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7 Marketing Tips for Leaping into your Customers Hearts and Minds

February 29, 2012
by Robin Moss

Finally, a day for frogs, leap day! So here I am with seven marketing tips on how to grow your business, or as I like to say: whether its online or offline great marketing can help your business leap off the page and into your customers hearts and minds.

As we all know, being memorable is half the battle. Potential clients can’t call you if they don’t remember you! So how do you leap into the hearts and minds of your customers, read on:

1. A great logo – No matter what you do you need a logo that will grab attention, that people will remember. Okay, I admit naming a company ribit is going to make that easier and the whimsical frog is something no one forgets, but a good strong logo is memorable.

2. An awesome business card – This is often the first face of your business. People still want to have that paper card to associate with you. I met someone two weeks ago whose office went “green” and they don’t have cards, of course I can’t tell you his name…. Fast Company did a great article on Moo.com about the business cards they are printing using Facebook cover photos on side and your contact info on the other (and boy are they busy)! Be sure to have not just your name address and phone number, but links to your social media pages so people can “follow you” on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, etc.

3. Consistent branding – Okay, you have a great logo and an awesome card, but you need to make sure that your branding is consistent. You need to be sure your business card, brochures, web site all have the same look and feel. That you have consistent messaging, that all marketing materials appear to come from one company. Look at Apple, Inc., whether you see a product, their web site, their packaging, etc. it all “looks” like Apple. They have consistent branding.

4. Content marketing – I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, content is king. Content needs to be relevant and it needs to be applicable to your audience. Yes, you need to know who your audience is and speak directly to them. In the print version of the article on Stripe (a PayPal competitor), Businessweek used the secondary headline “Using Stripe is almost as easy as embedding a YouTube video”. So why is that a problem, well a web developer knows this is easy, for the basic Businessweek reader, not so much – they might not even read the article. So you need good content and you need to know your audience.

5. WordPress web site – Using a WordPress web site will make it easier to update, easier to blog and will allow you to get awesome SEO. And yes, you can make it look any way you want it. We always design custom templates for our clients (you know blank screen, starting with Photoshop vs. purchasing a template from a one the many companies that sells them online). So yes, you can get custom design and WordPress and get all the great functionality and a fabulous web site. Our site is a WordPress site and it definitely does not look like a “standard” WordPress site!

6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Now you have your really awesome WordPress site, you’ve started to blog, you have great content. Now you want the world to find you, now it is time for SEO. You add your SEO plugin of your choice (I like the All in One SEO Pack) to your site and get started. It is imperative to have good meta descriptions, key words (including long tail key search terms) and that you make use of all the opportunities to make your site easier for Google, Bing, Yahoo and the other search engines to find you when potential clients are looking for you.

7. Social media – There is not a better way to drive traffic to your site and build business than social media. You can engage with potential clients on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest (the latest and greatest of social sites) and a myriad of other sites like www.whosay.com (if you are an actor, musician, writer, athlete, etc. you should be on whosay). I know you are thinking just one more way to “waste” time, but with a few tricks of the trade you can be efficient and you will grow your business. I have not only grown my business (yes, I have actually gotten clients from Twitter!)I have made great friends from social media as well. One of those friends can even help you with your social media! Check out my friend Lissa Duty’s blog Have you taken the Social Media LEAP? on how social media can grow your business!

So if you want to make this a memorial leap day, remember the tips above when you are developing your marketing plans. Seven little tips that will help you “leap into your customers hearts and minds”. Being memorable is half the battle, to have your company remembered when it comes time to make a purchase. Good luck and enjoy today, it won’t come around for another four years. So what are you going to do today to make your company leap into success? Let me know before another four years slips by….

