Social Media and Public Relations

After tons of research and work on my project, the thought occurred to me, is Social Media really what Tribes  want? After all, we measure our Social Media Optimization efforts just like our PR Initiatives, it seems to me.

It has been said that there is lots of merriment in watching Tribes behave badly. A lot, if not all of major websites, have some sort of social media features embedded in the site. I think this is an indication that the Tribes want it. 

So our attention turns to how targeted are the responses that we get from our social media efforts , as well as the Public relations efforts. We need to know what kind of buzz are we generating from those efforts and are those responses purchasing anything. It's really no different than measuring any of the other platforms that do this.

Interestingly enough, there are advantages too the Buzz that we are generating for and by the tribes and that makes it important for a lot off reasons.. 

According to some sources, advertising has lost over 40 percent of trust from Tribes. However, social media platforms engage Tribes with content that encourages trust. Some Tribes still agree that word of mouth advertising is still the best , though.

This means that social media optimization still has the potential to hold and attract the attention of large Tribes who have grown immune to the current push advertising scheme of things. It is also stickier than traditional media. 

One effect that social media has is its propensity to go viral and reach broad swaths of tribes in shorter and shorter amounts of time. This has been described as a threat to communications professional, but I don't think it is. Negative viral outcomes are a possibility too. This could result if the tribe has not allocated enough Social media budget and is not prepared for the tremendous amount of interest generated. 

Social media's ability to be interactive means that Tribes now have the ability to get immediate feedback from other tribes and are able to communicate more defectively. This could be a simple as enabling comments on the Tribes main blog. This means the tribe doesn’t have to spend time doing research in order to track ROI. 

Something else that works for social media is high visibility. Social Media has matured using internet tools. So it holds a very good position in searches for visibility. There are several good examples of the effect this has , such a s Wiki-leaks. 

For me, this indicates to the Tribal Chieftains that social media optimization can have a beneficial effect on the way the tribe communicates with the other tribes for business purposes and the average person on the street. Because of the ability to communicate with all of these tribes, social media has mega-possibilities if it is used properly and effectively engaged .

In the past decade, interactive communication has become a torrent for the tribe. This has made it easy for tribes to communicate with their audience and find out their needs and get feedback too.

In closing, a good thing to remember is to tailor your message and know the tribe you are talking to. 

What effects do you think it has to know what you're selling?

Social Media Networks

What is it that draws us to online Social Media Networks ? 

For thousands of years we have formed tribes to meet our security needs and now we study why.

Most Studies done by reputable tribes show that friendships and other social relationships tend to have a powerful effect on physical and mental health. This relationship had been noticed and talked about for many years until about the mid to late 1970's.  This was when other tribes turned to this issue to study it. 

One study done in California around about 1979 showed a relationship between those who had a lot of contacts and those who had only a few. People who lacked tribes , tended to die sooner.  In 1982 in Michigan, another study showed a similar association for women, but not men. About the same time similar results were reported between older men and women.

What this means is that your tribe consists of individuals drawn together by a variable such as age , sex , work or family. This is not to say that only these variables are used, though. In fact, one variable that has been proposed in the past is the number of contacts. You have to have about a hundred to a hundred and fifty, to be a social network. 

One variable that has changed is that there is a whole new  paradigm to include a company's employees or even a politicians venue. You should be able to relate this to your target market.

Some have opined that its not really social unless the users can interact with one another. That it needs to be more that just an ability to generate content. That this piece of the puzzle has so far been missing from the platforms that are available today.

Part of the problem here is that Social Media Networking has changed the definition of friends and tribes. You will always have your best friends and much trusted business associates to still back you up, only now you can cast a wider net for contacts . This includes business contacts as well as personal contacts. This system is still evolving and expanding for the better, we hope.

If you could leverage social media networking to help drive business relationships and possibly other relationship, why wouldn't you? Social Media is helping us to engage a much broader Universe of possibilities. 

There are those out there that think that defining Social media is difficult because tribes get confused because of the implications of the thing itself.  One definition is that Social media is simply content generated by the content view themselves. Of course, and you know this, its a huge implication. From here we can jump off into viral marketing , the masses influencing their tribes and other tribes. Even the Dissemination of information will become easier. 

The Social Media Phenomenon seems to be mostly confined to the internet right now , but is it possible that this won't always be the case?  It's possible to me , at least, that some new outrageous technology will allow social media in other dimensions. 

I would love to get some feedback on that one. There's a reply form on the bottom of the page. What are your thoughts about social media in other realms or platforms. What would those other dimensions be? 

Social Media Statistics

Sometimes making the argument to tribes that investing time and money and other resources into creating an online community for purposes of Social Media Optimization can be very challenging. Because of this, I'm sure you will need all of the friendly support you can find.

