The New Renaissance: Connect, Revise and Grow on the Web

The New Renaissance: Connect, Revise and Grow on the Web
by Matt Hill
Presented at WPPI 2010
Business Institute

Are you in charge?
Of your Website?
Of your Blog?
Of your Facebook Fan Page?

Are you aware?
Of your reputation?
Of what your customers are saying about you?
Of your standing on search engines?

Do you communicate?
With your customers?
With your peers?

If not…
You need to take control efficiently
You need to inform yourself
You need to participate
You need to communicate

Bottom line:
You must go where your customers go
You must speak in a language they understand
You must use the same tools they use
You must NOT waste their time
Avoid wasting your own time!

Let’s have a conversation

tools for talking
Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Search Engines
Mobile

The internet is Humans Communicating
… not technology.
Technology enables conversations.
Technology does not have conversations.

Technology can save you time
RSS Feeds
Social Networking Apps
iPhone/Android/Smart Phones
They help you consume and produce information immediately.

But it can be overwhelming
When is it too much?
When is it helpful?

I am overwhelmed.

Aren’t You?

I’ve made a lot of mistakes
… and learned from them, so you don’t have to!
And I have some great suggestions on how to cut through the noise, take action and get better, fast.

Who is this dude?
Marketing Communications Manager at MAC Group (12 brands)
Night/Travel Photographer
Cut Paper Artist
Film Editor / Producer
Writer / Blogger

no-media diet
I don’t watch broadcast or cable television
I don’t read newspapers or magazines
I don’t listen to the radio (except KCRW’s Eclectic 24)
Result: More time to do the things I love and less time spent thinking about things that are largely irrelevant to my life.

So what do I know about the Web?
Launched dozens of websites
Sent over 6 million HTML emails
Written hundreds of press releases, marketing copy, blog posts, emails, proposals, etc.
Launched dozens of marketing campaigns
Performed SEO on my personal and work sites
Posted hundreds of PPC ads for hundreds of thousands of clicks
Sat in more meetings than you can shake a stick at…
Studied Google Analytics for hundreds of hours

I’m here to help :)
But an important disclaimer: I’m not for hire.
I love sharing what I know, but I have a very full life and no time to consult.

Top 5 Hitlist - General
Surround yourself with talented people
Plan to make fresh content on a regular basis
Learn how to use language effectively
Try everything, make mistakes, learn
Analyze, revise, cut down and move on

1. Surround yourself with talented people
You cannot do it all by yourself. Real growth comes from delegating and outsourcing . Stick to your talents!
Fresh ideas spur growth. Doing the same thing over and over expecting different results is the definition of…
Keep an open mind for new ideas that will reach people you normally cannot.

2. Plan to make fresh content on a regular basis
Nothing is better for more traffic to your website than new content on a regular basis.
Better content with less frequency is better than low-quality content with higher frequency.
Choose a vehicle (or vehicles) for this content that doesn’t kill your productivity or creativity.

3. Learn how to use language effectively
You want people to give you money, right? Impress them by communicating clearly.
Bad English (Spanish, Chinese, Danish…) is a turn-off .
Say what you mean with the fewest words possible . Do not waste people’s time.
Make friends with a good proofer ! (or use an online service)
Misunderstandings are most often avoided by communicating clearly. Think contracts, Tweets, blog posts, comments, etc.

4. Try everything, make mistakes, learn
My favorite! I love mistakes !
You will never know if something works for you unless you give it a try .
You are not trying hard enough unless you make an occasional mistake. Apologize (after all, we’re all human), make good and move on.
Look at the mistakes. Each one is an opportunity in disguise.

5. Analyze, revise and move on
Real growth comes from Analysis
If you cannot measure your efforts, find a way
Insights from real data are better than hunches, and more actionable

Focus
EVERY time you interact, measure against this thought:
Am I providing useful information – or wasting someone else's time?

