December 11, 2011 0

Is There Any Online Privacy?

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The short answer of course, is no. If Mark Zuckerberg can have his Facebook fan page hacked, think about your own online “homes.” They too can be vulnerable and what then? Would you know what to do if you got hacked? What if those ‘private pics’ became not so very private anymore? What if Grandma sees those pics of you? What if your boss sees them? You could wind up out of a job or out of the running for a promotion if those pics become public! What now?

Here is the deal – you have very little online privacy unless you know how these social networks are set up and the ramifications of posting highly personal content on these sites. We talk again and again about not allowing yourself to be tagged in a picture drunk at the company holiday party. We talk about this for good reason. In this day and age, employers are looking at your social profile to get a better sense of who you are. That means, they are checking Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and any other social real estate you may have.

This means, you have no real privacy online. Accounts get hacked every single day. Facebook is notorious for their poor security practices, and the best that anyone can do is make sure that all of their social networking security settings are as tight as possible. If it can happen to Zuckerberg, it can happen to you too.

So, what can be done?

Simple. Practice common sense. Remember that anything you post online can be found by someone. Even deleted files can be found by someone who knows what they are doing. This means that if you have only a small amount of privacy online, please be careful about what you put out there. Facebook, Twitter, any other social network is not the place for your drunken pics or the dirty details of your horrible break up. Now, we all have a friend or two that like to share every detail of their life. While we can’t make anyone do anything, we need to warn you, that is not your best idea. That information can always be found, and you as a result could wind up hurting your business.

Would you want to do business with someone who was careless with the details of their life? 

It seems like such a simple solution, yet many do not do this. Treat the online world like it is an extension of your office. Potential clients see you in this mode, and may make decisions about whether or not to do business with you because of what you post. Do you really want to lose money because you can’t keep certain things off Facebook? That is no way to attract or keep business. We need to make sure our accounts don’t get hacked, but we also need to make sure that even our private postings would not embarrass ourselves or anyone else, should they become public.

As long as you realize that anything you post can and will be found, it makes life a lot easier.

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December 7, 2011 0

Defining Your Target Market

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The most important step in creating a marketing plan is defining your target market. The first thing to do is to sit down and think about who your ideal buyer is. Is your ideal buyer male or female? How much education do they have? What age bracket are they in? What would their hobbies be? How do they vote? Do they go to religious services? Writing all of this information down can help you get a very good idea of who you are marketing to. A business that says its ideal buyer is “everyone” is not being honest. We all have an ideal client or buyer. We have to figure out who that is so we can market to them properly. We want to narrow down our ideal buyer as much as possible. This will help us to create content and will also show our buyer that we know what they are about and what kind of lifestyle they have.

Lets use an example: say you sell skateboards. You are not going to market to 35 year old housewives. That would be a waste of time and money. You want the 18-25 year old male crowd. What are they doing? What do they like? Think about what else they might be doing with their time besides skateboarding. What music do they listen to? What websites are they on? Make that picture as complete as possible. Then you can move on to really seeing what they are doing online. Some may even want to draw a picture of what their ideal client looks like and even give them a name.

Use listening tools – Your company should be using Google Analytics to see where leads are coming from and should also be using Google Alerts to listen for their brand being talked about online. Once you determine what is being said, you can also determine where they are saying it. Are people blogging about your product? Are they on Twitter? A group on Facebook? Find out where they are. This will also help refine your strategy and trim the fat. You do not need to always be everywhere. What you do need is to be listening, and aware of what your target audience is saying about you good and bad.

Once you have determined who your target audience is, what they like, how they spend their time and most important – where they are online, it is time for the last step. Be where they are. Talk to them. Don’t sell every minute of every day, but be where they are so that they see and think of your brand first. If your brand has been listening properly, and is targeting the right audience, then you can cast your net much easier. Facebook and Twitter are huge, but if our buyer is not there, we do not need to be there. We need to be where our buyers are, and then be useful in a non-spammy way. This keeps us in front of our ideal buyer so that when they are ready to buy they are coming to us and not your competition.

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December 4, 2011 0

Branding 101 – When Big Brands Get it Wrong

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Every year around the holiday, Coca-Cola releases a limited edition holiday can. This year, they decided to go with a “White Christmas” theme and sent out into stores a white can with the polar bears on it. This was a really bad idea. This can caused such an uproar among buyers that many returned the white cans insisting they wanted their money back.

