Social Media In 15 Minutes a Day !

Posted on January 8, 2012 by West Street Design

Business people are now beginning to understand that, run properly, and effective Social Media campaign can help raise their business profile and hopefully get them noticed more.

However the biggest problem which people still have is finding time to do it effectively. Well here are a few tips that I’ve picked up which can help you manage your Social Media presence a little more effectively .

Social Media in 15 minutes a day

Social Media in 15 minutes a day

First of all the basics:

  1. Social Media is quite simply about communicating with other people online. It’s not complicated, it’s just the art of listening and sharing.
  2. Not every form of Social Media is suitable for all businesses. For one business Facebook could be completely irrelevant, for another it could be a lifeline to future business growth. The same can be said for Twitter, Blogs, Linedin, YouTube and all other platforms.
  3. Choose your platform wisely

There really is something for everyone:

Photographs (Flickr / Photobucket)
Social Bookmarking (Stumbleupon / Delicious)
Blogging (WordPress / Blogger)
Micromedia (Twitter / Tumblr)
Lifestyle (Facebook / Myspace)
Professional (Linkedin)
Video (YouTube)
Consumer-led (Forums / Review Sites)

Now for the preparation. It’s extremely important that you consider what you are trying to achieve with Social Media. You need to look at your competitors, build all the foundations by setting up your profile, upload photographs or logos and ensure that everything links back to your own website. Get all your monitoring set up (Google Alerts / RSS Feeds / Google Reader) and ensure that all your notification settings are established so that you don’t have to go looking for information – the information finds you !!

Many Social Media platforms have built in facilities to make your time easier (and a hell of a lot quicker). For instance, you can set up notifications on Linkedin to be emailed details of questions being asked by members. You can set up saved searches on Twitter and also use free online software to schedule your Tweets.

Once you’ve done all the preparation, you’re ready to go. With all your notifications, alerts and settings in place you can easily manage your Social Media network in only 15 minutes a day. Here’s an example of what yours could look like:

Your new 15 minute daily schedule:

  • 3 minutes – Check Twitter for company, competitors and useful info
  • 2 minutes – Scan Google News and Alerts for important articles
  • 3 minutes – Check LinkedIn Groups / Answers sections
  • 2 minutes – Check your Facebook page for comments and Likes
  • 5 minutes – Respond to above as necessary and schedule daily tweets

So, there you have it: your Social Media plan for 15 minutes a day. You can spend more time on this if you wish but at least you know that in busy periods your Social Media networking is always taken care of.

If you would like to know more about the above, how Social Media Can Help Your Business, Web Design or just how to Market Your Business Online more effectively, please visit www.weststreetdesign or www.socialmediame.co.uk

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Microsoft to sue Comet UK? Web design / SEO & Social Media the “right way”

Posted on January 4, 2012 by West Street Design

I’ve just come across an interesting article in the DAILY TELEGRAPH which talks about Microsoft being a little unhappy with the UK retail store Comet.

Microsoft alleges that Comet created and sold 94,000 counterfeit Windows XP and Vista recovery CDs and that these counterfeits were produced in a factory in Hampshire and then sold them to customers from its retail outlets across the UK.

Only time will tell if there is any truth to this, but it is a stark reminder that in business, things “need to be done the right way”, whether you are a global giant or a small startup.

In the murky world of internet marketing and seo / search engine optimisation, there are many tales of black hat techniques, shortcuts and attempts to gain a fast advantage. This has become a sad by product of the difficult economic climate we live in.

Personally, I believe in doing things the right way and look for long term success rather than short term perceptions. For instance, when building a website, we take time to listen to the client, we try to build sites in the right way, so that they can be easily added to and modified at a future date.

With Search Engine Optimisation, we tell SEO clients that there is NO GUARANTEE they will appear at the top of Google but we put a plan in place to achieve success over the medium to long term. We also try to remind people that going on Twitter will not get you immediate sales and that not everyone needs a Facebook page.

We’re also definitely NOT Gurus and never claim to be – we don’t always get everything 100% right 100% of the time but we will commit to putting things right – we also don’t believe in shortcuts and cutting costs/corners to deliver something which may in the short term look fine, but in due course isn’t.

We’re also happy to recommend other businesses who do things properly and believe me, there are many of them out there. So during this difficult period make sure that you also do things the right way – it can save you a lot of bother in the end ……..

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Copywriting and SEO

Posted on October 11, 2011 by West Street Design

Some so called “experts” claim SEO copywriters always seem to have magical word skills that allow them to place just the right keywords in just the right places and amounts, and even in the densities that were just right for miraculous top rankings.

And hey presto! . . . or at least that’s what is advertised.

There’s no doubt that the location and frequency of keywords is still critical. Search engines work by keying in on the word patterns people are looking for and returning relevant content. But that’s not all there is to it. Much of what determines the ranking position of any particular page is due to what happens off the page as well, in the form of links from other sites. Yet that throws up another problem; getting those links naturally has become the hardest part of SEO especially as now Google have stated the importance of RELEVANCE. No longer can people blindly submit links to any directory and sit back comfortably.

Hence, the mainstream emergence of social media marketing as a way to attract links with compelling content.

Put simply: If your content isn’t good enough to attract good, natural links, it doesn’t matter how “optimised” your website is.

That’s why a good SEO copywriter needs to be a writer who has a knack for tuning in to the needs and desires of the target audience. Because links are so important, those needs and desires have to be nailed well before so that content will show up prominently in the search engines.
The same reasons people buy something can also cause other people to link from blogs, and bookmark, vote, and retweet from social media platforms. The context is different, but it’s still a matter of providing compelling benefits in the form of content.

A good copywriter needs to have a flair for writing content that’s inviting to share and to link to. They need to have top-notch skills to optimise the page, so search engines know what it’s about and who might want to read it. Plus they need to know how to write copy that converts readers to buyers.

So next time you’re reviewing your web page, don’t just think keywords and links; think of your audience as well …….. and get someone to help you who knows what they are doing ……..

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