Kathy’s Blog

When I start discussing work with my friends and family and they discover what I do, the conversation always turns to social media and people start to challenge me.  I get questions like: “You spend time on Twitter?  Really? Why?” and “Isn’t it a complete waste of time?” or “How do you know it’s worth it?”   When I start to explain why I am fully engaged with Social Media and what has occurred because of it, they really start to listen.  So I decided to share my ROI; what I consider to be the top 10 things that have happened to me as a result of twitter.

1)    People. Friendships and business connections.  Through Tweetups or Tweetcrawls (where local twitter people gather together to network, IRL) I have met some awesome people, incredible professionals, and gained a strong respect for the community of peers I interact with.

2)    New Places. Through my husband’s (@ScottHokunson) Horticulture twitter community we went on a Tweetup to the Innisfree Gardens in Millbrook, NY.  It was a beautiful place and I met incredibly talented horticulture and garden people.

3)    Business. Business opportunities have been referred to me by people I met through twitter and Tweetups.  Yes BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES!!

4)    Education. Keeping ahead of my industry.  By engaging with those I follow and following those who lead this industry, I have been lead to information and resources that otherwise may have never fallen in my lap.  It has helped me to be a stronger and better professional for my clients.

5)    Resources. I have developed resources to which I can refer my clients when what they need is outside of my scope of services.

6)    Promotion. The ability to effectively promote my events and drive traffic to them.  We have had better attended seminars and webinars because of our use of Social Media.

7)    Growth. 10 months ago Site-Seeker, Inc. was a company that was completely unknown in the Connecticut / Massachusetts market – no revenue and no clients.  We are now a known competitor with a strong reputation, a significant account base, and solid revenue and we utilized social media to help introduce ourselves here.

8)    Community Service. Fundraising has been undertaken on a whole new level.  Suzi Craig and Lisa Davenport put together a significant fundraiser for Operation Home for the Holidays in under three weeks.  With the participation and support of local celebrities – Ann Nyberg & Damon Scott and the twitter community, their one day event raised 12,000 to help bring home CT National Guard troops for this coming holiday break.  It was thrilling to be a part of such an incredible event and to be of service to our community.

9)    Services. I was in need of a new head shot and avatar.  Thanks to Seshu and my interaction with him on twitter, I finally had that done.  It was an awesome experience to work with such a professional photographer and it has added a new level of professionalism to my social media profiles and my events pages for our seminars and webinars.  (By the way, if you need a good photographer check out @picseshu !)

10)    People. Okay I know this is a repeat but you always start and finish with the best.  Truly the best part of social media is the people you meet and interact with, and the caliber of these people is top notch – and yes you really do interact both in cyperspace and IRL (in real life).

When people challenge me about the time I am “wasting” on social media, it is easy to show them how it is one of the best uses of time today to promote your company and your brand, to develop authority and become a trusted name in your industry.  To me, the ROI is easy to measure.

So, what is on your top 10 social media list?

The whole ROI conversation seems to be heating up. There are differing views on the conversation of ROI. Lee Odden tweeted from Pubcon that ‘it is a platform, not a tactic’ in a response to a question about measuring social media ROI.  Yet the reality is, that the time and energy being invested in social media programs requires companies to establish some level of ROI.

First lets talk about what ROI is.  ROI is the acronym for Return On Investment (okay no big revelation here).  In most cases when we discuss ROI we are talking money.  X was spent and Y was realized therefor ROI = (Y-X) / X. If you spend $10 and get back $40, your ROI is  3 times what you spent.  But lets discuss other important goals that create value and generate revenue: brand recognition, customer service, customer loyalty, industry leadership and market authority.  These are all important objectives of any business yet achieving them and measuring their true ROI becomes very difficult. We all love the easy to measure direct path of sales dollars, but most businesses don’t really know the direct path of any new customer.  They may know the final access point but have no idea of the path that got them to that point.  It is this unknown path where most often, the true value of Social Media can be found.

Here’s an example of the unknown path before social media (yes WAAY back then  . . .).  When I was working for ThomasNet.com (an industrial portal that drives highly qualified traffic to a client’s website) a client was reviewing his monthly reports and a name jumped off the page at him.  It was a significant prospect that had come to him via ThomasNet and my client was flying out to meet with him the following week.  The prospect had told him he found his information in ThomasNet.com but my client was curious to know what else I could uncover about how this prospect came to him.  In digging through his site analytics you could clearly see the path of the prospect searching over a month through Google and Yahoo! and each turn ending up at my client’s site.  The prospect used various search terms; from the machine that the service would be performed on, the actual service being performed, and finally the company name.  Clearly his presence in ThomasNet was the final certification, and the launch point for the inquiry.  But, that month long path through other search methods brought him there.   My educated guess, based on seeing similar search patterns in other clients analytics, would be that this is not an unusual process for most searchers.

