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

Desiree Scales Interview on Media Connection with Amani Channel: Talking Social Media and Web Design Strategies Working Together Part 2

This is Part 2 of the Interview posted below. More web design and social media strategies from a web design veteran of over 12 years.

Desiree Scales Interview on Media Connection with Amani Channel: Talking Social Media and Web Design Strategies Working Together Part 1

This is an interview done back in July/August with MediaConnection and Amani Channel. Forrester Media

did the production and editing. The interview revolves around web design and social media working together as

a business strategy. This is Part One with a lot of great tips for business owners. Enjoy!

Twitter Lists and Google Social Search; Two Breakthroughs for Social Media

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We have some major developments in the world of social networking to discuss on this week's edition of the Bella Buzz podcast. Desiree and Joe tackle the rollout of List functionality on Twitter, the integration of user's social graph into search results via social search, and a promise to review Google Wave upon a deeper use of the service.

The implementation of Twitter Lists will allow users to curate those we follow, and even those we don't, into various categories of our own choosing. This functionality should help reduce the often complained about clutter or noise that overpowers our Twitter stream.  As an example of how to make the best use of a list, Desiree points out that by creating a list called @desireescales/newstweeps, she is able to go to one single stream where she can expect to find the latest breaking info. 

Some of the initial excitement revolves around the ability to connect with other users again by adding them to a list.  The social currency can start to move away from the tired followers numbers, and migrate towards the number of lists a user appears on. Although we have steered you away from concern over follower number, the lists can actually be of value since they contain a bit of meta data ... the context in which others view a person. Are they a techy? Are they a music lover? .. Why is this person of value for following?  The list can put it into perspective. 

As the List ecosystem springs into action, there is already a site called Listorious that shows the categorization of Twitter into various lists, identifying those on the most lists in total as well as the most lists within a specific topic.

For the small business owner, developing a quality list of Twitterers within a particular niche might be an effective strategy to getting noticed, especially within a geographic area.

Desiree used the List feature as a group Follow Friday #FF tweet.  A feature of the List is that it creates a complete URL of the list for distribution, of with the @ sign becomes part of a tweet.

The next topic that we tackle is a Google Labs experiment that we have all known was coming, a change is taking place regarding the factors that will influence the Google search results page that we see when searching a particular keyword.  Participation in this experiment, along with setting up a Google Profile,

The premise has been that the best search results will come from information obtained through people that you trust the most, rather than an algorithm. By incorporating the information gleaned from those connected to you through your social networks, Google intends to present search results that are weighted based upon their behavior.

These search results are intended to come from more trusted sources, and therefore should be more relevant to you.  It should help to eliminate many of the unreliable sources such as directories and made for adsense sites. 

As a brand, now more than ever, it will become important to enter the social sphere so that you are represented in the search results in this manner.

Let us know what you think.  Is Social Search a good thing for you? Do you believe that you will get better results based upon incorporating input from your social network?  Leave us a comment.

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.

Interview with Todd Eury - Pharmacy Technology Resource about Using Social Media for Independent Pharmacists

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Todd Eury, Executive Director of Pharmacy Technology Resource joins Desiree and Joe on this week's Bella Buzz podcast. Todd has established a fantastic niche as the "go-to" guy in the independent pharmacy industry regarding the implementation and use of Social Media and Web 2.0 technologies.

Before we get to Todd, we have a followup to the conversation on the October 13th Bella Buzz regarding Google Voice.  Last night on the Google Voice Blog they announced portability for your existing phone number. It is not total functionality yet, but it does provide you with Google voicemail features such as message transcription and custom messaging per caller.  Check it out!

Todd catches us up on how his business has taken off by focusing on a niche of the independent pharmacy and apothecary. Initially his social media efforts were implemented as a way to market his own services, but he has since adapted to include an educational element, where he is teaching his target market to take advantage of social media marketing.This is an excellent strategy in that it can be a challenge to champion the benefits of using new media tools to those that don't understand its significance.

America Pharmacist Magazine approached Todd about writing a 3000 word article regarding the use of these technologies in the industry. It worked out perfectly since he had already started developing an educational document on how to embrace social media as a community pharmacist. As part of his business plan he grabbed Pharmacyweb20.com as a location to start developing and posting his educational content.

Todd has the great approach for his clients in that he understands that social media must be part of, and complimentary to, an overall business plan and is married into traditional marketing tactics.  He points out that the community pharmacist has already built a reputation of trust, has customers visiting the store in person, and can be easily transitioned to greater levels of customer service via the web through an "offline ask."

A challenge for any independent operator these days, whether pharmacy or other industries, is getting exposure to the most relevant information regarding marketing strategies.  Todd is looking to establish a relationship with the Pharmacy School at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh to add an element of social media training into the curriculum.

