Is posting a link always the best way to go?

Content marketers have a well established technique to drive traffic. Publish a social network posting containing a link to further content, and hope the viewer finds the opening paragraph interesting enough to select the link.

But it doesn’t work all the time. Not even close. And it’s only going to get worse.

The proliferation of content writers and marketers has created a diluted stream of link postings throughout all social networks. As a result viewer fatigue has become a real issue. Viewers start filtering more and more selectively what they click on.

Filtering content is what we all do every day. What alternative do we have? So for online business, the question is, “How do we filter postings, and what’s the best way to get through our own filters”?  

One criteria we use to determine whether or not we select a posting is, “are there comments?” Comments cause a posting to stand out. Comments provide more initial information for us to draw from. Comments stimulate our curiosity and the need to be in on the discussion. So naturally they get more attention.

A recent discussion on LinkedIn talks about the declining amount of traffic content marketers are seeing navigating to the websites they are promoting. A number of issues have been brought up and I encourage a read.

One of my favorite comments in that discussion was submitted by Rupert Waddington who suggested directly, “Maybe just post better blogs?” That indeed is one way to get more comments, more engagement and more through traffic, but we can’t all have the best blogs.

An alternative is to post the synopsis of your blog posting directly into the social media channel. This more simplistic approach gets through the viewer filter that blocks postings with links, and leads to a comment stream that would not otherwise occur.

Once the comment stream begins, you have an opportunity to introduce your blog posting to an already engaged audience. With the link added into the comment stream, you revitalize the discussion and feed new comments and thereby new traffic to your promoted page.

This approach may not be practical for Twitter due to the character limitation, but within Facebook and other social media channels a direct post can be the difference between driving traffic and not.

Much like so many marketing efforts of the past, this new promotion environment requires the same considerations. It is critical to know the media, and how people interact with that media.

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Over-the-Virtual-Counter - The New Business Engagement Model

I have worked the counter at restaurants, retail shops, trade shows, and even an arcade back in the day when pinball was all the rage. And I can tell you from experience there is no better way to engage with your contacts, and cultivate rewarding relationships, than having that face to face "over-the-counter" discussion. Because they are expecting it.

Over-the-counter is such an established engagement model, we don't even realize we change our entire persona when we step into it. When you approach the counter, whether it's at a bank, an Apple store, or a chip wagon, you know the routine of back and forth and banter associated with the model. The shyness you typically have with strangers is lessened to a large degree. Your confidence goes up. You become purpose driven, and at the end of the engagement you expect a result.

For the experienced counter person, it's a slam dunk. You can do the job with one hand tied behind your back, it's such and established point of contact. And business knows this.

Business knows this is where the "rubber meets the road". That's why every counter person has been provided a pre-established script for up-selling, promoting , thanking, etc. In addition, staff regularly attend training sessions to improve their ability to engage with the customer or contact. Business spends billions every year to further the effectiveness of this point of contact.

But what about the virtual counter? Who's working that?

For most organizations, it's nobody.

For most organizations the virtual counter is nothing more than a box full of brochures and a box for visitors to drop their messages into. It's info and an email address. That's it. No back and forth. No banter. No effective engagement. A missed opportunity repeating itself over and over again, as each on-line visitor enters and leaves your site.

As a business manager, this would be the first thing you'd fix if it were a live situation. But it appears that most business are unaware of the engagement opportunities the web holds.

And it's not surprising. The over-the-counter engagement model has been around for centuries. This new Over-the-Virtual-Counter engagement opportunity is new, and the best way to approach the issue is largely uncharted territory.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, emailers etc. are the first of the new tools for over-the-virtual-counter engagement. They do a reasonably good job. But they can be an overburden as the number of places to engage keeps changing and increasing as new applications are developed.

Over-the-virtual-counter engagement will get better in time. My application, for one, is built to address that fact. But software alone will not resolve this issue. Business needs to do their part.

Organizations need to realize the capacity of the web to elicit participation from their audience. They need to realize on-line engagement can be just as effective as in person engagement. They need to realize that they can engage in live interaction. They need to realize that a new engagement model is emerging, and their competition might be on to it right now.

