It’s Time for Small Businesses to Forget Facebook – They’ve Ruined It

I will cut to the chase;  Facebook has sold its soul to Goldman Sachs and needs an enormous aircraft hangar of cash this year, or the share price will kiss Satan’s arse in the depths of Hell.

Facebook – No, we don’t ‘like’ the way you’re hiding our posts and wasting our time. Goodbye.

That means they are busy hiding posts, editing your Facebook stream to make sure the good stuff doesn’t get spotted by your target market and even persuading solo FB users – some of whom run back bedroom businesses – to pay to promote posts to friends. Desperate tactics.

The latest stats from Google Analytics confirmed what I suspected back in November when FB began its campaign of making all the time and effort put in by small business owners a complete waste of time and money. Post Views are down 60-80%. Comments down about 50%.

Twitter is now referring more traffic than Facebook, for the first time ever. Google + and Pinterest are starting to awaken like the sleeping giants they are.

Facebook can’t do anything else, but unless you’re Tesco, Mercedes, universal Studios or another megabucks brand that can spend cash, polus employ a pro team of social media content writers and bloggers to manage your FB pages, forget it.

For most small business owners, time – which is money – is better spent elsewhere.

ALTERNATIVES TO FACEBOOK

Google + Hangouts offer a superb opportunity. Set a time and day each week for answer questions – if you lack the expertise, then get an expert to sit in for an hour. They need to have personality – this is web TV don’t forget, attention spans are measured in milliseconds.

Likewise Google Communities have the same free marketing potential that FB had until 2012. Upload your content, like other communities, post a comment – form a circle, literally, with your wagons.

Part of Google’s Penguin plan is to make the Knowledge Graph more important than keyword stuffing when it comes to blogging. Long overdue.

Spreecast - imagine You Tube crossed with Skype – that’s Spreecast. Have a live chat, product demo, advice session etc – then edit it as a 20 minute show. Use Twitter as a back channel as they do on Thursday nights ( UK time) with #SWchat. This is the future. Embrace it.

Authority Blogs – the Knowledge Graph is coming. Don’t know what that is? Well Google is about to stitch threads of authorship around the web, with a view to setting author rank, in the same way it sets page rank.

That means if you blog on sites like Huff Post, national magazines, newspapers, or anything with credibility, you’ll soon show up in the Knowledge Graph.

MCi Tours; travel the USA on two wheels.

Or rather, your content, complete with backlinks, alt tagged photos and You Tube/Spreecast videos will.

What do you mean, you don’t know what an alt tag is for..? Oh #FFS.

Did you know I have a client called MCi Tours who gets 30% of his blog traffic from Google Images searches alone?

So yes, alt tag your photos with some sense, logic, keyword research and creative elan. Then cap it at about 15 tags per picture. It works.

It will work even better in the future, when more people browse from small tablets and smartphones, which means image search will be more finger/thumb friendly than typing quesries.

Edison would call it a light bulb moment. But it’s just SEO baby; a slippery chameleon of content.

So let’s all say goodbye to Facebook in 2013 and hello to creative thinking I generally do mine down the disco, so see you on the dancefloor. I’m the guy in the crazy shoes.

Saturday Night Fever. Right moves, right time. There’s a lesson there.

Education Works: Things I Learned About Google at Salford University

‘Best iPhone 5 Deals’

Page 1, P3 Google search.

That’s SEO baby. Thank you Salford Uni #SSMM course. The best search and social media education you can get in the North. True.

 

How To Make Friends with Google and Influence People. Learn SEO at Salford Uni.

Pandas, Penguins and Learning To Love Disavowed Links

Two key changes to Google’s search algorithm this year have, at long last, tipped the balance away from SEO `experts’ and put the emphasis back on readable, sharable content.  Penguin and the Disavow Links tool.

Here’s a team of SEO experts, on a team-building day at Alton Towers. They don’t understand why they can’t jump the queue by using meta tags.

In the beginning, the internet was an information resource; a way of connecting people’s ideas and gleaning nuggets of knowledge.

But over the last decade, SEO has become a Harry Potter-esque black art. Basically smart-arsed geeks have spent all their waking hours trying to figure out ways to bend Google’s rules.

