Author Archive
Written by Corrie Scott, February 10th, 2012
At Out-Smarts we like to k.i.s.s – 
now don’t go getting any ideas, we mean keep it simple, stup!d. We like to simplify the internet and social media for our clients, and thought a post outlining how to create a simple social media strategy was in order. So, here we go:
1.Grab a hot chocolate, coffee, or your preferred caffeine stimulant. We said this was about creating a simple social media strategy, not that it wouldn’t take you some time (time well spent, might we add).
2. Identify your target market and where they are online.
This is the first thing you should do, and key to your overall marketing strategy. Really think about your ideal customer; how old are they, are they male or female, what does their family situation look like –married, divorced, single, kids?, where do they live, what do they do for fun? Once you’ve narrowed down who your target audience is, spend some time figuring out where they hang out online. There’s no point starting a company Twitter page or YouTube Channel, if your target customers are LinkedIn and Facebook kind of folks.
3. Start listening to your community.
Now that you know where your target audience hangs out, start following them on Twitter and liking their pages on Facebook. There’s already a conversation happening online about you or your industry, start tuning in to get an idea of what’s being said.
4. Create content and engage.
Now that you’ve determine where your target market hangs out online, and listened in on what’s being said, you can begin creating and sharing content. This is the bread and butter of your online presence – post interesting content, and people will share it on Facebook and LinkedIn, RT it on Twitter, and +1 it on Google+. The more people that share your content, the more people see it, and the bigger your online presence becomes. Pay attention to patterns, if people respond really well to a particular style of post, for example, asking a question on Facebook, post like that more often. You’ve got a winner, engagement-wise.
5. Online cohesiveness.
Make your website your online hub. When people visit your website, they should be able to see everywhere else you have a presence online. This means including a Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc, button at the top of each page of your website (or, at the least, on your homepage). Link these buttons to your social networks, and include an RSS feed button if you have a blog. While you’re at it, use the same color scheme and profile picture (your company logo) when you customize your account on each social network. This way people that visit your Facebook page or YouTube Channel will know right away that it’s your company. The easier you make it for people to find you online, the better.
6. Set a schedule.
Ok, now that you have a simple social media strategy and your building a presence online, don’t let it fall to the wayside. The worst thing you can do is start a Facebook page or Twitter account, and then stop updating it. Potential customers who find you on these social networks may wonder whether you’re still around if you last posted 4 months ago. Social media is technically free, but it can take a lot of time. We recommend making a list of things you need to do every day to accomplish your goals online, and then stick to it.
There you have it, a simple social media strategy to get you started online. Want a more in-depth strategy? We do that too. Contact us for more information and we’ll help you hit the mark online.
Related posts:
Avoid the Top 10 Social Media Mistakes Companies Make
Advertising on Popular Social Networks
Biggest Mistakes You Can Make with Your Facebook Page
Written by Corrie Scott, January 27th, 2012
Starting this month, Facebook is 
updating its advertising program by making changes to Sponsored Stories. Sponsored stories first appeared in 2011 as a way to turn your friend’s actions and posts into promoted content for brands. For a breakdown of how these ads used to look, check out this Mashable post that does a great job of explaining it. Today, we’re going to talk about the most recent changes that Facebook will be making to these stories.
The big change: Facebook Sponsored Stories will now appear in user’s newsfeeds. Facebook says this won’t be nearly as intrusive to their 800+ million members as it sounds. The ads will be marked as “sponsored”, they will be strictly regulated so that users will see no more than 1 ad in their newsfeed per day, and they will only contain content about friends or pages with which the user is already connected. This gives your ad better odds of being seen by those who would be interested in your business – the types of people you want to like your business page.
Also, Facebook users can’t opt out of sponsored stories, everyone’s getting them. They can, however, delete individual ads from their newsfeed, but that’s less likely to happen because the ads only show information about friends or pages they already interact with on Facebook.
