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April 20, 2016 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

Social Media Tips: Trust and Transparency

Social media trust, jody raines Trust. What does it take to create trust, and how can trust be taken away?

And for that matter, what is social media trust?  And how does social media transparency help or hinder building trust and engagement in social media?

You may have heard the term “transparency” used in relation to business branding or identity marketing, but what does the concept of transparent marketing mean, and how can you be sure to establish trust with your clients, customers and prospects?

When you’ve lost trust, you can bet you’ve lost business.

Recently I’ve been receiving a series of emails, on a almost daily basis from my Internet service provider, that imply that my computer and network have been compromised. At first, I disregarded this as a sales attempt… After all, I am running hordes of security on my network, and the op sys I am using is touted as being fairly stable and resistant to virus infiltration.

But as I started to think about it, I realized that if this was a sales attempt, it is preying on a vulnerable market. So many people have computers today who did not grow up with them like Generation C is… To this older an newly connected generation, computers are still something of a mystery!   Case in point, I recently got one of the new ipads for my mother who is 87. She absolutely loves the ipad interface and marvels at what the device can do,…. She’s unusual for her generation, howeve she is not as aware of hacker attacks or viruses as someone who is Generation C or even Gen Y.

So, the email about viruses made me angry.

I am sure this was not the result the company that sent it to me had hoped for.  They more likely were anticipating that I’d be thankful for the heads up.  But recently, I’ve had a malevolent person who has been stalking me, and in addition to my system potentially being hacked, I am now concerned that this individual may may have done something to my system when he had access to it.

But was my service provider preying on my insecurity?  For a megalith company, that I respect, and who I have as a service provider to stoop to sending me false allegations that my Mac may have a bot or key logger really miffed me.

Question is – do I trust that the service provider is truly attempting to be helpful, or do i disregard and figure it’s an attempt to add additional service fees to my monthly invoice?

Trust.  If I trusted the service provider, there would be no question. Like the Facebook trust experience, where multiple changes have disrupted or opened up our privacy settings, the Internet and social media marketing has elevated the attempts on the part of undesirable or poorly informed suppliers, especially those who are adept at positioning themselves as “experts”. They prey on our fears and use double talk to obfuscate their meaning, The plethora of these types has given rise to our questioning whether these are actually attempts to help versus attempts to sell. As it turns out, I did decide to have this third party evaluate what is going on with my systems…. They are immersed in my Mac as we speak and they’ve started to unravel things.

How much simpler things would have been for them, had they established a level of trust first. Then there would be no question that the first sign of trouble was real. As it was, this sale took 4 phone calls to 7 individuals including their security division before I “trusted” what they were telling me, that’s 7 people who were tied up taking to a prospect when really, and ideally, this should no have had to escalate to that level. If there is a lesson, it is to treat your brand and your customers with value, be truthful, and don’t think that a cleverly veiled sales approach will not be recognized as such by your prospects.

Certainly it’s important to aim at giving value, but it’s equally important to refrain from disguising your true intent. In this instance, had the service provider simply shared that there is a paid version and an unpaid version of support in a clear manner, I may have jumped inboard sooner. Have you had experiences where you were not sure whether the offer was genuine or a sales attempt? Do you have call to action offers that may cross the line, or have you experience one on a site you’ve visited?

Filed Under: Internet Privacy, Social Media, Social Media Connections, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: Jody Raines, social media transparency, social media trust

April 19, 2016 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

Social Media Marketing And Your Online Brand

Jody Raines, social media tools

Social Media tools and your online brand

Your website is only a part of your online campaign for online branding. Granted,an optimized website is the most important component of your online marketing strategy, however even with the most glorious and well thought-out website, you may be missing huge opportunities to support your product, champion your brand and connect with your customers and prospects.

Social media marketing was a “buzzword” that we started to discuss a several years ago.   You may also have heard the terminology “new marketing” or “online marketing” or even “inbound marketing”.  The concept is to create an optimized online presence to help your customers find you and your business.  A lot of the social media “guru’ types talked about “engagement” and there was much nodding of heads.  But the reality is that there is very little engagement happening, even today, because so many companies have opted to run automated campaigns.

I’m not against all automation, but it just does not work for every organization in every situation. Especially in times of high national tension, when the focus is on an earthquake or superstorm, having an automated message about sunny skies is a real disconnect with your audience. The worst thing you can to is have your customers disengage, opt out, and disconnect.   Now, those wonderful social channels have worked against you.

