While it’s marginally helpful to your SEO to reference popular sites on your website, it can be harmful to your bounce rate if not done properly. Your bounce rate is the percentage of visitors that enter and leave your website on the same page. It’s like a boomerang. They enter your site, stick around for a few seconds, then turn right around and go to another site you are inadvertently sending them to. The good news is you have control over improving your bounce rate and I’ll show you how.

Linking is good, Making people leave your site is not good.

In the example of listing resources in a blog post, the most common reason your bounce rate would be high is that you are linking to other websites or references without opening a new window when someone clicks a link. People’s minds are running a million miles a minute when they’re surfing the web and it’s so easy to click to a new site, get lost in the new content and forget all about the original site that brought you there. We’ve all done it.

Opening a link in a new window leaves your site up in the browser and if someone has forgotten to finish reading your article, they’ll happen upon it again, when closing down all the windows left open. It’s one more opportunity for them to see your site.

If you use WordPress, setting this up is easy. When you go to insert a link on your page or post, simply check the box that says, “Open link in new window.”

Voila! No more boomerang page. Another way is to include the following property in your <a> tag: target=”_blank” for those of you who edit code. A general rule of thumb is to do this for links that are external to your site. There are some exceptions to this, and definitely don’t open links in a new window for pages that are still on your site – totally annoying! Just ask yourself, if people go to this link and leave my site, will they become distracted and forget to come back? Just use some common sense and think about what would make for the best experience for the visitor.

So go update some of the links on your site and watch your bounce rates drop!

How hideous is that? A custom URL takes that ugly, long string of numbers and turns it into a beautiful, short URL like: http://www.facebook.com/ekcetera.

Not only is it good for search engine rankings (SEO) to include the name of your business in the URL, but it also makes it much easier to print your URL on your company stationery and make everything look clean and consistent.

If you don’t already have a custom URL set for your page, I’ll show you how:

click image to enlarge

Visit your page on Facebook. Click the “Admin Panel” button in the upper right-hand corner. When your panel drops down, click “Manage->Edit Page”. Way over on the left-hand side, click “Basic Information”. On that page, you can edit your URL by choosing a username in the Username section.

This username will appear after the forward slash (/) in the facebook URL. Be careful in choosing, because once you set your username/URL, it cannot be changed! 

A shorter username is better, and it should make sense to your users. If you have two or more words, you can separate them with a dash (-) instead of running them together, so it’s easier to read. While you’re at it, choose a username for your personal profile too.

Note: The same is true for personal profiles too. Just click the down arrow on the upper left hand side of the screen and select. “Account Settings”. Username is the second option down.

Now, you’ll have a much easier time sharing your page link with your fans!

Let’s share some Facebook Fan love and leave a link to your Facebook Page in the comments!

It’s much better to do one or two networks well than to do a lot poorly.

So, how in the world do you decide what’s best for you? In addition to the most popular ones, there are hundreds of niche networks that focus on specific industries or topics. If you’re new or overwhelmed, the best thing is to identify where your customers are and eliminate the rest. Pick the place you think most of your ideal customers will find you and start there. Don’t try to do it all. Learn one, master it, then add as you feel comfortable. 

Here’s my rundown of the purposes of each of the networks. Hopefully it will help you decide if it’s right for you or not:

• Facebook - this is where everyone hangs out. The demographics on Facebook are split among age groups and genders. (There are more detailed statistics showing skews towards particular groups, but isn’t everyone and their Grandma’s on Facebook? My Grandma is!)
• Twitter - is all about right now. This is where you can find the latest news and have live conversations. If you want to know about something, you can post a question and get instant feedback (assuming people are following you and you know how to tag your posts appropriately). It’s great for customer service and one-on-one brief conversations. When people ask you things on twitter, they usually expect a response within a few hours.
• LinkedIn - Geared towards the business crowd. People on LinkedIn are networking, looking for jobs, sharing tips about entrepreneurship, etc. It’s perfect if your ideal client is a business owner or job-seeker. Don’t waste your time on LinkedIn if you’re in Auto Repair, for example.
• Pinterest - It’s the hot network of the moment and has quickly climbed the ranks to number 3 behind Facebook and Twitter. It’s all about visuals and works especially well for businesses that have an image to share, like hairstylists, bakers, realtors, photographers, crafters, and pretty much anyone that makes products. Don’t worry though, there are plenty of ways to use Pinterest if you don’t have your own images to share. You can get lots of traffic by re-pinning others’ posts and building a following.
• Google+ - It’s definitely the most confusing of all the networks, but arguably the most important. If you have any hopes of ranking high in search engines, the longer you avoid G+, the more ground you’ll have to catch up to everyone else who has mastered it. Google owns search, after all. Recently, I wrote about How I made it to #1 on Google. What I didn’t talk about was the impact G+ had on my ranking and how I got my photo to appear next to the results. Hint: G+ played a HUGE role.

