Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know that Twitter is not what it used to be. Or, what we thought it was.
It is now ESSENTIAL, an appendage of your smartphone. Yesterday’s telegram. Today’s library. Global news on the fly in realtime. Niche news you can’t live without wherever you are. Live tennis matches while you sit you in your car. The last word from your favorite celebrities. Finally a window into the world of important people you care about. A sales tool and PR microphone gigantic. The targeted search tool on the web.
The list goes on and it includes revolutions of the political kind.
Now it also includes visuals. For many of you, at least for me today, you will need to set up a new profile (1500 x 500) which you will want to sync with your background as I did here: https://twitter.com/jmgroupdesign
For more information on what this new design change portends for business, get the perspective from Hubspot.
No, it is not Facebook. Forgetaboutit.
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia, Genesis WordPress Web Designer, at 561.906.3436.
Follow @jmgroupdesign
Our Blog Posts
The Surprising Reputation Builder
It’s not overwhelming. We just think it is. You can build an online personna as good as gold like the big guys, if you want to.
Here’s a rough outline of what you, the small business person, needs to do to get started.
1) Build a simple WordPress blog/website. Choose a StudioPress theme. They are the best. I know because I am biased and experienced 🙂
2) Define your target market, niched and narrowed … the one you are singing to, not the one that needs to be sold. List appropriate keywords (Google Keyword Planner).
3) Set up Facebook OR Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn business accounts. Pinterest is an optional candidate if you have a business that lends itself to the visual, i.e. travel, fashion, design, food, restaurant, real estate, architecture, cabinetry, many of you out there.
(4) Set up Twitterfeed to automagically stream all your posts to these platforms. Bingo. Automatic content achieved.
(5) Write one post per week. Don’t agonize about frequency! Varying lengths, 3 paragraphs certainly. Content is more important than size.
(6) What to write about? Clients’/customers’ questions you’ve answered, news about your product or service, events of interest, people you know, experiences and stories. Use keywords in your list.
(7) Build influence, improve your Klout score. Hit Share buttons whenever you find articles of interest on other sites and platforms. What is Klout?
(8) Reciprocate. Leave comments on other people’s blogs, share their content on Twitter and Facebook. If someone engages with you on your blog, Twitter, Facebook or another social web destination, be sure to respond.
Set yourself apart. Be an expert in your industry. Build your business. This you can only do for the long haul by establishing your social reputation. The above steps will get you on the right road.
Now … Nike tells you what to do.
Resources for this article:
Big Picture Marketing for Small Business – My Pinterest Account
Google Keyword Planner
Klout
StudioPress.com
Twitterfeed
How To Use Twitterfeed (video)
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia, Genesis WordPress Web Designer, at 561.906.3436.
Follow @jmgroupdesign
The Real Case for Mobile Design
When it comes to mobile, the numbers get interesting. There are over 1 million more mobile devices activated every day across the world than there are babies born.
In the US, 25% of Internet users are mobile only. 91% of all U.S. citizens have their mobile device within reach 24/7
Most of us agree that in order to survive, our business must embrace mobile.
Different Strokes, Still The Same Folks
But, there is another surprising element. The latest research from Google tells us that “90% of people move between devices to accomplish a goal, whether that’s on smartphones, PCs, tablets or TV.”
They may begin reading content and viewing videos from their desktop computers at work, and then look for the same business on their smartphones during lunch where they can continue their research into products and services uninterrupted.
With a responsive website, businesses can be in front of consumers at every step of their online journey.
Responsive websites mean that the same website will present an optimized layout regardless of which device it finds itself being loaded in.
Responsive Design in the Future
One thing is certain, you don’t want to fall behind and watch your competitors launch responsive websites while yours is still stuck in 2010. The time to get responsive with your web design is now.
A Testing Tool
See how your site looks on small phones, iPhones, small tablets and iPads (portrait & landscape)
http://www.studiopress.com/responsive/
– By Marcia Coffey
Call Marcia, WordPress web designer, at 561.906.3436.
How Generate Pro Theme Can Build Your Business
In the end, it all comes down to your list. Your email list. You need to generate more and better email leads.
Next. You need to reach your prospective customers wherever they are during the day … in the supermarket, in the car, in bed at home 🙂
These days email marketing is mobile marketing. Reason: Email is the single most-used application on a mobile device. It’s following your readers wherever they go.
Solution?
The new mobile-responsive Generate Pro Theme by Studio Press with the power and flexibility to lead your site traffic to one action – join your email list.
Why mobile responsive?
A mobile-responsive theme is the latest evolution in creating sites that look great across all kinds of devices — including the mobile phones and tablets that are becoming some of the most common ways our readers see our sites.
Conclusion.
In test after test, email comes out on top for influencing reader behavior. Ahead of social media, even ahead of blogs.
The Generate Pro child theme was designed specifically to meet this need – to help you build your list so you can capture the email addresses of people who want to know more about you, your services and your products.
Click here to demo the Generate Pro Theme.
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia, WordPress Web Design, Inbound Marketing, at 561.906.3436.
Follow @jmgroupdesign
Wonder Why No One Returns Your Phone Calls? A Guest Post.
This is frustrating.
The client is already doing business with you. You feel you have a good relationship . . .
. . . yet your voicemail messages go unanswered. You do not get return calls.
Is that rude – or just the way business has changed in this fast-moving technological landscape?
My clients tell me they often get an email in response to their voice mail message.
But why not a return call?
Could be one of four reasons:
1.) The client is crazy busy with numerous projects.
2.) They are afraid a phone call will take up too much of their precious time.
3.) Your voice mail message is not giving the client an important enough reason to return your call.
4.) They feel email is more convenient that returning a phone call.
Three tips I share with clients:
• Know what you want as a result of your voicemail message, in addition to a return phone call.
• Organize your message so that you state the most important and attention-getting information first, since you may be cut off at any time.
• Don’t leave a message lasting more than 30 seconds because most of us have very short attention spans.
A recent survey by ExactTarget.com was revealing.
From MarketingLand.com: “ExactTarget asked almost 1,500 US online consumers (age 15 and up) about how they prefer to get permission-based marketing messages and a whopping 77 percent said email — a number that dwarfs all other options in the survey. Direct mail was second at nine percent and text messaging was third at five percent.”
You may not consider your voicemail messages to be marketing messages, yet this survey is still relevant as it applies to communicating with clients using a method they prefer.
But don’t stop using the telephone! A telephone call and a good voicemail message still work and in my opinion have great value, even though you may not always get a call back.
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This is a guest post by Ann Barr, a Telesales Coach who believes that you can successfully connect with future loyal clients without being rejected. You can connect with Ann at www.annbarr.com .