How to Avoid Social Media Burnout

posted by Valeria Maltoni

Many brands are going to be pressured to reduce the amount of money they are investing in marketing and PR. So will they see social media listening and engagement as a “marketing experiment” or will they see this as a natural extension of their customer relationship building (support, sales, partnerships etc…)?

Will customers be any less likely to be sharing opinions/likes/dislikes/issues/needs online during a recession or more?

When things are not going so well, when we feel pressure, as in uncertain economic times like we are experiencing in the current down cycle, we become even more argumentative. I do expect customer service to really take center stage. Given that, and the fact that companies are using social media more to serve customers, how can employees and companies avoid social media burnout?

While there may also be the physical stress of trying to keep up with the 24/7 social media schedule, burnout is as worrisome, as it leads to emotional damage. Signs of burnout tend to be more mental. Feelings of powerlessness, frustration, being taped, cynicism, irritability and emotional exhaustion.

Jobs in customer service can be emotionally taxing. Adding the social media component  escalates the magnitude of exposure to burnout – when caring about work seems like a total waste of energy. That transfers over to dealings with customers, who will in turn probably be more prone to sharing their opinions, frustrations, and issues online – especially during hard economic cycles.

Social media can provide a way for your employees to deal with burnout, if you’ll let them. By allowing them to take time to cultivate relationships with other people online and face to face – and not just dealing with customer issues – your employees can become more effective in their work and care for your customers better. Read more

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Filed under: Social Media , Marketing, Social Media Burnout

Don’t Worry About Duplicate Content If You Have An Authority Content Web Site

By B Hopkins

The duplicate content issue has gone back and forth on the Internet for the last several years now. There are camps that have been saying that your web site will be penalized if you have duplicate content, to the camps that are saying your web site won’t gain any benefit if it has duplicate content on it, to those that say that you shouldn’t worry about it at all. With all of these opinions flying around over the Internet, which camp should you pitch your tent in?

The basic answer is there really is no duplicate content penalty outside of your own web site. There are undesirable side effects in the search engines if your website has duplicate pages, however this article focuses on duplicate content between 2 different websites. Your web site may not benefit much if you have duplicate content (duplicate content means that your entire web page content is basically the same as another web page). However there are ways to use content on your website that is used on other web sites and not have it look like duplicate content to the search engines, but that is another article. If you don’t want to worry about duplicate content in any way shape or form, then having an authority content web site is the way to go. Read more.

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Filed under: Drive Traffic, Online Advertising and Marketing, Online Marketing, SEO, SEM, Keywords, Direct Response W, Search Engine Optimization, Web Traffic , Authority Web Site, Duplicat Content, Search Engine

“2009 Google Flash SEO”

Brian Ussery has completed some testing on Google new Flash indexing capabilities, and shared his results at beu blog.

This could be incredibly important in improving traffic to the content itself, which we have not spent nearly enough focus on yet.

October 13th, 2008 – by Brian Ussery

In case you missed their recent announcement about Flash, Google and Adobe have teamed up on a new algorithm to index text content in Flash. As a result of the new algorithm for Flash, Googlebot now indexes “textual content in SWF files of all kinds” and extracts URLs embeded in Flash.” On July 1, 2008, Google rolled out another update designed to assist Googlebot in its ability to traverse simple JavaScript, like SWFObject. While the full impact is not yet known, these technologies will redefine how Flash sites are created, constructed, designed and, as a result, optimized.

Before discussing the results of my case studies and how to optimize an actual scenario Flash site, it’s important to understand some crucial background information.

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Filed under: Drive Traffic, Online Marketing, SEO, SEM, Keywords, Direct Response W, Search Engine Optimization, Web Traffic , Adobe, Flash Indexing, Googlebot

Web Success Team Website temporarily unavailable

The Web Success Team website has been miserably hacked. Please forgive the inconvenience. For more information email us a info@websuccessteam.com

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16 Examples of Huge Brands Using Twitter for Business

Finally the big guys are jumping on the bandwagon. This is only the beginning. I predict Twitter will be used for tech support, coupons, sales, special offers and much more. Use your imagination! Read on.

by Ann Smarty

All Twitter benefits and (potential) spheres of usage are yet to be explored. However it is great to see some of huge companies already taking advantage of the tool:

• To update customers of the company deals and coupon codes:

1. Dell has created a number of Twitter profiles, each meant for different types of deals (e.g. DellOutlet posts recent refurbished Dell computer offers).

