Posted by: Chet Woodside on July 3rd, 2009
Category: Twitter Roundup
Viewed: 642 times
The dog days of summer are sneaking up quick, Here is our monthly list of top Twitter findings relating to Small Business and what is possible for you online:
Brand Strategy: The Art of Branding (smbmarketingguide.com)
Nine key steps for all branding, regardless of the medium.
Twitter Source: @tasty_links
Web Nerd Terminology (Explained) (css-tricks.com)
Not sure what all this web jargon is you keep hearing? Give this article by Chris Coyier a read.
Twitter Source: @chriscoyier
15 Essential Checks Before Launching Your Website (smashingmagazine.com)
Your business has gone through the whole process of getting a site created or redesigned all that's left now is taking it live. Before you launch the site be sure to double check these 15 items.
Twitter Source: @gaksdesigns
One Page Vs. Multi Page Checkout Process (proimpact7.com)
Does one page checkout really decrease your shopping cart abandonment? Here is a well written article and informative video discussing the topic.
Twitter Source: @jbillingsley
10 Tools to Improve Your Site’s Usability on a Low Budget (webdesignerdepot.com)
Please test your websites usability, periodically is ideal. It's one of the smartest things you can do, the website is a tool for your small business why not check now and then to be sure that tool is running well. This article provides you with 10 Low cost Usability testing options
Twitter Source: @DesignerDepot
SEO Best Practices: SEOmoz's New Policies Based on Updated Correlation Data (seomoz.org)
SEOmoz is a well respected SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Resource, this is their updated SEO Best Practices list
Twitter Source: @robangeles
Google Analytics is Killing Your Website (bradleyspencer.com)
Google Analytics is a valuable tool, you can quantify your efforts. That said if you have no outlined website goals what determines success or failure, learn more about "Actionable Analytics" and start moving away from the I got "x" visits this month vanity evaluations.
Twitter Source: @briancray
New to twitter? Check out some of what Jess Sloss from socialsquared.com has to say about Twitter and social media in General.
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Posted by: Chet Woodside on July 1st, 2009
Category: Seminars
Viewed: 762 times
Using an Analytics tool on your website is a critical part of your online marketing plan. Analytic tools allow you to quantify your online marketing efforts, the data collected means that you no longer need to make blind faith online marketing decisions. Many new users to any analytic tool get overwhelmed by all the reporting metrics available to them through their analytics tool. This article is meant to help get your small business over that first hurdle, we'll focus on Google Analytics because it's by far the most common tool people coming into eBusiness Connections use or have heard of.
Part One: Understand The Jargon
When first logging into Google analytics you will come across a "Dashboard", the dashboard is simple a quick view of some key metrics. By default you should see the following reporting options:
- Visits
Represents the amount of people who have visited your website in a selected time range.
- Pageviews
Are incremented each time a page on your website is viewed.
- Pages/Visit
A "Visit" can have many "Pageviews", the Pages/Visit report divides "Pageviews" by "Visits" giving you an average number of pages viewed per visit.
- Bounce Rate
Ever found a web page, realized it’s not what your looking for and immediately left the website? That’s called a bounce, the "Bounce Rate" lets you know what percent of "Visits" to your site are bounces.
- Avg. Time on Site
The Report represents the average time each of your "Visits" spent on the website.
- % New Visits
The "% New Visits" report lets you know what percent of your website "Visits" are new.
- Map Overlay
Breaks your "Visits" out into Country, Province/State, City originating locations.
- Traffic Sources Overview
Where did the traffic to your small businesses website come from? That is what the "Traffic Sources Overview" report let you know. There are three core traffic sources inside Google Analytics they are:
- Direct Traffic:
"Visits" who typed your website name into their web browsers (Not sure what a web browser is? Your not alone) address bar.
- Referring Sites:
"Visits" that came to your site from another website.
- Search Engines:
"Visits" that came to your website via Google, Bing (formerly MSN Live Search), Yahoo, Ask or any of the other search engines on the market.
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- Content Overview
Breaks out the popular and not so popular sections of your website, there's lots of options inside this report. It's well worth taking your time to see what is inside this section.
I would also strongly suggest spending a few hours looking through the Google Analytics Help section and reading Avinash Kaushiks well written "Web Analytics Demystified" blog post.
Tags: Analytics
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Posted by: Chet Woodside on June 1st, 2009
Category: e-Commerce, Marketing, Internet Marketing, Twitter Roundup
Viewed: 607 times
The blog has been quiet for some time now, we have been doing some house cleaning. In the coming months there will be some interesting changes, one of these changes is our presence on Twitter.
Twitter is a brilliant source for News and Information. In this the first of many Twitter Monthly Roundup posts I'll share with you some of the best articles I found related to small business online. If you would like to find us on Twitter look for @ebc_chet and @ebc_ali.
Put Ad on Web. Count Clicks. Revise (NYtimes.com)
A good read that talks about the strengths of data analysis when adevertising online.
How site personas can enhance your site. (boagworld.com)
When developing a website it's a great idea to create user personas, it's a great exercise for understanding the readers coming to your website. Have you overlooked you websites persona though? It's equally as important, this article will explain why.
7 Tips for Effective Calls to Action (blog.hubspot.com)
Have you defined your websites goals? If so is your call to action statement well designed? A good read talking about the importance of well designed call to action statements.
12 Tips For Designing an Excellent Checkout Process (smashingmagazine.com)
Shopping Online can be a painful process, help ease the pain and make your customers experience shopping at your online store secure, reliable and easy.
9 Essential Principles for Good Web Design (psd.tutsplus.com)
It's all about the details, this article is a little more web developer focused however it's still a valuable read for any company that is relaunching or getting a new website developed.
