We All Need Passive Income!
Alright, so everyone would love another income stream. Lately we’ve been seeing a trend of clients setting up online stores that provide products and services to generate a passive income stream. It’s a passive income stream because these are people who have jobs and are just looking for another income to pay for things like vacations or maybe to save for retirement.
For example, we have a client who made a deal with a manufacturer to sell their products online. He now not only uses his online store to sell products, he uses it to automatically supply the brick and mortar businesses that re-sell his products. We’ve set up his store so when anyone securely purchases a product from his website, it’s automatically packaged and shipped from the manufacturer and our client’s only effort is to read the receipt emails that come in with every purchase.
If you have a product you’d like to bring online, talk to me and we can discuss your options.
Reasons Why You Should Be Using RSS Feeds
A really cool feature that we add to all of the websites we make is an RSS feed. RSS stands for: Really Simple Syndication. So basically, whenever a web blogger (like yourself) makes a blog post such as this one, the post gets syndicated through other channels that are connected to the blog.
So, let’s say you find my blogging to die for and want to keep up to date with all of my intellectual, interesting, and entertaining musings; you would click on the button that looks like this: 
When you have this page show up on your screen, you can either select a reader from the box on the right, or click on the “View Feed XML” link and have the feed exported to your mail handling program.
In the case of the mail handling program, you would answer the security questions with a yes and presto, every time I write another blog post, a snippet of the newest musings from ADC Online will be in your inbox under feeds.
Reasons why you should be using RSS feeds:
Check out the “Share the Knowledge” icons below. You’ll find an RSS icon in there as well. It will subscribe you to the comment feed of this post. That could be handy if you want notification of comments on this post.
Buzzword Bingo!
When new technologies and new methodologies emerge on the internet, people make up new words to try and communicate these new ideas with others. There really isn’t any problem with buzzwords unless they are used to confuse people. All too often people use buzzwords in order to sound knowledgeable about a subject.
Ok, I admit; I did it too, way back in high school. I try to simplify things now and explain to clients what a particular buzzword means before I start using it in conversation. I certainly don’t want to be accused of playing “Buzzword Bingo”.
The Political Communication Media
There’s no doubt that the use of Social Media is absolutely necessary in a political campaign, but what about situations where there would be little to no campaign without it? Political communication is crucial for a campaign and what is a candidate to do when the local media outlets (newspaper, TV, and radio) are less than friendly to you or your party?
I know the media is supposed to be unbiased, but we’ve all seen it, more space/time given to one candidate over another. Or articles written poorly about one candidate and glow about another. It happens all the time. There are many reasons why a media outlet would prefer one over another, but if you’re not the preferred one, what are you going to do about it?
Start your own media outlet, that’s what. Through the internet and social media, you can start your own YouTube channel, blog with or without podcasting, Facebook Page, Facebook political discussion group, or forum. Especially now that the technology is just starting to catch on, you can dominate the web war while your competitor is still trying to figure out what a “tweet” is. You could be building relationships with your electorate somewhere around the time your competitors are just figuring out how to spew party jargon across their Facebook profile.
Don’t underestimate the power of the internet and the social media channels. What counts is how they’re set up, and your ability to use them to your advantage. Your best bet is to contact a social media marketer with political experience to learn how you can use social media to your political advantage.
Why don’t all my Facebook Fans get my newsfeed?
You can be proud that you have a couple of hundred fans on your Facebook page, but are they quality fans? What’s the difference really? Well, the difference is something called Edge rank. Edge rank is an algorithm that Facebook uses that determines what shows up on the newsfeed, and that includes the posts and other information from your pages.
We can all understand why everything that everyone posts on Facebook can’t possibly make it to our newsfeed, but how does Facebook go about determining what actually does show up on your feed?
EdgeRank formula
Looks complicated? Well, let’s go through it:
μe – the affinity score. How often you interact with a particular Facebook friend raises your affinity with that friend.
we – the edge weight. What interaction is going on? more weight is given to a comment than a like, for example.
de – the time delay. How long has the information been up. The longer, the less it’s worth.