Why this is so great for marketers: It allows you to get your content front and center on people’s newsfeeds, mixed in with all the organic content generated by people’s friends and page likes. Also, the ‘sponsored’ tag on the lower right hand side of the ad is unlikely to be noticed until after the user has processed the ad. If it’s even noticed at all. It’s a pretty small tag, as you can see from the screenshot below.
Another potential benefit for marketers is that this is another way to target Facebook’s 800m+ users, half of which return to the site daily. With sponsored ads appearing in newsfeeds and the right sidebar, as well as traditional Facebook ads, the amount of potential daily impressions for ads will skyrocket. This could go one of two ways for advertisers, 1. Ad prices will decrease because of increased supply, or 2. Ad prices could increase because the addition of sponsored stories could increase demand for Facebook ads. Time will tell which one ends up being true.
Either way, there’s bound to be the usual protests surrounding any change on Facebook, but we have a feeling that will die down pretty quick. Personally, I don’t mind seeing relevant ads on Facebook, and I don’t think it will make a big difference whether they appear on the right sidebar, or within my newsfeed. Highly targeted ads are nice because they inform me of deals or pages I might not have known about otherwise. However, Facebook will need to be careful about maintaining a good ad to organic content ratio. Sponsored ads would quickly get annoying if they began overtaking the newsfeed. I know I can’t be the only one that would think that way.
Written by Corrie Scott, January 25th, 2012
Our website was recently hacked; every time we searched Out-Smarts’ name on Google, spammy content about sales on Microsoft products appeared where our company’s description should have been. It took awhile to sort everything back out, so we really appreciate this post by Christine Rondeau of Bluelime Media. If you’d like to see the original post, click here.
Dealing with Hackers and Spammers
Having a WordPress site is loads of fun. Being able to create content, make your own edits and upload images and documents without having to contact your web designer is an absolute delight. However, dealing with hackers and spammers is not that great. Granted hackers and spammers do attack non-WordPress sites, but they seem to be targeting these more frequently. There are of course ways to protect yourself.
How do you know if your site has been hacked? If you notice weird spammy words in your website content, in your Google search result or if you’re site redirects to a strange url, then you’ve been hacked. If you’re not 100% sure, try Sucuri SiteCheck. It will scan your site for malware, blacklisting and out-of-date software for free.
How did this happen? Hackers either managed to figure out your FTP password or they used a vulnerability in either the WordPress core files or a plugin.
Here are a few things you can do to prevent this from happening:
- When creating FTP passwords use a generated word that cannot be pronounced, uses a few symbols and a mixture of upper and lowercase letters. Of course these passwords will be more difficult to remember, but using a tool like 1Password or LastPassword can help.
- Make sure to upgrade your WordPress site every time a new version comes out. These updates usually include fixes to vulnerabilities and are very important.
- Make sure you upgrade your plugins as well for the same reason. If you have lots of plugins and aren’t using them all, don’t just deactivate them, delete them.
If your site has been hacked, then you’ll need to clean up the files. I normally delete the WordPress core files (everything but the wp-config.php and wp-content folder) and re-install everything. I also do a manual scan of the theme files to make sure that hackers haven’t messed anything up. If this feels a bit intimidating, you might want to contact Sucurri Security. For a small fee they can clean up infected sites and you can also hire them to scan your site and keep an eye on it annually.
If you’ve been blacklisted by Google or spammy words appear in Google search results, you’ll need to log into your Google webmaster tool and submit your site for reconsideration once it’s clean.
Although spammers are less harmful, they are equally as annoying. If you’re site is new and you haven’t publicized your email address, you might want to install the email address encoder plugin. This plugin will simply scramble your email address making it harder for harvesters to grab it. If on the other hand your email is already out there, then I’m afraid that once it’s on a spam list, there’s not much you can do.
Spam comments can also be detrimental with more and more evidence pointing to the fact that these are not simply generated by robots but actual people. The first thing to do is to install Akismet which will do it’s best to trap spam comments. But Akismet alone is insufficient.
