Managing and Growing a Successful Web Presence

Notes by: Mary O'Brien

6/7/2011 BIG Event

Speaker: Mike Granetz, CEO Peak Two, and panel

What Makes A Successful Web Presence:

Web Presence: The intelligent existence of your brand across unique but related online channels.

Must:

· Have a clearly defined purpose (why am I creating this website?)

· Offer compelling information

· Engage the audience across multiple channels

· Pair outreach with a focused search strategy

· Measures and interpret metrics

· Refine itself regularly

Consists of Platform: Content / Outreach and Distribution / Search Strategies / Analysis

Three Keys to a Successful Platform:

· Pick one as a home base – can either be your website, Facebook page, Twitter account, etc. You cannot manage all of them, so pick one!

· Keep the user in mind

· Have a measurable purpose. What information are our clients seeking on our site and how often?

Content Meaning:

· More meaning, less messaging

· Consistency more important than frequency – don’t post all promotional material; every third or fourth post can be promotion, rest can be opinion

· You’re already an author – Give yourself permission to be an expert. Consistency is more important than frequency. Redirect and Reprogram; you have more time than you think you have. Begin to channel or capture your dialogue you have at the water cooler.

· Get comfortable sharing your expertise. In the meantime, follow others you respect their dialogue and conversations.

5 Keys to Successful Outreach & Distribution:

· Fish where the fish are. Take advantage of Hootsuite and Cinchcast (call a phone number and record podcast, uploads to Twitter, etc.) – cinch.fm

· Majority of target audience will not get to your website – but they are out there – go where your customer is

· If I had to pick one social networking site, it would be LinkedIn.

· Information and trust is the currency of the social web – bring more to table than just facts. Try bringing to the table “my neighbor” has a great product. People want to see you are sharing the expertise and knowledge you’ve learned from others. In other words, scratching others backs is good for business.

· Think of target audiences – not just customers but someone who can refer you to potential customers

· Search vs. Social? Which should I invest in? Both! It’s search PLUS social! Avoid the temptation to separate. Always be helpful and consistent with that, even if it doesn’t impact your business.

· How do I measure the benefit? (e.g., 3 tweets a day? ) The difference is with Search (did a Search., saw our ad or link and clicked on it).

· Not automated – try to understand the algorithm, the more you understand it, the better the site. How are they getting their links? Get alot from contests and free article submission sites, paid links. Expect Google to get away from links but more into social networks.

· When looking for a vendor, say “I would be interested in doing a test with you” and see how they work as an organization and if they do key work searches.

· Make sure as a service model we are incenting the referral to our site.

· Are we making sure our content on our site is mobile friendly?

· Do we have a internal key work linking strategy?

· Key word research – put a value on a conversion, key word analysis tools, PPC values – create something measurable

· When posting, put key words first and brand name last

· SEO is more important than social media because it is easier to put a number on

· Google Analytics (free)

· What do you want to measure? How far or deep do I want to measure it?

• Always measure traffic sources and what are they looking at:

o Traffic sources and traffic data

o How much time are people spending on my site?

· What is the data telling me? What can I do with that? Am I taking that information and testing new things and if the conversion is better?

· Hard to know what to change – for example what is more important: the price, the advertisement, etc.

· Need to consistently be testing our site.

· Generating loyalty to our brand is important. If you see a person who has opened your site, send them an email. Email marketing is important.

· Build a landing page in order to capture enough information to send out emails.

Protecting Payments

Notes by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC.
Also covered during WBTV's segment, Protecting Your Cyberturf

With all the recent breaches of personal information, including credit cards, is there a safe way to make purchases online? You might be a little hesitant these days to hand over your personal information, including bank accounts and credit cards but not sure what other options you have.

It seems like almost every week, we warn you about yet another breach of personal information by company names you know and trust. Some of you feel like maybe you should stop making purchases altogether online. But you do have some options you can use to keep using the convenience of shopping in your pajamas or on a quick break during your work day and try to maintain your online safety. WBTV’s cyber expert, Theresa Payton, talks about your options for savvy shopping and protected purchasing!

Theresa has offered 7 tips on how to protect yourself and have fun making purchases or paying back your family and friends online.

TIPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF:

1. Have a credit card for online purchases and keep the limit low. Set up text and email alerts to let you know every time a charge is made to that card.

2. Do not click on links if you ever get an email that says there has been a “problem with your payment”, these are typically scams.

