1. Develop a strategy. Yep, this one is so logical that you wouldn’t think we even need to include it!  But, the lure of social media and the benefits it can offer tempt many folks into setting up Twitter accounts, corporate pages on Facebook, blogs and more without the slightest thought to how these tools will integrate with current marketing…and who will maintain them.  Before launching anything, road map your goals, resources and initiatives – and then think of how social media can complement them.
2. Start by listening. No one likes the guy (or girl) at the party that talks endlessly about how great he (or she) is.  Extrapolate this scenario to social media.  Once your strategy is in place, subscribe to industry-specific blogs, RSS feeds and groups on LinkedIn.  Pay attention to the conversations before participating so you can make more meaningful contributions.
3. Alert yourself to relevant conversations. One of our favorite tools is Google Alerts.  You need nothing more than a validated email address with Google to get started.  From there, enter key phrases and words that you’d like to track online.  Obvious ones include: brand name, c-level executives, competitors and relevant key phrases.  You can control the pace of the email alerts so you aren’t overwhelmed by emails and notifications.
4. Make it manageable. Maybe you have fantastic information to share, but you don’t have the buy-in from management or the resources to launch your own blog.  Rather than throw in the social media towel, consider reaching out to peers who maintain established blogs and ask if they accept guest posts.  If your content is informative, well-written and relatively unbiased, chances are, you’ll find a home for that post.
5. Think double-duty. Developing a social media presence requires generating information that readers find interesting and useful.  But, writing truly compelling content takes time, so how do you reconcile this challenge?  Create a content generation strategy that utilizes what you already have…and calls for the development of pieces that can be used in many ways.  For example, if you are developing a white paper, consider making the tone breezier and breaking it into 2-4 blog posts.  Those blog posts can be tweeted, added to LinkedIn, used in email signatures and more.

Need a little social hand-holding?  That’s cool – just give us a call or email.  And these tips are a great starting point, but wait, we’ve got more…Join us next week for Part Two of our social media tips.

1. Outline your objective. Before you hit the drawing board, spend some time thinking about what you’re really trying to accomplish.  If it’s a newsletter, make sure it contains newsworthy items, as opposed to a sales pitch.  If your goal is to sell items, think about some sort of incentive or special offer.
2. Make it professional. While many email service providers offer perfectly acceptable free templates for email design, it may make sense to speak with design professionals (like us – hint, hint) as well.  Think about it this way – if your email is your company’s first impression, you want to look as good as possible.
3. Say what you mean. Compelling content really matters and stating it in a plain-speak fashion works well when you’re trying to get your message across quickly.  There’s a budding English major inside all of us, but save the fancy words for Scrabble.
4. Short is sweet. Very few people have time to read a gigantic email with tons and tons of copy.  Take a first pass at the content, review it and challenge yourself to cut it down to the bare minimum.  Use headings, sub-headings and bullets to break up longer chunks of text.
5. What’s spellcheck? There are few errors that are as embarrassing and amateurish as typos, but we see them every day.  In addition to triple-checking your content, check the subject line and sender line.  And, don’t forget that spellcheck won’t catch grammatical oopsies, either.
6. Location, location, location. Give your most important points and calls-to-action the best chance to be seen by placing them close to the top of the email.  If you bury the call-to-action at the bottom of the email, you’re likely to lose potential conversions.
7. Image matters. Most email clients suppress images, but we still see plenty of emails that land in our inboxes as one giant red “x” with a zero copy.  Use images instead to liven up your email and help illustrate important points.
8. Subject line savvy. Email subject lines should ideally be around 50 characters so writing a good one can feel a lot like a game of “wordsmith Jenga.”  Experiment by writing a bunch of different ones that are really aligned with what your email contains.  Consider A/B testing different ones to see which ones resonate with your audience.

With these ideas in mind, you’ll be sending smarter, better focused emails that help your company project the professional image it should…and that can help you reach your email marketing goals.

We have built many websites using wordpress but when needing a shopping cart Wordpress could not meet the needs of all users. This led us to have to create a store from scratch, use Magento, or another shopping cart system. By using these software’s our users would have one login for their cart, another for the blog and so on. Gets a little confusing right? We came across some fantastic wordpress shopping cart plugins that allowed the user to manage all their products right from the admin of Wordpress.

We have used a few different Wordpress shopping cart plugins with the wp-commerce being the cart of choice. There are a number of different carts available some being free, and some you may have to pay for. Some users may need a more in depth plugin. A developer can handle the task and create the wordpress shopping cart for you exact needs.

The Wordpress shopping cart is easy to install, use, and manage for experienced website owners to brand new website owners.

Chances are, this website didn’t start this way so don’t blame the site or even the developer.  If the website could talk, it’d probably share a really sad story of too many people controlling the design, unclear objectives, changing messaging, etc.  We won’t let let this type of design tragedy happen to your next website!

Here are a few solutions to common pitfalls that can occur during the design and development process:

Identify Your Goals: Defining your objective AFTER the site is built is kind of like building a house without looking at the blueprint.  Not a good idea!  Is your website supposed to function as an online shopping cart or an educational resource center?  In a perfect world, what actions would each and every website visitor take?  Answering this question will help you develop the navigation plus the various calls-to-action.

Develop Your Message: Great websites are more than just attractive designs and functional navigation.  They also contain awesome content that provides visitors with something of value, whether it is special offers, educational resources, insider information, etc.

Pick a Leader: Design-by-committee models don’t work…too many cooks in the kitchen.  Instead, delegate a website leadership team and stick with it.  Make sure the review process flows through this team at all times and resist the urge to solicit other opinions.

Make It a Priority:  Many times a new website design is the company’s hot priority for…say…two weeks.  This amount of time is not nearly long enough for all of the pieces to come together so when the site goes back into the review phase, the company is slow to respond.  In turn, development can languish.  Not only does the overall flow and cohesiveness of the site suffer, but also the company may make impulsive decisions that aren’t aligned with long-term goals.

Avoiding these pitfalls will make your website development process smoother…and your finished product even better!  And let’s be honest, just like beauty pageants, couldn’t the web use a few candidates that are both smart and good-looking?

There is no doubt that social media is awesome because it enables people to have one-to-one, personalized conversations with strangers and to communicate with prospects, clients and peers on an intimate level.  However the very premise of social media – giving everyone a microphone – can create what we like to call, “virtual cat fights.”

What happens when you come under fire in the social media-sphere?  How should you handle it?

Most negative comments can be broadly classified into one of two buckets: the “Negative Nancy” and the “Mad but True.”  Negative Nancy is the person or brand that has cultivated a reputation and gained a following by being negative, or even downright mean.  They are looking for attention and a public battle over any and everything so I recommend following the advice of my Dad (while attending an ultra-cheesy pop concert in the 90s), “Don’t clap, they might play more.”

Think about it.  Rather than give these naysayers what they want – a fight – it makes more sense to ignore them and focus on what makes your business so strong – developing and retaining satisfied clients.  It is important to remember that this “turn the other cheek” strategy makes sense only if the criticism is groundless.

The other category, Mad but True, occurs when someone is angry, but has a legitimate point.  Maybe it was a customer service mix-up, a billing error or an honest mistake.  Whatever the cause, the person has lashed out publicly.  One smart way to tackle this situation is to contact the individual and offer an offline way to discuss the matter.  That way, you can research the problem and calmly work toward a solution without creating online drama.

Following this strategy should serve you well as you build and maintain a social media presence to build your brand and following online.