The Bella Buzz: Successful Web Design, Internet and Social Media Marketing Strategies from Desiree Scales, CEO--Bella Web Design, Inc.

Why Hiring a Marketing Strategist Before Building Your Website is Crucial

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Are you the type of person who would construct a home by hiring all of the contractors yourself instead of hiring a General Contractor? If so, then you are a rare individual. Most people feel more comfortable finding a good GC they can rely on and can help find the best sub-contractors with special skills and to oversee the entire project ensuring that all of the laborers achieve the overall objective of constructing a quality home. This is just the role an experienced Marketing Strategist can play in your quest for a great website.

On this week's Bella Buzz podcast, hosts Desiree Scales and Joe Magennis welcome Svy Nekrasas. He is just that type of General Contractor or "General Marketer" who works with small and medium sized businesses to develop, review, revise and implement complete marketing strategies.

There is an abundance of marketing tools available for business owners to choose from to deliver a brand message espeically now that social networking tools are so prevalent and efficient. In many cases implementation is more a case of jumping in rather than having a plan. Svy helps businesses to determine that plan before embarking on a web design campaign to review where things are and make recommendations for improvement.

Having a marketing strategist on board also helps when it comes to identifying the best resources for implementing a plan. Svy has been through the web design process before and has vetted specialists with the skill set to tackle specific aspects of the plan will save business owners a considerable amount time and money. The strategist can help find partners to build a web site, create a graphics standard, construct compelling content and craft an appropriate media plan.

When trying to focus a business owner on developing a comprehensive marketing plan, Svy likes to use the basic marketing axiom of Product, Price, Place, Promotion. Each of these elements are something that can be controlled and established when launching a brand message. Consumers today have a lot of access to information and a solid disciplined marketing plan will clearly communicate a brand in the mind of the target consumer.

Svy will also make sure that the full story is composed based upon the information that is obtained by using Google Analytics on a web site. Traffic sources, keywords, users, and goals are just some of the key variables that appear on these comprehensive reports. Making sense of this data and taking action based upon the results serves as a strong foundation of any marketing plan.

Getting involved with someone outside of a company to analyze a marketing strategy can be very difficult for many business owners especially owners who are extremely connected personally to a business. Allowing good ideas to come from numerous sources in this day and age is the hallmark of an open and transparent organization. Consider the extraordinary resource that Starbucks has implemented by allowing customers to submit their ideas through the web site MyStarbucksIdea.com. It is an extraordinary resource, ensuring that the company is responsive directly to their base.

To talk more marketing with Svy, he can be reached at svy@bellawebdesign.com or by contacting Desiree.

Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.

A Conversation about Good Search Engine Optimization Practices

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On this week's Bella Buzz podcast, hosts Joe Magennis and Desiree Scales discuss Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for business owners. Desiree walks us through her typical analysis of a client's current efforts and points out the critical steps that should be taken in order to improve a web site's organic rankings on search engine results pages or SERPs.

Bella Web Design focuses on the organic listings for clients since they are the most commonly clicked on link and are much more cost effective than the paid listings that are at the top and side of the SERP.

Desiree begins the process by working with clients to determine the most appropriate Keywords that they expect to generate search traffic from. Keyword analysis is an important early step in the development of a web site.  Content needs to be crafted, navigational layout and site architecture built, and finally meta tags coded and optimized for the correct keywords.

Once the site is developed and launched, her team will then submit the site to various directories such as Kudzu, City Search, or other paid listings that might be appropriate for that particular client.  

This is a process rather than a project.  SEO is an ongoing service that requires maintenance to keep a listing at the top of the results.  Changes to the Google algorithm or new competitors in the marketplace can have an negative impact on a site if it is left to wither on the vine.  Being responsive and monitoring the rankings will ensure that the site continues to remain relevant.

We pursue a discussion regarding link building and the strategies that should be implemented in an attempt to get inbound "link juice" passed to your web site by high ranking sites.  Desiree points out a particular web site called MRelevance.com that focuses on Atlanta Real Estate marketing services and notes that real estate agents have had success getting quality traffic and assistance in gaining high rankings with a link from this site.

Continuing in the real estate market, agents and brokers who have web sites hosted and templated from a franchising company will find it challenging to rank well simply because the content is database driven on the backend and gets credited to the main domain ie remax.com.  Realtors should develop stand alone sites that are hard coded HTML, and optimize for keywords in their local area including counties, cities and towns so that they can rank well for these keywords.

