Jon-Mikel Bailey - web design, search engine optimization (seo), social media, and more

Sure, Do It Yourself, But Marketing, Web Design, Photography Should be Done Right…

I was talking to a colleague today about video.  Specifically we were brainstorming on some ways that his client, a videographer with tons of experience, could survive in the world of YouTube and HD Flip Cams.  The guy’s been doing this forever, he is a pro, and suddenly he is being replaced by a bunch of amateurs.

This reminded me of when we started our business 8 years ago.  People literally said to me “a web design firm? Anyone can build a website”.  And they were right, anyone CAN build their own website.  But should they?

Anyone can take a head shot, anyone can shoot a video, anyone can write a press release.  But will they do it effectively and get results?  Maybe, maybe not.  There is a lot I do myself that I could easily hire someone to do for me.  But I am careful to be certain that I will do a competent job that I will be happy with.  If not, I will get a professional to do it for me.

Professionals exist for a reason, we need them.  They offer services far superior to what we can do for ourselves.  And many times we need that.  We need superior, or at the very least, we need competent and effective.

Of course budget plays a part in all of this.  So, we need to be cautious when choosing which of our marketing tasks we give to the pros and which we handle ourselves.  A lot of this decision making depends on your target audience.  Who are you talking to and where will the polish matter the most?

8 years later we are still building websites for businesses and organizations.  And today it is even easier to build your own site.  But our clients know that they need something more because that is what their audience will respond best to.

So, my advice to the colleague was to tell his client to keep his chin up and offer his services, just with a different spin.  People still need him.

Listening is the most important thing in marketing and sales…

I’m 38, a dad and I own a business.  There is still a lot I have to learn and I do everyday.  For example, until I became a dad, I never really knew or appreciated what it meant to be a parent…

I saw a friend of mine today - at a marketing meeting - and she had her kid there with her.  It really struck me all of the sudden how accepting of the situation I was.  I used to hate it when people would bring their kids to meetings.  It was a major distraction for me (ADD and all).  But now I think its kinda neat.

But the point is - and yes, there is one - I never knew what it was like to be a parent until I actually was one.  Now, I think I get it.  And not just what it means from a basic level, but all the little subtleties and nuances that come with it.

So, here I am, a marketing professional in my late 30s having an epiphany about empathy.  In order to truly understand my clients and their marketing needs, I need to be able to relate to who they are, what they care about, what bothers them, what success looks like.

So how do I “become a parent” every time I want to understand a client?  I have to walk a mile in their shoes.  A MILE.  I have to take the time to understand what their shoes really feel like, and smell the sticky foot smell that only a long journey can produce.

I have to talk to them, I have to LISTEN and UNDERSTAND.  I can’t just barge into an office and start selling a solution.  How could I?  I have no idea what the problem is until we really take the time to talk about it.  To some this might seem elementary, like Sales 101.  But I am amazed at how many solution providers forget this.

I think the clients miss this as well.  In the subtle dance that is the Sales Call where everyone is trying to lead, we miss the point.  We need to understand one another.  Clients will hold a lot back.  And this ultimately is going to hurt them because the info they’re guarding could be the key to their success.

Of course, the onus is on me, the solution provider, the “man with the plan”.  I have to empathize with the client’s situation.  I have to understand their wants and needs.  And I need to engage them in a way that makes them comfortable enough to share this information with me.  I can’t do this if I am pitching the whole time.

I can tell someone loves their child, I can tell they are happy to be a parent.  But until I know what a sleepless night with a cranky kid or a frightening trip to the ER feels like, I don’t really get it.

I can’t just jot down a list of problems and offer solutions… I have to UNDERSTAND!  OK, enough of my mission statement, let me know what you think…

“Who is going to want to read what I write???”  I hear this from clients all the time.  There is a major misconception when it comes to blogging… just because you are writing a blog, this doesn’t mean you are a “Blogger“.

What do I mean by this?  There are lots of Bloggers - people who blog for a living who have built a following to their blog.  There are some who’ve achieved fame and fortune from blogging.