Which one did you choose? If you’re not already on my weekly newsletter packed pull of great tips for Stylish and Smart marketing, sign up on the home page. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll receive a link to download a FREE social media planning calendar template. Download it, fill it out for the next month, and spend 30 minutes a day posting and playing around on that network. The trick will be to plan out the month in advance, so that you’re not wasting time deciding what to write. The next trick will be disciplining yourself during the 30 minutes to stay on the tasks of learning the tools for your business, finding new people to interact with, interacting with followers of your business, and not reading up on the latest gossip from your alma mater.

Next, go to all of your social media profiles and look at your bio information. Is any of it outdated? Update it. Do the links work? If not, fix them. If you haven’t posted on one of the networks in over a month, put a message in your bio that says, “I don’t post here regularly, so please check…” and then link to either your website or another network that you do use. Stop saying, Someday I’m going to start… People are going to run across your profile TODAY and you want to direct them somewhere they can contact you TODAY. Then, put that particular network on your short list of marketing strategies to work on. It’s all about creating a plan.

What do you struggle with when deciding which networks to be on? Leave a comment below and let’s get some discussion going to help each other master our chosen network! I promise your overwhelm will lessen.

Do you realize that your logo is so much more than a cute little graphic and a way to display your name? It has the potential to create an emotional reaction in the mind of your customer. Affecting emotions is the way to get people to buy from you. If they subconsciously don’t like your logo, they’re going to subconsciously not want to buy from you. Whether or not you know it, or believe it, we are influenced by what we see. When the first representation of your business is your logo, shouldn’t you be investing in it?

Professionals who design logos (at least the good ones) are trained to analyze the impact your logo has on the audience. Make sure you work with a logo designer who knows marketing. Not all pretty logos are good logos.

I encourage you to take a few minutes and study your logo. You spent valuable time designing it, but don’t let that stop you from looking at it objectively. I see so many clients make choices about their logos because they feel a personal connection to it: Purple is my favorite color, I love to look at pretty flowers, or my favorite, My family convinced me this one was best. Ok, it’s great your family is supporting you, but are they your ideal customer? (I’m not saying it’s bad to choose your favorite colors, just be sure your ideal customer would also like those colors.)

It doesn’t matter what your family or your best friend thinks, or what your personal interests outside of your business are. What matters is what your CUSTOMER thinks when they see your logo. Does your logo represent something that’s special and important to you? If so, is it also special and important to your customer? Who does your logo appeal to? You and your family, or your ideal customer? Think about making some tweaks. The best logos are ones that can be tweaked and modified over time. Think about big brands like Pepsi, Coke, etc. Their logos have been updated to current styles, but still have the same general look as they originally had.

Is it time to update? I want to hear from you. Leave a comment below and let me know how you chose your logo. Need some help updating or creating yours? The design team at Ekcetera may be a perfect fit – contact us to get started.

How the heck do I read the results? How do I apply this information to my business? 

Maybe you’re like other business owners and know about this great tool, but have no idea how to interpret the information you receive, or find it overwhelming and confusing. Well, today is your lucky day, because I’m going to try to make it as easy as possible for you to get some use out of Google Analytics and discover the goldmine it is to your online marketing. 

But, before we can learn how to improve your marketing, we need to look at your current marketing. One of the best ways to determine this is Google Analytics. I suggest you check it regularly (weekly, monthly) to see how your site is performing.

Get yourself set up with Google Analytics

The first step is to set up an account and install the tracking code on your website (If you have a webmaster, save yourself some headache and have them set it up for you). If you have a WordPress site, setup is a cinch! So, set aside the time NOW to get your analytics set up and functioning correctly.

Resources:
Sign up for an Analytics account
Install the tracking code ~or~
Install this plugin in WordPress

Next thing to do is filter out all of the visits you make. Go to whatismyipaddress.com and copy your IP address. Log into your Analytics profile. Click Admin>Profiles>Filters. Click New Filter and select options to Exclude traffic from the IP addresses that are equal to…then enter your IP address. Click Save and now you won’t see your own visits to your site in the results.

Then, we just sit back and wait for the data to start coming in.

There’s all sorts of information out there talking about the Analytics Dashboard and what each section means, but if you’re like most people, it’s wayyy too technical. I suggest you read Smashing Magazine’s article: A Guide to Google Analytics and Useful Tools if you want to go that deep, but I’m guessing you don’t. This was supposed to be simple, right?

Ask yourself these questions about your site

Here are some important things that Analytics can track for you. All of the fancy lingo in the tool is simply telling you answers to the following questions:

• How many visits is my site getting in a specific time period?
• Where are the visitors coming from?
• Are there some basic things I can learn about the visitors?
• What pages are they looking at when they’re on my site?
• How long are they spending on my site?
• Are there any pages that make people boomerang off the site right away?

Now, how to find the answers to those questions

Let’s start with some basic terminology you should know to interpret the data. By the way, in your dashboard, if you hover over the words RIGHT below the blue graph that appears on most every page, a tooltip pops up and defines the confusing words.