How to not waste other people's time
Consider this: Dunbar's number is a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to every other person.[1] Proponents assert that numbers larger than this generally require more restrictive rules, laws, and enforced norms to maintain a stable, cohesive group. No precise value has been proposed for Dunbar's number, but a commonly cited approximation is 150. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number
Are you trying to win a popularity contest or interact in an effective manner?

If Dunbar's number is true, how many of you are willing to whittle down your friends/followers to a small, manageable set of people who are a) interested in what you have to say and b) act, react and repeat?
Complimentary reading suggestion: Seth Godin: Tribes
Be brave enough to be a leader.

Prior to launching, fill in the G.A.P.
Goal = What is your goal for this interaction
Audience = who, specifically, do you want to address when communicating
Payoff = What is your audience's benefit?

Develop all of your marketing IN CONTEXT

How to not waste your time
Turn off all program notifications (interruptions!)
Work on one task at a time. Multitasking is a myth! See Merlin Mann’s 43folders.com - great podcast and other time-saving ideas for managing yourself
Be goal-oriented and make your priorities the important ones

Simply Explained
Search Engines, SEO, PPC
Websites
Blogs
Social Media
Email
Video/Filmmaking
Analytics

This is how people you don’t know and who don’t know your customers find you
Search (words, language, keyphrases)
What do they find?
Website
Blog
Twitter
Facebook
Own the 1st page of search results and you own your business.

Search Engines explained
People looking for stuff want something
If they find you, the content they see better be good.
Everyone uses different words/phrases to search

Search Engines Explained (con’t)
Stages of search
Accidental (looking for something else)
Research
Comparison
Price Comparison / Final Purchasing Decision
Education
Solving Probelms

The Google Gorilla
More people use Google than Yahoo! or Bing
Google owns YouTube, Gmail, Buzz, AdWords, Analytics, Docs, Calendar, Feedburner, homepages, etc.
If you only focus on Google, it’s a great start. But be advised that competition is lower on other engines.

Left side, Right side
Left side is organic
Right side is paid advertising (Pay Per Click)
Opportunities:
Get on page 1 for top 3-5 phrases
Use PPC to be on 1st page until organic results mature.
Long-term: work making content/optimizing for many longer, low-competition phrases.

vs. last year

last year

this year

vs. last year
Wayne Wallace is still #1
Has not updated website since 3/14/09
Blog updated regularly.
Lots of well-developed web properties cross-linked and designed to sell.

vs. last year
PartyPop is #2
Deep database of keyword-rich text-linked photographers
If you’re in the area, get listed.

vs. last year
WPPI is #3
Not even on the 1st page last year
Great organization to be a part of!
They have obviously been dedicated to content and SEO - with positive results.

OWN YOUR SEARCH RESULTS
twitter.com/matthill
facebook.com/matthill
flickr.com/ultimatehill (matthillart)
ultimatehill.com (blog)
matthillphoto.com
matthillart.com
vimeo.com/matthill
youtube.com/grineren (9-year old account)
linkedin.com

What to do
Monitor yourself and your competition with Google News Alerts
Add content regularly
Ask your peers/industry leaders to link to you, and offer the same in return
Get listed on Google Maps - submit your business!
Sign up for PPC and test/learn.

Tips and tricks
Look at source code
META Title, Description (Keywords not as important anymore)
Do they use analytics? (Find: “google” in code)
Inbound links ( in Google: link:yourdomain.com )
Copy on homepage?
Flash? If yes, it it a professional provider? Ask about SEO!

Homework
Write down three keyphrases that describe your business.
Google them.
Click on the first 10 links. Read, learn; this is your competition.
Revise your phrases (be unique - try for less competition).
Apply to your site.
Check your Analytics in a few weeks.

Simply Explained
Websites
Blogs
Social Media
Email
Video/Filmmaking
Analytics

Websites
You must know:
Basic HTML and CSS
These are the glue that hold digital communications together
How to write and enter META title, description and keywords
Or hire a professional service to build your site
LiveBooks, Photoshelter, Dripbook, etc

Homework
Add an Opt-in for email TODAY!
Analyze your top 5 webpages to make sure their call to action is clear and sensible (every page has a purpose!)
Add your contact info in text to ALL pages
Cross-link to/from your other sites (blog, Twitter, Facebook LinkedIn, Business Page, etc.)

