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Archive for July, 2010


Show me the Numbers!

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Over the past six months or so you’ve heard a lot from us about Social Media. We’ve talked about Twitter. We’ve blathered about blogs. We’ve focused your attention on Facebook. But have we practiced what we preach? Have we been “eating our own dog food?”

Actually, we have! We’ve been blogging and tweeting and posting on Facebook. So what kind of results have we seen? Let’s take a look at some of the numbers. In the six months since we began doing Social Media for ourselves here’s what we’ve observed:

  • Our overall website traffic is up 63%
  • The number of unique visitors to our site is up 51%
  • The number of page views is up 51%
  • The average time spent per visit is up 65 seconds
  • Our bounce rate is down 4%

In other words, more people (including new visitors) are spending more time on our site, and they are looking at more content. We’re pretty pleased with what’s happened so far. Of course, it raises another important question.

Can we show you the money? In the spirit of transparency and full disclosure, the answer has to be: “it remains to be seen.” We knew that an increase in business wouldn’t be immediate.  But we also know that the goal of Social Media isn’t just to increase website traffic: it’s to increase the amount of business we do. One other thing we know is that if we’re not staying in front of existing and potential customers, we won’t have a chance to increase our business.

We think we’re on the right track and we’ll keep you posted about the specific impact on our bottom line.

What do you think?

Posted in Blogging, Facebook, Social Media, Strategy, Twitter | No Comments »

The Purpose Filled Tweet (apologies to Rick Warren)

Monday, July 19th, 2010

The world seems to have gone “Twitter-mad.” People on mobile devices and on their computers are tweeting their little hearts out. But if you’re a business, there needs to be a method to your madness. What’s the purpose behind your Twitter activity?

Be helpful. Twitter is a great way to share helpful information with customers and clients. If you recently read something helpful or insightful, share it with your customers. You don’t have to explain it or summarize it. Just pass it on and let your customers benefit from it.

Announce events: Twitter is super for letting people know about a special event. It could be a sale or a concert or a seminar. The tweet itself doesn’t have to contain all the information. You can use it to link customers to a landing page with details. It’s really just a shout out to “check this out!”

Announce specials: There’s a local restaurant that uses Twitter to announce their daily specials. How many times have you headed out to lunch without really knowing what you want (and ending up at the same old place)? What if you got a message telling you what the daily special was—right around lunchtime? Brilliant!

Share something fun. Sometimes people just enjoy a quirky quote or a fascinating factoid. Twitter let’s you share stuff that’s serious or silly. And sometimes a little break from the tedium is just what the doctor ordered.

Here’s a key question: What would YOU want to know about (in 140 characters or less)?

Posted in Copywriting, Social Media, Twitter | No Comments »

Is it Sweet to Tweet?

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

We recently discussed whether or not your company should blog. We could ask the same thing about using Twitter. Should you tweet?

You may recall a while back that there was a race (won by Ashton Kutcher) to see who would be the first to have 1,000,000 followers on Twitter. And just in case you’re wondering, the top five “people being followed are:

1. Britney Spears 5,083,188
2. Ashton Kutcher 5,034,881
3. Ellen DeGeneres 4,720,353
4. Lady Gaga 4,372,564
5. Barack Obama 4,180,445

Let’s face it: none of us are ever going to catch any of them. But does that matter? Do you really care about how many people follow you on Twitter?

Not all that long ago, businesses got all excited about how many “hits” they had on their website. The Internet was still kind of a new thing and there were all these people out there landing on our websites and looking at us! Only problem was, that was all many of them did: they just looked (and sometimes for no more than a couple of seconds). It’s hard to run a business based on window shoppers.

Twitter, when used right, can be a powerful tool to quickly disseminate information. But the goal isn’t just to get people to follow you. If you’re a business, you ultimately want to connect with people and do business with them.

Next time we’ll look at a few ways you might use Twitter to get people to do something other than just “follow” you. But in the meantime, tell us how you use Twitter now—and is it working for you?

Posted in Social Media, Twitter | No Comments »

To Blog or Not to Blog? (Part 2)

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

Last time we talked about three reasons it might make sense for your company to have a blog:

  • Establishing yourself as a thought-leader
  • Grabbing mindshare
  • Taking advantage of word-of-mouth

Those are good reasons, but there are a few key questions you still need to ask before you start blogging your brains out!

Do you have anything to say? That may seem like a really silly question, but there are blogs out in the blogosphere that are a complete waste of time because they don’t have any valuable content. A blog isn’t a place to share ignorance. It’s also not a forum for repeating things everybody already knows. You need to be able to bring new ideas or new perspectives to issues that people struggle with. You don’t have to have all the answers, but you need to give people help they haven’t found somewhere else. Here’s the good news: You probably do have something to say. But you have to be able to say it in a fresh and helpful way.

Do you have the discipline to keep it going? It takes time (weeks, months, sometimes years) to build your audience. Blogging once or twice and then quitting won’t accomplish your goals. As a matter of fact, it can have the opposite effect. If you quit early, people are inclined to think that you really weren’t that much of an expert. It’s better to blog regularly (weekly/bi-weekly/monthly) with quality content than to just throw “something” out there. Before you start, you’ll want to come up with an “editorial plan” that maps out what you want to cover for several weeks. You can always change it, but it’s agony to stare at a blank screen when your deadline is looming.

Do you have the necessary skills? We all learned to write in school . . . right? But do you have the skills to clearly and succinctly get your point across in a way that’s helpful to others? You don’t have to be a Pulitzer prize-winning writer to create a blog. It’s not about being flashy. It’s about being clear. And make no mistake: the thoughts need to be your thoughts, but you may want to enlist some help.

Are you willing to engage in a conversation? Many people misunderstand the nature of blogs. A blog is not a monologue. It’s not your chance to preach. It’s a dialogue. You present an idea and ask people to respond, to challenge, to ask follow-up questions. You need to be prepared to answer those responses.

If you answered, “yes” to these questions, you—and your customers—would probably benefit from a blog.  Ready to write?—or do you have questions and or comments?

Posted in Blogging, Copywriting, Social Media, Strategy | No Comments »