You’ve see it in your tweet stream. That pound sign (#) followed by a word or phrase. The keyword that is searchable for people to follow trends, conferences or live chats. There are Twitter chats happening on a daily basis around the world. But do you use these hashtag chats effectively for business?

While a Twitter hashtag chat is not a new, it can be a little on the intimidating side for the person or company new to Twitter. It can even be confusing for an experienced person on Twitter as to how they can derive value of the time spent in a weekly chat.

But once you “get it”, these regular, semi-structured conversations around a particular topic can be a goldmine of information. Opportunities to be exposed to new influencers within a niche, and rich with potential prospects along with the chance of developing new relationships or being seen as a leader within your industry.

Twitter chats are probably my favorite way of connecting with new people and gaining new followers in a particular niche for clients. They are also a tremendous chance to build your following on Twitter as well.

A Twitter chat is a scheduled (typically an hour) time when a group of people get together to discuss one particular subject whether it’s marketing, SEO, social media, travel, or whatever you have an interest in. According the Google Doc Twitter Chat Schedule, there are several hundred registered chats that cut across nearly every industry, interest and occasion. You should be able to find a chat that interests you. If not, create your own chat!

Why Should I Participate In A Twitter Chat?

Like I mentioned above, these hashtag chats are a goldmine if used effectively. From connecting with potential business partners, colleagues within your niche, to learning more about your customers, what they’re talking about and are into. You can quickly develop a whole new group of people to follow and/or following you based on topic/interest/niche.

If you want to take your tweeting and Twitter chatting to the next level for you or your business, you can start your own hashtag chat.

Ways To Participate In A Twitter Chat

From beginner to advanced, these are the ways to participate in chats:

• Read & Learn
• Participate (answer and/or ask questions)
• Be a guest host or Guest Expert
• Create and host your own Twitter Chat

Reading and learning is always best when you initially join a chat. Get a feel for the conversation, the people involved (including the host) then it’s easy to start participating in the chat.

As you establish yourself as a leader in a particular subject, being a guest host of chat or a guest expert is another great chance to gain more followers. Of course hosting your own Twitter chat can also develop your own community around a topic and establish yourself or your brand as the leader in the industry. Mack Collier of #blogchat fame put together an excellent post on the 10 Steps to Creating a Successful Twitter Chat.

Tools For Twitter Chats

There are several options out there for participating. From the basic option of using Twitter’s search box putting in the hashtag (which is not very effective) and watching the feed, to using a Twitter client like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck and creating a stream within their system which updates based on your setting and Twitter’s API limits.

My personal favorite tool for Twitter chats is TweetChat.

TweetChat gives you the chance to FOCUS in real-time on the conversation happening. “Each tweet gets automatically added and the “room” auto-updates” as it’s written on their site. This alone makes TweetChat far superior to the Twitter interface, Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. Added bonus is that under “User Controls” to block spammers of the chat along with “smart pausing” when you need to catch up on the conversation.

The Secret Sauce of a Twitter Chat

So many people forget this part! Follow people in the chat!

Start following the people that you saw participating in the chat, you responded to or interacted with during the chat or who appeared to be contributing value to the chat. These are people who share the same interest by being in the chat. Then connect with them outside the weekly/bi-weekly chat. Retweet content they’ve shared. Get to know them (remember the Twitter bio can be a rich resource of info on the individual) by asking questions publicly or via DM. You never know when that next person can dramatically impact your business. So go be social.

Twitter chats are a powerful networking opportunity if you connect with people.

I encourage you to look at how you and/or your business could benefit from being a regular and active participant in Twitter chats.

The following is stemming from a post I read last week about “Things Brands Should Know About SEO”, that I really didn’t agree with. I was taking notes and preparing to write a rebuttal to it. Then I got to the end of the piece where I read, “Seems like it is too easy right? That’s because it is!” Ironically that’s when my migraine set in. So I let it marinate, and have come to the conclusion the biggest issue I have with that piece isn’t the extreme lack of detail (it was taking the K.I.S.S. principle way to literal) and misinformation (post for another day), but rather that it gave the impression “Hey! SEO for brands is super duper easy!”

Now, unless your blog is dedicated to showcasing the various uses of The Sham Wow, you might be able to get away with that line. But if you’re an actual business providing real services, you might want to stay away from it.  I’m not saying you shouldn’t try to explain things in a simplistic manner to readers. I’m saying that no matter what you do, don’t dumb down a complex topic to make it appear extremely easy.