• Pageviews/Visits - The number of pages viewed or number of times people visited your site.
• Unique Pageviews - If a visitor comes twice, it’s counted as an additional visit/view, so unique means the number of actual people that visit.
• Bounce Rate - the percentage of people that enter and exit your site from the same page (they’re coming to the site, then boomeranging off from the same page – you want this number to be low)
• Impressions – The number of times your site appears in search results.

The 5-minute browse through your Analytics

I’ve numbered a shot of the areas you can quickly go through to get a good snapshot of how your site’s doing. Click to enlarge the image.

Section 5 is where you’ll find most of the data you want to look at. The most common confusion is about what the columns in this section mean. They can be different, depending what section you’re looking at. Hopefully I’ve covered the most important terms above. 

1. Select the dates you want to know about. It’s really easy to miss this box and be totally confused by the results because a strange date is being displayed. I do this all the time! Once you select a date range, all data you look at is adjusted to that range until you log out.
2. Look at your audience. Click the Audience menu and go to Location. Hey look at that! A color coded map of where you visitors are coming from. Under that same menu, look at Technology>Browser & OS. Did you know websites look different on different browsers? This will give you an idea of what browser your visitors are using, so work with your web developer to be sure your site works in different browsers. Lastly, click Mobile>Overview. This tells you how many people are visiting from a mobile device. Should give a good indication whether or not you need to optimize your site for mobile.
3. Now, check out where they’re coming from. Click Traffic Sources>Sources>All Traffic. The list of urls shows sites that link to yours and how many people are clicking on those links. Direct means that someone actually types your URL into their browser. Back on the side menu, click Search Engine Optimization>Queries. Here you’ll see what people are typing into search engines to find you. Notice the relationship between impressions, clicks, and average position. If your site is being viewed a bunch (impressions are high), but nobody’s clicking on it (clicks are low), it means you should see if that keyword is relevant to your audience and make your META information more appealing for them to click on. If your average position number is high, it means your site is listed way too far down in results, so people have likely visited another listing before yours.
4. What is popular on your site? Click Content>Site Content>All Pages. A slash (/) means the root, main URL of your site, or your home page. Take a look at your most popular pages and figure out a way to add content to those pages that directs people toward the rest of your site and the content you really want them to see.

By looking at these basic areas of Google Analytics, you should have some really great information about your site. Once you’re comfortable with these areas, dig a little deeper. For now, this will at least give you enough information to start making some decisions about improving your site.

Let me know if you have any comments or questions below. I’d love to help answer your questions!

When I was learning SEO, there was one thing I learned to improve SEO that made it instantly click for me. Are you ready to learn it too? I promise, once you see how simple it is to make some very basic changes to your pages, you’ll wonder why you ever felt so overwhelmed by SEO in the first place.

Your Page Title is Arguably the Most Important Piece of SEO Juice on the Page

See, there are things called meta tags in the code of your site. They give search engines information about your pages so they know how to list them in their indices. For years, it was a common practice to fill the meta keyword tag with a long list of keywords. I certainly hope you haven’t paid anyone to implement the same strategy for you, because it couldn’t be more wrong. Google recently (in 2009, in fact – so not all that recent) stated that they do NOT even consider keywords in rankings.

Bummer, that really puts the time many people spend coming up with all these keywords to shame. Don’t be sad, though. This actually means search engines have become much smarter and rankings are based on much more than your ability to create a list of words. It prevents those who stuff their pages with keywords to trick search engines, from ranking above content that’s actually useful and relevant.

But how do I change the title of the page and how does it impact my rankings?

That’s an excellent question. First, it helps to understand more about the page title code. There’s code in the header section of your website pages that contains your title wrapped in tags like this: <title>Your Page Title</title>. This is the same text as the first line in Google’s search results. See the image below; this is what most of us look at when deciding whether or not to click a result. It’s no coincidence the page’s title tag appears here. It makes sense the title has the most impact since it’s the first thing that appears in search results, doesn’t it?

In search results, the URL comes after the title. This is another great place to include keywords, but you’ll rank higher if you choose one keyword to optimize for (And by keyword, I mean phrase. Individual words usuallyhave too much competition to be worth your effort.) Use that keyword or phrase in both your title and URL, and you’ll be climbing up the ranks.

Lastly, the meta description tag contains the 2 lines of description that appear right underneath the URL.

Learn How to Edit the Titles on Your Website

The easiest way to do this with a WordPress site is a plugin. I prefer the WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin, which makes it really easy to check if you’re correctly naming things to optimize for a specific keyword. If you’re not using WordPress, you’ll need to edit the code title and meta description tags on your site.

It’s really that easy. But let’s take a closer look at how the Yoast plugin works.

Let Me Show You How Achieved a #1 Ranking For My Social Media Calendar

Click to enlarge.

The most popular post on my blog is my Social Media Calendar Template download. I attribute most of this to the fact that I achieved a #1 ranking on Google for the term, Social Media Calendar Template. I’ll walk you through how I did that.

