For April 2010, I chose to create this Linkedin Poll as a way to remind you all that Social Media can be an incredibly powerful tool to all businesses, but at what cost? Many people take Social Media and Social Networking for granted. A huge misconception about Social Media is that it’s only for tweeting what you just ate or posting a cute photo of your kid’s first steps. Can it be used for these purposes? Of course. You can technically do whatever the heck you want…it’s your profile and your space. Here’s the real question, “Is anyone listening to you?”

If your Social Media campaign is not bringing in sales…you are doing something wrong. Keep in mind, this should be seen as a long term project…unless you have a brand name that people already know. It doesn’t matter if you sell high end jewelry, a live chat service, or whatever. If it’s not done properly or orchestrated to a certain degree, then all the time you spent was a complete waste of time. I have personally seen so many of my clients come to me and ask me what they are doing wrong and usually it’s as simple as; content creation, post frequency, and content relevance.

You can’t just post photos all the time. I’m sure they are nice to look at, but Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. just can’t read the context of a photo. They may say a picture is worth 1000 words, but not to search engines. (of course if you tag your photos correctly, then that is a different story…of which is for another article.) You need content and lots of it. Posting only once a year in not the way to gain followers or fans and posting every 5 seconds will most likely mark you as a Spammer. And no one likes a Spammer now do they? Most importantly in my opinion is relevance. Your content should be about your business and should use keywords or phrases that relate to what you do or sell. Using your Facebook business page to chatter about what you did last night is not going to get you more customers…unless that is what is relevant to your business and people follow you for your perspective on night clubs or something.

Basically, think of your profile as a unique website that you have to optimize so that other people who think like you will be able to connect to you. This is why so many companies are not getting the response they are looking for with Social Media. The most important thing to do when starting in Social Media is just listen. Read the tweets. View the profiles. Look for patterns in how people communicate. Your audience is out there and they are looking for you. Are you sending out the right message and is it effective? Is your time being spent wisely. If not, then you need to re-evaluate, revamp, and reconnect.

Take my poll and let me know what you think.

There is a ton of information out there, when it comes to internet marketing and to be candid, most of it is crap. You have a gazillion self-proclaimed GURUs or EXPERTS that will tell you the “right” way to market your website online. Oh…but you have buy one of their online seminars in order to get their help. That’s their business. They sell hope just like hair tonic salesmen did for bald men in late 19th century. I have a news flash for you and your stress filled follicles…save your money and your hairline. There isn’t just one “right” way of achieving online marketing success. A seasoned SEM [Search Engine Marketing] professional will tell you that every approach must be unique and best suited for that business. No two SEM campaigns should ever be the same because the results will always vary from business to business. The Internet changes so rapidly that even the pros have a hard time keeping up with technology. With the growing trend of do-it-yourself style type of mindsets out there, many business owners want to take full advantage of all the incredible technology available on the internet, but few know where to begin. The following are 9 truly important aspects to think about before starting your own internet marketing campaign for your business. Ignorance is your worst enemy and perspective is your greatest ally online!

Time: The very first and most important aspect to consider is your time. Simply put, do you have the time to invest in managing various types of accounts across the internet? Or have the time to sit and develop intelligent SEM articles that are relevant to your business? Do you have the time to do the research? Can you really keep up with Social Media trends and postings? Can you really spend extra hours reviewing data, going back and forth, comparing, contrasting, and forecasting. Oy Vey! Trust me, the list about time goes on and on. Time is one thing you can never get back in life, so make sure you spend it wisely. Do you think your time online with internet marketing is used effectively?

Effort: Building upon the aspect of time, something that is often overlooked and is difficult to sometimes quantify when considering an internet marketing campaign is the effort that goes into it. Was the time spent worth? Internet marketing isn’t always PPC (Pay-Per-Click), PPI (Pay-Per-Impression), or based on paid search. There is another side of internet marketing that is much more subtle and deceptively illusive to the laymen. Quantification of this type of effort can be tricky. Usually a decent Organic SEM campaign involving content laden articles that are posted around the internet takes roughly 1 – 3 months to get indexed by major search engines and thus useful to said SEM campaign. Paid search is instant. You pay money, your ad shows up somewhere. You stop paying money, the ad goes bye bye. So effort is a major consideration. Is the effort you’re pouring into this going to be worth it?