I do think it’s a great idea when an owner tries to explain something about their business to their clients to further educate them. It helps answer any lingering questions that might not have been asked, and aids in alleviating any assumptions some might have. But the last thing that should be used when teaching and providing insight is “Seems easy right? That’s because it is!”

It doesn’t matter what niche you’re in; the amount of time and effort you put into your craft, the better the results will be for your clients. When you make it seem like what you do for a living is ridiculously easy you’re disrespecting your peers and lying to your customers. Seems harsh right? That’s because it is.

Please don’t take the long hours of research and planning and call it a piece of cake. Please don’t simplify something so much it frustrates your clients when they try to do it and then think you’re a liar.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t try to educate others on what we do. I am saying be careful how it’s done and what gets communicated. The last thing everyone should want is an unhappy client who tried to do something on their own because they were told it was easy, when in reality it isn’t.

Are there parts of what you do that are easier than others? Yeah, you bet. But to you, who works in that niche for a living, it is easy for you. To anyone reading about it for the first time, it might not be as easy. So telling them it really is that simple can cause unneeded frustration. There’s a learning process to help them understand it. Even if you must take it one post at a time to explain things, it’s far better than spitting out 300 words of watered down misleading garbage.

*I’d like to offer my apologies to any blogs about The Sham Wow, if it really isn’t that easy.

[Image by Civilian Scrabble]

Focusing on the audience is important.  Always keep in mind that what you or your client thinks is great might not appeal to the intended audience.  If your client is resistant just point out that narrowing down the audience doesn’t mean excluding people, it means focusing on those that are most likely to purchase their goods.

Trying to market to everyone isn’t realistic.  It is likely to leave you with something that doesn’t appeal to anyone.  Pulling in people that just aren’t interested in what you have to offer also isn’t very helpful.  Regardless of whether you’re looking to sell something or just inform people, bringing in the wrong people just wastes everyone’s time and energy.  If you can find a healthy niche and focus on it you might not be hitting as big an audience, but you’re likely to see better return on the people you do reach.

What Knowing Your Audience Can Do For You

No matter what it is you do, figuring out your audience has benefits.  Whether you’re a designer, a writer, a search engine optimizer or just a business owner, choosing a primary audience can save you both time and money.  It will also get you better return for your investment.

For a designer knowing the audience means knowing who to appeal to.  This makes it much easier when choosing things like colors and graphics.  Different audiences expect different things from a design and knowing who the audience is will stop you from throwing wild, off the wall things into a site meant for selling services to small businesses.  Knowing the audience will also help determine the usability curve based on how internet savvy your customers are.

If you’re a writer, audience determines what you write about as well as how you write.  When you don’t know who is reading your work it’s hard to come up with content that will keep them engaged.  Having that information can help you narrow down topics and come up with ideas.  Audience also determines the language choice and tone of writing.  Beginner guides filled with industry jargon are rarely helpful, but that same language will make perfect sense to an advanced reader.

From the SEO’s standpoint knowing your audience will help you pick better, more relevant keywords.  If you are familiar with the industry you’re building keywords for you probably know all the buzz words and jargon.  It’s fairly likely though that the customers you’re trying to bring in don’t.  Looking at things from the audience’s perspective can help you think of the keywords that they are most likely to know and search for.

Figuring Out Who Your Audience Is

Of course figuring out your audience can be a daunting task.  Just remember to be specific.  It’s okay to start broad but narrowing things down is much better.  Choosing an audience of  ‘kids’ doesn’t give you much definition to work with but  narrowing that down to girls ages six to ten is highly useful.

There are a few places to look to get a quick, easy and free idea of who your audience is.  If you have customers already find out who they are.  Have them take a survey.  If you’re using social media check out who is following you.  Ask them what they like about your product or would like to see.  Look at your competitors and see who they are marketing to.  You can choose a similar market or look for a different niche to target.

Another way to choose an audience is to break down your own product.  Look at what your product does and why someone would want those things.  Figuring out the end benefit can make it a lot easier to choose a more specific audience if you don’t have one already.  Once you’ve chosen a perspective audience, there are some things to look at to figure out what they are looking for.

Here are some basic questions to answer when looking at audience:

• What is the age range?
• Are they male, female or a mix of both?
• What is their income level and occupation?
• What is their education level?
• Where do they live?  This can be both geographical and rural versus urban etc.
• What are their families like?

