Top 3 Internet Priorities for Small Business

After I got on my soapbox for a minute about how small business should use the Internet more effectively, Patti Mason asked me what are the first three things a small business should manage on the Internet.

I was talking with “Independent Damsel Pro” Patti Mason from Damsel in Defense. Patti was the guest speaker at our

Listening to Patti Mason at the Mastermind Network Lunch

Mastermind Business Networking lunch this afternoon. I was already self-conscious about having passionately launched into a monologue on small business and the Internet and was ready to turn over the floor.  But Patti seemed earnest in her question. I sputtered my answer in as close as I could come to a Tweet.  Here’s a slightly longer version:

Be Informative

You have to have a website with informative content that addresses the needs of your targeted client.  Graphic design is content’s chaperone, making sure it is findable, visible and readable (or heard or seen). But your ongoing energy is in the content you publish.

Be Verifiable

Your digital reputation envelops you. This may be good or bad for society and our remaining privacy.  I don’t know. But right now chances are there is a great deal online about you and your business. Your clients want to know that working with you is a risk-free transaction.  Claim your profiles and manage them. If you have ratings, acknowledge them.

Be Engaged

Business referral is such a significant source of new business. Leverage this power online. Consume and acknowledge the content produced by others. Share what you can of your own. And be authentic.

The best platform in which to be engaged will depend on your business. It may be LinkedIn or Pinterest. It could be Facebook or YouTube. You have to investigate and experiment. Don’t accept anybody’s Top X Social Media list.

What do you think?

So how close to your list is my Top 3 Internet Priorities for Small Business? Let me know.

About Damsel in Defense
Damsel in Defense is about equipping women with the tools to not only keep them safe but also to give them the confidence to know that they have a way out if they ever feel threatened.

Thanks to Robert McCormick for the use of his photos originally posted on Mastermind Business Networking Lake County Facebook page.

 

Do You Do SEO?

The inevitable question, “Do you do SEO?”

“Yes.” I answer tentatively.

The do-you-do-SEO question is a heavily laden cargo ship launched years ago in the even more primitive era of the Internet. The bounty it carries is comprised of great expectations, misunderstandings and broken promises freighted by a crew of charlatans. Now there is an indictment!

If you think SEO, more accurately known as search engine optimization, is something your business needs, take a moment to consider the following:

Marry Your SEO

SEO is not a one-night stand. Sure, there are some pretty simple quick fixes. But optimization is an ongoing process that can go on, well, till death do us part.

Return on Investment

An SEO campaign will demand a budget. Therefore, the best – and perhaps only – SEO initiative that should be undertaken requires a clearly identifiable metric of performance success. Usually this performance is based on some kind of action such as creating a lead, a download or a sale. What it is not measured by is the prominence of a specific keyword phrase. This metric of success must be applied against the cost of the entire effort to produce a Cost Per Action.

Content is (sigh) King

Look, if you want to be found, you’ve got to offer something for which people are looking. Read that again. And what are people looking for? Answers. Answers to their problem. They are not looking for your hyperbolic marketing speak. They are not searching for your awards. They want good content in the form of text, images, videos and audio. Yes, all of these media. And new stuff regularly.

Social Media Helps

Social media is content. Sometimes (usually?) it is vacuous cat memes and moody slogans. But done right, social media is a well-stocked river of catch and release (to others) content. An effective SEO campaign includes a vibrant social media initiative. They go hand in hand.

Your Website Sucks

Maybe yes. Maybe no. But chances are there will be changes made to your website so that your valuable content can be properly digested by the Great Google, its Court of affiliates and the BingYahooAOL search engine challengers. Some of this is content. Some of it is technology configurations.

If you are interested in marketing your business on the Internet, I can help. Do I do SEO? Yes, maybe. The real question is, “Do you know what you’re looking to accomplish?”

3 Things Lawyers And Law Firms Should Do Online

At a dinner conversation on a trip wholly unrelated to legal marketing or the Internet, the wife of a BigLaw partner whose son was also a BigLaw partner prompted me to identify three things law firms and lawyers should do on the Internet.

