Web Site ‘Priming’ – 6 Tips That Will Help You Succeed

 

If you want to increase your odds for Internet success, you might consider priming your Web site. Priming is a method to motivate users to make decisions when they visit your site. I gather the term was coined by the inventor of a testing tool that enables Web-site owners to obtain reactions to their sites.

Writing in Website Magazine –  Paul Veugen, the CEO and founder of Usabilla – indicates site priming provides users with “direct and indirect cues online that can unconsciously nudge them into making different decisions down the line.”

“The next time you visit the supermarket and see a product from an ad, these positive memories are triggered and they leave you with a positive attitude towards the product,” Mr. Veugen writes.

“If you need to choose between a hundred different types of yogurt brands, you are most likely going to go for the one that gives you a positive feeling,” he adds.

“Priming does not work by forcing a decision upon your customers, but you can use it as a means to effectively support their decisions,” he explains.

His six suggested primes:

1. Colors Colors have different meanings and can be used to prime emotions. You can color your background or only specific elements like buttons or content areas, for example. Be aware of your target group and their understanding of colors and the emotions they elicit.

2. Text Text can also be used as a prime, of course. Include the exact wording of your menu items in your content and build a nice story around them, for example. Then when customers look around your site, the primed menu item will lead their thoughts back to your story — which makes elements of the story accessible.

3. Metaphors Use metaphors that refer to information to help your customers make a decision. For example, imagine you try to sell vacation trips. You could use the metaphor of a shell to trigger positive emotions like sun, beach, palm trees, ocean, waves, relaxation, etc.

4. Images Use pictures to prime your customers. These pictures can either be in the background or a central element of your webpage. You can prime emotions that come with the purchase of your product or you can prime a desirable action that requires the purchase of your product, for example. Both times, you trigger memories that might only be distantly related to your product, as a way to guide your customers’ decisions.

5. Video Use videos to prime a whole process of actions. Showing the sign-up process with the different steps involved will make it easier for your customers to sign up, for example. Different memories related to a sign-up process will be accessible that help to make the right choice. Besides, when your customers see the sign up button, the process of signing up will be more accessible to them than it would be without the prime.

6. Audio Include audio on your website to prime any action you want your customers to engage in. Make sure that you don’t tell your customers what to do, but rather give them the idea that they figured it out themselves.

“The emotional perception and elements that refer to emotions are important primes when it comes to the perception of your site,” Mr. Veugen explains. “And for the rest, be creative! Anything that activates information in the minds of your customers can be used as prime.”

He writes priming and subliminal messages aren’t synonymous. “The two are related, but subliminal messaging includes ‘hidden’ primes and is considered by many to be an unethical marketing practice,” he asserts. “Besides, not much research can be found to prove that subliminal messaging really works.

“…Priming includes visual or at least sensible primes that can be identified, such as pictures or odors. These primes should be context-sensitive and part of your website design.”

To see more about Mr. Veugen and his offerings: www.usabilla.com.

From the Coach’s Corner, suggested reading:

• Tips, Plus Why it’s Never Too Early to Plan for Q4 E-commerce
• How Small Businesses Can Capitalize on Cyber Strategies for Profit
• SEO: Strategic Primer for a No.1 Rated Blog
• 11 Sales Strategies to Outsell Your Big Competitors

“In business you get what you want by giving other people what they want.”

-Alice MacDougall

 

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

Internet Criminals to Pose Bigger Threat than Terrorists – FBI

 

Updated May 10, 2013

A Web security study finds that the vast majority of organizations that allow employees to freely access the Web are experiencing high rates of malware threats, including phishing attacks, spyware, keyloggers and hacked passwords.

Web-borne attacks are impacting businesses, with the majority of them reporting significant effects in the form of increased help desk time, reduced employee productivity and disruption of business activities.

Little wonder the U.S. government along with state and local agencies, businesses and consumers should all heed ominous testimony before Congress. FBI Director Robert Mueller warned “the cyber threat will equal or surpass the threat from counter terrorism in the foreseeable future.”

That was his January 2012 message to U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence  in discussing the importance of the Internet.