Once you have the basics covered it’s good to look at some in depth things such as:

• What are their core values?
• How do they feel and think?
• What are their interests and hobbies?
• What are their attitudes?
• Will my audience benefit from my products or services?
• Are there enough people that fit my criteria?

Conclusion

Choosing an audience is an easy step to overlook.  We often want to jump right into the middle of a project and get going with the fun stuff; the building and the doing.  Not knowing your audience before you get started can lead to costly mistakes though.  It’s important to remember that whatever you do or make isn’t for you or even really your client.  It’s for those people that you are trying to reach.  Connecting with them is extremely difficult when you don’t know who those people are.  It may seem like a waste of time, but why risk ruining your entire project when it’s such a simple step to make sure you know who you’re talking to?

[Image by ninastoessinger]

Alan Bleiweiss tasked me at the end of 2011 to put together a list of the top social media conferences to have on MY radar for 2012. As I was compiling my list the thought occurred, “Hmmm…Why not turn it into a post and get everyone’s input since more and more events are combining SEO and social media?” Why not indeed. Your choices may vary from mine.

I’d love some feedback since these are conferences I’d like to attend this year and if there are ones I am not aware of I’d really like to know about them. Soooo…here are my personal choices for 2012 social media conferences.

Social Fresh - (East) February 6-7, 2012, Tampa; (West) August 20-21, 2012, San Diego - Social Fresh is a social media education company.  Their conferences are designed to inspire social media people to develop better marketing through social media channels. Some of the speakers in Tampa are Scott Monty of Ford, Shauna Causey of Nordstrom and keynote speaker Jay Baer.

The Social Media Strategies Summit 2012 - February 7-9, 2012, Las Vegas; April 18-19, 2012, Chicago – 3 full days of interactive learning to harness the power of social media to further brand reach and impact. This conference is broken down social media into six different tracks in the following categories: Corporate Case Studies; Community Engagement and Customer Service; Measurements, including analytics, ROI and tools; Sales Approach; Legal Risks & Strategies; and Marketing Strategies & Tactics.

BlogWell - March 27, 2012, San Francisco; July 18, 2012, Chicago; September 25, 2012, New York City - Put together by SocialMedia.org, a community of social media leaders helping each other by sharing ideas, best practices, & solutions, BlogWell features 8 great case studies on the best social media programs at large corporations and well known brands. I’m always curious to see what the industry giants are doing.

SocialTech 2012 - March 29-30, Seattle - Put on by online marketing community MarketingProfs, SocialTech is “described as a social media conference with a focus on B2B marketing and a B2B conference that simply can’t get enough social media, SocialTech is designed specifically for B2B marketers who want to get the most out of social media marketing for their business.” 

BlueGlass LA 2012 - April 23-24, 2012, Los Angeles, California - “2 days that will change your Internet marketing life forever…” those are strong words taken directly from the website. And I believe them. Featuring speakers like Chris Brogan, Peter Shankman, Brian Clark, Marty Weintraub & Click2Rank’s own Alan Bleiweiss along with two dozen other speakers…this is a CANNOT miss event!

BlogWorld & New Media Expo - June 5 – 7, 2012, New York City - Started in 2007, Blogworld & New Media Expo is number 2 on my list for the year. From creation, to distribution and monetization, learning from the most successful new media content creators is where I’d like to be. The Social Media Business Summit at BlogWorld is an exclusive 3-Day conference that teaches you how to use social media to gain exposure and engage with quality customers. Whether you are a small business looking to develop a social media plan, or a corporate marketer needing tips for taking your social media strategies to a new level, this conference is for you. Learn to create a social media plan, build loyal communities, supercharge your SEO efforts, engage customers in conversation, and much more.

PubCon 2012 - October 15-19, 2012, Las Vegas - PubCon is at the top of the food chain for me in 2012. There really isn’t much that can be said that hasn’t already been said about PubCon. With 9 different tracks, over 100 sessions and 200 plus speakers, this is the premier search and social conference hands down for me. If there was only one event you could go to in 2012, this would be the conference I recommend.

Those are conferences on my wishlist. What about you? Are there other social media conferences or search marketing conferences that you want to attend and people would benefit from? Leave a comment and let us know.

So the last Monday of each month we’ll be interviewing someone to learn a little more about them as well as getting their aspect on search marketing. And to get things started, we’re kicking the series off with Pamela Lund of BlueGlass Interactive.

1. Thanks for taking time to answer some questions Pamela. For those not
too familiar with you, who are you and what do you do?