The problem? It was not Coke in a red can. That red can is their branding. Iconic brands like Coke simply do not have the ability to change that drastically and not expect consumer backlash. The consumers thought they were buying Diet Coke, or thought their favorite soda tasted different in a white can. Never mind that Diet Coke is in a silver can. The consumer who is in a rush at the convenience store just wants a can of Coke. People are always in a hurry these days, and so the can needs to be red for those people who are grabbing and going. We are, as consumers so conditioned to loving our brands as they are that we often resist even the smallest change

Take GAP for example. It is not that long ago that GAP decided they wanted to change their shopping bag. They released a new shopping bag that fans hated. They took to the internet to complain and GAP realized it had a major problem. No one wanted the new bag, they wanted the familiar one – the one the branding was built around.

This begs the question – was anyone going to the buyers and asking for input? Coca-Cola has a huge presence in social media. I would have suggested to them to crowd source the new holiday can. Offer a few choices, and let the fans vote.  The can chosen by fan vote becomes the new can. This way, fans can give feedback on why they do or do not like a particular can design and you have the added knowledge of who is voting. Take that data and then work with it to further reach out.

GAP could have avoided disaster too, if they would have done something similar. Both companies pulled the items and GAP had those blue bags back within days. Coke says it may take a bit longer to get a different holiday can onto shelves. Both companies should realize that the way to consumer loyalty is consistency. Change may be fine for your personal life, but brands must stay consistent.

Take Starbucks for example. They changed their logo this year. They kept most of it intact. The green is the same, the lady is the same, the logo is still in a circle. This is how you change a logo and not give yourself a headache. It is changed, but in many ways it is still the same. Had Starbucks changed the shape or the color of the logo, they would have the same problems Coke and GAP had.

Remember, branding is crucial. This is not something to mess with. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

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November 29, 2011 0

Melen LLC Makes It To Top of Empact100

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Melen LLC and its employees would like to thank all of our dedicated fans and clients who voted us to the top of the Empact100 List. The list is comprised of the top 100 American companies run by young entrepreneurs age 30 or younger, and out of these reputable companies, Melen LLC was ranked among the top three.  We are very proud of this achievement, and we believe it serves as a testament to all the hard work put into developing this company, as well as a sign of good things to come.

Empact100 - 2011 Honoree

Melen LLC finishes in the top three!

About Empact100

Launched by Empact, the Kauffman Foundation, Opportunity International, the Startup America Partnership, and other partners, the Empact100 recognizes successful American-based companies established and run by young entrepreneurs 30 years old and younger. According to their website, the actual Empact100 List is a compilation of companies based on their revenue, but the rank of each company is based on its popularity with clients and fans.  Empact100 commends these companies and young entrepreneurs who work to improve our economy and encourage others to participate in the movement to stimulate our economy. Collectively, the Empact100 companies employ almost three thousand people, and together, they earned a total revenue of over 374 million in 2010. This is all impressive especially when you consider that the average age of the participating company founders is 27 years old. In addition to bragging rights and an award, the honorees were invited to a special recognition event at the White House with senior administration officials.

Young entrepreneurs are not just America’s future. They’re America’s present. The Empact100 list represents the talent and potential of today’s young entrepreneurs. It is meant to inspire others to join the movement to revitalize our economy by starting a business.

-Carl Schramm, CEO, Kauffman Foundation

At a time when it is difficult for many people to simply find employment and as many small businesses are forced to shut down, this kind of support and gratitude is refreshing. The businesses who have worked hard throughout these tough economic should be recognized, and the young entrepreneurs who have not been jaded by the pessimistic state of business should be rewarded. With that said, it is important that we acknowledge all of the businesses who participated in the Empact100 as well as Empact100 and all supporting organizations.

Thank you, and good luck to all in future endeavors!

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November 27, 2011 0

You Are Only As Good As Your Last Post

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Blogging is constantly changing. It is never static. If you blog for business or personal, one truth remains – you are only as good as your last post. That means, you need to make sure your posts all count. Readers, even loyal ones will not share posts they do not love. Make sure your readers think every post is your best. Every blogger must earn their audience every time they post new content. This is a simple fact not just of blogging but of life as well. You are only as good as your last post. Make all of them count.

