site behind Google.com, YouTube is another fantastic way to repurpose your blog’s content.  Like slideshare, one option here is to turn your blog into a powerpoint, screencast it, and upload to YouTube.  If you’re a visual business like my sign and graphics company, do an image slideshow as your video.

14. Webinars – If your B2B business is not engaging potential customers via webinars, you might be missing the boat.  You might repurpose your best blog articles into a webinar, or link to blog content within the webinar.

15. Ebooks, Whitepapers, Guides, and other FREE Offers.  Why start from scratch when you have already written all this fabulous blog content?  Copy and paste with some minor edits, or link within the offer to your blog content.

16. Article Marketing – While article marketing may have lost some of it’s SEO value, it is still an effective way to recycle and renew blog content.  Just rewrite your articles to avoid duplicate content and post on one of the many article marketing sites.

17. Guest Posts – Since guest blog posting is a fantastic way to build credibility, SEO,  and drive traffic, consider renewing one of your more popular articles as a guest post.

18. FAQ Pages – Frequently asked question pages are a great place to link to your blogs.  Since the best blogs are typically answering some question, use your blog posts as an additional resource in your FAQ answers.

19. Product and Services Pages – Once again, since inbound and content marketing is about education and building credibility, why not take a drab product page and spruce it up with some related content links to your blog.

20. Give a Fresh Perspective – Take an older article and give a fresh perspective in a new post by linking back to the original content.

Just imagine the possibilities here!  One blog post, one idea, one piece of content suddenly has the vast potential to become many pieces of content, linked to, and promoted in a wide variety of places!

Batter Up!

Did this post give you some new ideas or at least reminders of the content and linking possibilities?  Are there any other ways that you reuse, renew, recycle, or repurpose blog content?  I’d love for you to post a comment below

Is my small business really still growing at this rapid of a pace…in THIS economy?

Did I really just have the day that I just had?

The answers would be No, Yes, and Yes!

I am going to sum up today as one of life’s little victories.

I mean there are good days, and then there are GOOD days.

Today was one of them.

I share this story with you today not to brag, or rub it in anybody’s nose, but rather to open some eyes.

If any one of these given scenarios sounds like you, then this blog is just what the doctor ordered:

• My sales are flat, or down, and I can’t figure out how to turn it around.
• It’s the economy, nobody is spending, and I’m just going to hopefully ride things out.
• I know I need to do something different with my marketing, but I’m just not sure what to do.
• I recently redesigned my website, but it’s still not making the phone ring enough.
• I’m spending a lot of money of paid clicks, and just not seeing the results.
• I’m doing the social media thing-a-ma-bob, and I’m somehow sliced bread is still the next best thing!

People, if more than one of those scenarios applies to you, have no fear, I was right there with you.  Luckily I was introduced to inbound marketing strategies, soaked it up like a sponge, tested it, measure it, and developed the little nuances that add up to big results.

I haven’t looked back since, and neither should you.  Every day you wait is another day that a competitor is potentially creating content, getting found, converting visitors, taking market share, and eating your lunch!

Don’t worry though, it’s early in the game.  Inbound marketing methodology is still very young, just as web 2.0.

There’s lots of room for everyone.  When my company started with inbound marketing, there were already quite a few sign and graphics companies using inbound marketing strategies.

I didn’t care.  Still don’t today.  Most truly aren’t competitors, some are even my inbound coaching clients.  In the end, there is more than enough business to go around.

The Day of an Inbound Marketer

I’m an early riser, and today was a 5:30am day.  Shower, shave, dress, and then breakfast.

You may not know this about me, but I am a avid cereal mixer.  I like to have at least four to six different kinds of cereal on hand at a time, and will mix no less than two to three of them.  I consider myself the chef of cereal cuisine.  Okay, TMI, I know.  Back to the story.

6:15am check email, Twitter, and the previous days inbound analytics.  There were six website leads that came in overnight.  Not too shabby for being asleep when they arrived!

Inbound analytics look good.  Traffic is up 10% month-to-date.  Leads are slightly down this month, but trending towards positive territory.

My Morning

7:30am arrive at the office. Get organized for the day and do a little follow up. When the team arrives at 9am we have a production meeting.