Simply Explained
Websites
Blogs
Social Media
Email
Video/Filmmaking
Analytics

Blogs
When did you last post?
What is your basic plan for content?
What is your voice?
Is it SEO-friendly?
Are you using Feedburner?
Do you link out a lot?
Do you answer comments the same day?
If you don’t have a blog, what else do you do?

Blogs (con’t)
You don’t need a blog, but it’s an incredible method for portraying your personality and publishing content on a regular basis.
Search Engines love fresh content and list you higher as a reward. People love learning more about you and reward you by reading what you wrote, and perhaps commenting or linking.
Properly established, keyworded and plugin-enabled for SEO, it can drive you to page 1 on search engines.

Blogs (con’t)
Must have:
XML sitemap (that pings search engines)
“ Pretty URLs” /postname.php not /pid181.php
META Titles and Descriptions
Categories and Keywords/Tags
RSS feed, preferably pushed to Feedburner
Internal Links
Blogroll (give some link love! It will come back.)

Blogs (con’t)
Best practices
Write in your own voice, use your name
Be genuine
Do not delete mistakes, acknowledge them
Use it to engage with other people, in addition to showcasing how awesome you are!
Answer every comment the same day. If you can, email them, too.
Feature doing things you are passionate about doing. Chances are, you’ll get to do more of it.
Don’t feed the trolls.

Homework
Check for plugins that are SEO friendly, install and edit old posts.
Write a post about someone in the industry you admire. Call them and talk about it prior to posting. Email them after you post it. Watch what happens.
Write about a customer with whom you loved doing business (with permission, of course). Watch what happens.
Use a long-tail keyphrase on purpose. Check Google in a few days. See where you rank.
Put your vendors/partners on your blogroll. Ask the same in return. Inbound links are gold!
Have fun – this isn’t work ;)

Simply Explained
Websites
Blogs
Social Media
Email
Video/Filmmaking
Analytics

Social Media
Black hole or astounding opportunity?
Facebook has 400 million active subscribers, 50% daily. 100 million use mobile to access Facebook. It now has the 4th most reach out of all websites (ComScore, 2/2010) http://comscore.com/Press_Events/Presentations_Whitepapers/2010/The_comScore_Data_Passport_-_First_Half_2010/(language)/eng-US
Twitter has 75 million users, 17% active (RJmetrics) http://themetricsystem.rjmetrics.com/2010/01/26/new-data-on-twitters-users-and-engagement/
What the heck is everyone doing? Is it worth it?

Twitter’s Reach

facebook & twitter
Facebook and Twitter are examples of things built for people that grow with the people who use it.
They could not be as popular as they are without having some redeeming qualities.
Bottom line – it’s easy to have conversations with other people.
You can’t talk to a website, but you can talk to your peers/friends. And they talk to their friends, and so on.

Facebook
All ages use Facebook. Most use it every day.
Opportunities :
Advertise demographically to potential customers.
Participate where everybody else is spending time.
Business/fan page
Do you hold seminars? Great place to attract peers.
Speak with your peers about what’s going on.

Facebook gotchyas
Business pages DO NOT send notification emails when people comment/post.
You have to check regularly :(
If you don’t want people to know about your personal life, don’t invite them to be friends, invite them to be fans.

Facebook homework
Get an account (it’s not too late!)
Get your vanity URL and post on your blog/site
Start a business page (not fan page)
Invite your customers to become fans of your business
Communicate with them. Feature successes.
Offer special Facebook-only discounts or free consultation sessions.
Post iPhone photos, outtakes, videos; make your Business page content-rich.
Fan up on other photogs, watch, learn, listen & participate.