Objectivity: This aspect is what can separate a novice from a professional. It might sound crazy, but certain things you might have taken as a truth might hurt you in the long run when marketing your own business online. Who knows your business better than you, right? Not quite. In the overall scheme of things, yes, you know your business better than anyone else, but when it comes to effective and highly calculated writing of SEM articles you might be writing the same thing over and over and over again and not even realize it. It’s always better to write things in the 3rd person. It’s quite rare to see a quality SEM article written in the 1st person. That is what Facebook is for! So being objective about your business is imperative. It’s not an easy task to think differently about yourself and/or your business consistently. Do you have the ability to step back and gain a larger perspective for internet marketing and your business?

Knowledge: Here is something to think about, do you even know what you are doing? Knowledge is essential to an incredible internet marketing campaign. Managing paid search accounts, writing articles, updating social media sites, and having a finger on the pulse of the internet is not an easy thing to keep up with. There are new things happening everyday that you need to be aware of and take into consideration. Do you know what keywords are relevant to your website? Do you know the demographic breakdown of who is visiting your site based upon age, sex, race, wealth, etc.? Do you know how to start and manage a Google Adwords account? It literally does not end. The more you know, the more you have to fuel and direct your marketing campaign in the right direction for your website. Do you know your business and internet marketing well enough to start your own campaign?

Writing Ability: This may sound silly to ask, but do you know how to articulate your knowledge of your business into articles, keywords, sponsored ads properly, etc.? So many people take huge liberties in their daily lives when it comes to writing. Grammar is usually the first rule to be thrown out of the window. Followed by spelling, punctuation, and context. It’s one thing to have a great idea, it’s another thing to be able to effectively communicate that idea into words, which then will be read by others. Luckily, most modern computers are equipped with MS Word or a reasonable facsimile. These programs have spell check, grammar check, punctuation correction, etc., but they can’t catch every mistake. If you misspell a word or put things out of context, your readers might scratch their heads and say, “Why should I take this seriously, when they didn’t take the time to read over what they wrote.” Put yourself in the reader’s point of view. What would you do if you read something that had errors all over the place? Would you keep reading? Would you respect the author or editor slightly less? Would you dismiss their content consciously or worse subconsciously?

Expectations: I like to call this next one, the quantum aspect. In Quantum Theory, there can be an infinite number of potential results or choices made for any given moment for; electrons, atoms, molecules, dogs, cats, You, Myself, Space, Time, etc. Yes, theoretically as crazy as it sounds, on a quantum level even electrons can make decisions that can alter reality. With that being said, there are an infinite number of outcomes and choices that you, the business owner, could make along the way. It’s important to set realistic primary goals as well as long term phases that encompass a broader context of initiative and imagination. Internet marketing has so many possibilities and potential outcomes. Some million dollar questions could be; What are you looking to achieve? Will this increase my profits or my overhead? Could I do this more efficiently and/or effectively?

Analysis: This is usually the part that business owners loathe. Going over data can be tedious and time consuming. Arghhhh! More time spent going over stuff about other stuff and how it relates to other stuff, which leads to the analysis of said stuff to make clearer and more informed decisions about future stuff. Analysis doesn’t have to be an impossible mission. Knowing what works and what won’t will maximize your time and effort as well as help get you home in time for dinner. Every business wants the same thing, which is to make money. Data analysis and the proper follow up will shape and mold an internet marketing campaign into an incredibly effective and proven tool. The main issue with analysis is where to start and where to stop. What concrete conclusions can be established by addressing and analyzing relevant data to your site? And so on…and so on. There are literally thousands of ways to analyze data. However you do it, the important thing is getting what you need to make the campaign work more effectively. The tough part is knowing which questions to ask.

Passion: It can be a blessing or a curse. When a business owner is too passionate about his/her business, it could eat away at his/her professional and private lives. Spending long hours in the office or sitting at home doing research away from family, friends, etc. It chips away at relationships. It’s not healthy to obsess over something, no matter what form it takes. The inability to allow any outside perspective whatsoever could do more harm than good. There is also the complete opposite, indifference. When a business owner is passionless about his/her business, they may pass the responsibility to someone who may not be qualified. What typically happens within a company is that a micro power vacuum is created. Someone gets to control an important part within the company because the owner is so far removed from the daily particulars of business and may not know of anything that is happening at all. Not only will the main goals not get focused on, but precious company time, effort, resources, and money would be spent in vain. That’s going on the assumption that an indifferent owner would even have the epiphany to even start a SEM campaign. Any of these scenario can’t be good by any stretch of the imagination. So, it’s hard to quantify the right amount of drive or passion required for any business’ online marketing needs. Knowing how to use your passion as a rudder to navigate and having the humility to listen to others is key. A campaign will dramatically improve because the results and the analysis will be more focused. Do you know how to apply your passion?