A little later we get a walk-in, which is not typical for my business.  I notice on his truck that he’s local, so I figured he saw our roadside sign. Nope.  Found us on the internet.  Real nice guy.  Ends up getting a vehicle wrap design and partial wrap for his truck.

While the work order is being drafted for his vehicle wrap, a current customer walks in to pick up his brand new box truck wrap.  They absolutely love it!  Guess what?  Had found us on the web as well.  They sit tight while we wrap up with the walk-in.

The new customer is all set and scheduled for his design consultation, so now we can focus our attention on the guys picking up their box truck.  Like I said, they were absolutely thrilled with how it turned out which makes me smile from ear to ear!

We already took some photo’s of the completed wrap, so I ask if they wouldn’t mind if shooting a 30 second customer testimonial video.  Without even a hesitation, they say let’s do it, and off we go.

You might be wondering, why is Adam talking about shooting a customer testimonial video?  Remember, we’re talking about inbound marketing here; putting out little content magnets that are optimized to get found.  The video will be used in many ways to help get us found…and make the phone ring!  It will certainly give the client some great exposure as well.

We shoot the video in one take with my iPhone.  Rich is an absolute pro, and I practically give him a bear hug for the great job he’s done!

After all that, how could the day get any better?  It does. The phone rings.  It’s an out-of-state call.  And not just one -state away.  How bout six states away, and they are calling about vehicle graphics for 30 trucks!  No problemo, we’ve done many out-of-state installations.

How did they find us?  Number one answer…..The Internet!  Organically.  Inbound marketing strikes again! We don’t use paid clicks.  Tried.  Didn’t get the results.  Organic is where it’s at for us!

My Afternoon

After checking in on the current design and production jobs, I grab a quick lunch.  My afternoon has one appointment scheduled, and some followup phone calls.

The appointment is for a vehicle wrap design consultation (another out-of-state customer).  Since you already know the answer, I’m not going to say how he found us.  The other reason I mention again the nature of their being out-of-state is that I believe inbound marketing allows you to go beyond your local marketplace.  Sure we can strategize of about taking market share locally, but if you really work hard on your most important keywords, there is no boundary to where you can do business.

At this point of my story, instead of me droning on about each little subsequent inbound victory that was enjoyed this day, I’ll just give you the cliff notes version.  I think you’ll get the idea of where I’m going with this.

• Received an email contact form quote for an out-of-state lobby sign – Internet
• Received an email contact form quote for an out-of-state lighted sign – Internet
• Took a phone call for a local business that is relocating, and will need a monument sign, an awning, and some way-finding signage – Internet
• Took a phone call for a local company in need of a lobby sign – Internet
• Lastly, during the course of the day six more people became a lead by converting on one of our offers.

This was certainly a day not to be forgotten in the three plus years that Sunrise Signs has been in business.

So Who Cares?

Now, you might be reading all this and not be impressed at all.  Perhaps a normal day for you is getting fifty or a hundred leads. The thing is, is your business growing?  If that fifty or one hundred leads enough to support your business and see awesome growth?

What I’m laying out for you here is that for my business, before jumping in head first with inbound marketing, I was happy to get just one or two leads a day.  Compare and contrast that to what your best days look like.  Are they growing the way you’d like them to be, or are they stagnant, possibly even declining?

What are YOUR Next Steps?

If you aren’t seeing the website lead generation results that you’d like to see, here are a few pointers to get you moving in the right direction:

1. Take a hard look at your website metrics.  Is your website seeing consistent traffic gains, and if so, what is your visitor to lead conversion rate?  What is your lead to customer conversion rate?  More often than not, most people don’t know these numbers.  If you really want to get serious about website lead generation, start here.

2. Stop making excuses for not business blogging.  It’s all about your mindset.  When my small business wasn’t growing, and my back was up against the wall, I make the decision to stop fooling myself that I was working hard.  I decided it was more important to turn off the TV if I really wanted to grow my business.  If you’re already business blogging and not getting the results you desire, are you blogging consistently?

3. Develop compelling calls-to-action and landing pages other than your contact form and email subscription.  Test those CTA buttons and landing pages to maximize your conversion results.

4. Take a good hard look at your email marketing efforts.  Email is not dead is any way, shape, or form.

Those are enough action steps to get you started, and if done properly, will turbocharge your website lead gen efforts!  The day I enjoyed today was awesome and made me feel great!  But I’ll tell ya this, I look forward to the possibilities of tomorrow and every day thereafter.

