Today I got another link exchange request from a former client. You know those requests; she asked me if I would link my company’s website to her company’s site. Maybe I shouldn’t announce this to the world but I am usually happy to do this.

So what’s the point? How important are these exchanges?

To understand the why, we’ll start with understanding what a link actually is. Google (as well as Bing and the other search engines), want the most useful sites to appear at the top of the search results. They assume that when a webmaster links to your site, they’re vouching for the usefulness of your site.

Not all links are equal.

A link from an authoritative source is considered more valuable in digital marketing. It’s better to have Apple link to your site than to have Bill’s Computers link to you. The authority that a site has is measured with Google PageRank. It’s at the heart of Google’s ranking algorithm. It takes into account the content of the site and the sites that link to it. The score ranges from 0-10 (with 10 being the best). The average PageRank is estimated to be about 2.2. Though any link is good, getting a link from any site with an above average PageRank will really help you with your SEO (search engine optimization).

Link Building

So this brings us back to those link requests you get. Like I said, I’m happy to do this. That’s especially true if you or your business have a relationship with me or my business. The exchange helps to boost my PageRank and ultimately helps me appear higher in the search engine results. It does something else too and that is it expands my sphere of influence…which is a topic for another post.

Here are 4 tips for boosting your link building program:

1. You have some leverage with your suppliers so start there. Send an email to your contact there and ask them if they would be willing to link to your page. It’s only fair to link back to them but because of your leverage, you may not want to.

2. Your distributors and clients want you to be successful. Don’t be bashful! Ask them if they would be willing to do a link exchange with you. It’s good for them too!

3. Post on Facebook and LinkedIn that you are looking for partners willing to exchange links with your website.

4. Drop me a line if you’d like to do a link exchange! Click to contact me!

9:30 am  •  19 January 2012

I am becoming increasingly convinced that the toughest part of digital marketing is blogging. It’s not tough to start a blog. In fact, Wordpress, Blogger and Tumblr make it incredibly easy (and free!). It’s really easy to write your first few posts – you’ll feel like they almost write themselves.

The toughest thing about blogging is what I call Blog Block.

Blog Block is the challenge that every blogger faces. Simply put, it’s keeping the blog going. It strikes every blogger differently but for me, it comes after the fifth post. Blog Block is what happens when the enthusiasm of starting your blog diminishes leaving you with nothing but big plans and a domain that is the digital equivalent of a ghost town.

For some, Blog Block is brought on by outside forces. Maybe it’s your naysayer aunt or possibly the lack of comments on your posts. More likely though it’s just your own ability to motivate yourself. Whatever the case, every blogger encounters it and it kills nearly all blogs. According to a survey by Technorati, 95% of blogs are abandoned.

Here are 5 tips to beating Blog Block:

1.       Acknowledge up front, that you’re going to face Blog Block and commit yourself towards pushing through. Honestly, I don’t know how much this helps but I can’t imagine being successful without first setting your mind to expect success.

2.       Before you write your first post, write out 50 article ideas. Do this when you are all gung-ho about your blog and the ideas flow freely. You don’t have to flesh out all of the particulars, just pencil out some ideas. You’ll thank me for this when after your fifth post, you feel like you don’t have any more ideas.

3.       I know, this seems counter intuitive, but don’t write out a calendar of when you’ll write your articles. I’ve tried it. All it did was fill me with guilt and I began to resent my blog. Pressure is the last thing you need. I suggest that you simply put blogging on your to-do list. Get to it when the time is right. No guilt and no pressure.

4.       Until you have pushed through the Blog Block, check your article idea list and end every post with a sentence about what’s coming in your next. It’s great for readers because it connects your posts together and gives them a tease that will make them want to come back. To you, it focuses your attention. You know that you’ll get back to your blog because you said you would.

5.       As your enthusiasm wanes, you’ll notice that writing the first paragraph gets harder and harder. The perfect example is this very article. I spent 30 minutes trying to craft my opening line. Once I recognized that I was struggling, I skipped past that first graph and started writing the second. There’s a lot of pressure on that first paragraph but there’s no pressure on the second paragraph. Use that to your advantage.

Try my ideas and let me know how it works for you! I’d love to read your blog.

5:29 pm  •  14 November 2011

Not since the Internet itself, have we seen a boom like social media. Even the hype is getting hyped. In fact, in the past week I heard a speaker say if you aren’t masters of social media, then you’ve failed. On the other hand, a major publication wrote that social media was dead. Once you get through the hyperbole, The Question persists: does social media have a role in business-to-business marketing? 

A quick search of Amazon yielded 15,844 results for a search of “business social media”. It seems like a lot of people have an opinion. I know that while I faced The Question, I read a lot of these books. The overwhelming consensus is that yes, b-to-b should embrace social media. They say we should do it because it will help us brand our business as thought leaders and we’ll dominate our markets. Great. Do you buy it? And if you buy it, how do you do it?