In addition to WordPress being search-friendly (Google can recognize when a site was created in WordPress and automatically knows how to browse it. It allows Google to index it more quickly and easily.), editing the pages you want to rank with specific tags for that page is critical.

Within the Yoast plugin, on each post or page you’ll see this panel (see below). The first item in the panel is a snippet preview of how your page will appear in Google results.

Click to enlarge.

The next section allows you to input a focus keyword to check against your entries. This doesn’t have any impact on your page for search engines; it’s just a tool to see if your keyword is placed in the page properly.

For my calendar post, the plugin shows my focus keyword appears in the article heading (whatever is in an <h1> tag). I have my page title set to be an H1 tag, but you can put it in the body of your page too.

I also use the keyword in the Page title, which is the field labeled “SEO Title”. The keyword appears in the first few paragraphs in the content of the page and also in the meta description (note, I’m not sure why the plugin checks for keywords in the meta description, because Google doesn’t check meta descriptions).

The only place my keyword doesn’t appear is in the page URL. I posted this before I was optimizing for this keyword, so I used a different URL. However, now I have many external links to this page, so I don’t want to change the URL because the links will no longer work. I’m pleased with my results, so I’m not going to change a thing!

Some Things to Remember When Working on SEO

• Think about what people are going to search for and do some research by searching those keywords to see what comes up.
• It’s difficult to optimize your pages for more than one or two phrases at a time because search engines only display about 70 characters of the title. The title should still make sense to your readers, so don’t just stuff it with key phrases
• Along with the outdated keyword meta tag, the description tag isn’t read by search engines, even though keywords appear bold in results. Use these lines (150-160 characters) to entice your reader to click on your page.
• Submit a sitemap to Google to allow it to find your site more quickly. The WordPress plugin I mentioned does this automatically and alerts search engines each time you update your site.
• It takes time for Google to find you and list your site, so be patient.
• Once you appear for the phrases you chose, watch how you move around the rankings. Experiment with other phrases and determine what gives you the highest ranking and best results.
• Not seeing results? Maybe your key phrase is too popular. There are other things you should implement in addition to title and meta tags, so maybe it’s an indication you need to take your SEO education a step further. I recommend this beginner’s guide by SEO MOZ. It’s hefty and gets technical, but is worth the read if you’re serious about learning yourself. Otherwise, I’d consider hiring an SEO professional to help you (be sure to contact Ekcetera for info on packages).

Now I have a bit of homework for you.

I want you to choose one page of your site – pick the one you want people to see more of that has a golden nugget in it. Copy and paste the URL of that page in the comments below. Along with a link, tell me the keyword you’re going to optimize that page for. Bookmark this article so you can report your results later.

Go and optimize that page for your key phrase. Give it one month to work its way up. Then, come back to this post and leave a comment on your results. I want to see how it works for you! In fact, if you leave your email address, I’ll even personally email you to remind you to post your results in a month.

Let’s get to it! I know you’ll feel such huge gratification from watching your efforts reward you.

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To achieve the best results in your marketing, a relationship with a creative professional should be collaborative. It’s amazing how much better the result is when the work is truly a partnership, versus when the designer or client sees themselves as the one driving the project. It’s important to realize that the most important factor of success for your design is the way you work with your designer! If you are a bad client, it’s likely the finished piece will suffer. If you do your part, and do it well, you can achieve great things and see amazing results for your business!

Given the lack of experience most business owners have in working with marketing peeps, there are some simple things to know and keep in mind:

1. Choose carefully.

   I’m often exasperated when some clients bring a website to me from a previous designer. I have to refrain from asking, “were you under the influence of drugs when you chose this designer?”  The truth is that most people don’t have a clue when it comes to choosing a designer or agency to work with. Creative professionals come in all different skill levels and styles, so be sure to choose one who is a good fit with you and your company. The sign of a great designer is one who isn’t afraid to tell you someone else might be a better option.

   More specifically, it’s important to evaluate the following things:

   • Check their portfolio. Be sure to look at more than one piece, because a designer can get lucky with one fantastic project that can hide their lack of design ability. Also, it’s important to be sure the designer can create a style that is complimentary to your business. Designers should have a wide variety of styles, but make sure they can be flexible and are skilled in the style that works for your business. Evaluating good design is largely based on opinion, but there are basic principles that set the foundation. Ask the designer to explain why a design works or doesn’t and make sure they have a good answer. Hint: “Because it’s pretty” isn’t a good answer!
   • Check their testimonials and referrals. What do their past clients say about them? Don’t be fooled by design awards – they usually focus on the art of the design, not the effectiveness for the client.
   • Evaluate their communication style. How well do they respond to your initial questions? Do they respond quickly and answer in detail? Do they guide you through the process of working with them, or are they simply interested in how much you can pay and how hard the work will be? Keep in mind that after the sale, their communication may get worse, as they’ve already won your business.
   • Can they actually do what you are asking them to do? I’m shocked by the number of people who hire web designers, only to find out when the project’s nearly complete, their designer doesn’t have the technical skill to create the right functionality. You don’t want to get burned.
2. You get what you pay for…sometimes

   Find out what design costs and have an idea before you start working with anyone. It’s ok to start inquiring, but realize you’ll get prices that are high and low. A rule of thumb is that you get what you pay for. Don’t set a budget before you really do some research and compare apples to apples. If something seems really cheap, find out why. Design has an extreme value. That doesn’t mean you have to go broke to get it, but it’s a vital part of your marketing and it’s worth the investment. Remember, you’re paying someone for their expertise. If all you want is to play puppet master, don’t expect a great result. You may get it for cheap, but in my opinion, you’ve wasted your money if you’re not hiring someone who can bring some expertise outside operating a computer program for you.