Here is the problem… there is this mystique with blogging that what you write about has to be earth shattering.  Many of my clients are apprehensive about blogging because they fear their subject matter is boring and no one will read their blog.  Not true!

The important point here is that blogging is a great way to keep your clients informed about issues relating to what you do.  It doesn’t have to be sexy or provocative.  It can literally just be a list of facts that a client of yours might find useful.

The keyword is useful.  Be a resource with your blog.  Obviously you need to be careful not to give away too much.  After all, people pay you for what you do - it’s how you make money.  But you can still offer some information that is useful to the reader.  Here are some lists that might help. 

Things to blog about:

• Laws passed that affect your clients
• New techniques you offer, new trends in your industry
• An article you read that you can reference and comment on
• Changes at your company and how they might affect your clients
• Tips, lists of tricks, things they can use now! People love this stuff

Ways to be inspired:

• Get on Twitter and follow people in your industry, read their posts and go to links they recommend
• Sign up for Google Alerts for topics important to your clients, read the alerts and write about them
• Pay attention to what questions your clients ask or what advice you give them… could these turn into blog posts (um, yeah!)
• Watch the news, what might affect your clients and how
• Pay attention in everyday life.  Look at things through a filter of what might be important to your clients; you might be surprised what inspires you.

The benefits of blogging:

• Increases the keyword density of your site’s content in a meaningful way that Google loves (SEO)
• Shows you want to help your clients and not just your bottom line
• Positions you as a resource and an expert in your field
• Sharpens your focus on what matters in your business and what matters to your clients

Things to avoid:

• Blogging in a self serving manner, these are advertisements, place them appropriately
• Setting up a blog separate from your main website.  Sometimes this might make sense but if you are blogging about your business, do it on your website, i.e. www.yourdomain.com/blog
• Long, drawn out blogs, keep it simple and to the point
• Setting out to get rich blogging, you are already on the wrong path

I hope this inspires some of you to start blogging; there are tons of resources out there.  One of my favorites is www.copyblogger.com.  One of my favorite Social Media and Blogging management companies out there that can get you on the right track is www.villageworks.net.

Anything I missed, let me know.

It’s funny, I meet with clients all the time and I can tell many of them are overwhelmed.  There are so many tools out there for marketing and promoting online, and new ones seem to pop up everyday.  Here’s the thing, you DO NOT have to use them all.

We tell our clients all the time - Twitter, WordPress, FaceBook, FourSquare, etc - these are tools… that’s it!  Sure, some of these tools have been revolutionary in how people, brands, businesses push content and interact with their audience.  But at the end of the day isn’t this still just marketing?

Instead of trying to be on the cutting edge all the time and keeping up with all the other geeks, do what works for your business and for your brand!  There will always be buzz about the latest and greatest.  For the purposes of this post, I wanted to focus on 4 and what they might mean to you…

1. Twitter - unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve most likely heard about Twitter.  You might even be using it.  Twitter is what’s known as a micro-blog.  These are mini posts that your followers will see and can respond to, forward to their followers or act upon.  Here’s the secret, this is all about interaction.  How do you interact? Be interesting and engaging.  Be useful, post useful tips, articles, etc.  Converse, respond to posts, forward posts you find useful.  This puts you out there as someone involved in spreading good information about what it is you do.
2. WordPress - lots of people will come to me and say, “I need a WordPress site”.  But they really can’t explain to me why.  WordPress is a blogging platform.  Its free and works really well.  You can set one up on their server, using their templates and blog away.  Of course it will look boring and you won’t really own it.  You can customize this and host it on your website host.  This is a much better approach.But what it really boils down to is this… do you have something to say?  If you do and you think you can do it on a regular basis, then go for it.  But be smart.  With any type of outreach, you want to be certain your brand remains in tact.  Do not lose your identity in the name of content and SEO.  Remember, this is marketing.  Are you going to blog as an expert, as a resource to your clients?  You should.
3. Facebook - if you don’t know what FaceBook is, stop reading this and go back to bed.  If you have a Facebook account, great.  If not, get one.  This is not just another MySpace.  This is not just a tool for teens looking to hook-up or promote their band.  This is a powerful marketing tool.The trick here is to be careful about how you use it if you plan to market your brand on Facebook.  My advice is to market as if your brand is at stake regardless.  Because however private you think your account might be, it really ain’t.  Beyond that, use it, use your connections, start a fan page, get the word out.  You tell your friends at parties what you do for a living right?  Tell them on FaceBook and they might just help you spread the word.
4. FourSquare - you may have seen those posts on Twitter and Facebook… I’m at Starbucks, I’m at Bob’s BBQ, etc.  These are most likely from FourSquare.  FourSquare is a location based social media “game”.  Lots of brands who promote based on location will use this to do giveaway promotions for FourSquare users.  This is big with mobile marketing.