Money: Ahhhh…Money. Money, money, money. It’s the driving force to open up shop in the morning. It’s the very essence of business and commerce! Everything always comes down to this point; the bottom line. These days, everyone is trying to squeeze blood from a stone. Pinching pennies when it comes to proper placement online is not acceptable. Showing up organically on page thirty-one instead of page one will net you absolutely ZERO new leads. In fact, I would go as far as to say that if you are not in the top four organically, then you are toast. With the proper budget any business can create a fairly robust SEM campaign that can grow and change with time and analysis. At the same time spending $10,000 a week on PPC ads is completely insane! There is a happy medium. It can be tough to not only find it, but to stay on track. Think about this: With all of the previous aspects considered, is it worth it to do everything on you own?.

In closing, from time-to-effort-to-objectivity-to-knowledge-to-writing ability-to-expectations-to-analysis-to-passion-to-money…take time to fully contemplate what it is your looking to achieve. Then weigh your options and create a simple pros and cons list. Compare the benefits to the potential downfalls of doing something on your own or hiring a trained professional or a firm to get the job done for you. It’s entirely plausible that you or your current staff could handle certain SEM, Social Media, or follow up tasks, but the increase in workload may or may not create friction and/or lackluster results. Just as the boss may not understand what he/she is doing, the employees may have even less of an idea. Unless you have a competent in-house staff that strictly handles internet marketing, it’s almost impossible to do everything yourself. Many companies can’t afford any new hires in light of the current economic climate. It truly is a contemporary internet conundrum that modern business owners face everyday. The real question is; What is everything worth to you?

[As an ethical disclaimer to you the reader, this article is not meant as a direct or indirect advertisement for any of my particular knowledge, skills, and / or services. I am a professional internet marketing consultant with years of experience helping individuals, businesses, and groups to achieve a higher level of online ROI with internet marketing.]

I just posted a new poll over at my Linkedin account; Which form of Internet Marketing is most conducive to your business model? (Paid Search vs. Organic Search)

It’s important before starting any type of campaign to know where to focus your business’ attention to. There has always been a great debate as to whether or not a business should place significant emphasis to a paid search campaign or to an organic search campaign.

I have always said, that in the long run, a well thought out SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plan is much more cost effective and efficient. For many companies this really isn’t the perfect solution or even an option as quality SEO takes time (somtimes 1-3 months) to be indexed by many or most search engines. SEO is great in getting the main website indexed and organically ranked hirer.

Paid search is great for when time is short and every advertising dollar can be quantified to one degree or another. If a marketing campaign runs for a week or 1 month and the business wants to gauge the response…the best bet is paid search with the landing page being a unique microsite catered to that widget being advertised. The main focus would be either direct sales or lead generation for 3rd party sales.

Either way, the important thing is to know how and when use the proper keywords and content that are relevant to your website.

Take the poll and let me know what your opinion is.

How can I say this succinctly? Of course it is! How can you NOT do internet marketing? The real question is: What is the right way to market your business online?

That is the 1 trillion dollar question…or is it?

A successful internet marketing campaign can be as illusive and enigmatic to a small business owner as finding the fabled needle in the hay stack. Plus, between the myriad of techniques, applications, and options available, there are many that are apprehensive it will cost them an arm and a leg or that they will have to work harder in some way or another. Still others worry about the basics like: wasting valuable company time and money, while others are vigilant of being scammed. All of these qualms and more are real and valid.

I wish I could say that internet marketing will always be easy or that one thing that worked incredibly well for one company will do exactly the same thing for another, but I can’t. There are few guarantees in any kind of marketing. It’s not an exact science, but the key is to keep a finger on the pulse of change. The important things to have are: data, imagination, perspective, and most of all passion.

A truly kick-ass online marketing strategy starts with an honest conversation between the business and the business owner(s). The days of licking thumbs and holding them up to the wind for market direction are truly over. I’ll put it to you this way, if Charles Darwin himself, were somehow alive today and needed a new profession outside of the realm of biological science, he’d be an internet marketing consultant or analyst.

But seriously, all metaphors aside; real internet marketing, when properly planned and precisely executed for a given business will actually pay for itself and then some over time. There is working harder…and then there is working smarter.

Have a question about something or need advice?

Skype me:

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere in the middle of nowhere, you have heard of LinkedIn.

