Why A Great Web Site is A Key to Social Media Success

By Mark Evans in Social Media 8 Comments Tags: , ,

In the two years I have been doing social media strategy, one of the most interesting themes has been the importance of having a top-notch Web site.

It’s not something many companies think about when they’re getting into social media. They are more focused on deciding whether a blog, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or LinkedIn make the most sense. Companies also spend a lot of time thinking about tactics and the need to create content.

But the importance of having a strong Web site to support a company’s social media efforts is frequently overlooked, if not ignored. This approach has increasingly struck me as wrong because social media and a corporate Web site are a powerful and complementary one-two punch.

Why?

At the end of the day, social media is, among other things, a way to drive in-bound traffic. Companies create and distribute content, including a healthy amount that highlights corporate activity. It could be press releases, information about products and services, investor information, videos or blogs.

If traffic is being driven to your Web site, it better meet expectations. It needs to do a good job of telling visitors what you do and why they should care. It should deliver well-articulated, clear and great stories. And it should encourage people who have been attracted by social media to do something – be it asking for more information, request a demo, buy a product or service, etc.

If your Web site isn’t up to the task, if it’s boring, difficult to navigate, or fails to quickly tell visitors why they are there, it doesn’t matter how good or engaging your social media efforts are because you have failed to follow through on expectations. It’s like having great advertising for a terrible product.

For clients, it means I’m an advocate that their Web sites are an asset that can support social media rather than cutting it off at the knees. In some cases, it may mean telling a company it should focus on refreshing its Web site before it embraces social media. Or it could mean a company should get into social media and upgrade its Web site at the same time.

Putting social media on pause so a company can improve its Web site can be a tough pill to swallow because an overhauled Web site isn’t as sexy as creating a Facebook Page or getting into Twitter. But it can be a necessary evil so when a company does jump into the social media fray, it does so from a position of strength.

The other thing about the need to have a high-quality Web site is the fact many companies ignored their Web sites during the economic boom. Why spend money on a Web site when business is booming. It’s the old if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it adage. Now, however, many Web sites are several years old, making them dated in terms of content, features and design.

So while social media is new and sexy, it shouldn’t distract companies from making sure their Web sites do their job so Facebook, Twitter, et al can do their jobs effectively as well.

Can Small Businesses Do Social Media?

By Mark Evans in Social Media, Uncategorized 5 Comments Tags: , ,

For all the talk about social media levelling the playing field for small businesses, here’s a question that doesn’t get much attention: Can small businesses effectively embrace social media? If so, how?

This struck me during a recent visit to Dave’s on St. Clair, a relatively new restaurant/bar in downtown Toronto. In talking to the owner about the restaurant’s efforts to spread the word, it was no surprise that social media came into play.

There are a couple of realities facing Dave’s: first, and perhaps most significant, is they don’t have a lot of time for social media. When you’re the cook and chief bottle washer, it can be challenge carving out the time for social media. Then, there’s the issue of selecting the most relevant social media service and effectively promoting it. These are both major issues and hurdles for small business owners, who have so much on their plates.

Assuming a small business does embrace a specific social media service (for Dave’s, it is Facebook), they have to figure out how much content to create and what kind of content (menu updates, deals, special events, photos, etc.). And they have to do it on a regular basis if their social media activities are going to gain a foothold and generate some traction.

As important, small businesses need to activity promote their presence on social media to ensure it resonates with as many people as possible. It means everything from putting the icon on their Web site to putting it (and/or the URL) on business cards, bills/invoices, business cards, marketing collateral, a sign on the front door and, of course, word of mouth. It’s a lot of work that needs to happen on a regular basis to get any kind of traction.

The bottom line is social media involves a lot of time and effort. This is a challenge for any company, particularly small business owners who never seem to have enough time or resources for operate the business. For small businesses, however, that do commit themselves to making social media happen, the benefits can be significant.

RIP, Typewriter

By Mark Evans in Main Page No Comments Tags: , ,

TypewriterThe summer before I started to study journalism at university, I spent hours in the basement of my parent’s house learning how to type on a manual typewriter. To graduate, you had to type so many words a minute so the pressure was on to get proficient as soon as possible.

It seems like a long time ago but even more so now that Godrej and Boyce has announced it will stop making typewriters. The Indian-based company is apparently the last typewriter manufacturer in the world.

When the typewriter does disappear, it will likely be a technology that few people will miss or be nostalgic about. It must be like how people felt when the car replaced the horse and buggy. In a few years, people will look at typewriters in museums as strange and antiquated equipment.

For more details, check out the Daily Mail.

Can Social Media Jump-Start Democracy?

By Mark Evans in Social Media No Comments Tags: , ,

With Canada heading into the last leg of a federal election that hasn’t excited many people, there’s a growing focus on whether social media is playing a major role.