If I had to pick one word to describe the best practices for social media marketing, that word would be responsive.  Not only are we striving for responsive design in websites, but we also should be responsive to our audience and to the societal and cultural changes around us.  If you are responsive, you are creating content that is relevant and that has true appeal to your targeted customers.

A responsive website is one that fluidly re-conforms to the device it is being viewed on.  Newer websites are being created that have this feature built in.  Some of the older websites have both a desktop version and a mobile version.  Without getting too technical, what you want to be sure to do is to present the version that is best viewed on the device that the viewer is using at the time they visit your site.  It makes perfect sense, right?

One of my biggest frustrations is one of the news alert services that I use that sends me a link to an article that I want to read.  When I click on the link, I’m taken to a general page that may or may not contain the article.   Eventually, I stop clicking on the link and ignore the alert.  I may even unsubscribe from the alert.  This is no different than putting the wrong terminology or advertising or teaser to an article, then sending the reader to a site that is so general, they get turned off. Social media is an awesome tool to drive traffic to your site – just be sure that the link is truly the target of the tweet or Facebook post.  Otherwise, you will lose customers.

When it comes to internet branding and social media optimization, the rules for marketing have changed, and without a social media presence, you will be a dinosaur.  Customers are searching and researching using the Internet. There is an entire generation that is growing up in a world where using Google is second nature to find answers.  The changes that search engines have gone through are taken in stride, and adopted readily.   To be sure that your online brand is being appropriately represented in today’s informational society means you have to be relevent and  you have to be present. That includes social media.   The old excuse that your customers don’t use social media is becoming tired and inaccurate.  Your customers use social media, and they use it every day. They may be checking their email first thing in the morning, which includes their Facebook statuses and their friend’s updates.  The way we communicate is much more fluid, more rapid and most likely, online.

Be aware of derogatory messages about your brand and be responsive.   Don’t hide from critical reviews, but address them with equally positive reviews from your customers.

Social media marketing, is first social, second media, and third marketing.  Keeping this in perspective will go a long way to your successful online branding and internet marketing campaign.

Filed Under: Blogging, Marketing Metrics, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Website Credibility, Website Design, Website Optimization

April 18, 2016 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

3 Social Media Mistakes To Kill Your LinkedIn Credibility

Jody Raines, social media marketingSocial Media can make you rich!  If you had a dollar for every mistake that someone made using social media, you’d be a very wealthy person!  In the meantime, the catalyst for this post was an email that I received from someone I am not well acquainted with, but who asked to connect with me on Linkedin.

The letter began with, “Im sorry to bother you but…”

For the record, I really like Linked In.  It’s a resume online and also a living Rolodex (yes, I am dating myself), but the cool thing is that it enables me to keep up with my professional network despite years and distance and career hops and leaps and changes.   I love the fact that each person updates their contact information so I can congratulate them on the promotions, or encourage them through the changes.   It’s remarkable because it’s a tool for business relationships, unlike Facebook or Google+ or Twitter or Instagram.   In this respect, Linkedin is unique and I love that about this interface.

1.LinkedIn is a BUSINESS Social network platform

So, my first gripe with new users is a big mistake of not understanding the nature of Linked-in as a business platform.  It’s fine to connect with friends and expand your relationship to include business.  What is not fine is to undermine your professional account with a casual, non-business profile photo.  That means the picture of your beautiful dog or amazing cat will not do – unless you want to give the impression of being less than credible.  Also, the photo of you swinging a bat at the company softball game, not a good choice.  You should pic a photo of you playing baseball if you are a pro baseball player, otherwise, it’s not the right image to project.   Leave the sweatshirts, tank tops, cocktail hour, family vacation shots on Facebook – this is not the place for them.

2. Don’t spam the Linked in Connections

My second gripe – ok, so we are connected.  Now is your chance!  Develop a social media relationship, right?  Send an email, get to know each other… or wait, try to sell me something?  What?   I don’t really know you, I connected because perhaps we met at an event and had a nice conversation… the reality is that you don’t know me, don’t know my company and you are sending me the same template email you sent to everyone else.  Do you really think I am going to jump out of my seat now that I got your email and pick up the phone to buy what you are selling?  I don’t think so.  In fact, most sales take place after you have developed a relationship.  Social media is “social” for a reason – to use it as a device to create more emails to send out letter to is a disservice to you, your organization and it’s disrespectful of the connection.  If you use Linked in to attempt to sell to me, you risk being disconnected.  If I like you, I may reach out to you first, to try to explain why what you did was a bad idea… if that doesn’t work,  will disconnect.  Part of the power of linkedin is the ability to potentially connect with the connections of the person  you are connected to.  Yes, that sounds complicated, but what it means is that my network is now open for  you to peruse.   Why would I open my network to someone who seems to be ignorant of the protocols?  I don’t want to be associated with that behavior, nor would I do business with someone who utilizes a network that way, so it’s not a loss to disconnect.

