Here’s the graph:

Glad to be back!

Taking a break from our regularly scheduled Top 10 Ways to Ruin Your Website series, I recentlt was emailed a question I wanted to share.

Most business people have heard of Twitter, but still have no real sense of how to use it to promote their business. So why should they add this to their daily PR & marketing activities?

And here is my response:

I get asked these questions all the time by clients and when I’m speaking. “Right, I know Twitter is supposed to be the new shiny thing but I just don’t see what it can do for me.” This is usually followed by some comment like: “I don’t care about what someone eats for breakfast” or “no one wants to know about my personal life”. I used to spend a whole lot of time answering the question and explaining, but I’ve gotten down to saying just this:

Let me give you the top 3 reasons you should be using twitter for your business*:

1. Industry Pulse.

2. Polling.

3. News.

1. Imagine having the ability to put your finger on the pulse of your industry.

There are 3 groups of people you need to follow. Don’t follow the people who talk about their coffee break!

• Follow your perfect client, anyone from your target audience. Find out what they are thinking, what matters to them. Ask them questions! (And I mean really ask them questions, not: message me if you have a question about such-and-such)
• Follow your competition. Get in touch with what’s going on in your industry. Learn from their mistakes and advice. This alone makes Twitter invaluable to me.
• Follow people who are movers & shakers in your physical area. Search by city and find out who knows what’s going down. Then you can know and get involved if it helps you business. And, it’s incredible when you become one of the people who others ask: where should I be this week?

2. Polling.

Once you’ve followed the big 3, ask them questions. Smaller companies can’t afford focus groups and big surveys. So do it on Twitter. Ask about products, what they do or don’t use and why. Ask what they think of work you’ve done, etc. I poll before I speak so I have immediate feedback about my topic before I even say a word. Then I know where to focus.

3. Relevant, Fast, News:

My example of the overwhelming ability of Twitter as a news source was the terrorist attacks on Mumbai around Thanksgiving last year. I had CNN on my TV and Twitter streaming live on the Mumbai topic on my laptop. I was getting news on Twitter 30-40 minutes faster than through the television. In fact at some points CNN just read off Twitter and blog entries or used photos/video posted there from people in the middle of everything. But that’s not even the part that hit me hardest. It was that people were using Twitter to find their loved ones. A list of missing people went up on a blog and people forwarded it along through twitter and when someone was found they’d update the list. The news couldn’t even keep up with that, they just listed the website.

If that’s not reason enough to consider spending ten minutes on Twitter while you’re having your bagel in the morning and then ten minutes when you’re winding down from work, I don’t know what is.

*Exceptions are: Twitter is not your target audience. Seriously, research it. I can tell you really quickly who twitter attracts, if that’s not your market don’t waste your time. But since Twitter normally attracts business owners, moms, baby boomers, early tech adopters, bloggers and male executives… that relates to most people on some level, so this disclaimer is mostly just to make naysayers feel better.

Image from Tony Gigov’s fantastic twitter comic.

This is my very first Vlog. I’ve not done it for lots of reasons, but because I’m speaking more and more I decided to share it with you!

I’ve been looking for a simple analogy to social media for a while. Then I realized that most business people are trained at some level to network in real life. Social media uses those exact same principles, just online! So the point of this video was to compare offline networking to your online presence.

The poster in the background looks like this:

Love it or hate it, MySpace did one thing right: it paved the way for facebook.

A few weeks ago I spoke to a group about social media, concentrating on Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In. At that time, I gave Facebook a very basic review and moved on. But after hearing about the changes being made to the site I started to do some more research. It blew my mind what Facebook was doing. So much so that I’m going to devote this week of blogging to comparing Facebook to what I believe are the other top two social media sites: Twitter & Linked-In.

Disclaimer: I am not saying these three websites are the same. In fact I think most businesses should establish a presence on all three. This is more about me organizing them by greatest  business potential.

Today I want to talk a little bit about some of the exciting stuff happening behind your Facebook profile and the key to what gives Facebook such awesome potential. Last week I covered the exciting new Facebook pages and if you regularly check your profile, you’ve probably already noticed the changes to your news feed. So, let’s talk about lesser-known gems that you might not have heard about unless you religiously read Facebook’s company blog.

