Michael Reynolds

Stop making excuses and start blogging

6 Mar 2010

Blogging is hard. I get that. It’s not easy to consistently create new content and make the time to tweak and publish it. However, blogging is one of the best ways to build deeper relationships with your constituents and reach deeper into their networks as well.

Often when I talk about blogging with others, I hear all sorts of excuses:

I’m not a good writer
I don’t have time
I don’t like to write
I don’t know what to write about
I wouldn’t be able to keep up with it
No one would read what I wrote

The list goes on and on. However, like most difficult-but-worthwhile things, a process and a system can make it easier.

When I blog, I don’t usually just sit down and pick a topic out of thin air. Instead, I continuously capture ideas and keep them in a list. Often, blog ideas come from conversations I have, articles I read, or problems I’m solving. When this happens, I capture the idea either by placing it on my list of blog ideas or use Jott if I’m on the go. Then, when I do have some downtime or I’m in a creative mood, I can go to my list and pull out blog topics to write about. By separating the conceptualizing from the execution, I’ve made it much easier to produce content.

Blogging is a great marketing tool for your business because it strengthens your authority in the market. People want to do business with people they like and trust, and they can get to know you and trust you by reading your blog.

Don’t blog like a commercial. Blog with sincerity. Blog about things you know a lot about. Blog about your opinions about your profession. Blog about controversial topics. Blog to teach others something that will help them. Blog about your passions.

Schedule time to blog. Capture ideas throughout the week but maybe you block off an hour every Friday morning to choose a topic and write.

If you want to automate the writing part of it, hire a ghost blogger to take your ideas and turn them into polished articles. This will cost a little bit of money but will be well worth the investment.

Distribute your blogs on social networks. Respond to comments. Use your best blog articles in your email newsletter.

Blogging is a great way to cut through the noise of traditional marketing and give your constituents something of value. They will respect your transparency. They will learn to trust you. They will be much more likely to become your customer. Blogging builds relationships.

Capture your ideas and start blogging. No more excuses.

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Tags: blog, blogging, email, facebook, linkedin, Marketing, networking, social media, twitter, website

Don’t use consumer email for business

In: Marketing| Technology

19 Feb 2010

I frequently attend networking events during which I meet a variety of business owners. Often we exchange business cards and I continue to notice a trend which disturbs me: the use of consumer email as a business email address.

I often see email addresses using the domain “sbcglobal.net”, “yahoo.com”, or (shudder) “aol.com” listed on a business card. This really makes me cringe. It’s poor branding, and says to the world that your business has not invested in a proper email system. It’s also risky to operate your business on a free system or a system that is designed for consumer email due to the lack of support and functionality.

When you are using a proper email system for business, your email address will match the address of your website. For example, my email address is michael@spinweb.net, which matches my company’s website address: www.spinweb.net.

There are many options for excellent business email. At SpinWeb, we provide Google Apps for Business for our clients, which gives them a complete email, calendaring, documents, and collaboration system. Other companies may want to consider using Microsoft Exchange, which is a great business communications system. Scott Sells at ZingTech provides an excellent Exchange solution.

Let’s get rid of the consumer email addresses on business cards. Brand your business properly and use a system you can rely on.

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Tags: branding, email, networking, spinweb

How does building websites change the world?

In: Design| Lifestyle| Marketing| Productivity| Technology

14 Feb 2010

At SpinWeb, we create professional websites and online marketing initiatives. We’ve been doing it since 1996 and have gotten very good at it. We’ve gotten so good at it that it amazes me how fast and how well we deploy new websites on time, on budget, and with amazing design quality.

Sometimes, however, I think we get so caught up in the mechanics of our systems and processes at the “runway” level that we can lose sight of why we are doing what we do. How does our work make a difference? How does it change the world? How does it change lives?

I think it’s important to stay focused on these questions and the answers that go with them. So what does our work really mean?

One very exciting part of our work is seeing how a beautiful new website can inspire confidence, pride, and brand strength in the organizations that we work with. Often, we work with businesses that are looking for that extra push to help take them to the next level and reach new markets and when we create a website that helps them look like an industry leader, it has direct application to business growth and especially company morale.

We also love to empower individuals within the organization to do their jobs well. When we help the marketing director launch her online campaigns in a fraction of the time it used to take, she now has more time to work on other activities or spend time with her family. This improves her quality of life.