How to Improve Your Branding With Your Content (smashingmagazine.com)
Your content is a very large part of your Companies branding online, Rick Sloboda wrote an excellent article for Smashing Magazine discussing this very topic. For all you Vancouver locals, Rick has been a long time speaker for eBusiness Connections and he has an upcoming "Writing for the Web" Seminar on June 8th. You can register for this seminar at the Small Business Education Center
Creating Your Own Deadlines and Setting Aggresive Goals for Your Business (thenetsetter.com)
A great read discussing the benefits to setting aggressive goals for your business.
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Posted by: Chet Woodside on February 11th, 2009
Category: Blogging, Marketing, Social Media
Viewed: 1,055 times
Many small growing businesses in BC are about to take their first steps into the Social Media world. There is lots of information available online to help small businesses understand how to approach social media in fact there is so much information that everything can get a little confusing.
Below is a collection of articles and videos that I have stumbled on, they are solid reads and should help to answer some early stage questions that any small business entering into social media may have:
1. Becoming More Social
An overview article that discusses marketing and preparing for marketing online using Social Media.
2. When Your Business Gets Trashed Online
You work hard to make your customer happy but sometimes things go offtrack. This article discusses how to prepare and handle a poor review of your company online.
3. Whipping the Social Media Beast in 30 Minutes a Day
The name says it all, many business owners feel that Social Media will take all their (or an employees) time. This blog post will help you to understand that venturing into social media doesn't require a platoon of dedicated people chained to their seats for 8 hours a day.
4. Giant Cocktail Party: Social networking – good for small business?
A video snippet with Seth Godin describing the social media landscape and how to use the tools out there effectively. I also suggest looking at other video snippets from the "New Perspective on Business" discussion that Seth was involved in, some very informative video.
5. If I Started Today
Chris Brogan reflecting on how he would approach Social Media if today was day one for him. The first point about listening is great, many businesses overlook this aspect when planning for social media.
You may notice that many of the articles I have mentioned live at OpenForum.com a few weeks ago I found this website. There are some interesting articles and videos at openforum.com and it's well worth the look.
E-business Connections is also hosting our very first Social Media Seminar on February 18th at 1pm, the seminar is being delivered by Jess Sloss a Vancouver based Social Media Strategist.
Tags: Social, Media,, Small, Business,, Social, Networking,, Marketing,, Blogging,,
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Posted by: Chet Woodside on December 31st, 2008
Category: General eBusiness
Viewed: 1,016 times
The New Year is only hours away and, like many others, eBusiness Connections had made some resolutions of its own. In 2009, eBusiness Connections plans to deliver more information about emerging industry tools and trends, including how these tools can help your small business operate and market itself more economically.
We have decided to focus on five key blog series this year:
- Social Media: Dip Your Toe In
What is social media and can your growing small business make use of it?
- Do You Want to Use a Software as a Service (SaaS) Application?
What is SaaS and how can it help your small business grow?
- Do You Need Online Video to Sell Your Product?
Is online video right for your small business?
- Your Brand Online
How the web changed branding and what your small business can do to take advantage of these changes.
- Website Content Management System (CMS) Evolved
The new players in the market and how these CMS's help you maintain your business's website.
Social Media: Dip Your Toe In
"Social media" is simply a buzzword (have you ever heard of non-social media?) that refers to new communication platforms online. Recently, Jess Sloss published an article for SocialSquared discussing that the public expects your small business to have a social media presence. The key to social media is understanding its strengths and weaknesses. Once you gain this understanding, you can develop a marketing plan based on social media and choose specific tools/platforms that best suit the needs of your business.
Do You Want to Use a Software as a Service Application?
Software as a Service (SaaS) is an emerging online industry of hosted software tools your company can use. These tools aim to remove common software burdens, including software maintenance, ongoing operation, ongoing support and high up-front costs. Is SaaS for your growing small business? Are you looking for an invoicing tool or a Web Content Management System with built-in support? This blog series is meant to help you understand the pros and cons of SaaS, as well as how it may help your small business grow.
Do You Need Online Video to Sell My Product?
Why does everyone seem to be on YouTube and why do individual blogs have video? Could your business market itself through videos and podcasts? What about broadcasting your next event via the web? Now, more than ever, online video broadcast capabilities are much more viable. Online video does not just include promotional material. How about conferencing your next multi-city office meeting? This blog series will help you understand what resources exist regarding video online, and how it may benefit a small business owner.
Your Brand Online
The web has changed marketing and brand identity online. Now, your brand is often established and re-affirmed online based on how people speak about your business. It'ss time to put away the soapbox and start a conversation with your customer. Listening to your customer may prove to be the best branding and research decision your business will make. Checkout mystarbucksidea.com or DunkinDonuts Twitter page to get an idea of what we are talking about. This blog series will help you understand how listening and speaking with your customers online will strengthen and solidify your brand's identity.
Website CMS Evolved
Managing your business website is easier than you think. The Content Management System arena on the web has grown tremendously. The small business owner now has very good paid solutions, open source, and SaaS web content management tools at their disposal. Understanding whether your business needs a CMS and how to choose the correct one for your needs is the focus of this blog series.
Over the course of 2009, our goal is to provide the small business owner with the information needed to direct its presence in the online world. These five focused blog series have been planned based on the questions you ask us most, and we are eager to provide you with the answers. eBusiness Connections would also like to hear more about the information your small business craves. Please feel free to email us at info@e-bc.ca with any questions or suggestions you have.
Have a Happy New Year!
Tags: Website, CMS, Evolved,, Your, Brand, Online,, Online, Video,, SaaS, Applications,, Social, Media
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