3 Linkedin is about QUALITY not QUANTITY

My third gripe and a very common mistake, is the false belief that someone who has a lot of connections must be very important.  There are some people on Linkedin who will connect with anyone and everyone – this is called an “Open Networker”  To say that someone has the “most” connections on Linked in does not say the same thing as having the most relationships.  There is greater power in having relationships where you can ask or share or tell and it has some influence.  The relative amount of influence if directly correlated to the depth of the relationship and the mutual respect.  If I met you once at a networking event, and you immediately stared spamming my inbox, there is no mutual respect, no relationship, and no reason to continue to stay ‘connected’.

I suppose if you start an email with “I’m sorry to bother you, but…” you already know it’s not a good idea to send the email, right?

Filed Under: LinkedIn, Social Media, Social Media Connections, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: Jody Raines, social media marketing, Social Media Tips

April 16, 2016 By Jody Raines 3 Comments

Social Media Marketing Tips: How To Optimize Your Blog

Social media marketing and website optimization are dependentBlogging social media upon adding content on an ongoing basis. Business blogging is a part of social media marketing where you can add dynamic keyword-rich content to a website.  Assuming that the blog is part of the website, the blog can be a forum to express ideas, philosophies and share information.

Understanding the power of a blog includes making the commitment to use the blog in a way that it adds value to the website.  Simply having a blog that is dormant does not add interest or value.

Many businesses make the mistake of having a blog, but then underutilize it.  Here are three key blogging best practices that can help power your blog and help to optimize it’s value to your Internet marketing program and your website:

1. Blog often.

If you have a blog and you aren’t adding to it, it’s not really a blog.  Blogs are meant to be living, breathing and dynamic content for your website.  If you haven’t yet made the commitment, you really should blog at least once a week.  Obviously if you can blog more, then you have more opportunities to connect with a potential customer.

2. Use keywords.

If you write for your blog without considering keywords in your content, you are missing a huge opportunity.  Determing which keywords are effective and then weaving them into your articles can help your blog be discovered in Google searches.  Using the Google keyword tool is a free way to evaluate keywords.  Another trick is to use Google Analytics to evaluate how people are finding your website in order to focus on those topics.

3. Don’t sell.

Blogs add the  most value to the website, when they complement the site, but are not sales oriented.  Don’t make the mistake of using your blog just to pitch your products.  Share information, thoughts, lists, ideas on topics that could potentially be of interest to your customers. By sharing information, you position yourself as an expert and a go-to source.

If you follow these best practices for blogging, be sure to stick to them. Like starting an exercise program or a diet, it’s only as effective as your commitment.

Filed Under: Blogging, Keyword Phrases, Marketing Metrics, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Website Optimization Tagged With: Blogging, Search Engine Optimization, Website Optimization

April 15, 2016 By Jody Raines

Online Safety: When To Beware The Invitation To Connect

Social Media SafetyRecently I received an invitation to connect to someone on Facebook.  In and of itself, this is not an unusual occurance.  Since I co-host several podcasts, and am active on Social Media, there are often people asking to be ‘friends’ who I don’t know personally, but this situation had my spidey senses tingling.

When it comes to social media safety, it helps to be cautious and look for the red flags.

There are some red flags that I noticed:

  1. The person’s name was a “gag name”.  Now this can happen, and may not be a total red flag, but if you receive a request from Seymore Bunns, or Anita Break you should most likely delve further into whether you truly want to accept this person among your connections.   In this case, the person’s name was a page turner of sorts.
  2. The profile picture and background picture are not of the person.   Again, this may not be a true indicator that the person does not exist or is not real, however, if someone is trying to be overly clever and they faked the profile, then it’s another way to detect a false profile.
  3. The profile is relatively new.   If someone has a profile that was recently created and they have a ton of ‘friends’ then be cautious if you do not recognize the name.

All three of these indicators were in place for this particular friend request, but… there was more…..

