Usually, something that is solid, that doesn’t move, that is unchanging, immobile, etc…is something we rely on, something that can be counted on, something that seems like a steady foundation. Almost comforting, if you will.

But not in the modern world of marketing. When it comes to your web presence, you don’t want to be described as unchanging or immobile. Your web presence needs to be…ENGAGING.

That’s what intrepid marketers do. [More text below video]

[In the video below, I discuss the value of an engaging web presence:]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek9hJljaWQ0]

Here are a few tactical ideas you can use to provide an engaging web presence:

1. Incorporate a blog into your site.
2. Allow comments on your blog.
3. Respond and engage people when they comment.
4. Provide forums to facilitate conversation.
5. Invite guest contributors.
6. Connect people to your social web tools, like Twitter.
7. Utilize surveys tools.
8. Solicit questions from your audience…
9. …and be sure to answer them!
10. Make it easy to share your content.
11. Invite people to join your e-newsletter.
12. Use an Instant Messenger plug in to invite conversation. Hold regular hours.
13. Provide content with various mediums, such as video and audio.

The items listed above are not new. They are not rocket science. In fact, I suppose when you reviewed the list, you probably said something along the lines of “no kidding.”

Yet I continue to be amazed how many entrepreneurs have chosen not to incorporate these simple tactical options into their web presence.

But that said, it is what you do with these ideas that matter. Here are a few reasons why having an engaging presence matters:

1. Strengthens your brand.
2. Allows relationships to develop. This is where the sales come from.
3. Simplifies process of testing – and getting feedback on – new ideas.
4. Does a better job educating people about you and your business.
5. Makes it easier to teach and help and serve others.
6. Allows for better story telling.
7. Not to mention provides fresh and unique content – updated regularly – that keeps people coming back for more.
8. Oh, and added Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strength.

At the end of the day, it is the safe and easy path to build a static website – one that is solid, reliable, and unchanging. But dare I say it is lazy? And boring? Static sites just don’t cut it any more in this fast-paced, conversational, and engaging world we now live in.

What do you think?

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I’ve been doing some reading and experimenting on this topic. I think social search/real-time search is an important step forward for the social web. Big time. In this episode, I claim that intrepid marketers fully embrace this, and aggressively seek to take advantage of it. Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGZhDhRN93g]

Here is a VIDEO from Google to get you up to speed!

Learn how to Be Intrepid here!

I came across this video with some suggestions on how to better optimize your videos. Enjoy!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NPmwoCBYUY]
[H/T to Justin Levy]

CLICK HERE to listen to my most recent webinar, The Social Media Feeding Frenzy. A nice simple intro into how social media can be an important part of your business marketing. Learn some key assumptions, some basic concepts to building and growing community, a few ideas on how to use social media to market your business, and what tools you might consider exploring for your business.

And lastly, learn the amazingly simple secret to social media success…

Enjoy!

ASSUMPTIONS

• Marketing has changed.
• We all use it differently.
• Constantly evolving.
• Learning never stops.
• Accept transparency.
• Lots of experts and advice.
• No rules. But…

GUIDELINES

• Be yourself.
• But it’s not about you.
• Always give value.
• Seek to build relationships.
• Connect people.
• Sustained effort.
• Size doesn’t matter.
• Build community is the main goal!

BUSINESS APPLICATIONS

• Identify/observe/engage prospects.
• Multiple touch points.
• Real-time feedback/market research.
• Monitor all the chatter – about you, company, competition, field.
• Live your brand (personal vs. company).
• Let SM flow through everything!
• Empower others.
• Customer experience.
• Building loyalty.
• Think through a strategy.
• Improved SEO.
• Monitor/track progress (increase in qualified leads, decrease in customer-service complaints, increased traffic, increased PR activity, increase in sales, increase in repeat business, improved cross-selling, more referrals).

THE TOOLS

• Blogs
• Twitter/Facebook/Myspace/LinkedIn
• YouTube/Flickr
• Podcasts/video.
• Social bookmarking sites
• Efficiency tools (Ping.fm/RSS)

For anyone who blogs, you must read this post by Chris Brogan:

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/40-ways-to-deliver-killer-blog-content/

Todd Schnick.  Be Intrepid.  www.intrepid-llc.com

I can’t accept credit for the concept.  But I call this blogging strategy I have adopted “blogging by thirds.”

Actually, I first heard about this strategy from Russell Fair, an Atlanta-area web designer and SEO consultant.  And until I actually put it into practice, the growth rate of my blog was slow.  Steady, but way slow.

The three-part strategy goes like this:

1.  Spend only one-third of your time on your own blog.  By this I mean managing and writing your own content.  Fresh content is very important, you need to update your blog at least several times a week in my opinion.  But people aren’t just going to magically appear and visit your blog if you spend all day admiring your own work.

2.  Spend one-third of your time finding and reading other blogs.  I hate to break it to you, but you are not the only person blogging on your subject matter.  There are millions of blogs out there, and more coming every day.  But don’t look at those as competition – look at them as a rich treasure trove of content and valuable learning information.

3.  Spend one-third of your time commenting on those other blogs.  Agree with writers, disagree with writers, but get out there and contribute.  Most importantly, include a link to a related posting from your own blog.  That tactic alone will have an impact on your SEO scoring.  And by commenting on other blogs, those blog hosts will appreciate your contribution, and will likely return the favor.  Or maybe even add you to their blogroll.