But how? Won’t I let out a stinker every now and then? Doesn’t everyone do that from time to time?

Write each post like it was your first. Think about answering a question, or addressing something that you know your clients don’t get. Don’t think about blogging for an audience. To put the idea into perspective think of this – if you don’t enjoy writing it, who is going to enjoy reading it?

Wait, don’t blog for an audience? Isn’t that the point?

Yes and no. Of course you want your content read. No one wants to blog and feel no one reads or likes their content. If you are solely blogging for numbers you may want to shift your focus back to educating and entertaining your readers. At first it may be a better idea not to look at numbers all that often. Do not let yourself be seduced by numbers. Just because a post got a lot of eyeballs does not mean it was effective. Did it get new leads? Comments? Social shares? These are the other factors to consider when we look at if something is effective or not.

Blogging gets our ideas and thoughts across to many people, but our words need to ring true before they can spread. We can sit at our desks and blog about anything, but when we can get the reader to do something, subscribe to our blog, tweet our post, or even leave a great comment, then we are on to something. The bad part about that is that we have to keep doing it. That is what makes this whole crazy world of inbound marketing so interesting.

Think for a second about blogs you read. Why do you read them? What about the post gets your attention? Sure it has a catchy headline, but what about the content? Are you learning something new, or getting challenged to think differently about something? The blogs I love always make me think about things in a new way, and I always come away from them better for having read them. The blogs I like most often have a conversational tone and never make me feel preached to. Once you find a blogger who you can relate to, it can give you a new way of looking at things. The very best may even get you to question long held beliefs. They make you think. They challenge you to be better at what you do.

Those are the blogs I want to read. What about you?

November 14, 2011 0

Why A Facebook Page Should Not Be Your Website

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I have heard some local business owners admit that they use Facebook as their website. To say this is a bad idea is like saying the New York Yankees are a baseball team. That is to say, pretty obvious. I know it is free, but free costs in other ways. This is such a bad idea. Having just a Facebook page instead of having a website is one of the worst strategies I have ever heard of. Being online without a website makes about as much sense as taking a shower with your clothes on.

Why it is a really bad idea

You do not own your Facebook page. Having a Facebook page can be great,but it should not take the place of your regular website. Facebook changes its terms of service (TOS) so often it can be a full time job just keeping up with the updates! Facebook can also pull down your page at any time, with no warning. This is the biggest reason to not put all of your eggs in Facebook’s basket. Get a page and interact with fans. Absolutely. Just make sure you have other online real estate to drive them to.

The difference is the same as renting vs owning

Using Facebook as your website is like fixing up an apartment that you rent. You never get any of that money back. Sure, you can add better stuff, upgrade things,but the only person who ultimately benefits is the landlord. You benefit while you live there, but you can’t take things like upgraded appliances with you when you leave. It is the same thing here, so don’t get too attached to all of those cool pics you have been uploading or even those fan videos. They are all property of Facebook If you lose your page for any reason, everything you created is gone. Poof.

Fixing up something that you own, on the other hand is a good idea. Putting effort into your website, that you own will drive traffic and potential customers back to you. Investing money in your business will always pay off in the long run. Webhosting now is very inexpensive. There really is no excuse not to own your own website.

But Facebook is free

There is no such thing as totally “free.” They offer you pages for no cost so that terms can be changed at the drop of a hat. They could not do that so easily to paying customers. It is also not free in terms of man hours spent working on the page.

If you want to hear more about this, we are going to be launching our own weekly videos called “Whiteboard Thursdays with Nancy” where we will discuss this and other questions. If you want to ask a question, post on our Facebook wall and I will answer your question in an upcoming episode.

So why are you still only using Facebook for your website?

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November 6, 2011 0

Blogging For Business? Kill the Buzz!

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If you are starting a business blog, it can be really tempting to throw a lot of buzzwords in your content to build authority and sound like an expert. Sounds like a sound plan right? Dazzle them so much their head spins. The temptation to label oneself as a “guru” or “ninja” or “rock star” might be great, but I can’t think of a worse thing to do for your blog.

