WSI Marketing, Surf, Search and Social

If you have been monitoring the blogosphere closely and someone has just slammed and posted negative comments for your brand or your blog, how do you handle this? In short, helpfully, honestly and diplomatically. There’s really no fast and hard rules, but here’s a couple of tips that you can follow.

Wait and watch

Take a little time so that you can watch and gauge the reaction. If you confront the situation by just jumping in on someone’s comment that is just blowing off steam can create a major controversy. If no one is really commenting or paying attention to what has been said, it might be the best to let the person vent and then die out on its own. Bloggers can quickly move on to a new story that grabs their attention.

Ty to avoid rebuttals

A negative review of your services or products should not bring a strong response. By directly attacking the blogger will always bring others to their defence and just inflame the situation. Never try to take a strong position to bully the blogger.

Be concerned and helpful

If you are entering a blog as a guest you must show respect. This will result that you get respect in return. Always avoid sarcasm and try to always be genuine and helpful. A negative review should always be treated as constructive criticism. You can offer to help resolve the issue and to listen to the complaints. How you handle this situation can convert a foe into a helpful friend.

Be impartial

Try to stay away from arguments and negative opinions. Always use objective information where possible and third-party statistics and data to show your point of view. Links to other sites than your own can be very good convincers.

Online Reputation Management (ORM)

It goes without saying that Online Reputation Management (ORM) is a very important thing to consider for yourself and your company. More and more people are doing research online, and more specifically the search engines, before they do business with a company or individual. Just as shoppers utilize review sites and comparison shopping engines, HR departments utilize Goolge search.

Follow thru

If you make promises and commitments, always follow through on what you have promised.

In just about a week, we’ll be hosting our annual WSI Global Convention! From September 24^th to the 26^th, WSI franchisees will be traveling from all around the globe to converge in Miami, USA, for 3 days full of workshops, case study presentations and endless collaboration opportunities to exchange world-class digital marketing methods and strategies. Put simply, we’re literally forming an international “Think Tank.”

Just as impressive, perhaps, is the keynote address that’s we’ve lined up. In fact, we have two keynote speakers for this convention: Avinash Kaushik and Scott Klososky!

Day 1 Keynote Speaker: Avinash Kaushik

As many already know, Avinash Kaushik is a best-selling author, entrepreneur, and public speaker for a topic that is at the very core of the WSI community: how to reinvent your digital existence.  He has championed the evolution of countless organizations’ online strategies to a more customer and data driven approach. As an established authority on leveraging data analytics, an essential addition to everyone’s reading list should be Avinash’s blog Occam’s Razor, and of course his best-selling books Web Analytics: Hour a Day and Web Analytics 2.0.

Day 2 Keynote Speaker: Scott Klososky

Next up we have social technology expert Scott Klososky as the keynote for day 2. He’s a former CEO and has worked with a number of large corporations assisting them with the latest media technologies and how to leverage such tools to boost their profitability. Having already heard Scott speak, he is undeniably a thought leader in this continually evolving field. Like WSI, Scott shares in the vision to recognize and utilize emerging fields to help businesses thrive and prosper.

I can safely say that the whole WSI community is looking forward to hearing both these gentlemen speak. It’ll be a pleasure to have them join us for this year’s Global Convention!

Read more about how WSI leverages the latest and most innovative digital marketing tools to deliver practical, revenue-building solutions for businesses.

I get this question all the time. Unfortunately, it’s not an easy question to answer.

To back up a bit, there has been a major shift in the marketing rules in just the last few years. Interrupt marketing (commercials, pop-ups, banners) and passive marketing (magazine ads, flyers and mailers, phonebook ads) have become less effective as more people are engaged with the Internet. I give talks to groups of business owners, and at the start of each talk, always ask two questions:

1. How many of you have used the yellow pages in the last month? (a few hands go up)
2. How many of you used Google yesterday? (every single hand in the room goes up)

This is a poignant illustration that we all use Google and the other search engines to search for products and services, and do research before making a purchase or finding a company to do business with. Unfortunately, many businesses still cling to the “old ways”.

As business owners start to realize that their advertising dollars bring fewer new clients in the front door, they start to wonder, “What would it take to get onto Google and the other search engines?” That’s where the question, “How much does SEO cost?” comes in.

There are so many factors that determine who gets to be “king of the Google hill” and who is relegated to the bottom of the heap. We don’t have a magic wand to wave over a client’s website to make it to the top. It’s been documented that Google actually changes the rules every single day! Furthermore, the client’s website itself usually has significant enough problems that prevent it from performing the way it could on the search engines.

We always recommend that a business that wants to get ahead of their competition on the search engines, must have us perform a thorough analysis. It’s kind of like going to the doctor. You may have a pain that’s bothering you, but the doctor isn’t going to just recommend surgery or a prescription. They have to run tests – blood work, diagnostics, x-rays, and so on, before deciding upon a course of action.

