Dedicated to demystifying search marketing & social media: Crafting clear, clean, concise content.
June 11th, 2010
Hello friends and readers!
Recent events & accomplishments here at Designated Editor
- Stranded in Italy by Iceland volcano (nonstop QT with Mom)
- Offshore in Belize creating content for my client’s iPhone app for boaters (not ready for prime time yet)
- Launched Newport Interactive Marketers, received very well by communications experts here
- Helped launch Providence WordPress Meetup (although missed the first event, see #1)
In progress
- Completing design changes for the website and the blog
- Having WordPress custom theme developed and finalized
- Migrating Blog.DesignatedEditor.com to the WordPress platform
- Asking for advice on what’s the best way (from an SEO perspective) to filter Google juice from Blog.DesignatedEditor.com to www.DesignatedEditor.com
Tags: accomplishments, Content, networking
Posted in Accomplishments | 3 Comments »
May 21st, 2010
Tips for building communities from Matthew Mamet of EditMe
Perhaps you’re not super-familiar with Wikis, but you’ve at least heard of Wikipedia, no?
Brainstorm about how you can harness the power of a Wiki, where you can share concepts, photos, history, and invite members of your community to edit and elaborate on them. Similar to a blog, in some ways, but so much more interactive.
Before we get to the highlights
1. Thanks so much to the 20 designers, marketers, SEOs, writers, project managers, business development specialists, and sailboat dealers who joined us in Newport RI for Newport Interactive Marketers last night!
Stay tuned for details about our monthly tips & cocktails nights.
2. Extra special thanks to Matthew Mamet from EditMe offering a simple an affordable website and community platform
Web 2.0 is all about interaction, a Wiki enables multiple people to collaborate online
Communities aren’t just about text anymore: think video, images, multimedia
Tips for building communities
- Don’t get caught up in infrastructure
- Start small and work on gathering your people
- Want someone to feel like they stumbled across something great
- Try to enable conversations
- Want to be like a good host, want people to initiate posts and comments on their own
When your community is established
- What’s happening in the community that you didn’t expect? Encourage it!
- Do whatever it takes to get the rubbing sticks to become a fire
- Controversy isn’t always bad
- If someone or a topic is a wallflower, as manager you need shift from creating to encouraging others to create
Watch out for spammers & jerks
- It’s a sign of success although it’s discouraging
- Ask them to guestpost or take over a section
- Moderate: Be willing to kick someone out
Watch for signs of impending doom
- Pages not updated for 3 months
- Visitors haven’t been there in 6 weeks
Once the community is dead, it won’t revive: a la Friendster
Join us!
Subscribe to the RSS feed to hear about more about Newport Interactive Marketers.
Or follow Matthew Mamet on Twitter.
Tags: Community building, Content, EditMe, moderating, Newport, Rhode Island, Wikis
Posted in Newport Interactive Marketers, User generated content | 5 Comments »
May 17th, 2010
I’m excited for this week’s first Newport Interactive Marketers event here in Newport RI. As many readers & visitors here at Blog.DesignatedEditor.com know, I attend numerous events. And now, along with Ed and Whitney, we’re gathering marketing and creative types to talk about web 2.0 and beyond and to have some snacks and drinks … plus look forward to living in a great place at a great time.
If you’re in the area, please join us:
newportinteractivemarketers.eventbrite.com
Apologies for the shortened posts, I was offshore in Belize developing content for a client’s iPhone boating app. Promise to pick up the slack next week!
Tags: Creative, Marketing, networking, Newport, Rhode Island
Posted in Newport Interactive Marketers, Providence networking and learning | No Comments »
April 29th, 2010
I read this while actually stranded, although I only spent 4 hours in the airport. Wondering what y’all think, since I obviously have a different view — away 8 days longer than I planned at the tune of $1,500 extra I hadn’t planned on …
Tags: Iceland Volcano, Mashable, Social media
Posted in Social Media | No Comments »
April 10th, 2010
Most interesting session at South by Southwest 2010, confirmed my instinct
Twitter: #SXSW #brandsdontthink
“Brands Don’t Think Like You Think They Think with Barbarian Group’s Benjamin Palmer
South by Southwest Interactive 2010 catalog description:
“One of the hopeful revenue sources for many internet startups is “ad dollars.” How come they don’t usually show up? Turns out that what you think brands want from the internet is not what they want. We will share some tips and insights learned from working with nearly 100 brands in the last decade.”
Brands are built on scale and safety, not novelty
There’s a misunderstanding that brands want what’s next on the internet, but brand managers are not waiting around for what’s hot.