TEDxSMU An Experience of a Lifetime

December 8, 2011
by Robin Moss

TEDxSMU 2011

I spent this past weekend at TEDxSMU. To get to attend the live event you have to apply (okay no big deal), fill out a form (name, address), answer the essay question (ANSWER THE ESSAY QUESTION!?!). I haven’t answered an essay question in oh, since college. Oh, and 130 people are going to be selected. No pressure there…

So I filled out the form, wrote my essay and waited to receive the email that says “TEDxSMU invites you to TEDxSMU 2011: Disruption”. Woo Hoo! I’m in. I click to attend (you have to go through Eventbrite to pay) – ah, another TED test. You have 15 minutes to finalize your registration, including choosing three icebreakers (words or short phrases). Yikes, who knew just registering would be so challenging!

Okay, I finally make it to The Dee & Charles Wyly Theatre (where it was held). An amazing group of people; everyone is friendly. I run into people I know almost immediately. We head in and I am lucky enough to get one of the coveted FatBoy beanbag seats right up front and the show begins.

Absolutely amazing speakers. I can’t mention them all but a couple stood out for me – Elise Ballard, Peter Brown and Kate Canales from frog (okay, okay – the girl from ribit liked the speaker from frog – get the amphibian jokes out of the way now…).

Elise talked about her journey to start what became her book: epiphany True Stories of Sudden Insight. She started with an epiphany of her own that changed her life and then she began asking others if they had ever had an epiphany. She then began taping people’s stories and before you know it she had a book, a web site and a new career.

Peter Brown, of Peter Brown Architects took us on a journey through the design of Dallas, Texas. Having grown up here in Dallas (yes, I’m a native Dallasite!) it was a trip down memory lane, as Peter showed postcards of my past – hotels with “modern features”, Neiman Marcus fortnights (does anyone remember fortnights – where Stanley Marcus traveled to far away countries like Japan and turned his stores into a foreign land for a week, where we could taste the food and see the culture…), and the foresight of Raymond Nasher, who built Northpark in 1965 as the largest climate controlled mall in the world. Nasher built the mall with an eye to design as anyone who has been there can tell you, from the art sculptures inside and out. Which all led up to Peter showing us the latest school he designed, the Hector Garcia Middle School. It is gorgeous and still qualifies as a LEED certified building.

And then there was Kate Canales from frog. Kate spoke to us about interesting things she has seen and just had to take pictures of: like the restroom with a sign to the left of the door that said Women’s, a sign on the door said Women’s Room and then someone had taped a piece of paper on it that say Women Only. As Kate said, you wonder what happened to prompt the handwritten sign…. She also showed us a sign she found while looking for someplace to hang some of her clothing in a hotel she was staying in. The sign said (and I am paraphrasing) ‘Do Not Hang Anything on Sprinkler Head. It Will Break and Cause Flooding.’ Kate suggested that if they had spent money on adding hooks people could hang clothes on, rather than signs…. Some designs solutions are just so simple they have to be overlooked!

We learned about many other things: helping to teach children in underserved countries by teaching them where they are, not by trying to get them to schools. That if we use lignin to produce plastic bags, it will cost the same, but they will biodegrade in 150 days and still cost the same as traditional plastic bags! Not to mention how Chef Homaro Cantu took us on a “flavor tripping” experience where he made bitter dark chocolate sweet and lemons less sour!

Going to TEDxSMU was an awesome and inspiring experience. I learned a lot and I’m looking forward to the videos of the event being available on the TEDxSMU web site so I can go back and see if I missed anything!

If you get the chance to go to a TEDx event, go. You will meet awesome people, learn valuable lessons. And if you’re lucky, you’ll get to do down front, sitting in a FatBoy!

TEDxSMU-2011

Playing the Klout Game

November 15, 2011
by Robin Moss

Now that Klout has changed their algorithm it appears that most people’s scores have dropped significantly. It seems to keep your Klout score high you have to play the Klout game! I have talked to many people that feel that Klout scores just don’t matter.

John Pozadzides of One Man’s Blog says “Whether we’re talking about Klout, Peerindex, or any of the other services that attempt to measure and quantify a person’s reach, the bottom line is – they don’t matter. I’ll tell you what matters: when you make a recommendation, do people act on it?

