1. What do you do that’s remarkable?

Begin by identifying the things people are amazed by, the things you get asked questions about, the things that capture their attention.

2. What’s the “human story” behind that value?

Take what you do that’s remarkable and explain how it changes people’s lives. Describe the emotional impact of your product or service.

3. How can you tell that human story in a visual way?

There are different types of content: text, audio, photos and video. Which is most viral? You guessed it: photos and video!

4. How can you get your customers to tell that human story?

Content can come from two places: you or your customers. Which is most viral? Right again: content from your customers!

5. How can you incentivize your customers to tell more stories?

Incentives, incentives and more incentives. If you give people a reason to be creative, you’ll be amazed at what you get back.

Using these five points as guidelines, I can develop a compelling website for a client that will bring in new business. Coupled with Google advertising to attract potential new customers to the powerful new website, businesses can get and keep top-quality new business.

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Patrick Schwerdtfeger Social Media For Effective Marketing

This chart was posted on AllThingsD.com by Ben Elowitz, an angel investor in media and e-commerce companies who now heads Wetpaint.com. Using commercial comScore ratings (which are financed by subscribers) he for his augury he predicts:

The old searchable Web is crashing; while the new connected, social Web is lifting off.

While this dramatic chart may be exaggerated by statistical data manipulation, the trend is clear. Each of us, every person on the planet, has a daily “pie” of time to allocate. The amount of time we spend on the Web is being increasingly gobbled up by Facebook which is brilliant at keeping people on the site. Was it only a year ago when your friends would Email you a link to a funny video and you (and other friends on the Email list) would click to YouTube? Now that link is embedded in your Facebook feed, and Facebook gets all the “comScore” for the time you and your friends spend watching the video. This chart reflects that technical shift.

People Now Connect to Other People, Not To The Web Page

Ordinary Facebook postings are not searchable, so Elowitz scoffs at the searchable Web as “the document web.” He sees a shift away from searching for information to a “fully connected” digital life. Today’s New York Times shows how big companies are using internal social networks as a way to keep team members “fully connected” on projects and upcoming events, bypassing Emails and meetings. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/technology/27social.html

Comparing Apples to Oranges

Again wielding his comScore cudgel, Elowitz asserts that Facebook began receiving as many visits as Google more than a year ago, in March 2010, and that it has triple the monthly viewing time as Google. He must have forgotten that Google is a search engine, not a content provider. Google is designed for people to find what they are looking for in a twinking and leave promptly for the desired content, so comparing site “stickiness” is not exactly relevant. Elowitz dismisses Google as providing a “utility relationship” but I have a very warm relationship with my utilities. I would give up both Google and Facebook before I would give up running water and electricity!

The Human Connection Changes Everything

Fifteen years ago, Luddites lamented the rise of the Internet as the work of the Devil, isolating people and fragmenting people into little cubicles at work and separate rooms at home. The pendulum has swung back with people now having access to the minutiae of life — our own, our friends, our congressmen. If you want to be connected, you have a wide range of tools. How does this affect your business?

We have reached a tipping point. We now need to stay connected to our customers and to provide them with insights into what is going on. In days gone by, people found goods and services through personal referral. Those days are back and it is only going to grow. Facebook, Yelp, Google Local and others are helping customers find the right supplier fast and reliable. Our time online is becoming more productive and more enjoyable. When we do this right, businesses and their customers become truly connected digital partners and can use the Web effectively to build relationships and, yes, even loyalty. Do you think the emergence of social networking will be a help to your business? What would be the best strategy to build loyalty with your customers?

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Why Your Business Must Be On Facebook

Not all ads look like ours, however. This screenshot from the Google article about the changes to “directions” clicks in AdWords appears to show the blue pin associated with a Boost ad.

This ad does not offer an expandable address with a + to reach a map, just a “Directions” link. If it is a Boost ad, this may make sense for businesses like restaurants. Searchers could put in the name of the restaurant and click on the “Directions” link to find their way. Restaurants would rather pay for clicks that deliver hungry customers than clicks to their website! But Boost advertising is not ideal for every business. See my article on some expensive pitfalls in Boost advertising.

The Smartphone search results are even more interesting. More useful to the searcher, more expensive to the business. When the searcher clicks OK, the advertiser is charged.

This is ideal for people on the road searching for lodging, auto repair or merchants for a specific item. Traveler’s services will greatly benefit from this service. But be careful, don’t use it indiscriminately, because people searching on your business name on Boost will not get a free listing — your business will show only as a ad link that boosts your click charges to Google.

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Google to Charge for Directions Clicks in AdWords

For nearly a year, Google offered “Enhanced Listings” on Google maps with “Tags,” that yellow marker highlighted above. For $25/month you could specify a one-line offer or call-to-action to attract clicks to your website. The $25/month was “one size fits all,” the same price if you were a busy lunchtime sandwich shop or a thrift store. Google offered a one month free trial and several of my clients tried it, but no one went forward with the pay version and on April 15 Google discontinued the experiment as of April 29, 2011.

That paper Yellow Pages on your shelf may be your last. It gets thinner and thinner every year. The end is near, we all know it. Where are all those advertisers going? Internet advertising, mostly Google. Is it targeted enough? You don’t want calls from people you can’t sell to. You certainly don’t want to pay for ads to reach people you can’t sell to. How to your get the most for your advertising dollar? How do you make sure your competitors don’t outsell you by advertising more effectively?

