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How To ADD Those Share Buttons On The Side Of Your Website

9/9/2013

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I get asked this question all the time, and it couldn't be easier, plus it's FREE!

Just go to http://www.addthis.com. Register for an account.
Go to Settings and then Share Settings. Select all the social media pages you want displayed on your share button bar.
Next, go to the "Get The Code" page and select Smart Layers. Click on the 'Generate Code' button and paste the code into your code on the pages you want it to display between the <body> and </body> tags.
OR (if you have a specific blogging platform.... Go to the "Get The Code" page and select Share Buttons. In the left column you will be given all kind of options to choose from. If you are using something like WordPress, Blogger, TypePad or others for your blog you may even be able to integrate it right from there with step by step instructions. Otherwise, just choose how you want your buttons to display, click on the 'Grab it' button in the right column and paste the code into your code on the pages you want it to display between the <body> and </body> tags.

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If this still seems confusing, contact MC Design & Services for help!

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The Psychology Behind FREE – Has Social Media Created A Problem?

2/16/2013

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There is a trend I have noticed emerging from social media for service businesses: we are giving too much information away for free. We lull ourselves into giving away services and expertise that we should be charging for. Before we know it, no one wants to pay for what we have to offer.

Does this sound familiar? You try to gain attention to your business by running a smart campaign where you offer a sampling of your service for free - maybe it’s a free consultation or download - and the people who take you up on your offer enjoy it, but never come back for the paid service. Why?

Maybe they have gone on to someone similar to you for another free sampling? Maybe they feel they got exactly what they needed from the initial free service.

Maybe people have now come to expect to get something for nothing.

There is psychology involved in this. You have heard the saying “you get what you pay for”? What do you think people perceive they are getting when it is free? I think most of us assume that something that costs more must be worth more – we attribute expertise we may not even know about to the person who is charging higher than the other. This is a psychological effect called prestige pricing, which points to a strong correlation between perceived product quality and price. The higher the price the more likely customers are to perceive it has higher quality compared to a lower-priced product. According to psychologist Dr. Peter Shallard, “Being expensive cultivates an aura of expert and elite status”… “setting your price is the psychological equivalent of setting the value of YOU. Your life, your work, that thing you’ve poured your energy and soul into.” He recommends you ask customers who don’t want to pay your set value what they are comparing your price to; you and they may find it is not apples to apples. When Shallard first asked this question he found out his life-changing services were being compared to piano lessons!

Doing a study on cognitive biases can be very enlightening for an entrepreneur.

But with a tough economy people have been forced to settle for less and to become used to it. And maybe we have convinced ourselves we are worth less in the process. So if you are going to offer something for free or discounted, what should you do?

Always include the numerical value in your offer.

Always include the time value in your offer - i.e., the actual time the service will take (example: a thirty-minute consultation for $30). According to a study from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, marketing time sells better than marketing money because our relationship with time is much more personal than our relationship with money.

Make them pay a little. With even a small “buy in” made on the customer’s part, a psychological commitment is made. There will be a tendency to continue with the service because they are already invested and don’t want to feel they have lost that initial $5.00. This is known as loss aversion - studies suggest that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains.

Make them pay more than a little, but include the original price. According to research by cognitive and mathematical psychologist Amos Tversky and Psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who also were the pioneers in proving loss aversion, creating an anchoring bias has a very strong psychological effect (the anchor being the original price in this example). If consumers are unsure about the price they will look around for comparative prices – you provide them with the price to compare with.

Offer coupons. Your potential customers will feel they are getting a deal and you still get paid. Again, include monetary and time values in your offer.

Social media posts that show you are well versed in your field – statistics, what famous people say about it/quotes, questions that get people thinking about their need for your service. Do NOT give away your service in bite-sized portions.

If you don't want to believe the psychologists, why not listen to conventional wisdom? This is just one more example of my belief that SEO and Online Marketing rules are like dating ... what is it your mother always told you about why buy the cow and giving away its milk?

Is this just a social media problem?
Was this caused by social media and or the economy?
What are your thoughts?

