Category Archives: Blog
How to Setup Headway After Install – Headway Configuration Guide
This was originally posted on HeadwayHQ.com. David Wang has been doing a great job with his site and walkthroughs! Check out his site and make certain to subscribe to his RSS feed to keep up with Headway happenings. Hit him up on Twitter @blogjunkie too.
We’ve got a great thing going with the Headway theme, but there is a little bit of external setup that needs to be done in order to get things working as smoothly as possible and have the ability to track your progress. Read More
How to Use Active Listening to Improve your Online Reputation and SEO
Active listening is a critical tool for consultants and freelancers to employ in conversations with their clients in order to make certain that they get the full story. But did you know that the process of active listening can actually improve your online reputation and your SEO?
In person, you spend time asking questions and developing an understanding of what exactly is being communicated. Online, you can spend time leaving comments on blog posts, following up via Twitter and discussing topics in forums. This is great as it helps you get to know the meaning of specific posts, and others can join in on the conversation providing real community involvement helping you get noticed.
How does this help my online reputation and SEO?
It helps your reputation and your own SEO by providing a useful resource for others to read. Think about it. You leave a comment and leave a link to your site. If you provided something of value to the conversation, either by posing a clarification question or expounding on the original post, you’ve provided something of value and other readers will consider checking up on you. Now, this won’t necessarily, directly increase your SEO performance just by posting a comment, but, it will likely get you visitors, if you provide enough value, the blog owner may get in contact with you or even write a post about your comment and link to your site. Now we’re talking.
Take it one step further and get involved outside of blog posts on Twitter or Facebook. Even though not everything is indexed by Google and others, the conversation value and pass-along value transmitted through these services offers a significant amount of benefit to your online reputation. And, as always, more hits means better SEO and more publicity across other people’s blogs and Twitter accounts as well as their Facebook pages. That brings me to another point which I will cover in another post in the near future: Social Networks pass information based on trust. A link or piece of information passed through a trusted friend is much more likely to get clicked than a link all by itself. Social networks hold massive amounts of power in this respect.
So get involved!
Read blog posts, post comments, share information via Twitter. Become a fan of something on Facebook and create content that is valuable to others. If you give you will receive. It will take some effort, but the internet is a world-wide community of people looking to share something. Content is king. Contribute and get noticed.
WISM Part 2 – Why Should I Care?
We learned is Part 1 what Social Media is. You probably want to know why you should even care that it exists. You may have a successful business as it is and think you don’t need anything else. Well, get ready, because you haven’t seen anything yet!
That’s a humongous amount of people. Now don’t make the mistake of reading those two statistics as the same. Three out of four of all Americans use Social Technology. Two-thirds of the global base of internet users visit Social Networks. 230 million people in the U.S. and nearly 4.5 billion people worldwide visit and interact through Social Media. That is your audience!
That’s right, email has come crashing down as the number four behemoth of online activities. Social Media is more active and more instant, growing at 3x the rate of every other activity that you and I do online. Forwarded emails are now being replaced by ReTweets. An unlimited text box full of spaced out text and attached files has been superceded by 140 characters and instant upload and commenting. We’re all about instantaneous, efficient exchange of information. It’s only been recently that Viral marketing has become a major marketing outlet. Browsing endlessly has been replaced by searching Google and Social Media sites.
We’ve advanced throughout history in our abilities to communicate. Social Media is one more advance because everyone has a voice. It used to be that just those with the resources to write a book or the ability to cover the news could have any opinion that would reach any substantial number of people. Now, you and I can reach millions at any time without bounds. Social Media really is a beefed up form of word of mouth. Think about it: If you share with 10 friends, who share with 10 friends, who share with 10 friends, all in a matter of one or two minutes, you’ve reach a crowd of 1000 people. It only took you 100+ characters and thirty seconds. That is power.
Yes, Yoda is the wise one. Social Media is a force. Don’t mess with it, don’t defy it, embrace it. Now you know what Social Media is and why you should care. Stay tuned to for more in depth analysis and explanation. I want to hear what you have to say. Let me know by leaving a comment or Contacting Me. Don’t forget to read Part 1 or watch the entire presentation here.
WISM Part 1 – Social Media Defined
Wikipedia’s definition, while broad, is accurate. Social Media is a very broad arrangement of services and channels that make up most of the interactions online. Most people think of Social Media as Twitter or Facebook, and they are right, but to assume that those are the only forms would be a huge mistake. Take advantage of every opportunity you can. Location, location, location is now Exposure, exposure, exposure. If you are overwhelmed by the massive capabilities, good. Most important piece of advice: Start Somewhere!
Like I said, start somewhere. Get involved. The way that you build up a following is not by sitting on the sidelines and holding up a sign that says “Call Me”. You have to get involved in the conversation. People are looking for information sharing when they get plugged in to social media. It isn’t enough to hang up a shingle and call that your social media effort. You’ll become stagnate and ineffectual. Continue to stay involved in the conversation and contribute.
Social Media is a lot like running. You may hate it at first. It may hurt, it may take time but, if you work at it every day, it’ll become easy.