  1. All posts are memes and generic.  If there is no personal content, that’s very odd.   Every now and then, most people will post a picture of something that they are doing, or something they are eating or even a picture of their dog.  If the only posts are third party shares, that’s another suspicious characteristic.
  2. The friends that you are also connected to are primarily from similar circles.  If you notice that the unknown person who wants to friend you is connected to several people from that same circle, you should be suspicious.   Ask your friends whether htey really know the person,or whether they friended them because others were connected.  If you have friends who are numbers people and really don’t care who they accept, then it’s important to discount their response to your inquiry.
  3. Where it starts getting creepy is when the friend requester has many of your connections, but they are connected in ways that does not make sense.  For example, with this request, not only were they connected to a ton of people that I network with locally, they also were somehow connected to people that I went to High School with, and who do not live in the area.  The person also had connected to a guy I dated who now lives in another state.  The liklihood of someone knowing this same circle of people from very different points of my sphere is more like flashing beacons than red flags.   Just too much of a coincidence.

How do you handle the situation?  I reached out to a few of my friends who were connected and asked whether they knew this perons or had met the person in real life.  No one actually remembers meeting her.   I think it’s safe to say that in this instance, it’s a nefarious purpose and therefore, I will not friend the person.

You may ask what difference this makes, and I will share with you a situation in my town where someone who had been allowed to connect started stalking and victimising females.   None of the young ladies who were victims actually knew the stalker, but had accepted the person because he was a friend of their friends.

Be wary.  Be careful.  And do not post where you are going to be or what you are not going to be home. Don’t indiscriminantly friend people without knowing who they are or investigating why they wish to friend you.   Sure, it may turn out to be fine, but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Filed Under: Internet Privacy, Social Media, Social Media Connections Tagged With: social media safety

April 29, 2015 By Jody Raines Leave a Comment

How To Identify A Social Media Friend or Stalker?

Jody RainesThere seems to be a strange phenomena that is taking place and it’s a “new” way of connecting that is difficult to classify. The line between a new friend and a overly curious acquaintance has created a curious change in the way we protect or fail to protect our privacy.

The Facebook post that becomes a chat, for example, is an introduction of sorts. It’s a way that various people who may otherwise never connect, wind up discussion a topic with each other.

A few weeks ago, I was chatting about the season finale of The Walking Dead with several of my friends. As you can imagine, it was a lively post because as things happened, someone would make a comment and then others would chime in.  All was cool, until a male friend made a comment about one of my female friend’s pets.  They did not know each other, they live in different states, and their only connection to each other was through my association with both of them.   The reason this was odd – was because the woman did not have a picture of her pet on her profile photo, so my conjecture is that my male friend went to her profile page to “check her out”.

I’ve noticed several connections made this way, and most of them are harmless.   For example, a male friend of mine who is married is now connected to a female friend who has a life partner.  Although they are dichotomous extremes in a political sense, ironically their sense of humor is shared, and therefore, they connected.   I think that is kind of cool because under any other circumstance, these two people would never have ‘met’.

Another association is with a friend of mine who recently got a Siberian Husky puppy.  Just so happens another friend of mine breeds and shows Huskies.  By bringing the first person’s attention to the adorable videos of irresistable baby Huskies, he wound up connecting with my friend the breeder.  Of course this ‘friendship’ now has a life of it’s own.

Every now and then, I have a friend request from someone I don’t know.   I typically check to see how we are connected – what mutual friends we have.  In most instances, I will send off a quick note to the mutual connection to ask how they know the person and whether the individual is legitimate.   Periodically, I find that my friends have not been diligent in evaluating whether the profile is genuine.  I’ve seen several situation s where I’ve been asked to connect with someone I thought I was already connected to, only to learn that their profile picture had been used to make a ‘fake’ account that was now harvesting their friends.  A quick call to the original person may tip them off to potential fraud.

My advice is as follows:

1. Don’t post anything that is too personal or that you don’t want the world to know. Regardless of privacy settings the first rule is that NOTHING is private.

2. Periodically check your friends to determine if there are duplicates.  If you find the dupe, a little bit of research may help a friend who may be unaware that their profile was duplicated or compromised.

3. Don’t open attachments that you are not sure of.  I get these emails almost every day – an email that appears to come from a Facebook friend’s name, but it only has a link to a masked url.   These can contain trojans or viruses, so you should be absolutely cautious before clicking on them.   In fact, if you look at the name and then click on the name to see the email address it actually came from, you may be surprised it is also masked.  In other words, it’s an email from an unknown person that appears to be coming from someone you know.

4. If someone you recently connected with starts commenting on old pictures, it can be disconcerting.  Even more upsetting is they start posting pictures of you!  I had a situation recently where an individual started posting pictures of people who had deceased during the year and tagging the family indicating that they hadn’t forgotten.  In this instance, I think it was supposed to be a caring gesture, but it came across as very unsettling.

