Web News and Blogs

Recently, the requests for content management systems have escalated. Website owners are wanting to save money by updating their own websites. I understand the need to save a few dollars, but, in my opinion, unless you are a web professional, updating your own website is a bad idea. Why? Because you want to get found on the Internet. 

If you are a client of Adventures Online, your website was developed with all the (current) search engine-friendly components built in. Or maybe you are not a client, but have paid SEO professionals to work on your website.

Now you want to update your website on your own - which sounds innocent enough, but, search engine optimization (SEO) is as intricate as calculating your taxes. One change over here causes a change in an amount over there, and your overall liability picture changes.

Are you capable of doing your own taxes? Yes, if you want to come up to speed every year on the new rules and laws. But don’t you always wonder if there is some little-known rule or law that a professional would have used to reduce your tax debt?  (I used to wonder.) Is coming up to speed each year a good use of your time? And, if you have the time, shouldn’t you be working on your marketing?

Getting back to SEO… In order for you to preserve, support, and enhance the search engine-friendly components that were built into your website, you need to come up to speed with the latest SEO techniques and apply those to your updating. Is coming up to speed each year a good use of your time?

 It is in your best interest to hire a professional who has deep knowledge of SEO in order to maintain your relationship (rank and categorization) with the search engines.

When is it okay to update your own website?
When no SEO has ever been applied to your website, and you don’t care about getting found on the Internet.

Twitter is a website where friends, family, colleagues - and strangers - can catch up - in real time - using one-liners to announce what they are doing ( i.e. writing a blog post, waiting for a plane, going for coffee), ask a  question, respond to someone else’s question…basically communicate through one-liners. Think of it as a very casual public instant messaging system.

One of the great features is that you can “follow” other people. This is advantageous for me because I follow people in my industry who give presentations. Following them, I not only learn more about them as human beings, I learn when they will be presenting next.

I have been Twittering for about two months, trying to understand the value of it from a business perspective. I mean, who has the time to log into the web (or watch your phone) all day? Oh yeh, there is a feature that works with your cell phone, and you can turn that on to be notified each time one of the people you follow adds a new “tweet”. You want to think about enabling that feature if you are following a good number of people.

Are people using it?
Presumably  so. I have tried to tweet over the past 2 weeks (even this morning at 8:15 a.m. EST). Each time I have logged in, I received the message that the system is “over capacity”. Either Twitter is having technical difficulties or it is true that this new tool has become more popular than creators had imagined.

Twittering with people you would like to meet is a good ice breaker
Another feature is that you can add a photo of yourself.  I didn’t necessarily see this as a positive, but, a marketing colleague of mine explained that your photo appears next to each “tweet” you make, and this enhances your personal branding. Over time, your photo becomes synonymous with your (Twitter) name. When you get the opportunity to meet the people that you follow in person, you are already familiar to them.  Approaching them is easier because you feel like you have a relationship, and they may/will recognize you from Twitter and instantly feel that there is rapport.  If they don’t recognize you, you have common ground (previous Twitter encounters) to refer to in order to help them recall and/or to launch into a comfortable conversation.

Testing out Twitter
My Twitter name is kcalkmc. I am currently following about 7 people, and about 6 people are following me. If you would like to follow me, go to Contact Adventures Online and click on the Do You Follow Me? at the bottom of the Twitter box.  That will bring you to my Twitter page. If you have an account, log in, then return to my page and click Follow. If you do not have an account, create one, then return to my page and click Follow. 

At the least, Twitter will give you an amusing break from your day.

Last week, I attended a workshop about Personal Branding. We were asked to list 3 adjectives that describe our personal brand. Some struggled to choose the “right” three, so, the instructor guided them by asking, “Well, what do your clients say?”

This got me to thinking about the comments I have heard repeatedly over the years. The top 4 comments are: 

1. “You explain technical stuff in terms that I understand.”
      
2. “We are suprised at your abililty to interpret exactly what we want and develop a solution that melds seamlessly with our website”.
     
3. “The thing I like most about working with you is that you do what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it - and - if there are any changes, you contact us and let us know the situation and solution.”
     
4. “The administration modules you created make updating the information on our website so easy.” 

It was nice to recall those comments, and reflect on them then and now. In the course of the day, trying to meet deadlines, managing projects, and responding to last-minute requests, I forget about the things that I am doing “right” - that service my clients in a most satisfying and sometimes suprising way! I think I’ll sit with that for a while

BTW - The three adjectives I chose were sincere, reliable, and thorough. On another day, I will explore how those match with what my clients are saying and with the image my website portrays.

Happy Blogging!