   If you have locations you would like to promote, check out FourSquare and maybe do a promotion or mobile app.  If not, don’t worry about it.

Like I said, this stuff pops up all the time.  There are tons of articles that will explain what each thing is all about.  But, most importantly, most of it is really about marketing.  These are tools that you can use or ignore.  It all boils down to your audience; in what way could they benefit or become more aware of you (in a positive way) if you were to use one of these innumerable tools.

And how does this all fit into your marketing plan?  If it doesn’t, by all means, do not try and jam a square peg into a round hole.  Of course I would recommend checking in with professionals from time to time as they will most likely have a little better insight into these tools and their potential for you.

If you have any thoughts on these any other tools, please let me here.

I was asked to be on the Mario Armstrong XM Radio Show to talk about selecting a web design firm and utilizing social media to market your organization.

Here is a link to the show (including a piece with a Yahoo content expert worth checking out)

Also, here is a brief summary of the points we discussed..

Selecting a Web Design Firm

What questions should I ask that would help me identify the right web designer for my project?

• “What is your design process?”
• “Who are your designers; what are their backgrounds?”
• “How do we measure results; how do we know our website it working?”

What’s the most common mistake or assumptions small businesses make when getting a website done?

• Not having clearly defined goals and knowing how to achieve them
• Not integrating their website with other marketing efforts

Utilizing Social Media

Social Media Marketing is very popular now, how do we use it in our marketing?

• Make sure your website is the hub of your marketing; all roads should lead to your website.
• Be interactive, engage with your audience.  Be a resource of useful information.

Originally posted on Wood Street, Inc. web site

Don’t worry; this isn’t going to be some long, drawn out, uber-negative rant.  But I do hope this helps companies get the most for their SEO buck.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization.  This means that your website is optimized such that certain search engines will rank you favorably for a targeted group of keywords contained within your content.

So, let’s break that statement down into its key components:

• Search Engines – this is what (who) you are optimizing your site for
• Keywords contained within your content – CONTENT IS IT FOLKS

Now, let’s take a moment to think about Google.  They are a very successful company.  They are successful because they deliver a valuable commodity to their clients – relevant search results.  I want to say this as clearly as possible – you cannot fool Google, so don’t try.

People use Google because they usually find what they need.  Google’s success depends on the relevance of the search results they give.  So, they have a vested interest in making sure their rankings are relevant.  If your site’s content is not relevant for a certain search, chances are pretty good that you will not rank for it.

Just today I was working with a company to help them determine why they cannot see any real results from the efforts of an SEO contractor they hired.  I took one look and knew right away why; they didn’t do anything of any real consequence.

Before you pay money for SEO services or before you invest your own time in any SEO efforts, make sure you know what works and what doesn’t.  I don’t have the space here to give you all the tips, so I will give you the condensed version…

1. Content – make sure your content contains keywords and phrases that are relevant to what you do AND are attainable in terms of rankings.  Not sure if they will rank for you, do some test searches and see how many results you get, the more results the harder it will be to rank; ex. Restaurant vs Italian Restaurant Washington DC.
2. Page titles, like titles, ALT tags, etc – these are areas within your code where you need to place relevant keywords and phrases that are found within your content.  A good way to know if your site was optimized or not – look at the title contained in that blue bar at the top of the browser window when you are looking at your site.  See any keywords?
3. Headings – H1 tags are used to determine what a heading in the content will look like – mainly bold, a larger font, etc.  Well, search engines also look at this as an indicator of what type of information is in your site.  So, put the most important keywords that are in your content in their corresponding headers.

