Facebooking your business

I've just read a good article about how Facebook can help your business, and it mirrors my experience. Which is why I now recommend Facebook as much as I recommend a blog.

Key points are that Facebook Pages, and to some extent Groups, are invaluable tools to promoting your business/brand.

Full article is here.

Pulling your social networks together

As you adopt the Web 2.0 approach to marketing your business (or just having fun) you may end up with a couple of blogs, a photo-sharing site, a Facebook/Linkedin profile, maybe some micro-blogging. Fortunately you don't have to send a friend half a dozen URLS to these pages.

There's a growing number of sites that bring together - 'aggregate' - your social networks. I'm evaluating several: Swurl.com but there are several others around, such as Lifestream, Tumblr, etc. There's also Friendfeed.com.

They all allow you to plug in all your social networks, and they bring them together in one conveneint URL you can give out.

Key to search engine success: give people what they want

"

What is the one big thing that Google, Yahoo, Live Search and all the rest are trying to do? Deliver relevant search results. That’s it. That’s why people use the search engines they prefer, because it helps them find what they’re looking for. If it doesn’t, they’ll switch to another search engine. And if that one works out, it will likely become their “go to” search engine of choice, and as long as it continues to deliver good results, there’ll be no need to switch.

Now take a look at your web site. Is it the most relevant/informative/entertaining/fastest/easiest – or whatever metric matters to you and your audience – web site out there? If it isn’t, then no matter what your marketing department, sales team, CEO, stakeholders et al have to say about it, your web site doesn’t really deserve the #1 position on the SERPs, does it?

You might see some other web site at #1 that you think does not deserve to be there. The good news is, if they really don’t belong there, they probably won’t be able to maintain that position. The reason is simple; the search engines are competing to produce the most appropriate results for people – that’s how Google got to be #1. But if any search engine finds that their market share is dropping because they aren’t delivering the results, they’ve got a problem, so they’re regularly tweaking their algorithms to improve the results."

Full article...

Firefox 3 is out

Although FF 3 isn't officially launched till Tuesday next week, I decided not to wait and got the beta, since the latest version is the final release.

It's impressive; easy to install. The best aspect of FF3 is the better memory usage.

Not all my extensions work, but they are being upgraded almost daily.

In short - get it!

More on Windws Live Writer

I am most impressed with Windows Live writer for handling multiple blogs (or even just one). I also love the 'Blog This' Firefox extension that lets you easily blog something of interest on a web page.

Get it here

Help with multiple blogs

If you do a lot of blogging, especially if you have several blogs and on different sites (Blogger, Wordpress), it can be a hassle switching 'identities'. I've just started to use Windows Live Writer. Once you set up all your blogs, it's a breeze to switch between them and post; it's also easy to format precisely since it's a WYSIWYG editor. And of course you can compose a post off-line. Get it here.

You've Got 10 Seconds...

Did you know that the average website visitor spends 10 seconds on your page before making a decision about whether or not to keep reading?

That is why it is essential to have your Landing Page fine-tuned to visitor expectations.

What is a Landing Page? It is the webpage on your site that visitors reach after clicking on a Google AdWords Listing. Here are a few tips for creating a Landing Page that works!

Tips for a Successful Landing Page

• Be Consistent
  
  Make sure the text on the page is consistent with what you are offering in your ad listing. If your Google Ad announces your "7th Night Free Package" be sure that this package information appears on the landing page.
  
  
  
• Have a clear Call to Action
  
  Know what you want that visitor to do when they reach your page. Is it to make an online booking? To use the Skype button to call you? Or to download your latest Newsletter? Have a clear idea of your goal.
  
  
  
• Make it easy. Make it obvious!
  
  Don't hide it or make your visitors scroll down the page to find what they're looking for. Put the most important information in the top portion of your webpage so they can see it immediately and click on it. Then you have successfully closed the deal.

Follow these tips for your Google AdWords Campaigns - and for all your advertising - and you will see much improved results!

Don't have a Google AdWords Campaign? Contact us to discuss how it can help your business.