My grandfather once criticised me for saying it was a REALLY hot day… “You’re really good at pointing out the blindingly obvious.”

Zap.

OK, so maybe on that occasion my comment wasn’t necessary, but I’m going to take a punt and risk the “blindingly obvious” again…

The first priority of your web strategy has to be people. Your website, Facebook page, email campaign, tweets, that’s all important but it’s still secondary. It’s all about your people.

Who?

At the beginning it’s about figuring who it is you need to be talking to. What are they like? What positions do they typically hold? How do they operate? David Meerman Scott suggests naming your “buyer personas” first to make them more human, more real, than just a “prospect”. Straight out of John Jantsch’s “Duct Tape Marketing” comes the idea of then vividly describing them.

For the sake of this post let’s call this persona Frank.

What?

Doesn’t sound so people oriented does it? But there are two parts to the “What”.

Firstly: What problems do you solve for Frank? What are Frank’s issues that you can address? What keeps Frank up at night? If you’re not solving his problems, then he probably won’t be interested…

Secondly: What actions would you like Frank to take? Would you like him to sign up to your email newsletter, enquire, buy, follow you on twitter or watch your videos? You need to  understand this so you can being to assess the success of your marketing.

Why?

And why… Why will Frank take that action? Why will he want your product/service over someone else’s? Why should you be Frank’s first choice? So now it becomes a matter of convincing him. Frank will take that action if he believes that you’ll be able to solve his problem. Here’s a quick list of things that might help persuade Frank that you’re the one:

1. Authority - Qualifications, experience, presentations, industry commentary, articles, blog posts, whitepapers, books, forum contributions – in a word – content.
2. Guarantees - maybe you can offer a money back guarantee or a response time guarantee or an uptime guarantee.
3. Testimonials - written and video. Not doctored, not scripted, not faked. The real deal. Real people saying real things that will help Frank to be convinced.

If you can answer these questions with reasonable clarity then you have the core of your strategy. When it comes time to execute, that’s when you start looking at how best to use your website, your social media, your email marketing.

Workshop

We’re in the process of putting some tools together that will tie a whole lot of these concepts together into what (we hope!) will be a useful reference for you. Actually we’re going to be conducting web strategy workshop next Tuesday (27th of April). It’s called: “Your web strategy and topping Google”.

For more about prioritising people in your web strategy, call Bluewire Media on 1300 258 394.

Twitter is something many people in the web industry are familiar with, but when I speak to ‘normal’ people I am still greeted with blank looks.

If you’re a first timer, this presentation explains Twitter in 5 minutes.

This video is from Ignite Brisbane – an exciting speaking series where the speakers get 5 minutes with 20 slides that rotate automatically every 15 seconds!

You can follow me if you like @Franklin_Adam.

Twitter Speaker: If you’d me to explain Twitter at your event, please feel free to give Bluewire Media a call on 1300 258 394.

Adam spoke on Social Media Marketing for Events at the ACEB conference on Wednesday & after presenting the benefits a delegate asked -

“But what if people at your event tweet criticisms? Wouldn’t that be reason to stay away from Twitter at events?”

As Adam answered, the challenge here is to do your utmost to give people an experience they want to say good things about!

And if, for whatever reason, they do have a gripe at least you as the organiser/business owner will know & can respond.

That’s the great thing about Twitter – transparency. The ‘grapevine’ has always been there, it’s just now you have the chance to respond. And if you can turn a sceptic into an advocate, well the benefits of that are immeasurable.

David Meerman Scott talks about this idea, which he calls becoming a “badvocate” in Bluewire’s interview with him. Here, he tells the story of tweeting something negative about General Motors (no less) & receiving a prompt reply from a representative of the company.

What’s more, David was invited to meet with the CEO at their head office!

Another example of this kind of brand management can be found in Lesley’s post – The start of something special (brand management online).

What an opportunity Twitter can be – a chance to connect with your toughest critics & wow them by showing you care!

Plus, all those clients/customers/attendees of your conference or event who did love what you had to say or offer will probably have something to say about it too.

Rave reviews all over the net for all to see?

A little bird told me that’s a pretty good thing.

Managed Web Strategy Brisbane: Need help establishing an internet strategy that will have little birds singing your praises? Call Bluewire Media on 1300 258 394.