And one more thing, META tags are no longer the key to SEO success.  If someone tells you they are, be suspicious.   OK, so maybe this was a little bit of a rant but hopefully you got something out of it.  Good luck and happy marketing!

Originally posted in www.bringittofruition.net on June 18th, 2010.  The nice people there let me post this here as well.  They are so swell!

I love the web, it is one of the most effective ways to promote your organization.  But just like I told a client today, gone are the days of brochure-ware.  These days you have to do more…

You must engage your visitors.  Merriam-Webster offers multiple definitions for the word engage but I like this one the best … to come together and interlock (as of machinery parts) : be or become in gear. This really illustrates to me what a good website can do, it encourages the publisher and the reader to  come together, thereby encouraging  interaction.

You want your site visitor to interact with your website.  Once you have engaged your visitor and they feel in gear, now they are more apt to interact.  This could be a comment on a blog, filling out a form, participating in a survey or just contacting you in some way.

And once they are engaged and have interacted with your website, are they not now Qualified as a prospect?  I have been saying this for years, a website is a great way to qualify your clients online.  Through their interaction with your site, they are really showing you a lot about who they are and what is important to them.

Your website does not need to be all things to all people.  It should be very important and useful information to a specific group of people.  Don’t talk AT people, engage, interact and qualify!

I have been reading quite a bit on Facebook’s Open Graph Initiative and it is all very revolutionary and interesting and scary, etc.

But, does this mean the end of search as we know it?  I don’t think so.  But don’t take my word for it, watch this video from SEOMoz’s Whiteboard Friday…

Whiteboard Friday - Facebook’s Open Graph WON’T Replace Google

Wood Street has been helping our clients for years with their web presence as well as SEO and other traffic building initiatives.  And yes, we like Social Media.  It has relevance.  But contrary to some beliefs, we do not think that it is replacing the web.

Social Media is an extension, a tool.  It is a part of a successful marketing campaign, not the campaign itself.  And to this end, Facebook is not the new internet.  It is part of it.  Google is not going to get ousted overnight by anything, even the powerhouse Facebook.

If anything, Facebook’s Open Graph Initiative will probably help Google to deliver more quality search results to it’s users.  Twitter has.

With Facebook’s new Open Graph Initiative and its “like” feature, it’s everywhere!  Take a look at this…

I am not completely sure I “like” this but it is what’s happening and very much where the information world is headed.

I share a lot on Facebook, but not everything.  I don’t jump on all Social Media bandwagons (contrary to popular belief).  But I see the value.  The quickness and effectiveness with which a person or organization can spread information on the web is revolutionary.

We will see more of this in the future.  Companies, Ad Agencies and so called “Social Media Gurus” are all starting to sing a very similar song… learn and embrace these tools now, they are not going anywhere.

It is a hash tag on Twitter - www.hashtag.org.  Check it out, it is used to track trending topics on Twitter.  Every Friday is #FollowFriday where people post Twitter users that they think you should follow.  Here are mine…

My Frederick, MD Twitter Favs (in random order):

• Beth Schillaci - Village Works - @bethschillaci
• Jessican Hibbard - Frederick Chamber - @jesshibb
• Jennifer Gerlock - Bring It To Fruition - @jennifergerlock
• Amy Benton - Bring It To Fruition - @amybbenton
• Cakes for a Cause - @CakesforCause
• Frederick News Post - @FredNewsPost
• Josh Mendelsohn - @joshmend
• There are more, check back next week

General Favs

• Chris Brogan - @chrisbrogan (stole this idea from him)
• Brian Clark - CopyBlogger - @copyblogger
• Karen Rubin - HubSpot - @karenrubin
• Geoff Livingston - Zoetica - @geoffliving
• DJ Waldow - Blue Sky Factory - @djwaldow
• There are more, check back next week

Anyone you think I should follow?  Let me know.