So what impact would Social Media have on this path?  It will most likely be much harder to measure and identify.  Yet, clearly important.

Here’s an example utilizing social media.  In a meeting with a new Site-Seeker, Inc. prospect in May, I asked him how he found us.  He had originally sent an inquiry via our website, but I was curious to know the details.  It was unusual, but he actually explained to me how he came to contact us.  We had been promoting our presentation at CONNSTEP’s Annual Manufacturing Conference via many social media tools.  He had viewed the seminar page, linked to our website, read my blog and then contacted us.  How he was brought to the CONNSTEP page we are unsure.  Again it was that winding unknown path that supports our brand, builds our market leadership and helps us to gain industry authority – Social Media.

For those of us that are in the Internet marketing arena we must help our clients establish appropriate ROI goals for their social media programs.  We are asking them to invest their valuable time and energy, and they have to understand the goals, objectives, and return.  We need to help them to monitor and measure as effectively as possible.  While I agree with Lee Odden that it is a platform and not a tactic, it still requires us to establish ROI – whatever we determine that is.

The following article is from Mahsable.com by Christina Warren and offers alot of tips and tools on establishing ROI. HOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI

Recently I was involved in two incidents which occurred within 24 hours that all revolved around a person’s ability to “listen”.  Unfortunately, I was communicating with people who just didn’t listen.  They were polite and well intentioned, but they didn’t and wouldn’t listen and the end result was a very frustrated customer, me. 

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I spent over an hour on the phone with our VOIP provider.  For the last week we could make calls but were not receiving calls.  We have two lines with this VOIP provider one was working fine and the other was not.  At the beginning of the call I clearly identified the problem and the phone number.  I spent over an hour on the phone with their service tech and repeatedly he would ignore me and start working on the wrong the number, again.  I lost an hour of my time, missed a badly needed hair appointment but ultimately was so frustrated at this tech person’s inability to listen to me and my needs for their service.  Towards the end of the call I started mentally calculating what it would cost me to switch these lines to another provider, who might LISTEN to me.  I am always hopeful . . .

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Shortly after that I received a call from a very lovely southern woman from a business office of a small college.  She was very pleasant and polite but she talked in a constant stream, barely stopped and never allowed me to ask my questions.  Again, that call ended with me frustrated and without the answers I needed.

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Of course, this got me thinking.  I am in sales and there seems to be this common misperception that a good sales person is someone who can “talk”, when actually a good sales person is someone who can listen.  And really a good business person is someone who listens.  Really, any good friend is a good listener.  Why??  We need to be heard.  We need to know that, whether in a personal relationship or a business relationship, that the other person really heard what we needed, that they truly understand what our issues are, and how we hoped to resolve them.

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No sooner had I mulled this through than the phone rang from a frustrated client.  He was frustrated with some numbers he was seeing.  I was frustrated he didn’t get what a good job we were doing.  When I sat down and met with him, I took a deep breath and asked him to walk me through what he was seeing and how he interpreted it.  It was very enlightening.  I hadn’t listented to what was important to him when we set goals, so his frustration was valid.  What also happened was that when I started to discuss with him some other things that the numbers reflected he was more open to the conversation – because he had been truly heard. 

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I began wonder how often I do this to my clients, talking without listening, and more importantly – without understanding.  I often talk as though everyone understands exactly what it is I am saying.  As Internet Marketers we are very conversant in an industry that offers complicated and fluid services like SEO, SEM & Social Media.  But often our client’s don’t understand and do we take the time to make sure our clients really understand and are we really listening? 

I would be happy to LISTEN to your comments!!

Okay so this is going to go off the path of my normal blogging focus – Internet Marketing.  But it is relevant to today’s “Social Media Culture”.  I will probably offend some of you and, I apologize if I do.

