Choosing a Website Management System

Choosing the right website management system for you can be a little daunting. This is especially true if you are not very “techie” in the first place. Most likely, the web design companies giving you quotes will offer you a website management system that they are comfortable working with. But is the system they choose going to be the best one for you or your staff?

We’ll start off by assuming that you are going to have your website built by a professional web designer. The designer will set everything up and then turn the website over to you to manage yourself. At that point, in theory at least, you should be able to login to your control panel and start working on your website right away. The learning curve required to do this will be determined by which type of website management system you choose.

Here are some of the key things you need to look at when choosing a website management system.

First, is it easy to use? How easy is it for a your average office worker, that does not know anything about web design, to add pages, remove pages, add photos and links. Do you need to read a 100 page instruction manual to figure how  to edit text or is the system designed to be user friendly.

The problem with most of the systems like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal is that they were designed for web designers and not the average person. They are bloated and have so many unnecessary features that performing simple tasks like adding and removing pages can be a nightmare for someone who is intimidated by computers in the first place. In the hands of an experienced web designer these systems are great but in the hands of your average business owner they are considered too intimidating and the business owner usually ends up hiring the web designer to make their updates for them anyway.

The second thing you should consider is your budget. If you have the money, consider having a website management system custom built for your business. If you only require simple functions like editing, adding and removing pages with the ability to upload photos then you could probably have a management system built for less than it would cost to have one the more popular website management systems customized for your business.

By having a system build specifically for your needs you can avoid ending up with a bloated system that is confusing to use. Everything can be scaled down to the essentials of what you need making the system much easier to use for you. Additional functionality can always be added in.

The third thing you need to consider is search engine optimization. Will your website’s placement in the search engine rankings be important to it’s success? If so, then be careful choosing your system. The 3 major free systems out there WordPress, Joomla and Drupal do a fairly poor job creating search engine friendly websites. All three require additional plug-ins and programming to get them to create SEO friendly websites. Well this additional programming will cost you during the design phase. And even with these plugins the websites created with these systems still have issues with validating. Validating is basically checking to see if the website is put together right on a technical level. This is a small factor that is taken into consideration for search engine placement.

There are plenty of website management systems out there. Some are more popular than others. Some are free and and some you have to pay for. Make sure you choose the one that’s right for you and not your website designer because in the long run, hopefully, you will be the one working with it.

Looking For Cheap Web Design? Think Fast.

When looking for cheap web design, many small business owners make their decision based on whomever offers the lowest hourly rate. This is how the outsourced web design companies in India attract so many clients. They offer $12 to $15 per hour rates that most companies in the United States, Canada and England can’t compete with. At least, on paper,  they can’t compete with them on a per hour basis. But you need to do your homework before making your decision because what may appear to be the best deal may not always be the case.

Here is the most common example of why the low hourly rate offered by the outsourcing firms does not always translate into a good deal on a cheap website.

Let’s say you are looking for a simple 5 page website with a CMS system so that you can update it yourself once it is built.

The outsourcing company tells you that they will charge you $15 per hour to build this website for you. They will have the website ready for you in 3-4 weeks. (This is a common turn around time when outsourcing this size of website.)

The local company will charge you $95 per hour to build the exact same website but they can get it done within 1 week. You look at the $95 per hour rate, hyperventilate, and go with the outsourcing firm because it’s cheaper.

The most common mistake business owners make is forgetting to ask how long it will take to build the thing.

When you get into production the outsourcing firm tells you that website will take them 60 hours to build and since you don’t know anything about web design you figure that is reasonable. You end up paying $900 for your website.

But if you asked the local company how long it would take they would have built it in 8 hours for a total cost of $760. Plus, your website would have been ready in 1 week.

This is a very common marketing ploy with companies that offer cheap web design. Offer a low, eye catching hourly rate and then make up for it by taking 10 times longer to build it. I’m not suggesting that they are billing you for hours that they aren’t actually using. The point is, they aren’t exactly in a hurry to get the job done fast.

At one time my company tested the waters of outsourcing to see if it would save us any money on production. The hourly rate looked great but the issue was always speed and turn around time. Where my in house designers could build a website in 5 hours the outsourcing firm would take 30. Even though I was paying a lot more per hour to my in house designers the end result always cost me more to outsource.

Remember when collecting bids that he hourly rate you pay is not as important as how long it takes to build the website. That is where you’ll save your money.