3. Consider a pre-paid card or a payment service such as PayPal as an alternative.

4. A newer trend out there, you can use “single use” or special use credit cards for purchases. American Express and Discover both offer programs you can try.

5. Keep your antivirus, operating system, and browser software up to date.

6. Never make purchases from a public computer or on free Wi-fi.

7. Make sure your online accounts, including PayPal, have a unique username and password. Do not use the same password on your online accounts that you do on your debit card or bank account.

Shopping online should be convenient and fun and if you follow these tips, hopefully you can keep the cybercreeps out of your digital wallet! Theresa also recommends that you shop at trusted sites or research your merchant via the Better Business Bureau. She also cautions that you treat your payment accounts online, like PayPal, Google or Amazon, as if those services have the keys to your bank safe. Even though there is a layer between you and your credit card with these services, be alert and careful.

There are many options you can use to process payments to friends, families, and merchants online. We have listed just three of the many sites that you can choose from to set up payments.

Google Checkout:

checkout.google.com/

Amazon Checkout Service:

https://payments.amazon.com/sdui/sdui/personal

PayPal:

https://www.paypal.com/

Protecting Photo Privacy Possibilities

Notes by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC.

Also covered in WBTV's segment, Protecting Your Cyberturf

We have told you before to be careful when you post videos and pictures of yourself and kids online.

We even shared with you a tragic cyberstalking and cyberidentity case where a person stole pictures of another person, and used the photos to create a fake persona.

You can use different privacy settings to try to protect your photos but sometimes online services have glitches and strangers can see your videos and photos. WBTV’s Cyber Expert, Theresa Payton, offers some easy tips you might want to consider before you upload those photos.

3 EASY TIPS:

1. Get familiar with the photo or social networking site's options for security and privacy. Pick the options that work best for you.

2. Before you post, you can copyright your photos so people can see the photo but the main area has a copyright plastered on it. This might deter people from reusing it. There are some free or low cost services you can use to do this.

3. Watermark - it works a lot like the watermarks on your money in your wallet. There are some low cost options out there that you can try that will watermark your photos, just like photo studios do when they send you "proofs". Some software programs used for digital photo editing, like Photoshop, offer this feature in the photo editing process.

If you are very concerned about photos getting into the wrong hands, then your best bet is the old fashioned way, have them printed and share them.

WEB RESOURCES:

For the latest in photo tips and how to protect your digital images, you can get tips and advice at Popular Photo Magazine’s website at: http://www.popphoto.com/

For more information on how to select software to protect your photos before you post them, try Digital Cameras at About.com:

http://cameras.about.com/od/photoeditingtips/a/How-To-Watermark-Your-Photos.htm

To see the most recent example of a Name Fail, this week's word of the week, look at the media gaffes where they said "Obama" when they meant to say "Osama" at Mashable's link: http://mashable.com/2011/05/02/osama-obama-gaffes/

For tips and resources on how to teach your kids how to pick and choose what photos are safe to post and how to protect them, check out the latest advice at www.YourSphere.com

Missing Children

Notes by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC.
Also covered by WBTV's segment, Protecting Your Cyberturf

One Department of Justice report estimates that roughly 800,000 people under the age of 18 in the United States are reported missing each year. Did you know that if you have a missing child, that the internet can play a key role in helping you or your friends find a lost child?

First there were posters and milk cartons, these were effective but limited distribution. Then we moved to amber alerts. Now, we have high tech alerts that we can use to send out blast messages. WBTV’s Cyber Expert, Theresa Payton, tells you what you need to know now so you know what to do if a disaster strikes and you are desperately searching for a child.

WHAT YOU SHOULD DO:

· Have recent photos of your kids

· Fingerprint

· Contact local, state, and FBI law enforcement immediately

· Notify your network of family, friends, places such as your child’s school

· Use the power of Facebook, Twitter, and email to get the message out

· Visit the Amber Alert website and the National Center for Missing and Exploited children

The NCMEC has hit record highs in successfully finding missing children. It used to be 60% in the 1980s and recently hit 96.5%. They attribute a lot of this success to social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

WEB RESOURCES:

NCMEC: http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PublicHomeServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US or 1-800-THE-LOST

USA.Gov has resources on child protection , advice, and steps to take if the worst happens at: http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Missing_Children.shtml

Amber Alert site: http://www.amberalert.gov/