Early adopters flocked to it, blogged about it, tweeted it from their iPhones, updated, Buzzed and sung about it. Skeptics were not so convinced and wanted hard data and social media ‘experts’ recanted with fairy tales about saving businesses with absolutely no cost to your organization. Who do you believe? How do you participate, without wasting your valuable time?

What is social media hype?

Social media hype is the excitement when there is a new toy for social media lovers to play with. When something new comes out, they will blog about it and give you the story on why you NEED to be a part of this new online community, app or tool. It is easy to get wrapped up in social media hype but try to remember when the next social media tool comes out, they will recommend that as well and when another one comes out, they will recommend that too.

Do you have time to be on 40 social media sites and participate in 20 apps? I definitely don’t. There are major repercussions to spreading yourself too thin. It is better to be a part of 2 (or even 1) active community that respects your work and participates with your content than being a part of 20 networks that offer you no return.

Reality is when that excitement wears off and you find yourself using a tool to achieve your goals. A big part of figuring out what your social media reality will be is by determining what your actual goals are. Some social media goals could be more website traffic, increasing brand awareness, getting more qualified leads, assisting customer service, reputation management, increase attendance at live events, et al.

Social media is constantly changing. New tools and toys are always being created. Just because something is new doesn’t mean you need to be using it for your business. I recommend keeping a watchful eye on new tools and trends and test them but you should be choosing the right tools for the job, not the shiniest tool in the toolbox. What is going to help you achieve your goals that you can work into your already busy schedule?

What is driving you?

Are you driven by marketing your company, building relationships and being held accountable for what you are going to say? Or are you driven by being a social media star? Sounds like a silly question, but it isn’t. Many people seem more driven by the number of Twitter followers they have over the amount of qualified leads they are getting. If you are using social media as a business tool you should be tracking how your efforts are affecting your business and not how your social media efforts are affecting your social media profiles.

Will using social media help you achieve your marketing goals? Not your neighbor’s goals, your competitor’s goals or some national big brand’s goals but does it help with your businesses goals? Are you motivated by the same social media case studies we hear all the time – or are you driven by the results you are seeing for yourself?

Some suggestions for not drowning in social media hype

• If you feel like you are forcing it, you probably are. What were you doing before the dawn of social media and what made your company unique? Social media is just new tools to do the same things we were doing before. Learning new technology can be a bit tricky but the esscence of your social media landscape should be an extension on aspects of your business you were already doing.
• Listen to a few qualified business professionals. Instead of following all the social media mavens, choose a few that you trust and share common business goals with and let them guide you on trends that are worth trying out, like having an internet marketing travel agent.
• Forget the social media experts, find great businesses that know how to use social media. The world doesn’t need social media ‘experts’ as much as it needs real businesses using social media well. You will probably find more value in the practical use of social media over the suggestions from a social media expert who may just be regurgitating information they read in a book or blog. Just because someone declares themselves as a social media expert doesn’t mean they have any experience making actual successful business campaigns.
• Know what you are trying to achieve first. Have a business strategy for what you want to use social media for. Then decide the tools that will help you achieve those goals. The most basic elements of a strategy is figuring out where to play and how you are going to win. For business we rely heavily on LinkedIn for market research, keeping up with trends in our industry and building our online network. We use Twitter and Facebook to help get our content out and interact with our customers, experts and peers. Some smaller social media networks and new apps are being tested by individual staff members but we still haven’t integrated them into our company marketing because we don’t have a place for them yet and that is OK.

Social media is exciting. It does level the playing field for some small businesses. It can be a great lead generation and relationship building tool. How you use social media tools is up to you and your business. Try to spend more time using what works for your company and less time following the social media hype.

I am a movie buff; to me there is nothing better than watching a movie that just pulls you in along for the ride. While watching the Oscars last night I got to thinking about all the pieces that come together to make a fantastic movie. Content for your website should be viewed in the same way; it is not something you throw on your website and hope people like it. For your website to win over an audience your content needs to be top in multiple categories.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

The award winning screenplay writer of “The Hurt Locker” was a reporter in Iraq who came back with the idea of writing about the men on the frontline of the war. He was able to tell a compelling, timely story using just a couple of hours of film time. When you are writing original content for your website keep in mind that not all content is king. To win in this category you need to go past the mediocre content and write something that is compelling and interests your audience. You have an even shorter time to engage your web audience than a screenplay writer has, so remember to always put quality above quantity.

