Asking for information from potential customers

A frequent conversation around the office involves how much information to gather from customers and when. On our search product there is a constant discussion over whether our clients should force users to register in order to search (sometimes there are regulations around this). And then there’s the contact form that asks for every possible detail about a potential customer’s life. I counted 38 fields in one recently. Imagine meeting someone for the first time and then they ask you 38 questions about yourself.

Just because we can ask for information doesn’t mean we should. When putting together forms we should really only ask for information that we need in order to help the person who fills it out. If we aren’t sending them something in the mail do we really need to know their street address? Small things like this make a big difference.

In a conversation about the proposed privacy features of IE8, Jim Sterne devised a tiered set of access and features to give to site visitors based on the information they allow us to gather. Notice how each level of information sharing relates directly to the kinds of features the customer gets. There should be a one-to-one mapping between the data we gather and the benefit we provide.

Measuring the Conversation for Smaller Businesses

KDPaine linked to my post about measuring the conversation and noted the problem of measuring conversation share for smaller business: if your brand doesn’t generate much chatter you just won’t show up at all in Tweetrush. Here are a few quick thoughts on this. Read more

Measure your share of Twitter-based conversations using Tweetrush and Twist

Ever wonder how many different “Tweets” are released into the Twittersphere each day? That’s what Tweetrush tells you. At first glance, it’s probably not much more than an entertaining look at how other people waste their time. Then you realize that you’re wasting your time seeing how much time their wasting and so on.

Let’s see if we can use Tweetrush and Twist to inform our decision-making. Read more

Tracking print advertising with ListingNumber and Google Analytics

A common question I get involves tracking print campaigns. It came up during my panel at Inman Connect but we didn’t have time to get into the deep how-to on print advertising tracking. This post is here to remedy that oversight by giving you some step-by-step on tracking the performance of your marketing activities.

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Spectrum Youth and Family Services

Union Street Media is proud to launch the new Spectrum Youth and Family Services website. Spectrum provides housing and support services for homeless, foster, and at-risk youth.

The site makes use of custom design, multi-media integration, content management systems and integrated blog hosting and theme design.

Kevin Smith Sports

New England custom uniforms and equipment for athletic teams, Kevin Smith Sports has just been launched by Union Street Media. The site takes advantage of our flexible Content Management System for business websites.

Week in Review Overload

Too… many…. great…. posts…. this…. week…. Here we go:

The future of SEO may require being your own middleman, according to O’Reilly. Hat tip to Drew Meyers.

The Bloodhounds make note that the hard part of doing web marketing is creating the content. Here’s a choice quotation:

“Just compare the quality and depth of content Amazon has around a $10 copy of Home Buying for Dummies to the average listing for a $500k ranch on Realtor.com.”

Joel Burslem gives the Consumer Reports real estate study some thought on Future of Real Estate Marketing.

In case you missed it, Union Street Media’s Adam Fullterton provides a strategic outline for integrating social media into your online marketing via a presidential metaphor.

A lot of us talk about transparency but at 1000Watt they ponder when it’s too much.

Rothamel cuts loose with a manifesto for the recently wired realtor.

I spend a lot of time thinking about real estate search and how to improve the experience. Marc Davisson nails it over at Inman.

Doing your own SEO instead of hiring Union Street Media’s excellent SEO for real estate pros? Better be prepared to deal with the SEO Ninjas.

Happy Friday: Is this house in your neighborhood? I hope you blog some more about it.

Advanced Google Searching

In the course of my day I spend a lot of time at “the Google” doing searches. Trying to figure out what Google knows about is important to anyone doing internet marketing. This is true whether you’re doing some basic SEO work or trying to capture lift in a social media campaign.

Here are some tips for using Google like a power tool.

What does Google know about my site?

Ever feel like maybe Google has banned you? Or at least forgotten about you? Try entering this into the search bar:

site:yourdomain.com

Make sure there’s no spaces in what you put there. The results will be everything Google has in its cache (aka it’s memory) about your site. You’ll find pages that don’t even exist anymore.

You can also go to the very end of the results and if you see “…we have omitted some entries very similar….” then you know Google thinks you have duplicate content within your site (pretty common for blogs or other sites with “archive” pages).

Who does Google think is linking to me?

Here’s another fun search query:

link:yourdomain.com

As before, you don’t want any spaces. This will show you all the pages on the web that are linking to your site. Pretty handy if you want to know if anyone is talking about you online.

Use Keyboard Shortcuts

Mousing around takes time. I know this is a nerdy argument, but using the keyboard really is faster than reaching for your mouse. To get on with power searching Google using just your keyboard, sign up for the Google Labs “Keyboard Shortcuts” search interface. This lets you browse through the SERPs (search engine result pages) using the keyboard.

Even if you don’t use all the tools for navigating the page, being able to jump back to the search bar in one keystroke is really handy. Here’s the other stuff you can do:

There you go, three little tips on using Google like a pro.

Your Website is Running for Presidential Office

An online visibility metaphor

Presidential candidates travel the country to gain exposure and voice their platforms; your business should be traveling the Internet to spread the name and message of your business. In the political world we hear speeches, in the online world we read blogs. Just as your neighbor has an Obama ‘08 bumper sticker on his Subaru, a client of yours may link to your site on their Facebook page.

In the end the candidate with the most relevant policies, best speeches and most bumper stickers will usually take the White House. The website with the most inbound links and popular blog posts will rocket to the top of a Google search result page.

Step 1: Make sure campaign headquarters is staffed and ready. You want to promote a site that is appealing, useful, promotes your business objectives, and is full of good content. This is about the functionality of the site. It doesn’t matter how many people go to your site if it doesn’t convert them, a bad site with good visibility will promote your brand as “the guy everyone knows but no one uses.”

Step 2: Hit the campaign trail. Not only should you host a blog and post often but respond to comments. Be an authority! Be friendly! Be helpful! It is important to gain presence “on the road”; be sure to comment on related blogs, this will give you presence and help you start developing inbound links. As we all hear, inbound links are crucial to your internet marketing.

Step 3: Diversify, Web 2.0 style. Besides blogging there is a whole country full of social media voters. Get to know and use Facebook, Twitter, Localism, YouTube etc. All these keep your audience in tune with you and all provide inbound links as well. This is huge because as the demographic of social media users grows and ages more and more of your audience will be using social media tools. For some insightful tips on blogging as related to social media, check out Chris Brogan’s blog.

Online visibility is a cornerstone of your internet marketing, without it your website will fail to reach the critical mass required to make you President. Or whatever it is you’re after.

Union Street Media VP and Web Strategist survive athletic weekend

Union Street Media Vice-President Andy Vota (right, above) completed the 100 on 100 The Heart of Vermont Relay on Saturday with his team “The Southenders.” The team consists of Andy, Fred Lane, Hans Manske, Jeff Padgett, Parm Padgett and Dave Baroody. Each of them ran between 16 and 18 miles over roads and trails through Trapp Family Lodge, scenic Vermont villages, the Killington access road and finishing up at Okemo past nightfall. Majestic Car Rental provided transportation for the team while Union Street Media and Engineered Solutions, Inc. covered lodging. The relay race is a benefit for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Vermont.

Meanwhile, Director of Web Strategy G. Dewald competed in a sprint format Summer Biathlon at the Saratoga Biathlon Club. Dewald placed 3rd in his division thanks to some marksmanship tips he received from Erin Graham prior to the event (you know, make sure the receiver is fully screwed onto the stock and other advanced techniques).

Both employees are only limping a little bit.

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