Pinterest vs Tumblr

Posted by on Mar 27, 2012 in Blog, Tech | No Comments

I admit it. I was very slow to jump on the Twitter bandwagon. Like, 2011 slow. And ever since, I’ve regretted not signing myself up sooner.

When I heard of Pinterest, I wanted to do a little research before I judged it as just another social network that I would never actually use, or worse…a social network that I judged and eventually ended up loving.

I like to think of Pinterest as a digital scrapbook or (somewhat obviously) an online pinboard. Y’know all those cool photos and design posters that you save in folders on your clogged up harddrive, thinking that one day you will refer back to them for inspiration? Yeah, it’s like that but pretty and organised and easy to share with the world.

I know what you’re thinking. Believe me, I know. You’re thinking ‘Geez, it sounds exactly like Tumblr’. But alas, you would be slightly incorrect. I say slightly because Pinterest IS exactly like Tumblr, but better.

We know the story. New social network (most likely created by a freakishly gifted computer science dropout) finally receives seed funding, pushes their beta site live and Mashable declare it the next social network that you HAVE to be on. Pinterest is that new social network.

Now in Tumblr’s defence, it did serve (and still serves) a very big market and it does a relatively good job at it. It helped make personal blogging simple and creative hipsters (50% under the age of 25) gravitated to it. In a freakishly quick space of time, the internet was engulfed by desaturated photos with cute quotes in Helvetica font overlayed. Engulfed.

But for all the big things Tumblr did, there is one big thing it didn’t. Innovate.

Pinterest is all the things Tumblr could have, should have and would have been, if only it took a step back and looked at what people actually wanted. We loved Tumblr because we could connect and share with every little piece of art that we felt somehow conveyed a part of our personality. Each Tumblr blog was a pinboard of that person’s inspiration and yet nothing ever shifted.

Sometimes I imagine a big metaphorical cemetery where lies every social network that ever screwed up. AOL. Friendster. Yahoo Buzz. Ping. Bebo. Myspace and every social platform that Google ever created.

Has Pinterest pushed Tumblr onto a tombstone? 

Making Your Website Work

Posted by on Dec 29, 2011 in Blog, Digital Marketing, SEO, Small Business, Social Media | No Comments

One of the biggest problems I hear from small business owners, is that their current website simply does not work. They’ve spent the money on their small business website and yet visitors are not converting through to customers. What’s wrong?

They haven’t put in what they expect to get out.

It’s not enough to just have a website anymore. It is easier than ever for competition to enter the market and, with the mentality that your small business website will sell itself, it will be easier for your customers to be taken away. Although a well-designed website will help, it is not the only factor that influences a customer’s decision to contact you. Have you heard yourself saying any of these?

Everyone visits, but no-one buys.  

If you’re finding that your website is not working for your small business in terms of conversions, the first step should be to identify the gaps. How many people are viewing your site? What pages are they viewing? How long are they spending in each visit? And most importantly, where are they dropping off? The easiest, cheapest and most accurate way to answer each of these questions is via your analytics platform (I’m a big Google Analytics fan so this is what I personally use and include in all my client’s sites). If visitors are spending a short amount of time on your small business website’s home page, narrow down what may be causing them to leave. Is your headline catchy? Is the content concise? Is there a call-to-action? Is there anything that could be confusing? These are the questions that need to be asked and answered honestly. These are the questions that will allow you to identify and silo what needs to be changed and improved in terms of the site design. People will often say that a website’s design does not actually matter. These people are wrong. The simple shades of your website’s buttons can completely affect a customer’s intention. A site that I refer to daily (and have sent to almost everyone I know) is AB tests. It features case studies of various small businesses that have made simple tweaks to their landing pages and recorded the results. My advice? Study, learn, implement and repeat.

Our website is fine, but no-one visits it.

See the beautiful website you spent your small business’ money on? If it’s not in the top 3 listings within Google (or even on the first page), it is doomed. Search engine optimisation (SEO) should be at the top of your priority list. Your small business is not going to appear at the top of Google for your target keywords overnight. It’s going to take months – potentially even years. That’s why you need to start immediately. Before you do anything, SEOmoz provide a great introduction to SEO. I recommend for every small business owner to read it, even if they’re never going to be actively managing it. A basic understanding is going to help you manage your website’s strategy as well as preventing you from being ripped off by the millions of people who claim that they are an SEO expert. Learn what you can for yourself, plan and execute. If you need traffic quick, a targeted SEM campaign can be the next best thing. Your SEO master should be able to assist you in setting up an Adwords campaign for your set budget. Just remember that there is really only one key to any SEM/SEO campaign’s success: Keyword research.