Don't forget to post your business in the Google Local Business Directory, which has recently been updated to include content ranging from logos, images and even video.  A listing here also signals to Google that this is a legitimate business and can improve the overall ranking of the site.

As a final point, SEO firms can make claims that they can have you ranked at the top of Google within a short time period and we just throw a word of caution out there.  Rankings take anywhere from 2 to 6 months to see results, and if they are guaranteeing them sooner, they may be using "blackhat" techniques that might work in the short term, but will potentially harm your web site forever while they have moved on to another client. Check out the reputation and results of the agency that you are engaging with.

Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.

Social Media Trumps Traditional Media In Iran Elections -- History is Made

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This may be one of the most important topics we will ever address on The Bella Buzz podcast. Joe Magennis and Desiree Scales discuss the events that transpired over the weekend regarding the election in Iran and the impact of Twitter and social networks, including Facebook, on accessing the coverage in real time.  This might just be the watershed moment historians point to as the time when social networks outperformed the traditional media in providing news coverage.

We first want to point out that the events taking place in Iran and the actions of the courageous people willing to voice their opinions in a society that can be overtly oppressive is far more important than media analysis and online tools.  However, it cannot be under-emphasized the power that these tools provide for distributing alternate points of view that may never have had the chance to be expressed publicly. The ability to be heard is powerful force in initiating change of any kind.  This can be just as true of corporate policies as much as governmental policies. 

To set up the our discussion on the podcast, there were two Hashtags that trended to the top of Twitter this past Saturday evening / Sunday morning, one was #iranelection and the other was #cnnfail.  The first conveyed a story of a population in Iran that was unwilling to accept the election results that were being presented to them by their government officials.  The second was a vocal, global community unwilling to accept the fact that a major news event was taking place in the world and CNN (nor any other television news network) was not providing coverage of the story.  They were instead airing reruns.

It is still unclear the reasoning behind CNN's decision not to have an in-studio anchor presenting the story and analyzing the impact that these actions would have on the rest of the world. In fact, as of Monday afternoon following the recording of this podcast, CNN was claiming that they had indeed done a good job of covering the story and felt that it was a "compliment" according to Rick Sanchez that the audience was expecting more from them.

It appears to be a somewhat defensive stance on their part, however it must be pointed out that Rick Sanchez at least has some social media credibility, and is someone who has made it a point long before now to incorporate social media tools and direct feedback from his audience into his broadcasts.

As an attempt to tie this story into a business dialogue, since it is the overall focus of The Bella Buzz podcast, it can now be clearly seen communicating powerful messages are no longer only possible on major broadcast outlets. Decisions will have to be made regarding the placement of marketing dollars and moving resources away from the traditional outlets towards the social networks.  This spiraling effect only leads to a further reduction in resources, which we speculate may have been a contributing factor for why this story didn't receive comprehensive coverage.

We do have to provide a particular caveat for this transition from traditional to dispersed media consumption.  Although there is a liberating aspect of getting unfiltered news, we must also caution that it now becomes incumbent upon us as consumers to dig a little deeper into the messaging we are receiving. Even though there is information coming via Twitter that would indicate the uprising is representative of a majority of the population, or that there are irregularities in the election process, we don't actually have any verifiable evidence that these are indeed the real truth.  Learning how to filter information on the web will be a skill that all educational institutions should immediately begin to add to their curriculum so that the population can identify memes, hysteria, spam or any other form of manipulating messages.

Our role here on The Bella Buzz podcast is not to tackle the political or social issues of the day, but when they intersect with the use of social communication tools that are a part of our every day environment, we feel that it is necessary to point out how they are being used and to turn it into an analogy for our audience to better understand how powerful they can be.

For those who weren't convinced, Desiree tweeted yesterday, "We are now all participants on a world stage, helping others communicate their plight against all odds. We are witnessing history." and "The Iranian election coverage on Twitter proves to everyone that we don't talk about what we ate for lunch anymore. Its purpose is clearer."

How do you feel about the events that took place in Iran and the intersection of new media with traditional media?  Did you have opinions regarding the lack of broadcast channels covering the events?  Let us know what you think in the comments, we would love to hear your ideas!

Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.

Social Media and "The Flight Attendant Effect"

I originally posted this at http://www.techlifepost.com on June 11, 2009. It was a popular post and many clients asked me to repost it here on the Bella Buzz Blog. Enjoy!