There’s definitely lots of chatter and the major political parties have embraced Twitter, Facebook and YouTube but the key question is whether it’s doing anything to engage voters, particularly those under 30-years-old who appear bored and disinterested in politics and, as important, voting.

We won’t get a definitive take on the impact of social media until election day on May 2 but anecdotally the hype about the impact of social media is vastly overshadowing whether it will get more people to the polls.

In other words, social media may help us talk more about the election and the politicians but it’s far from clear if all this chatter will translate to more votes. In the Toronto Star yesterday, Jim Rankin had an interesting story that looked at the impact if more people under 30 voted. It suggested the political landscape would be much different because younger voters would support the Liberals, NDP and Green parties rather than the Conservatives.

So if you’re not a fan of the Conservatives and Stephen Harper, social media may be the best hope to encourage people to throw their support behind other political parties. The good news for the Conservatives is social media may have a higher profile during this election, it’s probably not going to translate to more action at election day.

The Upside of Non-Free

By Mark Evans in Social Media 1 Comment Tags: ,

Paidfree

It may have happened subconsciously but over the past year or so, I’ve been paying for a growing number of online services. It may have to do with running a business and making sure there are solid roots supporting it. Or perhaps it’s a simple matter of getting over the novelty of getting everything for free…and waking up the reality you usually get what you pay for.

In any event, I don’t think twice about paying for online services. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not showering money around the Web and I try to use discount codes whenever possible. But the idea of coughing up for a good service that will make life easier, more productive or convenient is a no-brainer.

Some of the paid products within my digital portfolio include:

- Skype: a $2.99/month all you can calling plan for North America

- DropBox: After using the free file-sharing service for several months, I upgraded to the $99/year Pro 50 service that offers 50GB of data storage.

- Freshbooks: One of my business’ core service, I’m on the $29.95/month Evergreen service, which offers an unlimited number of clients.

- HostPapa: A green and cost-effective Web host with prices starting at $5.95/month. HostPapa has great customer service as well.

- Performancing: A Web analytics service to track the performance of my blogs and Web sites for $3.99/month. I also use Google’s free Google Analytics service but I like how Performancing is user-friendly and quietly robust.

- WordPress: In the past, I would scour the Web looking for free themes. Now, I’m content to pay for high-quality premium themes that provide great customer services. Some of my favourite theme makers include Themify and ThemeFuse. I’m also impressed with Pagelines but have yet to buy one of its themes yet.

- TweetBot: I have used a lot of Twitter applications for the iPhone but happily paid $1.99 for TweetBot recently because it is easy to use and it’s feature-rich.

- MarsEdit: I’m writing this post using a demo version of MarsEdit but I’ve been looking for a Mac-based blog editor so I’m seriously considering a purchase.

In the scheme of things, the services and products that I have been paying rather than trying to get for free are a tiny part of my overall expenditures. The difference in paid vs. free is based on a free themes:

1. When you pay for something, the expectations are different when it comes to things such as customer service and product upgrades.

2. Paying for a service supports the underlying business so it can build its business and be able to invest in new product development and sales.

3. It encourages entrepreneurs to charge prices for their services rather than simply offer something for free in the hope that it will attract enough customers to generate advertising revenue. I’m a big fan of the premium model because it offers a try before you purchase approach that can get lots of people in the door.

For more thoughts on paid service, check out The Next Web’s post on “Why you should want to pay for apps”.

Is Group-Buying a Fad or a Reality?

By Mark Evans in Social Media 4 Comments Tags: , ,

A decade after its inauspicious debut, group-buying has become all the rage. GroupOn is worth a gazillion dollars and rejecting multi-billion takeover offers from Google, while LivingSocial is looking to raise $400-million. At the same time, a slew of group-buying services seem to be popping up here, there and everywhere.

It begs the question of whether consumers have discovered a new religion or whether group-buying is a fad that will be here today and gone tomorrow.

Before everyone dismisses the fad thesis, it is important to remember consumers like new and shiny as much as they enjoy good deals. But does group-buying have staying power? Once the novelty has worn off, does group-buying have enough to keep people engaged? Personally, the daily e-mails from GroupOn got tiring so I unsubscribed. The deals looked good but most of them weren’t relevant or didn’t seem worth the effort to buy them.

Perhaps the suggestion group-buying is a fad is overly dramatic but there is no doubt the market is over-heated, frothy and saturated with players looking for easy money. Maybe GroupOn and LivingSocial have staying power and maybe they’re worth their current valuations but the shininess of the group-buying marketplace is going to lose its lustre soon.

In the name fairness, here’s an interesting chart from ForeSee Results, which showed, by far, U.S. consumers prefer to hear about deals via e-mail, while social media services rank near the bottom, which is not surprising given social media is a soft sell landscape.

More: Here’s an interesting article in WebProNews asking whether GroupOn has peaked.

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