It’s one of the largest and most popular professional social networks on the planet. Recently, LinkedIn relaunched their website with a completely fresh and friendly perspective. It looks and feels so much more organic and “now” or contemporary. Upgrades to searching, commenting, connecting, and much more have solidified it’s place as the “black and white” tuxedo of the Social Media world.

With progress comes unexpected “surprises” that most people are not aware of or even know how to ask to become aware. One of which could be considered disturbing to some who value their personal privacy and to others who could most likely care less. Are you asking yourself, “What is the “surprise” you speak of, Andrew?”

Well, here it is.

I recently noticed that LinkedIn now tracks your every click. We all know that every action of a click means something, to someone, somewhere. Here’s the catch…when you surf their site and you click to read someone’s profile or do anything…the URL will change. So far doesn’t sound too odd or off…right? I mean, technically speaking, every page you visit on any site is a unique URL that is within another URL. Well, watch what happens when you check out another person’s profile just after viewing something on a previous profile page you were on. The URL now includes that action as part of the URL and so on and so forth. So eventually LinkedIn will be able to backtrack everything you do on their site. Concerned yet? Many are.

I completely understand why LinkedIn would want to have it this way. A great reason would be to keep track of Spammers that have recently infiltrated LinkedIn like termites to wood. LinkedIn would be able to see how many profiles someone has looked at and how often they are sending email out to people outside their own network. Spamming is becoming such a problem on LinkedIn because anyone can open an account and claim to be someone from a company that either exists or doesn’t exist. It’s really getting bad and if you are on LinkedIn as often as I am…you’ll know what I am talking about. It’s terrible.

Another good reason they are doing this, in my opinion, is to help out with relevance and ratios. Just because a profile has the right keywords now, doesn’t mean it’ll be relevant and you will show up on the first page of LinkedIn anymore. (again this is only my theory.) It does make sense if you think about it. An algorithm based on keyword search, click through ratios, and possibly even amount of time spent on that page. Many new aspects of ephemeral data are becoming more and more relevant to LinkedIn.

So it’s up to you the viewer to decide whether this new LinkedIn layout and functionality makes for better business or for a Big Brother complex. I suppose it all depends on what side of the aisle you are on: are you on LinkedIn to indeed link in with other professionals or are you a Spammer on the verge of getting caught? heh.

One thing is for sure, LinkedIn is an amazing Social Media tool, that when used properly can be incredibly profitable.

[Side note:] I have suggestions for LinkedIn and how they can make their site even more incredible.

1. Live Chat software in realtime to connect with that person whose profile you are viewing.

2. Private Conference chat rooms where people need a code to get in.

3. ClickToTalk technology, where someone can click a connect button and that person would be called on their cell phone or work phone.

The benefits to these ideas include: Instantly discuss ideas, presentations, make deals, ask questions, customer service, etc.

At least once a week I get asked, ” What is the difference between automated live chat and having a real 24/7 live chat agent for online customer service?” My response is always the same:

Imagine calling a business on the phone and you’re instantly put into an automated phone system. They usually give you a list of options that always takes forever to go through. Or my personal favorite, it allows you to say where you want to go, only to ask you if you meant something else. And of course, luck would have it and it would transfer you to the wrong extension and your blood pressure rises rapidly. Even if you press “0″ or say “Operator”, you’re still put on hold…but again, somehow in someway, something usually doesn’t go right. The reason why? It’s automated and you cannot reason with a bunch of circuits.

Now think of the complete antithesis.

You call a different business and to your surprise an actual person answers the phone. They say hello. You say hello. They ask you, how can they help. You respond, with your intended goal of ascertaining information on a product or a service that they offer. You get what you are looking for. You say thank you. They say thank you. In a nutshell, you’re having a conversation, a real conversation between two living and breathing human beings.

The odds are that the person that went through the automated system may or may not have gotten the information that they were looking for and therefore may or may not use that service or buy that product in the future. While the other person whose call got answered by a real person will more likely have gotten the information needed in a shorter amount of time and will more likely do business with that company.

The key is to have a reliable instant contact solution.

Now make the metaphorical leap with me from making a phone call to logging onto a website. In my eyes, there isn’t a single ounce of difference besides the fact they are two different types of contact points. The result is the same.

When you log onto a website, you don’t want to wander around looking for the correct content. The content should come to you organically, and not from automated means. Just like calling a phone number, when logging onto a site you want to speak to or live chat with a real person that is knowledgeable. You want to efficiently get the content and then get off the site. No one wants to waste their own time meandering about.

