Wyoming Entrepreneur Blog

Promote Your Business with Social Media

Social media can be a great marketing tool for your business.  With so many social media outlets to choose from, it can be a challenge to determine how to use them effectively.  Depending on your industry, different networks will be better for your business. 

First let’s discuss some general points about some of the main social networks.  Google Plus+ is an important outlet for any business as it increases your rankings on Google.  YouTube videos are also helpful as personalized videos allow you to tell your story and can be shared on other social networks.  LinkedIn is great if you are a professional business that serves other businesses.  Twitter and Facebook are both great for sharing with customers what you are up to and encouraging interaction with customers.

Now, let’s talk about specific ideas for using social networks.  There are certain types of videos that can benefit any business.  One is a trailer video that tells your story and why you do what you do.  Another idea is to share facts and figures about your industry.  You can also share stories about customer success.  Creating a question and answer video and product tutorials are also engaging for customers.

On other social networks such as Google Plus+, Facebook, and Twitter, it is helpful to post a variety of content.  Alternate posting text, links, images, and videos to keep people interested and excited about your postings.  You could run a giveaway campaign, share promotions, show behind the scenes of your business, tell company news, etc. to draw people to your business.

Each social network will allow you to provide a description of your business.  Take advantage of this to showcase what you can do for customers.  Remember that you do not need to be active with all social media outlets but actively use the outlets you do select.  It is better to stay off Facebook than to have a page that has not been updated in a few months or longer as this may lead people to believe you are not in business. 

In addition to the networks discussed in this article, there are others such as Pinterest, Instagram, and blogging sites.  If you want detailed assistance or information about social media sites and how to use them, contact the Market Research Center at [email protected] or (307) 766-5389. 

Choosing a Free Website Editing Tool

 A website can be a great marketing tool for a business. However, not all companies can afford to hire a web developer. There are a variety of web editing tools that allow people to build their own websites with no knowledge of code. Many tools allow people to drag and drop content to pages and have professional, customizable templates. These are much easier to use than tools that require web tracking code and plugins. When choosing a tool, there are a few key features to look for.

   One feature to look for is the ability to create custom page keywords, titles, and descriptions for each page. Some tools will not allow you to change these or will require the same for each page.  You want a tool that will let you update these for each page. When you write page keywords, titles, and descriptions for each page, it allows search engines to connect this information to your content and can improve your rankings. This will attract more searchers to your website. 

   Another feature to look for is a tool that will automatically create a mobile friendly version of your website. Many people are searching for businesses on smartphones and tablets so it is important that customers can access your site on these devices. Some tools create a mobile friendly site for you while others charge extra or make you create a mobile version yourself. 

   It is additionally important to look at the customer support provided by each tool.  There are tools that provide detailed tutorials and offer email and/or phone support while others offer less assistance. Review the support offer to determine if there is enough information about the tool available that will assist you in creating your website. You want a tool that you are confident will allow you to create a website that reflects your business and promotes it to customers.

   Once you have narrowed down your search and found tools with the features mentioned above the final factor to consider is price. Tools differ in what they offer for free and what features they charge for. Determine what features you desire and select a tool that offers them at a price you are comfortable with.

   If you want more information about using a do it yourself website building tool, contact [email protected] or (307) 766-5389. 

The impact of using portable devices to access the web

For some time there have been reports going around that most of the traffic on websites is coming from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets rather than traditional PC’s. I’ve heard that too, and even repeated it. However, when I looked a little closer, we aren’t there yet. According to the Monetate Ecommerce Quarterly report on large eCommerce brands, traffic during the first quarter of 2013 on websites was about 79.0% from desktops or laptops, and 10.6% from tablets and 10.4 from smartphones. What is impressive is that this has more than doubled since the same period in 2012.

It looks like the traditional PC has some life still in it. However at this rate of change, we are only a couple of years from the majority of web traffic to the big sites coming from mobile devices. What is even more interesting is that the same report indicated that the conversion rate (i.e. people who bought something) from tablets was actually higher than from desktops for the first time ever. This means that people are becoming more and more comfortable doing business on mobile devices. Those people probably include your customers.