I haven’t had a report card since school days, but I came across these ‘Grader’ tools which essentially rate your marketing effectiveness.  I was curious to see how we fared…

Twitter Grader: Helps you determine how influential you are on Twitter.  You simply enter your Twitter handle & it analyses your followers, number of tweets, retweets and mentions.  @Bluewire_Media got 94/100 so not bad. http://twitter.grader.com

Blog Grader: supposedly judges your blog according to length of posts, frequency of posts, reading time per post, but it was a bit difficult to make sense of the results.  It gave us a 21 (but didn’t say what it was out of…) so I left a bit confused. http://blog.grader.com

Website Grader: assesses content, site structure, inbound links, traffic, social popularity, readability and frequency of updates to give you a rating out of 100.  Bluewire ranked quite well for this and got 98.4/100. http://websitegrader.com

Gobbledy Gook Grader: was invented by David Meerman Scott as a tool to assess whether your copy contained any over-used, cliched, jargon or hype filled words — aka goggledy gook!  Luckily we got a score of 100/100 for our home page copy.  http://gobbledygook.grader.com

How does your website fare…?

PS. Since first drafting this article, I’ve discovered that these tools are provided by Hubspot. Interestingly, their CEO is Brian Halligan – author or Inbound Marketing – the next book on my “to read” list since it was recommended by both David Meerman Scott and Verne Harnish.  Small world.

Managed Web Strategy: If you’d like to get your Grader scores up in the  nineties, give Bluewire Media a call on 1300 258 394

• Weirdest internet moments of 2009 — Sydney Morning Herald
• Creative and unusual layouts and navigation designs — Noupe
• 10 web browsers you probably haven’t heard of — Six Revisions
• An introduction to website split testing — Six Revisions
• The complete guide to getting the most out of Twitter — Noupe
• 24 UX articles to start 2010 — The UX Booth
• Funny passive aggressive wi-fi networks — PassiveAggressiveNotes.com [Note: strong language warning!]

 
Have a go at First Person Tetris. Frustrating, fun, totally retro!

Charlie Carter is Bluewire Media’s sales coordinator. As part of his role, he’s in charge of using social media outlets (that’s our Facebook & Twitter accounts, for starters) to expand our sales & marketing outreach.

SO, CHARLIE…

You have a history in commercial & industrial real estate. What’s a nice guy like you doing in a digital industry like this?

Simple really, I was looking for a new challenge! I have always been more technically minded than perhaps some of my former colleagues in the real estate industry and coupled with the fact that I love working with people it was an easy choice at the end of the day. I’m glad I did it too, I’m enjoying the Bluewire experience immensely.

So what’s your favourite thing about Bluewire Media so far, huh? How’s your experience been as our first official-like sales co-ordinator?

Fantastic so far. I am thrilled to be Bluewire Media’s first Sales Coordinator and have in the past three months have written three blog posts, dealt with some very exciting projects with our clients as well as being able to work with a brilliant team.

How had you used social media before starting at Bluewire Media?

I’ve been on Twitter for a while now and would have to say it’s my social media network of choice,
before Facebook anyway. Previously this year I helped out the Red Cross Blood Services annual drive
for donors with the Donate For Your State campaign on Twitter, which was a huge success for them.

How do you now help Bluewire Media use things like Facebook and Twitter as business tools?

Without going into too much detail here I think my two recent blog posts, Connecting with Customers
in the Social Web and 3 Ways to Implement Twitter Lists for Your Business are probably the best way
to explain this. Check them out!

Well, what are the benefits of expanding your marketing activities into these areas?

I believe that social media is a good way to both raise the profile of your business as well as to stay in
touch with your industry as a whole. In the case of Facebook and Twitter, these are great resources
for current and potential clients to find out more about Bluewire Media by keeping up to date with our
blog posts and the exciting projects we are working on.

Lots of businesses have started creating Twitter accounts recently. Do you have any tips for
making the most of Twitter?

If your business wants to get the most out of their Twitter experience they should be continuously
delivering value to their followers be that current or potential clients. Keep the messages relevant and
don’t be afraid to engage in a conversation or two with your followers. This builds trust and gives your
customers a voice. Once you have nailed these fundamentals then the rewards can be plentiful for
companies of all sizes.

AND FINALLY…

What do you think will be the “Next Big Thing” to watch out for?

Google Wave is showing lots of promise with how we communicate in the new web; blending social media,
email and real time chat into one big exchange of ideas. At the moment it’s in early preview stages but it
will be interesting to see how it develops as well as how we end up using it!