Websites that have a 24/7 live chat agent are much more likely to convert a site visitor into a lead or sale. Without the agent there a website is just like an answering machine; automated and void of humanity.

LiveChatAgent Version 5.2 Released:

LiveChatAgent Version 5.2 is now available.

What’s new, you say? Well…there are 2 main new features. In addition there are a number of performance improvements and bug fixes:

1. Remote Control
Our LiveChat software can now offer your visitors the option of a full desktop-sharing remote control session during a chat session. If the visitor accepts the remote control invitation, you will be able to see and control the visitor’s desktop. The visitor can watch what you are doing and use the mouse & keyboard also. Remote Control can be used to help visitors complete checkout pages, or for any sort of PC remote support. Remote Control is an optional add-on for all versions of LiveChatAgent. Please contact me if you would like to know more about the Remote Control option.

2. Salesforce Integration
Finally, at long last, you can now add visitors from LiveChatAgent to your Salesforce CRM system. You can also add chat transcripts & call-backs to new or existing contacts. Salesforce Integration is available as standard with our LiveChatAgent solutions.

Upcoming Developments
There is a Silverlight version of LiveChatAgent that is currently being worked on. This will work in or out of browser on all Silverlight platforms. (Windows, Mac, Linux, Mobile etc)

Here is a perfect metaphor for you to envision and think about:

Paid Advertising, in all it’s guises (PPC, PPI, SEO, SEM), can get you to the front door…but when the customer rings the door bell…who’se going to answer and invite them in?

Meaning, all the ads and pay per clicking and SEM can be great and all, but if there isn’t a REAL live person monitoring that website 24/7/365 your site abandonment rate will continue to be sky high. I don’t care what kind of content is on the site. With the proper use of a 24/7 live chat agent, visitors can get on your site…get the information they need…and then get off.

Rule #1: No one wants to be on a website for longer than 5 minutes, unless they are on a site for Breaking News, XXX, etc. When it comes to gathering information like a new car or house paint, many businesses struggle with the cancer and scourge of site abandonment. The cure is having the right live chat technology on the site that is monitored 24 hours a day by a staff that is trained to answer just like you would answer when you are at work.

Here’s a little bit of reality. You have to figure that most people don’t visit a business’ website during the day, until they get home from work. Sometimes it’s even later than that, like after dinner time. By that time, most businesses have already closed for the evening and no one can even answer the telephone if someone calls in with questions.

So it becomes this sick rat race for some people to try to cut out sometime to fit their busy lives into the dealership’s schedule. That is a ridiculous way of doing business.

With 24/7 coverage on your site, you gain the upper hand of having the unique ability to interact with visitors at literally, the point of sale. But wait, it gets better.

Ever heard of ClickToTalk?

ClickToTalk technology enables the end user to bridge a direct phone conversation with the business via the website. Now having ClickToTalk technology is great and all, but afterhours if no one is there to answer that it’s pointless to have it in the first place. However, if you had agents answering the calls that come in afterhours, they can be transcribed and emailed to any recipient.

So you see, doing the proper follow through is imperative with your site’s visitors, in the daytime and even more importantly,  afterhours!

With less and less advertising revenue going towards all forms of Old Media and more going towards Social Media and SEO/SEM, business owners have had to adapt. I have a 2 part question:

1. Over the next 2 – 5 years, how much emphasis will any business put into their online presence?

2. If almost all your customers have visited your site at one point or another, how important would it be to have 24/7/365 online support?

Live chat support that could: Answer FAQ’s and relieve the phone burden on in house staff, book rooms, connect a ClickToTalk instant phone call between the end user and the hotel staff (while the customer is still surfing the site.), process realtime feedback on hotel experience, etc…

The business of business has changed. What will you do to evolve?

Whew! After many hours of testing and retesting our system. The issue has been resolved. This is the first and only time that this has happened. What was the issue? Well…if you just need to know:

It turns out there was a glitch in my VOIP phone from a power surge from a storm the night before.

I had to do some fancy foot work, but we’re up and running.

So feel free to connect with me now. No, I mean it, right now. Call me with the Click To Talk button. If you have any questions about: LiveChatAgent, ClickToTalk, Social Media, Social Netowrking, SEO, SEM, Google Analytics, Dashboards, Site Abandonment Rates, CRM systems, Online Marketing, Internet Search, Keywords, etc., feel free to contact me. I’ll be more than happy to answer your questions and/or lead you to the right direction for your business.