Archive for the ‘Social Media’ category

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Online resources for week of January 16

January 19th, 2012

An assortment of articles that we have found useful at Synotac this week for web design, video, time management, and more.

Video

YouTube is revamping to be based around shows and channels (more like a competitor to Hulu or Netflix) to keep visitors on YouTube for longer than a few minutes: Streaming Dreams, The New Yorker, 1.16.2012

Video streaming (Ustream specifically, which we’re using for Lunch + Learns!) can promote democracy but also can identify protesters and people behind the camera (some organizations are working on technology to make the footage / faces anonymous): Visibility before all, The Economist, 1.14.2012

Email Marketing

How triggered emails can be much more effective than email newsletters because of their ability to be relevant to people’s needs:  Trigger Happy: Why emails are the magic bullets of marketing automation and shopping cart recovery, Marketing Sherpa Blog, 1.10.2012

How getting better data on your email efforts can dramatically improve their effectiveness:
Email Marketing: How a credit union selected a new database vendor and increased revenue per email 205%, Marketing Sherpa, 1.17.2012

Social Media

Excellent write-up on technical aspects of integrating social media approval and Facebook comments into a WordPress website: How To Integrate Facebook, Twitter, And Google+ in WordPress

Help keep people on your site! Want More Stickiness? Users Logging In Through Social Networks Spend 50% More Time On Site, Tech Crunch, 1.18.2012

Time management

Doing creative work with small chunks of time: The Counter-Intuitive Benefits of Small Time Blocks, 99%, January 2012

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Posted in Email Marketing, Resources, Social Media

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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:

View more presentations from synotac

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

5 Steps To Turn Your Website Into A Secret Weapon

February 24th, 2011
web design, secret weapon, synotac, synotac web design

The plans are in this R2 unit...Well, they were. We put them in a podcast for you, just click! Turn your website into your own secret weapon!

Below are blueprints of sorts, the beginning of how exactly to turn your website into your secret weapon. Now you probably think, hey, they will give us a little snippet of something good and then make us pay to get to the good stuff. No way, you’re getting everything. Below is a little bit from Synotac’s podcast done for E-Myth Worldwide, but it’s just the beginning!

Check out the 5 steps to turning your website from zero to hero and then click to the podcast for the details, in-depth information, free tools to help you accomplish these things, and practical advice from an industry expert.

  1. Define Success: What does it mean for your website to be successful? What is it that you want people to do once they get to your site? Is it signing up for a newsletter? Selling a product? Filling out a contact form? Whatever it is, define it clearly and be ready to measure it.
  2. Know your visitors: Do whatever it takes to get in the mind of your visitors. Think how they think, use the site as they do. Talk to your frequent visitors and find out how you can make their experience better. A website built around your visitors is a huge key to better conversions! You don’t want people leaving because they can’t find what they want or had an issue navigating it.
  3. Give them something of value: If you provide something useful to your potential clients even when they aren’t actively searching for your services, you are still building your reputation, potential for word of mouth and referrals, and keeping your site on the minds of potential customers that look to you for things they need online. What can you provide, exactly?
  4. Use many roads to get traffic: Building a site, even an awesome one isn’t enough to get people to come to it anymore. The sheer number of sites is astounding and your potential clients are bombarded with all kinds of links, offers, and ads constantly. To get to them effectively, you’ll have to explore multiple ways of capturing their attention.
  5. Track: What is working? What isn’t? Where are people coming from? Where should you focus your efforts? What kind of people are you succeeding with? Who is ignoring you? This one is all about analytics; numbers, numbers, numbers.

Remember, this is just from the first 5 minutes! Listen to the podcast for all the juicy details, it’s free right here! Included are 3 Basic Tools To Improve Website Performance, the 4 Most Common Website Mistakes and much, much more.

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Posted in Advice, Blogroll, Clients, Digital Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media, Web Analytics, Web Development, Web Writing, Website Design, Website Usability

What Do We Do Online?

February 8th, 2011

Last year people spent a lot of time online. This year they are bound to spend even more. It seems like there is always something to do and when you think you’re almost done, you look up and another hour is gone. Yikes!

Well, if you wondered exactly what everyone is doing online all the time, we have the perfect pie chart for you…

social media, website design, synotac, synotac web design

It’s pretty to easy to see on this awesome pie chart from Nielsen that social media is king online. (Other is considered a collection of 74 other categories of online activities combined) Social media has even managed to pass up porn for the number one activity online.

If your site isn’t playing nice with social media or your presence on social networks isn’t easily identifiable and accessible on your web page, it might be time to update your site design to include it. If you can be connected with them where they are, it makes life easier on you! People who are fans of your page on Facebook spend an average of $73 more dollars than those who are not. Getting people to fan your page only costs the time to make the page (5 minutes) and spread the news. If your site is helping in those efforts, you have a powerful tandem furthering connections with your potential customers.

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Posted in Advice, Social Media, Web Development, Website Design