A programmer creates a cool tool in isolation and launches it to the bewilderment of users, a credit card machine requires unnecessary steps to process a transaction, an electronics security device is ten times more cumbersome than it’s worth in security.  These are all barriers that frustrate the heck out of customers.

I recently had a positive experience with a technology gizmo while shoe shopping.  The shoe store attendant offered to measure my feet using a digital foot analysis tool.  All I had to do was take off my shoes and step into the machine.

Once in the device, a wall-mounted screen displayed an outline of my foot, it’s arch area, and pressure points.  This allows the attendant to get the correct shoe size, suggest better fitting shoe options, and later try to sell me on custom inserts.

I ended up trying on several pairs of shoes but didn’t find the right fit.  But I loved how the store used a piece of technology to get me closer to a sale.

1. The first “step” was to get me to take off my shoes, which is always key in the shoe sales process.  This is getting me to “first base.”
2. The attendant used the analysis data to recommend well-fitting shoes.
3. Because the analysis screen was mounted on the wall, mall shoppers could see what was going on.  The bright and colorful screen could help bring in the curious.
4. The next time I go shoe shopping, I’ll visit that store because I know they’ll get me closer to finding well-fitting shoes.

So if you notice that customers suddenly started abandoning online shopping carts, sending few Web inquiries, or are buying few products from your stores, make sure you didn’t introduce a cool new technology feature that is getting in the way of a sale.  The best advice is to track the introduction of new technologies in your sales process and measure their effectiveness.

Do you know of a technology device or system that made a noticeable difference in your purchasing decision?  Please share.

The first time I took a snowboarding lesson, I was taught one useful tip – point in the direction where you want the board to go.  This physical and directional trick actually helps steer you.  However, focus on the trees and the same thing will happen.

Author and marketing guru Seth Godin recently wrote a post about doing “checkins” just before a meeting.  He suggests each team member speak up and talk about their fears.  I understand where Seth is coming from but would offer a more holistic approach to launching a successful meeting.

I’ve been volunteering at a CAUSE, a non-profit focused on social and environmental justice, in preparation for an upcoming fund raising event.  The facilitator, Dr. Roberto Vargas, leads the meetings with Conocimientos.  Everyone at the meeting (even people who dial in via phone) briefly shares personally relevant community information and something related to accomplishing the meeting tasks.

Pronunciation of conocimiento.

“Conocimiento” is Spanish for “knowledge and awareness” and a checkin may be something like this:

“I’ve been busily working on a new presentation for an upcoming community seminar. It’s progressing but am looking for volunteers for the event.

I’m also looking forward to following up with the 5 corporate sponsors for this fundraiser.”

Conocimientos accomplish the following:

1. Fosters positive energy. Sharing is empowering.  I blogged earlier about managing group energy and how it’s an overlooked resource.
2. Allows everyone to speak at the beginning of the meeting. Raise your hand if you’ve been to a meeting where you’ve had zero chance to speak up.
3. Gives attendees a chance to do some community building. In the case of the CAUSE planning meetings, there are participants from various organizations and interest groups.  Sharing up front allows them to get their organization’s news out quickly.  This would also apply to cross-team or interdepartmental meetings.
4. Allows attendees to seek additional support. Someone might need help with another project and they can mention that. It’s not a time to pitch, but it’s a good time to quickly inform others.  I’ve been mentioning my progress on my job search activities and have received a great deal of support.
5. Allows participants to “ground” themselves and then focus on the meeting. We all go to meetings with “stuff” on our minds.  Some of these things may be fears or feelings of being overwhelmed or even being jubilant after a positive experience.  Sharing these things help clear a path to focusing on the meeting at hand.
6. Shows that all attendees are equal. Since everyone gets to speak, it breaks down the usual hierarchy related to meetings.  At CAUSE, one person starts then the person to the left speaks and that continues until everyone has spoken.

So if you’re looking to run more efficient meetings and open up communication, you may consider doing your own version of conocimientos.

Does your organization use some sort of “grounding” exercise or sharing activity before a meeting? How effective is it?

Related Reading: Transformative Knowledge

1. The application is made for the iPad. The previous application was just the iPhone version.

2. See multiple “views” on one screen. The new app allows you to see snippets of more than one view at a time.  This is basically a visual “breadcrumb.”  Unfortunately, there are a couple of instances when things get “stuck” and it is difficult to close the active panel.

3. Article/image previews on tweets. Click on an item in your timeline and see the tweet with the article preview below.  This saves a click and gives you a good idea if you want to continue and read the  article.

With the release of Flipboard, there has been a movement towards visual browsing of  tweets.  This is a great next step for Twitter.