Be warned against comments that seem harmless. They might praise your work or congratulate you on your blog and let you know that they are bookmarking it right now. These types of comments are simply tests to see if you will accept them or not. Once you’ve approved them, then they’ll attack your blog much more fiercely.
Finally, one of the most effective ways to reduce spam is simply to close comments after a few weeks. Most readers leave comments on newer posts. Closing off comments automatically after a few weeks is very simple. Log into your WordPress admin, go to settings > Discussion and check the box that says “Automatically close comments on articles older than __ days” and enter the number of days you want to use.
I just did this myself recently and the influx of spam comments has been reduced dramatically.
Written by Corrie Scott, December 31st, 2011
2011 has been an amazing year for Out-Smarts, 
and 2012 is shaping up to be even better. We’d like to thank our friends, clients and business partners for all their support and help this past year. It sounds cliché, but we really couldn’t have done it without you!
We hope you’ve enjoyed our blog posts this past year, oh faithful reader. Stay tuned in 2012 as we help you navigate the never-ending changes and happenings in social media and internet marketing.
Now get out there and celebrate, it’s New Year’s Eve!
Written by Corrie Scott, December 23rd, 2011
Santa continues to make great use of social media this year, what a modern man!
As usual, NORAD is doing a great job of tracking Santa’s efforts as he does his last minute preparations for the big day. You can follow NORAD on their website, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+.
If you’re doing some last minute shopping but still want to track Santa’s progress, there’s an app for that. Organize your holiday shopping list and follow Santa with the Santa Claus Tracker, or use the Santa Tracker 2011 to track Santa, read his blogs, text him, or show your kids if they’re on the nice list. You can even track Santa’s progress through NORAD using Google Maps.
Want to read about the history of Santa? Check out his Wikipedia page.
The good news is, Santa seems to have tightened up his security since last year’s Wikileaks fiasco when his naughty list went public.
If you’re not sure your letter to Santa made it to the North pole, post it to Santa’s wall on his Facebook page and read other people’s wish lists.
Happy holidays to everyone that followed us this year. Now go eat, drink and be merry these next few days, we’re going to be doing the same!
Written by Corrie Scott, December 20th, 2011
YouTube is not to be
ignored; it’s now the second largest search engine after Google. It’s easy to see why YouTube has been so successful, think about it – many people would rather learn about something by seeing it rather than by reading about it. Watching a video seems like infinitely less work than reading an article. Beware though, people have short attention spans. Your videos should be maximum 3 minutes long or risk losing viewers halfway through the video. Here’s why you should get over your fear of the camera (or enlist an employee):
Free
Like most social media tools, creating a YouTube channel is free. All you need is a gmail account and you can create a channel and start uploading videos.
Advertising
If you feel Google Adwords and Facebook Ads are getting too expensive for your budget, or you’d like to broaden your advertising reach, YouTube offers paid advertising and is generally less expensive than both Google and Facebook. With YouTube, there’s two types of advertising, 1. Within YouTube search, you can bid on the keywords you feel users would enter into the search bar to find your video. When users search these keywords, a thumbnail and description of your video appears in the results. 2. Promoted Videos run on the right hand side of a YouTube page (similar to paid advertising with Google), and can be set up through Google Adwords.
SEO
Google owns YouTube, they’re bound to put an emphasis on video in the organic search results if an applicable video is available online. Try a search yourself, there’s a good chance you’ll find relevant videos in your results. To take full advantage of the SEO benefits of video, remember to tag your videos with relevant keywords and terms you think people would use to find your video online.
Viral
Make a video funny or creative enough to catch the eye of the online world (no pressure!), and it could go viral; resulting in your video being seen by thousands of people. The exposure for your brand is priceless.
Demonstrate Expertise
Informational videos about your industry, or videos showcasing why you offer your customers a superior product, are a great way to showcase your knowledge online. Giving away great tips online gives potential clients a teaser of how good you are at what you do, and can translate into them contacting you for more information.