Back in the day when I was a flight attendant for a major airline, we were taught what I call the “Flight Attendant Effect.” It goes like this: If you pay special attention to just one customer on the plane, all the customers around him/her will feel special too and their impression of the airline will be a postive one.

Social media can have the same effect. If you are on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn and you are found helping one person through a difficult problem or just sharing kudos with them, other people reading the posts will feel that you’ve touched them as well and will more than likely think highly of you even though you’re not directly in contact. You become known as the “nice person” who helps people online. The person with all the answers to a problem. The expert with the expertise. The “go to guy/gal.”

The Flight Attendant Effect taught me the importance of how an interaction with just one person makes a huge impression about a company as a whole to others. This is exactly what your helpful actions can do for you and your company. Sharing your knowledge is a powerful connection you can make with others and will leave a lasting impression on everyone who notices. The impression you make by becoming a valuable resource for your clients, potential clients and business partners will take you much farther than you ever dreamed. 

This also works in reverse: A bad impression can be made if you choose to engage in negative or snarky comments or conversations. Sometimes it is even more detrimental and the damaging effects can reach even farther. My personal feeling is to use common sense about what you post. If you can’t say something nice, as our mothers told us, you may want to keep it to yourself. Choose your battles wisely online. You’ll never be sorry you did. 

Also, keep in mind that it’s about the other person, not about you. Reach out and help, but don’t bother if you’re only helping people to “look good.” People can see right through that. Being genuine in your motives will bring you rich rewards when you’re not looking for them. 

I’m so glad I was able to see how important it is to help those in need and how one action will carry enough weight to form a lasting impression about a company at a young age. Those lessons learned as a flight attendant have remained with me to this day and make me appreciate how important it is to share my knowledge and help those around me. I also see this quality in others and I’m so glad that I know people in social media that I can always count on for the right answer or another point of view to explore. Their effect on me, and the people I know, will help us all go much farther with social media than we ever dreamed.

The All-Powerful Share Button in Social Media

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Desiree Scales, CEO of Bella Web Design smoothly segues into our Bella Buzz podcast topic this week, using the Share button for distributing content. With co-host Joe Magennis, principal of Fluid Media in Atlanta, we chat about the mutually beneficial practice of sharing, re-tweeting and forwarding content on the web.

The greatest reward for content producers is to create something that readers, viewers or listeners find compelling enough to pass along to their social networks. As the momentum builds for the content, it continues to get shared with others on the strength of the message or entertainment value that it brings... the content becomes Viral. 

It is an unrealistic expectation to intentionally design content to become viral or share-worthy.  A small business owner should never embark on the process of creating content hoping that it will become the next "Chocolate Rain" video which has received over 38 million views!  Content should be developed strictly with the intention of communicating a message to a target audience.  If that audience deems the content to be worthy of sharing with others, they will pass it along in order to provide some value to the next recipient.

The share functionality has actually been with us on the internet well before the tools of Web 2.0.  The simple act of forwarding an email was the first level of sharing that we encountered.  Now that we are in the social era of internet services we have Re-Tweets on Twitter, we have numerous Share plugins for blog posts such as Share This used on both bellawebdesign.com and befluid.com and we even could consider a Trackback or a Link as a form of sharing content from someone else's blog.

Think about it for a second. How valuable is it to you as a content producer to have your audience share your content within their own circle of influence? Since we are much more likely to trust the content passed along from someone we know, we are much more likely to consume it.  If you employ the old shampoo commercial axiom of "tell two friends, and they'll tell two friends", your message will be transmitted far beyond your own social graph and will start to carry serious significance in your niche.

As with all things social these days, we are also living in a very collaborative environment. A good practice is to contribute to the distribution of other people's content by using the share button yourself.  Re-tweeting, Stumbling or Digging an article, linking to a blog post in Facebook or on your own blog will not go unnoticed and might lead to a reciprocal sharing of your content. 

Don't forget to use the reporting functions from URL shorteners such as Bit.LY or the dashboard within Share This to determine if you are producing the right kind of content. Witnessing small share numbers might indicate that you need to refine your content so that it communicates more meaningful information to your audience. You can also use the Hootsuite service to review the success of your campaign ROI, shared items is another measure of effectiveness.

We are interested in finding out from you what you would like us to share, we would love to see in the comments any topics or ideas that we can address in the podcast.  Thanks for Listening!

Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

You can subscribe to The Bella Buzz directly from ITunes by following this link, and we would be happy to receive listener feedback and ratings at The ITunes Store.