Twitter
140 characters. Really?
I am too #*&^% busy, this is easy to comprehend.
Easy to follow/unfollow.
The fastest viral delivery system.
Gives you opportunity to gain a little more insight about people you follow.
Cheap to operate (free + your time)

Twitter Homework
Determine if it’s worth your time
Follow photogs you admire. Watch, listen, learn. Do they do anything you could apply to your business?
Try tweeting the following:
Interesting content you published
RT (Re-Tweet) things you find valuable
Engage – reply, ask questions

Simply Explained
Websites
Blogs
Social Media
Email
Video/Filmmaking
Analytics

email
Worst-offending time-eating activity...
Or opportunity to move things along?

email
Problem :
People most often use email instead of a telephone conversation
Suggestion :
Solve problems via email or make it a phone call. Don’t ask questions.

email marketing
Very powerful if executed professionally. Most important elements :
Subject line
HTML design (no black or dark gray backgrounds!) Test!!!
Call(s) to action
Personalization
Appropriate frequency

homework
Pay a designer to make a template that matches your website/business communcations/blog.
Make a plan to publish regularly.
Sign up for and study other eBlasts/eNewsletters. Learn from the best.
Make a standard signoff to your email w/contact info.

Simply Explained
Websites
Blogs
Social Media
Email
Video/Filmmaking
Analytics

video/filmmaking
More videos are viewed more than searches performed
Do you make videos? Big commitment.
YouTube is 2nd-most searched website on the internet.
Keywords
Similar videos
Insights (analytics for videos)

homework
Ask yourself how you can make money with video. Is it a direct sale or indirect? This will help you decide how much it’s worth.
Plan an entire video shoot from tip to tail. Write a script (don’t shoot without one!). Shoot, edit and review.
Learn your tools. There is a huge learning curve and major investments involved in making quality videos.

Simply Explained
Websites
Blogs
Social Media
Email
Video/Filmmaking
Analytics

analytics
Without measurement and analysis, action is blind and less effective.
Make Google Analytics a coffee habit.
Learn to look at the numbers as people’s actions, not digits.
What goals do you have? Use Analytics to measure how effective our webpages are.

homework
Install Google Analytics now on all of your sites.
If your service provider doesn’t allow it, move on and find someone new.
Set goals.
Learn about your site, especially organic visits to start. That is guaranteed popular content.

homework
Daily :
Coffee time replying to emails, delegating work.
Some time reading your social feeds (if you are so inclined), commenting, re-Tweeting and publishing.
Work like the devil making beautiful photography.
Save small time at the end of the day to collect all the little photos and anecdotes into one place so you can publish them in the morning.

homework
Weekly
Set aside 4 hours each week for a personal project. Pour your love and a freedom to make mistakes into it.
Save 2 hours to look at your Google Analytics and glean actionable information from your session. Use an automated report via email/PDF as a reminder and then go diving into the data if you see something interesting.

homework
Get organized with Google Docs google.com/docs
Spreadsheets
Text
Presentations
Always one version
Sharable and collaborative

But what about "free"?
You have to give to get. Much success lately is built from sharing something of value at a zero price. The benefit is an opportunity to entice paying customers to become aware of what you offer.
It’s hard to fight against, and not understanding this powerful paradigm shift can be fatal to your business.
Additional reading: Chris Anderson: Free

All are connected, all are important
Email - eBlasts, eNewsletters
Facebook
Blogs
Twitter
YouTube/Video

Real-life Example #1
eBlasts are important!
I received this email, but saw no other announcement.
What did I do?

1) Bought the album on Amazon immediately after previewing.
2) Posted on Facebook

#3 Thought to self - Did he make a fan page on Facebook? Found it with one search and became a fan.
#4 Posted a glowing thank-you on fan page.

#5 So excited I Tweeted it.
And I used TweetDeck on my iPhone - instantly.

#6 Got an email that Kyp was now following me on Twitter

#7 Emailed friends, incredulous that someone I admire was following me. How cool!
#8 Thanked Kyp publicly in Twitter
#9 Listened to the album and enjoyed it even more, having had near-personal contact with a musician I love.