“The theft of intellectual property, the theft of research and development, the theft of the plans and programs of a corporation for the future, of all which are vulnerable to being exploited by attackers,” Mr. Mueller testified.

Mr. Mueller warned it’s imperative for the FBI and federal government to get more proficient in analyzing, gathering and sharing information. He also requested appropriate legislation.

Indeed, we see proof of his admonition in news headlines almost daily, which has prompted countless Biz Coach columns about cyber attacks with tips for Internet security.

The most-read Biz Coach topic of all time quoted Dr. Stan Stahl, a nationally recognized security expert, in using Starbucks’ WIFI? Security pro issues warning and security checklist. Also highly read is our mobile-banking warnings about security prove prophetic.

“In the last several weeks, we’ve seen successful distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against banks, governments, law enforcement and the entertainment industry,” said Dr. Stah in Los Angeles.

Don’t forget about healthcare. It’s vital to understand why many healthcare workers are responsible for an alarming trend: Medical ID theft. Here’s a lesson about passwords after the theft of 16,000+ UCLA patient records.

“We’ve seen Israeli and Palestinian cyber-vigilantes launch DDoS attacks against each other’s web sites,” he explained.

“What happens when radical organizations discover they can launch a DDoS attack against their enemies?” he asked. “We should not be surprised to see the Internet become a battleground in America’s culture wars.”

Key questions

Dr. Stahl recommends that all organizations answer four key questions:

1. Are we gathering the information we need to understand our cyber threat and the quality of our cyber defenses?
2. Are we effectively analyzing this information, using it to better secure our information?
3. Are we sharing it with the necessary parties?
4. In particular, is management getting the information they need to proactively manage information risk?

“One highly critical defensive measure, for example, is to rigorously keep software patched,” he added. One of the easiest ways for a cyber criminal to take control of a computer is to exploit a vulnerability in unpatched software.”

Dr. Stahl’s firm, Citadel Information Group, is regularly asked to help businesses.

“Patching needs to be on the weekly must-do list of every IT department and IT vendor,” he explained. “Yet, when we assess the patch levels of organizations, we are not surprised to often see more than 100 unpatched vulnerabilities on desktops.”

Questions for IT departments

To information technology departments, he poses these five questions:

1. Does IT gather vulnerability information?
2. Do they analyze it, taking appropriate action to keep vulnerabilities to a minimum?
3. Is it shared with senior management?
4. Does senior management know that IT must patch vulnerabilities to comply with laws like HIPAA HITECH or contractual obligations like the payment card industry’s data security standard?
5. Does senior management regularly monitor “weekly vulnerability trends?”

“Human nature being what it is, cyber crime and hacktivism will likely get worse before things get better,” he concluded. “While we can hope to avoid cybergeddon, we also have to remember that hope is not a strategy.”

Amen. You can keep yourself updated by subscribing to Dr. Stahl’s Weekend Patch and Vulnerability Report.

From the Coach’s Corner, here are more Internet security resource links:

• Cyber Security: Is Your Business Prepared with Precautions and Response Philosophy?
• 5 Safety Measures to Thwart Mounting Social-Network Attacks
• Security Precautions to Take Following Citibank’s Second Reported Online Breach

“Security is, I would say, our top priority because for all the exciting things you will be able to do with computers…organizing your lives, staying in touch with people, being creative…if we don’t solve these security problems, then people will hold back. Businesses will be afraid to put their critical information on it because it will be exposed.”

-Bill Gates

 

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

Internet Marketing Lessons from Santorum’s Failed Campaign

 

Rick Santorum has indicated his interest in running for the nation’s highest office again in 2016. Without even considering his political views, he doesn’t have a prayer unless he makes some marketing changes.

Unintentionally, Mr. Santorum’s unsuccessful presidential campaign — with inadequate branding – provided business with Internet marketing lessons.

Perhaps you noticed the inflammatory results in searching the Web for him. When you searched for “Santorum,” the deprecating site of “spreadingsantorum.com” was first on Google, Bing and Yahoo. For curious voters interested in the campaign, it’s was an especially disappointing search. The site is no longer ranked No. 1 for the keyword, Santorum, thanks to Wikipedia, but it’s still in the top 5.