I buy it. I faced The Question every day for five years as the marketing manager for a plastic tubing manufacturer. I think as b-to-b marketers, we need to understand some things about social that make it different from other Internet marketing.

First of all, I don’t think anyone is searching Facebook looking for plastic tubing. It would be great if they were, but they aren’t. What does happen though is that my friends, customers, distributors and suppliers have all Liked my page. The Facebook page created a meeting place. It gave me a tool for sending out useful information to the group. The Facebook page also gave all of my “Likers” an easy way to share my business with the people they do business with. I used LinkedIn the same way, giving employees a place to congregate and create their own networks.

Probably the most important part of an effective social strategy is your blog. When I started out, I found that there was little information online about plastic tubing. In my blog, I created dozens of articles about how to select and use plastic tubing. I interviewed engineers and customers and packed the blog with useful information. I created the only plastic tubing resource online and traffic quickly followed.

Twitter is unlike the other major social media tools. I quickly had far more Followers on Twitter than Facebook Fans or blog readers. Many people use Twitter only as a way to send out links to blog articles. I see a lot of those but I tend to tune them out. I’m all about branding and the way Twitter truncates URLs limits what I can achieve. Instead, I used my 140 character tweets to write short tips like, “Flexible polyurethane tubing makes installing your refrigerator ice maker easier. Freelin-Wade.com”. I think it made my Twitter feed more readable, increasing readership when I did send out a link for my blog posts. 

I am also a fan of Flickr. I posted most of our tube photography there and gained a large following. The tubing is pretty and the shots were interesting. One photo got thousands of views and though I have no idea if it generated sales, it was a successful branding mechanism.

The real trick to social media is keeping it going. The first couple of blog posts are easy, but take it from me, your motivation will wane. My suggestion is that before starting, while you’re feeling really enthusiastic, write out an idea list of 50 blog topics, 50 Facebook posts and 50 tweets. You don’t have to write the whole article or post, just the concept. It’s a lot of work to create this up front, but it’s the best way I know for getting some momentum. 

1:35 pm  •  18 October 2011  •  7 notes

On Tuesday, Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 5. Like all of Apple’s announcements, it will be carried in all of the media. Some pundits will immediately dismiss the device, some will praise it, people will get in line to buy it and Samsung will copy it.

We know all of this because we’ve seen it before. New must-have technologies come out and the early adopters clamor to get their hands on it. As a marketer though, particularly if you are a small business marketer, each new technology brings it’s own level of angst. Should you or shouldn’t you? Now or later? Oftentimes the decision is a financial one. If you can afford the LED billboard or the VOIP telephone or the mobile version of your website, then you do it. But that’s not the case for most small businesses. I have a two-step test that I like to apply to help me decide.

The first test is to ask how disruptive the technology is. If it’s just a new/faster/better PC, that isn’t disruptive. You know how an upgrade is gong to turn out. On the other hand, some technologies change everything. In 1994 I attended the CD-ROM Expo put on by AGFA in Boston. The attendees were a “who’s-who” in interactive media. The speaker giving the opening keynote said that it would be the last CD-ROM Expo. That CD-ROMs were going away because people would be able to download content over this thing called the Internet. He encouraged the audience to not think about the media, but concentrate on the content. You see, interactive content is foundational but the channel was disruptive.

The second test is to decide if it will catch on. There are two ways to do this. First, you can analyze the technology for yourself and decide how much you want it. When the iPad came out, I could tell immediately that I wanted one. This has its pitfalls. I have an iPhone…no, not the one you’re thinking of. This one was built in the 1990’s by a startup named Infogear. It was an “Internet Appliance” for Grandma to email her grandkids. On the other hand, in 1999 I was at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The hot thing at that show was a DVD recorder for home entertainment systems. At that same show was a little booth run by a company named TIVO. It was instantly obvious to me that DVD recorders were going to die a quick death.

The other way is to take a wait-and-see approach. In Geoffrey Moore’s book, “Crossing the Chasm”, he wrote about how tough it is for a new technology product to catch on beyond the early adopters and get to the majority. He estimated the chasm existed at about 15% of market adoption. In other words, there are enough visionaries and early adopters to propel a new technology to about 15% adoption. We see that a lot with technologies. When you see one pass that 15% adoption level though, you can feel better about betting on that technology. QR codes are right now crossing that chasm (at least in the US).

So when do you adopt? You know you need to embrace technology but it’s a costly mistake if you adopt the wrong technology. Just like every decision you make for your business, start with your customer in mind. A little research can go a long way toward identifying your path. If your customers are using smartphones, then you should consider making your website mobile friendly or maybe create an app. Research should be a continuous process. Good communication with your customers is the best way to head off that new technology angst.

7:18 am  •  2 October 2011