I had been talking in generalities about digital marketing and she wanted specifics. It was a great question and, wanting to appear brilliant, I stumbled out a response. My answer was brief and, in reflection, on target. But I felt the good question deserved a response more thorough than the quick witted one I shouted over the mealtime din. This is what I answered – the longer version:

One: Claim and Manage Profiles

This seemingly innocent task seems to be fraught with fear, misunderstanding and ignorance. In fact it is strategic, protective and opportunistic. Few firms or lawyers do this effectively. The participation tasks are assigned to administrative people and the “marketing department.” It is far more than populating one’s LinkedIn profile with the same undifferentiated bio that appears on the website. Content from profiles are increasingly becoming re-purposed as the web grows increasingly social and apps and sites become interconnected.

Two: Create Content

Successful professional service providers must create content to be effective marketers. Lawyers perceive marketing as sales and sales as dirty. Nothing replaces the business development value of one personally networking in places where clients reside such as causes, country clubs, the symphony and skyboxes. But publishing authoritative content can often be the deal breaker for selecting one lawyer or firm over another. My data is anecdotal but it has grown steadily over the entire time I’ve been serving this industry. An entire industry has grown up around content marketing and there is a good reason for that. It works.

Lawyers, of course, are busily yolked into billable hour requirements. Many are reluctant to share the knowledge they believe they should sell. Publishing in a regulated industry is a challenge. And the layers of review and approval can make it difficult if not impossible to produce timely content. I get it. That’s why cutting through all these obstacles and consistently producing informative non-promotional content makes the successful ones stand out.

Three: Publish Effective Websites

Websites provide a powerful opportunity to really make or blow the firm’s brand. Firms spend 100 of thousands of dollars on their websites. Yet in an annually conducted study of the AmLaw 100 “10 Foundational Website Best Practices”, 75% of firms were rated fair or poor. It is astonishing that they can’t get it right.

Why is this? First, the lawyers get in the way of the marketers. They believe themselves to be experts on design. Their lawyer-staffed web committees can only agree on the color blue. They want to be the same as [fill in the blank] law firm. Moreover, they have a strong tendency to listen to marketers who are also lawyers**. Better they should be talking to marketers whose clients resemble the law firm client and not themselves. Unless all they want to hear is an echo, which seems to be the case.

Did I get this right? If not, what three things top your list?

** There are some excellent marketers who are also lawyers. But being a lawyer is not a prerequisite for offering good legal marketing advice.

I’m Invited to Publish on LinkedIn Pulse. How About You?

When the notice arrived that I was being invited to publish content on LinkedIn I had to give it some thought. I presently publish professional content on several of my blogs, slides on slideshare (owned by LinkedIn) and photos on Flickr. What was the value to me of publishing content on LinkedIn? And, after all, every LinkedIn participant currently can “share an update” in the form of a blurb and/or link to content residing elsewhere on the web. Where’s the gain?

A Win for LinkedIn

For LinkedIn, the value of published content was plain. Content is sticky. It keeps people on the LinkedIn site. The prevailing alternative of creating a social share of content does the opposite. It sends visitors away. Whatever one’s business model, sending visitors away doesn’t seem to be a good strategy. Additionally LinkedIn has been fighting being branded a recruiting/job seeking one-trick pony. Hence, LinkedIn has morphed into a more complete publishing platform. Good luck to them. What’s in it for you?

A Win for You

Even if you have a blog or other content manageable platform, publishing on LinkedIn is like going to a potluck dinner party – you share something of value and meet a lot of new people with common interests. It is yet another distribution channel for you to build network and establish your authority. This should pretty much mirror your objectives for using LinkedIn. Moreover, your published content becomes part of your profile as well as being shared with your network. And, of course, unlike a potluck dinner, your intellectual property can always be shared but never consumed.

What to Publish

My early thought is that the medium and the audience will define the content for me. For example, this Pulse exploration belongs on my blog. It would be less relevant in LinkedIn among a community already tuned in to this information. We’ll see. I’ll lurk a little but ultimately publish. Think differently? Send me a comment.

LinkedIn Pulse Nitty Gritty

The LinkedIn publishing environment is Pulse. Pulse is an evolution from LinkedIn Today & LinkedIn Influencer if you care and/or follow the brand names, interface evolution and strategies of LinkedIn. If you are not currently authorized to publish on Pulse, you can make a request to have this functionality enabled.