Here are some other good links regarding this subject:
http://www.princeton.edu/~kahneman/docs/Publications/Anomalies_DK_JLK_RHT_1991.pdf

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/aaker_time.html

http://biz.aalto.fi/en/current/news/view/2012-10-25/

http://www.petershallard.com/

http://www.shopify.com/blog/6563013-using-behavioral-economics-psychology-and-neuroeconomics-to-maximize-sales#axzz2L66MFRKR

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The Rules of SEO And Online Marketing Are Like Dating

2/8/2013

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Remembering what Mama always said...
can keep you from going wrong with your online business.

The following is an ongoing compiled list:

1. "Always date a girl with a good reputation." When buying a previously owned URL make sure it has a good reputation, as years of cached links may show up on the search engine that you don't recognize.

2. "Be yourself." Google's Panda update is cracking down on content farming.

3. "Why buy the cow, if the milk is free?" Be careful not to give away too much of your service that you should be paid for in your social media marketing.

4. "There's always more fish in the sea." Watch your ROI, if your efforts to get a prospective client's attention on social media are falling on deaf ears ... or blind eyes, move on. Social media can take up a lot of your time and money - a big picture strategy should go hand-in-hand with focus.

5. "Don't move too fast; take your time to get to know each other." A sudden influx of SEO activity can actually hurt your search engine rankings in the long run. Also, being hasty can allow mistakes to go unnoticed. It is more important to take your time to be accurate and strategic where your website's information and links will be placed.

6. "It's not nice to lead people on." Make sure the links that you post with your content on social media or websites go directly to the page with the information you are talking about. You will lose people along the way in a string of links.

7. "If you like it, put a ring on it." When liking an article by a higher profile company or individual, make sure you comment with something compelling that will result in views to come back around to your website or social media page.

8. "Beauty is skin deep." Your website may be attractive and innovative, but if it is filled with shallow content, grammatical errors and is hard to navigate, the viewer will lose interest and so will the search engines.

9. "Stay away from Lover's Lane." Don't park your website's URL while you are building your website. Sure, you may make a few bucks, but you have no control of what is going to be linked to your parked domain by the registrar. You may have cached links and content that can harm the brand image you are trying to portray once you go live.

10. "It's not you, it's me." What goes around, comes around. Unsubscribe from other small business' emails graciously. Read why HERE.

Can you think of anymore?

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20 Memorable Marketing Moments Of 2012

1/2/2013

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20 Memorable Marketing Moments in 2012 [Infographic]

From: HubSpot Marketing Software

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Following As Many As You Can May Not Be The Best Twitter Strategy

11/27/2012

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Did you know that you had a limit of how many people you can follow on twitter? If you do, you probably found out by accident when you could no longer follow any more people or businesses. Most likely one of the first questions that popped into your head was, "then why can Justin Beiber follow 122,496 people?" OK, maybe Justin Beiber didn't come to your mind ... sorry, I have 4 daughters ... but some famous person or brand that you relate to probably did. It is all about keeping a fairly even ratio. If you have more followers than you are following that is always good and you have plenty of room to follow, but if it is the other way around you need to be aware of the disproportion.

Is following as many potential clients and industry related brands a good twitter strategy given these limits?

Here is twitter's explanation as to why this is THE RULE.

Twitter's technical follow limits:
-Every account can follow 2,000 users total. Once you’ve followed 2,000 users, there are limits to the number of additional users you can follow. This number is different for each account and is based on your ratio of followers to following; this ratio is not published. Follow limits cannot be lifted by Twitter and everyone is subject to limits, even high profile and API accounts.

-Every Twitter account is technically unable to follow more than 1,000 users per day, in addition to the account-based limits above. Please note that this is just a technical limit to prevent egregious abuse from spam accounts.

-Accounts are also prohibited from aggressively following other users. Our Follow Limits and Best Practices Page has more information on Twitter’s following rules.

What to do if you've hit a follow limit: If you've reached the account-based follow limit (2,000 users), you’ll need to wait until you yourself have more followers before you can follow additional users. Follow limits are system-wide; Support cannot remove or adjust your follow limits.