So what’s that mean for small businesses? If you are selling a service or product and want sales from your website, you need to consider how your site works on something other than a regular desktop. If customers can’t easily view your site on their iPad or smartphone, they may just drop down to the next “hit” on Google and give your competition a try. If they just want to locate your business or find out about what you do? If your website won’t display properly on their portable device, you may miss an opportunity.

Luckily, there are ways to address this problem. The best is probably using what is called “responsive design”. By doing this, you re-create your website making it able to automatically detect what device is looking at it, and reformat itself to fit the space available, whether it is a desktop, tablet or smartphone. Another alternative is to create an inexpensive app. This is cheaper than responsive design, but most companies are moving away from this solution.

Katrein De Graeve in MSDN magazine says this of responsive design: “The key point is adapting to the user’s needs and device capabilities. Suppose a mobile user will be viewing your site on a small screen. Taking the user’s needs into account doesn’t just mean adapting your content to the screen size. It also means thinking about what that mobile user will require first when visiting your site and then laying out the content accordingly. Maybe you’ll present the information in a different order. Don’t assume the user won’t need access to all the site information because she’s on a mobile device. You might need to change the fonts or interaction areas to respond better to a touch environment. All these factors influence responsive Web design.”

At Wyoming Entrepreneur, we are currently going down the path of recreating our website using responsive design. We are attempting to do this inexpensively and without “recreating the wheel”. We are a few weeks away from completion, but the process hasn’t been all that painful. We are incorporating a content management system, combining our blog into our website, and creating a new look. When we’re done, I’ll report on the results.

Has your company addressed the mobile issue on your website? If so how and what were the results?

Self Publishing Options on the Web - Wyoming Entrepreneur Guest Blogger - Aliza Sherman

You have a PDF file and want to publish it online. Or you'd like to embed it into your website or leverage that PDF in some other way. Maybe it is a white paper, a how-to guide or an ebook. Here are a few quick solutions for self-publishing with a PDF.

Scribd - One of the early sites for hosting documents including PDFs with an elegant document viewer for embedding them into your site. Sell your documents in the Scribd store. You can also import your Google Docs. Example: QR Code Handbook on Scribd.

SlideShare - Convert your PowerPoint slides to a PDF, and upload to Slideshare. You can allow people to download your PDF, embed it into your site, and with their Pro level, you can capture leads directly from your files. Example: QR Code Handbook on Slideshare (note that this file wasn't designed as a slide presentation but as an ebook so the layout doesn't align properly - here is a slideshow converted into a PDF and uploaded to Slideshare).

Issuu - If you are great with design, you can produce beautiful digital magazines and publications using Issuu. Upload your PDF file (or PowerPoint, Word Doc), display it in your Issuu Library, and get stats on readership. Example: QR Code Handbook on Issuu.

DocStoc - Another site where you can monetize your PDFs. Upload to DocStoc, and offer your PDF publication for sale or share in ad revenues (DocCash program). You can also embed documents into your site. Example: QR Code Handbook on DocStoc.

There are many ways to publish a well-designed PDF document or one that is chock-full of great content. Offering your content in a downloadable format - or even selling it - helps you get the most out the content you publish.

Aliza Sherman, Web pioneer and digital marketing consultant
http://alizasherman.com

5 Ways to Collaborate Online - Wyoming Entrepreneur Guest Blogger Aliza Sherman

If you’re looking to collaborate more with your employees, team members and stakeholders, there are many opportunities to do this effectively and efficiently online. Virtual collaboration gives you and others the flexibility to access content and resources from a computer anywhere at any time.

Here are five different applications that offer collaboration tools that could help you generate more ideas, give easier access to the collaboration process and archive content for future reference.