I develop and manage the paid search strategies for BlueGlass Interactive.

2. How is what you’re doing for BlueGlass different from what you were
doing before? Is there anything you miss about your old job?

Before I joined BlueGlass I was freelancing as a PPC manager so my job isn’t much different. The only thing I miss is working on very small mom and pop businesses that can’t afford an agency. I’m a sucker for a small business.

3. When I first heard of you, you were one of the go to people for
PPC. Has PPC always been something you’ve been well versed in? What other
areas do you feel you’re strong in?

I was forced into PPC when AdWords launched. My degree is actually in Finance and I started out as an accountant. I then took my affinity for numbers and details and started a career in media buying and contract negotiation. My employer owned nearly 100% of the ad impression share on Google, Yahoo and MSN for all of their major keywords before the bid model become popular. I got my feet wet with Overture and other old pure bid models where we were paying $150 per click for some of our very competitive terms. Then Google announced they were launching AdWords, effectively tripling what it would cost us to get the same exposure on Google that we were currently getting for a flat fee. I had to quickly learn how to optimize AdWords campaigns in very competitive markets. I discovered I had that special kind of crazy it takes to be good at PPC. You have to love looking at rows and rows of data and picking out important pieces while also being able to write creative and effective ad copy.

I specialize in PPC so I don’t have other areas of SEM that I would say I am strong in. My only other major skill is harassing people about their diets in an attempt to make people healthier. I’ve launched Practically Primal to house my health and nutrition rants.

4. How would you encourage others in their pursuits?

I think you have to try everything to find out what you’re good at and what you enjoy. Specializing too soon can limit your growth and may prevent you from finding what you really want to do.

5. With Google integrating more social into search, how do you see
this impacting PPC? Do you see more of a focus on retargeting ads as a
result?

I never try to guess what Google is going to do. Right now it feels like they are forcing Google+ on us and it’s awkward. If they really want to make PPC social they need to incorporate other social signals. I’d be much more likely to click on an ad that had a sentiment rating for that company relative to what you’ve searched based on aggregate data than an ad that just tells me 5,000 people have +1′d that domain. That tells me nothing about the specific product or service.

I love retargeting and do think it’s going to become more important over the next few years. When done right it’s a very powerful tool.

6. What are some things you see people doing wrong with retargeting?

With retargeting, I see people just setting it up and forgetting it. You have to test various levels of frequency capping, vet the networks the ads are shown on, and do ad optimization just like a regular campaign.

7. Have you ever suggested that a client lower the budget for their
PPC with search engines other than Google? Why would/wouldn’t this be a
recommendation?

I have done this if the results on the other engines were not as good as Google and we needed more budget to get more out of Google. I think budgets should be flexible and put where they are doing the most good.

8. When planning a campaign for the first time what are some things
that you feel get “over-hyped” and what are some things that get over
looked?

The basics get overlooked which is really frustrating. People get excited about launching a campaign but don’t want to do the work to lay the proper groundwork. Proper keyword research (including negative keywords!) and ad group organization from the get go is the best way to ensure an easy to manage account. If you can’t hand off an account to someone else and have them easily understand the campaign structure, you’ve done something wrong.

I don’t think too much gets over-hyped. But, I guess any time there is a new feature people tend to get excited about that and forget about the basics.

9. What online tools do you use and recommend? Are there any that are
out that you’re curious to try but haven’t yet?

I always recommend Authority Labs and Raven Tools. Both have great features and are great companies run by great people.

10. What mistake have you learned the most from? Either for your career or personal life?

I don’t think there are any major mistakes in life. Everything I’ve done, good or bad, has made me who I am and has gotten me to this point, and I’m happier now than I’ve ever been. If you follow your heart and your gut, you’ll end up in the right place. It may not be where you thought you’d be, but it will be right. When I was 18 I thought I’d be a stock broker living in New York. Boy am I glad that didn’t happen!

11. You’re shipwrecked on a deserted island. In your backpack is a guide
to SEO published in 2000, a pack of bacon, a SMX swag bag with coasters and
bottled water. What would you use these items for in order to survive until
help could arrive?

I would use the bacon to lure prey out that I could kill for a larger supply of food. I’d use the seo guide for kindling to make a fire. I’d drink the water. And the coasters…well I guess it depends on how many. If there were enough I’d use them to make an SOS sign on the sand. If there were only a couple, I’d use them as plates to keep the sand out of the wild boar I cooked on my fire

You can follow Pamela on Twitter, catch her blogging on health at Practically Primal or about PPC at the BlueGlass blog.