Tips When Shopping For Cheap Web Design

Shopping for cheap web design can be a little frustrating.  If you want a quality website, it can be even more frustrating. Many times you may feel like a victim of the old fashioned “bait and switch”.

Here is one scenario. You find a web design company offering cheap web design and call them only to find out that the website you need does not fall into the “cheap” category.

Another scenario you will run into is when none of the cool website design examples in their portfolio are the “cheap” ones. Here are some tips to follow when shopping for cheap web design.

Don’t expect to get a whole lot for nothing

If you are only looking to spend a couple hundred bucks on a website, don’t expect a web designer to build you a 50 page website. You may be able to get the neighbor’s kid to build you one for that kind of money but this article is about finding a professional web designer to build one for you. Most of the legit cheap web designers out there charge around $100 per page so if your budget is $300 then you can probably find a professional web designer to build you a 3-5 page website for that much money. Video, Flash and heavy graphic design are probably out of the question.

Be prepared to do some of the work yourself

If your budget is limited prepare to do some of the work yourself. The more work you put into it the less money you should have to spend on having a professional do it for you. Web designers are like lawyers, you pay for their time. If you ask them to find photos, write your copy and build your website you’re going to pay more for it. If you only have them build your site, then you’ll pay less.

Purchase a website that you can easily add pages to and update yourself

If you get a website with a CMS (Content Management System) then you don’t have to pay a web designer to build your pages for you. That’s right, all you need to pay them for is to build the thing and that’s it. You can then add in all the pages you need without having to pay. This is usually the cheapest way to get a professional looking website. Just make sure that the learning curve of the management system isn’t too steep. Some good examples of these types of websites are the Cheap Ass Website and Quik Site systems.

A secure ecommerce shopping cart is out of the question

You are not, I repeat, are not going to find a professional web designer to build you a secure ecommerce shopping cart for a couple hundred dollars. You might be able to find someone to build you a cheap website that you can add PayPal buttons to but a top of the line shopping cart is out of the question. One thing you don’t want be cheap with is ecommerce, especially if you plan on taking credit cards over the Internet. You are liable if those credit card numbers get stolen from your website so save up and do it right.

In conclusion, make sure you shop around and get 3 to 5 quotes when shopping for cheap web design. Professional cheap web design is out there, you just have to look for it.

3 Questions To Ask When Shopping For Cheap Website Design

When you are shopping for cheap website design remember the old adage, you get what you pay for. Cheap website design does exist, but is the quality going to be what you are looking for? If one guy quotes you $50 per hour, another $75 per hour and yet another quotes you $100 per hour would you even know what questions to ask to figure out if you getting more value for the higher quote?

Here are three questions you need to ask when shopping for cheap website design.

1) How long did it take you to build this?

Have a look at the web designer’s portfolio and find some website designs that you like and ask them how long it took to build those particular websites. This should give you an idea of how fast they work. The average website usually averages out to around an hour per page or less. That is, unless there are a lot of intricate graphic design or animated elements flying around but if you are looking for cheap website design then those types of things will pretty much be out of the question anyway. Asking this will also give you an idea of what ballpark your website quote should be in. If you ask for a website similar to one in their portfolio that they said took them 10 hours and the quote comes back 50 hours then you know something is up.

2) Why does this take so many hours?

Web designers hate to be questioned on why they quote the way they do. Some will even flat out not answer you if you ask them why it took them so long to build a particular website. That’s exactly why you need to ask. Now, you may not understand everything they explain to you but have them repeat it until you do understand. If they can’t explain to you why they quoted you 20 hours for a particular service in a way which you can understand them then don’t hire them. They are either trying to rip you off or they don’t really know what they are doing. Now, reality is this, some web designers are just flat out faster and better than others. You may run into one guy who charges $100 per hour but will have your website done in three hours where the $50 per hour guy may need 10 hours to do the exact same thing. Is he ripping you off? No, he’s just slower. Don’t make your deicing based purely on hourly rates when shopping for cheap website design. Take speed into consideration too. Fast web designers are usually more experienced and charge a little more but the money is usually better spent.

3) Have you ever built a website like this before?

This is a biggie. Too many clients have walked through our doors with half built websites wanting us to finish them because their old web guy got in over his head. This is especially important when shopping for ecommerce website design. Make sure the web designer you hire has built the type of website you need before. Many web designers like to learn “on the clock”. That is, while you are paying them. They will accept a job that is over their head and try to figure out how to do it while charging you. You can easily avoid this by asking. If they hem and haw or don’t give you a confident response then you may want to look elsewhere.

