Delivering Content

Did you know you could deliver content to fans without asking them to frequently return to your site?

Let's face it... people are busy and they have short attention spans. The likelihood they will return to your site on a regular basis and look for updates is fairly slim. They may initially be heavily engaged with your content, but eventually they start forgetting to come back, and soon, they have forgotten about your site all together. What if you could notify them of new content, without them even having to come to your site?

Fortunately you can! It's easy and simple. All you need to do is burn your site or blog's "feed." A feed is the stream of content created by your site. Once you have burned the feed, you need to give visitors the option to subscribe to your feed either by a feed reader (like the Google Reader), or through email. When a visitor subscribes to your feed, they receive an update with the new content each time you create a new post or change your website. The content is conveniently delivered to either their feed reader or their email, depending on which they choose to use for their subscription.

This keeps your site top of mind with visitors--you are pushing your content out to them, instead of relying on them to remember to visit your site and check for new information.

Want to check it out? Subscribe to my site's feed either through a feed reader or your email! The options are in the right column!

Google Resources

It was a pleasure and an honor to speak at the National Association of Extension 4-H Agents Convention today! Terrific group of folks, buzzing with neat ideas! Thank you for such a warm welcome, and a really fun session!

I mentioned some Google products, and a few asked for more resources on the products. I wanted to share some sites that might be helpful as you incorporate Google into your offices and programs.

• Google for Nonprofits ~ there is an application process, but the benefits are amazing, and it is free for organizations with less than 3,000 people.
• Google+ Hangouts ~ free resource for holding video conference sessions. This is a guide to what the symbols mean and how exactly to use this feature.
• Google Sites ~ create collaborative internal websites. This is the beginner's guide to getting started.
• Google Sites How tos ~ how to instructions for adding content, managing the appearance, etc.
• Google Drive ~ create and store collaborative documents, including word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms (for polling/collecting data). This is the getting started guide!
• Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides ~ understand more about each type.
• Share and Collaborate ~ how to make it all happen!
• Creating free QR Codes ~ there are numerous resources to do this, but these are two of my favorites:
• www.qrstuff.com
• http://beqrious.com/qr-code-generator/
• Once you have created the QR Code, download it and ad to any print materials.

These should get you started! Happy collaborating!

Gamification

I'm thrilled for the opportunity to speak at the National Association of Extension 4-H Agents Convention tomorrow! As part of my presentation on social media and gaming, I will be speaking on the hot topic of gamification. I was fortunate to have a friend and fellow 4-H Association Member loan me a copy of Innovation Games by Luke Hohmann. This is a terrific read with fabulous ideas for gathering real, useable feedback from customers, coworkers, staff, students, etc. Not all game concepts fit all settings, but there are definitely applications for nonprofits and youth organizations.

Take a look at the book, and let me know if you are interested in applying gamification concepts to your organization or group--I'd be happy to help structure your strategy!

QR Codes for Nonprofits and Small Businesses

By now you have probably seen a QR Code or two scattered around random places (there was even one on my Pepto Bismal bottle lid the other day...). You may have even scanned one before (if not, not to worry--they are still catching on and not everyone has experience with these clever little bar codes). If you're new to interacting with these, download a QR Code reader app (my suggestions: QR Droid for Android devices, and QR Reader for iPhone), and give it a shot.

If you're not new to QR Codes, you may be wondering how to make these things work for your organization. I like to encourage non-profits and small businesses to specifically think about incorporating these little marvels. They are free to create and can save a lot in reprinting costs (when placed correctly). The key to QR Codes is that they are for driving mobile traffic. Where do you want visitors to go on their mobile devices?

Here are some ideas:

1. As part of a viral t-shirt campaign, created just for Orange County 4-H, we placed QR Codes on the shirt sleeves. These codes direct visitors to the social media profiles for Orange County 4-H, as well as the main website. It's like an interactive billboard, that's walking down the streets, through the school hallways, and showing up at events.
2. Use QR Codes on brochures and posters, linking to information that has a tendency to change in between printing runs. This also helps cut down on the word clutter, and makes for an opportunity to bring the printed materials to life--link to a video or audio file.
3. Allow preregistration for events and fundraisers by scanning the codes. This can help increase early registrations, and makes it easy and convenient to register.

As always, I'm happy to help your organization create QR Code magic. Scan the code above to email me. :)

Who has time to do Search Engine Optimization?

There are so many tools and techniques for marketing these days. Sometimes I think it would be a lot easier if we had stayed in the traditional marketing phase--by its very nature, traditional marketing requires things to happen more slowly. New billboards, TV ads, radio spots and printed materials could only be created so quickly. We've moved beyond a traditional marketing only world though, and keeping up can be tough. Your days are filled with many responsibilities, and marketing may only garner a fraction of your time. I wrote about patience and diligence when it comes to digital marketing, which is important for success, however, so is working smarter, not harder.