So what does this all mean? Well, when all these factors are multiplied together, a high number means your object (picture, comment, tag, etc.) is more likely to show up on your Facebook friends’ newsfeed.
Taking this all into consideration, and making it simple; the people that interact with you, and you with them, are more likely to get your fresh objects in their newsfeed.
See the f8 video from April 21, 2011
Why am I not showing up on Google? Part 2
Part 2 of the series:
Why Am I Not Showing Up On Google?
In the last post we took a look at some reasons why a website may not show up at all on a Google search, and then explored how using optimized keywords can get a website to rank higher on a Google search. Now, as promised, why the type of website you have can also play a role in search engine ranking.
Basically, to be properly represented on the net with a website, you will need either a static HTML site, a dynamic blog/Content Management Site, or a combination of both.
HTML sites are very customizable and that’s their best advantage. A good web designer can make art with a website. If you need that kind of customization, then you will probably have to use HTML. For the most part, the web presence that will absolutely have to be completely HTML will be a rare type of presence. However, we have found a great number of static HTML sites on the net that are simple, and usually generated from a template.
The clients that come to us asking why they rank poorly in search engines usually have this type of site. I’ve heard these sites referred to as “set it and forget it” sites, or “build it and they will come” sites. The truth is, there is no setting and forgetting on the web, and if no one knows about it, they won’t come. Static HTML sites–even .net sites fall short when it comes to being found on search engines, unless they’re constantly updated and optimized.
Consider carefully the trade off between beauty of a site and search-ability. I know of companies that have spent tens of thousands of dollars for a gorgeous site that is virtually impossible to find on Google except for a few useless keywords. There are ways to be found anyway, but you probably don’t stand a chance against your competitors site that’s uglier, cheaper, and ranks way higher for the keywords you want.
In my opinion, there is no sense to having a website that no one can find, and I’m very weary of someone that would sell a website that is impossible or nearly impossible to find. The ability of a site to be found and ranked is absolutely essential to a public website. Part of the reason for writing this post was to rant about the web designers that build these useless sites and charge a lot of money for them. I’m talking about reputable companies with big name clients. They make useless sites! I digress…
Dynamic sites like WordPress fare much better in the search engine department. A few years ago, the big idea was to combine the customization of a static HTML site with the search engine favoring dynamic blog. This wasn’t a bad idea at the time, but that time has passed as well. Today’s site is all dynamic: there are WordPress sites on the net that look and feel just like their older HTML counterparts but work very well with search engines. They have interactive components that allow the audience of your dynamic site to interact directly with you. You can now generate your own fresh content and post it in real time through all your social media channels with one click because it can now all be interconnected. That means your Facebook page, RSS feeds, YouTube channel, LinkedIn account, etc., can all be updated easily from your website. Google loves fresh content and link backs!
WordPress can also be easily optimized for mobile devices, and those little QR codes you see on many product labels and print ads can also be simply connected and tracked.
Basically, if you’re at, or near the leading edge of website technology, you will rank higher in search engines for your keywords. If you have a site that is old technology and isn’t optimized, you won’t have nearly as high a ranking. It just makes common sense.
Social Media is Not Advertising
When I tell people I’m a social media marketer, people often respond with something along the lines of “So you’re in advertising…”
Well, yes and no. Yes I do use social ads on Facebook and yes I do generate some content and creative that would be classified as advertising, but no, social media marketing is not about advertising.
It is about generating interest and making connections. That may not sound like a completely worthy venture for business, but it is and I’ll tell you why: no business survives without a network of connections. You must respect your connections, they are valuable people. Social media allows you to not only connect with them, but with their network of equally valuable people.
You wouldn’t go to a business cocktail meeting and advertise your business to everyone in the room, or the next time you’ll be having cocktails alone, on your balcony with only your thoughts for company. Think about it for a minute; if one of your connections needed the widget that your company sells, wouldn’t they already know you sell them? Unless they are the newest of the new connections, they probably already know you sell widgets and didn’t connect with you to get spammed with widget ads.