One of the things that people are constantly commenting on is the new etiquette for different Social Media venues.  There are twitter etiquette rules, check out how many blogs and articles there are on this google results page for “Twitter Etiquette” http://bit.ly/IaGmV.  And don’t forget the Linkedin etiquette guidelines http://bit.ly/V3qCC .  And soooo many more etiquette rules and guidelines that we haven’t even touched on.  With today’s marketing and sales focus shifting from push to more pull and engaging in these new Social Media venues, our online community felt it necessary to develop the social dos and don’ts.  This is all good, but here is what I am wondering – what about basic interpersonal social etiquette??  I mean seriously, we are so worried about interacting correctly, and using the right etiquette for these social media sites over a faceless inhuman computer.  Yet, we behave like boors in public where people really see us, know who we are, remember our faces and most importantly, where we really offend them.

Cell Phone Etiquette: The ability to communicate in motion with family, friends, co workers and clients is AWESOME,  but please use some restraint…  Just because you CAN doesn’t mean you should.  Stop talking on your cell phone while checking out or at a customer service counter;  Stop walking through the store in a full conversation with your phone;  And STOP walking through a store on a speaker phone in full animated conversation.  This is awkward for everyone around you, it is rude to the employee at the counter,  and we aren’t interested in your personal life.  Sit in your car, stand outside the store – anywhere else that is not sharing your conversation with the strangers around you.

Texting, emails and smartphones: Pulling out your phone, your smartphone, your blackberry, your iphone – whatever, while you are at dinner is rude to your companion.  It screams at them “YOU ARE BORING”.  And if you are both doing it, then why are you even out together?  Sure a quick check while you are in the restroom is okay, but seriously, for most of us we don’t do anything that important that we need that email or that text the very minute it arrives.
Look, I am not a saint.  I have broken some of these basic etiquette rules myself.  But as I find myself being subjected to it more and more, I am learning to stop.  When we have reached the point that they have to post signs at store counters that say  “No Cell Phones at Counter”, then it is getting to be a larger issue.    And I realize this is still a minority not a majority, but what scares me is that it is a growing minority.  So stop worrying quite so much about your twitter etiquette and start employing basic social HUMAN etiquette.  You know I’m right.
Okay I have now put my soapbox away.  Thanks for listening.

If you have a “NO SOLICITING”  sign on your front door I wonder if you really mean it and really understand the full implications of it.  We must sell what we make or what we do in order to be successful, in fact in order to survive as a company.  A “NO SOLICITING” sign on your front door may convey an attitude about your business.  Maybe it discourages new customers too, not just sales people making cold calls.
What about your website?  Take a really close look at it, have you put a “NO SOLICITING” sign there too without realizing it?

Here are a few examples of what a virtual “NO SOLICITING” sign might look like:
1.    Phone Numbers- small, in light text and located down in the footer of your website.  Many new prospects may miss it or sense that you really don’t want to be called.  If you want the phone to ring, put the phone number at the top of the page in BIG BLACK LETTERS where it can’t be missed.  Ask them to call you, let them know you really do want to do business with them.  You do don’t you???
2.    Address – many businesses believe that if they put their address on their website that they will be perceived as a local company.  That will only be true for prospects who only want a local company. For the rest of your prospects who probably don’t care where you are are, but want to know that you have a physical presence, they might get a sense of uneasiness over the missing information.  All you do is frustrate everyone; the guy who does want to work locally because he doesn’t know that you are local, and the people who don’t care if you are local – they just want to know you are real, with a real address.  Tell everyone where you are, they want to know.
3.    Contact Form – okay this one is a biggie…  Where is your contact form? A prospect or customer should never have to leave their current page to figure out how to contact you.  Make the form and your phone number accessible from every page.  The length of the form and number of mandatory fields can make or break the use and submission of the form – basically scaring away new prospects.  When someone calls your company, you don’t demand all kinds of information from them before you speak to them.  The information is given when they are ready to do business with you.  This same thought process applies to your website.  Keep the form short and sweet, the only mandatory form should be an email address.

Take a look at your website from your prospects and customers point of view.  Ask a friend to review your site and figure out what you do, where you are, and how to contact you.  It is time to take down all of your “NO SOLCITING” signs, from the front door of your building and, most importantly, from your website.  Change your attitude and open the doors to new business.

Not sure how to remove that “NO SOLICITING” sign?  I know an excellent Internet Marketing / Web Development company that can help you!!

I try to be a “glass is half full” kind of girl. So sometimes, it is really hard to hear client’s comment about why they shouldn’t engage in social media. As they make these comments all I can think of is that they are burying their heads in the sand.

Here are a few comments I have heard – I bet many of you have heard these, or some very similar:

1. Well if I am not online then nobody can say anything bad about me . . .

2. Nobody uses Social Media for B2B . . .

3. We don’t have time so we will wait until it has a stronger impact on marketing efforts . . .

Let’s talk about a few examples of the first one . . .