I'm working with StartUp Ottawa right now, being tasked with cleaning up and upgrading their directory of businesses. This past weekend I went through each of the couple of hundred businesses in the directory to compile a contact list. In doing so I visited each organization's website and soon discovered the "Just Info & Email" pattern. Some had a blog, some used social media, but almost all failed to invite participation. And thus the reason for my blog posting.

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Influence Marketing Strategies - The do's and don'ts

An old concept is being re-invented by the modern on-line community. Influence marketing has arguably been around since the birth of society, when someone first had something to sell. We called it "Word of mouth". Today, social networks make word of mouth far more reaching, faster, and if you're smart about it, the most effective influence marketing strategy ever witnessed.

The key is to be smart about it. And that's the rub. How can you learn to be smart about a technique that has so little empirical data to draw from?

Influence marketing in today's on-line marketplace, is different for every SMB. There is no single solution to finding the influencers that benefit an organization, or the perfect means to interact with them. Marketing tools that include mass emailers, cookies, squeeze pages and data trackers have popped up over the last several years claiming to assist. Many an article has been written about how best to use social media to advance an organization's on-line marketing effort. But if there is one approach that has seen more success over others, it is relationship building.

Building relationships and allowing those relationships to grow through social networks is today's word of mouth. Today's influence marketing. For an organization, it is cost effective and has arguably the best ROI of any marketing expenditure.

The important thing for an organization to keep in mind when trying to build an on-line relationship, is engagement. It sounds simple, but for the most part the only visitor engagement organizations cultivate on-line, are comments within blog postings and email interaction. Rarely does an organization follow up on comments and emails are not open to community interaction.

Too often SMB owners think "Top Down" when they post to the web or communicate with their contacts. Simply deliver information with no invitation to engage, and that is an opportunity lost.

The on-line community likes to contribute when asked. And they really like to share what they personally contribute. Especially if they feel their contribution means something to someone.

So give them the opportunity to contribute. As an SMB you should allow them to engage with you. Ask their opinion on subjects. Ask questions. Conduct discussion. Do everything you would do with a face to face customer.

Those that contribute with you will become high value contacts. Your relationships will be strengthened, and they will become your front line influence marketers as they share within their social networks.

Understanding your best approach to an effective influence marketing strategy is something that takes a bit of time. You need to acquire your own empirical data, and develop your own best practices from there. Whatever tools you choose to use, just ensure you are thinking "Bottom Up". Think about what your community would like to discuss. What they would like to contribute to. And you'll begin growing an influence marketing community.  

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And the Scams Just Keep on Coming

One of the things you get a lot of when you're a freelancer, and you've been working the social media markets and forums, are proposals for partnership and revenue earning.

Yesterday I received a "Make Money From Home" offer that presented me with the pitch, "All you have to do is Like our postings". Followed by an outrageous claim of making up to $1000 per day.

This of course is just a complete scam. I recommend to all my freelance and start up colleagues, before anyone pursues anything like this, have a read and watch the following expose. Scamworld: 'Get rich quick' schemes mutate into an online monster.

Back in 2002 I took part in a workshop being sponsored by the local economic development committee. The workshop was entitled "How to Make Money", and as you suspect by the title, it was a scam. It should have been titled "How We Can Make Money; While Offering You False Promises".

I don't think the committee had any idea they had invited snake oil salesmen into their town, but for myself and several other recent start ups attending it became very apparent within moments that all these people wanted to do was sell us all on their new book, "How to Make Money".

The thing that I thought was exceedingly bold was their cyclical approach to the scam.

The scam is quite simple:
1) Write and publish a book on how to make money,
2) Invite all interested to attend a paid workshop on how to make money,
3) Then sell the book to all who attend.

The content of both the book and the workshop are the same. They each describes the above three steps! That's it!

I was amazed. I simultaneously thought, "Wow, nice con!", and at the same time, "Is anyone buying into this?" As it turns out more than half did.

Fortunately, I was able to consult with some of the other attendees I was friends with, and we decided to discreetly walk out of the workshop/snake oil presentation without purchasing their book. We were $25 out of pocket for attending but the lesson learned was worth far more.

The internet has introduced many new opportunities for scams, and many new terms have become part of our vocabulary. Phishing, malware, spoofing are all possible pitfalls in the new realities we find when we navigate through the internet. In all sincerity I do hope that those reading this are wise enough not to fall for such a scam.

So many have lost so much, I consider myself luck that I was only taken for 25 bucks.
 