4. “Faux” attachments on tweets. Twitter still doesn’t allow for attachments but this “Attachments” screen simulates that action.  On a new tweet, click on the paper clip and you get access to your iPad photo album.  The Twitter app ties in third-party image hosting companies to accomplish the faux attachments.

5. Integration with services.  The app also allows users to connect to third-party services like Posterous for image and video posting.  Video posting?  Apparently the Twitter app is ahead of the iPad development curve and is already listing different video services.

I was surprised by the way the app “knew” how to select my Posterous account since  I never use Posterous on the iPad.

Review

The new Twitter for iPad app is a great step in the right direction – it uses the iPad’s space intelligently and it incorporates preview features like rich desktop apps.  I tested some of the “gestures” mentioned in the Twitter blog post but they weren’t intuitive so they’ve got some work to do there.  All in all, it’s a must download.

Did you see any other great features?  Overall, do you like what Twitter has done?

• First, some users bookmark the page, then revisit the site. These visitors are great because they found value in the site and are coming back for more. However, there is no way to tell if someone actually bookmarked the page or if something else happened.
• Other visitors arrive here by clicking on a link from a mobile Twitter application. Several of these applications remove the “referrer” information which causes another question mark when I go to check stats.
• If a visitor is using Internet Explorer and clicks through on a link from a site that uses a JavaScript popup, then the referrer information is lost. This sounds like a minor case but if you’re doing hardcore tracking to drill down on a marketing campaign’s ROI, this factor can be maddening.
• Lastly, if a visitor clicks on the Tweet Button and posts a link to Twitter, the URL is “automagically” shortened via Twitter’s link service (http://t.co). If a user clicks on a tweeted out link, you’ll know that the visitor came from Twitter but you won’t know where the link originated. Did a user get there from clicking on a Tweet Button link? Did someone cut and paste the blog post’s URL from the Web browser into a tweet? Inquiring minds want to know.

The Benefits

Before I started using this Google Analytics tracking technique, 16.8% of my traffic was showing up as “Direct Traffic.” After I started tracking Tweet Button clicks and Feedburner subscription clicks, that number went down to 13.45% and a new “Other” figure emerged.

This is awesome because now I can examine the behavior of visitors who click on the Tweet Button. Do Tweet Button visitors stay longer, visit more pages, or take key actions? Now I can answer some of these questions when before it was a mystery.

Because a good chunk of my blog’s traffic comes from Twitter interactions, you can see that the TweetButton clicks are in the site’s top 10 Traffic Sources. I can also see individual stats related to these visitors such as Bounce Rates, Time On Site, Goal Conversions and more.

The Hack

We’re going to address the last case with this next hack. In order for this to work, you won’t be able to use the standard Tweet Button plugin. We’ll have to add the button by hand.

1. Go to the Google URL Builder Tool page.
2. Enter your site’s URL.
3. Enter the Campaign Source, Medium, and Campaign Name. I used “Twitter”, “TweetButton”, and “Blogpost” respectively.
4. Click on the “Generate URL” button. This will build a link just below the button.
5. Copy the link. We’re mostly concerned with the end of the link, starting with the “?” mark.
6. Paste this code into your theme’s Header or Footer template files. I placed the code just before the < /head > tag in the Header.

   <script src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

7. Configure your Tweet Button HTML code as in this example (for WordPress.org blogs):

   <!--Twitter tweet button-->
    <a href="http://twitter.com/share"
    data-url="<?php the_permalink(); ?>?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=tweetbutton&utm_campaign=blogpost"
    data-via="jesseluna"
    data-text="<?php the_title(); ?>"
    data-related="niceblog:My Blogging Lab"
    data-count="vertical">Tweet</a>
   
   <!--/Twitter tweet button-->

   The main “hack” comes from the data-url parameter value where we add the Google Analytics formatted tracking parameters, just after the Permalink. This way, when Twitter shortens the link into it’s t.co format, the link value will contain the tracking information.

   In the above example, “data-via” is the Twitter user name that will appear on the tweet as “via .” “Data-text” is the text I want to display with the link.  In this case I’m displaying the post’s title.  “Data-related” is an optional related account that can be displayed. In this case I’m showing my blogging Lab account, @niceblog. The “data-count” value indicates how you want the button to appear on the screen. I chose a vertical format. You can see all the options on the Twitter Tweet Button blog page.

8. For WordPress.org blogs, paste the edited code into the Page, Single Post, and Main Index template files. I added the button just before the blog post content, after the title and date/author section of the templates. This will vary based on your preference and on other tweaks you’ve made to your theme.