Until I learned this “blogging by thirds” strategy, my blog was growing very slowly.  But as soon as I started commenting on other blogs, I started to get noticed.  My readership started to grow – FAST.  And as a side benefit, I have made new friends and found some really great blogs that I follow to this day.

Mix in strategic use of other social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and you will be pleasantly surprised by your increased traffic.

But remember – it still takes time.  One thing I learned once I started reading all those new blogs?  The bloggers that have built a national following all claimed it took years to get where they are today.  So, patience.  Your blog will grow.  But you do have to market your blog as you do any other product or service.

Employ the “blogging by thirds” strategy, and you will start to see results.  Good luck!

Todd Schnick.  Be Intrepid.  www.intrepid-llc.com

Old verses New?  New Age verses Old School?  The more things change the more things stay the same? 

If you ask people in marketing whether there is a difference between social media and traditional marketing, you are likely to get different opinions.  And that’s ok.  But keep an eye out on the blogs – cuz this debate will be written about often.

But when my clients ask me about a difference between the two, I say that they are the same, but different.

How are they the same?  For one thing, there really is no difference between interacting with “friends” on Facebook or “followers” on Twitter than interacting with guests at your local Chamber networking event.  You are making relationships, gaining referral sources, and building a community of friends with the long-term intention of helping each other out.  They are both “networking” – one of them is just on-line.

But there is a difference between social media and direct response marketing.  One is networking, but the other is soliciting a direct response from a prospect to take further action, whether that is a sale or seeking more information.  You don’t – and shouldn’t seek to – make hard sales pitches at networking functions.  (You know what I mean – when someone on Facebook is constantly making comments about their products and services - it is annoying).

The point?  Social media is here to stay, and you are a fool to not get on board.  But you are also a foolish to abandon traditional marketing tactics – they aren’t going anywhere.  And if done right, still very effective.  The key is integrating all these tactical tools into your overall marketing plan.

I continue to be amazed at how much traffic is driven to my blog from sources such as Twitter and Facebook.  But I also continue to be pleased with the response I get from direct response.  They are different tactics, but achieving the same goal – building a list of qualified prospects and growing a list of referral partners.

Your customers and prospects all make buying decisions differently.  And employing different tactics may help you cast a wider net to effectively reach everyone in your target niche market.  It’s like using a complete tool box verses fixing every problem with a hammer.

Social media and traditional marketing shouldn’t be a choice of one or the other.  Integrating them is the key to success.  Good luck!

Todd Schnick.  Be Intrepid.

I happened upon this video on YouTube, which is an interview of Tim Ferriss on his strategic use of Twitter:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk2jDqrSFps&hl=en&fs=1]

Tim is right.  You must find your own way to use Twitter, and all other social media for that matter.  Everybody will use it differently.  I am still modifying my Twitter strategy, but I have been pleasantly surprised at the new friends/connections I have made, access to material/resources that I never found before, and most important, how much this tool is driving traffic to my blog (and I don’t have a very large following yet…).

Twitter isn’t for everyone.  But you should at least experiment with it.  It might just change your marketing paradigm!

Follow me!   http://twitter.com/toddschnick

Todd Schnick.  Be Intrepid.  www.intrepid-llc.com

With my recent awakening in social media, and with my new found mission to educate as many people as I can to its merits, I have determined another strategy that I will recommend to existing clients and new prospects.

When you create a new website – or make the decision to upgrade your existing one – it should be a blog.  Or at least utilize one.

For most of the last two years, I had a blog and a separate company website.  I spent all my time with the blog.  I rarely changed or even looked at the static website.  I made the decision recently to bail on both – and start a new blog from scratch. 

I am not sure if I was damn lucky, or flippin’ brilliant – but it was the best move I could have made.  My readership continues to grow, and faster than I ever imagined.

Granted, I have a long ways to go to get where I want to be, but I am at least on my way.  The whole reason I started blogging in the first place was to accomplish a few things: build a community of friends and prospects that could ultimately be good referral sources.  I wanted to have a means to demonstrate expertise.  And I wanted a way for people to find me, instead of me having to find them.

It’s working.  And then some.

Amongst other services, I do website design for small business – for people who need a web presence but can’t afford to spend big money on site design.  At least not yet.

Of the three I am working with at this current time, all three are likely to start a blog as the basis for their web presence instead of a static site.  And I couldn’t be more excited for them.  All three of them are in VERY competitive markets.  All three need and want to differentiate themselves from their competition.  And all three have a lot to offer the market place in content and knowledge.

Instead of a boring website with a home page, an about us page, a services page, and a rate sheet – all three will have an interactive community where people can share ideas and knowledge about their respective industries.  And while they are at it, will get a host of traffic to their blogs that might, just might, generate some business.

So, if you want a interactive and positive reaction when people visit your website verses crickets chirping or the sound of a dull thud, when you make the decision to create a new website, strongly consider a blog.

It will change the way you market your business.  And more importantly, allow you to take full advantage of social media and networking tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.  And it will considerably strengthen your SEO too.

At that point, company growth might just become exponential…

Todd Schnick.  Be Intrepid.  www.intrepid-llc.com