BAMsites Website Marketing

Archive for the ‘Observations’ Category

When a new company decides to start engaging in Social media, it can be difficult to understand the difference between a Facebook status update and a tweet. One question we hear a lot is how do I strike a balance between getting my message out and annoying people? If you overexpose yourself on Twitter and Facebook people will hide from you and you will never know it. The first thing to remember when starting out in social media is that Facebook and Twitter are not the same. On Twitter your Tweets are flowing into a massive river of communication, while on Facebook you are sending them down narrow pipes.

Since many of the people we talk with had Facebook accounts prior to opening a Twitter account, when moving over to Twitter it seemed logical for them to automate their Twitter account. Automating a Twitter account allows your Twitter status to automatically be updated by whatever you type into your Facebook status. At first this probably seems like a powerful strategy to someone who is used to Facebook and new to Twitter, however when doing automated updates you are not reaping the full benefits of either platform, and are likely creating a negative presence in one if not both of these networks.

The Difference

The Facebook news feed has been designed to allow for people to come online once or twice a day and check out what’s new. Because of this format posting to Facebook once or twice a day is enough for most companies and will prevent you from over exposing your followers. This is the opposite for Twitter, which encourages frequent updates and interaction. Have you ever been overwhelmed by a certain friend on Facebook by the sheer number of links they were posting? Chances are they probably didn’t even know they were doing it, and likely had their accounts set on autopilot.

The Solution

The solution is simple; use each network as it was intended! If you have an update, send it to Facebook, and write a tweet about it. Did you find some great industry news or something you think your followers would enjoy? Tweet about it, and it if is a really big deal post it to Facebook. The key here though is to avoid using autopilot where you are syndicating the exact same content to both, especially considering many of your followers will be following you on both networks.

This is an excerpt from Adam Ayers.

Video is the hottest thing going on the web. If you’ve been thinking lately about starting a blog or setting up a Twitter account, you’re still slightly behind the curve.  Everyone’s talking about video now… and with good reason.  It’s entertaining, it’s easy to find and consume, and it engages viewers in a way that text simply cannot.

Video is on a meteoric rise, and shows no signs of slowing soon.  Along with that trend, there is a growing segment of the online audience that has begun favoring sites that use video over sites that just have text.

Additionally, video advertising is the fastest-growing form of online advertising.  On just YouTube alone, the number of advertisers rose tenfold in the past year.

That means all your competitors are out there using video to steal away your customers… and it’s probably working.

I’ve been working in search engine optimization for nearly seven years, and at this point… I would rather have a video I created showing up on the first page of Google results than my website… because videos in search results are almost certainly receiving more clicks than standard website listings.

There’s no doubt that WordPress rocks as a blogging and content-management system. Once installed, you can do amazing things with it right out of the virtual box. 7 Must Have Killer Plugins for WordPress.

In this series we will present you some Plugins every pro uses on his blog. You should use them too!

1. Ultimate Search Engine Optimization:  All-In-One-SEO – Pretty much the current standard for allowing page and post individual optimization – a must for a multiple landing page approach to organic rankings.
2. Google Site Map Maker – Be friendly to Google and you will win. Make it easy for Google to index the pages and post of your choice by implementing this plugin.
3. Database Back Up: Better do this often or better yet, use this one that automatically sends you a back up file!
4. Video Blogging: More and more folks are blogging their way to stardom – join the crew.
5. Advanced TinyMice Editor: The onboard editor with WP is pretty bleak. This is something they could improve upon greatly, but in the meantime, there’s several plugins to make your WYSIWYG experience just like a word processor.
6. Exclude Pages: I’m not sure why WP doesn’t give us an easy option for hiding pages, but they don’t as far as I can see. This helps my hide pages that need not be on visible navigation.
7. Share This: Instead of chasing every social network icon around and having a bunch of useless icons festooned on your webpage or blog, why not just make it easy for people to share your content that they think is cool. ShareThis does this as well or better than anyone else.

When choosing a payment processor, it’s important you fully evaluate their rates. Different payment processors suit different merchants – the questions below will help you find one suited to your needs.

1. What are the discount rates? Discount rates are the percentage of transactions that the processor charges you in order to use their service. Rates will vary between processors and will also depend on your average or expected processing volume.
2. What are the transaction rates? The majority of processors will also charge a set fee for each transaction. Usually this between $0.30 and $0.50. There may also be fees for refunds and declined transactions.
3. Is there a fee for chargebacks? Most processors will charge a fee ranging from $30 – $50 for chargebacks.
4. Is there an application fee? Some payment processors will charge an application fee of up to $300 and this is non-refundable – even if your application is declined.
5. Are there any ongoing fees? Ongoing fees usually take the form of an ongoing fee, a statement fee or a gateway fee.
6. Is there a settlement fee? A settlement fee occurs when funds are sent to your bank account and can range from anywhere between $0.05 and $5!
7. Are there any processing volume limits or minimum processing fees? A minimum processing fee occurs when you do not process enough transactions via a particular method (such as mastercard or Visa). Processing volume limits are limits to the total amount of transactions your business can process – exceeding these limits can often result in suspension of your account and withholding of funds.