Filed under: Web Design
Our graphic design guru Andy Waldrop walks us through some of his favorite sites and explains what makes their design stellar.
Click Optimize Podcast 1.1 from Nick Miller on Vimeo.
The sites we discuss include:
www.apple.com
www.lmtime.com
www.spreednews.com
www.museworx.com
www.leoburnett.com
Filed under: Social Media
I woke up extra early with some other folks from around the Triangle on 1/21 to gather at Cafe Carolina in Cameron Village to discuss social media. It was great fun and I met some excellent people who are implementing tools like Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo and 12 Seconds in creative ways to enhance their businesses.
In particular, we had a great guest from Auction Direct who talked a little about how he leverages web video. Kipp Bodnar has a great little blog and video of Eric Miltsch speaking in more detail about how utilizing a few simple techniques he’s helping to drive his company’s revenue.
Check out the video: http://www.digitalcapitalism.com/digitalcapitalism/2009/01/micro-video-marketing.html
The Social Media Breakfast is put together by Kipp Bodnar and Angela Connor and the group meets monthly. You can catch the next event at the NC State Fairgrounds. Stay tuned to http://www.socialmediabreakfastraleigh.com for more info. I hope to see you there next month!
Posted on January 26th, 2009 by Nick
Filed under: Blogging
As a small business owner it would be unfair to call you lazy but I bet you’re left without enough hours in the day on a regular basis. So how do you avoid being a day late and a dollar short when it comes to your corporate blog?
AGGREGATE IT
Coming up with ideas to blog about can be difficult. How do you know what sort of info people are looking for? How can you filter out all the junk and just see the best stuff that your customers would want to hear about?
Surf over to http://www.google.com/reader and create a page. This will serve as your home base for subscribing to your favorite stuff from all over the web. Whenever one of the sites you subscribe to adds new info you’ll find out right away. Do a little hunting out there and find some news sites that cover your industry or niche. Look for a button to subscribe to their RSS feed. Copy the link to their RSS feed and plug it into Google Reader.
Now you can pluck out the juiciest stories and comment on them via your blog. You can identify trends that are peaking across the Internet. Use this page to aggregate content so you can use it to inspire original content or comment on existing articles that pertains to your specialty.
DELEGATE IT
The best sort of bloggers are experts. If you think about it all the people you do business with are experts of one stripe or another. Your accountant, your clients and even your employees specialize in a particular area. Get them to write about their passion as it pertains to your business on your blog. Call her/him a “Guest Blogger” and delegate the task. Connecting with clients and asking for their expertise can help strengthen relationships while strategic partners can be rewarded with links and thought-leadership cred.
If your plans for your blog are particularly involved I would encourage you to bring on board a Social Media Intern. This young whippersnapper can manage your Facebook, Twitter and blog. Their innate grasp of this technology will lead to increased efficiency and avoid you siphoning off valuable resources. Just make sure you’re looking over their shoulder to ensure that they’re staying on message and on brand. (As a former intern, I can tell you that they’ll be happy to be doing something other than stuffing envelopes!)
I hope that helps all of you lazy bloggers to realize your goal of keeping an active and informative blog.
Posted on January 26th, 2009 by Nick
Filed under: Search Engine Optimization
Everyone wants to see organic growth with regard to their rankings on Google, Yahoo and other search engines. There are many tweaks you can make to help your company creep up into the top spots for your target keywords. Remember that this is process and that to see improvement make take weeks and in some instances months!
1. Determine Your Target Keywords: If you own a local car dealership then it would be advantageous that when someone Googled “Raleigh cars” that your business showed up in the results. Take the time to determine which search terms similar to the one above best describe your business. (Hint: Be very specific! The more general your keywords are, the more competition there will be for them.
Average keyword term= car
Good keyword term= Raleigh Chevrolet car dealership
2. Setup a Google Analytics Account: The most important step in experiencing growth via search engines is to know where you currently stand and how the changes you make influence your ranking. Visit http://www.google.com/analytics to create an account. This easy to use tool with allow you to quantify your growth.
3. Get Local: How much of your business comes from within the 919 area code? If a particular town, city or region is important to your firm make sure that when you’re targeting keywords you include terms like Cary, Raleigh, North Carolina or Southeast. This will help prequalify your site visitors and lead to more traffic.
4. Online Directories: This method is fairly simple. Find local or industry specific online directories that offer to list your company for free. Fill out the information they request and they will provide a link back to your site. The links they provide add authority to your site and can lead to a higher ranking on Google, Yahoo or other search engines. Here’s a great list of free directories to get you started. http://www.onewaytextlink.com/links
5. Spying On the Competition: If you’re curious as to what sites your competitors are being linked from surf over to Google and enter this phrase “link:www.yourcompetitor.com” Substitute in www.yourcompetitor.com with the appropriate site. This will show you who is linking to your rivals. Feel free to contact these sites and see if they’re willing to provide a link to your site as
well.
Posted on January 26th, 2009 by Nick
Filed under: Web Design
Great piece picked up from @andrew303 via Twitter on what the future holds for mobile site design. Check it out and share your thoughts!
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/01/13/mobile-web-design-trends-2009/
Posted on January 26th, 2009 by Nick
Posted on January 26th, 2009 by Nick
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