This is a bad idea. A REALLY bad idea. Raise your hand if you think this is a good idea.

First of all, no one wants to read a bunch of buzzwords. We know you are smart. Tell us something without resorting to using industry buzzwords. A post with a ton of jargon can be unreadable and will chase potential readers and clients faster than a salesman in a polyester suit. The trouble with posts like this is that no one learns anything. Want to be seen as an expert? Teach something to someone. Make them feel smarter for having read your post.

Let me ask you something – if you were explaining what you do to a friend, would you use a lot of buzzwords to do it? If the answer is no, then they don’t belong in your blog posts either. Write a post like you talk. Don’t get too heavy. It is not necessary. Explain something without using terms everyone overuses. Expertise is shown when you can explain something in simple terms. Keep your posts simple. Start by thinking – “Is this confusing? Would I understand this if I were just starting out in this industry?” If the answer is no then you need to simplify. The easiest way to do that is remove the jargon.

If I see the words “value added” one more time in a blog post I am going to jump up and down and scream! No one talks like this! No one! Why do we do this when we blog? We overuse words so much they lose their real meaning. We overuse words like: transparency, authenticity and engage among others. These words have real meaning, but the more they get used the more diluted they get.

What can be done?

Start taking the words back until they mean something again. Stop calling honesty “transparency” Stop calling someone who converses with others “someone who is fully engaged in the social space” If a person or company is friendly and approachable, call them that. Stop calling your posts or web pages “value added” just say they “are full of useful information.”

One last thing – For the love of all that is good and decent in this world I beg of you please do not say “It is not all about me” in your post where it is blatantly obvious is is about you. Want to reach more potential buyers? Solve their problems. Show a point of view. Give them something to think about.

Let’s keep things simple, and remember it is always about the customer.

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October 30, 2011 0

Is Google+ A Social Media Graveyard?

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You all remember Google+ right? That is the social network that everyone seemed to flock to in droves this summer. Well known names in social media and marketing even abandoned their Facebook profiles announcing they had “moved” to Google+. It seemed to be a cleaned-up version of Facebook, but without those annoying ads. We all hounded our friends for invites, since Google+ was “invitation only” when it first launched in the early summer of this year.

Why then is it looking like a graveyard?

The short answer is it is not sticky enough. The longer answer is that most of us have not migrated from Facebook to Google+. The numbers are surprising. Google will not divulge the number of daily users. The site has 40 million users signed up. Facebook, on the other hand has at the time of this writing over 800 million users, of which half of those sign in to the service every day.

Here is at least part of the problem – Facebook is part of our daily life. As much as we complain about Farmville and other silly things our friends do on Facebook, it is part of daily life for many of us. Most of us go on to Facebook because it is part of our daily routine. We get up, make coffee, go to work and check Facebook. We see who posted new photos, and what is going on with our friends.

This is part of the problem with Google+, many of us have the Facebook habit and got to Google+ expecting to be wowed and instead have said “meh.” Opportunists have taken to Google+, charging for webinars and some social media gurus are even writing books about how to use the network for business. Hint: there are no business profiles allowed yet. You have to be an individual to have a Google+ account. Google is working on business pages, but at this time, are taking applications for a Google+ business page.

The only thing that Google+ does far better than Facebook ever will is photo sharing. It is easier to upload pics, and your captions do not get cut off the way they do on Facebook. This is not enough to keep many of us coming back when our friends are all on Facebook and Twitter. Why do we need another social network?

The last thing that Facebook does better than anyone is create their own walled-off world. They have their own games, they have their own money, and they have other apps that users use day after day from astrology to sending “drinks” to friends. On average, people on Facebook install apps more than 20 million times every day. Facebook has created a whole world unto itself. We may complain about privacy issues, but the truth is this. We are not going anywhere. We are certainly not going to Google+ any time soon.

Google+, the network many heralded as a “Facebook killer” may have shot itself in the foot by bringing nothing new to the conversation. This proves a point Seth Godin made a long time ago. Be unique, or be forgettable. Being another Facebook is not good enough.

It seems Google just doesn’t get social after all.

What do you think? Is Google+ a graveyard?