Directing

Without a director to take control of a film, the full vision can never be realized. Someone needs to take charge to pull everything together. A director, like Kathryn Bigelow with “The Hurt Locker,” is involved with all aspects of a film. Having someone who is in the loop with all of your web content is important as well. You need to have a person who is always checking what goes on the site to make sure content is relevant, valuable, and consistent with the overall vision of the company.

Film Editing

“The Hurt Locker” swept at the Oscars not just because of the excellent screenplay and direction but also because of the quality film editing. Each scene in a film gets scrutinized in the post-production stage as editors pull everything together by deciding what to cut, where to put music, etc. With your website you should always be reviewing your content. If something is no longer relevant then cut it out. Any spelling mistakes or areas where you have incorrect information needs to be edited or it will bring down the professionalism of your company.

Visual Effects

One of the main reasons I went to see the award winning “Avatar” was because I heard the 3-D effects were absolutely stunning. While you should not be enticing viewers to visit your website just to look at pretty graphics and flash, you should include relevant photos, charts, and illustrations that benefit what you are saying in your content. If it is appropriate, video can also help you connect with your audience and keep them engaged with your website.

Actor/Actress in a Supporting Role

Supporting roles are as equally important to a film as the leading roles. The stellar performances of Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique helped bring their movies to life. Optimizing your content over different supporting channels, such as email and social networks, gives your website the final push it needs to come out on top.

Actor/Actress in a Leading Role

The stars of a movie are what really make it shine. Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock brought their roles to life and made a unique connection with the story they were telling. On your website, connect to your audience by using content that shows your personality and authentic voice. This will create more long term relationships and dependable consumers.

And the Winner for Best Picture Is… Your Content Driven Website!

“The Hurt Locker” came away with the grand prize last night and your website can be a winner too as long as it provides great, compelling content that wins over your audience. Visitors to your site want to be helped, and if they find value in your content they will be more likely to come back when they have money to spend or a decision to make. You won’t have a shiny Oscar to show for all your hard work, but you can have a strong web presence along with a loyal audience!

After graduating from college I had the opportunity to move to Orlando, Florida and work at Walt Disney World Resorts as part of their College Program. Shortly after being hired to work for “the mouse”, you are required to attend a top secret orientation. This is when you learn the ins and outs of the Disney culture and you truly get a sense of why Disney is one of the best brands in the world.

Now, as I think about web strategy on a daily basis, I have noticed that I apply a lot of what I learned from working at The Hollywood Studios Theme Park to the way I think about websites. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you everything I know about Disney, but I’m sure some of what I can disclose you may have never noticed before.

Here are some things that I learned while working at Disney that I have applied to web strategy.

Personalization

At Disney, cast members are told that whenever they get a chance to talk to a guest, to use their first name. You know those Mickey ears that all the kids wear while they are on their Disney vacation? Well, most parents embroider their children’s names on the back, unknowingly giving cast members an opportunity to personalize an experience for the child. “Hi Johnny, are you having a fun day today? What was your favorite ride so far?”

Personalization can go a long way, but it isn’t just about saying someone’s name, it’s about thinking about how you can reach out and create something specific to an individual or small group of people. Landing pages are a great chance to personalize an experience for your user. Offering specified content, possibly based on a keyword a person has typed into a search engine or a campaign you are running, allows you to gear certain parts of your website to specific people or groups.

Keep it Clean

Have you ever noticed that you can’t buy gum anywhere on Disney property? Do you know why? It’s because gum is messy and people tend to spit it on the ground or stick it under a table when it loses its flavor. There are also trash cans within about 25 feet of each other. It’s a joint effort in keeping the park clean; all cast members are required to learn and participate in the “Disney scoop.” This means, if there is trash on the ground you are to walk past it and discreetly bend down and pick it up. Guests don’t tend to notice how clean the park is, but you also don’t hear any complaints about how much trash is on the ground either. The same goes with websites, users may not ever leave your site saying, “That was a clean, glitch-free site” but they will notice poor site design and issues they have with usability.

Flow & Navigation

With so many people traveling through the park on a daily basis, the flow of traffic is extremely important. Maps are available at multiple places on the property, signs and arrows are used to direct traffic, and the parks use information boards to inform guests about wait times as to not clog traffic. Whenever you go to a show at any Disney Theme Park a cast member will signal to you which way they want you to enter and exit.