Similarly, WSI’s analysis looks at many factors:

• The client’s website coding structure (think of it as their vital signs)
• A 25-point SEO readiness checklist (health history)
• A WebScan™ that looks at on-site and off-site factors (an x-ray)
• Keyword research – what are people really searching for? (We hate shooting in the dark!)
• Competitor research – what do the client’s search engine competitors look like (environmental factors)

Once our diagnostic analysis has been completed, then we can effectively answer the question, “How much does SEO cost?” It may be just fixing a few things on the site, or it may be “major surgery”, depending upon how aggressive and competitive the landscape is.

If you as a business owner want to get to the top, insist that your digital marketing expert run these tests to diagnose the problem. It’s better to know up front what you’re facing, rather than shooting in the dark and completely missing the mark!

Learn more about how WSI Consultants leverage SEO techniques that will help your business gain competitive rankings for your site.

WordPress is an excellent blogging platform with loads of blogging features. It’s easy to set-up and maintain to make sure you can start blogging straight out of the box. WordPress can be used as a blogging platform, CMS (content management system), E-Commerce platform, social network, press release website, etc.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plays a big role in blog marketing and any other online marketing strategy to make sure your content is listed on the search engines.

WordPress out of the box doesn’t include enhanced SEO features but having one of the biggest open source communities in the world, smart people created a couple of plugins that can be installed without any hassle to make sure your blog gets listed on the top search engines. Find below a couple of plugins to help you optimize your WordPress blog.

WordPress SEO plugins list

• All in one SEO pack (Optimized your blog for the search engines. You can add specific keywords and meta descriptions for your blog posts).
• Google XML Sitemaps (Creates an XML sitemap containing links to all your categories, pages and blog posts)
• Platinum SEO Plugin (Similar to All in one SEO pack with a couple of extra features)
• SEO Smart Links (SEO Smart Links can automatically link keywords and phrases in your posts and comments with corresponding posts, pages, categories and tags on your posts.)
• SEO Slugs (Long URL’s may have a better ranking in search engines because it will contain more keywords. But search engines like Google tends to ignore some common keywords such as “you”, “a”, “the”, and “what”. This plugin will remove all the unused common keywords in your URL)
• SEO No Duplicate WordPress Plugin (If you must have duplicate content on your site for whatever reason, SEO No Duplicate will allow you to state which version of the post search engines should index while ignoring the others.)
• Robots Meta (Robots Meta enables users to control which pages/posts can be indexed and which can’t.)
• Nofollow Case by Case (This plugin allows you to strip the “nofollow” command from your comments, and then you can apply it to only the comments you don’t wish to support.)
• Google positioner (It’s important to know your keywords. And this handy plugin allows you to track the keywords you’re getting searches for.)
• Broken link checker (This plugin will monitor links in your site and list out links that don’t work or any missing images.)

I am often asked why many of the social media profiles created are never visited or found by search engines. To get the most value from your social media activities you need to ensure that the profiles you create are easily found for the keywords that you are targeting. Here are a few basic steps to add to your digital marketing strategy that will get you results.

Keyword Placement

Place keywords in the important places of your profile or posting. If you are targeting a specific keyword on your website or blog to generate traffic, make sure these same keywords appear in your profile in areas such as titles, headlines, biographical paragraph, description of your business and past positions etc. If you use keywords consistently it allows you to control what searches you are likely to be found for.

Linking Strategy

Always make sure you are linking back to specific pages on your website, so include those links where it makes sense to do so. You should also try to make sure that the actual link page on your website or blog is very descriptive and contains the keywords you are targeting whether that is your name or relevant keywords. My LinkedIn profile contains my name as a part of the URL, and my profile contains many keywords that I wish to be found for http://ca.linkedin.com/in/wsibruceallen.

Remember that if you visit a prospect and they do a search on your name to get some background information once you have left them, you need to make sure they find excellent relevant content easily. This is where your profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook and ecademy will be found.

Social media profiles offer more ways for potential customers to find you, so make sure you make the most of the opportunity.

Learn more about how to leverage your company’s social media profiles now.

Recently, Time magazine released its picks for the Best Blogs of 2010. The list is filled with some unexpected surprises from all genres. Hollywood gossip and tech news are, of course, represented, but so are independent cartoonists and guides to greener living. But most importantly, this list of blog successes can also serve as a digital marketing tool for illustrating the best practices to creating a successful and influential blog of your own.

While the list is diverse in its topics, the one thing that every blog on the list has in common with the others is the presence of a strong narrative that speaks directly to their target audience. As with any great movie or classic novel, a strong narrative voice is essential in blog writing. Blogs that have soared in readership are the ones that simply tell a story in a voice that readers look forward to hearing day after day. Your company’s blog can achieve this, too! Let’s turn to Time’s list for some inspiration.