For example, Mike Rawlings is the mayor of Dallas – a single city with twice the population of the state of Alaska. Yet Klout says he’s a 38 http://klout.com/#/Mike_Rawlings. Clearly there is a LOT these tools don’t measure.

If you want to play along with Klout for fun – have at it! But if you want to know how you’re doing in the social media space all you have to do is ask your audience and see how much response you get. That’s how you measure your true klout.”

I also spoke to Lissa Duty about this and here is what she had to say:

“For me, Robin, Klout is a tool just like any other. I don’t necessarily have a lot of concern about what my Klout score is / is not. Call me crazy if you want! I have been studying and looking at different online scoring systems for a while and they all have a different score / varying grading system. Who determines which one is right or not? It’s the users that make the decision to hire you or not, that matters.

My advice to you and anyone else out there studying Klout scores and being concerned – do your job online, as long as your circle of influence, peers and connections still think you are great, that is what is important. As long as you are getting clients and making money, which is why so many are using social media, who cares what their Klout score is. I do want to disclose, my Klout score used to be 63, dropped to 49 and when I looked a few days ago it was back up to 53. I am still getting clients, speaking opportunities, and booking social media coaching, Klout can’t give or take that away!”

So let’s look at what “clout” truly is about. (According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary clout is influence.) Do you influence people? Do people retweet you? Do you have meaningful (or fun) conversations on Twitter, Facebook and Google+? Do you get business from social media? If you can say yes to these questions than you have “clout”! The true measure of your influence on the web is if you are reaching the people you are intending: clients, potential clients, friends, etc.

I personally have grown my following on Twitter organically; I have never used a service, never followed a “bunch of random people”. I’ve done the same thing on all the social networks I use. I admit I’m more engaged on Twitter — I have more friends, conversation and such. I just don’t play the Klout game.

So what is the Klout game? The Klout game is simply played, you do have to be active on your social networks, and that includes your personal Facebook profile (I don’t use my personal profile, I tend to only update my business page – strike one in the Klout game!). You need to give (and receive) as many +K’s as possible (you don’t understand how they get the topics you can receive a +K for, well neither do I. I recently I received a +K for motorcycles!). Now you can connect your business page to Klout, but if you manage multiple pages the problem will be they will tap into all the pages and not just “your” page (hey Klout, TweetDeck can let me choose pages why can’t you?).

Even if you play the Klout game your score may drop as Klout continues to change their algorithm. Personally, I’m going to judge myself on how my business grows. Now that’s CLOUT!

Facebook Changes Lists To Be More Like… Circles!

August 31, 2011
by Robin Moss

Yes, competition is good. Facebook finally feels like they have competition (Google+) and now they are starting to take certain things seriously. Like privacy. Finally.

It is finally really easy to create lists, just go to your wall and click on Friends. Then click on Edit Friends, then click on Create a List, Then you Enter a List Name. The really easy part is Facebook will show you a list (with pictures) of all your friends and you can click on everyone you want on that list!. You can add people to an existing list easily, when you are in the Edit Friends area, just rollover the hidden area to the left of the x (see picture) and you can Edit Lists. I know, I know. Why did Facebook hide this, well if it was visible everyone could use it!

Facebook announced (and implemented) ways to make it easier to “Share With Who You Want” in a blog that came out at 1pm on August 23rd. You can now choose who you share your posts with.You can make posts Public (now the entire world will know you just ate dinner!), you can share with friends, or you can customize your sharing (share just with specific people, hide from certain people, etc.). And this is where lists come in, you can choose customize and type a list into the field and your post can be shared, or hidden from the people in that list! Very Google+ if you ask me. Google+ wants to know if I want my posts to be public or which “Circles” I want to share my post with….

You can also now approve all posts or photos you are tagged in (yippee!) before it is visible in your profile. While you can’t keep people from tagging you, you will have more control over who sees it. Hmmm, wasn’t this something Mr. Zuckerberg said people weren’t interested in?