Well, there’s a load of money at stake for the websites that make page 1, positions 1-5, so who can blame them?

But now, it seems, Google’s had enough of all that sh*t.

 

Pandas and Penguins are Really Bitches From Hell

Google pushed ahead with both the Panda and Penguin updates earlier in 2012. In essence, both changes were about rewarding fresh, original content and high quality backlinks.

There were a raft of technical changes too, but it’s the emphasis on editorial content above the fold – that’s the top section, or most visible part of your homepage – not marketing, competitions, or spammy links to crappy `Mom Lost 57lbs With This Weird Tip’ adverts that counts.

Penguins put lots of energy, care and attention into one chick. Google’s Penguin will reward site owners who also take time to do things right.

Without doubt that has damaged the ranking of thousands, maybe even millions of websites, but you know what, most of them deserved it. People don’t really want to visit sites stuffed with keywords, copy written by machines, or peppered with dodgy links.

Fact is, the old methods of employing SEO experts to  optimise your site for Google ( and Yahoo and Bing if you’re really thorough) are rapidly coming to an end. Which in my opinion, is long overdue and a good thing.

Google is Going Back To Its Roots Baby

For those of you too young to recall the internet pre-1998, there were search engines which didn’t provide much relevant content in their results. Search then was like a fairground lucky dip. That’s why Google became the dominant player in the market; it just worked better.

Well now, Panda and Penguin are doing the same job – delivering relevant information to those who search for it. The bottom line is that if you don’t put truly relevant information on your website or blog, and write your copy for humans, not search crawlers, then your site is toast.

By all means, keep wasting money on link farms, syndicating the same dull PR via content scraping `news’ sites and paying outsourced bloggers 58p per page for 4% keyword-rich drivel if you like. It won’t work.

So What The Hell is A Disavow Link Tool and Why Does It Matter?

Glad you asked.

There was another little Google tweak a few weeks back. A Disavow link facility was launched and this means that webmaster can stop crappy sites from linking up with them.

Now links matter, big time. Probably 70-80% of your site’s page rank is determined by the quality, as well as the volume of your inbound links. So for example, a link from Salford University, the BBC, or Huffington Post carries more weight with Google than say a link from weBuyAnyPreOwnedMeds.com

I hope that site doesn’t actually exist. But you never know.

Worse still, low quality links can damage your site. Google sets store by `trust and authority,’ so poor links from dodgy sites will shove your home page back down to page 37 of Google’s SERPs.

So now, you can take action and Disavow the link. Break that daisy chain of pills, porn, gambling, or tedious home insurance adverts. Excellent. You can use Google Analytics to see which sites are linking in each week, test their page rank using SEO Majestic or Alexa, maybe even visit the site, and then if you don’t feel it’s a quality website, Disavow.

Nail those bitches into the cellar of spam. And throw away the hammer.

Be A Real Person, Be Social

Now, I’m going stick my neck out and say few people will disavow a link from Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, You Tube and a whole load more social networks.

This is me, Alastair Walker. Introduce the author, because this is going to matter more than a few snippets of code from now on.

All of which should mean that traffic from those networks will become intrinsically more valuable as far as Google is concerned – no matter what they say in public.

If Google wants to maintain its credibility, then real, human interaction – the water cooler effect – has to have a defined SEO value. It also means that a site’s rank for say `best deals in iPhone covers’ will ebb and flow, according to how viral their content is. We should see SERPs evolve into a kind of Top 40, with sites going up and down pages 1-3 with more volatility.

In theory.

What Can A Small Business Do to Combat The Big Boys?

Get an editor on your website listed as an author, with a Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter and WordPress or Tumblr profile. You really do want that author to pop up in the new Knowledge Graph search feature that Google is rolling out soon.

They should aim to become an authority info resource, in old journo parlance, the ‘go to’ person for a quote on a topic.

Another key point; make sure the social sharing buttons on your home/news pages are at the top of the page – in 20 years working in old media, I can tell you that advertisers paid more for those page positions because IT WORKED.