   However, I have seen pricing work the opposite way. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and find a rock-star diamond in the rough who isn’t charging what they should charge, or offers a discount because they really want to work on your project. Don’t search for this – you’ll think you’re getting such a deal and you’ll get burned. If you accidentally find it, consider yourself lucky. Likewise, there are some designers who charge exorbitant amounts that really aren’t worth what you’re getting. Just because someone tells you a website costs $25,000, doesn’t mean it has to. Find out how the costs are calculated and make sure you’re getting exactly what you need – not less and not more.

3. Establish a plan and set expectations

   Once you’ve been lucky enough to find a fabulous designer and you’ve entered the mindset that you’re now a collaborative team, it’s time to plan before the project begins. So often, people get excited about seeing something come to life that they forget to take the time to plan. This goes for designers too. The designer should do some initial planning, but if they don’t, it’s your duty to speak up and lay out the blueprint for the project. 

   Be clear about your deadlines and check to be sure they are realistic. Add buffer time. Projects ALWAYS get delayed and things ALWAYS take longer than you hope they do. Life will be so much better for everyone if you’re not asking to overnight the final product at the last minute. Determine exactly what parts of the project will be done by the designer, and what the requirements will be of you – will you provide the text, will they be writing it? Do you need to hire a copywriter or will they be editing your text? Will they find photos, do you need to provide photos? What other tasks need to be done before the project launches? Make sure there are no gaps anywhere. If it isn’t included in an estimate, it’s not going to be included in the project and sometimes clients don’t think through all the details until the end. They wind up surprised that they’re missing something they thought should have been included.

4. Provide direction

   No one knows your business better than you. One of the sure-fire ways to assure your project isn’t going to align with your business is to give little or no direction in telling the designer what you want to see. You should give your designer a “brand brief”, which is simply a document that describes your company, gives a description of your products and services, unique things about your company, a description of your ideal customer, some samples of logos and colors that match your branding, and samples of text you’ve written so they can get a feel for the tone of voice you use when talking to your customers.

   It’s also a very good idea to give examples of what your competitors are doing and what you like and don’t like about what they’re doing. Show other design examples and thoroughly explain what you like and don’t like. Don’t expect a designer to read your mind. It is a collaborative effort, but he or she needs to know exactly where you’re coming from to help create a vision for your marketing.

5. Be consistent

   Most business owners don’t even realize when they’re giving conflicting information to their designers. Avoid using buzz words just to sound like you know what you’re talking about. Don’t be afraid to use plain, everyday language to describe things. Your designers don’t expect you to know the appropriate words for things – that’s why you hired them. In trying to sound chic, people often contradict themselves. For example, one client asked us for quirky, chic, sophisticated, clean, modern design. This left us puzzled because we would have designed something completely different for each one of those styles. Convey ideas through examples and avoid using terms if you can’t really break down what they mean.

   If you’re indecisive, tell your designer. Ask for feedback on consistency because most often, you don’t even know when you’re being inconsistent.

6. Trust them

   There are many business owners who hire creative professionals and then micromanage them. This really hinders the creative process and the resulting project isn’t nearly as effective as it could be. You’ve hired a designer for their expertise, so why aren’t you trusting it? The first way to place your trust in them is to find the right person. Assuming you’ve done that, it should be easy to step back and let them work their magic.

   I see this all the time: When designing a flyer, for example, after my team searches for the most appropriate stock photography images for the project, the client spends a ridiculous amount of time searching for a different image. They often send back a half-dozen other possibilities, none of which fit the piece, or the target audience well. In the end, we usually end up using the original image my team finds. Both our time and the client’s are wasted and there is so much over-analysis and debate about minor details. When you hire the right professionals, it’s important to remember that they are trained to know which images work best and how to design effectively, so force yourself to take a step back and listen to their guidance.

7. Give clear feedback

   It can be very frustrating for a designer when a client isn’t clear enough with their feedback. Don’t just say, “I don’t like it,” or, “I like purple instead of red, what do you think?” For one thing, the designer chose the color they thought was best the first time around, so that question is pointless. But, my point is that you need to provide more feedback than saying what you like and dislike about a piece. Try to make a convincing argument for your feedback, rather than just stating your preferences. For example, “I’m trying to convey a feeling of energy and excitement. I think that muted colors give it a calm feeling, I’d like to see something with a little more energy.”

