Let's Talk About Your Website

• Are you still distinguishing between your website and your business?

• Your customers aren't.

• The only thing they know about you - until they meet you - is what you look like on their screen.

Tactics

Right now it's about imagery - it won't always be this way but for now images are really important.

Strategy

AOL, Geocities, Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, iPhone, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest

The only thing missing from the above list is the start date of 1993 when CERN donated the technology behind the web to the world.

Markets form where the people are and where the people are changes every few years.

Vision

 If you're in this for the long haul - if you have an idea of what you are, where you're going and what you want to be - you'd better be putting your website at the core of everything you do.

Do you really believe that any social network that is popular now is going to be just as popular in the future?

The only constant since the dawn of the internet age is the website - the .com or .org that is immutable and baked right into the heart of the system.

As far as your customers are concerned your website is your past, present and future.

If you're not happy with where you currently are, get in touch and let's chat.

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Written while listening to:   Essay Writing Music - Strings (2)

Image credit: Dawa deep in pixel thought by Juhan Sonin on Flickr

Are You Married?

Maybe you've got a spouse, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, hell any kind of friend will do - but if you've developed a relationship with another human being then you should have this internet marketing thingy down.

Alone on the playground with no friends.  Is this your social media marketing experience?

Right now you're that new boy at school looking at the strangers on the playground, you're that girl at the new gym wondering if you're going to fit in. Sure some nice person might come over and say hi, or someone you already know may introduce you to their friends, but in most cases, you have to reach out yourself.

I don't know about you but I hate the whole "networking" thing - particularly here in America where the stereotype of a walking smile attached to a pair of plaid pants overpowers you with their "Hey - how are you - I'm Brad - let me tell you about me!" still exists.

Be a Joiner

The best way to meet people online is to join a group.  If you're active on a social network like Linkedin, Facebook, Pinterest or even better nowadays, Google+ - you're going to find people just like you who are eager to read and share good information about the industry.  (And yes - there are quite a few carpentry communities!)

Develop relationships

Once you've joined a group don't leap in and start posting, listen for  a while,  read what the group has to say, work out who's who and what kind of information tends to resonate.  Share stuff you like, re-tweet, re-post, re-pin and then one day - if you see a post from someone you like and respect (and who maybe has a big following,) add a comment - not a "me too" comment, but a considered sentence or two that adds value to the post.

After  while you'll no longer be an outsider looking in - you'll be part of the group - you'll have developed relationships with others and when you finally submit something of your own, it will be accepted by the group and shared.

Reality Check

Those of us in long term relationships know that they take time, that they often start in peculiar ways and that after the initial rush require attention and nurturing.  Looking after your online relationships is the best way to ensure that your content gets distributed to a wider audience.  Until you become a rock star in your field it's a two way street; if you're not investing time growing your network you're going to lose out to people who are.

If you'd like to see how this approach can work for you and your business, get in touch and let's have a chat.

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Written while listening to: Essay Writing Music - Birdsong

Image Credit: Left Out - Portable Soul - Flickr 

It's about creativity - your creativity

 For most of you reading this I'm betting the thing that makes your business successful, that wins you cases or delights your clients - is creativity.

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Essay writing music from Jody Bateman Johnston

Sure - you've got to know the rules: lawyers get better with practice, experienced buyers can spot a trend a mile away and therapists & healers get more intuitive after a hundred sessions, the thing is - knowing how the system works is only half the battle.  

If you build it will they really come?

Someone like me can show you how to market yourself online - we can architect the platform and build it around you, we can show you how to use it, give you tools and insights and teach you how to be most effective, but at the end of the day - it comes down to you.

• What have you got to say?
• How are you going to say it?
• With what?

Creating your unique message

Human beings love creativity, we experience it as newness, as uniqueness, as something intriguing and generally pleasing, it can be many things and we know it when we see it.

It doesn't matter if it's an image, an article, a banner on La Cienega or a tweet - the more creative you are - the more powerful and resonant your message.

Being creative is fun!

The really fun part of my job is when everything is built and we're executing the content strategy.  Coming up with ideas, challenging established practices, looking at things differently, working collaboratively to bring something unique to what is essentially the same message:

"Here I am - buy from me!"

If you're stuck in a rut and ready to have some fun with your marketing - get in touch here.

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Written while listening to - Essay Writing Music - Getting Back Together

The Image above

P.S.  Remember that as an Executive you don't always have to execute your creative vision yourself.  For my current music2work2 playlist I wanted a unique image that portrayed the ideas of flow and writing, that targeted a student population that skewed female and the image needed space to be easily branded.   The artist Jody Bateman Johnston has a unique style and she takes commissions - I couldn't be happier!

I lied - this is a long post about images and marketing

I am going to tell you how to use imagery to market your business.

Tldr: If you want a 2 year jump on your competition, start incorporating your own, unique imagery into your digital communications.

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This is where you should be

You've got your website, right?  It's well designed so that's it quick and easy for someone to understand what is you do, how to find out more about you and how to get in touch, plus it looks modern and professional, optimized for local and it scales well on mobile too.

You've also got a presence on most of the major social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Foursquare, Google+  and you're using standardized text and imagery across this "digital footprint" so that no matter where someone comes into contact with you - they "get it" and can get back to your website.