Facebook is also allowing you to change your mind, after the fact. If you post something to the public and realize you don’t want everyone to know that you went to a concert when you called in sick to work, you can go back and change the posting status to just “Friends” and keep your fingers crossed that your boss didn’t see the post.

Now if you loved using the “Places” feature on your mobile phone, I have bad news. Today, Facebook officially killed Places. Places is mobile only and their new location feature will be available on your desktop and/or laptop as well as your phone (I often take my desktop to places I want to check into…). But seriously, the new location “button” allows you to share where you’ve been, where you are now and where you’re going.

Check-in Deals will remain intact. If you go to a store/restaurant offering a Check-in Deal, it will show up in your News Feed…. Are we all clear now 🙂 All of these great new features will started to roll out last Thursday, so if you haven’t already started to see the new privacy features (I started seeing some of them yesterday) you will see start to see them soon!

And the best thing, the very best thing… Facebook now has backups baked in! Just go to Account Settings (in the upper left corner) and at the bottom of the page it has Download a copy of your Facebook data. Click on the link and you will be taken to a page with a green button that says Start My Archive. Once you click on that button, Facebook will start the lengthy archival process and then email you a backup that include photos, videos, wall posts, messages, chats, your friends’ names and some of their email addresses!

Social Media Protection – Facebook Facial Recognition

June 23, 2011
by Robin Moss

In February I blogged about protecting your brand online (Protect Your Brand by Listening to Your Mother!). Unfortunately, Representative Anthony Weiner did not read my insightful post about thinking before you tweeted, or posted, or e- mailed. Now it is even more important to heed my warning. Just this week the FTC ruled in its investigation of Social Intelligence Corp. that they are in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act in keeping “our” posts and tweets and such in a dossier on us that they can keep for seven, yes seven, years. Michael Santo wrote a great article in the Tech Buzz Examiner about it!

In my previous post I said you should not post something you wouldn’t want your grandmother to read. I am amending that to include your future/prospective boss! Yes, that is who is using Social Intelligence’s services. All your college photos showing your drunken parties might seem like harmless fun to you, but your next employer might see it as a potential problem and pass.

And if you think you can control your photos think again. Facebook has now introduced a new “feature” called Facial Recognition. Yup, now Facebook will find you in pictures and tag you. Perhaps you should think of that before doing some of those really fun things your “friends” can capture on their cellphone cameras and upload. Once again, this “feature” is automatically “on”. So if you don’t want your friends to have pictures of you suggested to them that they can tag with your name (yes, Facebook scans through all the pictures on your Facebook page – of your friends and family – and then sifts through all the pictures on all their servers and “suggests” pictures that might be you so you can tag them with your friends names) you need to turn this “feature” off. With this new feature your friends can tag your pictures without your knowledge!

Now if all of this seems a tad futuristic and creepy, well you can turn it off. You just have to follow the simple guidelines (courtesy of How to Disable Facebook Facial Recognition by Rob Young)

Log into Facebook
In the top-right corner click on Account and go to Privacy Settings
Click “customize settings (toward the bottom-middle of your screen).
Look for the section title “Things others share.” the permission you accidentally gave Facebook to use facial recognition suggestions is located in the “Suggest photos of me to friends” option. Click on “Edit Settings” to change that
Choose “Disabled” and then push “OK.”

Now you can be sure that your friends are not getting your photos without your knowledge (through Facebook) to tag. But still be aware that what you are posting lives on without your knowledge through companies like Social Intelligence, even after you delete it.

I’m not saying never have fun, I am saying you just need to be aware of the consequences. If you tweet people pictures of your private parts, it might cost you your job. Whether you work for Congress or not.

Is Snail Mail Dead?

April 21, 2011
by Robin Moss

ribit, a digital media agency Is snail mail dead? Has digital media replaced it? Will mobile media rule the world? Personally, I think they all work together. Traditional advertising including print, outdoor boards (billboards for those not in the industry), and direct mail will continue to be a vital part of the marketing mix. As I constantly say, you need to have both an online and offline marketing strategy. You will still delight in finding a personalized “pitch” delivered right to your doorstep (okay, maybe not during an ice and snow storm in Dallas, Texas…), you will still have something to read when you’re stuck in a traffic jam and your smartphone battery has died. Both will lead you to other kinds of media: a QR code that leads you to a promotion on the web, a web address that leads you to a new product, etc. That is what is so great about print, what happens in print doesn’t stay in print.

