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How to save time by auto-posting your blog articles to Facebook

December 5th, 2011

If you’re trying to streamline your content creation and distribution efforts, an important step is configuring yourRSS Grafitti Facebook page to automatically post your blog articles. If you have your Facebook page linked to automatically update other social media accounts, then every time you publish a blog article it will automatically appear on Facebook, Twitter, and more.

While there are a variety of Facebook applications that accomplish this goal, RSS Grafitti is our favorite because it’s easy to configure and works with multiple accounts. Designed for Facebook Page administrators, the application actually allows you to post any RSS feed to any wall. If you’re managing multiple Facebook pages this would be particularly useful, but it’s also an easy way to automatically post your own blog content.

First, make sure you have a feed set up for your blog. We suggest you use Google Feedburner to manage your web feeds. Then, add RSS Grafitti to your personal profile and configure it for whichever Facebook page(s) you are administering. While the process takes only a few minutes and is intuitive, full instructions are available on the RSS Grafitti Wiki. The two important pieces of information are:

  • The name of the feed
  • The URL of the feed

After configuring the application, your blog posts will automatically be posted to your Facebook page with the blog source name, date, and RSS grafitti icon.

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Posted in Advice, Digital Marketing, Social Media, Website Design

Top Takeaways from B2B Outbound Social Media Marketing Lunch + Learn

November 18th, 2011

Last week we had a great Lunch + Learn on B2B Outbound Social Media Marketing, led by ResponseCapture. Here are some of the insights from the lively presentation and discussion:

Understand what questions to ask before jumping on the social media bandwagon

When deciding how to use social media, first ask yourself, “Who am I trying to interact with? Are they using social networks? Would they want to hear from me?” Answering these questions will help you target your campaign and maximize activity on channels where your customers are active.

Learn about your target customer

Deciding whether to use social media is largely dependent on your target audience. How do you know which social media channels your target customers are using? Rather than guessing, try using a data driven analysis of your customers and prospects. The services FlipTop and RapLeaf allow you to get data from email lists; you can upload an email list and get information about which social media channels your customers use as well as information about their demographics.

Professional vs. personal email

When using a social intelligence platform like FlipTop or RapLeaf, be aware that your customers may have multiple email addresses. Individuals may use personal email addresses for some social accounts and professional email addresses for other accounts. Keep this in mind when drawing conclusions about your target customers’ usage of social media channels.

The “real person” behind the account

In B2B social media marketing, the person behind the account you’re engaging with may not be who you expect. For example, when it appears that you’re engaging with a business owner you may actually be engaging with an employee or a third party hired to manage social media.

For more information, check out the full slideshow:

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Posted in Advice, Lunch + Learn, Social Media, Website Design

Enhancing your contact success page

November 2nd, 2011

Did you know that you might have overlooked an opportunity to wow and engage your most valuable visitors? Have you checked out your contact success message lately? Some websites use javascript to display a quick “Your message has been sent” whenever someone submits a message, but some have a whole page devoted to the contact success. Contact success pages have the potential to further engage your most committed visitors. The contact success content is an opportunity to: Thank your visitors Thank the visitor for their message. After all, they did exactly what you were hoping they’d do: reach out to you for products/services. Reassure them that a response is coming Tell your visitor what to expect next. Do you have a commitment to returning messages within one business day? Tell them! If not, a generic statement that “you’ll hear back from us soon” is better than nothing. Provide alternativesSome businesses may be happy to receive a phone call if the request is urgent. Let your visitor know. For example:

If your request is urgent and you need immediate assistance, please call us now: 1-888-320-9255

Or, perhaps you have online resources they can access while they wait for you to contact them. For example:

Our website is full of information and resources. While you wait for us to respond to your email, feel free to …

  • Explore our upcoming events
  • Find inspiration on our Galleries
  • Learn tips & tricks on our blog
  • Read case studies

Provide additional opportunities for engagement Whenever a visitor fills out a contact form on your website, that visitor has already displayed a high level of commitment to your organization and is more likely than the average visitor to take more actions on your site. Suggest further ways for them to engage with your organization! Examples:

  • Join our blog conversation on xyz
  • “Like” us on Facebook
  • Fill in our online survey

Curious what a contact success page could look like if you integrate these suggestions?  Here’s an example of a Contact Success page that includes pertinent follow-up information and additional calls to action :

THANK YOU FOR CONTACTING [BUSINESS NAME]

We have received your message and will respond within 48 hours.