The derogatory site was created in 2003 by a part owner of The Stranger publication in Seattle, who was annoyed by then-Sen. Santorum’s comment about a U.S. Supreme court ruling that was favored by the gay community.

Understandably, Mr. Santorum complained to Google about the rankings – after all there are precedents. Indeed, it can be argued that Google could do something about it.

You might recall Google penalized the derogatory monkey-face depictions of Michelle Obama. There are countless security examples from when Google and the other search engines have issued a warning about a Web site when it believes a site is a security risk to users.

Until and unless Google and the other search engines take corrective measures, the Santorum campaign should have focused on what it could control.

However, the campaign failed to use best practices in Internet marketing.

Its salient shortcomings:

1. Failure to use SEO techniques
2. A call to action without giving the right incentives – branding and value propositions
3. Poor organization – lack of preparedness

Failure to use SEO

As a result of his strong showing from largely grass roots efforts, Mr. Santorum’s campaign attracted an unprecedented number of voters who were curious about him. They could find the right site easier when they search using the key words, “Rick Santorum.” But if they searched using “Santorum,” they get the derogatory site.

In effect, however, the campaign allowed Mr. Santorum to become a victim of political sabotage sans common SEO procedures.

Yes, the Santorum campaign had options to effectively to eliminate the adverse impact of the sarcastic site. Curiously, “spreadingsantorum.com” only has a Google page rank of 5. That wasn’t insurmountable for the Santorum campaign, if it employed proper SEO techniques, and understood how to win on Google.

Hint: If you can win on Google, you will on the other search engines, too.

So learn the five factors to get peak Google results, how Google details its new reasoning for best Web site rankings, and understand the 23 key questions Google has about your Web site.

As for the Santorum campaign, it needed to develop and focus on one site – just one site dedicated to the candidate. But it mistakenly directed Internet users to a donation form – one of two duplicate content sites (supportricksantorum.com and ricksantorum.com).

Premature call to action

The Santorum donation site set a poor example by only asking for money. There were no stellar branding and value propositions. Visitors weren’t readily able to learn anything about him – neither his policy positions nor his background.

All of this meant the right sites showed up twice – but they were below the fold on Google.

Moreover, duplicate content hurt the cause. Two different domain names containing similar content defeated the purpose. The two sites effectively insured his Web presence was diluted – the search engines don’t know which was paramount for users.

Poor organization – lack of preparedness

With such a confusing marketing approach, the campaign inadvertently sent two unintended signals.

Firstly, it showed poor organization and lack of preparedness — note the verbiage in this Santorum tweet:

“Your great support has caused some unexpected downtime on our website! You can still support us at our temp page: ricksantorum.com”

Because the campaign instituted some redirects – the tweet sent people to the donation site. That’s a violation of best practices in marketing – never assume the voter has enough incentives before you ask for a vote or beg for donations.

Secondly, such strategies — unbranded donation page and desperate-looking tweets — left users with the impression that he’d fail because he was desperate for donations.

Further, as an example of over-reaching, the campaign constantly changed the tag line that appeared on the search engines. The candidate needed to be consistently repetitive with his branding and Web presence. Aside from the duplication issue and failure to install the donation page in one site, he needed to attract thousands of new links from good Web sites.

Whether he realized or not, failure to take such precautions adversely impacted his credibility as a viable candidate. After all, even if he could have won his party’s nomination, he would have faced a Democrat who long ago demonstrated extraordinary Internet expertise.

Good Internet marketing lessons for business from Mr. Santorum.

From the Coach’s Corner, here’s a checklist: 14 strategies to rock on Google.

Additionally, for more resources see this portal’s Marketing and Tech archives, which are packed with solutions.

“Don’t blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive.”

-John D. Rockefeller

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

Tips For Internet Security to Prepare you for New Cyber Attacks

 

Updated June 3, 2013

Do you need more evidence to be diligent in using best practices for security on the Internet?

Consider four examples:

1. According to a Web security study in 2013, Internet attacks are impacting businesses, with the majority of them reporting significant effects in the form of increased help desk time, reduced employee productivity and disruption of business activities.