The really hip among you are already "farming" your existing client base by sending out a regular newsletter and tracking opening rates and clicks through to your business.

Every Monday you get a report that tells you what's happening to your website and every month you compile a document that tracks movement within the digital footprint.  After three months - hell - call it six - you begin to understand the underlying "flow" to your business.

Not there?

If you don't have all those pieces in place then you are severely diluting any marketing effort you make.  Get in touch with me and we'll put you right.

If you are ready, here's what you do

Make taking pictures a daily habit.

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Simple as that.

Get the best smart phone you can afford with the best camera on it - and start taking pictures, lots of pictures.  Post them up to Instagram or to Flickr - post them to a place where you don't care if people see them and where people are unlikely to seek them out.

Develop the habit of taking pictures, posting them and then looking at them and thinking about how you could make them better.  If you post 25 images a week to your Instagram  or Flickr account - at least one of them will be a brilliant accompaniment to a story that presents your business in a positive light.

Setting sail on the social networks

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Once you have your stunning image - write a story about your business so that it in some way relates to the image; note - this could be a really, really abstract and loose association - but so long as there is some relevance, you're good.

Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, Foursquare - they're all "Visual" networks.  Nothing moves faster through those networks than imagery - compared to text posts - images fly.  Think of your image as the sail to your message's boat - the better the image, the bigger the sail and the faster your boat will move.

Caveat

This is totally gaming the system - the underlying construct is flawed - but for now until we develop better ways of identifying good information - this approach will get your message, your story, your content out to significantly more people than if you didn't do it.

 I reckon this approach has a couple of years of life left in it - maybe less.  It's a marketing advantage that you can apply to your business right now. It requires no capital but requires you to become better at taking photos and capturing moments.  There are huge side benefits.

If you'd like to discuss this - how to do it - how to make it work for your business - get in touch here.

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Of course, sometimes it's just easier to use other people's imagery - which is cool if you know where to get them!  These images come from unsplash and are credited to: 

 Vadim Sherbakov

 Jennifer Trovato

Mila Solovyeva

Written while listening to: 

Essay Writing Music - Introduction

Instagram is the new autograph

When you become successful, popular, even famous (from smart marketing of your excellent product and services,) your fans and clients won't want your autograph - they'll want a photo of you with them - one that they can immediately share with their friends to say that they've met you.  If images are more popular than writing, what does this mean for your business?

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The Forth Rail and Road Bridges banking out of Edinburgh airport

Images are like words - you have to practice to get good at them

Anyone who's been writing a blog for any length of time will cringe a little when they go back and read the early posts.  It's natural - it takes a while to get good at most things and this is certainly true in the creative arts.  The best way to produce good imagery is to take a lot of photographs.

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Mount Rainier - Leaving Seattle early evening

If it's not published it doesn't count

You're not a tortured teenager keeping a private diary, you're doing this in order to produce imagery that can support your business.   Use Instagram to get into the habit of publishing your work and seeing it online.  The more you look at your work the faster you will learn and the greater the number of useable images you will produce.

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Los Angeles - Night time with curvature of the earth

Yes - you now need to be a photographer too

I know - first you had to be writers and now you have to learn to be photographers too; what can I say - it is how it is.  Of course you can outsource this, some of you already do, but no-one is going to tell the story of your business better than you, so if it isn't rocket science and you can learn how to do it - why not give it a try?

I promise - next week I'll write about something else, but if you're not changing your behavior to develop strong imagery then you're going to miss out.  If you'd like to incorporate imagery into your marketing plan - get in touch and we'll have a chat.

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The images in this post were shot with an iPhone 4 out of various airplane windows coming back from Scotland.  They have nothing to do with marketing but they sure make the point that you don't need fancy gear to produce a strong visual.

Written while listening to:  Nathalie - Instrumental Music to Create Flow

Images, images, iMages, apple wizards

I'm going to bang this drum until I break it or until you unsubscribe but -  if you're not actively thinking about imagery as part of your digital marketing you are going to lose to a more informed and motivated competitor.

• I can tell you about a client who only posted images on their new Facebook page ( 1500 likes in 3 weeks)

• I can tell you about Pinterest (drives more retail traffic than Twitter and Facebook)

• I can take you through a controlled experiment that analyzed the behavior of social shares across Google+ (but then you'd have to kill me.)

The most effective way to amplify your message and move it through social platforms is to attach it to an image.

Not a stock image - a cool image - a unique image - one that I haven't seen before.  If the image catches my eye and it bears some kind of relevance to what you're saying, then maybe I'll give you some of my time.

You can't steal imagery, you must use a license - both Google and Flickr (and plenty of other sites) have millions of images that are free to use so long as you acknowledge them (see below.)

The best imagery comes from you - comes from your camera - your phone.  The sooner you give imagery the same importance you give the words in your articles - the more money you will make.

I'm going to be off the grid next week, spending time with family back in Scotland.  I'll be back online on Monday the 2nd of September.  If it's urgent I will be checking email but otherwise, I'll catch you all in a few weeks.

Written while listening to:   Revising / Ximena - Music to Write to - Create Flow

Image credit: Use your own camera - Seth Anderson - Flickr