Tracky - http://tracky.com
This "social" collaboration tool lets you create up to five "groups" or projects. Add "tracks" or tasks to the site, and then others you invite can access them, comment, attach files or add subtracks. Track what your collaborators are up to during the collaboration process through a social network-like feed. Tracky is easy to set up and is full of features that reveal themselves as you use it more and more.

Mightybell - http://mightybell.com
If you’re looking for a more visual collaboration tool, use Mightybell to create a Space where you can add posts, photos, questions, video, links, files and events. You can then invite others to participate in adding content and comments. Resources are presented in visual blocks, and you can access your Space any time to use the data you’ve gathered collectively.

Stixy - http://stixy.com
If you’re looking for an easy-to-use but lighter-weight collaboration tool, Stixy uses sticky note-like annotations so you can invite others to add notes, photos, documents and To Do lists.

Bubble.us - http://bubbl.us
Another form of collaboration is the collaborative mind map or flowchart. Bubble.us lets you make free diagrams and invite others to build on your visual map. Great for planning and for mapping out a website or a process. For a heavier duty collaborative mindmapping, try MindMeister - http://mindmeister.com (starts at $4.99/month for a personal account after a 30-day free trial).

Pinterest Collaborative Boards - http://pinterest.com
If you use Pinterest already, you can set up collaborative boards with others who also use it. Even if you and your team members aren’t on Pinterest, you can all set up a free account just to use the Pinterest Collaborative Boards. To invite others to these boards, you need to be following them or one of their boards first. Similar to Mightybell, you can then jointly “pin” online content for the team to share including articles, blog posts, photographs, infographics, and video to the collaborative board. There are limitations to Pinterest boards such as you cannot rearrange pins, however, if you are looking for a quick way to share online information with others, this is a nice visual way to go. If privacy is important to your process, you can create Secret Pinterest Boards and invite up to three other people to collaborate on them.

As you can see, collaboration online comes in many shapes and sizes. The key is finding a solution that is easy for everyone to access and use and something that will keep your collaborative efforts in an always-accessible archive.

Aliza Sherman, Web pioneer and digital marketing consultant
http://alizasherman.com

Intellectual property and small business

WYOMING BUSINESS TIPS

A weekly look at Wyoming
business questions from the Wyoming Entrepreneur Network, a partnership of
business assistance programs at the University
of Wyoming.

Intellectual Property and Small Business

Karen Kitchens, Intellectual Property/Documents
Librarian, Wyoming State Library, [email protected]

Knowledge and ideas have always been a powerful force in economic development.  As a small
business owner, Intellectual Property (IP) is a key consideration in your day-to-day business
decisions.  IP is an important component of the United States economy, and the U.S. is an acknowledged global leader in the creation of IP.  According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, “Americans are the world’s leading innovators, and our ideas and intellectual property are a key ingredient to our competitiveness and prosperity.”[1]

Unfortunately, businesses often fail to protect their valuable IP because IP is not tangible property.  IP has no physical form.  Examples might be a method of doing business, an Internet domain name, or a company’s marketing material.  Often, this intangible property is more valuable than real or personal property. The commercial value of IP comes from the ability of its owner to control and exploit its use.  

The term “Intellectual Property” might sound a bit pompous.  But in reality, it is a very
good description for the proprietary interests of individuals and businesses, protected by the laws of IP.  The United States Patent and Trademark Office defines IP as, “Creations of the mind -
creative works or ideas embodied in a form that can be shared or can enable others to recreate, emulate, or manufacture them.”  Globalization of the world’s economies has significantly increased the need for information about IP.    

There are four ways to protect IP - patents, which pertain to pragmatic innovations; trademarks, which relate to commercial symbols; copyrights, which concerns artistic and literary works; and trade secrets, which consist of valuable business information that is not generally known and is subject to reasonable efforts to preserve confidentiality.  Some IP rights – copyrights and trademark rights are granted automatically upon creation or use of the IP assets without any action needed by the creator.  Other IP rights, such as patents, require action on the part of the creator in addition to considerable expense. 