2. As much as $1 million was reportedly stolen and given to charity after thousands of credit card numbers and other personal information were hacked from security think tank Stratfor by the furtive cyber group calling itself Anonymous. (Of course, all it did was hurt the charities because they had to expend valuable resources – time and money – in refunding money to the credit card holders.)

3. Bloomberg reported that commerce is active on criminal trading sites – as much as $3.50 is paid for each stolen credit card.

4. US-CERT reports that spear-phishing attacks have been launched on members of the United States Automobile Association (USAA). Cybercriminals are trying to trick USAA members into opening e-mails by using “Deposit Posted” in the subject line. The e-mails are designed to trick USAA members into opening attachments that contain malware. Once unleashed, the activated malware invades the victims’ computers searching for their sensitive personal information.

“Readers should remain on alert to keep safe from attacks by following the following three basic rules,” writes nationally recognized security expert, Dr. Stan Stahl of Citadel Information Group in Los Angeles.

His basic rules:

1. Do not open attachments in emails unless the email is expected. Do not click on links in unexpected emails. Attachments and links can be booby-trapped. When in doubt check with the sender.
2. Keep systems updated with the latest software versions.
3. Keep anti-malware solutions up-to-date. Consider moving to advanced host-based intrusion prevention.

You can sign up for his “Weekly Patch and Vulnerability Report” and his blog at www.citadel-information.com.

Actually, most small businesses make you vulnerable to credit card fraud and identity theft. So businesses need to be diligent, too, and prepare with precautions and response philosophy.

(Note: I’m very familiar with Dr. Stahl’s expertise. He is a fellow member of Consultants West, www.consultantswest.com, a roundtable of veteran consultants in the Los Angeles area.)

From the Coach’s Corner, here are more resource links:

• Security Precautions to Take Following Citibank’s Second Reported Online Breach
• Why Many Healthcare Workers Are Responsible for Alarming Trend: Medical ID Theft
• Lesson about Passwords after Theft of 16,000+ UCLA Patient Records 

“You can’t hold firewalls and intrusion detection systems accountable. You can only hold people accountable.”

-Daryl White

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

How Small Businesses Can Capitalize on Cyber Strategies for Profit

 

Yes, it’s become important for small businesses to capitalize on cyber strategies for profit.

Small and even regional retailers should be cognizant of three realities:

1. Potential customers probably think that national chains have easier-to-shop Web sites.
2. Big retailers have lower prices.
3. Until a national Internet sales tax is passed, many consumers will prefer to shop online.

So, with all retailers depending so heavily on Q4 sales to stay in the black and record numbers of shoppers continuing to buy online each Cyber Monday, year-round cyber strategies are increasingly important.

Nonetheless, a cursory search on the Internet in every sector shows many small retailers and professional service firms, especially law firms, don’t have a strong Web presence.

Many suffer from the following:

• Many have only simple landing pages
• Most don’t have social media acumen
• Even those with Web sites are difficult to navigate
• Poor SEO – search engine optimization

By comparison, large companies have terrific e-commerce sites and display good judgment in social media.

It’s important to understand how marketing has developed in the digital age.

True, traditional media is important. But it’s vital to do something about online consumer trends. A McKinsey study indicates more than four out of five Americans use the Internet to search for information or to buy products.

The Internet has given them more control over their spending with reviews, enhanced abilities for comparison shopping and for moving from an advertiser’s monologue to a dialogue with prospective customers.

Small businesses must create a marketing strategy for a strong presence on Google, which has a 66 percent market share in the U.S. and 90 percent worldwide.

So understand Google’s reasoning for best Web site rankings, and learn the 14 strategies to rock on Google.

However, in my experience, strategies for optimizing your Web site’s presence on Google also work on Bing and Yahoo.

Expertise in mobile marketing is becoming increasingly valuable for small businesses. Use of smartphones by shoppers is becoming widespread. So make sure your site is compatible for mobile marketing.

Facebook pros and cons

Not to mention the impact of social media playing a role. There are 11 ways to make money on Facebook. However, beware that Facebook can cannibalize and make losers out of small business Web sites.

Further, there are 8 tools to optimize sales with social media, but beware of a red flag.