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When is a Poll not really a Poll? When just asking, alters the results!

I worked in politics for a few years. As part of that effort I designed and managed the on-line portion of a few provincial election campaigns in Ontario. |In each campaign I was involved in, "the Team" would pay particular attention to the ongoing polls. And each time, after the election was complete, the result didn't reflect the ongoing polling at all. Why?

It's likely because the polling methods for the most part, are out of date. Ever get a phone call from a polling firm just as you're sitting down for supper? You're not alone.

So what do you think the likelihood is that you're going to achieve any degree of accuracy, when most of your data comes from people willing to talk to you on their home phone in exchange for sitting down to a meal?

"Just keep calling until we get a thousand responses", is the instruction given to telephone callers. 

It's old technology using old "top down" thinking. Just like the ambush interview you get outside your grocery store or on your doorstep. How can the results be valid in any way? And more to the point, how can we continue to give credence to this polling approach in the 21st century.

The UK just had an election where David Cameron and the Conservative Party were the majority winners. But that wasn't suppose to happen according to the polls. In the days and minutes leading up to the election the media was claiming that it was a dead heat and the election result could be an unstable government and perhaps another election could be called before the year was out.

Lots of predictions by those, who you would think are far more "in the know" than you and I. But almost all were incorrect. Was the problem the same as I had experienced in Ontario? Out of date polling methods. It seemed so. In this case the constituents didn't want to show their hand prior to the election. The polling process couldn't get the data out of them.

On the other hand, Alberta just finished a provincial election with the NDP coming out on top. And what do you know, it was predicted. Vote Compass called it. Public opinion and media dismissed the prediction, suggesting the 40+ year reign of the Tories would carry on.

Days before the election ThreeHundredEight.com predicted the NDP would finish third.

So what's the difference with Vote Compass?

The difference is bottom up participation.

Vote compass has created an app that engages the participant and provides immediate feedback. This is no supper time phone call. This is bottom up thinking at it's best and a great example of how we should be thinking in business. It is an unobtrusive and a rewarding experience.

Get people involved by giving them the control. Vote Compass gives the constituent the control. The constituent can pick the time and place they take part. They work at their own speed. And in the end they learn something. Perfect! Now we're polling. Now we're getting reliable data.

Now we are working with our audience, not at our audience.

This is the point. Whether you are managing political, consumer, or any other kind of polling, you need to recognize that your polling method has great impact on the results. And if you're impact the results are they really worth anything.

Canada has a federal election coming up this fall, and the US has theirs next year. I hope that with all the money that get's spent on elections (much more so in the States) someone will spend a few bucks and take the time to educate the media and the public that not all polls are created equal.

In fact if a poll is conducted in an intrusive format like phone calls or ambush interviews, it is systemically inaccurate and should be ruled inadmissible in the "court of public scrutiny".

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Marketing with Facebook... Not as easy as some believe!

So a couple of years ago I had a client come to me completely exasperated. "My Facebook postings are only being seen by 10% of my fans! And there's a Boost button under my post now. Do they want me to start paying for my fans to see my posts!? I can't believe it!" I kind of felt sorry for him, but at the same time a felt like saying, "well duh, how long did you think the free ride was going to last?"

The result of that December date when Facebook changed their distribution algorithm, was to reintroduce me to a group of confused clients looking for more answers. They had been using Facebook as part of their on-line marketing efforts and now they were facing additional spending to continue. But that wasn't the only challenge before them. Or me.

For many the post boost feature seemed the most affordable first step, and they got on board spending and then seeing the resulting "Reach" (and metric) go up. It seemed to make sense. It was right there in front of them. Spend some money and get your posts out to more people. They didn't like it but at least it was understandable and the metrics told them it was working. Or so they thought.

It wasn't the same. The comments, likes, shares and general activity just wasn't the same as before they were telling me. And the metrics were confusing they said.

I tried it myself of course. Spent some money boosting, saw metrics move around, had friends and a few clients reference my facebook business activity. But my thoughts were "Wow, this is going to eat up a lot of time for everyone."  Clearly Facebook had made broad changes to their system as part of a monetization effort. Those wishing to use Facebook as a marketing avenue had to do some research before they spent a lot of time and money on a fruitless effort.

