Social Media Campaigns: Controlling Your Output

two young girls laughing behind another girls backThe other day I sat with a client to discuss tying a social media marketing program to the recent launch of the organization’s new Web site. A nonprofit with legitimate sentiment concerns, it seemed that a comprehensive inbound marketing program was the logical next step. And so having previously discussed the power in building organic traffic, I proposed an ongoing social solution that I felt suited their needs. After about an hour of discussion, the client was equally confident that the plan was indeed, a good one. Read the rest of this entry »

Know How to Know Your Buyer Before You Launch a Web Site

Question thyselfMy customers usually do not know why they want a Web site. I mean sure; they’ll say, “Hey Scott, I need a Web site.” They’ll even insist that it needs doing immediately and that enough time’s been wasted and opportunities, subsequently missed. Thieves love this kind of client. They swoop in, cape flapping from behind and with lots of convoluted language and alien concepts, collect the booty and run. “Boom! Here’s your site,” says the opportunistic Web designer. “There’s your killer logo in the upper-left corner, your copy’s over in that spot.” And voila! Web site! Read the rest of this entry »

Open Letter to Entrepreneurs: You Don’t Hold a Monopoly on the Right Answers

Peacock at the Royal Castle in Warsaw (Lazienki Park)You want a new Web site. You’re the boss and the company needs a new site. The existing one is home to static and dated talking points and lately you’ve begun to suspect that it is shouting at visitors and is thus, not developed with an evolving 2.0 culture in mind. There’s nothing, you conclude, social about. Your wife, mother-in-law and golf buddies all agree. You’re the boss and this is your mandate.

You want the thing redone and you want it redone now. Details are someone else’s problem. That’s what you pay the worker bees to do. You make the demand, they make it happen. You don’t care how; you just want the darn thing done and done well. You assign a small gaggle of your most qualified people to the task and they immediately spring into action. At the outset however, you make it clear that you want every phase of the project to pass through you before moving through each milestone. You’re Teddy Roosevelt. Read the rest of this entry »