Zenhabits.net, at the top of the best blogs list, does how-to with style and smarts. The site is devoted to helping readers create a more peaceful daily existence. Created by author Leo Babuta, zenhabits features blogs on how to avoid stress and how to de-clutter your life but does so in a narrative that isn’t preachy or judgmental. The blog is a wonderful example of how to convey your message and purpose while also helping a reader or two.

For examples of one-of-a-kind web resourcefulness, kottke.org is an excellent place to start. Creator Jason Kottke covers all of the liberal arts, from architecture to Woody Allen films, while digging up unique trivia and bizarre factoids. Kottke can be used as a template for the “a little originality goes a long way” blogging motto. Plus it’s informative and fun, so the blog is actually contributing something to the blogosphere — a goal that professionals and business owners should all aim for.

Talking about high aspirations, the writing on Roger Ebert’s Journal is also very impressive. Despite losing his ability to speak due to cancer complications during the mid-2000s, Ebert’s voice has never been stronger in prose that describes everything from his passion for films to his health and travels. Ebert’s fighting spirit and frank discussions make his blog a real winner. What company blogs can take away from Ebert is that it’s okay to have a personality — in fact, it’s encouraged!

List-making blog success, however, is not just for the big guys. Any business – big or small – can turn its little blog into one of its strongest online tools and into a daily reading for customers!

Visit our site to learn more about how content marketing can make your business’ blog absolutely list worthy.

We’ve always known that web content is an important aspect to digital marketing; now there’s a book to prove it. The Yahoo! Style Guide, released July 6th, is the first publication of its kind to cover writing topics specific to the world of online media.

The book is based on Yahoo!’s own in-house style guide developed by working web editors, writers and professionals. Yahoo!’s editors cover everything from basic grammar to how to write for an international audience. Keys to creating an accessible website and how to improve SEO with strong content also are explored in the guide. While no one yet knows whether Yahoo! will score big with the book, we do know the need for strong content is bigger than ever.

So why does content warrant the publication of such a book?

Content is the middle of the sandwich on a website. It’s the tasty filling that users come back for time and time again. With more and more established writers and publishing veterans taking their craft online, great content is becoming the norm. This is a call to action for small businesses and organizations to truly step up their game. Yet, this isn’t as scary as it sounds. With a little thought, a lot of creativity and some help from a seasoned pro or two, anybody can achieve this sort of content.

Great content is content with a vision — your vision. It should express all the unique and exciting things about you and your business. Your voice is the key. Only you can express how fantastic your idea or business is. Go wild when describing your vision of your website — the sky is the limit! After all, it is a reflection of you and how brilliant you are.

But what if you’re not a “word person?” That’s when an extra set of hands comes in handy. Some lively sessions with an experienced writer who understands your vision can produce the content you’ve always dreamed of. With your style guide in hand and writer in place, amazing content is within your reach! Learn even more about the power of content and content marketing right here.

Social bookmarking is great way to get more visitor traffic to your website or blog. Interested social bookmarking site visitors will discover your links and browse to your articles, website pages or blog posts.

Search engines will also discover your links found on popular social bookmarking websites as most of these Web 2.0 channels are ranked very high on the search engines. It is a great way to get your pages indexed on the search engines.

Social bookmarking can help you develop a regular flow of unique visitors to your website or blog over a period of time.

How does social bookmarking work?

Social bookmarking is a way of saving your favorite bookmarks to a public website and tagging them with relative keywords found in the content of the page you want to save.

Others can see your bookmarks and tags as you can see theirs. This allows people to organize, search and select bookmarks based on these tags. These can then be accessed from any web enabled computer.

People search social bookmarking sites to find the most popular websites dealing with almost any subject. Some of the popular social bookmarking websites features a ranking system where users can vote for your bookmarks.

To put it in simpler terms, if your site is rank highly by others, your links will become popular and viewed often.

Social bookmarking tips

• Register: This will be the first thing you will do when you find a social bookmarking site that you would like to use.
• Widgets: You can make it easy for other users to bookmark the content of your website and blog by adding social bookmarking buttons such as Digg, Reddit, del.icio.us or similar sites to your content. Visitors will then be able to bookmark your content with just one click.
• Participate: Search and find informative, great content that you can bookmark around the web. You will gain a reputation by only presenting the best content. Be social and social bookmarking will pay off.
• Great content: Always focus on creating content that is informative, unique and that inspire others. If your content doesn’t stand out, bookmarking won’t work. Valuable content is always the key.
• Occasionally bookmark: When you have created an outstanding content article, it is really ok to social bookmark it yourself. It should meet the standard you set for other or it will hurt your own credibility.