5. Be suspicious.  I know, it sounds awful, but in this day and age where profiles can be created and deleted in the blink of an eye, there are too many charlatans intent on obtaining personal information.  A healthy skepticism can save a lot of future grief.

What strange connections have you encountered?  Have you been friend requested by a clone of a friend and you caught it?  I’m curious what you are seeing, and if you have additional thoughts with regard to staying safe on social media sites.

Filed Under: Internet Privacy, Social Media, Social Media Connections Tagged With: social media awareness, social media connections, social media safety

March 11, 2015 By Jody Raines 1 Comment

Emergency communications – Search And Rescue

Emergency Communications, Public RelationsEmergency communications can be a tricky thing. For one thing, you want to be sure to protect the privacy of the victim and their family. Another consideration is that you may not know at the time you find a victim whether a crime has been committed.

When the search is conducted in concert with local police, the safe thing to do as a Public Information Officer is to defer any details to law enforcement. The last thing you want to do is to share information that the police do not want to share.

I was recently on a search with a team where the person in charge had ongoing conversations with the family of the person who was missing. These conversations were a nightly occurance, and they would (reportedly) go on for hours. Things were discussed that should be protected information, including medications the missing person was taking, and the state of mind the missing person was in shortly before becoming lost.

A staging area was set up in a parking lot near the last place that the person was seen. This staging area had two teams, but not a unified command. The reason there was no unified command is that the visiting team was the team where the person in charge had the contact with the victim’s family. He did not want to abdicate authority, or at least, that’s what he told his team. The other team was within their jurisdiction, and should have been in charge, however without establishing a clear chain of command or authority, the team members were left to ponder the pavement and contemplate the weather.

The person in charge of the first team took off, telling the team member that he would be back. He went off with a psychic. That’s the last time the team members saw the leader until later.

Ironically, the person in charge apparently decided to search by himself in an area where a shoe had been discovered the week before. Why the shoe was not catalogued or photographed or entered as evidence is probably due to the fact that it was found by two new rookie team members who had very little idea what they were looking for or how to handle clues.

In any case, the person in charge went out to review the clue (the shoe) and right where the show was found the week before was where the victim was. Unfortunately, the victim was deceased.

After alerting police and leaving the scene to reconvene and debrief, the person in charge’s phone kept ringing and ringing. He’d look at the phone, shake his head, and not answer. Eventually he indicated that it was the brother of the victim, the same person he’d been communicating with on an ongoing basis over the last few weeks with the nightly phone calls. The media had reported that the team found a person, and apparently he heard this information and wanted to know what was going on.

The person in charge continued to avoid the calls. This, in my opinion, is wrong. If he had not communicated with the family on an ongoing basis, that may be OK to not answer, however, at this point, he had established a relationship and the family was frantic for information.

What would be appropriate for him to share? The facts. No conjecture, but only what was obvious and evident, then share the way for the family to get more information, which would be through the coroners office or the detectives of law enforcement.

Understanding what is Ok to say and when it’s OK to say it is incredibly important for a PIO. Obviously, this individual did not have the background, the knowledge or the skill to handle the task.

Training a team ahead of time, with regard to who can say something and what is acceptable to share should be basic training for any search team. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Filed Under: Crisis Communications, Emergency Communications, Public Relations, Search and Rescue Tagged With: crisis communications, Emergency Communications, Public Information Officer, Public Relations, Search And Rescue

December 2, 2014 By Jody Raines

Social Media, Robin Williams, The English Language And Holidays

Social Media has a way of making you feel sad sometimes.   The posts of beautiful holidays and warm family celebrations may be more for the benefit of others than what’s true.   Consider the perceptions that we have from what we read or hear, and compare that to the reality… sometimes the way things are presented are far different than what is actually happening.

For example, listening to the news can sometimes be difficult – not only due to the content, but also due to the spin that the commentators put to the stories.   This summer, during a two day period, Lauren Bacall passed away.  The day she died, it was also reported that Robin Williams died the day before, by suicide.  The announcer who said “Robin Williams passed away” made me stop in my tracks.   Not because of his death, but because of the way they utilized the English language.   Robin Williams did not “pass away”, but he ended his life violently – apparently asphyxiating himself with a belt and a closet door.

I appreciate that many are and were surprised that the man we all thought of as a genius and incredible comic was anything but happy.  He brought laughter to millions, yet his life was more a tragedy with depression and addiction.  How sad. It’s utterly heartbreaking.