Navigation and controlling flow is vital to usability on a website; users need to be able to easily get to the information they are seeking. Plus, if designed properly, you can do some of the directing yourself by funneling users to specific places you’d like them to visit using calls to action on your website.

photo credit: hz536n

Bus? Boat? Monorail?

At each of the theme parks there are multiple points of entry. All guests are not driving their car and parking for the day, they are coming at different times from a variety of places. These different modes of transportation throughout the park encourage guests to visit more than one park in a day. Make it easy for users to find your site by offering multiple points of entry to your website. Use links within your email newsletter, Facebook page, and Twitter tweets to lead people back to your site. Optimize your website for search engines so that users are easily led to your website to find the resources they are seeking.

“The Happiest Place on Earth”

It’s no doubt that Walt Disney World is known for being one of the best places to spend a family vacation. However, that idea didn’t happen overnight, it took years of consistently going above and beyond people’s expectations to earn that reputation. The same goes for your website, you need to consistently offer great content to your visitors packed with relevant keywords for your website. If you do that, over time, both visitors and search engines will deem your site as reputable.

A mouse’s work is never done…

Sometimes when you’re visiting Disney, you may notice that certain rides or events are “Closed for Refurbishment.” That’s because Disney understands that there is always room for improvement. Many upgrades stem from feedback and even complaints from guests.  However, Disney always takes an active approach in enhancing guest experience by assessing what works and what doesn’t work for guests and making proper adjustments. Your website shouldn’t just sit on the web to become stale, it should evolve over time. You should consistently evaluate where you are in relation to the goals you’ve set for your website and make modifications to better meet the needs of your users.

There are many other examples I can think of where I have applied what I learned at Disney to the way I think about web strategy. The most important point I can make is that Disney puts emphasis on guest experience. In all decisions made, whether it is to refurbish a ride or add a new sign, Disney does so for the best interest of the guest. That is the way your web strategy needs to be approached. Ask yourself – Does the user need this? How will it benefit them? What content will be of value to them? How can I make my website fit the needs of my clients? You may not be creating magic like Disney does, but you are creating an experience for your web users and you want to leave them with the best impression possible.

Using this space and using it well is tough to do. Twitter alone is raw and happening at rapid tweets per second. A major part of using Twitter well for your business is making sure you have a loyal, interested and active list of people you are following and who are following you. Remember, this is networking not broadcasting. It is usually better to have a small active Twitter following who reads, reacts and republishes your content versus having thousands of followers but none of them contribute to your effort.

Each morning as I drink my coffee, I check for any new followers on my Twitter accounts (@Hall_Web and @amanda_pants). I manually (that is by hand not a plugin or bot that follows back anyone who is following me) check each new follower.

I look at lots of things when determining whether or not to follow someone back and with a collection of all the information, I make my decision.

Here is what I look for before following back a new follower:

• Avatar or image – Does the person have a picture? Is that picture of them, their face, a logo?
• Location – Is the person from my geographic location? Are they from someplace I have lived, traveled to, am interested in, do business in?
• Recent Tweets – What kind of content do they publish? Are they conversational or are they simply broadcasting?
• Number of Followers and Following – Do they have tens of thousands of followers? Unless they are super important or famous, they probably used some type of bot of following scheme to garner so many followers.
• Twitter lists – How many are they listed on and what topics are they listed for?

Twitter Lists

Twitter lists are pretty new. When they were first rolled out, not many people knew what to do with them, some thought they would hurt already standing Twitter traditions and some just plain old didn’t like them. Since the dust has settled, I have found Twitter lists very useful in determining if I am going to follow someone on Twitter.

First – How many lists are they on? The act of creating a list and adding people you want to it takes time. Someone took enough time to create this list and categorize this person because they wanted to organize or bookmark this person’s information. Time = Value in my mind. A human being took the time to categorize my content. I think that is a big deal. I have looked around and if you can get 5-10% of your followers to add you to a list, I think that is pretty good.

Second – What lists in particular are they on? Consider what lists people are on. Is their expertise something you are hoping to learn more about? Are they in your industry, local market, attending an event you are attending? Or perhaps they could just clog your Twitter stream with information you are not looking for.

This is also a good way to monitor your own Twitter content. If you consider yourself a Social Media Expert and you are being listed as an SEO expert, you could be sending people the wrong message (or tweets). If you are an HR Blogger and people are listing you as social media expert, whiskey connoisseur, running blogger and the list goes on and on, you could be sending mixed messages. By talking about all of your interests you may have diluted your message.