A few months ago I was invited to speak to a dozen CEO’s, from local area businesses, about Social Media. So I did a “Social Media for Dummies” type of presentation. An overview of what Social Media is, why it is important, what some options are, and some examples of what happens when you engage in it. I discussed the positive power that a well managed Social Media program could generate for a company and quickly enhance their marketing efforts. When I asked for questions a CEO of a very cutting edge manufacturing industry explained that they were staying away from any of this so that nothing negative could be said or published about his company. After my stunned silence evaporated I explained to him that whether or not he chose to be online, people could and probably would, say something negative about him, his company and/or his services. Let’s face it, eventually it happens to all of us. And that if he didn’t get online and engage he wouldn’t even know if it was happening. If he did get online he could work to repair the situation immediately, before it became a problem. AND by the way, utilize and maximize all the powerful and POSITIVE things social media could do for him and his company – you know “the glass is half full”!!

Another client of mine has worked hard to market his brand and he has done an excellent job of it. He is a smart savvy internet guy. I started to do some research and found a huge amount of buzz for him that he had nothing to do with. Youtube, twitter, facebook – it was awesome. When I approached him about a Social Media program to harness and maximize the buzz that already existed, I was stunned at his response. His fear of the possibility of viral negativity outweighed the incredible impact this could have for him. (Now, I was able to sway him, and I think he will engage with the strength this offers.)

Now look, I totally get it that Social Media offers the complainers, whiners and people with valid grievances a powerful tool to vent their frustrations. However, the positive power and energy that you can create through a well managed campaign has greater positive power for you and your company. Everything you do has a downside or a negative possibility. You can’t live in fear of the bad things that could happen or the bad things people can say.

The Social Media Glass is half full, grab it, drink it and enjoy it!!

A few recommendations for reading on this subject:

Lisa Barone and Rhea Drysdale of Outspoken Media.

Check out these links:

Online Reputation Management Guide

When Social Media Becomes a Weapon

The search world is in constant flux and evolution.  Recently there seems to be a lot of that going on with the release of Microsoft’s latest attempt to make headway in the fight for search, their release of Bing.  Then the uniting of forces with Yahoo! and Bing.  Lastly, throw in the announcement from Google’s Matt Cutts about the new Caffeine update that is in testing, with plans for roll out implementation.  And, voila – you have the constant change that is the Internet world we work in.

There has been a TON of articles, blogs and commentary about these changes.  All kinds of facts and figures quoted, compared, twisted and modified to fit each person’s perception of this dynamic.  Now, don’t get me wrong, all of the stuff I have read has interesting and valid points – but there are so many interesting, valid points, it is hard to keep up.

One that caught my attention was posted on Friday August 14 by Miguel Helft of the NY Times.  He wrote a very interesting piece called”The Gap between Google and Rivals May Be Smaller Than You Think”.  His point was that while Google crushes Yahoo! and Bing in volume of searches, Google is only ahead of them by 11% in searcher penetration (per comscore.com).  His theory is that since they already have the users, if they engage the users better then maybe they can quickly gain ground on Google for search volume.   The searchers are there,  just get them to search more in their search engines.  This thought process has a sound foundation.

Where I disagree with Miguel is that the reason Google crushes Yahoo! and Bing in volume of searches is because Google has always been about relevancy.  Quality and relevancy are what made Google so much money in paid search.  Once they established their credibility in providing relevant results they were able to establish a revenue model driven off the quality they established.  They built strong relevant results, which generated a large user base, and dominance in the search market.  THEN they added the ability to monetize it.   Don’t get me wrong, I totally understand that Google is a money machine, but it is how they built the machine that earns my respect.

Ironically Bing’s marketing strategy is that they are a “decision engine” which is almost kind of funny.  Historically, Microsoft has been unable to deliver the quality of results that would engage users and improve search volume.  Or, in other words, they weren’t providing the information that helped with the “decision” process.  This is clearly stated in the numbers released by comscore.com on user penetration vs. search volume.  Until that dynamic is fixed, in a HUGE way, I don’t see them as any threat to Google.  And from what I am hearing from my clients, they are largely unimpressed by Bing.  Combining the efforts of Yahoo! and Bing doesn’t improve anything, it just puts together two search engines who don’t quite get it, yet.

The best thing about this industry is that what is current and relevant today will change tomorrow.