Insight break:
Email is essential - my first exposure to this was from the band fan eBlast
Having social venues where people expect them to be in place on launch crucial
Participate! I got followed and it made me talk MORE about the album!
Peer validation is a strong catalyst - Thumbs up on FB, RTs and follows on Twitter

So I had an art show.... I wanted a cost-effective way to frame 20 pieces.
I remembered meeting a fellow named Kjell at the Saturday Morning Market in Portland, OR; he showed me this great mounting brand called Plywerk. Explained discounts for artists and professionals, handed me a paper pamphlet. This was almost 1 year ago at that point.
While searching for answers, this memory popped into my head. I emailed Plywerk (forgot Kjell's name, but looked him up on the website).

I struck a financial deal with Kjell in exchange for exposure in NYC, specifically the East Village, plus my website and artist friends.
I then made a time-lapse video of making one of my pieces for the show and specifically mentioned Plywerk, and showed the mounting during the video.

...and emailed it to Kjell as proof positive that I was holding up my end of the deal, along with a link to my site where I spoke about my choice to go with Plywerk, lovingly illustrated with images from their Flickr account (which they encouraged me to use).
What did they do? Twittered me:
And sent out an eBlast with this as lead feature.

Real-life Example #2 Imagine how excited I was? I Tweeted them: And they gave me some more Twitter love: So I crafted my own announcement to my lists:

Real-life Example #2 After the announcement for the show, I put in their coverage and asked the people on my list to "show 'em some love" by visiting their website.

Notice how they make a huge effort to be a personal company
And kept that promise by speaking to me in a personal manner, plus speaking with their "fans" in a personal manner.
And, other people RT'd that Tweet:

Insight Break:
They have real people on their website!
Contact in person made a sale 11 months later - included a paper takeaway
Open ear for exchanging discount for coverage
Open eye for featuring content that would interest their clients and potential clients
Continuing coverage of interesting content
Mobile apps make the reaction time on interesting content nearly instantaneous

So why am I using myself as an example?
I am not normal/average, but I am participating.
I am applying what I know in a natural manner, with the social tools that I use.
Normal/average does not exist.
Many people will only use 1 or 2 services they find convenient - and only for a limited amount of time. They will move on or stop when life dictates.

Synthesis
The New Renaissance
I am a firm believer that everything you do informs everything else you do.
Having many interests allows creative juices to flow from one type of project to another.

Social: What can we do to make it better?
Get in there and participate, but don’t waste your time.
Be genuine.
You never know how many of the people you touch will reach out and touch their peers and influence them with positive Tweets, Posts, Updates, eBlasts, etc. !!!

Wrap-up
You must go where your customers go
You must speak in a language they understand
You must use the same tools they use
You must NOT waste their time
Avoid wasting your own time!
Be goal oriented.

Suggested Reading
SOCIAL: Seth Godin - Tribes (and all his other books)
SEARCH: John Battelle - The Search
THEORY: Chris Anderson - The Long Tail and Free: The Future of a Radical Price (MP3)
FILM: Michael Ondaatje - The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film
Walter Murch - In the Blink of an Eye, Revised 2nd Edition
David Meerman Scott - The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly [ talk about keyphrases! ]

links
http://www.hubspot.com/Portals/53/docs/01.10.sot.report.pdf
http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2010/02/22/twitter-statistics-full-picture/
http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
http://www.google.com/insights/search/#
http://www.dripbook.com/blogs/1/post/148/

Take this away with you
This is all about people talking to people.
Your goal is more sales, efficiency and an enhanced/expanded peer network
Action without analysis is wasted effort
Pass it on

thank you
[email_address] MattHillArt.com MattHillPhoto.com
UltimateHill.com MACgroupUS.com
Presentation available online:
http://tinyurl.com/matthillwppi2010
Questions ?

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The New Renaissance: Connect, Revise and Grow on the Web

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The New Renaissance: Connect, Revise and Grow on the Web — Presentation Transcript