When you open your mailbox at your home (you know the one in front of your house) you find less and less mail. More and more of us receive all our bills and catalogs online, thus making anything we receive in our mailbox worthy of a once over. A targeted direct mail piece can get excellent results in this environment. With the capabilities to “slice and dice” lists today you can get very specific. Do you want to send a mailing to people who have just registered at bridal registries? That have an income over $575,000? That live in a ritzy zip code? That are vegan? (okay that last one is a bit tougher to get… I have someone who can get you a list with all those things. As Andrea from Mailers Haven told me “I have done a list with vegan as a demographic qualifier!” You can contact her at andrea@mailershaven.com. No matter what kind of list you are looking for she will be able to help you, she is awesome!).

When I put together a complete campaign I determine the marketing strategy and make sure that it ties in directly with your existing ongoing online and offline marketing plans. Then I bring in the big guns, I work closely with direct mail experts like the folks over at iPresort – Cam and Shaun Swegman (@iPresort on Twitter) to make sure that everything is done to the United States Postal Service specs. Not only do Cam and Shaun know all the ins and outs of the latest postal regulations, they work closely with us to make sure that everything is spot on. As Cam says: “Targeted mail is relevant to the addressee and more likely to capture their attention. It’s our job to make sure that carefully crafted message gets delivered at the best postage rates available.”

Remember adding direct mail into your marketing mix can be done economically, can reach your “exact audience” and can have the “call to action” that brings you the new client you’ve been looking for!

Protect Your Brand by Listening to Your Mother!

February 9, 2011
by Robin Moss

I can’t believe it. I’m turning into my Mother. I’m here repeating all the parent tapes that run through my brain: “think before you speak”, “don’t put anything into writing -or on video- you wouldn’t want your grandmother to read (or see)”, “the only secret you have is the one you don’t share”, “don’t run with a sharp stick in your hand”. Oh wait, that last one doesn’t belong in this blog… but maybe it should.

In the category of thinking before you speak we have Kenneth Cole (check out Shelly Kramer’s great blog from the 4th) using the civil unrest in Egypt to promote his new spring collection. And now Groupon has joined in the controversy, with ads linking them to Tibet, Save the Whales, and Save the Rainforests. The thing that might be the saving grace for Groupon is that if you go to savethemoney.groupon.com and make a donation of $15 you get a $15 Groupon credit.

Then of course there is what you don’t want your grandmother to read (or see). Our latest example is the pop star in Indonesia, 29 year old Nazril Irham who happened to make a sex tape (why?) that he says was stolen from him and then leaked to the internet. He was just sentenced to 3 1/2 years in jail. Seriously, hasn’t he learned from Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian what can happen when you make a sex tape? Oh wait, that is what launched Kim’s career – never mind….

Why do people think they can put something on Facebook and it will be a “secret”. Remember earlier this year the teacher from the Massachusetts high school, June Talvitie-Siple who made a post to her Facebook wall that ended up getting her fired. Don’t put something on Facebook that you want kept a secret – Facebook is not Las Vegas (what happens on Facebook, does not stay on Facebook!).

Remember, when you are “giving your status” on Facebook, “tweeting” on Twitter, “updating” on LinkedIn, etc., you are representing your brand, just as much as when you air a Super Bowl ad. What you say can have a lasting effect on your audience. You want to be sure that you leave a good impression. Be sure that what you say reflects well on you and your brand. Be sure that you won’t mind seeing it again in twenty years, because what happens on the internet, stays on the internet.

And remember, don’t run with a sharp stick, you could fall and hurt yourself!

Google Web Fonts, Will They Change the World?