The point being made is that

• Experience = Speed
• Speed = Less Production Time
• Less Production Time = Less Billable Hours = Savings to You

This article is reprinted courtesy of CheapAssWebsite.com

How Search Engines Work

Business owners consistently hear about how they need to optimize their website. Well, what does actually mean? Here is an attempt at explaining the process in the least technical way I can. This will be a little over-simplified but you should have a pretty good idea of what this is all about by the time you are done reading.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of creating a website that will actually show up when someone uses a search engine like Google, Yahoo or Bing to find your products or services. The work required to do this is generally split into two parts. The first part consists of work that needs to be done on the actual pages of your website. Some of the things that need to be worked on are the text, page titles, page descriptions and file names of your pages. The second part is work that needs to be done off of your website. This primarily includes getting websites with similar content to link back to you.

How Do Search Engines Work?

There are a variety of factors that play into how web pages are ranked when someone types something into a search engine. Here is a simplified explanation of the process.

Step 1: Someone types the service they are looking for into a search engine.

In this example we are looking for a plumber in Boston.

Step 2: The search engine will analyze the words that were typed in.

In this case the words are “plumber”, “in” and “boston”.

Step 3: The search engine will match what was typed in with all of the web pages it has indexed that contain the words “plumber”, “in” and “boston” as well as the complete phrase “plumber in boston”.

The search engine will give priority to the phrase “plumber in boston” and then look for individual instances of the words “plumber” and “boston” appearing on the same page throughout all of the web pages it is aware of. Not only does it scan the text that appears on the website but it will also scan the text in the Meta Tags. The Meta Tags include information such as the title of the web page and a description. There could be millions of different web pages that match depending on the search term used.

Step 4: The search engine will also take into consideration how many other different web pages are linking to those pages.

Links coming from pages with similar content, phrases and words are given more weight than pages that have nothing in common with the page they are linking to.

Step 5: The names of the files the web designer used to build those pages will also be taken into consideration.

Including the names of your services and location in names of the files used to build your website can help to improve your search engine ranking.

Step 6: The search engine displays a list of results.

The search results are generally based on a combination of the search phrase used, text matches to that search phrase on websites, links to those websites from websites with similar content and the names of the files used to build those websites.

There are obviously other factors taken into consideration such as how long the website has been online, how often it is updated, if it includes a site map, how quickly it loads and so on. But for the most part, this should give you a pretty good starting point as to understanding how search engines work and why optimizing your website may be a good idea. If you have spent a good deal of money on your website and no one can find then what was the point of spending the money in the first place?

This article about how search engines work comes to us courtesy of  CheapAssWebsite.com home of the cheap website.

Tips When Shopping For Ecommerce Development

You’ve decided to hire a professional for ecommerce development and have begun the processes of getting bids. The problem is that you are getting bids everywhere from $500 to $5000 and you don’t have any clue as to what you actually need. Can you get away with a $500 ecommerce website or do you have to go all out and get the $5000 one. What’s the difference? Is there a difference? These are questions that business owners deal with all the time when it comes to ecommerce development. What is too much and what is not enough?

Before you begin this journey you need to determine one thing up front. How are you going to get paid? Are you going to accept credit cards? Are you going to accept Paypal? Are you going to have people mail you checks? This is the first question you need to have answered before you even pick up the phone to call a web designer because this will play a factor in who you hire for your ecommerce development and what sort of options you will need with your ecommerce software.

Here is a a bare bones list of what you need to run an ecommerce store that accepts credit cards.

If you decide to go with Paypal as your payment solution then the rest of this article doesn’t really pertain to you. Click this link to read some of the benefits and drawbacks of using Paypal.

First – You’ll Need a Payment Gateway

The proper way of setting up an ecommerce store is to accept credit card through what is known as a payment gateway. This is not a merchant account. Many people confuse merchant accounts with payment gateways but they are not the same. Merchant account services act, for the most part, as a liaison between your business bank account and the payment gateway. When a customer orders a product from your online business their card is processed via the payment gateway. The money is then moved over to the merchant account service. The merchant account service then moves those newly captured funds to your business bank account.