Don’t put the sharing buttons at the bottom of a news story – lots of people simply NEVER scroll down the web page. Here’s a little web page eye-tracking research for you.

Your site has to push people’s buttons, make the content worth sharing.

You absolutely have to – no excuses – get your content shared via Twitter, Facebook, You Tube, Pinterest etc. That social aspect of your news section on your website is crucial now. There’s no dodging around it.

You need quality copy, sharp images, all alt tagged so they pop up in Google Images, plus a You Tube channel – Google owns it and you can see YT results popping up on P1 of SERPs.

But you want your YT clip to be shared right? So you’d be crazy to think your video content doesn’t need a strategy, a HD camera, a decent audio track – professional editing basically. Stop cheap skating and get on with it. Or die in the search rankings.

The internet is becoming a place where credibility, honesty, authorship and the craft of writing relevant copy, not keyword-infested rubbish, is going to be rewarded in search algorithms – praise the Lord and pass me the ammunition.

You Cannot Code Human Interest Stories, Someone Has To Write Them

Your site needs news, which has to be topical, informative and – like San Diego – classy.

The thing is, good content goes viral and site visibility is becoming a fight to the death for our attention span. Why does this matter? Well, where our eyes go, our money often follows.

Hire yourself a damn good, creative, news-hungry writer – or watch your site wither and fade and lose business. We are all deserting the High Street and shopping via mobile phones, tablets, Kindles and apps over the next decade. It’s an unstoppable, structural shift in our economic way of life.

Your website isn’t primarily about clever code, sitemaps, meta descriptions, tags and 101 other pieces of geeky, trivial architecture. Without beautiful, seductive words and images, it is nothing.

Stay classy.

 

Good Morning from TEDx Salford

I will be posting photos and live blog snippets throughout the day, should be some inspiring stuff today.

Automated social media for business: A total #fail

AUTOMATED SOCIAL MEDIA? A TOTAL #FAIL

Many companies have jumped on the social media bandwagon. Trouble is, when you think of it as a bandwagon, then you are likely to fail right from the start. Going social means marketing with a human face.

People click like. It doesn’t mean they really like your brand OK?

Any business or public sector department which deals with the public should be using social media, but it differs from old fashioned company media. The crowd are talking back and you had better have a plan to deal with that, or your brand will end up looking like it’s being managed by idiots.

AUTOMATION IS FOR ROBOTS, HUMANS COMMUNICATE

Many social media `gurus’ will explain to marketing managers or managing directors of SMEs that using Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or many other fashionable social media tools can save `wasted man-hours’ and amplify their brand values online.

Well, up to a point.

It’s true that Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Rippla, Monitter and many more can keep tabs on your chosen topics, what’s being said about your brand online etc. All good. But where they fall down is encouraging `scheduled’ tweets or posts.

Research using Tweetdeck, don’t schedule 87 samey tweets each day.

Imagine for a moment you run a shop on a High Street, then try and picture your sales staff uttering exactly the same banal questions, marketing-speak updates or cheesy polls in the shop doorway at 12 noon every day. Pretty soon, your customers would start punching the staff in the face.

NEVER USE FAKE PEOPLE

Some companies even employ outsourcers who plant tweets on your pages, in a pathetic attempt to spark conversations with real people. Real cheapskates will employ semi-literate people who pepper your Facebook and Twitter feed with spelling and grammar errors too.

Thing is, once people twig who your fake followers are, your social media channel is finished – nobody will believe anything they see in your company feed.

Game over.

Here’s some basic stuff you should avoid:

Scheduled tweets, Facebook or blog posts

Buying `off the shelf’ polls instead of properly researching your sector

Using third party social media staff who have no understanding or affinity with your brand – and paying them peanuts

Spamming LinkedIn with the same marketing messages in three or four groups

Lying. A typical case was a recruitment consultancy which tweeted the same `We’ve just filled two vacancies in Liverpool today’ at 8.30am every single day

Using real people, to express opinions and hold live conversations is risky. But in the long run, it is the only way to succeed on Twitter.

Give your social media a human voice and never think that automating it is making the entire operation super-slick and groovy.