The idea of social media marketing is to keep you and your widgets top of mind for the next time someone in your audience (or your audiences’ audience) is in the market for a widget. Instead of spamming your audience with advertising, (of which we are all inundated with) provide them with some useful, interesting, or entertaining content related to the widget product/industry. You need to make connections, widen your network, and grow your business, but a sure shot way to get “de-friended” or have your feed blocked is to advertise relentlessly to your connections.
Can you advertise with social media marketing? Yes, but keep it less than about 20% of the time. Maybe only when you have a super mega blow out special on French Dijon widgets.
Every Political Campaign Needs a Social Media Manager
In a political campaign team, there’s the candidate, the campaign manager, the volunteer manager, but do you have a Social Media manager? As campaigns move increasingly on to the web, and connecting with constituents through the Internet becomes crucial, every campaign now needs an online manager.
Using social media in a campaign is not about a couple of blog posts, a website, and a few tweets. You will have an online manager with staff, and responsibilities such as (but not limited to):
- Online reputation
- Determining who the players are in the online political field
- Determining where to have a presence
- Becoming a voice in important social media channels
- Monitoring and if necessary, controlling conversations and comments
- Tending to, eliminating, or ignoring online trolls
- Recommending channels for the candidate to personally connect in
- Recording, reporting, and deciphering metrics
- Monitoring the opposition
We were recently part of a campaign with almost all candidates having an online presence. The top three candidates had: website/blogsite, Facebook page (one had a locked profile not a page). Our candidate also had a LinkedIn profile, and a Twitter account. Our candidate’s web site added pages almost weekly, with more and more content as time went on especially near “e” day. He was tweeting three or four times a day with useful messages. His Facebook page was constantly getting comments, and he was commenting back. We were also monitoring important forums and pages. As for the other guys; one did nothing online except set up his channels and not so much as review them for the duration of the campaign. The other had some comments in his Facebook page, a blog of self promotion, and no presence outside of that. Needless to say, our candidate dominated the online media. Oh, and won the election.
I’m not saying that you will win the election if you have a competent online manager, I’m just saying that without one you will be missing out on a huge opportunity to effectively connect with the people that are voting. Your online manager and their staff are responsible both for the message of your online campaign and the messages online about your campaign. A social media marketer experienced in political campaigns can guide your online team to success.
The End of FBML
The end of FBML: Tomorrow marks the end of an era for Facebook:
Starting Friday, March 18th, you will no longer be able to create new FBML apps and Pages will no longer be able to add the Static FBML app. While all existing apps on Pages using FBML or the Static FBML app will continue to work, we strongly recommend that these apps transition to iframes as soon as possible. Lastly, we want to be clear that our deprecation of FBML does not impact XFBML, such as the tags that support social plugins.
Platform Updates: Operation Developer Love By Nikolay Valtchanov – Friday at 9:40pm http://developers.facebook.com/blog/
So what does this mean? Basically, from tomorrow on, you have to make any Facebook pages and apps in iframes. So if you’re not handy in iframes, you’ll have to learn them–or hire us to do them for you 
.
When it comes to Facebook pages, an iframe works like a window within a Facebook page that shows content from outside Facebook. So If I have an HTML page stored on my server, I can point to it in Facebook and show it on my page. Basically, it’s that simple. If you check out ADC Online’s Facebook page you’ll see that we’ve taken it one step further and actually pointed our Facebook page to a specially modified WordPress website. Handy for clients versed in WordPress, so they can keep their own Facebook page fresh with new content.
As for FBML? Well, no one is saying exactly when Facebook is going to stop supporting pages and apps currently running FBML, they’re just saying on March 18th no new apps or pages will be made with it. The complete depreciation of FBML may not take place for years, but as far as I can tell, no one is saying for sure.
Social Media & Email Marketing P B & J
While Social Media is the best thing since sliced bread to promote small business, one of the rules of social media etiquette is ‘Do Not Advertise’ which leaves business owners scratching their heads trying to figure out how advertise their products/services and how to integrate Social Media with their other Internet Marketing efforts. Read more