I tried hacking Posterous and Tumblr blogs but the built in URL template tags kept blowing away the parameters once the Tweet Button was called. If you figure out how to do this please drop a comment and I’ll update this post.

Review

We just learned how to tack on a Google Analytics parameter to Tweet Button clicks on a WordPress.org blog. This will help you connect the dots on your online marketing and analysis activities.


If you find this useful, I’d be interested in how and why you would use it. Are you a marketing manager, a small business owner, or a code hacker? I’d love to find out.

Traditionally, when we think of resources we think of time and money. If we are managing people then we realize that people are also resources so we add that to our list.

I suggest we should add energy to that list of resources.

Getting Things Done Workshop - Camarillo, CA

Getting Things Done and Energy
The concept of energy as a business resource made sense after attending a Getting Things Done (GTD) seminar a few weeks ago. In the GTD productivity method, one sets up a series of “Next Actions” steps. These are discreet tasks that must be taken in order to advance to the next step of a project. In this framework, a project can be a large and complex production or it can be a simple as completing an office keeping function.

One participant at the seminar asked, “If you’re always working on the big projects, when do you have time for the little ones on your list?”

This is a classic workplace dilemma and one that can cripple productivity and zap communication.

The presenter’s response was, “That’s why you have different types of projects that must get done. If it’s Friday afternoon and you can barely stay awake, that might be a good time to change out the printer cartridge that’s on your Office Management project list, for example.”

I loved that response and it makes sense. If you’re working on a big project but just don’t have the energy to do an effective job at that moment, then completing a smaller task can actually get you back on track. Work with your energy, not against it.


Prioritizing By Energy
Scott Belsky (@scottbelsky on Twitter), CEO of Behance.com and author of Making Ideas Happen (affiliate link) sees energy management as extremely important in project management.

Energy is your most precious commodity. Regardless of who you are, you have only a finite amount of it. Just as a computer’s operating capacity is limited to the amount of memory (or RAM) installed, we all have our limits.

-P.59, Making Ideas Happen

Belsky suggests prioritizing projects based on energy level, ranking them on a continuum from “Extreme” to “Idle” in terms of their energy requirements. In this model, energy is equated with project importance, as opposed to the how-much-energy-do-I-have-at-that-time factor which the GTD presenter discussed. Either way, being mindful of energy is key to leading projects to completion.


Final Thoughts
I actively plan my daily schedule around my energy levels. Right now, my job search activities are the most important and deserve the most attention and energy. Because of that, I schedule my job search activities at the beginning of each day when I have the most energy and am in “work mode.”

When it comes to blogging, I often start at 10pm and work as late as my brain lets me. That’s when I can write most effectively and not feel like I have other higher priority tasks (or honey-dos) to accomplish.

Do you have formal systems in your workplace to help manage people energy? If so, what are they? How about energy management at home?


Related site:
Getting Things Done

Photo Credit:
Łukasz Strachanowski via Flickr

These top tips will help you zoom up the organic search rankings without breaking a sweat.

1. Use friendly post and page URLs for your new blog.

Quick Note: This tip works best for new blogs. See the BIG NOTE at the end of this item.

When you set up your blog, you will have the option to configure the way your page and blog post URLs are formatted. Search engines love URLs that contain meaningful and related keywords.

Good: http://< mydomain >/awesome-blog-post-title-with-keywords

Bad: http://< mydomain >/?p=45

The standard WordPress.org custom install defaults to the “Bad” URL structure. If you want to drive search traffic to your blog, switch the structure to one that includes the post’s title. In WordPress, you can change the settings from Dashboard > Settings > Permalinks.

In Tumblr, Go to Customize > Advanced, then scroll down and check on the “Use Descriptive URLs” checkbox.

Posterous has an SEO-friendly URL structure by default. This is an example of a Posterous URL: http://jesseluna.posterous.com/curating-tweets-on-flipboard-by-using-twitter. The URL is friendly to read and search engines like that.

Big Note: If you’ve had your blog for any length of time, changing your URL structure can have a huge negative traffic impact. Search engines will have already combed through your blog pages, indexed things and added them to search results. If you’ve had your blog for a while but don’t really care about past “traction” on search engines, go ahead and change the structure.

2. Use targeted keyword terms in your blog post titles.

Try to use one or two target keywords per blog post title. If you have a blog focused on non-profits then “How to talk to small nonprofits: A guide for vendors” is a great title. The title hits on two key terms, “nonprofits” and “vendors.” A Web search over those two terms would likely position that blog post on page one of search results.