A very good way to communicate this to the tribe is the blatant use of statistics. Social Media Statistics can give your tribe the picture they need. This way they can see the value by viewing who's using Social Media Optimization and how they are using it. Thanks to the fact that there are lots of new studies being done and posted every day, you can make the case to help them get involved.

It's actually surprising that there is such an low amount of common knowledge about Social Media Demographics Optimization. Considering the amount of internet users and what they seem to be doing.

What it really means is there is no excuse now for marketers to make the wrong decisions about how to use Social Media Optimization or Social Media Statistics. It will help to open up incorrect beliefs and prevent inaccurate statements and beliefs from happening.

Non performance in the area of growth and change in rank of social media platforms may be resulting in a lackadaisical attitude toward the technology. This could be damaging to your brands attitude because of being perceived wrong or perhaps because you need to get updated information out to your audience.

Just in the way of example: social networking has grown about 90% in the last few years, even though time watching TV is unchanged. This seems to mean that groups are slow in their adoption of social media marketing into their marketing mix. According to one major survey , marketers still consider this industry experimental and are not budgeting more than a few percent for social media marketing.

One of the large communications research bureaus just published a report that contains several case studies that show how Social Media Optimization has benefited several large organizations. One of the finding 's they made was that Social Media is rapidly becoming the a key kernel for the dissemination of information. Almost 60% of early adopters of Social Media Optimization say that Social Media Tools are becoming more valuable to their activities, while about 30% or so say that social media optimization is a core element of their marketing and communications plan.

Now, Tribes that are especially interested in Social Media Statistics can, of course, go to places like Comscore. They had released some statistics showing that Social Media had grown worldwide and continues to grow worldwide. Worldwide, Social Media Optimization seems to be growing at about 25%, with large increases in Europe and the Middle East.

So now you know. The truth is out there. You don't have any excuses for not being SMO savvy. You and your Tribe can no longer be unsure of where Social Media fits for your audience. Currently , failing to understand how our increasingly active social world challenges us and benefits our brand has become an act of shortsightedness or deliberate ignorance that threatens marketing perception, brand value, market share, and the bottom line.

How to Maximize Your Marketing Power with a Blog

It seems to me , that to be sure your blog is number one in your niche, you will need to keep up to date on all the many ways of blog marketing. Here are some  things you can do to help your blog be the best it can be . 

Most people read a blog regularly because its something they desire to have.  A more human, empathetic blog will reach a lot more people. Added humor doesn't hurt. Give it a fun template. Make visitors happy. People who leave your blog happy are more likely to return with their friends. 

You can look into Website Optimization Services if you like,too. This means doing things like fine tuning your title tags for the search engines to see. Use as many relevant , specific keywords in your title tag as you can.

One of my favorite things to do is to add an RSS feed to my website. It has to be a relevant feed and Google will give you content points. By the way RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication It will continually provide new content to your site for very little labor. The content will be timely and fresh, also.

If you were to create a splash page that was specific to each product, you would make it specifically tuned to the search engines. You would be providing your own website optimization services.

You always want to use a search engine friendly platform. That means that the platform won't confuse the search engines, 

Last, but not least, update your photo tags. Make sure all of your photos have an entry in the "alt text" box. This allows some search engines to index it.

Doing these few things can really boost visits to your website. They are a good start and I will be happy to explore options for any ones website for 30 minutes or so. You know how to find me .

Quality Websites Pay Off In the Long Run

There are lots of considerations when building your firms new site. Some of the main items are Research , Design, Development , Implementation and Testing. There is a substantial cost to this strategy because it is labor intensive, but a quality website pays off in the long run if you follow this format. Website Promotion Services can be discussed here also. 

There are many platforms out there that allow you to set up a template website in a few hours, but if you want to develop a custom site, it will take a lot longer. For instance, lets say that you buy a template for $ 99.00. Then you put in about five or so hours to add content. Thats about 20 dollars an hour and not too bad a price. If you are looking at a custom site that takes about 100 hours to develop, you would be at 1 dollar an hour. It's hard to find a developer that will work for that. 

So, in order to price out a custom website, here are the things that you must do to get an accurate proposal.

First , of course is the research part of the project. You'll want to take a look at what the competition is doing in your niche, what their sites look like and how well they perform. Sit down with your developer and have an idea session so you can decide what to implement and what to leave out . The first architecture plans for the site will be considered here also. This should take approximately 25 hours or so, all told.

Second, is the design of the graphic concepts for the site.  You will create design mockups , with different versions and structures.  Working with different colors and graphics and refining the mockups. This can take up to about 40 hours.  More of this  is explained on my website at Your Expert Webman 

Third, is the actual development phase. In this phase the programming is started and the final design concept is chosen. If you are installing plugins and widgets, this is when they will be programmed in. The Content Management System is installed and implemented here.  This phase can take up to 35 hours  on an average custom site. 