  Google Places is working hard to be your best choice. You are familiar with the red pins on the search results that you may think of as Google Local or Google maps. Google Boost is a new way to advertise on Google search results. Instead of going through the daunting AdWords dashboard, Google Boost allows you to use Google Places. The ad is distinctive because it uses a blue pin drop and is offered only to business that have verified their Google Places page.

The Big Difference with Google Boost

Google Boost will offer you several advertising categories. You pick the one that is the best fit, then Boost selects the keywords. You don’t have to do it. You get reports on the simplified Places dashboard and, of course, you don’t pay for your ad to appear — you only pay for a click through to your website (click-through rate).

Here is a one minute video from Google. The Google Places listing is free, but the Boost advertising with the blue pin is not. Google will recommend budget levels. Check out http://places.google.com/boost

Have you tried Google Boost? Do you think you might?

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How To Replace Yellow Pages

After about six months, Ms. Gottesman said, Smash Party was spending as much as $3,000 a month on pay-per-click advertising and getting back about six times as much in revenue.

A reader of the Small Business Blog pointed out that Amy could taper off her AdWords expenditures by converting her Flash site to HTML and other Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques. He suggested that she shoot some videos and post them on YouTube so potential customers could see her mermaids in action. This will work in combination with the increased traffic to her website to give her an excellent position at the top of the organic (free) listings.

Many advertisers find that spending on Google AdWords is a way to gain organic (free) page rank by building traffic. When it is done well, eventually the advertiser can throttle back the advertising, or shift dollars to advertise new products and services only. The popularity of the website will translate to excellent organic (free) position in the search engine listings.

In a followup article a few days later, David Freedman expanded on the pitfalls to avoid when advertising on Google. He recommends:

1. Don’t give up before you have collected enough data to make an educated guess about what is working for you and what isn’t
2. Don’t get hung up on Click Through Rates (CTR). It can be misleading. More clicks just means you spend more. What you really want is more revenue!
3. Do take the time to set up conversion metrics. Half of your advertising dollars are wasted. Metrics will help you find out which half.
4. Set the right budget. It is both an art and a skill. Sometime you need to cut back when all your competitors are pouring dollars in (like December) and sometimes you can take advantage of slack times (January).
5. Tweak relentlessly. Write new ads using your most active keywords and see how they perform. Change the copy on your landing pages. Use Google free optimization tool to compare between two versions of landing pages.
6. Don’t succumb to magical thinking. If you have a limited budget, don’t try to break into a competitive field with well financed players that will require expensive keywords like “discount electronics” or “budget travel.”
7. Be nimble. The competitive landscape changes when a new player enters, or a new product launches. You will have to notice the changes in your pricing if someone starts outbidding you, or if your potential customers start searching for your competitors product rather than yours.

Google advertising can be a very powerful tool in the right hands. It does not work for every business, and there are a million ways to do it wrong and only a few ways to do it right. But when you do it right, it changes everything. Just look at Amy!

Have you tried Google AdWords? What was your experience?

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Google Ads bring Six-Fold Increase To Amy

Your business deserves a Google-certified AdWords professional managing your Internet advertising. Find out how to get more new customers and spend less on the Yellow Pages. This is a limited-time offer, so call or contact us today to find out if your business qualifies for $100 of free clicks on Google!

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Try Google AdWords for Free*

How do you get an effective website? Come to the class the week before! On Saturday, Sept. 18 from 9:30 – 1:30 I will be teaching a class on building effective websites using WordPress.com. Why do you want to use WordPress? Because it is free, secure, and and well managed. Plus, putting a blog on your home page is a great way to get good Google page rank. For more information, see my blogpost “Why I Teach WordPress.”

Saturday not good for you? You can take the class in the evening on Tuesday and Wednesday, Sept. 14 & 15 through Santa Rosa Recreation and Parks. The class is held in the Finley Computer Center, just a few blocks from Santa Rosa Junior College. Click here for details on Business Blogs Using WordPress at Finley Computer Center.

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Learn How To Get Started With Google Advertising

Art Forman, a retired prosthetist from Las Vegas, visited the Haitian capital in March to assess the demand for artificial limbs. He knew from three previous visits to Haiti that “the need was terrible,” but that humanitarian aid was limited because of Haiti’s reputation for political instability and corruption, according to the Press Democrat. The January earthquake killed about 200,000 islanders and crushed the limbs of many more, creating about 5,000 more amputees.

Together, Mr. Batzdorff and Mr. Forman raised funds to customize the steel containers from Global Portable Buildings. Workbenches were built and the labs were packed with $75,000 worth of tools and equipment. The two buildings make a complete prosthetics laboratory which will be installed on the grounds of Port-au-Prince’s Adventist Hospital. They will manufacture artificial legs made mostly of plastic to withstand the island’s humid climate.

The project is managed through the nonprofit ProsthetiKa.org which Jon Batzdorff created five years ago to help amputation victims. ProsthetiKa has fabricated and fitted prostheses in Mexico, India, Lithuania and Bolivia. “Of all the portable buildings we have shipped to Haiti,” said Sean Taylor of Global Portable Buildings, “I am most proud of these labs.”

The labs were customized in Santa Rosa by Arnie Lund of Colfax, who taught prosthetics in Kenya with the Peace Corps in 1973, and Wayne Wendell, a retired Santa Rosa engineer who also does welding.

“I’m retired,” said Lund. “There’s a big need and we have a little bit of help we can offer.” Donations helped Prosthetika get the labs ready for Haiti but more is needed to keep them running, Jon Batzdorff said. You can donate through PayPal or credit card.