December 8, 2010
by Robin Moss

The constant battle over fonts on a web site, is there a solution in sight? Clients always want to have beautiful fonts on their web sites, the only way we have had to do that and assure that “everyone” can see them has been to use images. The issue with images of course is that they have to be downloaded, have to be worked into your layout and they don’t get the same SEO (search engine optimization). Now Google has a beta solution for us.

So what is the big deal about fonts. Presently a web site can only display a font that is installed on your computer. So to make sure that everyone sees the same exact thing on every computer (more or less – lets not go into different browsers and different versions of different browsers…) web designers end up using a short list of fonts that all computers (both Macs and PCs) have pre-installed.

Unfortunately, clients are not satisfied with the limited amount of fonts that are presently available. There are some work arounds to this such as Font Burner, which has a WordPress plugin – but it is only compatible up to WordPress version 2.8, while WordPress is up to version 3.0.3; or hardcore code, which Internet Explorer and 64-bit Windows machines don’t render correctly – so these are not a perfect fix.

Now enter stage left – Google Web Fonts. Yes Google. They have approximately 38 fonts (with a smattering of variants) that reside on Google’s servers and you can use their API to make your text beautiful. And as of last week they work on most mobile devices including Android, iPhone and iPad. There is even a WordPress plugin (compatible up to version 3.0.3) for Google Fonts that has had over 12,449 downloads! Is it the answer to our web designer prayers? The jury is still out on that (it is still in beta), but it does look exciting! We’re looking at using it on our site…check back soon to see….

Google Instant Saving Seconds and Changing SEO Forever

September 30, 2010
by Robin Moss

Those of us working with SEO had to come to grips with the fact that every “searcher” gets slightly different results (due to their search history) making our jobs slightly harder, but now Google is psychic. In an effort to save 2 seconds per search, you no longer have to type in a word or phrase before Google will present you the results.

And while the day Google Instant was introduced A was for AOL, now it is for Amazon! So… do we know have to try to optimized for a letter (gosh instead of putting our effort into cookies, we should focus on “c”!)? I realize that some people will start adding letters into their keywords, but I don’t suggest this as Google does not look at keywords in determining its web search rank, so this will not help you and it will only confuse the other search engines.

And how is that going to work out for Google AdWords, not so well it seems. As I looked through the alphabet (one letter at a time) only a few letters had AdWords. So is Google Instant a revenue “killer” for Google AdWords? Only time will tell.

So how is Google Instant really changing SEO? For the moment this will not change how we optimize pages. Content is still king. And I truly believe that with good content, good use of social media, good backlinks and all the tricks in our toolkit that we will continue to allow our clients to be easily found in search engines, include Google.

I think it will make a difference in long tail keywords. Many of the long tail searches are based on three and four word search terms. I am no longer sure people will type that many words in before Goggle Instant gives them a result they are happy with, or at least willing to click on. I will be evaluating long tail searches to see if my theory holds true.

The things I can tell you: it is more important now to have good page titles and meta descriptions. Google still uses this information and more importantly, it was what searchers read to determine which of the search results they will click on. Register in your local search engines sites such as Google Places, Local Yahoo and Local Bing. Claim “your” page on review sites such as Yelp! and ask your clients to add reviews to all of these (Google Places, Yahoo, Bing, Yelp! all have places where you client’s can review your business. The more reviews you have the higher you can rank in the search results!).

Happy searching and remember anything you want on Google, you can find in an Instant!

Web Site Design for Beginners – Part 3

August 27, 2010
by Robin Moss

The third and final post in this series, Web Site Design for Beginners, is now up on Edmee Roche’s (@edmeeroche) She’s Gone Blogging site.

This blog post covers one of the most important decision you will have to make: what type of web site you are going to develop: informational or e-commerce. Will your site be static, or will it be built with a Content Management System (CMS) so you can easily update the content. If you have an e-commerce site do you want to host your e-commerce site or do you want to use a hosted solution.

Whether you choose a static site, a CMS driven site, an e-commerce site you host or a hosted solution, don’t forget Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I cover all this and more!