While candy color ponies may have been meant for young girls they have taken the internet by storm.  The newest incarnation of My Little Pony appeals not only to its target audience, but also an older group, one that is mostly male.  If you actually take the time to watch a few episodes it’s pretty easy to see what is appealing, even if you don’t fall in love with the show yourself.

The Elements of Harmony are an important part of the show.  They allow the ponies to defeat the bad guys and give each character a defining and guiding characteristic.  These elements are something that anyone can embrace in their day to day life to make things better for everyone.  If you write for any reason, whether you’re a blog writer, a copy writer or a social media wizard, the Elements of Harmony are an easy way to keep your audience engaged and show that you’re not just a machine spitting out replies.  So let’s look at the elements and see what they can do for you.

Honesty

Honesty is always important no matter what you’re doing and especially when engaging with readers and customers.  When you stick with the truth you’re much less likely to get yourself in trouble.  Lies are pretty easy to catch and if even one person catches you you’re likely to lose face and possibly readers or clients.

People aren’t likely to trust someone that only gives them lies and half truths.  Giving the truth whenever possible is a great way to establish trust.  You don’t have to give away all your company secrets and methods, but being transparent and honest in the things that matter is a great way to become an authority and keep bringing people back.

Kindness

A soft word and a little praise can go a long way.  Thank people for comments and make replies to any questions you get.  No one likes a bully and you’re much more likely to gain readers or fans if you are nice to people.  If you are kind to the readers and customers you have they are more likely to come back and bring their friends.

When you’re looking to bring in more readers always remember to be polite and kind.  If you are commenting on other blogs, Facebook pages or whatever always leave positive comments that add to the conversation.  Making people in your industry angry is not a good way to increase your own traffic and spamming people with useless, to them at least, links is an easy way to make people mad.  Remember, treat others the way you’d like to be treated.

Laughter

Humor is a great way to get people to remember you.  A laugh mixed in with quality content can take it from useful to memorable, and that may be the difference between a one time reader and a subscriber.  Think of commercials.  The ones that made you laugh are probably the ones you remember most, even if you don’t always remember what the commercial was for.

Just keep in mind that not everyone finds the same things funny.  Keep any jokes you make in good taste.  Also, don’t expect everyone to get the joke.  Keep your audience in mind and don’t reference things they won’t understand.  It’s also important to not go overboard with humor.  A chuckle is good but if the joke outshines the rest of your article you should think about spending more time on your content.

Generosity

Giving stuff away is always a great way to bring readers back.  Even if you’re just giving away great information, when people get something valuable from you they’re much more likely to visit your site again and recommend it to their friends.  The important thing to remember is quality.  Having quality informational articles will go much farther than throwing something together just to get content out.

There are also other things you can give away.  What you give away can be anything from prizes like iPads or gift cards to your company’s products or services.  Contests are a great way to bring in new readers or clients.  They can also be used to encourage your existing readers to do the advertising for you.  Just make sure that whatever you give away is worth the time they spend promoting you.

Loyalty

The most important thing to remember about loyalty is that it is a two way street.  Be loyal to your readers and they are more likely to be loyal to you.  Make sure you take note of those that come back again and again to comment on your posts.  Reward those that stick with you, something as small as a shout out or a link to them can go a long way.

Gaining loyalty is the whole point of creating a website, a blog, a Facebook page or a Twitter account.  Whether you are seeking to build brand recognition or even just a reader base, always remember that loyalty is the goal and make sure you give back to those that come back time and again.  You won’t regret the loyalty you show to your fans.

Magic

This is the most ambiguous of the elements.  It may not have a clear definition like the others but it is still important.  One way to look at it is that magic is that spark that makes you unique and pulls all the other elements together.  Finding what makes you, or your company, different from all the others is important.  Once you have that it is much easier to write with a unique voice and stand out.

Chances are you have competitors no matter what it is you do.  Finding your magic, what it is that makes you stand out from the others, is what will make you memorable.  It’s easy to become jaded and say that you’re special and unique just like everyone else, but building on the things that make you different are what will make a reader or customer choose you over someone else.  Different doesn’t always mean better, but it does make you appeal to the customers that fit you best.