The pharmacy industry is having initial discussions about how cloud computing will impact operations.  There are many privacy concerns of course, and this delicate balance exists within the realm of the larger US health care conversation. 

If you are in the industry, make sure to look for Todd at upcoming conferences where he is on panels and making presentations.

His various web locations you can find Todd at:

http://pharmacyweb20.com

http://www.pharmacytechnologyblog.com

http://www.pharmacywebsitedesign.com

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/pharmacytechnology

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.

Interview with John Damiano - Social Media in Real Estate

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 Guest John Damiano appears on this week's edition of The Bella Buzz podcast.  John is the CEO of The Providence Group and Associate Broker for RE/MAX Greater Atlanta. He provides some great insight into the application of comprehensive social media campaign for the real estate industry during his conversation with Desiree and Joe. (John is also one of the best dressed real estate professionals we've ever met!)

John points to the fact that he can differentiate himself from other realtors by being on social networks and in front of younger generations who will be buying homes now and in the future. He references Who Moved my Cheese a #1 Bestseller about coping with change in the workplace. By posting on Twitter and Facebook he is able to get referrals from other agents who consistently send him business.

The Providence Group blog incorporates many guest authors from a variety of sources who are involved in real estate transactions including attorneys, financial advisors, accountants and many other resources.  This helps John generate much needed content as well as provides great value to his clients or potential clients.

Real estate is a relationship business and using social networks enhances the top of mind awareness for agents. It also helps to brand individuals beyond the agency umbrella which is important for agents because it makes them stand out from their competition.

The YouTube channel for Providence Group of RE/MAX Greater Atlanta is a perfect example of extending the distribution of content.  You can view the tours of homes using a collection of stills and appropriate music to give the potential buyer a taste of each property.  The stills end up on a Flickr page as well.

We've mentioned on other podcasts that you cannot forget personal networking, the face to face connections that can really solidify a relationship.  John hosts quarterly Business Mixers that get the business community together to socialize. 

John has determined that the best way to achieve all of these activities in social networks comes from discipline.  By having the discipline to allocate an hour or so each day to participate in social media, he is able to make these efforts pay a large return on his time investment.

John references The Power of Full Engagement, by Tony Schwartz, which discusses how a world class athlete manages time to achieve great accomplishments.

A bit of advice is to start slowly when moving into various social networks, so that you can get a feel for how to best utilize them for your business, but also take full advantage of any opportunity that comes along to dive into the great new tools we have.

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.

Enhancing Social Media Connections via Live Networking Events

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This week on the Bella Buzz podcast we talk about networking in the offline world where strong relationships can be solidified even more with a face to face connection.  Although the subject is usually about the great new tools that are available to use, it still comes down to getting out there and networking, shaking hands, up-close and in-person in order to make that connection even stronger.

The New Media Atlanta Social Media Conference coming up on September 25, 2009 will give people the opportunity to do just that. This event will bring together some of the brightest minds in social media from Atlanta including Desiree, Brent Leary, Toby Bloomberg and others supplemented by some great national speakers leading the conversation.

We can't forget that not only are there great gatherings of like minded individuals around the social media and online marketing spaces, it's the events sponsored by organizations like Rotary Clubs, Chambers of Commerce, The Small Business Administration which can provide great insight into how to grow your business. Meeting someone in these traditional settings sets up a great online relationship keeping the conversation going. This leads to a more involved connection that will continue to develop until the next time you meet.

There are things like business mixers that are put on and sponsored by local businesses that might be advantageous to attend.  For example, John Damiano, an Atlanta realtor friend of Desiree hosts a quarterly business mixer that can attract over 200 people at times.

Networking via these local events does not preclude us from having long distance relationships with clients, both Desiree and I serve clients who are not local.  What we have found is that the longer we work with a client on a professional level the more we look forward to that actual day when we are able to meet face to face in an airport or a travel schedule allows, which really helps move the partnership along to an even greater place.

The bottom line is, business still needs a personal touch ... you have to step away from the keyboard and get out there every once in awhile.

For those event promoters and sponsors, get in touch with social media evangelists and practitioners to leverage the networks for getting your message out there.

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.

Meet Brent Leary -- Social Customer Relationship Management Rock Star

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It is Brent Leary's turn to appear on the Bella Buzz podcast with Desiree Scales and Joe Magennis.  Brent is the co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials LLC, a CRM consulting/advisory firm focused on small and mid-size enterprises. CRM Essentials has trained thousands of business people on the benefits and best practices of implementing CRM strategies and technologies.

Brent and Desiree recently worked together on the Moving Business Forward panel this past July and will also be appearing together on September 25th at the New Media Atlanta Social Media Summit.

Brent is also the host of Technology for Business Sake and an accomplished author and writer. You can follow all his work via his blog. (He's hard to keep up with sometimes!)