Automating your social media is far more likely to kill your brand reputation. Employ skilled, trained, staff to manage your channels. Work out a strategy and stick with it, build a loyal following.

 

How To Get Your New Website to Page 1 on Google

I work for LBM Marketing in Cheshire and we recently launched Watch My Wallet, a new consumer advice, moneysaving tips web magazine.

When I studied SEO and social media marketing at Salford University for three months back in 2012, I learned a few useful strategies for optimising websites, especially content. This is important because Google puts new websites in a kind of sandbox – a holding pen if you like – while it works out how trustworthy, useful and original your content is.

Obviously factors such as the structure of the site, clean IP address and many more are important, but nothing helps to boost your site’s early page rank so much as links via social media, news outlets or getting individual articles ranked highly on commonly searched keywords.

START WITH A PLAN BASED ON HUMAN NATURE

People search for a variety of reasons but using Google Insights & Trends, setting up Google Alerts, using Rippla to gauge newsworthy stories and many other tools will help you form a plan for your site itself and the content within its pages.

Choose a topical story, get a trained writer to produce keyword rich content and tag it in your CMS - it will boost your page rank.

For example we researched pet insurance terms, listed the top keywords over 3-12 months, checked typical `modifiers’ and cross-referenced that with news stories.

We found that Lloyds TSB withdrew pet cover for older pets in Feb 2012, plus we saw `reduce pet food bills’ was a common search phrase. We put them together and three weeks after launching the site, we had position 1, page 1 on google for our article.

OK, it isn’t always that easy – we didn’t get that lucky with every article, but we did get page 1 results for seven articles within 17 days after launch – got to be happy with that

PR STILL HAS VALUE

We had a low budget PR campaign, based around syndicating press releases about topics such as `saving money on travel into London for Olympics 2012.’  That got us a backlink from the San Francisco Chronicle and other newswire services within a week of being sent out.

As petrol prices increased and the tanker drivers strike caused more searches for reducing driving into London costs, we found the original article on `cheapest ways to drive into London‘ picked up more interest through late March. That was lucky, sometimes Google works out like that.

Links from major news sites are worth having. Why? Well when your website is new you have to prove to Google it isn’t a scam/pills/porn site – it has to build trust and authority, partly through decent quality link traffic. Newspaper, radio and good blog links matter, so devote some time and money to chasing them.

GO SOCIAL, TRACK LINKS

The Watch My Wallet logo - your branding is important in the long term, so hire a good graphic designer.

We established Twitter, Pinterest, Google + and Facebook pages for Watch My Wallet. Facebook performed the best in terms of referral, closely followed by Twitter. Open a bitly account and shrink your page urls, bitly will track visits by each article or feature link for you – you can compare those to your Analytics stats.

Google + is really only worth doing to please Google by the way. It’s like a gym; many people are members, few actually use it.

We found the `8 Ways to Reduce Your Pet Food Bills’ story performed well on social media, especially Twitter. This kind of story gets people talking, so use that `Twitter rage’ factor to get links to your content. My personal feeling is you should NOT automate Twitter content, but put the man hours in.

Be a real human, be nice, it gets a better quality follower and that’s what you need to convert people in the long run. Your brand values MUST be paramount, not your follower numbers.

USE A CMS THAT IS CUSTOMISABLE

One final point; your content CMS must – absolutely MUST – have the facility to add keywords and a unique keyword description for each article or story. Tag photos and videos too, never miss a chance to define your content. It works.

Our Watch My Wallet developer has chosen Umbraco and it is performing well. Easy to use when uploading a variety of features each day too with details like default sizes for images within stories. Anything that makes your site look professional builds reader trust, so use a good CMS.

If you have any SEO tips for brand new websites, post them below – I’m always keen to learn more!  ;-)

 

 

Working with The Connected Generation

Working with Lincoln University students at a social media conference called Linc Up Live, gave me an interesting insight into the future, and a remarkably bright, fast paced future at that.

The students in action at Linc Up Live, Feb 2012

Think about it for a moment; we browse online, from Amazon to Pinterest, our butterfly minds bookmarking products, gig tickets, experiences that shape our view of the world. Websites welcome us back by name; our virtual friends share our blogs, photos, music tracks or news links. Ours is a connected world.