Payment gateways allow online merchants such as ecommerce store owners or auction sellers to accept credit card payments over the Internet. They authorize the cardholder s credit that is, they check to ensure that the customer has enough money on their credit card to cover the charges. They then place a hold on that amount so the buyer can t turn around and spend that same money elsewhere before it gets transferred to the retailer s merchant account. Banks describes this as the technology necessary to consummate a payment transaction.

Second – You Need a Domain Name

You will need to purchase a domain name for your website. This is the part that comes after the “www” such as www.yourwebsitehere.com. Domain names are billed annually and a .com name can be purchased for $9.99 or even less if you shop around.

Third – You Have Put Your Store Somewhere and That is Known as Web Hosting

When you have an ecommerce website built you need to put it somewhere and that is where website hosting comes in. This is paid for in advance by the year. So if you purchase a $6.08 per month plan your initial bill will be for $72.96. This will keep your ecommerce website online for 1 year. There are different price plans based on how much space you will need for your website, how many emails you want associated with your account and how much security you want added your ecommerce website.

Fourth – You Need to Prove Your Website is Secure With an SSL Certificate

If you are planning on accepting credit cards or any personal information on your ecommerce website then you will need to purchase a SSL Certificate. This is proof to your customers that your ecommerce website is secure and that the likely hood of their personal information getting into the wrong hands is minimal.

Fifth – Ecommerce Software

Something needs to run your online store and that something is ecommerce software. This is where the cost starts to fluctuate based on whom you hire to build your store. There are plenty of free ecommerce software solutions out there. That’s right, they are free to download and use as you wish. Open source ecommerce software such as osCommerce and Zen Cart are very popular.

Here at Digi Donkey we use Kryptronic Click Cart Pro software for ecommerce development. It costs $199 but we have specialized in this software so that our ecommerce websites can be built quickly. This software has an easy to learn user control panel. There are plenty of free ecommerce solutions out there but we have found that the learning curve for most non-tech users is so high that it is not worth using it since our customers still ended up having to call us to make all of their edits and changes for them. Plus, Kryptronic has great customer support which is nonexistent with the free ecommerce software that is out there.

You will most likely be at the mercy of your web designer as to which ecommerce software is used for your online store. You definatelty want them using software they are familiar with so that your site is built as quickly (economically) as possible. Just make sure that if they are using licensed software to build your ecommerce site you own the license. The software needs to be registered to you so that you own it.

Sixth – Pictures and Words

Believe it or not this is probably one of the most left out aspects when people come to us for ecommerce development. The business owner has 5,000 products they are wanting to sell without any pictures or product descriptions and they want us to contact their supplier to get that information for them. This is one of those requests than can cost you a lot of money. You really should have your photos and words ready before you hire a web designer. What you’ll need written are these basic things; categories, category descriptions, product descriptions, product options, pricing, your return policy, your privacy policy, your terms of use and a home page greeting. Now there is plenty of more that you’ll need but these are the basics. If you are not good with words then hire a writer . If you don’t know of a writer only then ask your web designer, they probably work with one.

You’ll also need to have pictures of all your products on a CD, DVD or flash drive. The chances of someone buying something online they can’t look at are slim to none. If you are selling 10,000 items then you need 10,000 pictures of those items. Many times we have had clients ask us to go online and download the pictures for them. I’ll tell you now, that is a horrible idea. You need to get your own pictures before hiring the web designer.  Having them do it is going to cost you a ton of money. Now if you have it budgeted and really don’t have the time to do it fine but don’t get upset with your web designer when they hand you an invoice for 80 hours of downloading photos at $50 – $100 per hour before they have even started on building your ecommerce site.

And Finally – Website Design

You are obviously hiring someone because you can’t do this yourself so you will need to pay someone to put all this stuff together for you. This is where the cost really fluctuates. The best advice I can give is for you to do your homework and get a lot of bids. If you are looking at spending serious money on ecommerce development I would even suggest hiring a consultant to go over the bids with you. Dropping a couple hundred dollars on someone who knows more  about this stuff than you to go through the bids you get may save you thousands of dollars.

For any competent web designer the actual set up of your ecommerce website shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours. That is getting the server and database set up, installing the software, turning on your SSL certificate and getting it to the point where you can start adding in your categories and products.  The real cost is in the customization of the site and plugging in all your categories, products and options. The more you have your designer do, the more it will cast you. You will most likely need your designer to customize the look of the site for you but beyond that you should be able to take over from there if you want to. Adding in the information to an ecommerce site is usually as easy as filling in a form. If it isn’t then you are using the wrong software.