It brings a smile to my face when we can help a non-profit modernize the online donation, fund raising, and volunteer recruiting process so that they are able to help more people in need and bring positive change to the world.

When we can provide online tools that help event planners promote and manage successful conferences, we are helping bring together professionals who learn from each other and grow in their professions.

When we provide businesses with a website that helps them reach their customers and deliver solutions in a more efficient way, we are giving them the ability to grow faster and create jobs.

There are so many ways that online marketing and technology can improve the quality of life for those who embrace it. I love being a part of it and creating the solutions and tools that change lives.

No matter what you do, make sure you understand why you are doing it and how it makes a difference, no matter how small. At SpinWeb, we create professional websites and online marketing initiatives that change lives.

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Tags: Design, indianapolis, Marketing, spinweb, website

Is your website an information hub or a brochure?

In: Design| Marketing| Technology

9 Feb 2010

I’m sure we’ve all heard the term “brochure website” before. For a while, it was used as a legitimate way to label certain types of websites and was accepted as a normal way to do business. Organizations would simply take their brochures, turn them into static websites that regurgitated brochure content, and called it a day. We all thought this was ok.

Then, we evolved beyond this and realized that websites were more than just a digital brochure. We started to add things like fresh content, Flash promos, and changing photos. This let our audience know that things were happening and that whenever new content was available, we would publish it in real time on the web. This was a good next step.

Today, the modern corporate or non-profit website is much more. It must truly be an information hub. Though some organizations still don’t understand this, we are way beyond the brochure website. We are also evolving beyond the “changing content” websites that followed. We are now in an era in which our constituents demand extensive access to online tools and information that creates a two-way dialog. Your constituents expect to be able to engage with your website to actually do things that help them get their work done and be productive. Things like:

Register and pay online for events in 2 minutes or less
Download your latest product documentation
Ask a question and get an answer
Find a real person with a name and title to start a conversation with
Subscribe to an email newsletter that teaches something (not just promotes)
Comment on your blog
Subscribe to your Podcast
Share your educational content with their social networks
Make an online donation to your non-profit in 2 minutes or less using a credit card
Fill out your volunteer application form online (not on paper or in a Word document)

Whether you like it or not, your prospective customers (or donors, or volunteers) are making snap judgments about your organization as they research you and your competition online. Having a beautiful website is the absolute bare minimum to be taken seriously. Having an information hub makes you a competitor.

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Tags: Design, Marketing, social media, usability, website

How to make your website socially aware

In: Design| Marketing| Technology

8 Feb 2010

Social media is everywhere. It’s new and shiny and everyone is trying to figure out how to use it, talk about it, and make money from it. However, once we put aside the hype, it becomes clear that social media is simply an evolution in how we communicate. It does not replace traditional marketing and communication, but rather augments it and breathes new life into what we do.

One great way to blend social media into your existing framework is to extend your website and make it more “socially aware”. Your company website is your information hub and should be a high-quality, interactive source for constituent engagement. However, many websites need to be upgraded to extend the organization’s reach into the social space, as well.

Here are some ways your next website can utilize connections to social media:

1. Include a company blog on your website. Your company blog should be integrated into your website, not hosted somewhere else or worse, on a free blogging service. It needs to be hosted under your domain name to maximize your search engine visibility and needs to follow your organization’s branding. A blog also gives you a platform of content to publish on other networks. Publish high-value articles that educate and position your company as an industry leader.

2. Add a Twitter feed to your home page. By placing your Twitter activity on your website, you are allowing others to see real-time updates on your events, news, and announcements that you can update externally from other sources, like your mobile device. This also allows visitors to subscribe to your communication channel via Twitter.

3. Use Ping.fm to distribute content. By connecting your website content to Ping.fm, you can automatically push out news, events, blogs, and other content to social networks. This ensures that your content comes from a single, central location and is then distributed across many networks.

4. Include RSS options for all dynamic content. Make sure that your blog, events, news, and other dynamic content can be syndicated via RSS to make it easy for visitors to stay in your communication channel or publish your content on other sites.

5. Show the faces of real people in your organization. Many corporate websites shy away from displaying information about employees. However, today’s customers are interested in real people. Create a directory of key employees and provide links to email addresses, LinkedIn profiles, Facebook profiles, and Twitter accounts. Make it easy for customers and prospects to engage in conversations with your team. This builds trust.

