Pin Your Interests on Pinterest

Posted on November 22, 2011 by StephanieNelson

from Better Web People
post by Stephanie Boyette Nelson

We at Better Web People like to play with the new, shiny social media objects when we hear of them.  If nothing else, we know about the outlet when or if a client asks about.  On the upside, though, we could find a new outlet to suggest to our clients for promoting their businesses.

Our latest obsession has become Pinterest.  This site allows you to “pin” items you’d like to keep handy on virtual bulletin boards.  As you gain followers, the things you pin are put into their feed, but they can also click into your boards and see things you’ve pinned prior.  You can also edit your boards at any time.

This lead us to think about how businesses could use Pinterest to engage with their clients.  (To be fair, our definition of engagement in this instance is more along the lines of sharing information that might not otherwise come up.)  Here’s what we’ve thought of:

  • Gyms could have boards for on-the-go workouts, workout clothes/accessories, motivational quotes, healthy recipes, healthy snacks.
  • Realtors could have boards showing their listings, interior decor ideas, landscaping ideas, DIY decoration.
  • Cleaning companies could have boards on DIY cleaning solutions and tools for organizing different rooms.
  • Graphic designers could use the boards to show off their own work, as well as the work of others that they like or that inspires them.

So you tell us… How do you use Pinterest?

Posted in Blogging, Business, Marketing, Small Business, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The “What and When to Post” Social Media Conundrum

Posted on November 9, 2011 by StephanieNelson

from Better Web People
post by Stephanie Boyette Nelson

Every day, we get asked by clients and friends, “What should I post about? And how often should I post?” As cheesy of an answer as this may be, the best answer is, “Post what matters to you and your audience when they’re going to be online to read it.”

When you are impassioned about a subject, it shows whether you’re communicating face-to-face or online. The best way to gain an audience is to post honestly about things that mean the most to you. We all know this can be easier said than done when you’re in charge of posting for your company and that’s not one of the things in life that gets you excited. But there are always little successes and bits of greatness that can be shared, even the worst job.

As far as how often to post… While it’s best to be active on a channel you’ve chosen to be a part of – both for personal and corporate branding purposes – sharing for the sake of sharing doesn’t do anyone any good. Again, you should be sharing information that is relevant and interesting to you and your brand, whenever that comes up. Your audience will grow from there. The caveat is that some sort of consistency is important, even if that turns into one post per month or so.

So you tell us… What do you like to post about? And when do you like to post?

Posted in B2B, Blogging, Business, Marketing, Small Business, Social Media, Twitter, Work | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

LinkedIn – Take Advantage of the Update Feature

Posted on October 20, 2011 by StephanieNelson
from Better Web People
post by Stephanie Boyette Nelson

 

LinkedIn has been around for a while.  Recently, though, they’ve been making changes that better acclimate it into the space of “social network,” thus making its importance in social marketing and personal branding more important.Most recently, company pages have been given access to “status updates.” Rather than looking at it as just another place for an update (in addition to Facebook, Twitter and the like), companies should look at this as a great way to get another property indexed!  At Better Web People, we’ve seen company pages get indexed for keywords in a relatively short amount of time (speaking in terms of SEO timing).  These updates give you the opportunity to easily put fresh keyword-rich content out to the search engines on a very frequent basis.

If you’re an employee of a company, you’ve got an amazing opportunity to use your status updates, too.  By putting in updates that contain your employer’s name and keywords, you’re also potentially helping to boost the company in searches, both on LinkedIn and the search engines.  For example, it would be like if I posted on my personal profile: “Working on a social media strategy plan for a Better Web People client.”

Needless to say, this could help make you your boss’ hero.  But at the same time, you’ll be posting about the hands-on experience you’re getting.  So when it comes time for you to change jobs, you will have built the piece of your personal brand on LinkedIn in the process.

So you tell us… How are you using your LinkedIn profile?  How about your company page?

Posted in Social Media | 1 Comment

Video Killed the Radio Star…And Your Search Engine Competition

Posted on October 6, 2011 by StephanieNelson

from Better Web People
post by Stephanie Boyette Nelson

It has been reported across the web this week that, with the latest Panda update to its algorithm, Google is placing more emphasis on video. Speculation has it that Google has seen video being a higher priority to searchers, and thus tweaked the algorithm appropriately.

So how can you work with this new feature? Here are a few ideas on videos to shoot, then post on your YouTube channel and your Google Places profile. Be sure to keep your videos between 1 and 2 minutes for best viewing results.