So, small businesspeople should remember that the key to internet dominance is to think integration.

That often doesn’t include advertising with daily deal sites. They don’t work for substantial numbers of small businesses. Beware of daily deal sites and pricing principles – what’s sustainable and what isn’t.

Meanwhile, the evolving Internet also means it’s important to take safeguards to protect your brand’s image. Poor customer reviews and public relations can kill a company. So understand the best practices to optimize your brand and manage your Web reputation.

Success in sales depends on trust.

To build trust with Internet users, here are three key reminders:

1.       Be transparent. List a description of your business including contact information, products, services, location and the names of company principals. That includes your telephone ID numbers for when you make outgoing calls, and disclosing your customer-service policies.

2.       Privacy policies are necessary. If you sell online, take every security precaution, respect customer contact preferences, and don’t share customer information.

3.       Develop an online media kit. An online media kit is helpful to dialogue with advertisers, clients, customers, journalists and prospects. To make it easy for Internet users to learn about your business, explain your company using the five Ws – who, what, where, when, why and how.

Depending on your sector, there are probably other principles to heed and utilize, but these are the basics for on how small businesses can capitalize on cyber strategies for profit.

From the Coach’s Corner, here’s another resource link: Why B2B Marketers Like Content Marketing – Study

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

-Peter F. Drucker

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

16 Safety Tips for Retail Therapy – Holiday Shopping Online, and Bricks & Mortar

 

If you want to be safe while shopping — for your retail therapy – have fun but beware. For starters beware that most small businesses make you vulnerable to credit card fraud, ID theft.

For business owners, that’s why I’ve asked the question about cyber security: Is your business prepared with precautions and response philosophy?

As a consumer, personally, I’m not a fan of mobile shopping. This year, as this portal as warned numerous times,  phishing attacks and malware are skyrocketing. Android malware surged almost 500 percent the latter half of 2011, and new cybercrime serves as warning to take defensive precautions.

The data is not a surprise. Indeed, on this portal our mobile-banking warnings about security proved prophetic.

But if you must, remember these mobile-shopping tips:   

1. ‎Don’t make any purchases using WIFI. (It’s worth noting the most-read Biz Coach column all-time:  Using Starbucks’ WIFI? Security Pro Issues Warning and Security Checklist.)
2. Be careful in downloading payment applications. Use authentic store apps.
3. Only use secure sites. Sites aren’t secure if you if the URL starts with “ http://.”
4. Think twice before you click on anything.

Tips for shopping on your computer:

1. Be careful to use only authentic Web sites. Cyber criminals are misspelling Web site names to trick users.
2. As in Tip No. 3 for mobile shopping, only use sites that start with https://, and don’t shop via email.
3. Never give your Social Security number.
4. Use your computer to check your checking account, credit card and debit statements.
5. Protect your computer by installing all the regular updates from your antivirus and malware software, Windows, Java and Adobe.
6. Only use strong passwords. Note this article, a Lesson about Passwords after Theft of 16,000+ UCLA Patient Records, which is applicable for shopping, too.
7. Only buy gift cards from the original retailer. Don’t buy them on Craigslist or eBay.

Basics in scam-free shopping:

1. Walmart and other retailers are using a throwback – layaway plans. They’re usually legitimate, but be careful to stay current with your payments. Otherwise, you’ll lose your money and your purchased item.
2. Check the fine print on big-ticket purchases – policies on check returns, rain checks, restocking fees and warranties.
3. Know your rights before purchasing memberships in dance, diet, dating, gym, and martial arts schools.
4. For tickets to events, it’s best to use authorized ticket sellers.
5. Gift cards can be tricky. Read the fine print to make sure the card’s value isn’t reduced if you don’t use it right away. Make sure you know the signs the store won’t be going out of business.

From the Coach’s Corner, for more security, see McAfee’s Twelve Scams of Christmas list.

“Knowledge without justice ought to be called cunning rather than wisdom.”
-Plato

 

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

Google Details its Reasoning for Best Web Site Rankings

 

The world’s most popular search engine has released detailed information on how it evaluates and ranks Web sites. Released in November 2011, the information is still critical for domain success.

