Website-ROI-Guy.com

5 Things Small Business Owners Should Do Today Online

Chris Brogan had a great blog post earlier this week titled, "5 Things Small Business Owners Should Do Today Online."  As usual, pretty good information! Great ideas for small business owners who are interested in using social media to promote their company.  He asks his readers to pass it on and offer to help.  I have and I will - just call me! (630) 482-9323.

Here is my list of 5 Things Small Business Owners Should Do Online Today to Improve Website ROI.

1. Re-assess your goals.  If you set specific measurable goals, your plan for ROI success comes together easily.  It helps you plot a course of action, including intermediate steps, that achieve your objectives.  Be honest. Don't set of goal of selling 5,000 of something when you haven't sold 5 all year.  Set intermediate goals - "Sell 50 between now and...) THEN plot to sell 500, then 5,000.
2. Review your website content to make sure that you're talking to your visitor's needs, not what you want to feature.  Always ask the question, "What's in it for them?" Sonia Simone had a great post this week on the Copyblogger blog.  Check it out!  And watch for a link to an ultra-advanced sales technique that we're trying to keep secret. :-)
3. Update your site content periodically.  Make sure your offer resonates with visitors, and you can split test this.  Another reason to update content is that search engines will rank you higher the more dynamic your site.  While you're at it, fix any broken links, both internal and external.
4. Make sure you have a call to action, prominently placed and above the fold of as many pages as possible.  What action do you want your visitors to take on your website? Examples include: dialing your phone number, emailing you, filling out a form/needs analysis/survey, downloading an e-book (or coupons, customized calendar, support info, etc), opting in to a newsletter or other information delivered by an autoresponder, opting in to view premium content (web pages, videos, podcasts), referring you to others, making a comment.....
5. Test your systems. It's amazing how many websites fail when it comes to online sales, forms, opt-ins and delivering videos, to name a few.  Make it a habit to go thru your ecommerce from beginning to delivery to your door on a regular basis.  Test your opt-in email to make sure you're registered and emails are delivered.  Do these test regularly, especially if you haven't gotten an order recently or received some expected interaction.
6. Do a better job of marketing your site. I could write a whole book on this, but think about and do something to market your website every day: optimizing for search engines, pay-per-click (Adwords, etc), traditional marketing, guerrilla marketing and social media marketing, which gets us back to this...

If you haven't picked up Chris Brogan's book, "Trust Agents,"
that he wrote with Julien Smith, you're missing a terrific read!

I've passed out several copies to clients and friends.

I've posted, "The 5 Biggest Mistakes Most People Make With Their Websites."  Maybe that will give you additional insight and ideas!

If you know of anyone who could benefit from this post, please pass it on and offer to help.

-- Kurt Scholle

How Not to Do Twitter

I was coaching a client in the hospitality industry on how to find people to follow on Twitter and the tactical opportunities you can gain by selectively looking at who your competitors, vendors and associations are following or being followed by.

We had done some Google searches related to meeting and event planners and stumbled on to the Twitter account of an association she was familiar with.

As we looked at who they were following, there was hardly a meeting planner, destination or industry resource on the list.

However, Mrs Ashton Kutcher was. So was Wil Wheaton (loved him in Star Trek), Eddie Izzard (love him in anything-even a dress!), Al Gore, a college basketball coach, an 80's hair band, another actor, a style magazine and a sports blogger.

My client has a whole new impression of the association.

We both had a good laugh and I got a case study to teach other clients How Not to Do Twitter. Thought I would share it with you.

Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail!

-- Kurt Scholle, Website ROI and eBusiness Strategy

Cool Web 2.0 Website Recommendations

Here are some Web 2.0 websites you may find interesting. I found them while looking up other things.

Collecta monitors the update streams of news sites, popular blogs and social media.

SocialMention is like Google Alerts, but for social media.

Twitority bills itself as "Authority based Twitter search."

TweetBeep is also like Google Alerts, but for Twitter AND they email hourly.

Twitcam allows you to stream live on Twitter.

Who Follows Whom allows you to see who collectively follows up to 5 Twitterers.

Neat applications! Give them all a try!

-- Kurt Scholle, the WebsiteROIGuy

Twitter 101

I love Twitter.  I began using it in April 2008 just to see what the buzz was all about.  There are dozens of reasons to embrace Twitter.  Maybe I should blog about that sometime?

I have referred clients and friends to Twitter.  Many have heard of it.  Many do not understand it.  I have an email that I send to people who are interested in Twitter with some recommendations and insights to it's use.  Maybe I should blog about that sometime?

Or maybe I don't have to.

Twitter has just released Twitter 101, a special guide for business, saying;

"Every day, millions of people use Twitter to create, discover and share ideas with others. Now, people are turning to Twitter as an effective way to reach out to businesses, too. From local stores to big brands, and from brick-and-mortar to internet-based or service sector, people are finding great value in the connections they make with businesses on Twitter."

If you're interested in social media, Web 2.0, low-cost marketing, interesting ways to learn, making friends or networking, supporting a cause, conversations, building your brand, improving customer service or any number of things, try Twitter!

