Net smarts

Nothing less than once a week I see a news program directed at parents or children warning of the dangers of posting private information to the web. We are all reminded that predators come in all forms and that it's fairly easy for them to put two and two together and find your child's school, the mall at which they hang out, or maybe even your home. This electronic trail is easily followed by a predator, but what kind of trail are you leaving and since when is common sense limited to children? 

I am a member of a fair number of social networks: Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, Twitter, and Linked In. Admittedly, these networks serve different purposes. For me, MySpace was originally my connection point to my nieces. If I wanted to keep up with their lives, this presented the best opportunities. More than once, however, I was shocked by the pictures they posted or the comments they made and each of those times, I sent them gentle reminders about the permanence of today's ink. 

Plaxo and LinkedIn, while based upon the same premise, are entirely different types of networks -- or at least I'd like to think so. Peripherally, it looks as though MySpace students graduated to Facebook, but fortunately my nieces are old enough that the majority of their posts are limited to opinions or the sharing of info that's not quite so alarming. The older adults in my network could take a lesson here.

No longer limited to the younger generation, these forums are fertile ground for displays of poor judgement. I cannot believe how much private content people are posting. 

One of my networks includes at least ten postings a day from two men who, for some reason, think that I — a fellow professional in their network — want to know every time they buy a new iTune, pick up their children, or comment on the weather. This is a professional network, designed for the interaction of professionals on a professional level. Frankly, I am shocked.

Private information is called private for a reason. 

Despite the marketing messages to the contrary, you — regardless of your age — should not be posting your private information to these forums. These postings live on far beyond the very limited thrill and shock value of sharing that juicy little tidbit with your gal-pals and well into the time when it's downright embarrassing — or worse, detrimental. 

What happens when you post your party pics and rants about colleagues and your staff ends up in your network? Think about that content. It may be difficult to impossible to regain a modicum of respect from your colleagues and direct reports when they've just read your last year of postings — especially when you've been blowing off steam about that very same staff. 

I am the SEO/SMO advisor to Spider Trainers, LLC. This company is busily defining an entirely new industry — one that became necessary in part due to the posting of private information in a very public forum. Spider Trainers specializes in what they have termed optimized professional visibility (their service mark). Elevating the visibility of a person's professional accomplishments isn't enough, they also have to bury the crap. 

Unbelievably, this company is specializing in hiding all the nonsense that CEOs, board members, directors, and industry influencers publish about themselves so that employers, fellow board members, colleagues, and HR professionals don't catch a glimpse of those very unflattering Las Vegas party shots, the rant you posted about your staff, or the messages you've left for your friends and family.

Take a look at the electronic footprint you're leaving. Is this really putting your best foot forward?

Leveling the playing field

The great thing about the web and electronic marketing is that everyone can play. You do not have to be a multi-million dollar company with a marketing budget to match in order to stay in the game. In fact, I have always believed that small companies have a nimbleness that makes them more adept at marketing and when you combine that with the great opportunities of the web, as a small company you may have more success than the lumbering corporate wheel.

Another benefit of electronic marketing is the correction factor. When I first started ThePowerXChange (not my first company), every bit of marketing we did was print; either a print ad, a print brochure, or a printed direct-mail piece. My nightmare was the campaign-gone-wrong. I remember one mailing we did where I used a stock image that a handful of our customers found objectionable. We were shocked because we thought we had developed a well-planned and artistic piece. I knew though, that if there were ten people who felt compelled to actually write a letter (before the days of email), then there were likely hundreds who were just as offended, and who didn't write. Having just sent out about 50,000 of these, there was simply nothing we could do.

Thankfully, those days are gone. This is not to say that an ill-received campaign doesn't have any staying power simply because it's electronic, but we do have the ability to send out a retraction, change the campaign, improve the offer, or even kill the campaign entirely. In fact, the beauty is that we "can" do that. We can send out four electronic campaigns with essentially the same message -- buy one, get one free, save 50%, get half off, or save $50 -- testing as we go. If we find that one particular approach is returning better results, we can replace the other three with the same messaging.

Having said that, there's also the downfall. If I were to send that same ill-fated, direct-mail piece today, what at the time was less than a dozen outraged customers could easily turn into many thousands. Depending on how offensive the message is, it could be passed through the electronic network like a pregnancy rumor through a junior high. If it really goes badly, you could make headlines... OUCH!

Assuming that you have developed a winning campaign -- with careful consideration for the stock imagery -- between your web site, an email to your customers, a press release, a news release, a story on your blog, and perhaps a well-place banner ad or two, you could be racking up the orders in no time at all. If the campaign is going well, with just a few clicks of the mouse, you can extend the offer, expand the range, rent the list of a partner, or even collaborate with a friendly company to create a soft bundle -- and you could make that decision today and have it in place by tomorrow.

Big companies simply cannot respond this quickly. Oh, they have the opportunity alright, but by the time they've held 37 meetings with all the stakeholders about the feasibility, the content, the IT changes, the web-page modifications, and the budgets, you could have already sold and shipped another gross of whatchamacallits.

I like the balance. I don't have the budget, but I don't have the burden either.

Use Site Maps to Help Your Rankings

One of the easiest things you can do to improve your search rankings is to create a site map. Google and other search engines prefer an XML file but since it's actually a computer-to-computer file type it's not really intended for end-user viewing. If you prefer, you can make an HTML file complete with links for site navigation. Depending upon the layout, your site map might be the easiest way for a visitor to see what you have to offer and how your different products are related.

If you're not up for the task of generating an XML file on your own, check out RAGE's Google Sitemap Automator. It's an extremely easy-to-use application and very inexpensive (under $30). If you are managing multiple sites, as I am, you can create site maps for all of them in just minutes.

Once your site map has been created, Google Sitemap Automator will even publish the generated XML files to search engines such as Google (you must have a webmaster tools log in), Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.com. You can also predefine the importance of each page and assign meta data automatically. Most SEO specialists suggest that you submit your site map to search engines at least once a week, but of course, this will depend upon how often you actually make changes to your site.

While you're setting up your Google Webmaster Tools account, spend some time roving the Google options. There are lots of other applications that they offer such as analytics, product base, and site search tools. All of these can be key components to a robust search-engine optimization plan.

Job one of any new feature implementation, is to map out a system for measuring results. In the case of a site map, it's pretty easy to choose a few key words for which you wish to rank well and do a search, recording the page and position rank of each. Create and post your site map and check the same key words for a few days. You should notice an improvement, but if you don't it just means you have more work to do. 

I have to admit that a number of the tools I use are made by Google, but that's because they are easy, most are free, and Google provides a better-than-average support network. I encourage most of my clients to at least start with Google and then, if they need more features, graduate to something really expensive later. 

The great thing about SEO and SMO is you really can be quite effective and spend very little money. Oh sure, you'll need a budget for placing banner ads and paying designers, that sort of thing, but many, many of the SEO/SMO tricks that I will talk about will be completely free -- except, of course, for your time investment...