As an industry we all have varying views on the same theme.  We all have slightly different “things” that we feel are more important than the other.  We politely argue amongst one another and do our best to stay educated and ahead of the curve.  Many of us do a good job and deliver excellent results – others . . .  well . . . anyway.  Imagine how businesses  must feel?  How daunting it must be to consider SEO, who to contact and how to know what it is they are buying?

So what is SEO – hmmm, that’s a toughie.  It is a fluid service that does not have exact rules or a written in stone project plan.  It has goals and objectives and the industry’s best practices.
When engaging with new prospects it is important first get to know the company:  their goals and objectives, where they are today, what their perceptions are about marketing advertising and most importantly their views and perceptions about internet, SEM, SEO & PPC.  Then educate them, walk them  through  “SEM / SEO 101”.   Do a brief presentation defining terms, explaining concepts, discussing social media, showing them a case study.  But most importantly convey the importance of understanding SEO as an ongoing concept, it isn’t something you do to a site and walk away.  There are industry’s best practices, there is research, there is experience both good and bad and then clincher – there is the fluid environment that is the internet and there is human interaction which messes it all up.

What isn’t SEO?   That’s an easy one.  It is NOT a one-time thing that happens to a site.  It does not have guarantees of position, placement or number of clicks.

Successful SEO requires monitoring, measuring, tweaking, listening, watching and moving forward.  Content is added, content is removed, content is changed and content is modified.  The rules change: Bing, Yahoo!, Caffeine . . . just to name a few of the smaller changes is the last few days.
It requires experience and proven results.

My kids are tired of telling me a story where things don’t go well and I ask them what their attitude was going into the situation.  “UGH Mom – it isn’t ALWAYS about my attitude!”  Well, actually it is ALL about attitude – and I am seeing a lot of positive attitude out there, and it is exciting.

In May I wrote about our involvement with ConnStep’s Annual Manufacturing Conference and the positive attitude Connecticut Manufacturer’s were showing.  It was like they had had enough and were ready to move forward.

Well we were at the CT Biz Xpo at the Connecticut Convention Center and once again, lots of positive attitude and exciting energy.  The exposition hall floor was filled and the seminars rooms had standing room only.  We did a seminar on Pay Per Click and had 65 people in the room – taking notes, asking questions and ready to roll.  We received several emails the next day telling us they had implemented the suggestions and appreciated the help.  Lots of POSITIVE ATTITUDE!

So, you are probably asking yourself what does this have to do with Internet Marketing?  A LOT!!  While the economy has been really struggling internet marketing is the most cost effective way to generate new business and offers the highest ROI (don’t believe me, just a ask a few of my clients).  But if the economy is showing signs of turning around – then SEO & SEM is going to get even more competitive, late comers will suffer as those who have stayed steady and embraced the opportunities will flourish even more.

You have been battered by the economy, you are scared and nervous but you are determined to survive – you better get on board now.  Hire a smart, reliable SEO firm and start maximizing the internet.  If your website isn’t your top producing sales rep – you are missing opportunities and leaving money on the table.

Not sure who to call?  I can recommend an excellent firm . . .

Last Thursday, May 14th, Brian Bluff and I gave a presentation at the ConnStep Annual Manufacturing Conference at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford Connecticut.  This annual conference brings together manufacturing companies from across Connecticut to learn, engage and share in all aspects of their businesses from lean manufacturing, procurement, marketing and production to sales.  ConnStep does an excellent job of offering a wide variety of workshops and runs a well organized event – it was very impressive.    The speakers they had brought in for this conference were educational and fun – from Doug Hall of Eureka! Ranch (@brainbrew) to Governor Jodi Rell (@govenorrell).

We were invited to speak on Leveraging Internet Marketing for Manufacturing and we were co-presenting with Ken Clark (@Ken_Clark) from Onward Search(@onwardsearch).  Ken did an excellent presentation on the basics of SEO and a case study for their client Armstrong Ceiling Tiles.  We then followed up with a case study for one of our manufacturing clients Riverhawk, who has experienced tremendous success from his website redesign and SEO efforts.  What impressed me most was how interested the attendees were.  They had educated questions, were involved in the process and were looking to further their knowledge.  They really understood how important the internet was to the future success of their companies.

We were at the conference all day and were being engaged constantly.  We answered questions and had excellent conversations.  For me, it was exciting to see the leaders of these manufacturing companies looking forward towards success and how to best achieve it.  With so much bad news being pushed out every day on the state of the economy, it really felt awesome to be in conversation with over 280 people at the core of manufacturing and feeling their push to the future.