  • Do a video tour of your facilities, or a set of tours broken into 1 to 2 minute increments.
  • Video your staff members giving their bios.
  • Take videos during special events your company hosts.
  • Shoot video testimonials by customers/clients.
  • Have your CEO or owner shoot a tip of the day/week/month.
  • Shoot video of your owner or CEO giving product recommendations and/or usage demonstrations.
  • Have the CEO give a company overview on video.
  • If you’re doing office renovations or working on a project, take a series of before, during and after shots that you can piece together into a “video.”

So you tell us… How do you promote your business with video? Or how do you plan to promote your business with video?

Posted in Blogging, Business, Google, Marketing, Small Business, Social Media, Social Profiles, Video | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

How Long Does It Take for a Bad Review to Go Away?

Posted on September 30, 2011 by StephanieNelson

social media, social media logos, social profiles, social profile logosfrom Better Web People
post by Stephanie Boyette Nelson

On an almost daily basis here at Better Web People, we’re asked, “How long will it take for this bad review to go away?”

Our response?  “That depends on you.”

Bad reviews never really go away.  As Peter Shankman, a social media entrepreneur, told us at a recent conference, “Google never forgets.”  Once something is indexed on the Internet, it is there for eternity.  Your only hope is to bury what you don’t want seen.

So why are we telling clients that the bad reviews going away depends on them?  Because they can control how fast good reviews come in to bury the bad ones.  They can ask happy clients to add good reviews.  They can ask friends and family members to add good reviews.  They can respond to the bad reviews to show they’re listening and that they care.

Don’t get us wrong.  Burying bad reviews is no small feat.  But the more you work at it, the easier it is – just like with anything else in life.

So you tell us… how are you managing bad reviews?

Posted in Social Media | 2 Comments

Quora – Shiny Object or Network of Substance?

Posted on September 15, 2011 by StephanieNelson

from Better Web People
post by Stephanie Boyette Nelson

It seems as though everyone wants to be in on the next big thing, the newest shiny object.  And in the social media world, there are plenty of shiny objects to go around.

One item in particular that we get asked about is Quora.com.  This question-answering site allows people with questions to post them, then those with then answers can respond.  From what we’ve seen, there can be quite a few pros and cons to including this in your online promotion.

  • PRO: Answers seem to index quickly.  When you answer a question, it appears that, especially if you work keywords into your response wisely, these answers get picked up by the search engines rather fast.  You could use this to your advantage to show in another spot in the search engine results.
  • PRO: It’s pretty easy to find questions to answer.  A quick search of industry-related terms can bring back a list of questions to answer.  For example, a search for “fences” brought back 13 questions a fencing contractor could potentially answer.  Which brings us to our next PRO – why would you want to do that?
  • PRO: Your answers to questions will show, which potentially helps set you up as an expert in your industry and area.  Who doesn’t want to be seen as an expert?
  • CON: It can become a time-suck.  If you don’t set yourself some limits and/or parameters before getting started, you can be tempted to answer every question out there.  And before you know it, it’s the end of your work day and you’ve gotten nothing else accomplished.
  • CON: It’s not necessarily a business or lead generator.  The purpose of answering these questions is to show you know your stuff.  You may never see a dime from the people whose questions you answer.  However, having your name attached to good information is NEVER a bad thing, especially on the Internet since (as they say) Google never forgets.

At the end of the day, only you can decide whether you want to try Quora for your business and if it’s worked for your business.  These are just some things to consider when making that decision.

So you tell us… are you using Quora?  If so, have you had success?

Posted in Blogging, Business, Google, Marketing, Networking, Small Business, Social Media, Social Profiles, Work | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

Training Employees for Social Media

Posted on September 9, 2011 by StephanieNelson
from Better Web People
post by Stephanie Boyette Nelson

 

Attending the Social Fresh Conference in Charlotte this week, I was lucky enough to hear Lisa Hoffman from Duke Energy speak about training employees to use social media on behalf of the company.  Small businesses and large corporations alike face this feat; how you handle it can determine your success or failure.

Lisa’s first piece of advice was that you should start with a social media policy.  Prepping employees for how to use social media lessens the risk of a social media crisis.  Outline what is OK and what is not.  And be sure to keep it simple and relevant to those that you’re training, since that will be what helps garner compliance.  Use stories, not bullet points, since stories tend to stay with people.

Secondly, have employee ambassadors and community managers.  Your ambassadors are the folks willing to be out in the public speaking well of your brand.  Your community managers are those that will have a deeper level of moderation guidance and governance, as well as know what’s required to keep your reputation safe.

Third, you need to have a response protocol.  This defines how and when to respond to comments online, as well as from whom the response will come.

Lastly, once your training is done, solicit feedback.  Make sure your policies and how they’ll be enforced make sense to those you’ve trained.  You don’t want to have to be the social media police and monitor every post your employees make, so be sure you’re setting them up for success.