   In this example, you’re not telling the designer what to do, you’re simply pointing out your intention for what emotion the piece should convey.

8. Focus on your customers

   More often than not, design ends up being a reflection of what the business owner likes. There’s nothing wrong with injecting your preferences into a design, after all, you have to look at it more often than anyone else. However, those preferences should only exist to the point that they mirror the preferences of your target customer. Get inside the mind of someone who you think is a perfect customer for your business. What style will they like? What words will speak to them? What imagery will evoke emotion and make them intrigued and interested in learning more about your business? It doesn’t really matter if you like photos of nature with Fall colors. Will your customer be able to connect with those ideas? Otherwise, the piece is ineffective.

It’s such a shame when business owners spend time and money on design and then don’t utilize the services in a way that will lend the best results. It’s not just a simple exchange of money for services. Everyone has to do their part, which includes knowing when to step in and when to step back.

What are some of your best and worst experiences in hiring creative professionals? Leave a comment below!

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The first thing I want to clarify is that social media outsourcing comes in many shapes and sizes. It’s important to realize that just because a social media service provider offers a specific package or arrangement for their services, doesn’t mean those are the only options out there. There are lots of ways you can work with social media professionals to make your social media effective and it doesn’t have to just be someone posting for you.

I think the reason many ask if they should outsource social media is because they are overwhelmed. They don’t understand how the tools work, they don’t know where they should post, they don’t know what to post, and they don’t know how much time and money they should invest. So, they find someone to post for them and all they get is joy of paying someone else to be as scattered and random in their postings as they are alone.

My authentic answer to the question is that yes, I believe most small businesses and entrepreneurs need external help with their social media. I don’t think you should hire someone else to simply post for you. Rather, the scenario looks much more like a partnership than an outsourcing agreement. 

So, how do you find the right help and relationship to have with a social media company? Ask yourself the following questions to determine what you need:

• How big is your company?

  Are you a one-woman (or man) shop and everyone knows it? Or, are you a small business, but customers interact with several employees on a regular basis? Regardless of size, social media needs to be transparent. Don’t ever use a ghost poster and intentionally hide that person’s identity or appear as if they are someone else. If multiple people post under one profile, they should always sign their posts with their names or have separate profiles so they can be identified. You don’t want to turn people off by losing the personal connection they can feel by knowing who they’re interacting with.

  If you’re a one-person shop, it doesn’t make very much sense to have anyone else posting for you. Your customers come to you for a reason and so you should always be the one posting. You need to interact with your customers personally to make the connections with them that draw them to your business.

• Do you like doing social media?

  If you absolutely can’t stand social media and get frustrated with it frequently, you probably shouldn’t be the one posting. Definitely don’t do it because you “have to.” If you aren’t enthused about it, get someone else to post for your company, but make sure they are using the language you want them to use. Make it very transparent that someone else is posting and make it very clear they are the delivery person of the information that’s being transferred. They should be personable and friendly. One important note, however, is that most people that say they hate social media are actually scared, overwhelmed, and confused by it. If that’s you, simply take the time to learn the tools, then learn the strategy, piece-by-piece. I think you’ll find your feelings about it will change drastically. Don’t expect to learn it all overnight. Break it down into very small pieces and go step-by-step.

• Do you know the tools?

  Sometimes I work with people who are excited to get started in social media, but they don’t know how to log into their Facebook account. Social media services are different than accounting services. Since it is social, after all, you need to take personal ownership in it. As much as some may not like it, you shouldn’t outsource your social media just because you don’t want to learn the tools. You don’t have to become an expert at it, but finding a social media partner is more about making it efficient and effective, not just dumping it so you don’t have to do the work. Would you ever dump your customer service department or sales staff to a call center in China just because you don’t understand how the process works or you don’t want to learn how? That’s not a very good strategy in my opinion.

  If you don’t know how to log into your accounts, that is not the time to outsource any of your social media. Think of it differently; once you learn the tools and know how to use them, THEN you can graduate to finding a partner to help create efficiency. 

• Do you have a strategy?

  Many social media novices (and even those that have been around for a while) post as though they’re shooting an arrow with a blindfold on. They can’t see their target, and their posts are often random, inconsistent and vague, going in all sorts of directions. It doesn’t make sense to add more people in (or outside) your business posting with the same approach. All you’ll have is a mine field of random arrows flying around. Ouch! Watch out!

  It would make more sense to hire a company to help develop your strategy, rather than to handle your posting. Find someone who will help establish your goals and objectives, create a content list and library, and create an editorial calendar to establish timing and frequency for posting content that is relevant and appealing to your audience. (Check out my free Social Media Calendar Template).

  Make sure the company you hire takes the time to learn about your company, your customers, and asks you pressing questions about who you’d like to serve and what you want to achieve by serving that group of people. This is the core of establishing a solid marketing strategy.