Social CRM means developing a systematic approach to finding, catching and keeping good customers. The space has some very heavy hitting companies including Microsoft and Salesforce.com focused on the internal operations of CRM. Social CRM helps with the transition from the conversations that are taking place on social networks to the business functions within the sales channel.

As Brent discusses where he sees the future of Social CRM going, he points out that it was only just two years ago when there was any type of insight into the integration of social networks with CRM processes, so it is certainly changing at a rapid pace.  He specifically mentions that Twitter as part of the sales channel has become much more prevalent and integrated into the process. 

BatchBlue is a company that focuses on small business CRM services and has caught Brent's attention. (Company president Pam O'Hara recently appeared on an edition of The Bella Buzz.)

An interesting perspective that many small businesses need to consider concerns metrics.  There are a number of potential metrics to determine success of a social media strategy, however since we are all focusing on very specific niches, it is very challenging to determine what "success" actual means across each niche.  Brent points out that having the patience to acquire enough data so that a realistic analysis can be made is critical.

Brent also gives his insights into his passionate analysis of the Barack Obama presidential campaign leader's use of social media. His analysis first appeared as a webinar, later published in numerous blogs, magazines, and newspaper articles and has now been published in a book.  The web site can be found at Barack20.com.

It would be hard to keep up with all that Brent is doing these days beyond the New Media Atlanta event, he has an conference presentation in Orlando for American Express coming up, then he is off to Buenos Aires speaking at the International Direct Marketers conference.... but you can't overlook his playlists on Twitter during #fridaynightmix check it out!

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.

Interview: How Medifast is Using Social Media to Help People Get Healthy

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This week The Bella Buzz gang of Desiree Scales from Bella Web Design and Joe Magennis of Fluid Media welcome special guest Brian Gleason, Public Relations Manager from Medifast. They discuss actual applications of social media marketing including Brian's perspective on how his company went about the practice of developing a vibrant social community.

Brian shares that the company had originally built a closed environment as an online community only for existing customers, but as they went about analyzing the impact of the word of mouth and peer to peer support that took place, they realized that they needed to evolve into more social networking platforms.

The most prominent networks for Medifast are a Facebook Fan Page, a YouTube channel, and Twitter for interaction. This works very well with their Take Shape for Life Health Coaches who use these tools to motivate their clients as well as get the word out to potential clients by simply offering advice and encouragement.

Note the story at around the 7:00 minute mark when Brian shares a real life case study of how he was able to direct a potential customer to the Facebook page and the entire community took over to convince the shopper of the product benefits.  They turned the shopper into a customer ... exactly the results everyone is looking for in their own social media plan!

Brian recommends all companies monitor what is happening on Twitter by keeping the Twitter Search web site open on his desktop all day long and listening for references to the company, customer successes and any other potential opportunity to connect and communicate.

Medifast consciously took the "slow and steady" approach to developing their social community through organic discovery.  The intention was to learn from the process in order to refine the strategy and to ensure the best execution. They use it as a community building effort much more so than a promotional platform.

One key element of this approach is the buy-in from the corporate executives, including Mike McDevitt CEO of Medifast, who was instrumental in getting Brian in touch with Desiree to talk about social media. (Mike and Desiree literally ran into each other while running at the annual 2009 TSFL convention in Phoenix a month ago!) This allowed for some time to roll-out the effort without having to justify through indiscriminate metrics.

Watch for the development of Health Coaches using social media tools as a key part of counseling their client base. Medifast is looking to provide guidance to the Coaches so that they can help their clients participate in "life-streaming" as a way to stay motivated and share their successes.

Brian's final bit of parting advice to business owners is that they should listen and learn as much as possible by immersing themselves in social media personally before diving right in representing the company.  The mistakes can be made there first as a learning experience. 

Thanks to Brian for joining us, and for more information about Medifast visit the web site www.choosemedifast.com or connect via any of the social networks linked above. 

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.

So How Does the Twitter Attack Impact Your Business?

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On Thursday August 6, 2009 Twitter, Facebook, Livejournal and Google were attacked with a DDos campaign that slowed down the sites and severely crippled Twitter in particular.  The other services were able to withstand most of the traffic bombardment that as we later found out, was targeting a particular blogger from the Republic of Georgia. On this week's Bella Buzz podcast Joe and Desiree discuss how this interruption impacts businesses and what can be done to prevent disruption in the future.

(For a more in depth discussion on this topic while the initial attack was going on, listen to Joe's podcast called Geek Dads @ Home.)

Some initial reaction called into question the safety of using these social tools as it relates to privacy. For the most part, you would not be storing any passwords or secure data on these social networks that might be obtained in this type of attack.  In fact, there was no "hacking" at all.  This type of attack is merely throwing so much bot traffic at a site their servers cannot handle the load. 