To follow one or two additional users, unfollow a few accounts you're currently following. Please note, however, that regularly following and unfollowing many accounts is a violation of the Twitter Rules and can result in account suspension.

Why Twitter limits following behavior: These limits help us improve site performance and reliability and help us make Twitter a nice place for everyone. We’ve included a more in-depth discussion of why we have follow limits on the Follow Limits and Best Practices Page.

So, what is a tweeter to do when they find themselves in this predicament?
Open up your following page and keep in mind these tips to whittle down your following number.

Look for egg's - this usually signals inactivity. Anyone who hasn't bothered to upload their picture probably doesn't use twitter very much, or took their picture down when they stopped using twitter.
Look for the date of the last tweet - again, why follow someone who is not active and is therefore not seeing your tweets either.
Did they follow you back? If they aren't seeing your content then it is not helping your business to follow them.
Go back to the oldest people you followed - Ask yourself if they are someone who would be interested in your services or not?, do they share valuable information about your industry?, have you read a tweet from them recently?, would you miss them if they weren't there?

Once you are aware of these policies you may begin to feel like a twitter snob, evaluating each follow and whether it is worthy of your follow back. If you are feeling like you are going to develop a mid twitter life crisis over this new revelation of twitter not being all inclusive as you thought it would be, I recommend you read "Ted's twitter back policy". It may just inspire you to forget everything you just read above and establish one of your own. Here is an excerpt and my favorite point ...

4. Much more importantly (to me), here’s why I follow everyone back: I’m not more important than my followers. Indeed, I’m grateful every single time a person compliments me by following me. It’s their way of saying, “Hi Ted! I want to get to know you better.” For me to snub their kindness would be ungracious – and if I were ungracious, I couldn’t look my Mother in the eye. [I'm on a lifelong crusade against arrogance. We'll leave it at that.]

If you need help putting together an effective social media strategy, contact me and we can come up with a plan. It may not be about how many you are following, but rather how you are using twitter that could make a difference.

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A New Storefront Website With Fun Navigation

11/9/2012

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I had so much fun creating this website. The minute I saw a picture of the storefront of Cocoon Home Decor and Gifts, I knew I had to do something with those perfect Main St.-home town-lights over the awning. So, we came up with the idea of having a photo contest on Cocoon's facebook page to see who could take the best picture of the storefront including the top of the lights all the way down to the street, with good enough lighting and high enough quality that it could be used on a website. Check out Cocoon's facebook page for the results, the prize was great!

I did have to do some "voodoo" magic in Photoshop to eliminate shadows and such, but I am really happy with the results. Below is the winning picture of the storefront and the matching website.
If you get a chance visit www.cocoonhomedecorandgifts.com, and better yet if you are in the Grimsby, ON area visit their incredible store!

Storefront photo

www.cocoonhomedecorandgifts.com

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One Of Life's Beautiful Moments

8/9/2012

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Yesterday, I drove through the pharmacy window, which is quite routine for me as a mother of five. But, I am not only a mother of five, I am a mother of four children who each have or have had their own significant health problems. As I signed my initials over and over again for the prescriptions I was picking up, the familiar face in the window whispered "It's Azsi's last day today." I looked through the window and could see Azsi, the pharmacy manager, was on the phone. So, I scribbled "Azsi we will miss you!!!!", instead of my last initials.

Just in time, Azsi hung up and ran over to the drive through window to tell me how much she would miss ME. She started to tell me how they loved when I came to the pharmacy because I always had a smile on my face. How most people get so frustrated with their one or two kids, but I have five and I always have a smile for them. As she is going on telling me where she is relocating across the country and where I can visit her ... the last seven years come flooding back to my mind. It was her smiling, happy, exuberant "hello Mrs. LeClaire!" that would greet me and give me the strength for the rest of the day, as I drove through her window to pick up prescriptions after being up all night at the hospital with one of my children. I have counted on her happy-to-see-me over the years to pick my spirits up after the letdown of doctor visits where the realization of a chronic condition in one so young hit hard. Over the years she was even greeting my children by name, noticing how they had grown older, and that they looked healthier. I don't know whose smile came first, but I happen to know she cared about every "patient" of hers.