 In Conclusion

You may still think of My Little Pony as a silly kid’s show but it does have important lessons that everyone can learn from.  If you don’t use these things already, learn the Elements of Harmony and use them and you’re likely see a difference in how your readers respond.  Business relationships aren’t that different from personal relationships in many ways, and while being professional is important, learning to be a better friend can bring you more rewards than you might expect.

For proof that Bronies exist check out this article.

Now before you go calling that number to order a set of DVDs, please finish reading this first. I get the feeling a lot of SEOs get into the motion of doing a few things, seeing some results, but never making an attempt to take their client to the next level. Be it the pay level of the client (which only means you should give your client more bang for their buck), a lack of drive or a lack of experience, when results begin to get predictable things, need to change.

Use effective tactics sparingly

Let’s be honest. Announcing a new page/section on a website might not get the same amount of attention as a merger deal. And an infographic might not be the right thing to promote at the same time you’re doing a contest (unless the two are related). Know what the client is promoting, when you’re promoting them.

When an infographic gets promoted, it usually draws one of two responses, “COOL! AN INFOGRAPHIC” or “Not another infographic”. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m starting to react like the latter with each one I see. And that goes for some of the ones clients are requesting.But it’s our job as search marketers to help our clients (and ourselves) realize stuff like that should be reserved for special occasions. Not just for the sake of “doing an infographic”.

I’ll admit, the first infographic we did for a client did really well. Their traffic increased dramatically, but as with most infographics, it slowly dwindled. So, after seeing some success, the client wanted another. A small part of me was excited to do another – the rest was kind of apprehensive.

The second one did better in other social media outlets than the first one, but traffic tapered off even more quickly. It was plateauing. The next time around we pushed a press release about an infographic along with it. This time the initial spike was higher, but it tapered off as quickly as the one before.

You can have a great first day of promotion, but if it doesn’t keep going for at least a week it’s time to reconsider something else. If you find something does well with a quick powerful burst but won’t last more than three days, consider adding it as a kick-off to a marketing campaign, or use it sparingly.

Measure and Plan For the Next Round

Once you’ve gone through one month/quarter (however you schedule out client work) plan for the next one. What worked well? What could have been better? What didn’t you use this time around you can for the next? Does anyone have any new ideas?

The planning stages between cycles is when it’s time to get creative. By now you’ve got plenty of data on what you’ve done and you can use this to create a plan for the next push.

Use Online and OFFline Marketing Methods

I was browsing a client’s analytics the other day when I noticed a spike in their traffic. I checked the referrer and it was all direct traffic to a specific landing page. I quickly looked over the past reports to make sure we didn’t do any promotions for them. I then called their marketing director and asked them if they had done anything over that period of time. “Oh yeah, we sent out a mailer to 1,000 clients”. I slapped myself in the face.

This not only explained the spike but when I took a look at the page it was of an older version of the site. So if someone navigated from the landing page to the current site they would see a different layout. I would’ve liked it to have been consistent and furthermore, if we could’ve placed some social sharing options on the page, I think this promotion might have gotten even more traction if we had included a concurrent online promotion. As it turned out, that particular promotion was for existing clientele, so pushing it out to non-clients might not have worked out as well. But it got me thinking, how many times, when a link building campaign or site audit is done, do we as search marketers take the time to ask, “What else are you guys doing?”

Part of working in an overall search marketing strategy is knowing what the client is doing. What do their promotional landing pages look like? Are they running any contests in the near future that don’t yet have a place on their site yet? Would those contests or promotions do better if synced up with a link building campaign?

These are questions I intend to begin asking more frequently. I want the client to know we are looking at more than just their on-site structure; we’re looking at the entire performance of a site in via all avenues. When online and offline facets of a business are working together, you know that it isn’t a site that’s is simple trying to game Google. It’s a business that’s promoting itself and growing.

Set a Pace You and the Client Can Work At

It’s easy to get excited when signing up a new client. But one thing is certain; each client will have their own pace at which they’ll want to get things accomplished. I know every client will initially say, “We want to steamroll this now!” But as soon as the first recommendations are sent or the first round of link building is set to go out, nine times out of ten, a phone call/email comes, “Hey, we need to get this verified, then we’ll go ahead with it” or “We’re only able to get part of that done this time. What areas are the most important that we can focus on for now?”

If this is the case, it’s best to just figure out a plan that will work for them and go with it. Hopefully the restraints that are preventing them from going full force with the grand plan will be lifted after seeing some success. So be patient, keep at it and eventually, better things will come.