Start with Twitter 101.

-- Kurt Scholle, the Website ROI Guy.

Just the facts, man!

I recently recieved an email from a guy on LinkedIn, who wanted people to follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

The problem is, "Mike" wasn't specific enough to complete the transaction.  I found his Twitter handle OK, but he suggested that I simply search for "mjones" on Facebook and I'd find him.

Problem is there are 121 people who come up on a Facebook search for "mjones" and 24 who come up for "Mike Jones" or "Michael Jones."

Since I don't know from his LinkedIn email where he lives, I can't narrow it down much further.  (I couldn't reply to his email as it was "noreply.")

I could probably do some more investigating, but why bother.  He should/could have easily provided the facts that would have helped build his network.  I suspect I wasn't the only one who bailed.

He should have posted his specific Facebook address in the email.  Mine is http://profile.to/kurtscholle

On Twitter, I'm http://www.Twitter.com/kurtscholle

Find me on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtschollle

Friend me!

--  Kurt Scholle

Biggest Takeaways from SOBcon - Pt 1

 There were so many great quotes and ideas from SOBcon 2009 that I'll post them as I have time.  I'll have longer posts on some specific subjects drafted, so check back often.  Or sign up to my RSS feed.

One of the biggest aha moments came when Julien Smith & Chris Brogan (l-r in picture) made their presentation on Day 1.  (They have a book coming out later this year that will be a MUST READ.)  They presented 6 ideas on building community and participation in the 21st century.

What I liked most was the idea that most people have ~ 150 people in their network.  They recommended trying to be a part of as many of those 150-person networks as possible.  Be the center of the network.  Be helpful. Share.

You can do that with Facebook, Twitter, trade associations, chambers of commerce - almost any organization.  It's not about selling.  It's about making friends who will know who you are and what you do.  Build an image, the rest will come.

By the way some other takeaways from Chris and Julien:

1. Make your own game.  Not necessary to play by other people's rules. Perez Hilton is an example.  Lead a category. Tim Ferris is an example.  It's about standing out.  There is a system to everything.
2. Be one of us.  Membership has its privelages. Outsiders do not influence insiders.  Insiders forgive each other and forgive often.
3. The web is the ultimate leveraging machine. The web allows you to do something once, like a sales pitch, but works over and over.

There's more!  Read their book.  I will be!

Follow them on Twitter: @ChrisBrogan and @Julien

Best of the Website Success Blogs (April 24, 2009)

There is so much good content online.  There is a lot of drek too.  I try and distill the best parts for you from time-to-time in Best of the Website Success Blogs.

(cue the intro music)

Successful websites depend on so many things; design & layout, message, usability, marketing, strategy, metrics, etc.  Today, we have many links to information anyone interested in website ROI should consider.

Right off the bat, check out Today is Kick Ass Friday -- 10 Q's for U  Kick Ass Friday is a regular feature and I think you like other recent posts, especially if you're an owner or manager.

The rest of the links include search engine tips, design tips for webmasters and social media tips for baby boomers from the always fabulous Barbara Rozgonyi.

For the more technical, we'll take a look at robots.txt files, link to some CAPTCHA scripts and introduce you to a cool tool for putting videos in your website.

And, don't forget the 'hits and giggles" section.  Some funny images captured by the Google Streetview team and a funny video on Facebook manners.

Biz Tips Blog:
Animoto is a Super Easy Video Tool
I've seen a demo of this and would have to agree that it should be in every webmaster's toolkit.

Clickz:
Is Your B2B Site a Good Salesperson?

Daily SEO Blog:
30 Web Design SEO Tips for Webmasters

Online Business:
Top 10 Search Engine Optomization (SEO) Tips

Search Engine Journal:
Google Selectively Ignoring Meta Description Tags?

Search Engine Land:
A Deeper Look at Robots.txt

Dream CSS:
10 Free CAPTCHA Scripts and Services for Websites

the Blog Herald:
20 Law-Related Questions Every Blogger Should Know
You may want to bookmark this!

SearchEngineWatch:
No Need to Freak Out Over Google Analytics Suddenly Disappearing

Copyblogger:
The Art of Writing Great Twitter Headlines
You can adapt some of Brian Clark's recommendations to website content too!

Corporate Dollar:
How to Build a Social Media Cockpit With Firefox

Mashable:
The Web in Numbers: The Rise of Social Media
Facebook had doubled to 200 million users in 8 months

Social Networking Websites Review:
2009 Social Networking Websites Product Comparisons
Interesting side-by-side comparisons.

wiredprworks:
10 Social Media Savvy Tips for Baby Boomers

And finally, for hits & giggles:

Facebook Manners and You

Caught on Camera: The Best of Google Street View

New Series: Equipping a Social Media Team

I was reading Amber Naslund's blog (@AmberCadabra) today and noticed an icon "Reblog" which is functionality delivered by Zemanta.  Check out her blog for the beginning of a 5 part series on social media which looks very promising.  Then, check out Zemanta.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program...