• Five technologies that will keep shaping the web in 2010 — Six Revisions
• Best of CSS design 2009 — Web Designer Wall
• Pantone Unveils Color of the Year for 2010 — myPantone
• Factors that affect usability — Six Revisions
• The weaker side of usability guidelines — The UX Booth
• Google browser size helps keep your content above the fold — TechCrunch
• Take the 2009 Survey for people who make websites — A List Apart
• Web forms for people — MIX Online

 
Christmas Lights Guitar Hero

• Site search trends for e-commerce websites — Vandelay Design
• Negative space in logo design — Logo Design Love
• Ten commandments of social media — Noupe
• Twitter rated 2009 word of the year — Sydney Morning Herald
• Complete beginners guide to interaction design — The UX Booth
• You can’t innovate like Apple – Pragmatic Marketing
• 3 Steps for Effectively Using Social Media for PR – Top Rank Blog
• 7 Steps To A Google Top Ten Rank – SEO Design blog
• 5 Impressive Real-Life Google Wave Use Cases – Mashable
• 7 Simple Truths of Social Media Marketing – Duct Tape Marketing

 
You may now update your Facebook statuses…

Twitter have now finished their staged roll-out of the new ‘Lists’ feature across the social media network.  Let’s take a look at where Lists are capable of playing a role in your businesses social media activities.

Monitor Your Market -

With many brands and companies now openly embracing social media as a new business tool, Twitter has made both market and competitor information more readily available as well as easily shared. It’s important to be aware of what’s happening in the marketplace of your business and above all, knowing your competition.  With Twitter lists you simply group a number of your own user directories together that can monitor this activity (you may also like to make this list private). Once you have created these lists, all the tweets are available in one timeline making it much easier to digest. In fact you don’t even need to follow them directly as long as their tweets aren’t protected.

Managing Conversations -

In similar fashion to my last Bluewire Media blog post, Connecting with Customers in the Social Web, monitoring clients and Twitter users commenting about you and your brand can often be invaluable. In fact I recently discovered a tool that will automatically list users that you have had conversations with on Twitter. With only a couple of clicks the Conversationlist will set up and self manage users that you have recently engaged with. I find it is an incredibly useful way for your followers to see who influences you on Twitter. Check out http://conversationlist.com/

Influencers (especially those who Tweet in different timezones) -

If your follower count is more than say, fifty it’s going to be exceedingly difficult to read every tweet that rolls through your Twitter feed. Those with a following count in the thousands should forget it all together.  But by listing your influencers on Twitter you can now read all those really interesting and helpful links and tweets at the moment it suits you.  You probably also follow a few people/brands from overseas which may be in different timezones to your own. By collating those users in a specific list you will be able to peruse the information they shared to their followers whilst you were sleeping over a cup of coffee in the morning. Perfect.

How are you finding the new List feature from Twitter? Is it a help or hindrance?  Tell us in the comments section.

____

Charlie Carter co-ordinates Bluewire Media’s sales and marketing activity. Charlie also has an avid interest in social media and you can follow him @dangercharlie on Twitter.

Social Media Brisbane: Bluewire Media is a leading internet strategy, web design, online marketing company in West End, Brisbane, focusing on the property, finance & health sectors.

If designing & developing great email marketing templates wasn’t already enough of a challenge, (one we take pride in here at Bluewire Media), Microsoft has decided to use Word to render HTML in the latest version of Outlook 2010.

This means for the next 5 years your email designs will need tables for layout, have no support for CSS definitions like float and position, no background images and lots more. This not only provides us as designers & developers with a challenge but it also means non-technical email marketers will be forced to be more reliant on their web designers to ensure their emails are readable and not broken. Which is a real shame…

This screenshot put together by the Email Standards Project* is a great example of the progression (or lack thereof) of Microsoft’s Outlook since 2000. This is the same email rendered in Outlook 2000 & 2010.

But it’s not all bad – Microsoft have been listening and you can get involved and have your say by visiting fixoutlook.org.

It’s a shame my first blog post is a whinge but it had to be done!

*The Email Standards Project works with email client developers and the design community to improve web standards support and accessibility in email.

Email Marketing Brisbane: for help getting your email newsletters looking great (despite the difficulties), call Bluewire Media on 1300 358 294.