An additional tip is adding a combination of not necessarily related keywords together. For example, I did a post on a Tweetdeck’s ability to post to Tumblr and now that post shows up in the number 3 spot for the search term “Tweetdeck Tumblr“, which ranks higher than tumblr.com, second only to Tweetdeck.com.

3. Use “Alt” tags on images.

Every time you use an image on your blog, add meaningful text to the “ALT” tag.

This is the structure of an image tag in HTML:

< img src="my-awesome-image.jpg" alt=”My-awesome-alt-tag-description” />

[Note: in this and other HTML samples in this post, I'm inserting extra spaces at the beginning and end of the text to keep WordPress from rendering the code. Just a warning in case you do any cutting and pasting.]

When search engines parse through your web site, they index image Alt tags. When more of your site is indexed, that means there’s more of a chance your site will show up for related searches.

Alt tags are also very important for accessibility reasons. Meaningful tags give blind and visually challenged readers a description of the picture which can help with context.


In WordPress, you can set the image Alt tag when you select an image:

In Tumblr, the “Caption” field in the Photo Upload tool will be the image’s Alt tag.

Posterous – As far as I can see, there is no way to set the Alt tag on a Posterous blog post image. Bummer.

4. Set “keywords” and “description” meta tags

Meta tags are bits of information that may be added to Web pages to help describe the contents of the page. The contents of the tags aren’t displayed on the page but search engines use the information in the tags to help rank pages and to help display them properly in search results.

I never meta tag I didn’t like. -Old webmaster’s joke

The two main meta tags are the “description” and the “keywords” tags.


Description meta tag
The HTML for the meta tag will look something like:

< meta name="description" content="This is my awesome two to three sentence, keyword-rich, description of this page. This is my second awesome sentence." />


If you want to get crazy with the description, you can use Google’s Webmaster Tools to get feedback on whether you tried to jam too much information into your description meta tag.


Keywords meta tag
Here’s the HTML for the keywords meta tag:

< meta name="keywords" content="Awesome-keyword-one, Awesome-targeted-keyword-two, Awesome-descriptive-keyword, Awesome4,Awesome5,Awesome6" / >


You will add highly relevant keywords instead of my “awesome” ones above. The keywords should be highly related to that specific web page and to the site. You don’t want to put too many keywords there. I usually keep the list to under 20 unless there are 25 products on the page or something like that in which case I list them all.

If you’re not sure which words best describe your page, you can use an offbeat tool like Wordle.net to visualize the page’s top keywords.

The image below is a Wordle.net keyword visualization of the YouTube Adds New iPad-Friendly HTML5 Video Player blog post. I copied the post’s text, went to the Create tab on Wordle.net then pasted the text into the “Paste in a bunch of text” field and ran it.

The diagram points out that the main page keywords were “player”, “html5″, “YouTube”, “Video”,”iPad”, and “Embed” because they were used the most in the post. Of course, if you have special target keywords that should be associated with the page, you’d want to list those as well in your keywords meta tag.

WordPress.org custom install blogs
In WordPress, to add meta tags you need to add a plugin that allows you to either set the meta tags or “builds” them dynamically based on some criteria. The most popular plugin is the All in One SEO Pack. This plugin is available from the WordPress Plugin Directory. Once you install and activate the plugin, you can set it to build meta tags for each post based on the post’s tags. There are also a ton of other knobs and do-hickeys that you can set but describing them all is beyond the scope of this post.

Tumblr
If you are using a Custom Theme setup, you can set the meta tags but only on a global scale. In other words, you can’t set them on a per post basis. You can set the meta tags by going to Customize > Theme then setting the meta tag somewhere between the opening “< head >” tag and the closing “” tag.

Posterous
Posterous allows for custom meta tags but, like Tumblr, the tags can only be set on a global scale, not per post. You can set the meta tags by going to Settings > Look and Feel > Edit Theme > Advanced. Expand the area and you’ll see a couple of other meta tags. You can add your keywords and description meta tags immediately below those.

Review

We just learned how to use four key SEO tips and tricks to boost your search engine rankings and attract more site visitors. These techniques work with the content, not the other way around. You should never compromise your writing to make things more SEO friendly.

I will be adding more SEO tips in the comments over time (I didn’t want to overload you with this initial post). Feel free to comment and to leave your own tips and questions.

This post was made to be shared with the world. If you like it, set it free and share it.


Additional Resources: Google’s Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (PDF, 560KB)


Photo: Purchased via iStockPhoto

Too many bloggers are suffering from an identity crisis. It’s like those dreaded high school years when you awkwardly try to find your way and be comfortable in your own skin. It’s not much fun.

