Are you serious about this online malarky? April 16, 2010

I like writing, I’ve been writing for years one way or another, and I enjoy it… indeed part of the reason I started this blog was so I could write some more!  

But it’s a tough world out there, and these days it’s about more than just writing… there’s marketing, sales, search engine optimisation, paid advertising, page rankings, analytics, social media and on and on and on. But where to start? How can you make the most of these online whatnots that promise so much to those who can get it right? How can you make the most of all this?

It’s a good question, the holy grail of the online presence. Sadly there’s no easy answer either (sorry). The best advice I could give is to get a good strategy in place. Know what your targets are, how you’ll measure success and how you want to get there. It’s no good setting up Facebook, Twitter, blogs, websites and anything else you can get your hands on without a clear message and a target in mind.

Once you’ve got an online presence and you start to make contact with people then you’re obliged to keep it going. Sounds obvious but I’ve come across countless blogs and websites that are never updated, sad lonely Twitter accounts and empty Facebook pages. What message does that send to your customers? If you can’t be bothered to update your website then will you be bothered to give great customer service? 

There’s no excuse, big or small, once you’re there, people can see you… and if you want to make the most of online then you need to keep up to date, and relevant – otherwise your followers will desert you or and potential customers will go elsewhere.

Everyone will have some good and bad examples of online usage but I guess the golden rule is that if you don’t know how to do it, ask someone who does. Don’t have time to write a blog, run a Twitter account or update a website? Not sure how to get SEO on your website or where to advertise to get customers flocking? Get someone who does… any copywriter worth their salt will know all this. Of course I would say that though, wouldn’t I!

So, to sum up:

• Online strategy: get a good online strategy in place and identify what’s going to work for you. Look at your customer demographics and do some research, what do they like to do online? If your customer demographic is 60 plus then a Bebo account probably isn’t going to cut it. 
• Measure success: How will you know when it’s going well? You’ll need some targets in place to answer this question. This could be number of sales, number of visitors per month etc. Write it down, monitor it, come back to it and use that information to tweak your strategy.
• Update it: Do this regularly otherwise your potential customers will think you’re lazy, or worse, that you don’t exist anymore and this really won’t help with sales.
• Hire an expert: If you’re serious about this online malarky and aren’t sure how to do it then hire someone who does! Get someone good and the benefits of a great reputation, search engine rankings and consequent sales will far outweigh the costs.

Right, I’m off to write more blog posts, update my Twitter and Facebook pages…..

Do we care more about Marmite than politics? April 8, 2010

The general election machine has stuttered into life again, all wound up and ready to go… in fact I think there  were canvassers and leaflet deliverers were poised at my front door so that from the second old Gordy announced the not-so-secret election date they could deploy the propaganda.

The Lib Dems get kudos for being quickest off the mark with a leaflet through my door mere seconds after I watched the first news report on the election announcement. I was however most disappointed that it wasnt David Cameron at my door last night but some shiny suited fellow trying to sell me something (spot the difference!?) – I’d heard Dave was in Cardiff and thought he might pop by for a chat with us voters who haven’t quite decided yet…

So, that’s me – one of the great undecided. I’m actually quite excited by this election – it seems for the first time in a long time that it’s not a done deal as journalists scramble for their swingometers and crystal balls. I do quite like this from the Guardian, the poll of polls - with some rather natty graphics. But where’s Jon Snow when you need him?

Having said that, I’m not sure how I’m going to endure one whole month of election campaigning – I’m already feeling up to my eyeballs in leaflets, bombarded with news reports and interactive online swingometers.

What I’d actually like is for the main parties to stop and say “Sod this, we’re not going to do the whole election campaign ‘thing’ – here’s a document with all our policies in – like it or lump it, that’s what we’re standing for…”  Wouldn’t that make life easier? Or perhaps we all love a bit of campaigning, seeing the MP’s out on the trail and working for our votes?

Perhaps the Gordon, Dave and Nick would do well to take a look at the Marmite election campaign. Love it or hate it, it will certainly be interesting to see whether or not more people care about Marmite than politics. At least they’ve got some simple, easy to understand policies outlining some clear benefits too!

Whatever I decide, I’ll be casting my vote on 6 May with (hopefully) a majority of the rest of the population – whatever you think about the general election, surely there’s no excuse for not turning out for it?