Another great way of gaining traffic, especially in today’s internet market, is via a blog. Blogs aid SEO, whilst enhancing your small business’s brand. Ensure your content is unique, personable and informative and make sure that it is updated as much as possible. To secure your success, promote your website’s blog via social media. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages for your small business can be valuable referral sources. Better yet, when you actually update your social platform pages consistently the results can pay-off by increasing the number of visitors to your website as well as building your small business’ voice. If you’re time poor, simply link each social platform to each other so that your updates on Facebook will automatically feed to Twitter and LinkedIn. Better yet, link these feeds directly into your website creating dynamic content that will keep your site fresh. Stop thinking about your social pages and website as separate entities and start integrating. Your customers will value your small business all the more for it and they will never need (or want) to leave.

Websites don’t always work – visitors just don’t seem to turn into paying customers. Identify gaps in your website via Analytics platforms. Gain traffic via SEO/SEM. Build your small business’s brand via a blog and social media. While a great website design will help, ensure that your website is part of a larger strategy. And don’t give up! Keep learning, changing, innovating and make sure that you put in the time and effort required to create a successful online presence. No-one ever said it would be easy!

Why Your Small Business Needs a Website

Posted by on Dec 22, 2011 in Blog, Digital Marketing, Small Business | No Comments

Whilst trawling Twitter recently, I read a statistic that blew me away.

65% of Australian businesses do not have an online presence.

 
As both a digital professional and an eager consumer, I struggle to believe that the majority of businesses are not taking advantage of the internet. If it was social media, I would understand. If it was SEM, I would be forgiving. But to not have a website at all? Sheer insanity.

Wanting to understand the method to the madness (if any), I dug a little deeper hoping to understand why and summarised it down to two main barriers for businesses:

1. Fear.

 
Getting a website is perceived as a scary process for businesses, especially those that are new to market. Horror stories involving web designers/developers that charge inversely to their quality of work ($45k for a stock template that your cat could have created…blindfolded) are the norm and pairing businesses up against an online world that may seem foreign, builds a sense of uncertainty. Stepping into the unknown puts business owners on an edge of nervousness, making it extremely difficult to build trust and even more difficult to hand over a wad of money to a “web guru” that they found on Gumtree. Then, even once the site has been created, thoughts of having to pay hosting fees, find out what SEO means, learn how to use a CMS, attract customers, create a payment gateway and convert leads are enough to make you want to close shop and retire early.

If you’re a business looking to get online please do your own research in terms of how much a website should cost, and what you should expect to be included for such a price. Treat finding a website designer in the same way that you would an Accountant or Bookkeeper. If you simply don’t have the confidence, budget or time, buy a premium WordPress theme. Simple!

2. “We don’t need one”.

 
For every business that says they do not need a website, I see a wad a money walking straight in to a competitor’s pocket.

97% of consumers search online for local businesses. 65% will take action based on the influence of a website or social presence found within that search.

What does that mean for businesses without a website? You’re losing out. A lot! Regardless of whether your business is a shop within a retail shopping centre, or a local business operating within a small local audience,  not having a website for the sake of not needing one, is a great way of shutting off your business to potential customers and opening up your competitor’s. Too often I hear of people who are struggling to understand why their $2k five-week newspaper campaign did nothing to increase their revenue, and yet when asked why they don’t spend that money on a website that is going to last for the future to come, to them it seems absurd. It is 2011 and consumers search online because it is quick, easy and provides the right answers. This is only going to increase. If you’re business does not have an online presence it is not visible to new customers.

Whilst pushing a business online may seem like a challenging or even unnecessary task, consider your consumers. Think about who they are, where they might find a business like yours and how they make the decision to turn you into their supplier. For the majority of industries, the answer is not in redundant print campaigns or directory listings – it’s via your website.

Are you part of the 65% of Australia businesses that don’t have a website? If so, why? 

Who is using Google+?

Posted by on Dec 3, 2011 in Blog, Digital Marketing, Tech, Trends | No Comments