Batter Up!

Are you getting the results you desire from your web marketing efforts?  If so, what here rings true for you?  If not, what is holding you back?  I would love to hear your stories!

If you felt that this story was of value to you, I would always appreciate some social sharing using the links below.  Thanks for coming by.

I’m waiting.  Still waiting.  Yet, still waiting.

If I’ve offended any SEO companies by that statement…too bad!

Unfortunately your reputation precedes you because your industry is littered with controversial tactics.

Mark Schaefer wrote a fantastic article on the topic, Why SEO Disgusts Me.  I highly recommend it.

Earlier this year, retailer J.C. Penney was busted by the Google police because the SEO firm it hired was placing hundreds and thousands of fake links to help boost Penney’s search rankings.

Now the retailer is lucky to be found organically on Google page 500.  It will take them a long time to get their get-out-of-jail-free-card, if only sooner because they spend millions a month with Google on paid search.

So in this case, the big guy got busted, will do its time, and then will likely be given a pass because of their deep pockets.

But what about the little guy?  Once blacklisted by Google, I’ve heard it nearly impossible to get your rankings back.  The small business cannot afford such a mistake and yet they are hiring these SEO companies left and right to gain position.  Perhaps they do it out of fear and don’t realize there are other legitimate ways to get your website found and compete.

What’s worse, is that in most cases I don’t believe that small business owners really know what and how their SEO companies go about doing business!

A Case In Point

If there is one thing that bloggers can relate to, it’s comment spam.  We are constantly cleaning our inbox’s of the stuff.  Thank goodness for the spam filters that catch most of it! Adrienne Smith wrote a terrific piece on blog commenting rules to call-out the ongoing electronic refuse.

SEO companies use blog commenting as a way to build links for their clients.  Blog comments can definitely help with building link authority, but what these SEO companies do is hire people to write fake comments, to pose as real people.

It’s usually easy to spot these comments in one of two ways. Either one, the comment is super short, and without much command of the English language.  Or two, the comment is about something not nearly related to the article itself.

Recently, my blog was under assault from one such company, and being a fellow small business owner, it saddened me to see what these comments were doing to the reputation of the small business being promoted.  The reason I bring the following to your attention is not to be vindictive, or even a plain ol’ jerk.  I think it is important to educate people and small businesses on what is unfortunately the dark side of SEO.

Here are just a few of the fake comments I received:

So apparently All-Star Plumbing was in need of some link building to help their search rankings.

Now I don’t know about you, but as saddened as I was as to the potential damaging of this companies reputation, I also got a bit perturbed about the  fifth or so spam comment in.

I decided to write the owner of All-Star Plumbing.  I thought it would help with my frustration, and at the same time, perhaps shed a little light on the subject and hopefully steer them in the right direction.

Here is an excerpt of the email I wrote to All-Star:

I didn’t know what to expect from the email.  All I was really hoping for was for the steady stream of spam to cease.  To my surprise, I received a response from the Plumber, and my wish was to come true.  The spam was to cease.  The response was short and to the point, and I would be a happy blogger again.

Why Did I Have to Go and Dig Deeper?

As a passionate inbound marketer, when I’m coaching other companies for web success, I tend to dig deep into their web marketing past.  It really helps me to know where they came from, so I know where they need to be going in the future.

Although I was happy with the result of my request with the plumbing company, I couldn’t let sleeping dogs lie.  I started digging into the links they had left and I was shocked at what I found!

You see, one of the links that was left on a comment linked back to a YouTube video.  Being the curious person that I am, I followed the trail and here is what I saw:

Now I know I tend to be a tad bit cynical at times, but something was off with this video testimonial.  Is it me or did it seem a bit too rehearsed, and not genuine?

Perhaps I could have left it alone at that point, if it weren’t for the six other testimonial videos that looked very similar to the first.  Try this on for size:

Now do these look like your typical plumbing customers or what?  Interestingly enough, the first video had 152 comments. All 1-3 words in length.  Very interesting indeed.

This last video only had two comments, and boy were they a doozy!

Here is the video the commenter was referring to….you decide?

I never did reach back out to All-Star regarding the videos.  I had offered my help (no charge) in the letter, and apparently they didn’t need it.