Robin Williams Pass away

Did Robin Williams pass away

But to say he “passed away” implies a quiet passing… a traveling from this life to the next.  I daresay that when someone takes their own life, it’s not a “passing”, its more a termination, an ending, a taking of the life that can never have another “act” to follow.  It’s not a “passing”.

One of my pet peeves recently is the abuse of language to share information.  I’m not sure whether this is because as I’ve gotten older, I am more cognizant of the power of words, or whether there is an inadequacy in our school systems with regard to teaching English?    Case in point, the other day I was chatting with a friend who told me that he does not like a politician because he finds his “self defecating” humor to be offensive.  Well, yes, I guess it would be.  Any politician who poops himself for a joke would be offensive.  But perhaps he meant “self deprecating”?

Another friend was sure that “irregardless” of something, he was going to do something.  I cringed.   I am sure he did not realize that  the word he meant to us is “regardless”.  Regardless means without regard.  When you add the “ir’ in front, it negates the word, so irregardless means “not without regard”.  Huh?

Ok, and then there is the person who becomes “orientated” to a new job.   Really.   Define that for me?   I think he means he was oriented.  To orientate means to turn to the East, as if in prayer… Does this then mean that every person in the new job must learn where the East is?

And just yesterday a senior staff member suggested that we “home in on our skills”.   I suspect it was honing that was required, but I could be wrong.  Perhaps we should get closer to them, as in homing in?

When I see or hear advertising copy that’s poorly written, I have the same response.   How does copy get approved when it does not make sense?

For example, a recently launched campaign by Ryder focuses on the “ER”.  What?  Who put the “ER” in Ryder?   Seriously…  and what the heck is that supposed to mean?

do-not-take-life-too-seriously-you-will-never-get-70

Another campaign makes it seem cool to have bad manners.  A young girl struts over to a lunch table at school and puts her feet up on the table wearing her brand new sneakers.  And instead of telling her what a snot she is and to get her feet off the table (did she grow up in a barn?!?) the two older kids nod knowingly.  Huh?   If anything, that’s a great reason NOT to buy anything from this store! The store, Famous Footwear thinks their add is about confidence?  Nope.  It’s about bad manners!

Bad manners can also be examplified by a football team that makes a political gesture while entering the field.   Just because someone can throw a football does not make that person any more of a role model or a patron of integrity than anone else.  Just look at Ray Rice – the player who clocked his fiance and left her laying, unconscious in an elevator.   More than likely some team will pick him up to play for them, despite the fact that the man is an abuser.   Consider also the case of Michael Vic… the man who sponsored dog fights and then who winds up playing football again.  Will we, as a nation, ever realize that to continue to sponsor and condone these despicable actors results in a generation that thinks this is normal… That suicide and “slipping away” may be the same act?

In any case, bad grammar, and bad marketing aside, it truly is a tragedy that a person so talented and clever as Robin Williams felt that there was no other option available to him other than to take his own life.  Thankfully, this brings much needed attention to the issue of depression and mental illness.  Hopefully we can help others before they take that last, final step.

Truly this was not a ‘passing’, it was a ‘taking’.   Rest in the peace that you could not find while living, Robin Williams.

The holidays are difficult times for those who find themselves without family or friends.   Reach out to others and invite them to spend the holidays with you, especially if you know they may be alone.

If you or someone  you know may have thoughts of hurting themself,  call a depression hotline. If you are not having suicidal thoughts, you may wonder if how you feel warrants a crisis call. It doesn’t hurt to call, and it doesn’t cost anything, so pick up the phone and make the call. No one will judge you, and you won’t feel like you are wasting anyone’s time with your problems. Many of the counselors are volunteers, so they do this because they enjoy helping others, not because they are being paid to do it.

Resources for Depression:

  • http://www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org/
  • National hotline — 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
  • National Alliance on Mental Illness — (800) 950-NAMI (6264)

Suicide

  • Suicide Hotline  1-800-SUICIDE
  • National Suicide Prevention Helpline  1-800-273-TALK
  • National Adolescent Suicide Hotline  1-800-621-4000

Depression

  • Postpartum Depression  1-800-PPD-MOMS
  • Veterans  1-877-VET2VET

All Types of Crisis (Compiled from multiple sources)