Make sure you keep all these things in mind when shopping for ecommerce development. What you don’t know will cost you.

How to Be the Best Social Media Douche Bag Ever

Being a great social media douche bag is obviously something a lot of people are interested in becoming.  There are plenty of  social media experts, webinars, seminars, guides, blogs, Twitter tools and other sources of information out there that will teach you how to be the best, or biggest, social media douche bag you can be. Social media douche baggery has even become a business for some and the great thing is that some of these people don’t even need to know what they are talking about in order to get other people to fork over money to them. As far as this writer can tell, becoming a “social media expert” requires 1 of 3 things: the ability to create a Facebook account, the ability to create a Twitter account or the ability to create a social bookmarking account, like Digg or something. Then – POW! Another social media expert is born.

Here are some tips on becoming the best social media douche bag ever.

1. Keep all of your personal friends and family informed about every sale, offer and promotion your business is having. There is nothing people like more than being sold to. Especially from friends and family members.
2. Remember to post the exact same message multiple times a day to all of your social networks. This way you can keep your important information fresh in everyone s mind 24 hours a day.
3. Keep everyone you know informed about how you are doing when playing online video games and ask them to join you. As a matter of fact, please send me all your email addresses so that I can let you all know every time I kick the crap out of my kids while playing Wii Resort because I know you all really care about that.
4. Pay for a system that will get you tens of thousands of more followers on Twitter. There is nothing better than an automated system to get you tens of thousands of more people that have no interest in what you have to say to spam to.
5. SELL, SELL, SELL! All anyone really cares about is what you are selling so ask for the sale in every update,  tweet, message or post. Remember to never offer any valuable information because that would take away the focus from you.
6. Hire someone else and have them pretend to be you. Nobody knows you better than someone else. This is  especially true when it comes to your business. So hire yourself a social media expert to run everything for you. Most “social media experts” have social media douche baggery down to a science already.
7. Remember, spamming really does work. Look no further than the penis enlargement industry as proof.
8. One way communication is key. All that really matters is what you have to say so never respond to messages from people within your social media circle. Just make sure they get your message loud, clear and often.
9. Trick people into thinking your more popular by creating multiple fake user accounts. There is nothing better than tricking your online friends into thinking you are as cool as Ashton Kutcher by creating multiple user accounts and linking them all together for your own personal network of fake social media douche bags. Your online friends will ask themselves, “Who knew that so many other people were interested in making grout?”.
10. Keep all your business associates updated on what’s happening in your personal life throughout the day. Believe it or not, the people you do business with really do love hearing about how you just dropped the kids off at school, how smart they are, how you got over an infection, how your spouse has been and all the other fascinating details of your life.

Just remember that if you are going to use social media for your business it’s best to try to create a community around your services where you can not only educate people about what you do, but also communicate with them too. It’s not just a one-way street where all you do is post, post, post. You also have to be willing and able to interact with people.

In a nutshell, look at social media like an ad in the yellow pages (remember those). If all you did was place the ad and then never answer the phone the ad wouldn’t do you much good would it. After all, if all you’re going to do it put it out there and then never respond what’s the point of putting it out there in the first place. Posting your message all over your social networks and never interacting with the people who actually take the time to read your stuff is a waste of your time. If you are paying someone to do it for you then you are wasting your money too. Make sure you have someone, preferably an employee or yourself, responding to your friends, followers, fans or whatever in a timely manner. A third party (social media expert) may not have the ability to answer questions about your services as professionally as you could so why pay them to do it? You may need help planning and setting up a social media campaign. That’s okay, but running and monitoring it really needs to be done by you or someone within your organization to keep it genuine and real. It is networking after all.

Some Tips When Shopping For A Cheap Website.

Business owners need to be careful when shopping for a cheap website because as the saying goes, “You get what you pay for”.  The biggest mistake most people make is going with a web designer who does not have the required experience. Many cost conscious business owners end up hiring the kid next door or their brother-in-law because they know how to put together a rudimentary website and get it online. Then, once the business owner asks them to add in something more advanced like a contact form, rotating images or e-commerce functionality they can’t get the person on the phone and they are left with a half built website that generates zero business.