People Who Live in Glass Houses……

One of the qualities that I promote for myself as a web coach is that you can learn inbound marketing from someone who has actually done it.  I have written many times how it has literally transformed my recession-born sign and graphics company into a market taking machine.

My point is that one other benefit of having “done it” is that I love to test and measure marketing strategies.  Yes, you get to learn from my mistakes!  I once contracted with what looked to be an “ethical” SEO firm for a few months to see what they could do for our web rankings. That was until they sent me the first monthly report of their activities and I dug deeper.  After seeing what they were up to, I immediately turned it off!

Was That Trip Really Necessary?

Blog commenting and YouTube videos can be a great source of traffic and link building.  Here are some ethical, white hat, inbound marketing tips for implementing these strategies, and actually building your companies reputation at the same time.

• No need to hire someone to leave fake comments. You and the people at your company are experts at what you do.  Find relevant blogs (perhaps this one) and leave thoughtful, related commentary.  You’re comments will get approved, you’ll develop relationships with others in your industry, and earn some link juice along the way.
• Making up fake testimonial videos is so yesterday!  You can buy video camera for less than $100 these days.  In fact, most smart phones have HD quality video built in!
• Need customers to give you a testimonial video?  Just ask them!  If you’re company if providing the value and service worthy of a testimonial video, it will be hard for anyone to say no!
• Post the videos onto YouTube (be sure to use good SEO in the titles, description, and tags).  Then embed them on to a customer testimonials page on your website.

Lastly, I offered it once, and I’ll offer it again.  If All-Star Plumbing would still like help with their web marketing, I’d gladly help them…free of charge!

Batter Up!

Is this the type of reputation you’d possible risk for the reward of higher search engine rankings?  What would your first impression of this company be if you came across their blog comments or “testimonial” videos?  Have you had a good experience with an SEO company? I know there are some good ones out there.  Have you run into any fake comments, videos, or reviews?  How did they make you feel?

Thanks for taking the time to read my rant! If this article provided you some value, please share

image credit – Social Media Managers Inc

Well apparently I’d been doing just that to one Chris Brogan.

The poor guy’s ears must have been ringing non-stop lately.

I mean I don’t even know the guy, and who am I to speak badly of him?

I’m sure he could care less, but I was not even close to being pro-Chris Brogan.

That was until the Inbound Marketing Summit and spending five minutes with the him.

A Little Background

I have to be honest, in my eighteen months of inbound marketing and spending time on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin, I had not really heard of “The Almighty One”.

I’m sure his name came up during that time, actually many times, and like many things, I was completely oblivious to the fact.

I mean, why should I have heard of him?  It’s not like he’s the biggest blogger and social media aficionado on the planet, right? Okay, maybe he is….

So as you can see, I’m really clueless as to why I hadn’t come across Chris’s name earlier, but perhaps it was meant to be?

It was only about three or four months ago that those faint impressions started to become more prevalent.  Like any terrific inbound marketing strategy, all those little content magnets out there got me to notice…and notice I did.

I noticed that Chris was one heck of a big deal in the online world. Two best selling books, over 190,000 twitter followers, a keynote speaker.  Not too bad.

Now I’m not sure if it was jealousy or my competitive nature, but something was not sitting right with me, I had no reason to dislike the guy.

The Final Straws!

The first recent event that got under my skin was the announcement of his upcoming book Google+ for Business: How Google’s Social Network Changes Everything.  Chris is all over Google+, and if anyone could write a book about the fledgling social site, it would be Chris.

Somehow, the whole idea of someone writing a book about a service that isn’t even available yet seemed to get me worked up.  Google+ isn’t allowing businesses (in mass) onto El Plus yet, so how could he write a book on it?

Once again, even though I know many books are written before a service, product or entertainment launch, it still bothered me.

The second event that shook my world was Chris’s deletion of everyone he was following on twitter.  “Who does he think he is?” I thought to myself, not even taking the time to read the explanation of it on his blog.

It’s amazing how our own insecurities can lead to disliking someone.  Should I really dislike someone I hardly even know, especially without taking the time to investigate?  Of course not!  After all, I was somewhat intrigued by Chris, and knew it wasn’t right.