Ordinarily, for proprietary reasons, Google is a bit guarded when discussing its algorithm processes. But a blog post by engineer Matt Cutts was unusually informative. 

It’s fair to say Google has been forthcoming about its search ranking methodology, such as reported previously on this portal in Google insights – 23 key questions about your Web site and Google’s continuing quest to increase page speeds. 

Research companies routinely peg the search engine’s market share at 66 percent or more in the U.S., and higher around the world. 

One wonders whether the new transparency is the result of the FTC probe of Google. My sense is that the FTC Probe isn’t warranted in Google’s business practices.

Google’s dominance has actually improved user experiences on other search engines. It forced Bing, for example, to make enlightened innovations.

From the Coach’s Corner, for Internet success, here are more resource links:

• 10 Tips to Optimize Your Web Site for Higher Sales
• Startup Toolkit – How to Make a Hit on the Internet
• Best Practices to Optimize Your Brand, Manage Your Web Reputation
• The Key to Internet Dominance: Think Integration

“Obviously everyone wants to be successful, but I want to be looked back on as being very innovative, very trusted and ethical and ultimately making a big difference in the world.”

-Sergey Brin

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

More Cybercrime Serves as Warning to Take Defensive Precautions

 

Updated Sept. 20, 2012

Cybercrime is only getting worse.

From both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, here are two examples:

In New York, six Estonians and one Russian were charged by authorities with cybercrimes on a massive scale. Victims include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, other government agencies, businesses and 500,000 people. 

In the U.K., 13 people were sentenced to jail terms over their use of malware in banking fraud totaling 2.9 million British pounds, or $4.6 million. Hundreds of people were victimized. 

These stories are another lesson to take cybercrime seriously.

For best practices in thwarting cybercriminals, I always turn to nationally recognized security expert, Dr. Stan Stahl, of Citadel Information Group in Los Angeles.

His tips:

1. Keep systems patched with the latest updates. (His security blog, Weekend Vulnerability and Patch Report, lists major updates for software typically found in small offices and home computers.)
2. Run up-to-date anti-virus anti-malware software – or what is even better, a strong intrusion detection and prevention solution.
3. Use strong passwords for access to sites with sensitive information. Password length is more important than randomness; size matters. ‘2HelloPepper#’ is a much stronger password than “Ab$%16vF” plus it’s a lot easier to remember.

“Be extremely sensitive to social engineering attacks,” Dr. Stahl adds. “Don’t open email attachments or click on links in emails unless the email is from someone you know and is expected.”

For more of Dr. Stahl’s insights, visit his Web site.

(Note: Dr. Stahl is a fellow member of Consultants West, www.consultantswest.com, a roundtable of veteran consultants in the Los Angeles area.)

From the Coach’s Corner, here are more security strategies:

• Security Precautions to Take Following Citibank’s Second Reported Online Breach
• Why Many Healthcare Workers Are Responsible for Alarming Trend: Medical ID Theft
• Lesson about Passwords after Theft of 16,000+ UCLA Patient Records
• Most Small Businesses Make You Vulnerable to Credit Card Fraud, ID Theft – Study
• Cyber Security: Is Your Business Prepared with Precautions and Response Philosophy?

“Passwords are like underwear: you don’t let people see it, you should change it very often, and you shouldn’t share it with strangers.”

-Chris Pirillo

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry. 

 

Best Practices to Optimize Your Brand, Manage Your Web Reputation

 

As you no doubt know, the digital age has brought new challenges and opportunities. Best practices are critical in order to maximize your Web presence and to manage your online reputation.

The key to Internet dominance is to think integration – naturally, the first steps include a quality Web site and synching it with your social media, business listings, inbound links and other elements.

Despite warnings here and other places, many small businesses have made a tactical error in thinking Facebook is the crème de la crème in marketing. A Facebook page can be helpful as part of your marketing mix, and a large volume of fans might enhance a site’s ranking on the search engines.

However, aside from privacy, security issues, Facebook is a threat two ways. It’s also worth noting that the majority of business Facebook fans aren’t local. Plus, fans usually change their minds. Within a month or so, they decide a business’ Facebook page offerings are boring.