Humanize Your Business
The stuffy, corporate business model is out. People want to get to know the people behind a brand, and a great way to do that is through video. If you’re camera shy, find someone within your company that isn’t. Or, if you’re a one person show, you can post a powerpoint or slideshow video and narrate it as you go. And, don’t be afraid to show off your personality!
Measure your effectiveness
One of the challenges of marketing offline is the difficulty in measuring the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. If you put up a billboard downtown, it’s difficult to tell how many customers you acquired because of it. With YouTube, you have access to Insight reporting which quantifies views, demographics, popularity, and the community surrounding your YouTube presence.
Website traffic
The end goal of social media is driving traffic back to your website and to convert fans of your online content into customers and clients. When you’re active on YouTube and posting videos, commenting and rating others’ videos, sharing, etc, you generate interest in your channel. If you’ve included links to your website in your channel and the description sections of your videos, you can drive traffic to your website and increase your chances of making a sale.
Need help setting up a YouTube Channel for your business? We’re great at it! Contact us for more information.
Written by Corrie Scott, November 07th, 2011
We really like this blog post from our friend and business colleague, Michele Soregaroli of Transformation Catalyst, she makes some excellent points! If you’d like to see the original post, click here.
In a previous blog post, I talked about the 3 pillars of business – Visibility, Connection, Delivery.
But where does engagement fit? Aren’t connection and engagement the same thing? I get this question a lot…and it’s absolutely critical to your business that you not only understand the distinction between them, but that you also develop your strategies and actions with these distinctions in mind.
If you haven’t got a good sense of the basic 3 Pillars of Business, I would suggest that you start your reading there, and then come back here for more learning. Today’s post is dealing only with Connection and Engagement.
I’m going to use Facebook Pages as the example in this post, but keep in mind that these principles apply to all strains of your business where you are communicating with your target market, prospects and existing clients.
Let’s assume that you have a Facebook Page set up. If you don’t have one, you’ve probably ‘Liked’ one, or have seen some that you can refer to here. A Facebook Page is essentially another platform to create Visibility…people know that you are in business and that your doors are open. But it’s much more than that!
If you’re like most business owners, your main focus for your Facebook Page has been to generate LIKES…lots of Followers who are willing to read your posts and are interested in what you have to say. Sometimes they will ‘Like’ your posts. In that case, they have established a CONNECTION with you.
However, this is where it gets interesting!! Business Pages gathering ‘Likes’ believe that they have now established permission to ask for the business from their audience. If you have ‘Likes’, you have a connection, and the next step is to sign the deal and start delivering your service, right?
Not right…not even a little. I’m guessing that those ‘Likes’ on your Page are not converting to Leads. If you see yourself here, you’re probably wondering the value of social media at all. Here’s why it’s not working – you haven’t actually ‘engaged’ your followers!
A Connection is established when someone indicates, in the moment, that they are in agreement with you and identify that you share something in common. But only in that moment. They aren’t all in, by any stretch. They just think that whatever happened in that moment was worth ‘Liking’. Then they move on…NO engagement. Read more
Written by Corrie Scott, November 02nd, 2011
We like Google Analytics because it reveals a ton of 
useful information about your website, and did we mention it’s free? A frequently asked question regarding social media is, what’s the ROI? Installing Google Analytics on your website makes it much easier to track the ROI of online marketing than its offline counterpart. You can see where your traffic is coming from, whether or not your recent Facebook campaign caused a spike in traffic to your website, what pages people visit most often and spend the most time on, and much more.
For advice and tips on setting up Google Analytics on your website, check out our earlier blog post.
Why you should be using Google Analytics
1. Measuring your website performance over time. Using Google Analytics, you can easily compare your site’s performance with its past performance over a specific time period. We like to compare both this month versus last month, and how we’re performing this year versus the same time last year.
2. Visitor loyalty. It’s great if your website is getting tons of hits, but if those people visit once and never return then something isn’t resonating with your target audience. Analytics tracks all visitors to your website and determines how many are first time visitors versus returning visitors.