This entire episode raises a very important question about Twitter as a service and the stability of the infrastructure as we generate our "life stream" with this sole source provider.  Would you feel better if you knew that there was a dispersed, federated approach to managing this traffic that had more of a relationship to the way email is handled?

There is an open source micro-messaging option to Twitter called Laconica which is the platform that the service Identi.ca works on, and has been seriously pushing this debate about distributed messaging.

Friendfeed can also be a solution for maintaining connections and the functionality of micro-messaging. The threaded conversations are a terrific user interface for real dialogue, and the ability to integrate numerous streams of content such as Flickr photos, blog posts, and even a Twitter stream makes it a very efficient service. (NOTE: This podcast was recorded a couple of hours prior to the announcement that Friendfeed has been purchased by Facebook.)

Long term the solution is not to look for other social networks to run to in the hope that a mass migration would take place.  The only solution that makes sense at this stage, with the high adoption rates of Twitter, is the hope that they will look to adapt their business model and structure and look to become a web platform or protocol that will carry the micro-messaging across the web. 

It will be interesting to see if the rollout of Google Wave and the promises that are being touted with that service will indeed provide us with a live, all in one messaging platform.  Will all services ride upon a Wave in the future? It is possible that Google sees some opportunities when Twitter failures happen.

What was your reaction last Thursday when Twitter went down? Was it an inconvenience, or did it severely impact your ability to function?

What Any Business Can Learn from "United Breaks Guitars"

If you aren’t one of the 4 million people who have already watched this video, take a quick look above. Its a song about how Dave Carroll, a musician, had his guitar broken by my former employer, United Airlines. (The back-story is herehttp://www.davecarrollmusic.com/story/united-breaks-guitars if you’re interested.)

Think about it, this video has been viewed on the Internet over 4 MILLION TIMES! That’s a lot of press. Steve Jobs would kill for that type of coverage for his iPhone. It shows us how powerful the medium of video can be when put in the right hands.

Dave’s creative way of making this situation known, and having some fun while doing it, paid off and got him the attention he needed to get United to pay for a new guitar.  Its also pretty obvious that Dave isn’t stupid. He used this video to create exposure for his brand (himself) which was probably his motive in the first place. Another good use of social media. If it worked for a working musician like Dave, think about how you could use this creatively for your own brand?

So, what’s the takeaway? What could have United done to avoid this PR nightmare?

First off, let me state that the general public only has this song and Dave’s side of the story. United has yet to publish a reply or response as to what really went down. This alone is something United PR Department might want to rethink. Transparency is the order of the day and people expect to hear both sides, right or wrong.

If United had hired a Social Media expert or had a SM Department, they might have avoided this mess altogether by catching it earlier. The expert would have been charged with monitoring the airwaves through tools like www.socialmention.com orhttp://search.twitter.com (where the video spread fast) and have seen the smoke before the flames blew out of control. That’s the other side of the social media coin, companies can use the same social media tools Dave used to monitor and take action early in the game when there’s trouble, but they have to be watching and aware.

What it all comes down to is: Treat your customers right in the first place. The best time to create a great customer experience for someone and make a lasting impression is when the customer is upset. From Dave’s point of view, he just wanted compensation for his broken guitar. For an airline that charges $12,000 for a round trip ticket to China from Chicago, I think they could have afforded to handle this with a bit more finesse. (Pun intended.) If they had taken care of the customer in the first place, this would have never happened. The best insurance is to put your customers first, especially in this day and age where word can spread quickly online about a bad experience.

I would love to think United could still have a sense of humor about it and have some kind of “musician’s discount” or a funny giveaway with a music theme. That might diffuse the situation a bit and show that they can play the game just like Dave did. I think United might want to think about creating a fun video which explained a little more in depth what really happened. In the end, I don’t think they will lose a massive quantity of customers over this, but this video isn’t going to go away unless they pull out the big guns and call the lawyers in. That wouldn’t look so good either. Let’s face it, this isn’t the first time this has happened to a musician on any airline and it won’t be the last. United just messed with the wrong one. We live in an age where there is no bad publicity. Maybe they should just hire Dave to do their next commercial or to be a regular entertainer in their on-board entertainment package. Wouldn’t hurt.

Personally, I think the guy should take www.petairways.com next time. He’d probably get a little more respect and some better customer service. They’ll probably even throw him a bone and scratch behind his ears. After all, isn’t that what most customers are looking for? Just a little more attention…

Dave, if you’re reading this, next time you fly you might want to rethink checking that guitar. Better yet, whip it out during the flight, get a video camera…well, you apparently know the rest…

For those of you traveling in the future with musical instruments, here is a great blog post with some travel tips http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32031049/ns/travel-tips/.