Search Engine Optimization is no doubt one of the most important parts of marketing in the digital age. If you aren't showing up in search engines, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to be found by a new audience. We all have questions and sought after information, and most of us find the answers in search results.

SEO is complicated and requires an understanding of your target audience. You have to be tuned in enough to know what they might be searching for, if they were looking for a site like yours. It's kind of a trial and error process, and it does take time for the efforts to really pay off. Again, I realize you have a lot of other stuff going on, so I wanted to share an article with three easy steps that you can use to work smarter, and not harder, on SEO.

Bare Minimum SEO: 3 Things You Must Do

If you could do only three things for SEO, what would they be? This is a question encountered by many smaller businesses, and even somewhat larger companies, either due to not having enough people (time) and/or dollars available to invest in a big way.

Here are three minimal SEO tasks you must do:

1. Check your indexing status.

2. Focus site on target keywords.

3. Go get links.

I'm a Social Media Cowgirl (Howdy Ya'll)

My friend, and author of this post, speaks my language. I couldn't help but share because of the cowgirl connection. I grew up on a working cattle ranch, but have since traded my boots and ropes for social media and digital technologies. Thanks to Danielle Spears for marrying the two very different worlds!

I'm a Social Media Cowgirl (Howdy Ya'll): We’re facing a wild, Wild West out there. This frontier is made up of hash tags, handles, influence and followers.

How to Do Email Marketing Effectively, Part 3

Segmenting an email marketing list is essential to email marketing best practices. Customization and personalization on a mass level is one of the great benefits of using email marketing (in fact, it's the only digital marketing channel that allows for personalization on such a large scale). Consumers want personalization, and this is a fabulous way for you to offer it, without a lot of fuss. It pays off for you too--your readers will be more engaged, unsubscribes will be fewer, and your efforts will lead to more conversions.  When email recipients know they are only receiving communications with information that is relevant to their likes, tastes and interests, they are much more likely to pay attention. Think about regular mail--you're much more excited to see a card from Grandma than a piece of junk mail trying to sell you auto insurance you don't need.

A recent post from the Bronto Blog couldn't have explained email segmentation better. I'd like to share their post below. ;)

Keys to Creating More Relevant Emails with 4 Simple Segmentation Tactics

The Democratic and Republican National Conventions recently came to a close. Imagine if instead of having the Democrats attend the DNC and the Republicans attend the RNC they instead randomly assigned people to attend one or the other. Of course some people would find the convention relevant to them, but others would not. This wouldn’t make much sense, right? Well, this is exactly what you do when you send batch-and-blast emails to your subscribers.

Email marketers and politicians both know the value of sending people messages most relevant to them. Relevant emails generate higher open rates, higher click rates and, most importantly, higher conversions.

Although it all sounds great and you want to do it, what if you simply don’t have all the traditional RFM data at your fingertips? What if your company is smaller in size and/or your resources are limited? The good news is there are still ways to begin to create more relevant emails and increase revenue without a complex email marketing infrastructure. Your subscribers are handing over valuable information explicity (through a sign-up form, preference center) and implicity (through behavior within an email). For more ways to explore how to continue to grow that data bank, check out "Segmentation: What they tell you explicitly - Preferences 101"

Visit the Bronto Blog to look at some ways you can use simple segmentation data without being overwhelmed.

Building Fans, Increasing Followers, Getting to 1Million Viewers -- Why is it taking soooo long?!

Social media success doesn't happen over night.

We are not a patient species. We may have been at one time, but then McDonald's spoiled us with the drive through window, the internet dumped dial-up connections, and Apple started creating leaner, meaner, faster cell phones. No one waits for anything anymore, so it's only fitting, that I remind all of you one more time, social media success doesn't happen over night.

Some things still take time. Even with short cuts and insights, there is only so much cheating that Father Time will allow. When you bake a cake, if you rush it, you will be eating soggy cake (personally, I find chocolate in any state delightful, but soggy cake and sloppy social media are two different things).

Here is what I suggest for those that want social media success to happen for you right now:

• Reread the bolded sentence above.
• Create a plan for your social media efforts. What social sites will you use and how will you use them? What do you want to share on each? (Remember, social media isn't about you telling people stuff. It's also about you listening. And actually, the less you try to tell them, and the more you listen instead, the better it will work.)
• Set some time aside each week to develop your social media efforts. You can't write one tweet and call it good. It's ongoing. Like any good relationship, it takes work.
• Think of social media like dating. You have to court the girl for a while before you bring her home to meet the family. Then you spend more time getting to know each other before you pop the question. You can expand your business and increase sales with social media, but you have to take the time to "court" your customers. 
• Be patient. With persistance and dedication, it will happen.