5 Minutes

Joanne and I recently attended the Inbound Marketing Summit and Hubspot Users conference in Boston.  Both were fantastic events, and I look forward to their continued growth!

We actually weren’t able to make the event’s first day (when Chris was speaking), but caught all of the second.  On that morning, Guy Kawasaki gave a wonderful presentation on enchanting customers.  Afterward he was nice enough to take pictures with excited fans, and standing there off to the side was “Mr. Man I didn’t know, but was awfully good at judging”.

Joanne and I walked up to Chris, and before we could even open our mouths, he greeted us and made us both feel completely at ease.

After introductions he even joked about my last name, which is common.  Apparently there is a ambulance chasing attorney in the Boston area with the same last name, who advertises all the time!  Funny, but no relation!

I asked Chris about his twitter experiment and for the next few minutes, a terrific conversation ensued.

It was a pleasure meeting Chris Brogan, and it completely changed my perception of him.  Could that be completely possible in 5 minutes with him?  I can’t say for sure, but I was really happy to put my ill feelings aside and take the time to say hi.

I was judging a book by its cover, and in this case, I was judging Chris and his forthcoming book by it’s cover.

I had turned to Joanne soon after our fortunate meeting, and told her I was wrong about Chris, and I was.

The rest of the day and the other events were terrific.  Much more was learned about inbound marketing, and a few life lessons along the way.

Thank you Chris.

Batter Up!

Is there anyone well known or famous that you have judged without knowing the entire story?  Was there ever a time whereupon meeting that person your perception changed?  Lastly, do we really need to meet the people we are judging to change our feelings, or should we just be more open minded?  How do you think this could help us in our business and personal lives?

I’d really would love to know your thoughts!  Please share in the comments.

image credit – Professional One Franchising

Each week I will review a small business website and the effectiveness of its inbound marketing strategies.

I’m going to go deep into why a website may or may not be a lead generating, inbound marketing machine.  What steps can be taken to supercharge the website, start the leads pouring in, and ultimately make the phone ring!

I’ve been wanting to start video blogging for along time, and based on the awesome feedback from the community, now was the time to launch this puppy!

Today, I’m taking on a regional home improvement contractor’s site, PJ Fitzpatrick Inc.  They have been around since 1980, and in the last few years have poured tons of money into radio and television advertising.  They also do a fantastic job of branding their vehicles, which I can certainly appreciate.

I’m going to put their website to the test to see how well they are getting found, promoting their content, and converting website visitors to leads!

The Fine Print

Disclaimer:  Visitors of the Small Business Market Domination blog, this is my first video blog   I shot it on one take.  I was scared for my life, but figured this was only my first video blog, so why not run with it?  I can tell you right now people, that I’m probably making every potential video blogging mistake in the book, such as:

• Not looking at the camera.
• Moving around like I just ate my third bowl of sugary sweet cereal!
• Making weird noises like Ummmmmm, Ahhhhhhh.  There are probably others!
• Kept looking down at my notes….bobbleheads don’t shake this much!
• The video is waaaaaay too long.  Had to break it down into two parts to fit it on YouTube.
• There is decent amount of energy at times, but not consistently enough.
• Did I say not looking at the camera???

All that being said, I am pleased with the first take results, knowing it’s episode numero uno, and will hopefully have plenty of time to practice if you guys don’t give me the hook

Asking for Your Help!

Speaking of you guys, I really would like your feedback on this video.  Along with the obvious, what else can I improve?  What would you like to see?  What did you like?  What needs to get the boot?  Any and all input from the community would be greatly appreciated!

Lastly, I just want to say that holy cow, making a video is not easy!  Well, the actually turning on the camera, hitting record, that was easy.  I had stage fright the moment the little red light came on!  I mean come on, I’ve spoken in front of hundreds of people, this should be easy, right? Wrong!  It will get better with practice, but I have to say how much respect I now have for the people who do this all the time!

So, here for your viewing pleasure is the inaugural episode of Website Grader TV!

Inbound Marketing Website Review – PJ Fitzpatrick, Inc.

Part 1

Part 2

Batter Up!

What do you think of the PJ Fitzpatrick site? What would you do differently? What was the most/least compelling part of the site for you?

Don’t want to miss a minute of how you can turn your website into a lead generating machine?  Then you need to subscribe!

That someone who calls themselves an “expert” told you that you needed to have a Facebook fan page?