The other issue is often quality. More often than not, the business owner will end up with a cheap website that looks like it was put together by a 5^th grader.  This does them no good, especially if image is important to their business. Remember, a website is often the first impression a prospective client will get when shopping for your services. If your website looks cheap, then how does that make you look?

You can get a cheap website that looks professional and works the way you need it to if you ask the right questions before hiring a web designer.

Here are some tips:

• When the web designer shows you their portfolio, ask how much each of the websites cost to make. Many times you will be lured in by an awesome looking portfolio only to find out that not one of the samples they show you is the actual “cheap” price.
• Make sure that the “cheap price” includes the amount of pages you will need. Many web design companies promote $99 or $199 websites but those are for 1 page websites only.
• If you have a particular website in mind that you’d like to pattern your website from, ask how long it would take to build it. Then get the hourly rate. Many times what you want, or need, for your business doesn’t fit into a cheap website. You may be asked to scale back. That’s okay as long as you don’t scale back so much that you end up with something that does your business no good.
• Don’t kid yourself thinking that you will get a full blown e-commerce website where you can take credit cards, control inventory and offered discount codes for a couple hundred bucks. E-commerce websites need to be secure and have to give you the ability to easily add products, shipping calculations, affiliate programs and such. You can have a reasonably priced e-commerce website built but it obviously can’t be built as cheaply as a 5 page informational website.
• Make sure that the web designer has the technical ability to enhance your website in the future as your business grows. If they are willing to build you a cheap website then they may not have the skills or know how to build you a more advanced website when the time comes for that.

You can find a cheap website as long as you take your time to ask the right questions. There are plenty of professional web design companies that offer cheap websites out there. Just take your time to find a cheap website that is the right one for you.

Is Affordable Custom Website Design Out There?

I have been building websites for 15 years and here is a little secret, affordable custom website design is out there. You don’t have to purchase a template to save your company money.

I have had many business owners walk through my door with a template website totally unhappy with the money they had previously spent. “I don’t like how it looks”, or, “it’s too hard to customize” are usually the major complaints.  When I ask why they are using a template the answer usually is either, “It was cheap”, or, “It came free with my hosting”.  They wanted affordable custom website design but didn’t look long enough to find it.

The major drawback of using a template is usually the fact that, while you can edit the content, you can’t (or it’s extremely difficult) to edit the overall look and feel of the website. You may be able to change out the banner or change the color scheme but you don’t have overall control of the website. Another issue is that many times certain widgets or traffic building tools won’t work because of the limitations of the template or limitations imposed by the hosting company. An example of this is the free websites offered by WordPress.com. This is a great free tool for blogging but using it as a business website can be frustrating due to the restrictions they put on the free accounts they offer. Many social media widgets and other tools won’t work due to the fact that Javascript is disabled for security.

If content management is important to your business then you have the major free template driven sites like Joomla or Drupal to choose from. The major issue with these CMS systems is that they can be extremely expensive to customize and it is not something than the average business owner can do on their own because of the programming skills required for customization. They may be free to download, but it will most likely cost you a grand or so to get it to look the way you want it to unless you go with one of the stock templates that come with the site. But then again, you are stuck with a design that may not match what you are looking for.

If your budget does not afford you the ability to get the website you want and you have to scale back to get you business online make sure that the web designer you choose has the technical ability to be able to enhance your website when you are ready to do so. Some times, companies that offer affordable website design may not have the technical know how to create more advanced websites. Do your homework.

Your best bet is to find a website design firm that offers affordable custom website design that fits into your budget. You may have to make several phone calls and visit many websites to do so but it’s worth it to put in the research. There are plenty of companies out there that offer affordable custom website design and will build you a professional looking custom website for a few hundred dollars. Some will even build you one that you can update yourself. You just have to have patience when searching. You may even want to speak with an Internet consultant when gathering bids to make sure that you don’t end up paying for something you don’t need.

20 Things To Know About Using Social Media For Your Business

These are the Twenty Things that everybody needs to know about Social Media and how they can use Social Media for their business. A lot of Hype has been created around this topic and we want own clients to understand what exactly it means to them.

(1) Don’t Believe the Hype

Our professional opinions are based on our expertise, experience and education. We are not here to repeat what others have to say. We are here to give you the facts not feed you fiction.

(2) It’s Not Cheap Advertising

It is wrong to believe that Social Media is nothing but a cheap channel to spam out a sales pitch. Social Networks are not a place for an infomercial or “Guerrilla Marketing”. Social Networks are not “the new” late night television, they are a new way to communicate with people.