Rinse, Repeat, Reset Goals

By the time you get to this point, you should have plenty of data to look at. If there’s one thing the queen of analytics has told us, it’s that “Data is valuable”. Take it, read it, share it, learn from it and improve on it.

True, being social by engaging with your followers, fans, customers and/or prospective customers is definitely better than just being a firehose of information which is how old school traditional media operated. But being engaged isn’t the secret sauce of success in social media.

Empathy IS secret sauce for social media success!

What is Empathy?

Empathy is a powerful word with a lot of juice behind it. The American Heritage Dictionary says empathy means:

“Direct identification with, understanding of, and vicarious experience of another person’s situation, feelings, and motives.”

Being able to LISTEN in the present moment of what the customer is saying, without judgment, without agreement or disagreement. Focused on being compassionate to what THEY are feeling, not how YOU feel about the exchange taking place.

“I feel your pain” was/is a classic example of empathy spoken by former president Bill Clinton. Contrast that with sympathetic language below:

What Empathy is NOT

Empathy is not trying to diagnose or explain away a situation:

Advise – “I think you should…”
Interrogate – “How did it happen? What did you do wrong?”
Explain – “He said that only because…”
Correct – “That’s not how it was…”
Evaluate – “If you hadn’t been so rude…”

These responses are not empathic…and often lead to escalation. It shows that you either don’t care or are not hearing what they are saying.

Why is Empathy REQUIRED in Social Media?

Consumers LOVE the immediacy of social media. They can rant, they can find people who share the same passion or frustration. They have a voice and they no longer feel alone in what they are going through. More and more people are looking to social media to find swift resolution to problems they are experiencing.

People want their voices heard…people want to be understood…people want resolution after they’ve been heard. They want to be acknowledged and taken care of. They don’t want canned responses, given the runaround…they need results.

Social media empathy is superior customer service.

Being able to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” as the old metaphor goes is really at the heart of empathy. Being empathic in social media channels truly means being able to connect and relate with another person on an emotional level. Communicating the feelings of empathy for your community reinforces that their point of view, their experience is at the top of your daily agenda. They matter.

If you cannot connect with your community (why are you involved in social media?)… you are putting yourself and your company at a severe disadvantage. The potential is there for that lack of empathy to affect your brand in a negative light as more and more people experience it or worse…it goes viral as a community grows because of it. Remember Motrin for Moms?

Empathy is an ESSENTIAL part of being a human. Empathy is also a requirement for having a successful social media presence. Before a company or brand can expect trust/loyalty, they must cultivate compassion for people. Lacking empathy with your audience will guarantee failure.

Empathy is social currency. It has value to the customer and to the company.

What do you think?

Welcome to 2012! We figured, what’s a better way to kick off the New Year than with a list of some great plugins we’ve discovered this past year? Some of these will simply help with maintenance; others will go so far as to help out with topical focus and function of the site. But they all share one thing in common: awesomeness. So without further delay, here are five plugins to help you out in 2012!

Predictive 404

I found this plugin when it was mentioned in a post at SEOmoz by Russ Jones.

Don’t you wish there was a plugin that would automatically redirect 404 pages? Yeah, me too. Still waiting on that one, but in the meantime this plugin actually redirects misspelled URLs to the correct URL. I can’t say how many times someone may or may not misspell a URL when typing it in, but I can imagine it’s a lot – and when it happens, why not make sure they get to the right page instead of meeting a 404?

Broken Link Checker

I love this plugin, love love love. Not only will this plugin give you an alert message when you login to WordPress if a link is broken, but it will email you when a link is broken. How awesome is that? The plugin uses a variety of API and can check for links on pages/posts that have already been posted or have been scheduled. In addition to text links it also checks for links in images and videos.

After I installed this gem it found some broken links on old posts in addition to some in the comments. We either redirected them to a new part of the sites in question, or with the links left in the comments, we simply unlinked them.

Flexo Archives

I recommended another archiving plugin in a previous post, but I’ve grown to like Flexo a lot more. Mostly because its code isn’t as bulky and we all know that less code is always better. While it doesn’t have as many of the same options, it gets the job done. In short, this plugin keeps it simple…seriously.

Redirection

This is another plugin that I’ve come across (thanks Samir Balwani for the tip) that I like better than an old redirect plugin I recommended. One of the things I really like is this plugin not only lets you enter the entire URL of what you’re wanting to redirect instead of just the section after the .com/, but also keeps track of the hits each redirect is getting and tracks the date of the last access to that URL. In addition you’re given a variety of options, groups and modules to use. This plugins still keeps the redirects simple when you need them to be and also allows you to get more complex if that’s what you need.