This is just one way I try to keep my Twitter efforts organized and make sure I am following and being followed by good people. I want both parties to benefit from this relationship. What other precautions or tips do you have for streamlining your Twitter efforts?

Wait, what’s a box?

A box is an user developed application where you can display image galleries, twitter feeds, blog feeds, videos and many other useful marketing materials to better engage your fans or potential fans. These boxes require the use of FBML. FBML is a coding language that lets you custom build these Facebook Platform apps. An evolved version of HTML, Facebook Developers community has listed allowed FBML and HTML tags to use. So if you know HTML, FBML is not too far off.

1. Access your edit dashboard by clicking “Edit Page” below your profile photo.
2. Scroll all the way down and click on “Browse More” under “More applications”
3. This will take you to the Applications landing page, in the top left corner in the search bar type “Static FBML”
4. Click on the logo on the right and when you get to the “Static FBML” Fan page click “add to my page” below the logo
5. There will be a dialog box of all of your fan pages (maybe you have only one!) Click “Add To Page” for whatever page you would like to display

Here it is visually:

Editing your new Static FBML box

Now we actually have the “Boxes” tab added to your Fan page profile, we can see it in the tab navigation if you go back to it. Now we want to put actual content within the box! Go back to your Fan page dashboard under “Edit Page” and notice that there is a new box that says “FBML – FBML” This is your first Box.

There are 4 options for this box;

• Edit (This is where you can change the name of your box and develop inside of it using HTML and FBML)
• Application settings (You can remove the box, add a new tab to your navigation or create additional permissions to publish all of your recent activity to your wall feed)
• Link To This Tab (Clicking this will display the direct URL to your tab *Remember this for later in the blog series!*)
• Remove Application (not much to say here)

If you click the Edit link, It will take you to a page with inputs where you can implement application development. Displayed is a Box Title, the title that will be displayed on that particular box on the boxes page, as well as the input for “FBML” or the code of what will display in that particular box.

We are going to display a video within a box. Within your FBML input text box, input the following


<strong>"Fancy Title Goes Here" </strong><br><br><center><fb:swf swfbgcolor="ffffff" imgstyle="border-width:3px; border-color:white;" imgsrc="url of your image to display" swfsrc='url of your video' width='numeric value of what your width is' height='numeric value of what your height is' /><br />click image to start video</center>

This is going to display one video of your choice…notice the similarities between FBML and HTML!

When you are finished, you can click “Save Changes” at the bottom and return back to your fan page and go to the “Boxes” tab to view your new page application.

Why is web traffic diversity important?

If search engines provide an extremely high percent of traffic to your site and you are not getting traffic from other sources, it tells you that people are not finding value out of your website. A valued website will have a variety of referring site traffic from sharing links, blog posts, upcoming events, news, etc. Analytics would also show a sliver of direct traffic pie from people who have bookmarked the website or typed the URL into the address bar. Referring site and direct traffic sources show that people are connecting to a site because it offers useful content.

Photo credit: net_efekt

What can you do to diversify your web traffic?

• Provide valuable content on your website, like a blog, and keep your site up-to-date with news and events.
• Use social media like Facebook and Twitter to share links to the content on your site.
• Include links to your website on your press releases and traditional marketing pieces like direct mailers and posters.
• Use links to your web content within your email marketing newsletter that your subscribers will find useful.

Value is the key to successfully diversifying your web traffic. The content on your site needs to be of value to people or else they simply will not read it nor will they share it. Plus, search engines like to see that a site receives varied types of traffic; it lets them know that the website offers relevant content that people find useful. What does your web traffic source pie look like?

1. Update and Add Content as Often as You Want
If you come out with a new product or service, you can add a new page about it on your website just by logging into your administration and creating a new article or post. With the ability to add and edit all the content on your site you are able to keep it fresh, giving visitors a reason to return. Why would visitors have a reason to come back to your site if the content never changes?

2. Instantly Update Content
It’s Saturday morning, you’re just about to go out for your morning run and you suddenly realize that you never removed the service you discontinued on Friday. Not a problem if you are near a device that is connected to the internet! A CMS is an internet application that allows you to make instant updates to your site through any computer.

3. Reduce Maintenance Costs
With the ability to update all your content through your CMS administration login there is no need to call your web maintenance provider to make costly updates. Spelling errors, address changes, and staff updates can all be done on your own through the CMS.

4. SEO is Easy to Add for Each Page
When you add a new page or make updates to an existing one it is easy to add the proper SEO elements. Most CMSs have areas to add the title, description, and keyword meta tags in addition to search engine friendly URLs and header tags. This gives you full control over how search engines find your content.