  Don’t waste time shooting arrows that land all over the place and especially don’t multiply that by outsourcing. It’s more important and wise to invest in a partner to help you strategize and plan. You know the company you’re working with is good if they ask questions that are hard to answer or require you to consider new options. Sometimes you’re too close to your business to see things with a clear view.

• Is posting the problem, or is creating content?

  Another reason business people outsource social media is because they don’t know what to say and think a social media agency is going to know the answers. While a good agency may how to find good content, you have to carefully evaluate what they’re doing for you. Are they simply going to post content that you have to provide? Are they going to provide content, and if so, do they know what is relevant and interesting to your audience? 

  Maybe, instead of worrying about finding someone to post for you (which only takes a few minutes a day if you put the right system in place), you should find someone who can help determine what to post. That includes creating lists of content, finding content, establishing the ideal mix of promotional and informative content, and identifying what your audience wants to hear. Once you’ve done all of this, you need to create an editorial calendar and schedule when you’ll post and when you’ll curate more content. After that, actually posting is simple as pie and doesn’t take much time at all.

• How much time can you devote to posting?

  One of the most common pieces of advice floating around in the social media space is how much time a person should spend on social media per day. Everyone has a different answer for this, but the real answer is you should spend as much time as is necessary to be effective. That number isn’t going to be the same from business to business. You should also use your time in the most efficient way possible. I recommend creating a schedule that works for you. Don’t just set a timer and spend 30 minutes hanging out online. Use your time with intention and work through a list of tasks to complete. That will tell you how long to spend each day. If it takes longer than you have time, find the tasks that can be handled by someone else (like responding to very basic comments or inquiries).

  Don’t forget to include the time it takes to plan your social media and find new content. Weed out the things that can be done by someone else and hire a new member of your team, or find an external team to help.

• How complex are the questions people ask about your business?

  Often, no one knows our businesses better than we do. It’s normal to feel that no one else can answer your customer’s questions better than you. This mindset will make life extremely difficult as your business grows. While it may be true, you have to put systems in place to remove yourself from your business and let it operate independently from you. (For a great book on this topic, read Michael Gerber’s The E-Myth.)

  Likewise, the same is true with social media. There’s a lot of interaction that needs to happen long before your customers will get to the deep questions only you can answer. It’s definitely possible to get help responding to comments and simply being social with your followers. Then, any tough questions can be forwarded to you for followup.

I hope you can see how outsourcing social media should be more than just hiring someone to post on your behalf. It really depends on where you are in understanding social media and how to utilize an outside resource to maximize efficiency while aligning with a strategy. Hiring help should be thought of as a way to improve social media and not a way to reduce the work you have to do. Otherwise, I believe you are just wasting money. You need to find someone who will work with you in the ways that make the most sense for your business and will give the best results. Don’t settle for cookie-cutter packages!

What are some ways you can hire a social media partner to help you improve?

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You’re probably hearing all of the buzz about Timeline for Pages, but aren’t quite sure how to sort it all out. Don’t worry, I’m going to help you figure out how this major change impacts your business and how you should proceed. First, I recommend going through this interactive tour of Timeline for Pages, created by Facebook. It gets a bit lenghty, but it’s a good guide to using your page and it walks you through uploading images and customizing your page.

I thought I’d address some of the most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) I’ve been getting and hearing about the new Timeline for Pages to help ease your nerves and get you started on the right foot.

1. Will our pages be forced to move to Timeline for Pages?

   All pages will be automatically transitioned to Timeline after March 30, 2012. You have the option now to preview your page in Timeline and play around with it. You can also make it go live right away if you prefer. Instructions are in the tutorial from Facebook I mentioned earlier.

2. What happens to our Welcome/Landing tab?

   The welcome tab and any other apps you had on your old page get moved to the view right below the cover photo. You can now create thumbnails for any of your apps and display up to 12 apps using the dropdown (see image – click to enlarge). The welcome tab isn’t going to appear automatically when people go to your page, anymore. Now, they’d have to click on the thumbnail to view it. This will be interesting to see how different businesses will utilize the apps in the upcoming months. Perhaps the nicest feature of the apps is that when you visit on of the apps on a page, you can now use the entire width of the page to build custom content. Previously apps only fit within the wall column, which was only 540 pixels wide. Now, you can use the entire width, which is about 810 pixels wide. So much more room for creative play!

3. What can I use for a cover photo?

   Facebook has released some pretty stringent rules about using the cover photo. Cover photos cannot include:

   • Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download here”
   • Contact information such as a website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your Page’s “About” section
   • References to Facebook features or actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover photo to any of these features
   • Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

   It’s clear that businesses must be careful when designing their cover photos. No advertising here! It’s meant to be an image that lets you show off your personality.

4. What are the sizes of the images for Timeline for Pages?

   The idea cover photo size is 851 x 315 pixels. It’s a good idea to use your logo for your profile picture. Its dimensions are 180 x 180 pixels, but will be scaled down to 32 x 32 pixels when it shows up in other places on Facebook. The custom app thumbnails are 111 x 74 pixels. As a designer, I’m very excited to see what businesses come up with for their page design. My company, Ekcetera, is a great resource if you need help designing your page.