The generation that are studying at Universities across Britain today are perhaps the first in history to have a digital footprint since childhood, a truly social strand to their DNA.

All twelve of the Lincoln Uni media team who arrived at the Doubletree Hilton for Linc Up Live had their smartphones at the ready, Twitter profiles set up and a good idea of what the event was about. Fact is, almost anything can be researched in seconds via Google. From laptop to X-Box – we’re all connected.

Don’t Waste a Single Moment

Myself and fellow editor Mark Jennings chatted about the key messages from the event we wanted to amplify online:

1. Social media works for business
2. Consumers are using social to talk back, companies must hold conversations with their customers, not simply broadcast marketing speak
3. Employees are all potential brand ambassadors, via blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.
4. Analysing what works in terms of customer loyalty, brand values and reaching new customers is an essential part of the process

After exchanging emails, explaining the subbing and content posting schedule, we allocated work, exchanged emails, plus Twitter handles and then a very impressive, very keen, student media team set to work.

It was inspiring to watch young people discover new ideas from those working at the sharp end of business within companies such as IBM, Orange and the UK Police Service. Editing the blog posts I was struck by how detailed and methodical the students were in taking notes and capturing the essence, the key points, in each speaker’s presentation.

We live in an age where people `surf’ Twitter and online news sites for tiny nuggets of information, we are all time poor, so communicating the essentials in an entertaining way is crucial for any online content channel. Who was it that said, `Attention is the new currency?’ Not sure, but they were spot-on.

A Learning Curve is Only as Steep as Your Own Ambition

Within the twelve people who joined us from the University for Linc Up Live I’d say there are at least three or four who have the potential to edit and manage `blue chip’ brand channels or online publications. Ultra professional approach to work.

It was immensely refreshing to work with people who have real drive, resourcefulness and ambition. The young generation often get a bad press in the UK, but all I can say is that the connected generation have a massive opportunity to change this country, especially the idea of what `work’ should be about and whether we need museums like `office blocks’ any longer.

Well done everyone, great work.

Twittering on @npointsocial

Talking social at #LUL360 Linc Up Live

Listening to Stuart Witts talking about social media working for Marie Curie Care.
It’s all about trust, listening and genuinely interaction. You have to be real and stop ‘marketing’ at people who support your values.
Great conference by the way.

Social Media Works for Small Businesses

This week I spoke to a couple of Lincolnshire based small companies who are reaping the rewards from the social media marketing revolution actively involved with Linc Up Live – LUL360 – a social media event taking place this Friday 24th Feb 2012.

Tim Downing, Celia Lacy and Glenn Le Santo from Linc Up Live

BUILDING YOUR OWN BUZZ

Matt Russell from Web Hosting Buzz based in Lincoln describes the company as an `early adopter’ of all things social, as the hosting sector is immensely competitive.

“Traditionally hosting companies would use message boards and forums to interact with their customers,” explains Matt, “but we quickly decided to experiment with Facebook and Twitter, although we did originally start with a forum and still maintain it. However, we’ve seen a decline in visitors to the forums and a massive increase in customers and visitors to our social media channels.”

Do social media networks deliver as a marketing tool? Matt has no doubts;

“They’ve been successful on multiple levels. The social interaction we get with existing customers is excellent. We collect feedback in real time that is accurate and can react appropriately. We can also easily quiz them on new product and service ideas, plus invite customers onto beta testing programs.”

In the end business is about making money, so what percentage of Web Hosting Buzz customers are reaching the company web site via social media?

“We already had significant traffic in 2010 as we were early social adopters. Right now 40% of our traffic is search, 20% referrals and 20% social. The remaining 20% is brand traffic, type-in traffic and CPC. We’re spending more on social media than we are on AdWords, Adroll, Yahoo etc.”

SOCIAL IS A NEW FRONTIER FOR PR AGENCIES

I asked Charlotte Goy of Cartwright Communications to explain how social media has changed the typical client campaign.

Charlotte says Twitter is arguably the most effective PR tool, especially for B2B clients, with LinkedIn also offering great opportunities for business. Facebook and You Tube are more consumer orientated, but Cartwright Comms strongly recommend both these networks to their client base too.

