June27
Okay so for the next few weeks I’m going to talk about how to get started with social media. I tend to do a lot for others and not so much for myself (like the gardener who has weeds in his flower beds? yeah.) so I’m going to be giving you action steps to take …and these are things I will be taking the time to do myself as well.
Depending on your brand, you’ll need to have a personal twitter account and a business account. The personal account is more for networking, the company account is for promotions and information. Now I’m going to break my own rule because I am the Toad and plan to stay that way… but if I wanted to track my friends and have a personal account I’d make a separate one. I will not be using my account for personal use so I’m good.
You can change the background of your profile and personalize it with your own colors, pictures and designs if you wish. Do that now so that when people see your page, they will get some sense of who you are.
Brand = personality. Express yourself!!
Your next step then after signing up and customizing your profile page would be to go get a tool to help you make sense of tweets like Tweetdeck. Tweetdeck will make using Twitter much easier. There is even a version for your phone.
Then I’m going to tell you to spend at least a couple of weeks on Twitter, following people you want to follow and learning how people use it by experience. Don’t have an agenda, just do a lot of listening. Often it is not what we say but what we hear that gives us the most ROI. The best thing about Twitter is not the platform, it’s the people. So follow your competitors. Follow your heroes. Follow people you might want as customers. If you have something genuinely useful to say, then say it. …but take some time and pay attention to what you like and why you want to follow people. And do a lot of listening.
We’ll talk about integrating Twitter with all of your online profiles next week.
Peace!!
June3
Twitter is also known as a micro-blog. It is a social networking medium that …yes can be leveraged to promote you online. You can send 140 characters at a time and “tweet” with it, sending the message out to whoever is following you.
But how do you get followers? How do you really do this?
We’re just going to tell you to go read The Dash, a free resource by social media coach Laura Roeder. She has the savvy and even some online video training that will help you to get started. Still want some in-person one on one training? Drop us a line and we’ll fit you in.
June3
General wisdom is that we do not do template sites ever. But if you talk to Anne, that isn’t exactly true.
We do almost all custom site builds, but there are some cases where using a template is smarter and more cost and time effective for our clients. We’re always watching the bottom line for you because you are like family and we take our responsibility to you seriously. Very seriously.
We had two cases recently where we used high quality customizable templates that were then tweaked out for the client’s specific needs.
The first client. was Waterway Sales and Marketing. Waterway Sales and Marketing was taking over an established marketing company, rebranding and relaunching. It was important to launch as quickly as possible and keep costs to an absolute minimum. Our solution? A slick flash interface with custom content that would give them the image they were looking for with that approachable Louisville -style flavor. We were able to concentrate on writing, a custom map, custom photography, and launch the site within weeks.
The second client was a barter company, BarterYourWay.com, that already had a suite of web sites. They just needed a common portal. Again, because so much had already gone into previous development, costs and time were critical. We helped to select a template that was professional but had some personality and then gave the copywriting and images our signature spin. Turnaround time? One week.
In both cases the clients had needs that we could meet more efficiently with a template that we customized than with a fully custom built site. We sought what was best for them (as usual) and met them where they were at. They could not be more delighted with the results.
So if you’re thinking of building, and have big dreams, consider a customized template remodel instead. We can give you options and help you make the decision that is right for you.