That someone who calls themself a “guru” convinced you that you should have a Twitter account?

Being the awesome “open to new ideas” small business owner that you are, you followed their directions, or hired them to setup your social media accounts.

You probably felt like a kid in a candy store, overwhelmed by anticipation, expecting a sugary high filled with a line of new customers just waiting to bang down your door to do business with you.

Except all you got was a bad taste in your mouth. The sugar quickly dissipated from your body, all you were left with was more work on your plate to manage all these new accounts, and not too many people knocking.

What happened?  You were promised panacea, the promised land of fixing all your small business woes.

I know.  I’ve been down this road already.  Before starting down the road to small business market domination, I have faltered and fallen just like most every person reading this article.

What THEY Didn’t Tell You!

I am here today to call out the “social media experts”, and the “social media gurus”.  You guys should be ashamed of yourselves for hopping on the social media bandwagon of hype and for what you preach.  Let me rephrase that, for most of what you preach.

I will say this.  The one great piece of advice I hear from the social media community is the need for engagement.  That in order for you to get more business, you have to earn it, through two-way communication.

Okay, so you are engaging, then why isn’t the phone and cash register ringing off the hook, or just ringing?

Because what they didn’t tell you is that content is the engine that drives social media.  Without consistently new content, all you have is a one hit wonder that is doomed for obscurity.

Think about all the Facebook fan pages that are created and the last message posted was six months ago.

Likewise, think about all the Twitter accounts that are started, a few people are followed, a couple tweets go out, and then the account is left dormant.

The main reason that these social media accounts are abandoned is not the time it takes, is not the engagement that’s required, it’s the lack of having something to say…period!

If Content is the Fuel, Social Media is the Spark!

A close friend of mine, who manages social media accounts for businesses, was recently contracted to setup and manage a Twitter account for a local professional.  The goal of the project was to grow and engage a localized Twitter following.

For the first few weeks, this was no problem at all.  My friend is a master at finding, engaging, and growing a quality following on Twitter for her clients.  She even picked up a few potential customers for her client.

However, after the initial success, the number of new followers grew less each day, and those that were following became much less engaged, but why?

My friend communicated the consequences of not having fresh website content.  Conversely, she also communicated the amazing results that would eventually come from all that new content.
The client had promised, but failed to deliver new blogs on a regular basis.   In the end, her client never came through, and the relationship ended.  Another dormant Twitter account is born…..

One of the more popular early articles on the Market Domination Blog is 5 Reasons Your Website Redesign isn’t Bringing in Lion Sized Leads and Countless New Customers.  If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest you check it out.  These are the most common issues I have seen after browsing thousands of websites.

The one recurring theme throughout is the general lack of consistently created, compelling website content.  That content can come in the form of blog articles, e-books, guides, white papers, and case studies.  Just about anything worth reading past the initial ten pages of marketing mumbo jumbo!

Content to the Rescue!

If you are one of the many tens of thousands small business owners who has given up on their fans and followers, here are 5 quick tips that will get people talking about your business again, and with some consistency, will start to make the phone and cash register ring again.

1. Write down a list of the 50 questions that you are asked most by your customers.
2. Write 50 blogs, each 250-350 words answering each and every question.
3. Promote that content as it’s completed on your social media accounts, not screaming it, but in a social manner.
4. Listen to the responses, what questions are being asked, what content is being engaged with and what isn’t?
5. Write more content based on the results of your listening.  It’s that easy!

These 5 tips will get you started.  They are inbound marketing 101.  From there you will be able to progress to more compelling content, more offers, and deeper engagement with your fans and followers.

Social Media can be all that it’s crack up to be!  Heck, social media has benefited my small business in other fantastic ways. It’s a shame that some people will take advantage of buzzwords and hype to scare you into doing business!  There are some very good social media folks out there, just be sure to ask good questions.  If you’re not sure, feel free to ask me.

As for SEO Companies that also promise the world on a silver platter, look out, you’re next!

Batter Up!

What has been your biggest challenge with social media, both on Facebook and Twitter?  What were the surprises you found once getting started?  What has worked for you?  What hadn’t?  If you have questions, I’d be more than happy to give you straight up answers!

If you enjoyed this article, let’s connect on Twitter Follow @adamsokoloff

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