3. Integrate your adwords account. If you already have a Google AdWords account, you can integrate it with analytics to collect campaign, ad group or keyword specific data. The data collected includes cost, conversions, impressions, clicks and whether the ad resulted in a sale. You can even see your profit margin for each ad that led to a sale.
4. Dashboard customization. The basic Analytics dashboard comes with all kinds of useful tidbits of data; including, most popular pages on your site, visitors, bounce rate, time on site, traffic sources, etc. But, there’s a lot more to Google Analytics than the dashboard. These other metrics, such as the Adwords overview, top landing pages, goals, and the keywords entered into internal search must be accessed manually from the left hand navigation bar. If you find you use manually accessible features often, you can add them to your dashboard using the ‘add to dashboard’ button at the top of the page. Once you’ve added something to your dashboard, it will stay there until you choose to remove it. It’s also possible to rearrange your dashboard to your preferred layout.
5. Internal search. If you have an internal search bar on your website, Analytics tracks exactly what people are typing into that field to find things on your website. It also tracks what page they were on when they made the search, and where they ended up after completing the search.
6. Assign access to your account. You can give people two types of access to your Analytics account. Administrator access gives key people full access to your account, whereas read-only privileges allow people to run reports, but they are unable to make any changes or access your website specific Analytics code.
7. Set goals. It’s easy to set up a goal for almost anything you would like users to do on your website; including, visiting a certain page, making a purchase, signing up for your newsletter, ad conversions, etc. This will give you a clear idea of whether people are taking the steps on your website that you would like them to follow.
8. Scheduled reports and easy exportation. If you can never remember to check your Google Analytics account, it’s possible to set it up so that regular reports get emailed to your inbox. Or, you can schedule reports to regularly be emailed to key employees, in a variety of handy formats. It’s also possible to export your data in a CSV file where you can view and manipulate it in Excel.
9. Funnel visualization. This is a great tool that allows you to see when visitors are backing out of the conversion process on your website. For example, it lets you know if most people quit trying to buy your product at the shopping cart step, or if people stop signing up for your newsletter when they realize how much personal information they have to divulge. This information lets you know what it is about your conversion processes that are deterring your customers.
10. Bounce rates. The bounce rate is the number of people that immediately leave your site after landing on it. You can look at the bounce rate for each individual page to determine which ones are ‘sticky’. If the majority of people land on a page of your website and leave right away, you may want to rethink the copy or layout of that particular page.
Need help installing Google Analytics on your website? Contact us; this is one of the many services we provide our clients.
Written by Corrie Scott, October 19th, 2011
Every question has an answer, or does it? Increasingly popular social networking website Formspring.me may possibly have the answer to that very query. Formspring.me allows users to post questions as well as answer a multitude of questions on a variety of topics such as health, business, beauty, and technology. Recently
releasing a scalable technology in the form of a mobile app with photo sharing capabilities, Formspring.me is truly answering to their user’ needs. By giving their users the ability to respond and receive push notifications on their phones, Formspring.me is encouraging their users to communicate even while on the go. With the addition of a photo sharing capability, they are tapping into their consumer’s desire of proving a point with a visual. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words!
Why Formspring?
Essentially a question and answer platform, you may ask what gives Formspring.me an edge over Facebook or Twitter? Although both social giants Facebook and Twitter allow users to post any content they desire, their primary focus is not centered on questions. By limiting the type of content and type of status updates posted, Formspring.me has created its own niche in the social networking space.
Benefits for businesses both small and large include tapping into the consumer’s mindset and listening to the types of questions their consumers want answered. Every entrepreneur’s dream essentially lies in finding a solution to a problem or question commonly asked among a target group of individuals. Businesses may also gain a substantial competitive advantage by asking the right questions prior to development phases for new products or ventures, essentially saving them a considerable amount of time and money.
Formspring.me is free, easy to use, and easy to understand. Its simplistic design and format create a comfortable atmosphere for users to ask their smallest or biggest queries. The only question left to answer is, what is YOUR question?