  • United Way Helpline  1-800-233-HELP
  • Youth America Hotline  1-877-YOUTHLINE (1-877-968-8454)
  • Covenant House Nine-Line (Teens)  1-800-999-9999
  • The Trevor Helpline (For homosexuality questions or problems)  1-800-850-8078
  • Depression Hotline: 1-630-482-9696
  • Suicide Hotline: 1-800-784-8433
    LifeLine: 1-800-273-8255
    Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386
    Sexuality Support: 1-800-246-7743
    Eating Disorders Hotline: 1-847-831-3438
    Rape and Sexual Assault: 1-800-656-4673
    Grief Support: 1-650-321-5272
    Runaway: 1-800-843-5200, 1-800-843-5678, 1-800-621-4000
    Exhale: After Abortion Hotline/Pro-Voice: 1-866-4394253
  • The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (suicidepreventionlifeline.org) is a 24-hour, toll-free, confidential suicide prevention hotline available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress.[10][11]
  •  The Trevor Project (thetrevorproject.org) is a nationwide organization that provide crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth.[12
  • Boys Town: This is an email option for youths and their parents. Turnaround time is usually 24-48 hours.
  • Crisis Chat: Talk about stress and other problems anonymously and get non-judgmental support.
  • IMAlive: Speak with a volunteer online without having to wait for an emailed reply.

Filed Under: Crisis Communications, Inspirational Quotes Tagged With: crisis management, Jody Raines, setting marketing goals

May 13, 2014 By Jody Raines 2 Comments

Redesigning The Home Page? 8 Common Website Mistakes To Avoid

Home page redesign, website redesignRedesigning the Website Homepage can result in greatly improved conversions when done well.  The first trick is finding a website designer who understands inbound marketing.    The process should begin with an evaluation of your existing online marketing campaign as well as your website to ensure that all  components work together in an effective and coordinated way.

What, you don’t have an online marketing strategy?  

The parts of an online campaign are critical to assuring your ongoing brand development and business success.  Not only is your website the foundation, it is also the most important asset because it is the one online asset that you have almost complete control over.  Unlike any social networking channel online, the website content is added or changed under your own direction.  Other than the search engine, such as Google, introducing new algorithms, your website is the mainstay of your online marketing program.   Even with those changes,  if you are following Google Best Practices, you will never be hurt by an algorithm change.

What’s wrong with the website?

If you don’t know how your website is performing, you won’t know how to fix it.  Without any analytics, you are operating in the dark.  Having a track record to improve gives you a benchmark.  If you don’t know what is going on with your site, if you have no clue how many visits you have on a monthly, daily, weekly basis, how will you know if your site is performing?  One fundamental mistake many web designers make is to look only at the aesthetics of the site without understanding whether it is effective.

If you don’t know anything about the types of visits you have, how many there are, what your bounce rate is  or why your visitors are leaving, you should absolutely install tracking to assure that you have this information.   Tracking can be done using Google Analytics, which is a wonderful (and free) tool, or can be accomplished by installing one of a number of software solutions including Moz (formerly SEOmoz), Hubspot, Raventools, etc.

Why Change The HOME Page Of Your Website?

The goal of a website redesign should be to improve your conversions.  That is the to improve the website in such a way as to appeal more appropriately to the audience who is interested in your services.  To do this, you will need to be able to be found, by the right prospects or potential customers for the right reasons.

Improving the design of your HOME page goes beyond the “look and feel” of the website.  It’s making the HOME page the doorway to the information that your customers are seeking.

Some companies decide to “redesign due organizational change”.  In the case of an aquisition or merger,  redesign may be necessary to re-brand the “new” emerging entity.   The HUGE mistake that is typically made is to hire a web development company to do a new website, and in the process they are blowing up both the pre-existing sites and starting from scratch.  The new site has no authority, no credibility and no inbound links.  The old URLs which may have been out there for years are sometimes discarded,  and are then available to be picked up by a offshore scavenger who will build a site to take advantage of whatever SEO juice is left, and then re-direct those visitors, potentially to your competition!   Why not salvage the domain, the goodwill, the existing “SEO juice”, to redirect to the newly branded website?   Apparently there are  “web designers” or “website developers” who do not have a clue what destruction they have done by creating the new, beautiful website, and as the business owner, you are relying upon their expertise.