Looking for even more information about [business industry]? Sign up for free today, and receive our eNewsletter: delivered to your inbox and featuring tips, testimonials, new developments and unique coupons for discounted services!

If your request is urgent, and you need immediate assistance, please call us now: 1-888-320-9554

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Posted in Content and copywriting, Credibility, Persuasion, Website Design

Using the Business Model Canvas in Marketing

October 20th, 2011

Man Pondering Business Model Canvas

“A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value.”

-Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur

This week’s Lunch + Learn focused on “The Business Model Canvas,” a tool for strategic management and entrepreneurial development. Billed as a tool that “allows you to describe, design, challenge, invent, and pivot your business model,” (www.businessmodelgeneration.com) the Canvas enables envisioning and re-envisioning business models.

The Business Model Canvas includes categories for all components of a business model (you fill these in with sticky notes and a sharpie):

  • Key Partners
  • Key Activities
  • Key Resources
  • Value Propositions
  • Customer Relationships
  • Channels
  • Customer Segments
  • Cost Structure
  • Revenue Streams

By mapping your current business model – or your business idea – onto the canvas, you can identify gaps, weaknesses, and opportunities in your model. The Canvas is also helpful for strategically identifying your business model pattern (open business model, multi-sided platform, etc.). Perhaps  you realize that you’re marketing through a narrow channel base and you could expand to include web sales and partner stores; or, perhaps you realize that you could shift towards a self-service customer service model through providing web-based support services. The Business Model Canvas can be used to re-evaluate your current business model or to begin modeling a new idea.

When we experimented with the business model canvas during our weekly Lunch + Learn, we found the exercise helpful in analyzing our clients’ businesses and generating new ideas. Check out the slides from our Lunch + Learn below and let us know what you think of the business model canvas!

 

Thinking about redesigning your website?  Download your copy of the free whitepaper: What to do BEFORE you redesign your website.

 

Synotac Lunch and Learn: Using the Business Model Canvas

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Posted in Website Design

Precautions to take when Accepting File Uploads

October 13th, 2011

Sometimes a business has a reason to offer a quick file uploader tool on their website to collect files from its clients and prospects. Maybe a Word document has to be e-mailed to you before you can return an estimate for custom work. Or maybe you expect your clients to upload a spreadsheet or image file to go with their project. It’s a nice idea to offer the file upload feature right on your website and save the visitor the step of leaving the site to email you an attachment.

Here is some of the advice we give our clients when they are offering this feature on their website:

File upload limit

Larger files are going to cause more issues for you and your visitors; there’s a greater chance of the upload getting interrupted mid-way or otherwise failing, not to mention the load on the server. If you do not have an idea in mind for reasonable file sizes, set the upload limit at 20MB for starters and see what happens.

Virus prevention

Since you don’t know who uploaded the file, be safe and follow the usual advice:  run a virus scan before opening any of the files sent to you and frequently scan your computer for viruses and malware.

File extensions can be fake

While we can lock down what types of files can be uploaded, it does not actually offer protection from malicious files. Just because a file appears to end in “.doc” or “.xls” does not mean it’s safe. The extension has no bearing on what the file really is. Case in point, I often circumvent virus checkers by renaming an innocent zip file to “.jpg” when I send it somewhere so McAfee doesn’t have a hissy-fit and refuse to pass it through. And for goodness sake, *never* run one of these files. You should not be expecting executable programs.

Extreme measures (for the paranoid only)

If you are paranoid, you probably would open the file in some sandboxed computer–there are many links on the web to methods of doing it. I’d probably set up a virtual machine with the operating system and document programs on it so if that system got infected, you could blow it away easily. But the setting up of this and training is costly and time consuming. Googling for “virtual machines” would be a starting point.

When Synotac programs a file uploader, we make sure the web server is not in danger. The document won’t ever be opened on the server–it is just bits as far as the server is concerned and to the chagrin of hackers everywhere, “just bits” don’t infect anything. The safety of your own computer is dependent on the use of the good safety habits above.

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Posted in Advice, Programming, Web Development

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