I found this fascinating quote today:

I started to write a post about Equipping your Team for Social Media. And it grew and grew and grew until it became clear to me that this was much more digestible as a series.New Series: Equipping a Social Media Team, Apr 2009

You should read the whole article.

Follow You Follow Me - What Can We Learn from the Spammers

In my previous post I discussed how reciprocal following affects the number of followers you have on Twitter.  To continue on that subject, I watched a guy who was rather interesting one afternoon recently. @JamesFulton, who had one post in 8 minutes and was following over 100 people.  To see how quickly he was adding people I refreshed every 30 seconds.  He was adding people at the rate of 35-50 every 30 seconds and 1-2 followers would follow him every minute. 20 minutes after his first post, he had 30 folllowers.

This was 18  minutes after I received a notification that he was following me.  He paused at following 1,224.

His bio stated, "Ready to make some good connections on Twitter!"  His web link connected to a Squidoo lens promoting Twitter Tips & Tricks.

His Squidoo bio had a totally different name than James Fulton (Imagine that!), saying that he'd been a member since March 19 2007, has rated 2 lenses, favorited 0, and has created 2 lenses from scratch.

After another 20 minutes, he was following 1,791 with 39 followers.

An hour into it he was following 1,786 with 68 followers

90 min 1,782 with 93 followers

4 hours 1,774 with 165 followers

It's interesting to see all of these mindless follows of someone who hasn't said or done much.

Then a week or so ago, I began getting inundated with follower-spammers all promoting a blogging payday site. They all had 2 nearly identical tweets, one a link to their webpage.  All their user names began with a lower case letter.  All were following ~ 800 people and had just under 400 followers.  About 45% follow rate.

They've tweaked the formula because the recent follower-spammers for that same site are now getting more than a 50% follow rate.  They all have different Twitter handles, but their posts are nearly identical.

What can be learned from them? Test your tweets and see who you attract?  Who re-tweets you? Use Qwitter to monitor when you lose someone and try and correlate what you may have just posted to someone un-subscribing? 

Building and retaining an audience on Twitter, your blog, a local radio station, your website, etc are all somewhat related.  It's about attracting audience in the first place and keeping them interested.

What are you doing to attract followers/visitors?  How are you keeping them engaged?

-- Kurt, the Website ROI Guy

Follow You Follow Me - Increase Twitter Followers With Reciprocal Follows

Follow me where I go what I do and who I know
Make it part of you to be a part of me
Follow me up and down all the way
Take my hand and I will follow you
-- John Denver

If I follow you, will you follow me?

I've been on Twitter for a year and have slowly increased the number of followers to 1,200+ in that time - an average of 100 new friends per month.  That's more than what a lot of people have, and it may be enough for some, but frankly it isn't all that much.

I think my followers may be quality followers; people I've met at tweetups and tweeps who retweeted stuff I've posted to their followers.  Some of them are customers and others have heard me speak.  I remember getting a bunch of followers by signing up to a list of bloggers who twitter.  I think the more you engage others in conversations, instead of just posting, helps get you introduced around Twitterland, increasing your number of followers.

I get more new followers per day than I did even a couple of months ago.  I think I'm getting recommended more by Mr Tweet and others, perhaps since I passed 1,000 followers.

There are many ways to increase the number of people following you on Twitter. Blog posts, books, e-books and other resources offer tips.  There are places you can register that will get you noticed.  We'll discuss those another day.

I've been trying to determine approximately how many people will simply follow you back if you follow them.  I see Tweeps who have accumulated thousands of followers in a very short period of time and with very few tweets.  If people are not following someone because of the content they provide, then their large number of followers must be coming from 'reciprocal follows.'

So I started tracking Tweeps with large numbers of followers in a short period of time with very few tweets.  I've watched for several months.  Many are people who follow(ed) me.  Others I noticed from looking at the followers of others.  It's a very un-scientific poll but interesting.

27 Tweeps, who had been on Twitter for a week or less, were following an average of 1,541 people, resulting in 697 followers or a 45.2% rate.  They average 17 tweets each.

Not surprisingly, many of those Tweeps are no longer on Twitter.  (It couldn't be for spamming, could it?)  I've been on Twitter for a year and I'm still not following 1,541 people.  I'm meandering along.  The 27 I followed were more determined to build a quick following.

Then I looked at 26 other Tweeps, who had been on Twitter for 8-30 days and the result is;

A 71.2% follow rate! (average 2,026 following & 1,455 followers)  I can't believe they got their followers from content as they averaged making just 44 tweets.

I'm not sure why tweeps who have been on Twitter longer have a higher follow rate - perhaps it's just a matter of time.  Or maybe they have something more interesting to say than more overt spammers that prompts a follow.  But it seems clear to me that just about anybody should be able to build a following by simply following other Tweeters.

What's your best strategy for increasing your Twitter followers?

-- Kurt Scholle, dedicated to helping you boost website ROI!

Image: Alex Eben Meyer