Facebook is the best on-line marketing option for small businesses and start ups on a budget. Agree? Participate Here

As I personally hadn't really used Facebook as part of my promotion efforts, I didn't have much to offer. "There certainly is a lot of information on-line", with a grin I told many of my clients.

Since then I have done my own Facebook research. Jon Loomer of  jonloomer.com offers some good advice. I particularly like the fact that he talks the long game, and not to get caught up in metrics watching.

The upshot of all this and my advice to small businesses and start ups is to take caution when getting involved with Facebook marketing. There certainly are many out there willing to share their insights. Some better than others and most willing to take your cash in exchange for some degree of knowledge. Do some shopping and find a course of some kind to take, download or whatever to gain the knowledge you need. You certainly don't want to go into it blind as the number of pitfalls are many.

Facebook is the best on-line marketing option for small businesses and start ups on a budget. View Results

But more important than gaining Facebook marketing knowledge, is the knowledge that it takes far more than just knowing Facebook to run an effective on-line marketing campaign. It takes quality products or services, and a sustained communication effort across several media types to create relationships.

Don't get too caught up in the technology. Take a bit of time and gain some knowledge about Facebook and other social marketing opportunities, but never forget "Content is King".

You can use many of the techniques presented by Facebook marketing advisers, but it's your content that you should be dedicating the bulk of your attention to. It's good content that returns visitors and creates relationships. Keep that in mind when working your market.

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Spam, Spam, and More Spam... The Trouble with Email Marketing

So I made the mistake of participating in a "How was our service?" poll, conducted by a well know restaurant chain, in the hopes of winning a free meal. Twenty four hours later my inbox has 20 emails from sources I've never seen before. And more come in daily. Hardly worth the free meal I never got.

I've unsubscribed but that doesn't do much. More emails come in. Just from different sources. The result is ignoring emails and reckless deletion of large blocks of emails every day.

Once the e-marketers have your address they hold on to it as if it were gold. And find ways to get content to you. It's a cat and mouse game.

The same thinking is used in the direct mailing industry. (A position I briefly occupied in the 90's) We would advise small businesses to print around 100,000 flyers or so, and pay to have them stuffed into newspapers and distribute to their neighbourhood. It's a simple process. One that's been around for generations. And is likely going to continue for at least a couple more. 

In the past, direct mail campaigns were considered an overwhelming success if they managed a 2% return. But just how effective are the direct mailers today? The days of 2% returns are long gone.

The marketing business didn't skip a beat when the Internet rolled in. They simply changed the format and delivery mechanism for flyers. "Spam" was invented.

But the same is true of spam (and in time email marketing) as it was with flyers. In time they become largely ineffective for most businesses.

Certainly if you are a Nigerian Prince with a few million dollars needing transfer, "spamming" is your way to go!
(Tongue firmly planted in cheek)

So for the small business out there, if the majority of your online marketing effort is a list of contacts that you email periodically thru some service like MailChimp or Constant Contact; you are likely only getting the attention of a shockingly low percentage of your list. No matter what the analytics say.

For a retailers, particularly boutique sized independents, you would do better to occupy yourselves with developing the relationships you currently have with your client/customer base. Let the relationships you have, work for you on-line.

Unlike those days of direct mail when engaging your customers cost time, manpower, and expenditures; the web allows you to engage your client/customers far more regularly and meaningfully, thereby creating stronger relationships.

The business relationships you achieve on-line can be just as solid as your face to face over the counter ones. Make your on-line relationship two-directional and engaging. Don't just blast out a newsletter.

A fantastic article to read is It’s you, not them: 4 email relationship problems by Mark Brownlow where Mark discusses the realities of  email marketing.

I suggest paying particular attention to Problem 3 of his article. If your client/customers are not finding your relationship rewarding they go away.

The best ways to make their experience rewarding is to invite their opinion.

People love to tell you what they think. Work a counter and you'll see!

Get a poll going, or a discussion forum. Get your client/customers to send you their favourite picture of you product and make a gallery for them to view. Put out a surprise QR code for them to scan with their smartphones and have them go to a landing page with some content they can comment on.

Your options are only limited by you and your team's imagination. The point is, give your client/customers something that engages them.

Because at this point if you think a newsletter blasts every quarter is effective, you're missing it.

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Why has Twitter Not Saved a Life Yet?