 

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October 27, 2011 0

Klout Plays a Dangerous Game

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Klout has been catching a lot of heat lately for serious security breaches. This is really disturbing stuff. If you are on Klout, you opted-in. Now, let’s say that a friend of yours who has a private Facebook page comments on your status update. Now, Klout has their information as well. That person now has a profile that they never asked for.

I have an older brother who is not involved in social media or marketing. He has a Facebook page he hardly touches. He does not use Twitter, and never reads blogs. Yet, there he is because he commented on one of my posts. I am a blogger. I am on Facebook. I am on Twitter. I understand that I have no privacy online. This is a choice I made. Other people choose to be very private, and that privacy should be respected. I know of people who make Facebook pages for their unborn babies! Are we going to create Klout profiles for them too? Don’t laugh. This is not that far off. It has been found out that yes, Klout has not taken down profiles of minors. Hello. That is illegal. Facebook is also at fault for not protecting minors on Facebook from applications like Klout.

In a desperate bid for more profiles, Klout will grab at any information they can, no matter how ill-gotten it may be. This type of draconian practice nearly makes Facebook look like Girl Scouts by comparison. The sad thing about all of this is that this is not the first time and won’t be the last. Klout is just more aggressive about pursuing users who will opt-in to the service to check their Klout score.

What about when you want to opt-out because the topics you are “influential” in are not even close to what you really blog or tweet about? There is no opt-out process. Too bad for you if you don’t want to play this game. They do not care if you do not want a Klout profile. If you are on any social platform and are friends with anyone who is on Klout, you also have a profile like it or not.

For those of us who do have profiles, our Klout scores recently just took a hit. Some of us dropped scores in the double digits, while some of us (like yours truly) were pretty much unharmed. Klout redid its algorithm which determines “influence.”

It begs the question – what is influence and can it really be felt? Influence is when you can get a person (or a group of people) to take action. In the case of Klout, they are looking for likes, retweets and comments. The real world may not be so easy to see. There are many people who are very influential and never have to tell you. People with high Klout scores love to drop it in to a conversation as some sort of social proof. Real influence is felt, not talked about.

Speaking of influence, we would love it if you would take a moment and comment on this post. If you really like our blog, please be sure to vote for us in the Empact poll.

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October 17, 2011 0

Announcing the Newly Designed HostSEO

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With SEO becoming increasingly relevant in the today’s Internet Marketing strategies alongside web hosting, it is imperative for Internet entrepreneurs to pursue a service that will allow them to not only be able to host their websites, but additionally afford them an easy access to a wide variety of SEO options. This is where HostSEO comes in. In June 2011, we launched the newly designed HostSEO.org homepage and started offering our world-class SEO hosting services to all of our customers at an easily affordable price.

Traditional hosting services place all of your domains and subdomains on a single C-class IP address. This is sufficient for those wishing to only put up a website for the sake of having one. But if you are looking to increase exposure to your website, you will need to employ proper SEO tactics such as link building and content generation. But if all of the work was done through the same IP address, then you will be hard-pressed to see any real results as major search engines will recognize the influx of links from the same IP address. This is when the services of HostSEO become important.

We at HostSEO will assign you a number of different, unique C-class IP addresses along with server space to provide you with the best possible SEO hosting service at an incredibly affordable price (as low as $13 a month). Additionally, we will provide you with private name server support to help you take advantage of the C-class IP addresses you will receive. This is absolutely vital to SEO. By having both unique C-class IP addresses as well as private name server support, you are able to create a network of domains that the search engines will view as separate entities. This means your links and content will be more readily indexed by the search engine spiders, resulting in a far more effective SEO campaign.

We also offer SEO dedicated server support for those who do not want to share their resources with other users. Our dedicated SEO servers guarantee both privacy as well as server space for you to grow (or upkeep) large websites. Additionally, you may elect to also participate in our SEO reseller program where you pass along our SEO hosting services to your clients. The best part about our SEO reseller program? We are not involved in any way shape or form. You can setup your own private name servers and sell the service to your clients at an incredibly low cost to you (starting at $75 per month)

Despite our relatively new status with the redesigned website, HostSEO reviews have been extremely favorable with practically perfect ratings across the board (97% Excellent rating by ReviewsGurus.com and 5 star ratings at WebHostingStuff.com).

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