This series will review the four types of IP rights and how each may affect your business.  For example, developing and protecting your IP assets and rights can give you an edge over the competition by discouraging unscrupulous competitors, developing new revenue sources, and increasing the
value of your company.  IP is a valuable business asset that must be managed and protected like any other asset.

 

For more information about the
services of Wyoming Entrepreneur, or to ask a question, call 1-800-348-5194,
e-mail [email protected] or write 1000 East University Avenue, Department 3922,
Laramie, WY 82071-3922. Additional help is available on our website www.wyomingentrepreneur.biz.

 The Wyoming
Entrepreneur partnership program is funded in part through a cooperative
agreement with the U.S.
Small Business Administration. Additional support is provided by the Wyoming Business Council and the University of Wyoming.

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[1]Special
301 Report Finds Continued Progress But Significant Improvements Needed. 2004.
Office of the United States Trade Representative Archive. 30 May 2012 <http://www.ustr.gov/archive/Document_Library/Press_Releases/2004/May/Special_301_Report_Finds_Continued_Progress_But_Significant_Improvements_Needed.html>.

 

 

 

 

Your Company’s Name – It’s Where It All Starts

I’ve had a number of clients over the years ask me why their company never shows up on search engine results.  There can be any number of reasons why search engines aren’t “seeing” your website.  However, I’d like to discuss one that often times is missed in the rush to “optimize” a web site.  A key reason for search engine invisibility can simply be the name of your company.

When Google looks at a search term, it tends to first think of it as a brand before anything else.  Ann Smartly, writing on the MarketingProfs website (www.marketingprofs.com) gives an example of the results for the term “Armstrong”.  She indicates that most people would think of “moon”, “space” or “Tour de France”.  Most people would be wrong.  Google shows “Armstrong Flooring”, “Armstrong World Industries” and “Armstrong One Wire (an internet service).  The astronaut and the bicyclist follow these “brands”. ; As Ms. Smartly says, “Google seems to favor brands and is likelier to suspect that your intent is navigational instead of informational (go instead of know).”

One way of winning the war is to instead of fighting a battle against multiple opponents; try to make your brand name unique.  This can be challenging if you have a common name.  “Jones Consulting” would be a pretty poor choice.  There are a lot of companies with that name out there.   Renee Jones Engineering Consulting would be better, but with such a common name, you might need to look for a more unique usage.  “Rock Springs Engineering Consultants” would, as I write this, probably come up first in Google as there are no companies showing up with that name. 

The idea is to become the dominant interpretation of the combination of words in your company name. Google suggests that if you can make your name and brand stick together, you instantly become a dominant interpretation.  Using this concept, a company called Renee Jones Mining Engineering would likely rank number one on Google.

So there you have it.  Before you worry about optimization of your site, and certainly before you sign incorporation papers, spend some time searching names on the internet.  A unique business name can be an important first step in achieving online visibility.

Have you had problems naming your company?   Do you have a great name?

Cloning Your Best Customers - Can it Be Done?

If you keep good customer records - name, address, how much they've spent with you over a period of time - you can use simple GIS analysis to determine what your best customers have in common and where you can find more of them. Basically, GIS (Geographic Information System) analysis means utilizing maps to display and analyze various types of data.

A simple spreadsheet with the information I mentioned above can be used to create a map showing where your customers are located. After that, there are various tools that can be applied to learn more about these customers - the average household income for their neighborhood or how much they spend annually on the types of goods and services you provide, for example. There are also ways to find other areas of town that share similar characteristics with your best customers.

Think about it this way: if you run an auto repair shop, wouldn't you like to know if there is a neighborhood in town that spends an unusually high amount on vehicle maintenance every year? Wouldn't it be advantageous to be able to target a direct mail campaign to this neighborhood since you already know they're more likely to use your shop?