6. Make sure your blogs, articles, and other landing pages publish correctly on social networks. This means that your code should be structured so that the proper image or logo appears when the content is shared on Facebook, and the right content blurb appears so that the preview is informative. This may involve an upgrade to your website structure.

7. Link back to your website from all other social profiles. This should be obvious but it is often overlooked. Be sure that your website link appears everywhere you have a social presence so that all traffic is driven back to your information hub. Also, make sure your social profiles are designed to match the branding on your website.

When creating your next website, be sure to make it socially aware so that you extend your points of capture into social networks and maximize your permission-based followers.

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Tags: facebook, linkedin, Marketing, social media, spinweb, twitter, website

Your call to action should be a click

In: Design| Marketing| Technology

6 Feb 2010

I get a lot of email promotions. Some are newsletters I have asked for, while some are spam from Indy Chamber members who have decided to subscribe me to their mailing lists against my will. In any case, one thing I notice about many of these email campaigns is that no matter how well-designed or appealing they are, they frequently miss the boat on the call to action.

For example, I often get an email inviting me to an event. Let’s say I want to go – what do I have to do? Much of the time, the campaign invites me to call a number to register, fill out a paper form, or reply to the email. If it’s a paid event, sometimes I’m told that I should bring a check or cash to pay at the door. Really? All I should have to do is click a link and register online. Anything more complicated than that is guaranteed to encourage people to ignore your message.

What about a spa offering 20% off selected services this week? The email should contain a prominent link that allows the recipient to book services online immediately.

Here’s the thing. When people are scanning emails, they are in a certain context. That context is clicking on things and getting information as a result of that clicking. Trying to make the user change contexts to make a call or print a form is working against the momentum that is already in place. The path of least resistance to the user is to remain in that context of clicking and processing. This is why you should allow your customers to get what they need or perform a transaction with a few clicks.

Don’t make it difficult for your customers to do business with you. Make sure your call to action is a click.

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Tags: Design, Marketing, website

Stop shouting from behind your logo

In: Marketing| Technology

21 Jan 2010

It seems like more and more businesses are starting to use online tools to market and communicate their messages. Social media is new and shiny and companies are eager to find more ways to broadcast commercials using Twitter, Facebook, and other social networks. However, it frustrates me to see that so many businesses are still applying marketing 1.0 tactics to web 2.0 tools.

Traditional marketing utilizes techniques that broadcast a message to the masses. Make a commercial, buy some airtime, and shout at your viewers for 30 seconds in hopes that the message sticks. Buy a billboard, paint it with your logo, and capture as many eyeballs as possible. Now that social media has opened up new channels of communication, business owners and marketers are eagerly applying the same tactics to new mediums and then wondering why it’s not working.

Facebook? Sure… let’s put a company logo in place of the profile photo, insert the company name, and splatter commercials all over the news feed. No one really knows who works there. Twitter? Great… let’s just use a single Twitter account for the company and shove all communication through it without letting anyone get to know the employees.

What businesses are consistently failing to understand is that people are craving contact with actual people. Social media is a space for humans to communicate, not faceless logos. Rather than hiding behind your logo and keeping your employees a secret, empower everyone to exist online as a person. The CEO should be blogging and signing his name to his postings. The marketing director should actively talk to people on Twitter as a real person. Employees should be encouraged to connect with clients and associates on Facebook as themselves.

Setting up a company Twitter account with your logo on it is a good thing. However, the messages distributed through this account should be redistributed through personal accounts because this is where real conversations happen. A Facebook fan page for the company is the right anchor point for publishing information. However, it’s the personal profiles that should share the content with their networks. This is where conversation happens.

This is an age of personal contact and human stories. Successful companies need to embrace the shift in customer expectations and blend corporate branding with personal branding. If asked what their most valuable assets are, most companies would quickly respond with “our people!” If that’s true, let them show their faces to the world and to your customers. If you are creating a positive environment and hiring the right people, your employees should be proud to represent your organization.

Remember, people want to do business with people they like and trust. Let your people show their faces. Stop shouting from behind your logo and instead have a real conversation with your customers.