As for advertising, it rarely helps small businesses to insert their ads on the social medium. It’s better to save the money or budget it for prospects to offer loss-leader discounts to try your products or services.

By virtue of its 1 billion global members, Facebook is highly ranked. Despite the Facebook buzz, it’s losing members in North America and Europe. Facebook’s growth is in emerging Third World countries.

Moreover, if not managed well, a Facebook page can and will dilute or cannibalize your Web site’s presence. You never want to let any social medium presence outclass your Web site ranking. You want to use a social medium to enhance your site’s presence and drive traffic, not have it stop there.

How to maximize your search-engine listings

In U.S. market share, according to the various ranking services, Google consistently has about a 65 percent share, and Bing and Yahoo each have about 15 percent. Of course, there are others but most use Google for search. Worldwide, Google has a 90 percent share.

So develop a quality Web site. If budget is a concern, it’s possible to use free online tools for an adequate site. Insert your Facebook, Google+ and Twitter widgets. If you cater to a professional clientele, include LinkedIn.

Otherwise, the big Kahuna to generate local customers is Google Places. If a consumer searches for a local product, Google weaves the top seven results at the top. Normally, the top three business listings attract the most customers.

So it’s imperative to maximize your Google Places’ presence:

1. Complete all the information – physical address, telephone number and your relevant categories.
2. Insert professional pictures and a video.
3. Synergize your listing on CitySearch, Local.com, Manta, Merchant Yelp, YP.com and mobile sites such as Foursquare and Facebook Places. Produce an informative video for YouTube.
4. Entice your best customers to insert reviews. If feasible, encourage them to take a moment to write a review before they leave your business.

Reinforce your Web presence

Even though you’ve done all the footwork to create a Google Places presence, you’re not done. Next, protect your turf. Yes, many businesspeople have been stunned to learn their local listings were closed on Google Places.

Here are the necessary preventative measures:

1. Regularly update your Web site. On your home page, every week make a change, even its small such as a loss leader or testimonial.  Again, include your social media widgets if you have a blog, insert the latest headline. Customers and prospective customers will notice. Just as importantly, so will the search engines.
2. Strategize with media centers of influence. Write search engine press releases and submit them to local media outlets if you have a newsworthy item. If you need PR, but don’t have a budget? Here’s how to leverage the news media. In addition, insert a press page on your site and include your releases. The news media will be a big source of credibility.
3. With blogging success, others will want to re-publish your work it or otherwise link to you. Don’t allow them to do so, if they have an inferior Web presence. The first step is to check their site’s Google page rank.
4. Regularly monitor your Web presence with search-engine news alerts, especially with Google Alerts and Tweetdeck. Daily search for what’s being written about your business, and evaluate any changes to your search rankings and customer reviews. Respond quickly. So develop a prototypical emergency response strategy including templates. Why? Some competitors of businesses are gaming the system with false reviews for their gain or to badmouth others to enhance their online presence. They furtively do this and can quickly dominate the Internet by downgrading your presence. So keep a careful record of your business listings, and have template responses ready to insert in advertising along with key words ready to implement on the search engines and other sites. This includes responding to journalists, social media and other online forums.

Every business is different. These are merely the basics to cover most situations. But if you implement these steps, you’ll be well on your way for strong results.

From the Coach’s Corner, here’s another resource:

8 Tips to Optimize Sales with Social Media, But Beware of a Red Flag

“Long-term brand equity and growth depends on our ability to successfully integrate and implement all elements of a comprehensive marketing program.”

-Timm F Crull

 

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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.

 

H.R. 1981 Is Well-Intentioned, But Would Big Brother Be Watching You?

 

Updated Feb. 1, 2012

The goal to protect children from Internet porn and predators is a worthy cause. However, for valid reasons, a bill in Congress designed to protect children is vehemently opposed by security experts and privacy activists.

Add me to the list. Why? With journalism experience concerned about upholding the principles of freedom and good government, the bill raises serious concerns.

The proposal also reminds me of salient principles in two famous books written by an English author, Eric Arthur Blair. Writing under a pen name, Mr. Blair lived from 1903 to 1950.

