Time, Precious TimeSeptember 9th, 2011

“Oh, time is on my side, yes it is
Time is on my side, yes it is”

~The Rolling Stones

If only this was true. Time is the one thing none of us seem to have enough of these days.  This is especially true when we speak of managing our websites. I recommend to my clients they make a change to their websites at the very least once a month.  And that is not really enough. But it is a start, and helps their websites to succeed and flourish. Your search engine rankings won’t improve if your website is stale and static. And why would anyone return if it is always the same content?

People want to save money, which is admirable. So what do we do? We build Content Management Systems so non-technical folks can make changes, add content, etc. But what happens? People get so busy they forget about their website.

So what is the answer? Here are three things you can do.

  1. Hire a solid company to manage your website – Contract for “X” amount of hours.  This will help. We (RooSites) for instance don’t charge for hosting, only for hours. We figure out how many hours are needed and charge half our normally rate.  This works as our clients keep their sites better to date.
  2. Automation – If done correctly you can automate some of your social networking tasks and grow your following. Again we throw that in with every management plan.
  3. Remember why your are successful – You are successful because you are an expert in your field and dedicate most of your work day to your main pursuit. So don’t regret the realization that you don’t have enough time to do “everything”. Rather, do something about it so that your web marketing is successful. Take the first step and  contact us today.

Client Advice: Social Networking is free, don’t ignoreAugust 5th, 2011

The problem most clients have is finding the time to tweet or post to facebook.  So they ignore.  My response, you are ignoring something that is not only unbelievably popular, but free as well. I think tweeting things of interest, shows you are a SME (Subject matter expert) and can set you up for possible business down the road.

So, what should I tweet?  Tweet what you know.  I have a friend in my networking group who is a grammar expert and makes a living proofreading and giving grammar seminars.  As an example, I told her to do Grammar tip of the day.  She can automate her tweets*, one or two a day and literally has hundreds of tips she could give.  By utilizing the hash tag, #grammar, she can find an audience and hopefully gain business. If you are in retail, tweet what is on sale, or about new products. If you are a service organization, show what value you offer, and lead them to your website for more information.

But the time thing…..I think you have to treat your website and social networking as part of your routine. Schedule a recurring meeting with yourself to work on your web properties.  Hire someone to do the heavy lifting, and even to tweat for you, or post to facebook.  I do this for clients, and we have seen a real growth in followers due to our activity.

If you blog, make sure your blog is tied to your twitter and/or facebook accounts.  I use the rss feed from this blog to post to twitter as an example.

* Automation software is available to post tweets and to send posts to all your SN sites.  The purpose of this blog isn’t to promote any one company, but I am glad to help, shoot me an email for more info.

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