How brand managers see online advertising
- Good brands trust other good brands: safety in numbers
- There’s safety in numbers, allow brands to congregate
- Well-designed sites, apps, etc. are associated with trustworthiness
- Don’t want more ad space
- Don’t like banner ads
- Are interested in reach and scale
- Want their own brand differentiation
Brands need to connect with online audiences and traditional agencies don’t solve those problems
Tags: Ad dollars, Advertising, Branding, Brands, South by Southwest Interactive, SXSW
Posted in SXSWi 2010 | 5 Comments »
March 30th, 2010
Tim Ash — author of Landing Page Optimization Book
Siteturners
Multivariate Testing Website Optimizers
@tim_ash
I’ve somewhat deconstructed Tim’s blitz “Conversion Engine Toolbox” session at Search Engine Strategies last week. It really was about tools for testing (see below). For me, and I hope most of us, these side notes (mostly regarding landing pages) may be more helpful. Let me know what you think. I do have incomplete notes on the pros of the tools and would be happy to share … lemme know.
Conversions = sales, forms completed, sign-ups, whatever your call to action or desired outcome is
The purpose of your home page is to get people off your home page
- Let them discover: Who are you?
- Then guide them here and there to get into more relevant content
Web design formula for conversions
2 columns only
Left column = your content, what you want visitors to do
Right column = validation, why you’re trust-worthy (see 4 types of trust, below)
Left column content
- Headline: What is the page about? Underneath have 3-5 bullet points that summarize
- Action block: colored box with pastel background call to action
- Desired visitor thought-process: “What do I get if I push the button?
Finer details to keep in mind
- Guide the user from general to specific
- There has to be a clear visual hierarchy
- Don’t give everything
- Don’t surprise
- Have a tagline that actually says what you do
- How far do people scroll? put trust symbol near the top
- Do they actually reach the bottom of the page?
Don’t do anything unexpected or surprising
- No hoverovers
- No whitebox popovers for testimonials
- No scrollbar
- Only supply them when someone asks for it
How to determine whether your forms killing your conversions (recommended tools, below, enter in)
- Which form fields are left blank?
- Which forms/fields causes the most delay?
- Which links are hovered over but not clicked?
- Funnel: Landed on the page, filled out the form, finished the form
- Look at how long it’s taking to fill out each field?
- Do we need to ask that?
- Are we asking in the right order?
- Why is this happening?
- Which fields are blank?
More design and usability take-aways
- All visual elements distract from goals
- Determine exact amount of emphasis for key elements
- Don’t let others’ logos take over attention, don’t make them full color
Improve a landing page design before you publish it
- Why go live with a page you’re unsure of?
- Think about wasted time
- Provide a cleaner visual profile
- Streamline your content
4 types of trust
- General clean site
- Appeal of authorities
- Social consensus: 1 million downloads
- Trust marks, not a trust mark if it’s not recognizable, use most relevant
Bottom line: Your visitors don’t care, have 8 seconds to get them to care
Recommended tools
Crazyegg
Mouse heatmaps
ClickTale.com
UsertesTing.com
Mosquito Interactive
CrossBrowserTesting.com
AttentionWizard.com
Tags: Landing Pages, Online Conversions, Optimized Landing Pages, Page Design, Tim Ash, Usability
Posted in Search Engine Strategies | 21 Comments »
March 22nd, 2010
Perhaps it’s not who should be creating businesses’ web content, but is it the right person or team?
Please participate in Designated Editor’s survey on successful company blogs.
Stemming from a recent comment on the post: “Blog and content strategies with Stephen Turcotte of Backbone Media at the Boston SEO Meetup”
Comment: seo wrote:
Thanks for sharing your notes here. The thing is, a “company blog” for
a larger company is very different than a blog from a small business
owner. The company bog hires someone to write regular entries who
considers it a job, and their heart isn’t in it. A small entrepreneur
is writing what they live everyday – their company, their baby. Much
different animal, and different rules have to apply.
Suzanne of Designated Editor wrote:
Hi
and thanks so much for sharing your thoughts. As with anything, I’d say
it depends. I agree with you: It’s probably not reasonable to expect
passion from a far-flung, minimally paid writer. Perhaps posts like
that are the new keyword-stuffing? Shoveling out content that’s
relevant but not especially useful.
On the other hand, there are key factors, to successful company blogs:
- The employee’s passion
- The corporate culture.
You might be interested in my Southwest
Airlines post “Scattered by thousands of miles, but online we can be
right next to each other” Employee Engagement & Social Media on a
Low-Fare Budget -Southwest Airlines’ Millie Richter.
Meanwhile, Designated Editor creates content for many entrepreneurs, small businesses, and some larger companies.
What we find: The business owner or the marketing team faces a variety of challenges:
- Limited time/staffing, busy working on other things
- Writers’ block
- Unable to transition from “sales” communication to information-based that users expect for online content
- Can’t create enough content quickly enough to fulfill SEO or other campaigns
Launching
Designated Editor as a small business provides a great deal of insight
to the passion that enlivens corporate blogs. Like a great actor vs a B
actor, we’re able to transfer that experience and “heart” to our
clients’ online presence.
SXSW posts forthcoming!
Posted in Survey | 2 Comments »
March 14th, 2010
Posted in SXSWi 2010 | 1 Comment »
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