In business, it’s critical to develop your identity, brand, voice and persona for one reason. Revenue. If you don’t have a clear and crisp voice (through your blog), how can you expect anyone to pay attention to it? Would you give your hard-earned money to someone who is unsure of themselves? Of course not.

The key is to connect with your readers and build rapport with them—through your writing. Your goal is to use your blog to develop your own personality and style. There’s no time for an identity crisis. Be clear in your own mind so you can create your unique online voice.

Here are 10 tips:

1. Get real! Be genuine and be yourself. Don’t write to impress, write to express.
2. Weave in your personality. Sure this is business but give people a peek into your own life. Include a quick story, example or anecdote that reveals a challenge you may have overcome. It could involve your partner, child, neighbor or mechanic. It’s called humanity.
3. Speak directly to your reader. Each person reading your post should feel as though you wrote exclusively for them. Make them feel special. Use words like “you” and “we”.
4. Write the way you speak. Use words and phrases that are genuine and “sound like you.” By doing this and expressing yourself in a congenial and engaging style, you will in essence be inviting people into your world.
5. Avoid stuffy business jargon. Write in short, punchy and easy-to-understand sentences.
6. Understand charisma. People with charisma have a special style and allure that draws others to them, like a magnet. They are engaging and light. This applies to writing and blogging too.
7. Make every word count. Forget about word count and “too long or too short.” Convey your message in a clear and compelling way and be done. Your readers are busy. They’ll appreciate your succinct communication.
8. Go for distinct. Consider your brand, expertise and ideal clients. Why do people hire you and enjoy working with you? What makes you different from your competition? What have people written about you in testimonials and reference letters? Separate yourself from others.
9. Be bold. Don’t be afraid to take a position. Use your voice. Readers will come to respect you.
10. Stick with what you know. When you write about topics and issues that you’re passionate about, it will be evident to your audience. Find your niche and dig deep.

Blogging and branding take time. The best way to get better is to practice and not worry about the number of readers or RSS subscribers you have. That will come—in time.

Susan Young works with businesses who want to increase their publicity, credibility and revenues with public relations and social media. She’s a news and communication expert and President of Get in Front Communications, Inc. Susan also works with professionals who want to improve their communication, leadership and self-confidence.

Sign up for her free 21-day video series, “Speaking of Communication” at www.getinfrontblogging.com.

I was blown away when I saw the over 1,200 links coming into jesseluna.com!

Why Check Backlinks?

1. To keep track of the number of inbound links. As your site grows and you reach out to Web communities and comment on sites, this number will grow. But you won’t know that unless you measure.
   
2. Because using the old “Link:< domain-name >” trick in Google doesn’t really work to show you all the Web pages that are linking back to you.
   
3. Because backlinks are a key factor in deciding how much “Google Juice” your site has. If you are being linked to from a site with high authority (think NY Times) then Google and other search engines will reward you with a better search results position.
   
4. So you can compare your backlink numbers to other similar but larger sites. This helps you keep concrete numbers in mind as you ask “how is my site doing?”
   
5. Mostly importantly, now you can work backlink data into conversations with Web geeks at cocktail parties.
   

How Do I Increase My Backlinks Number?

The best ways to improve the number of people linking to your site are:

1. Write awesome content that is link-worthy.
2. Build relationships with other sites/blogs and leave thoughtful comments, making sure to add your Web site address in the “Enter URL” comment text boxes. If the Comment form doesn’t have a space for your site URL then you should check the site’s commenting policy to see if it’s OK to leave a Web address in the Comment text.
3. Once you have a relationship with a blog site, suggest doing reciprocal links. In the early Web 1.0 days, linking to a site was a key way to reach out to new sites owners and was very common. Today, linking to other sites is much more strategic, especially for business sites.

Important Note: Not all inbound links carry weight.

Important Note Part Deaux: Google’s Webmaster Tools also include a Backlink checker tool. The feature is called “Links To Your Site” on the Tools site. However, I found that the iWebtool.com tool found many more backlinks.

How NOT To Create Backlinks

* DO NOT buy into spammy backlink sites or products.

* DO NOT leave comments on blogs for the sheer purpose of getting backlinks.

The Web is a beautiful place, don’t litter it with meaningless links.

Ready to Check Your Backlinks?

Here’s the tool. Enter your domain and a window will pop up and go to iWebtool.com.

Was this post useful? Do you have any other thoughts on site backlinks? I appreciate your taking the time to visit this blog and to contribute to the conversation.

Remember, every time you leave a thoughtful Comment you get a backlink to your site!



Photo Credit: Nicocrisafulli on Flickr - license