I enjoyed a recent post by the Social Media Examiner on using social media for customer research. They shared some great ideas for finding customers that are talking about things relevant to your business. Find these conversations and join them. Don't try to seal the deal immediately--court the customer and develop the relationship first. First comes like, then comes love, and then comes marriage. 

How to Do Email Marketing Effectively, Part 2

So you are gaining permission from your fans to market to them through emails. Your list of people who have "opted-in", or signed up, is growing. Now what...? Find an email marketing service.

There are numerous email marketing services that exist now, for a variety of prices, including free. Constant Contact is one of the most well known, and their subscription plans are favorable for small businesses. My favorite is Mail Chimp, which has a "forever free" option, allowing you to send up to 12,000 emails per month (this is a considerable amount for a small business, and it will likely take you a while to grow beyond this number). iContact is another familiar competitor, and the list goes on and on.

Picking one really boils down to usability, dependability, and pricing. You want an email marketing service that will be user-friendly, allowing you to easily create beautifully branded emails. You also want one with decent support in case you have questions or issues, and you want to know your emails are going to be delivered on time to the right people. Whichever service you choose, you will want one that works with your budget.

So why would you go to all this trouble to create an account on one of these platforms, pick a subscription plan, setup the service, etc., when you could just send emails from a regular 'ol email client? There are actually a number of reasons:

• First, and most importantly I think, is that it gives your emails a professional, seamlessly branded appearance. Your messages look like they are legitimate and not mistaken for SPAM. By incorporating brand elements into the messages, you can build brand awareness and recognition for your business's logo, color palette and tagline.
• Second, using the email marketing service helps you follow many of the CAN-SPAM Act Rules. Once you set up the account, much of the information will default to settings that are required for the email campaigns to be in compliance. This isn't something you want to mess around with--the fines are steep, and creating your own emails in a regular email format (such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, or AOL) makes it easy to violate the rules. 
• Third, the email marketing services will generate reports showing the success of the campaign. This is invaluable information for evaluating your email strategy. You will be able to easily see who opened the emails, forwarded them, unsubscribed from future communications, and on which links they clicked inside the message. 
• Fourth, well-designed email campaigns encourage engagement and drive traffic to other places on the internet. If you are driving traffic from your emails to your website, blog, or social media sites, this is good for your search engine optimization, the popularity of your sites, and your overall exposure. The longer you can keep people clicking around and hanging out on one of your webpages, the better.

Give an email marketing service a whirl--I think you'll be happy with the results, especially the return on your efforts. If you need help, I'm here and happy to help you get started, or manage your campaigns from start to finish.

How to Do Email Marketing, Effectively - Part 1

Email is not dead. As digital marketing technologies evolve, die off, and reinvent themselves, email remains a steady constant. It's not changed much over the years, with the exception of some minor additions to editing capabilities and formatting style options. It remains a useful medium for communication and information dissemination. It's also a strong method to drive visitors to other places on the internet.

I receive more and more emails from businesses. Some of them ones I have subscribed to (or "opted-in") and some are ones that mysteriously appear in my inbox. As a small business running an email marketing campaign, this is major no-no number one. Do not email anyone who has not opted-in, or agreed/subscribed/signed up in some fashion, to receive communication from your business. Blasting everyone in your address book is a quick way to kill your email marketing efforts. The people who are receiving emails from your business should be receiving them because they are interested, engaged, and willing. They should make the decision, not you.

Think about it--your personal email address is exactly that: personal. Your cell phone number, social security number, email address, snail mail address, etc. are not bits of information you want everyone to have--you guard these close to you and likely prefer the right to choose who and which organizations have them at any given time.

An effective email marketing campaign begins with the opt-in. This means you have to allow people to say, "Yes, I want to receive emails from your business." If they are opting-in, they likely have some familiarity with your business and an interest to learn more. Receiving emails from you out of the blue can be confusing, misleading, and ineffective. For instance, if you were to purchase a list of email addresses and then proceed to market to each of those people through their email addresses, you would be approaching them cold. It is no different than walking up to a stranger on the sidewalk and handing them a stack of literature on your business, bombarding them with information for something they know nothing about. The stranger would likely escape as quickly as possible and dump the literature in the nearest trash receptacle. Give people a change to know you and allow the development of a relationship by respecting their privacy. If they desire more information, let them tell you by giving their permission.

If you are a small business looking for assistance with your email marketing efforts, please feel free to contact me. I am happy to assist in the creation of email marketing strategy, campaign development, or management of campaigns. Don't dive into the deep end without a guide! :)