Among a myriad of honors after his passing, Time Magazine named one of Mr. Blair’s books among the 100-best English novels. In 1983, Mr. Blair made the cover of Time Magazine. The book is also No. 31 on the Modern Library list of best 20th century novels.

Mr. Blair was a strong advocate of freedom. During World War II, he also worked for BBC to combat the sinister propaganda emanating from Nazi Germany.

“Freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear,” he wrote.

In his most-honored book, “Animal Farm: A Fairy Story,” the author’s allegorical novel told about the events leading to the era of Joseph Stalin and Communism.

In another noteworthy book, “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” he wrote a fictional account of an oligarchical dictatorship.

“Big Brother is watching you,” he would write.

The author’s pen name: George Orwell.

So in being mindful of the books’ themes and a career that includes being a government watchdog as a journalist, the prospect of this proposed federal legislation raises red flags.

The House of Representatives bill, H.R. 1981, would require Internet service providers to keep records of their customers for one year. The ultimate goal is to identify users via their IP addresses. Sponsors claim they want to protect children.

Privacy issue

Ordinarily, the goal of protecting children is a terrific idea. But the means to the end are unacceptable. Violating the privacy of Internet users is an abhorrent thought.

“The data retention mandate in this bill would treat every Internet user like a criminal and threaten the online privacy and free speech rights of every American, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have recognized,” says attorney Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in an article on Threatpost.com.

“Requiring Internet companies to redesign and reconfigure their systems to facilitate government surveillance of Americans’ expressive activities is simply un-American,” he adds. “Such a scheme would be as objectionable to our Founders as the requiring of licenses for printing presses or the banning of anonymous pamphlets.”

An ISP client told me such record-keeping costs would not adversely affect his firm.

“When investigators develop leads that might result in saving a child or apprehending a pedophile, their efforts should not be frustrated because vital records were destroyed simply because there was no requirement to retain them,” Threatpost quotes Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), a bill sponsor.

“This bill requires ISPs to retain subscriber records, similar to records retained by telephone companies, to aid law enforcement officials in their fight against child sexual exploitation,” he adds.

Fortunately, not everyone in Congress agrees with Rep. Lamar, according to Threatpost.

“The problem arises when data retention is government mandated,” says Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.). “It is the government’s role to conduct criminal investigations through the established legal process, but it is not the role of government to mandate how private businesses arrange storage procedures independent of the legal process.

“Simply put, the decision to store data should be a business decision and not a government decision,” concludes Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner.

In Internet-security matters, I always check with arguably the nation’s leading authority, Dr. Stan Stahl (www.citadel-information.com).

“The devil is always in the details,” says Dr. Stahl. “I sure would like the ability to go back and find out who was at a particular IP address on a certain date and time when a client of mine received an email carrying the Zeus Trojan from that IP address.”

Questions arise

However, Dr. Stahl raises some questions: “Just how much pedophilia is there and exactly how is this going to control it? Is this a real problem or is this a candidate for budget cutting? Why one year? Why not 6 months? Or 18 months?  Is there anything more than a random guess as to why we’re doing this?

“All this law will do is drive all but the dumbest of them to simply cover their tracks through things like advanced tunneling, anonymization and encryption,” adds Dr. Stahl. “Survival, as always, will go to those who adapt.”

He, too, raises privacy concerns.

“Those of us old enough to remember the 60s can only hazard a guess as to the consequences of the government having the ability to track our every move on the Internet,” adds Dr. Stahl. “Americans have a deep history of not trusting government; not all of this is irrational.”

The debate seems to be in vain. Dr. Stahl says pedophiles already have a tool to stay under the radar. He cites an MIT article.

(Note: Dr. Stahl has been my go-to security expert since 1984. I was introduced to his expertise via our mutual membership in Consultants West, ww.consultantswest.com).

From the Coach’s Corner, here are two informative links:

Dr. Stahl’s security blog

Mr. Orwell’s iconic book: Nineteen Eighty-Four

“The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government.”    

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

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Columnist Terry Corbell is also a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services (many are available online). For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule Terry Corbell as a speaker, why don’t you contact him today?

 

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