Charlotte explains more;

“Our typical routine would be sharing the Twitter and blog duties between the agency staff, making sure everything synced together of course and encouraging clients to find their own `voice’ on Twitter – few are brave enough to share real opinions, but I think those companies that do stand out from the crowd.”

For every company, large and small, Charlotte says the key to success is to have a plan,

“Decide which networks you are using and why. For example if you are selling to consumers use social media to get an idea of what people like and how they want to be contacted. There is still something to be said for traditional media and we find our clients still rate newspapers as being effective. I also think that web sites like Polyvore you can see the potential in market research for many traditional High Street brands.”

Charlotte Goy from Cartwright Communications

If Charlotte could persuade a client to spend an extra £500 on social media marketing, what would she recommend?

“I think setting up a campaign that was a kind of treasure trail, a way of getting people to share experiences, would work really well. We know that social media works in terms of bringing in new customers, so it’s worth working out how you start customers on that journey.”

If you want to know more, you can meet them, and many more getting the best from social media, at Linc Up Live this Friday. Hashtag #LUL360 on Twitter and the UK website is here.

The event is taking place at the Doubletree Hilton Lincoln on 24^th February 2012.

Pinterest Could Be a Huge Website Traffic Driver for UK Businesses

Have you started using Pinterest yet? It’s one of the fastest growing social networks at the moment, with an estimated 10 million users in the USA and rapidly growing in countries like the UK and India. Not bad for a social network that’s about a year old.

What is Pinterest? It’s a cross between a pinboard in your kitchen and a poster wall in your teenage bedroom. Stuff you like, photos you’ve taken, books you have read, cars you envy, holidays, shoes or boots you simply must have – and so on. Pinterest is especially popular with women and many have multiple streams of themed content on their profiles.

The social aspect of Pinterest is that you can ‘Re-Pin’ someone else’s photo, or old movie poster, vinyl record sleeve, D&G belt – whatever takes your eye. So if I dedicated a board to retro toys or TV shows, I can easily grab other Pinteresters’ content, or sift my own from Google searches. Whichever is easiest for me, depending on my mood.

retro toys, wedding stuff, shoes - you can pin anything you like

It only takes a few seconds to share a photo, whether it’s something you have just spotted in the street, or a re-pin from your newsfeed. This is one of the reasons for its success – it is so immediate, so viral. I’m a newbie on Pinterest, but I really like it.

BRANDS HAVE A GREAT OPPORTUNITY

For brands and business users Pinterest is one to watch for three crucial reasons;

1. It lets you test products by measuring their immediate feedback – how many re-pins, comments, likes etc. If you are a small scale manufacturer or importer that’s valuable market research which could save you over-ordering the wrong items.

2. You can showcase products by category. For example wedding related services, gifts and so on, plus add links to your Facebook or web pages. Pinterest has already driven more traffic to some US e-tailers than Google+ although of course that’s not hard to do, as very few people are actually using Google+.

In SEO terms, Pinterest may well exceed Google+ LinkedIn and Twitter very soon in the UK as a genuine driver of BUYERS to your site, rather than just browsers – just my opinion, that’s all. For me, Google+ has no real product themed activity, LinkedIn is a deathly dull spamfest and Twitter generally drives debate, not traffic.

3. Unlike Twitter, Pinterest doesn’t have debate and conversation at the heart of its function. People are pinning stuff, showcasing, inviting approval and comments yes, but not engaging in real time conversations. Pinterest isn’t where your brand’s most vocal complaints might be found, that would be Twitter and Facebook perhaps. There’s a softer, more casual feel about Pinterest and for any company, that’s a good place to start spreading its core brand values.

If your brand sources goods from ethical suppliers, start a Pinboard showing those suppliers and how your business is transforming lives. If your brand supports charities, start a board. Pinterest allows brands to re-pin images of the people, causes, products, ideas or places that inspire the company.

You don’t have to go over the top, just be friendly and say thanks, because in business it’s always nice to be nice. Pinterest is perhaps the best place to share those values in 2012.