So you tell us…Do you have a social media policy?  How are your employees trained in social media?

Posted in Business, Marketing, Small Business, Social Media, Work | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

How Do You Get Reviews/Endorsements?

Posted on August 24, 2011 by StephanieNelson

from Better Web People
post by Stephanie Boyette Nelson

As most of you know online reviews for businesses and endorsements for individuals are growing more and more important. As more people search online for what they need – from restaurants for dinner to new employees – you need to stand out from the crowd.

So how do you do that?  How do you get reviews online?

  • Ask friends and relatives for reviews/endorsements.  These are the people who know you best.  Get them to speak highly of you.
  • Businesses’ employees can put links to their company LinkedIn page, Google Places page and other online profiles in their e-mail signatures; individuals can do the same with their LinkedIn profiles.
  • Put these same links on your website’s testimonials page.
  • Keep feedback requests short.  Be straightforward and to the point when asking for a review or endorsement.  The more people have to listen or read, the better the chance that they’ll tune you out and not hear your request.
  • Strike while the iron’s hot.  Got a happy client, boss or co-worker?  Ask them for a review or endorsement while he or she still remembers the good job you did!

So you tell us… what have been your tactics for getting reviews or endorsements?

Posted in B2B, Business, Google, Marketing, Reviews, Small Business, Social Media, Social Profiles, Work | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

What’s the Low-Down on Google+?

Posted on August 12, 2011 by StephanieNelson

from Better Web People
post by Stephanie Boyette Nelson

A lot has been written lately about Google+ and its amazingly rapid growth (over 25 million users in roughly 2 months).  There have been posits on the hows and whys of the growth, as well as the pros and cons.

We at Better Web People and our sister company Better Car People were all early adopters of Google+.  We clamored to get the early invites, and the earlier you got your invite, the more bragging rights you had.  (Nothing like a little friendly internal competition, right?)

So now that we’ve been using the platform for a couple months, I decided to do an informal poll to see what everyone’s thoughts were.  I asked all the Better Web People and Better Car People what are the pros and cons of Google+?  Here’s what I learned:

Pros

  • There are a lot of users, so there’s potential for a wide reach.
  • It integrates easily with other Google products, such as Reader, Apps and Gmail, as well as other browsing.
  • The ability to separate your “friends” into Circles is huge!  Not having to share everything with everyone, like on another social network, is really important to our group.  Just the same as we wouldn’t tell the the same things to everyone we know in real life, we really like being able to share relevant news with the appropriate people.
  • None of the distractions like apps, ads and games. (Though as I was writing this, a blog post came out on the Official Google Blog that games were being added.  They’ll still not be the same distraction as they are in another social network – they’ll be on their own page that you can ignore if you’d like.)
  • The phone app is really user-friendly.

Cons

  • It’s noisy.  The default stream shows all posts by everyone in any of your circles, which can be a lot of posts.
  • It’s another outlet to pay attention to.  When you’re already focused on the other main outlets, that can be overwhelming.
  • It’s not been adopted by important people in our “real life” circles.  While it’s great to see how others are using Google+ and despite the fact that there are over 25 million people on the network, the important people in our real lives aren’t there.

So you tell us… what are your thoughts on Google+?  How are you using it?

Posted in B2B, Business, Google, Marketing, Networking, Social Media | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Bad Review? Now What?

Posted on August 3, 2011 by StephanieNelson

from Better Web People
post by Stephanie Boyette Nelson

As the old saying goes, you can please some of the people all of the time or all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

So you’ve gotten a bad review online.  Don’t panic – it happens to the best of us.  The more important thing is how you handle it.  A few pointers:

  • Do not respond negatively. Put your customer service hat on and sympathize with the reviewer, then offer reconciliation.
  • A quick response will let your customers know that you care and that you listen to critiques.
  • The response that you send back to this review will tell the person who wrote the review as well as the rest of the world that you are a caring business who pays attention to what people think and feel. The person who sent this review will receive a copy of your response in their email and may choose to respond.
  • If the person who wrote this review chooses to contact you and resolve the issue, they have the power to remove the bad review or write a response to their own review telling about their positive experience.
  • In writing your response, make sure to give the reviewer your contact information.
  • Even if the reviewer is wrong in his or her accusation, apologize.  Your apology can be along the lines of “I’m sorry this is the impression our company left with you.”  But apologize nonetheless.
  • Thank the reviewer for taking the time to share his/her experience since that helps you to make others’ experiences better.

So you tell us… How have you handled a bad review?

Posted in Business, Small Business, Social Media, Social Profiles | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments