Comments for Makovision

Comment on The Four Pillars of Successful Web Presence For Small Business by Don Makoviney

Don Makoviney — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:57:52 +0000

Thanks for the comments Pierpaolo. Enjoy your vacation!

Comment on The Four Pillars of Successful Web Presence For Small Business by Pierpaolo

Pierpaolo — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:23:40 +0000

Really good article, Don. I think you are absolutely right; a lot of people focus on Social Media to drive traffic to their site, which is fine, but they leave it at that. They fail to take a holistic approach to make sure they have done everything they can to increase conversions – either in actual sales, or, as you mentioned, increasing membership of the site, or subscribers to the company’s newsletter. Building a loyal following with Social Media is great, but then driving them to a poorly designed, poorly optimized site with poor content is a recipe for disaster; I see this all the time. (I think that was Gabriella’s point – Gabriella is such a great person and an amazing resource, nice to see you mentioning her )).

Reputation is the new currency, and it is so easy to blow it. At the very least, those “Four Pillars” you mention must be taken into consideration.

Comment on The Four Pillars of Successful Web Presence For Small Business by admin

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:27:21 +0000

I hope it helps him out! Basically those are the frustrations I have had dealing with clients over and over again. Hopefully the information is helpful to small businesses and non-profits – especially now when lots of funding is being cut and businesses are working on razor thin margins. It doesn’t make sense to throw that money away on something ineffective.

Hope you’re well by the way! Thanks for the comment

Comment on The Four Pillars of Successful Web Presence For Small Business by Ashley

Ashley — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 17:18:08 +0000

Hi Don,

I sent this link to Andy. He’s doing some pro-bono work for a non-profit and is about to pull his hair out because they don’t get the big picture. I think info on this page will help him layout what the client should really be looking for rather than big flashy images in a textless site.

Comment on The Four Pillars of Successful Web Presence For Small Business by admin

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:25:59 +0000

Thanks Gabriella. I think conversion pages and call-to-action skills are an important missing part of the online equation. Many prospective clients will complain to me about all the money they are spending on AdWords. After setting up some funnels to track performance it becomes clear very quickly their landing pages are very bad – even horrible. They might as well be using their money for kindling. Perhaps we can work together on some good useful articles in the future. Perhaps guest posting. Sounds wonderful and keep the great content flowing

Comment on The Four Pillars of Successful Web Presence For Small Business by Gabriella

Gabriella — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:20:07 +0000

Don what a nice thing to say… I am glad you find value in what I write. Sometimes it’s not easy coming up with articles. But to come up with great articles that help is rare. I guess we could start doing some link baiting with doom & gloom articles about technology or even bashing a certain industry… lame and nothing more than regurgitated content. Basically create that buzz in order to get traffic. Ultimately, unless you have some grass root, basic fundamental information to read the “traffic” won’t come back. I guess what I am trying to say is the posts I write and enjoy reading (like yours) are simple yet, informational I am glad you “get it.”

Comment on Social Media For Business News Roundup – July 2009 by admin

admin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:35:24 +0000

There are plenty of examples of people using Twitter to find promotions. There are also plenty of small businesses that “get it” and are using it to promote daily specials, updates, and have conversations. More and more people are turning to Twitter for breaking news and product reviews every day. Mashable recently published an article identifying the threat Google is receiving from Twitter (instantly search able topical conversations on events, products, and entertainment) and Facebook (insane amounts of targeted data for serving ads). In my opinion, users will go where they get the most timely, relevant and useful information. As Twitter tools become more elegant I think you’ll see the barrier to entry for more users lessen and the user base continue to grow.

Regarding spammers, they will always be where there are lots of people. The tools will evolve to keep spammers out of the timeline as the pressure from spammers increases. It’s still a new medium, really. Give it time.

There are various uses for Twitter. It’s strength is enabling conversation and interaction. But it also works simply as a way to announce stories like Mashable and CNN do with their Twitter accounts. If you know what your end goal is for your Twitter account their is really no wrong way to use it (except spam) if it helps you reach your intended audience. The main CNN account simply lists stories, but dozens of reporters have Twitter accounts where they do engage in conversation.

Hope that helps. Those are my thoughts anyways.

Comment on Social Media For Business News Roundup – July 2009 by bradleybradwell

bradleybradwell — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:15:34 +0000

I’m really starting to doubt Twitter as a legitimate tool that can be used by businesses. Sure it has the user base, but i’m not sure that Twitter users really use Twitter for finding promotions, rather than content and news stories. And with the increasing amount of spam I’m beginning to sense that there will be a major movement of people leaving Twitter.

Another thing that I’d like to point out is the fact that businesses aren’t using Twitter for what it is. By this I mean that the only posts they Tweet seem to be a sales pitch for one of their products. For example, CNN and their anchors only post articles from their website. In my opinion, this is the wrong thing to do whether you’re CNN or a small business.