Take one part simple communication application, two parts custom functions, and a dash of it fits in your pocket, and you get one of the most globally influential technologies ever created. ... and we use it to spread fluff & hate.

Back in 2010, like many others, I was introduced to the new social craze that was Twitter. I created an account and emailed out to my @rossbartlett Twitter id to some friends and within minutes I had half a dozen followers, and I followed some of my friends and some celebrities. It was fast and easy. Almost no learning curve.

I recall Tom Hanks was my first celebrity to follow, and I enjoyed the inside look at some of his tweets as he worked on Toy Story 3.

This was fantastic! I thought we had come up with something that would unite people and better society by bringing a strength in numbers voice to injustices and outrage in the world. Not so!

It didn't take very long before one of my contacts tweeted an opinion that was not appreciated by some in my circle of followers. A rapid fire series of tweets shot through my twitter feed. Filled with personal attacks that reminded me of behaviour usually reserved for those unstable drivers behind the wheel in rush hour traffic.

I knew these people. They didn't behave this way. They were reasonable individuals, with families, steady jobs. You know the type.

The up shot of all this ways one colleague tweeting out, "Have a nice life @chris--------" presumably terminating a multi-year relationship without a face to face. Just a less than 140 character dismissal. A month later I heard they had patched things up.

I stopped using Twitter for myself within a week,
but I seem to be in the minority.

Hoss Gifford, a technology guru and strategist wrote a fantastic article The Problem with Twitter (http://hossgifford.com/the-problem-with-twitter) where he talks about many issues surrounding Twitter and its ability to encourage a Mob Mentality when it comes to global usage of the technology. I encourage a read.

What I find alarming is the fact that current main stream media seems to be fanning the flames when it comes to this mob mentality. Just as something starts to "Go Viral" the media gives the mob a boost when they announce or publish "What's Trending". Those without anything better to do hit that retweet button and the mob merry-go-round continues.

This on-line mob only represents a small number of those seeing the tweet. So why does an institution, presumably as old and wise as the fourth estate, encourage this practise. It's as if the media thinks promoting hecklers is a good idea.

Does the problem stem from the ignorance or desperation of  an industry going through wholesale changes? Perhaps, but is there not a better use for this technology. I'm hoping it evolves into something better.

Don't let the Twitter Mob ruin it for the rest of us.

As the Twitter using community matures we see celebrities publicly announcing that they are ignoring their Twitter accounts due to proliferation of hate. Director Joss Whedon quit all together. Deleting his Twitter account on Monday.

Users are far more guarded as to what they tweet and who they follow. And increased use of hashtag publishing and searches allows for more selective reading by users. All moving in a positive direction.

My advice to small business and start ups, is to use your business Twitter account as an announcement tool specific to your business mandate. Don't clutter it with personal content. A picture of your weekend adventure has no place within your businesses Twitter feed.

Search and understand all hashtags that relate to your business. Don't over use hashtags. Three per posting is a reasonable limit.

Always include a link back to relevant content within your site. It's always a good idea to provide a path to additional information or rewarding content whenever you post anything.

Follow your suppliers and business allies. Support their tweets. Hopefully they will support your content with retweets, likes, and comments.

Used correctly, Twitter can be one of the most cost effective
marketing tools a business can have at their disposal. 

As part of my blogging effort, I'm going back on Twitter on a personal level. @Ross14Bartlett was the best ID I could find. Let's see if I can make it past a week this time.

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Welcome to my blog

Over 20 years into this industry and I'm still providing "Do's and Don't" advice to my community of business clients. 

Some advice relates to current on-line environment evolution. However the bulk of my advice I have repeated, to so many new clients,  I can't help but feel that the start up business community is as much a mystery to many that it was back in the nineties.

In an attempt to address the situation I have started to post what I have learned in these past 20 something years in a hope that it may add to the collective knowledge we as an experienced business community can provide enterprising, energetic individuals who wish to create a start up of some kind that includes an on-line component.

Stop the Inspamity will hopefully grow into something that offers a "Win-Win". A win for me as an outlet for ongoing discoveries and advice, and a win for the inexperienced business entrepreneur looking to venture out into the ever changing, evolving on-line business environment.

I would very much like to hear your opinions whether you agree, disagree, or have experienced something entirely different. Thanks for taking part in this self-absorbed effort of mine. I hope you find it rewarding in some way.

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