I don't need the pick me up so often anymore, my kids are older, healthier and stronger; enabling me to grow my business and really enjoy satisfaction and success in my own life. I guess I have just come to take for granted Azsi's smiling face. But, yesterday it hit me hard to lose her. I never thought I would cry like a baby at a drive-through window with the face on the other side.

Azsi asked me if I would still be using her pharmacy after she left, my response was "are you kidding? I wouldn't dream of going anywhere else!" I have seen how she has passed on her loving nature to her staff. I could go anywhere for the medicine, maybe (and that's a big stretch) someone else could fill my orders more accurately, but that really isn't why I chose their store.

Social media has become a lot like that drive-through window. I have observed with local businesses that word-of-mouth is really the most powerful new business driver. A business owner with the same care and love for their customers can translate that to the online world. Genuinely caring about the individual behind the like or follow and following up with sincerity can go a long way. I couldn't help but tell you the story about Azsi, and that's what we humans do, when we experience an out-of-the-ordinary connection, we have to share it! I have experienced this give-and-take with many of my own clients who are thousands of miles of way.

So how about you? What can you do to show you care on your social media pages?

90% of consumers trust recommendations from people they know while only 14% trust advertising.
We can help you with effective social media marketing.

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Drawing A Blank? How To Come Up With Social Media Posts

6/9/2012

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With an estimated 900 million users on facebook world-wide as of May 2012 and over 140 million active users on twitter, you know you need to be generating some social media posts for your small business.
Combined with the fact that it is free to use, how can you ignore this opportunity?

But, running a small business is time consuming enough, how do you come up with content for this new source of marketing? Here are a few tips:

Is there a link in that?
Throughout your day, with everything that you do, be asking yourself, "is there a link in that?"

Did the person you just meet have a website of their own that you can include in a shout out to them?

Ex: It was such a pleasure meeting [John Doe], you made me think about [some aspect about John's business]. http://www.johnswebsite.com
Be sure to like John's facebook page, and follow him on twitter - hopefully he will do the same, and now you are visible to all of John's customers.

Did the article related to your industry you just read have a link online that you can post and make a comment on your thoughts about it? No? does the magazine or newspaper it was in have a website? Use that one.

linking to higher exposure brands, helps your exposure
Like and Follow

Does the segment on TV with the expert related to your field have a link?...or the TV show?

Post that link and share your thoughts on the segment on your social media pages.
Like and follow the expert, but try not to blatantly advertise your business on their facebook page, tell them what it is you liked about what they said and then include your website link with discretion.

Is there a page on your website describing a service or product that corresponds to a quirky thought, and idea, tips or fun facts?
Do you have a blog? Post the individual link that your website platform generates for each blog post with a catchy description of what the blog is about. How do you come up with blog posts? Use many of the tips I shared above.

See also other articles i have written about blogging content HERE.

Ask For Feedback
Is there some aspect of your business that you wonder about how the customer experiences it? Ask. Don't forget to use #hashtags on twitter.

Plan Ahead
If the prospect of posting social media content every day still seems daunting, you can make it easier by setting aside a time to come up with messages you want posted in one sitting for the whole month. Services like Hootsuite allow you to link to and schedule future posts for all of your social media.

You may also be relieved to hear according to Chris Luo, the Head of Global SMB Marketing at Facebook, in a webinar I recently attended, it is not necessary to post every day, "at minimum around twice a week is enough." If you post too much you may start to be ignored or appear impersonal.

Get Help
If this still sounds something you know you need to do for your small business, but you just can't find your way out of what you need to do and do well, then I am here to help! MC Design & Services, LLC can manage your social media marketing for you, while at the same time working intimately with your business. Ask about our affordable rates and how you can choose the budget that is right for you.

"It's a great feeling knowing you are taking care of things for us.
You give us peace of mind so we can keep on doing what we do best."

“Rebecca has provided a valuable service to our business by filling the need
for marketing and website development. Her skills are efficient, accurate, timely,
and very worthwhile for any small business. She manages our various priorities with great flexibility.”

"Rebecca has handled our online presence perfectly!"

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