Forth, is the actual Implementation phase. Your domain name is now setup along with the hosting service you will use. The CMS Administration will be setup now so that changes to the site can be made in a timely manner. Those changes will either be made by you or the developer. Finally , all files will be uploaded to the web space that the hosting company provides. This may only take about 5 or 6 hours.  You can leave comments or questions about this at  Your Expert Webman. 

Fifth and finally, comes the testing phase. Your site must meet the W3C standards for websites. Older templates may not do this and if you don't have a developer that knows what they are, your site won't be seen. Checking spelling and links and all functions happens here. You will be trained how to use the Content Management System (CMS) if you will be making your own changes. This is also the time to get any questions , comments and answers out of the way. 

This whole project can take from four to six weeks and at 50 dollars and hour you are looking at about 5000 dollars  for about 100 hours of work. Thats for a full custom website design and implementation. You can add extra for a simple e-commerce system if you need one. 

This is a pretty much simplified version of what happens, but the real reasons you should do it this way are at Your Expert Webman 

Now, if you need a website up and running in no time you will want to look for a website template and someone who can set it up for you. It won't take long, but expecting a custom website design for a hundred bucks just won't work. If it did that web designer would earn around $1/hour (in case of a usual 100 hours project) or he would compromise quality and would deliver something with some hours claiming it to be custom design. Don’t fall for it. Hire a professional web designer and get your money's worth !

The best way to find out who is a professional web designer is to ask your friends for referrals or go here . While some  designers will talk about great results for low price quickly, a professional will ask for your vision and your goals and talk about longer term results for more money. That’s OK since he is living from what he does at his best and he needs to earn. This is why free or cheap works are out of range for a professional designer.

Hiring a more expensive but professional web designer will pay off in the long term in most cases so you can rest assured your marketing dollars are spent well. 

Your Expert Webman

Why You Need Content Management Services and Software

Search Results

1. In the days before Content Management Systems the management of computerized or digital content was a hard task. You had to make your own formats and then use them to set up the material each time. 

   For instance, you needed to create relevant content , update the content when necessary , publish the content and be able to retrieve the content when needed. Sometimes it would need to be translated into different languages and various media formats. 

   When we talk about content management we are usually talking about the evolution and printing of new material on the website. A lot of the time we are talking about archival storage of the content in either a database or a file. Generally there will be a search tool also for the benefit of the end user. 

   The material that you post still needs to be relevant , able to be updated , published in a timely manner and have the ability to be retrieved. Now we have a content management System that is easy for non-computer literate persons to use.

   It is built into the website. All the user has to do is login with a password and user name and edit the pages as they seem fit. Each new page will be automatically integrated into the design of the site. What could be easier?

   The Content Management System is up to date with all the features you need. Such as , the ability to update existing  pages and create new ones. The user will be able to add videos,maps,links,files and lots more. If you like, your existing site can be integrated into a new content management package. 

   There are many different packages that are already set up for this purpose, as well as CMS's that allow a more custom environment. If you think this is something you could use, please click on the contact us link and leave your contact information. 

   We'll also show you how you can use this software to brand and market your product. 

Finding Website Promotional Services

If you look around , it seems that in this country there are lots of excellent  companies that are capable of doing your  promotional campaigns. This type of service doesn't seem to be developing as well or as fast in other countries. 

Outsourcing your services is a great idea from a tax vantage point, however, you need to keep your marketing direction in house. There is no substitute for a trained person that knows what the company needs to direct the marketing program for Website Promotional Services. Also, there is no shame in bringing in a consultant to help with strategy , but you should own those strategies when the project is over.  At that point it may be wise to outsource certain functions to others.

Since I have been doing Project Management I'm often asked to recommend companies that provide website promotional services. What you will find is that nearly all of them have specialties. If you need consulting in this area, you will have to find it on your own because very few will hold your hand and lead you to the grail . Thats not to say that there are not a few companies out there that work with small to medium sized businesses . There are some that do offer a very wide variety of Search Engine Optimization services. I feel that, and I am probably prejudiced on this, I am one of the best consultants to talk with because of my relationships with many different developers here in St. Louis, MO. The truth is that finding your own personal grail is ultimately your responsibility. Most marketing companies can and will produce  a program for you, but it is up to you to decide whether this program will  accomplish your overall Website Promotion Service.

If you would like to sit down with an award winning developer to discuss your plans for a website, search engine optimization or any Internet related service, I would be happy to do so so.  Just complete the contact form on my website to get started.

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Matt Leitch

Project Management
Software Consultant
Social Media Marketing
Professional Website Design
http://yourexpertwebman.com
314-781-7612