Don’t make these mistakes.   Before moving to a new website design, be sure your web developer is following these best practices by avoiding these 8 website design or website redesign mistakes.  :

  1. Indexable content.  Having a beautiful website with complex graphic design may make the CEO very happy.  Unfortunately, many of the beautiful website designs are not created with SEO in mind.  If you see pictures that include words, this is not the same as a search engine sees it.  In fact, you can read ‘content’ that is a picture.  Search engines cannot.  I had one client who did not understand why her website was not ranking for her most important keyword until I pointed out to her that most of the instances of her keyword were in a graphic form.  Another new client came to me with a recently re-designed website that has zero authority.  The company had been around for over ten years, but in creating the new design, the principals had decided to use an acronym as the new URL.  Unfortunately, no one realized to redirect the old URL and no mention of the old company name was even on the page!  This certainly does not help clients find the website, but also, it just threw away all of the old sites authority.   The bottom line, make sure your website is indexible and that your keywords are content, not images.
  2. Keywords.   One of the most critical things that I work with for my clients are discovering the best keywords for their product or service.  By keywords, it’s important to forgo the jargon and figure out what words your customers and prospects use to find you.  Believe it or not, while it’s noble to assume that you can educate an audience to discovering what you mean when you have created or coined a new phrase… you probably do not have enough money in your marketing budget to make that make sense.  It makes marketing so much easier and organic to use the phrases your customer’s use to refer to what you do.  Also, ask your sales team what is imporatnt to your customers.  If you can address what a prospect is searching, you are more likely to show up in that prospect’s search results.  Ditch that jargon!
  3. Load time.  Beautiful images are nice, but if the file is too large, the site load time is longer.  Not only does Google penalize long load times, your customer is unlikely to hang out and wait to see the magnificence that your web designer has created.  Nope.  In this day and age of instant everything, we (your audience) want to see what we want to see when we want to see it.  We are not waiting. If your site takes too long to load because its too graphic heavy, we are on to your competitor’s site.  Don’t expect loyalty from a web search.
  4. Clean message. By clean message, what I mean is that your HOME page is not cluttered and confusing.  It should be clean.  In print advertising we used to refer to the ‘clean’ness as “white space”.  There is no need to create multiple images that fight for a viewer’s attention.  To the contrary, the site should have a clear idea before its created as to where the viewers eye should travel and what makes sense for that visual message.  If your site is too busy and disorganized, you are not sharing a clean message.
  5. Clear message.  Now that we have discussed the visual path, let’s make sure that the message that a visitor to our website can absorb.  Don’t make the message obtuse or too clever – if you do, your visitor will hop away to the next website just as quickly.  I worked with one client who insisted that they wanted their website to look like a whiteboard and they spent a lot of time and money to have the visual elements designed for that theme.  What was missing was the message of what they actually do.  They are a printing company, and if you dig, you can find that out.  Of course, that was a huge challenge to overcome by optimizing the content.  The message ideally should be obvious when someone lands on your site as to what you offer and what you do.  If it’s not, go back to the drawing board and rethink your concept. Don’t try to be overly cute. It just doesn’t work.
  6. Contact info.  One of the biggest mistakes I see is when contact information is buried in a website on the contact page. Sure, it’s a great place to have your contact information, but why not feature a good way to contact you on every page of your website.  One of the most effective websites I have worked on has a contact us box on everypage that is coded to indicate what page the lead came from.  This website has hundreds of leads on an ongoing basis.   Understanding that you should not make someone work through multiple clicks to get in touch is critical to conversions.
  7. Clear Call To Action.  So now your website can be discovered, you have a remarkable design that is indexible for the righ keywords, and traffic is through the roof!  You are still not done.  High traffic to your website does not necessarily correlate into business in your cash register.  You must build a clear, call-to-action that suggests what the next steps should be for your prospect.
  8. Branding.  Above all, keep in mind that every piece of your marketing campaign including your website should reflect appropriate branding messages.  Whether your brand is identifiable by color, font, graphic identity, cutting humor, be sure to be consistent across all platforms, including and especially your website.  If you have inconsistent collateral, you are wasting an opportunity to share and reinforce your branding identity.   By having all the pieces of the puzzle work in unison, you are reinforcing the message and increasing the potential for your message to be identified easily.   Use the same font, logo, colors and messaging across all social media platforms as well as your website, print collateral and any brochures or advertising that you do.  Keep the tone of all the collateral consistent as well and your marketing dollars will work harder for you.
What mistakes have you seen in website or homepage redesign?  Are you considering a refresh and would like some advise?  Give us a call or share your experience…

Filed Under: Keyword Phrases, Marketing Metrics, Product Branding, Website Credibility, Website Design, Website Optimization Tagged With: Branding, Search Engine Optimization, setting marketing goals, Website Design, Website Optimization

April 10, 2014 By Jody Raines

Quotable Stuff | Sharable Stuff | Motivational Stuff

Success

Enjoy your coffee

Housework Humor

Jody Raines
WebMarCom
President
Jody Raines shares motivational sayings to uplift and inspire.
US

Filed Under: Fun Stuff, Inspirational Quotes, Motivational Quotes

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