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Tags: blog, blogging, branding, facebook, Marketing, social media, twitter

I’m tired of social media

In: Lifestyle| Marketing| Productivity| Technology

20 Jan 2010

Gasp! There, I said it. I have a suspicion that others are thinking it, too. At this particular moment I am tired of social media. I have taken a few days to focus on other things and it has been great. I didn’t post anything to Twitter for a few days, I didn’t spend much time on Facebook, and I didn’t read any blogs.

Instead, I did some writing, worked on my book, did some strategic planning for my business, and had some very productive meetings with my team and my networking circles.

I think many times I am guilty of getting caught up in the fast-paced, “new and shiny” appeal of social tools and I get a little carried away in thinking that if I don’t engage in social networks all the time, then I will be missing out on something. Well, as it turns out, there is a world outside of Facebook. Who knew?

So am I actually tired of social media? Not really. Rather I acknowledge that I need to remind myself that social media is simply an evolution in how we communicate. It’s not a replacement for traditional marketing. It’s not a replacement for phone calls or meetings. It’s not a replacement for human contact. We need to look for ways to enhance our communication with social tools. If engaging on a social network adds value to my relationships, then it makes sense. If it distracts me from my goals, then it doesn’t make sense.

You know what else? Simply admitting my burn-out on social media helped me reevaluate how I engage with my networks and actually recharged my interest in jumping back in.

Social media will continue to be a part of my lifestyle. I will continue to learn, develop relationships, educate, and generate leads using social media. However, I will also get better at finding balance in my activities.

Oh look… Twitter is back up. Gotta go!

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Tags: blog, blogging, facebook, indianapolis, linkedin, Marketing, michael reynolds, social media, twitter

The truth about credit card safety online

In: Technology

12 Jan 2010

E-commerce has been around for a while now and to most of us, it is a normal way of shopping and purchasing products. However, I occasionally encounter someone who is uncomfortable using a credit card online. I’d like to clear up some misconceptions and provide some insight into what happens when you use a credit card online and why it’s safer than using your credit card at a gas pump.

First off, keep in mind that when you buy something online with a credit card, your credit card number is typically not ever seen by a human. When you type in your credit card number, you are entering it into a page that is encrypted so that even if someone were electronically eavesdropping, he/she would not be able to acquire the number. Once you click the “buy” button, the order information, along with your credit card number, is sent directly through an encrypted connection to a merchant gateway (like Authorize.Net) which checks the validity of the card, available funds, and tests for fraud. If all goes well, the transaction is complete and the money is batched to go from your credit card to the bank account of the merchant from which you purchased. All this happens within seconds and with no human intervention. As you can see, there is really no realistic opportunity for anyone to see your credit card number.

Contrast this with other ways that we use credit cards every way. We swipe our credit cards at gas pumps which leaves us vulnerable to skimming. We hand our credit cards to servers at restaurants, which leaves us vulnerable to anyone in the back of the restaurant with a camera phone. We withdraw money at ATMs, which leaves us vulnerable to both skimming and photo espionage. There are so many times that we offer up our credit card number in the physical world that are much riskier than purchasing online. Yet, sometimes we feel that buying online is mysterious and scary and so we feel unsafe. Purchasing online is typically much safer than a physical card purchase.

Remember that when your credit card is swiped at a store or restaurant, it’s going through exactly the same type of network as it does on the Internet. The only difference is that in a store or restaurant, a human gets to see your credit card number. Which sounds safer?

Some things to look out for when purchasing online:

1. Look for the “s” in “https://”. If you are on a secure site, the address in your location bar at the top will start with “https://”. Notice the “s”.

2. Make sure you trust the website. Amazon, Zappos, and Apple are all big companies with trustworthy websites. Buying from ugly, mom and pop websites that look like they were designed by your neighbor’s 5-year-old may not be all that safe. Make sure you have some level of trust with the merchant. Feel free to call them and ask how they handle e-commerce and what gateway they use.

3. Use a credit card, rather than a debit card. This ensures that if theft does occur, you are not liable for it and it does not deplete your bank account.

Though purchasing online may seem a little scary to some, it’s actually much safer than physical card purchases. If your credit card number is stolen, it’s much more likely that it occurred at a gas pump, restaurant, or through documents in your trash. Remember to shred often, be cautious about where you use your card, and look for the signs of a secure transaction and you will minimize your chances of being a victim.