Widget Context

If you’ve got a site with a variety of stuff in the sidebar you’d only have show up on certain pages, this plugin will help you out. Another plus of this tool is that it can help with the subject focus of each page. If you don’t want to get rid of it completely you can use this plugin to help keep the topical focus on that page and keep the information in the sidebar visible on other pages.

That’s all folks!

The links to try out these plugins are below; if you’ve used these plugins we’d love to hear what experience you’ve had with them. Or, if you know of any plugins we should check out feel free to mention it in the comments. As always, thanks for reading!

Download Links:

Predictive 404
*Install: Copy and paste the text on the page the link takes you to. Open up a file editor. Copy the text, then under the Author URI add the following line, “Text Domain: magic-404-fixer-upper” (Thanks John Doherty for finding that). Save as a php file. Move the new php file into a folder (name it whatever you want) then you can drag and drop it the folder into the plugin folder of your site via ftp (you’ll have to login to WordPress to activate it). Or if you’d rather upload it directly in WordPress, right click on the folder and send it to a compressed folder that can be uploaded and then activated.

Broken Link Checker

Flexo Archives

Redirection

Widget Context
[Image Credit Immortal Penguin]

Landing pages and splash pages seem very similar, and for those not familiar with the finer workings of web design, SEO or another web based industry it can be hard to see the differences.  In actuality each has a distinctive purpose and time it should be used.  Getting them confused can annoy your users and cost you in search traffic.

Splash Pages

A splash page is a page that shows up before your home page as an introduction to your site.  They are not as common on the modern web as they used to be.  Many contain images or flash videos and all will have an entrance link to the actual site.  While this may seem like a great idea and a way to give your users some unique content up front it also presents a number of problems.

Splash pages are bad for search engine optimization for several reasons.  First, web crawlers will index your splash page instead of the homepage for your site.  This means the search engine will be driving traffic to your splash page rather than your home page.  The second problem is that splash pages tend to lack in keywords and content which makes it difficult for the search engine to decide what your site is about.  Images and flash can’t effectively be read by web crawlers giving them little to work with.  You can add more content but then there’s little point in bothering with a splash page.   A third problem is that the web crawler is likely to get stuck on the splash page so the rest of your site might not ever be indexed.

There are also several usability issues related to splash pages.  With a splash page the user has to make an extra click to get to your actual content.  This can annoy users and many will leave the site on the spot.  Splash pages also provide little actual information to the users.  You only have a few seconds to make a good impression and using that time to force them to look at something you think is neat isn’t always a good way to use those seconds.  A graphic or flash intensive splash page can also cause problems for users that have a slower internet connection.

While splash pages have a number of issues there are some instances when they are useful and should be used.  If the site has any type of controlled content such as brand sites for alcohol a splash page can be used to help control traffic.  Splash pages are also useful if the site is international and available in more than one language.

Landing Pages

A landing page can easily be confused with a splash page.  They share some of the same aspects, but the big difference is that a landing page is a page focused on a specific action where the splash page is a preface to the whole website.  Where splash pages take the place of the home page landing pages should link from specific sources such as an email or a targeted link or ad.

Landing pages are created to promote a specific thing, be it a new product, a special offer or anything else.  This page should have good information about whatever the focus is and not just be full of fluff.  It is also a place for action and should encourage the user to do something, even if it’s just subscribing.  Done correctly, a landing page can be an effective marketing tool.

There are some things to keep in mind to make a landing page effective.  First is to write a good headline.  Make it memorable and distinctive and you’re more likely to keep your user on the page long enough to get to the call to action.  Next, keep things simple.  That’s something you hear constantly but it really is important.  If a landing page loses its main focus it’s not likely to be very effective.  Keep the same branding used on the rest of the site but make a landing page distinctive.  Use a cut down layout that gets rid of any extra distracting information.

Most importantly, remember your audience.  All websites should be built for a specific audience and this is no exception.  With a landing page you know where the user is coming from so you should have an even better idea of who your audience is.  Use this information to get the best reaction you can.

There are many tools in a designer’s or SEO’s inventory and it’s important to know what they are and how to use them.  Landing pages and splash pages both have their uses and their differences should always be kept in mind when you think about using them.  Always remember that you only have a few seconds to convince the user that you have what they need, make the best of that time.

[Image by newmediarchitect]