(3) It’s Not Just Numbers

Social Media is not about building large numbers or friends, fans or followers that do not know who you are or do not care about what you have to say. Sending out information to large numbers of people that do not care what you have to say is spam. If you annoy them enough they may even look to see who is spamming them. This is not the way to build traffic to your website, because the only thing that they will remember is to buy elsewhere.

(4) It’s Not Just About You

If you make it just about you, only you are going to want to hear it. It’s easy to spot someone that doesn’t say anything with out posting a link to their website or starts every message with “My new Blog Post”. Words “I” or “Me” from your Social Media vocabulary or else you will create a personal brand that nobody will ever want to buy.

(5) You’re Not a Movie Star

How celebrities and major corporations are using Social Media has very little to do with what is going to work for you. Do not make the mistake of comparing yourself to a super model,  celebrity or professional athlete.  Social Media has nothing to do with who they are or why people are interested in them.

(6) Have Realistic Objectives

You need to know what your objectives are before you even think of starting a Social Media Marketing Campaign and if you are going to be able to realize those objectives for the type of business that you are in.

(7) Develop A Game Plan

An effective Game Plan will create the buzz for your business. Social Media gives you the ability to keep in touch with your loyal customers and to reach out to new ones around the world.

(8) Know Your Marketplace

You need to know your marketplace and why your customers buy from you. The Internet is a global marketplace and people can buy from you from all over the world.

(9) Give It Time

You need to remember that Social Media Marketing is a long term strategy, not a way to become an “Internet Millionaire” overnight.

(10) Treat People As Friends

Talk to people like they are your friends. Abrasive tone, SHOUTING, and pushy sales pitches are not what your friends want to hear. You are not writing copy for an infomercial.

(11) Build A Community

Use your Social Network to build a community around your business and reward your customers for their loyal patronage. Building a community online is how you bring people into your business, because they want to bring their business to you.

(12) Understand the “Vibe”

Every Social Network has a different Vibe and that vibe is created by the people that use the network, not the people that operate the network. For example automatically posting messages from another network is considered to be an acceptable practice on Twitter, but would be considered spamming somewhere else.

(13) Do Something Interesting

Always offer something that people are going to want or else they are not going to be part of your online business community. When you give people the opportunity to do something fun, they are going to bring your business into their circle of friends.

(14) You Must Participate

Internet Communities are about people and you are going to have to be there to carry on a two way conversation or people are just going to blow you off. One of the biggest mistakes people make is that they join as many networks as they can find and never become a part of the community. “Auto-blogging” services like Ping.fm can give people the idea that spamming out a sales pitch to as many social networks is going to build traffic to their website. What they don’t realize is that traffic is not converting to actual sales. because people are just looking at their site in contempt.

(15) Encourage Cooperation

People will remember that you helped them and they will come back when they need your services. When you let people ask questions and answer them promptly they will know that someone is listing to what they say. Community pages should always include postings from fans to encourage cooperation between the people in you community.

(16) Build Relationships

Social Networks allow you to meet people around the world and in time you will be able to make friends them. These friendships may also lead to trust based relationships in business with people that you would not have to opportunity to meet otherwise. People that are experienced in business networking understand how this works on the local level, when they join Chambers of Commerce and other networking organizations.

(17) Think Business

Don’t say things that are going to offend the people that paying you money or challenge their political views or religious beliefs. One of things that makes America great is that people have the right to have different views on everything. It’s not your business to try to change what people believe and the only thing you are going to make them believe is they need to do business else where.

(18) Protect Your Reputation

Reputation is the key component in Social Media, the way you deliver your message and the frequency that you deliver it is going to directly impact your reputation.

(19) Never SPAM Your Friends

Friends don’t what to read spam or care about the latest trends in Social Media. Computer programs that send messages over the Internet that nobody wants are spamming. There are places on Social Networks to advertise and build lists of people that want to know about your business. For example, when people join a page on FaceBook they know that they are going to receive messages from the people that run the page.

(20) You’re Not Fooling Anyone

Just be yourself and treat people like your friends and everyone is going to like you. Pretending to offer sage advice only to lure people into some get rich quick website is going to get you nowhere fast. An excellent example is the “Thank Your For Following Me” message on Twitter, that is always generated by a computer program. A tool that will only build traffic to your website from contemptible people or people with contempt for you.