GIS Analysis can help you make these decisions. The process, at its core, is quite simple. First, your raw customer data (name, address, amount spent with your business) is represented geographically on a map. This gives you a basic idea of where your customers are. Next, there are a number of "layers" that can be placed on top of the map. Think of it like placing a sheet of tracing paper over a picture - you still see the picture, but you can add more to it by drawing on the tracing paper. These layers can contain a variety of data, but let's use annual expenditures on vehicle maintenance as an example. When this layer is applied to your customer map, let's say you notice a high concentration of customers in a "hot" area (one with above average expenditures on vehicle maintenance) and then notice another neighborhood in town with similar expenditures but very few of your customers. You've just found your next target for a direct mail campaign.

GIS analysis can be a powerful tool and can help you make informed decisions about your business instead of just guessing. Contact the Market Research Center at [email protected] to learn more.

Website Usability: Keep it Simple

One of the most common problems on websites, and one of the most easily avoidable, is usability. Usability encompasses many aspects of a site: organization, ease of navigation, visibility of important information, loading speed, etc. Basically, anything that affects how somebody interacts with your site (and how easy that interaction is) can fall under the "usability" umbrella.

There are many ways to improve a site's usability, but I've included three basic tips below that will give you a good foundation on which to build each page on your site.

• Don't try to fit too much information on a single page. A lot of times, you'll have so much great information to share that your first instint will be to put as much as possible on each page. Resist this urge. Limit the textual content on each page to a few short paragraphs at most (pages that require too much scrolling actually get abandoned pretty quickly). Highlight the most important points about that page's topic and don't oversaturate the page with a large amount of text that people won't read anyway. If people spend more than 30 seconds reading text on a page, you're lucky. Keep that in mind when creating content on your pages.
• Keep the navigation bars on every page consistent. Make sure that your navigation bar always stays in the same spot on each page and contains the same links. It will only serve to confuse your customers if they visit a page and try to navigate elsewhere only to find that the navigation bar has moved or has new links in a different order.
• Keep images to a minimum whenever possible. It's no secret that alluring images and graphics can enhance a website's aesthetics, but too many of them can have a negative impact on a site's loading speed. Above all other usability issues, a slow loading speed can be the quickest way to get somebody to leave your site. Images are fine, but make sure their file sizes aren't too large and they aren't causing your site to load slowly. Finally, avoid Flash animation as much as you can.

In addition to these three basic tips, you can always find checklists to use to make sure your site's usability is functioning smoothly. A simple Google search for "website usability checklist" will get you started with plenty of options.

I have recently been contacted by a company offering to help my website to be found by search engines. Are these companies good or are they fraudulent?

Yes and no on both counts.  If you cannot manage your website’s search engine optimization yourself, here are some things to look for and to look out for in any company you hire:

First, I would be very cautious about companies coming to you, especially those who telemarket or send unsolicited emails.  If they are good at what they do they shouldn’t have to engage in push marketing (people would find them on the internet, right?).  The exceptions would be a familiarity with your industry, geographic proximity or some other compelling reason to engage in business with them.

The next often-omitted step is checking references.  If the business was referred to you, this might already be taken care of.  Find out what they were able to do for other businesses and see what their expectations are for your website and what they can do to improve your search engine rankings.  This is important, as there are different levels of competition for different terms.  For example, imagine trying to be on page one for a Google search on “iPad” vs. “Procurement Technical Assistance Center in Wyoming” and you can imagine which term would be easier to have better rankings for.

Find out how they seek your input and keep up to date with your search terms.  The search terms should not be industry jargon.  They should be the words your customers use, especially when searching for you, your product or service and these search terms should appear in your webpages.  Normally these terms change over time, so what will they do to keep up?  Will they monitor and report your rankings on important terms?

Finally, if you have the slightest concern that the company might use unscrupulous techniques, stay away.  The techniques I am mentioning are things such as using phony web pages that backlink to you, stuffing your pages with text the same color as the background (Google (or any other search engine)can read it in the code whereas your visitors will not see it) and other tricks.  When (not if) Google catches people using these techniques it will blacklist the entire site.  Being blacklisted means instead of just being on the fifth page of results, your site will never be found. 

If you have questions about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), how your site is doing or would like some help optimizing your site, please contact us at www.wyen.biz.