5. You Don’t Need to Know Code
The administration area of a CMS has an interface that allows you to update content through a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. Edit and add content just like you would through a word processor. The system will then save the information in a database and you can publish it to your site, never having to see a bit of programming code, phew!

6. You Can Have Multiple Authors
A CMS often gives you the ability to add multiple administrator user accounts. These accounts can be assigned to have different permissions and access levels so that administrators can have different roles. Also, when someone is editing a page other users can not open it, so they can be in editing other content at the same time without worrying about overwriting each other.

7. Maintain Consistency Throughout All Channels
With a CMS you can place automatic feeds throughout your site that pull in your most recent news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. You are also able to maintain consistency from something mentioned through another channel by updating related content on your pages. For example if you mention a sale through Twitter you can link to the product page that you have edited to include the sale information. You can also link to these channels in your content giving website visitors a new perspective and branching them out.

Using a CMS to run your website allows you to keep your content fresh and consistent with your brand and all channels. This will help you maintain a professional appearance and also give visitors a reason to return to your site. Make sure that you use your CMS to its full potential by adding SEO elements and using feeds. Ensure a good balance of new content; adding too much or too many pages can overwhelm visitors and they may have a hard time finding what they are looking for. Keeping everything consistent and creating quality content is key!

We have been talking about Social Media a lot here over the last few years. We have covered tips on your strategy, tools and measuring. There is something I am not sure we have covered in depth yet… succeeding in social media and getting truck loads of business from it takes a lot of work.

Kasi and I are training for a half marathon in April, neither of us consider ourselves runners but we made it a goal to achieve during these cold winter months. We are following a formal half marathon training program. Up until now, the training has been relatively easy – running 3 days a week 3-4 miles each time. We got that down! From this week forward it starts getting really hard, more running and longer distances.

Running 3-4 miles 3-4 times a week can be done with little effect on my daily life. You can do that time on a lunch break, before work, after work, you can miss a day and make it up the next etc. If our goal was to only be people who ran 3-4 miles at a time we could rest comfortably right here without making any additional effort that would never really cause us any discomfort but, that is not what our goal was/is. Our goal is to run a whole half marathon (13.1 miles).

To complete our goal we need to really schedule our runs, keep track of time and pace, plan meals accordingly, as these runs get worse longer – we need to schedule recovery time and in some cases full half days need to be blocked off. This is going to be hard work from here on in.

Really succeeding at social media is work

Like our 3-4 mile running program, if you just want to be seen on social media and dabble you can sign up for Twitter, make a Facebook fan page, join LinkedIn, etc. If the goal for your business is to really succeed in social media (the whole 13.1 miles), you can’t just join social networks and wait for something to happen.

To really succeed at Social Media you need to:

• Set concrete goals and milestones for your social media presence (make a million dollars with social media is not a good goal to have here). You need actual tangible goals and to set a time-line for tracking your progress to these goals.
• Schedule time each day you are going to participate in this space. Social Media cheerleaders will tell you how great social media is and it is free. Signing up for most social media sites is free but it takes time to use them effectively. If you are going to be available 3 days in a row and regularly striking up conversations with your network, what happens when you take the next four days off? You need to set expectation for what people will get from a relationship with your business online and you need to stick to those or you will leave a trail of confused and possibly frustrated people online trying to keep a conversation with you going.
• Be dedicated to seeing this through and making it work. You are not going to be an overnight success. This is going to take time. You need time to build trust with your network and make useful connections online.
• You may need to reallocate resources and cut what is standing in your way. As with our running example, if I have a 12 mile run on Saturday – it is going to affect what I do on Friday. I may not be able to attend social events Friday evenings because they will conflict with the milestone I have to meet the next day. You may need to reallocate resources, personnel and more to make sure your needs are being met in this online space.
• Track what is working and what is not. Keep track of what you are doing online and see what is working and what is not. If something is not working (a specific site is showing no inbound links to your website, no one is interacting with your content et. al), then stop wasting your time in that space.

Social media is great. It is a really neat space that I am happy to be a part of. It has helped many businesses with their online marketing. Social Media has helped people find jobs, experts, answers, relationships, business partners, vendors and more. The real true people who are finding success with social media are actually working really hard. This didn’t just happen by accident. So let’s set up the Twitter account, Facebook page, LinkedIn group and blog but then let’s really get down to business…