All Posts, Social Media
If you’re like me, you’re probably on the go with your business all throughout the day. Checking emails off your phone, responding to social media, and occasionally stopping by the local coffee shop for lunch while using your laptop to work. It’s very convenient but also should be used with caution.
These public wifi areas are they’re own enemies just by being public. Anyone can join on the network, and every device on that network is susceptible to attacks, key loggers, and more. I’m not trying to say the end of the world is near and only use your devices on your home network (ironically most home networks are even less secured than public ones), but you should be aware of some potential issues. I’ll type another post about them another time.
For the many of you using Twitter, this is a great new option that will keep you within HTTPS (Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol). If you look at the top of your browser in the address bar, you should see http:// and a secured site/page would show https://. Prior to today you could login to Twitter via secured site if you manually typed it in your address bar. This new update from Twitter allows you to stay in that secured state though as you navigate around the site and your personal settings. In contrast, Facebook is still working on this, but whenever switching from say your Fan page to your Personal page, you’d fall out of HTTPS to HTTP. If you’re not paying attention you may barely even notice this.
Here’s how you can quickly update your Twitter settings. Log into Twitter, and then hit the Settings link and at the bottom of the “Account” tab, you’ll see the new “Always use HTTPS” check box. Select it and hit save and you’re done.
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to just replace your current favorites or bookmarks to https://twitter.com on all your devices. Have you had any issues with public wifi and your sensative information? Let me know in the comments below.
All Posts, Social Media
While reading through my Twitter stream, I see a lot of posts about news, articles, stories, advice, and more. Sprinkled in there from time to time are questions the people I follow ask. Sometimes these questions are Re-Tweeted if others are unable to answer the question, and therefore amplifying the chance that someone may answer it. I’ve found a simple and quick way for you to engage people, provide answers to their questions or complaints, AND drive traffic to your site all at the same time.
If you provide a service in lets say plumbing, and someone asks a question about how to remove a clogged drain with common household goods because all the stores are closed and its after hours. Surely you could just answer the question within your reply tweet, but where’s the originality in that? Better yet, why not answer the question but also provide a link back to either your blog where you had a post that shows in detail how to unclog a drain with some everyday household items.
What happens is that person visits your site, reads your post, hopefully will comment too, but also is a appreciative of your content. In turn they’ll probably view more about you and your services, forward your site to friends, follow you on Twitter and Facebook, or better yet become a new client. Your blog is valuable content that can be helpful to just about anyone. Though it may be indexed in Google, chances are your blog isn’t ranked for page one, so why wait for someone to find you when you can engage them now.
Twitter has a really good search part to their site. You can test it out by clicking here.
Through Twitter Search you can type some keywords that someone may type in looking for something. For example “I hate Internet Explorer.” You’ll find plenty of tweets among users with their complaints. If you have a simple solution for them and you’ve got a post on what to do, and its free, reply back to them. It won’t be spam if you come across sincere, and if you want to wait for them to reply back to you to provide a link to your post then do it that way.
The point is that you have worthy content that can help someone through a situation. Maybe its academic studies or a simple how-to. Point of the matter is that you’re getting it right to someone who needs it at the time they’re looking for it. If you’ve tried this before or are currently practicing it, I’d like to hear your thoughts and comments below.
All Posts, Social Media
When it comes to businesses, social media is a means of brand awareness and advertising. To further permeate areas where people dwell with their ads, coupons, services, and so on. I personally feel some big named brands are a bit late with coming to the party, but many aren’t even entertained by the notion.
Consumers are using the Internet and social media every day. At work, at home, and even on their phones. The traditional means of advertising are now being filtered out, so these new mediums are where to find your audience. Case and point is Webster Bank. A local bank here in Connecticut that’s been in business for over 75 years. I’m not going to get into their banking success or their great reputation with engaging the community too much – I’ll let them continue to do that. However I will comment on their use of social media.
Recently I received an email from Twitter informing me that Webster Bank @WebsterBank was now following me. At first glance I thought it was a fake Twitter handle, or at best a Webster employee looking to find new clients. To my surprise it was actually an official account from the bank. Had a couple hundred tweets. Engaging other users that I knew or were familiar to my Twitter stream, and even had a good bio.
This was ok, but I figured I should kick it up a n0tch and @ reply them. They actually responded, and not computer type of response but like from a real person.
Just about everyone within Connecticut has probably heard of Webster Bank, and though not everyone may bank with them, they’ve seen the branches in their neighborhoods. Now here’s where Webster can start to take advantage of their market where some other banks may not particularly care about social media.
- Feedback: They can better understand customer comments and complaints, that they may normally have never heard within their branches or telephone customer support
- Engage: They can engage both existing clients and potential new ones in a medium that can be familiar and friendly without the need to “sell”
- Awareness: They can continue to build company and product awareness. This could also lead to the perception of having authority on their regional/local market
- Promotions: They can host contests or specials
- Growth: They can further grow their community of loyal customers, and those customers will easily tell their friends about their bank in a way that is free advertising to the bank (word of mouth)
Just to make it clear, I’m not being paid by Webster to write this in any way. Really I’m using them as a live case study to prove a point in how marketing is adapting more from tradition means to social media. There are plenty of businesses big and small that don’t think this is a worthy investment in time and resources. And there are businesses like this one, who are taking the risk, maybe even on a small scale to at least have a social presence to engage an audience where they’re most comfortable and prevalent.
As always I’d like to get your thoughts on this, so please feel free to agree or disagree in the comments below.
All Posts, Web Design, WordPress
The content on your website is your copy. It can be content from your flyers, brochures, mission statements, or other pieces of company materials. Years ago, it wasn’t much of an issue what your content was like or what was really being said. Nowadays, your website content is pretty important if you care about your site search rankings and search findability. (I’m not sure that’s a real word, but lets go with it for now)
One of the things that takes up the most time in web site creations and development is the website copy. Its the content for each page that the website is going to have. So from your welcome message to your about us message(s) all of this needs to be carefully written up. Some website owners don’t put too much thought into their copy, and maybe put more emphasis on the look of the site. Depending on the type of website and traffic you plan gain, the text on each of your pages could prove critical to your search relavance when people are looking for your type of product or service.
Below are some tips on good website copy and content:
- Write content that is relevant to what people are searching for
- Solve problems
- Don’t be scared to be a little controversial
- Link your source information to named brand or mainstream sites for proof (if necessary or beneficial)
- Speak in a tone that exudes experience
- Make it easy to read
- Create eye catching headings
These tip should be a good help to those currently developing their site, and even to those of us that may need a refresh of content on existing sites. We also have staff to help you with your website copy should you decide you need it. Visit the main Design Theory website here and fill out our Contact form.
If you’ve got any tips to add by all means let me know in the comments below!
If you’re like me, you’re probably on the go with your business all throughout the day. Checking emails off your phone, responding to social media, and occasionally stopping by the local coffee shop for lunch while using your laptop to work. It’s very convenient but also should be used with caution.