5. Can I highlight specific stories?

   Yep. Two of the most nifty features of Timeline for Pages are the highlighted story and the fact that you can pin any one story to the top of your page for up to 7 days. If you have a specific post you want to highlight as a larger image on your timeline, just click the start icon at the top of the post to make it span the entire width of your timeline (see image – click to enlarge)

   Also, you can feature or pin a story to the top of your profile page by clicking dropdown at the upper right hand corner of the post and selecting “Pin to Top.” Any pinned post will stay at the top of your profile for up to 7 days. Pinned posts are marked with a little orange banner.

6. Can I send messages to my fans?

   Why yes! This may prove to be one of the most useful features of the new Facebook Pages. Before, if a fan commented on your posts and you wanted to reply privately, there was no way to contact that person. Now, you can message the person and receive messages from fans exactly the same way you can with your personal profiles.

7. I heard that ads where changing. How?

   Facebook ads are going to see a major transformation over the coming weeks. There’s still a bit of uncertainty about the changes because they haven’t been implemented yet, but here’s what Facebook said at fMC. It’s releasing a new product called Premium, which includes premium placement, such as ads that appear in News Feeds, that run on the right-hand side of your homepage, within the News Feed on your mobile device, and ads that appear when you log out. In addition, Facebook announced Offers, which allow Brand Pages to offer a special deal only to those who have liked the page. Lastly, it announced a new product called “Reach Generator” that is supposed to help businesses reach out to their fans and increase the number of people that come in contact with your brand on Facebook.

8. What’s new with the administration page?

   The new admin panel promises to be a much easier way to administer your brand’s page. It is accessed by a button near the top of your page and smoothly drops down above your page. The panel contains notifications of all your recent fan activity, making it much easier to respond to all new comments from one place. It shows the most recent likes you’ve received, as well as a snapshot view of your insights data. Additionally, there’s a messaging area that will function very similarly to personal profiles. This will make administration of your page much easier, faster, and more centrally located.

Overall, there are some very exciting, nerve-wracking, and frustrating things about the changes Facebook announced for Brands. Like any other change, it will take time to adjust, but I’m confident many of the features will be great to build your business on Facebook (some may not be). What are your thoughts, opinions, excitement and fears about the changes? Leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you!

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A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to a webinar featuring Chris Brogan. Among other hot topics in business marketing, he spoke about the importance of making your website mobile. Not only did he talk about the importance of making it mobile, but he talked about the importance of making it mobile NOW. This has been something I’ve been putting off with my own sites for a while. Somehow he managed to light a fire underneath my feet and so I did. It was simple for me, because I use WordPress. If Chris Brogan says, Jump! Well, then I guess…

Mobile device usage is most definitely on the rise, especially with the increasing popularity of tablet devices like the iPad. Do you really want to miss out on potential customers because they can’t read your site on their device? Prior to now, there was something about my site that made it extremely difficult for visitors to see the text on one part of their screen. I was surprised at the number of emails I would get from people saying they couldn’t see it. I’m watching the mobile statistics on Google Analytics rise from month to month. It’s astounding!

Making your site mobile sounds very technical and scary, but really it isn’t. It’s like taking a billboard on the highway and shrinking it to fit on a sheet of printer paper – the billboard is your website on a desktop screen, the printer paper is your website on a mobile device. Are you going to be able to read the billboard very well? Nope.

Making your site mobile requires formatting an additional copy of everything to fit a different aspect ratio (usually something more vertical in layout) and increasing the text size. Then, when someone is visiting from a mobile device, your site detects that device and displays the mobile version instead. That’s all it really is. You can get fancy and add other features, but for most small businesses, that’s all that needs to be done to the site.

Have your web developer create a mobile-friendly version of your site and like Chris Brogan told me, do it NOW! There’s no time to waste when mobile usage isn’t diminishing any time soon. And if Chris Brogan isn’t enough push for you, maybe this will be. I recently read some crazy statistics from Cisco that stated:

• Global mobile data traffic will increase 26-fold by 2015. Imagine all of the mobile traffic that exists today and multiply it by 26. Yowzers!
• The presence of mobile devices will be 1 per capita by 2015. So, literally EVERYONE and their grandmas will have a mobile device.
• The number of people that use a mobile device as their ONLY means of accessing the internet will grow 56-fold. That’s huge!

And, for those of you who have a WordPress site, you’re smart and lucky! There are plugins that create instant mobile versions of your site. A great paid one is: WPTouch (affiliate link), and there’s a lot of free ones also.

I would be omitting information if I didn’t say that when I go to a WP site that is using one of these plugins, I immediately recognize it and I’m very bored of the design of these sites. However, with a mobile version, there’s not a whole lot of room for design genius. BUT, I do think that you should consider customizing the mobile theme to add some of your own branding and make the design your own.

Comments or questions? I’d love to hear from you! Do you want to receive more articles like these? Subscribe to my emails at the bottom of the page.