2. Starbucks posts new offers and also participates in threaded discussions of these offers with their Twitter-followers.

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Filed under: Online Advertising and Marketing, Online Marketing, SEO, SEM, Keywords, Direct Response W , Huge Brands, Twitter, Twitter Followers, Twitter for Business, Twitter Profiles

The Slingshot Effect! Web Success Team Launches New Client W

Find out how to brand and market a direct response website. Kathleen Wood Partners LLC is a growth strategist firm for leaders and businesses. As a leader in her field, Kathleen Wood, founder and CEO, commissioned the Web Success Team to build and market her new corporate website as a launching pad for her firm’s consultancy practice.

Branded for the Right Result
Branding was central to the marketing process. First by determining the firm’s unique selling proposition (USP) — developing and implementing a strategic planning process to accelerate growth and profits – measured in months not years, the Web Success Team was able to create the foundation of the site. An important part of the branding mix was to utilize Kathleen and her well-deserved reputation as an anchor on the home page. Therefore, we designed a logo to reinforce the growth concept.

Divide and Conquer
The site is also subdivided into portals to assist the visitor with instant recognition of the scope and breadth of the firm’s services. Again with the USP front and center along with benefits oriented content, the visitor can make informed choices when navigating the site. There is also a direct response opt-in feature that offers a newsletter and a sure-fire downloadable free report in return for each email capture, as well as access to an interactive Ask Kathleen feature and a viral link to recommend the site to colleagues.

Because there are multiple components of the practice, the best view was to create two navigation bars – one across the top, below the header and a vertical nav bar on the right column under Kathleen’s image. This second navigation component underscores the value of directly connecting Kathleen with her firm’s range of services. While the reader is viewing the site, they should feel that Kathleen is making a connection with the visitor — in essence a two-way mirror.

The Home Page Says it All
Planning a website, particularly the home page is a key element in the success of a site. If visitors don’t connect with the site in the first few seconds, they become passersby, not potential customers. Moreover, if the site promotes clarity of purpose to help companies move to the next level, it better deliver on its promise. The interior pages should augment the home page and again promote the firm’s services in greater detail — all with the ultimate goal of having the visitor be motivated to action — give up their email (for future marketing outreach), Ask a pressing strategic question, and/or directly contact the firm to secure a consultation — leading to a productive business relationship.

The TEAM will also be marketing the site and the firm both online and offline. Please stay tuned for our next article on the “Marketing of KWoodPartners” throughout the Internet to generate site traffic.

TeamWorks!
The TEAM is available to discuss your web development and marketing needs. Simply contact the TEAM at (818) 222-5643 or email bob@websuccessteam.com. To Your Web Success!

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Filed under: Online Marketing, SEO, SEM, Keywords, Direct Response W , Accelerating Growth and Profites, Consulting Services, Consulting Strategies, Direct Response Marketing, direct response website, Executive Facilitation, Executive Goals, Growth Strategies, Growth Strategies for Leaders, Kathleen Wood Partners, Leaders and Businesses, Motivational Speaking, Next Level, Next Level Profitability, Seed of Success, Strategic Leadership, Transforming Executive Goals, Web Success, web success business, Web Success Team

5 marketing tips for tackling Twitter

Excellent, informative. So here it is, read on.

As with other social media, the most important first step is to listen to the conversations. See what people are saying about you on Twitter. The daily thoughts of so many people can be an incredibly rich source of information on the perceptions of your brand, products and services.

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Filed under: Drive Traffic, Online Advertising and Marketing, Online Marketing, SEO, SEM, Keywords, Direct Response W , Marketing with Twitter, Twitter