Somethings you might not know:

• Facebook is available in Hebrew and Arabic. (70% of users are not from the U. S.)
• Facebook Causes have raised $4.5 million from 90,000 unique donors. (How’s that for making an impact?)
• Facebook has a wiki just for developers.
• Facebook book is listening. There are multiple ways to give them feedback.
• Facebook puts all their statics on their site.
• Facebook does a ton of research (with your permission). You can participate even if you don’t have an account!
• Facebook has made a ton of its coding open source.
• Facebook Connect allows you to integrate information on Facebook with other websites.
• It took me 5 minutes to find all this information.

Most of us log on Facebook, respond to mail, update our status, play around a bit and we’re done. But there is so much more to Facebook. By looking a little deeper I realized that Facebook was listening, truly listening to what its users needed. The number one question I get from business owners is “But how do I use Facebook for my business?” And the answer has always been somewhat convoluted. Facebook heard that question and said, “Hmm… how can we make this better for businesses while still making the same social impact?”

They’ve done a ton of research on their new ideas. I know, I know, a new homepage makes most of us balk, (what? I have to think before I click?) but I have faith that the Facebook team picked what they felt would be the most intuitive and simple solution. In a month we won’t even notice.

Facebook’s philosophy, however is what really makes them stand out from other media. Share and Connect. That’s powerful. And they are actively pursuing it in visible ways. I couldn’t tell you what any other social media site’s mission even was.

So what do you think? Do you hate the new layout? Did you learn something new from my little list? Are you ready to be in up in arms defending other social sites this week?

Image by jdl_deleon.

Big news on Facebook! No, its not more user-agreement debates, its Facebook Pages! The main thing to know is that Facebook wants your business to have a page with similar features to your profile. So here’s the dirt.

The Highlights

• Enhanced Wall: Now you can share content to your Facebook Page Wall. (Much like profiles now, any video, photo, action will be posted there. Soon it will also show up on your Fans’ newsfeed!
• Statuses: Like Twitter’s “What are you doing?” Facebook allows you to post a status. Businesses will now be able to share what they are “doing” as well!
• Tabs: Profiles now have tabs with different organized information such as Info, Wall, and so on. Now your business can have Info, Wall and Photos provided by you and your fans.
• Analytics Tools: Wanna know who is viewing your feed? How many comments you get on each post? Facebook plans to make measuring tools available. They’ll be called “Insight Tools”. Spiffy huh?
• Boxes Tab: This is a tab specifically for applications. Examples of applications are: Discussion boards, Videos, Reviews, Photos, Events, and FTML (Facebook HTML) to create whatever you want for those of us with programmer tendencies.

Quick and Dirty
Pro: Woah! That’s a lot better than a mostly static page with a wall. Awesomeness.

Con: OMG, the pages I’m fans of are going to spam me constantly.

Tips on Growing

Get in on all this new Facebook Page-y Goodness. Go read the full pdf about all the new features and start getting yourself out there. But resist the temptation to use your Facebook page like a Twitterfeed for your business. Use this to encourage interaction, not stifle your fan and followers. As with all things in life, everything in moderation.

Have you started using the new Facebook Page features? What do you think?
Image by hoyasmeg

My good friend Steve wrote an article I’d like to showcase today. He and I know each other through the Dallas SEO Meetup (where I will be speaking about Twitter next week). Please take some time to read his article. He is a relatively new Twitter user and another one of my “success” stories.

The best advice I ever received regarding Twitter was “Do not try and sell on Twitter”. Now what does that statement really mean? Well the point of the statement is use Twitter to introduce yourself or your company to the Web and share knowledge. Exchanging helpful links to sites of mutual interest or giving out free advice to relevant topics is the key. The end result hopefully being gaining beneficial contacts and possible sales. – Click for More

Cynthia Wunsch is a long time friend of mine and one of the first people I consulted about using social media. I have asked her to take a few minutes to talk about her experience here. Make sure to check out her bliki (also on our blogroll under “Friends of Veribatim”) The Unlikely Entrepreneur. Cynthia is a musician, a teacher, a performer and an amazing networker. -Kat

Hi, my name is Cynthia, and I’m an Internet addict.

Okay, I’m not really an Internet addict, but you might be excused for thinking so. I sent my first email in 1972. I had an account on the fabled Killer machine. I planned for my first move to Europe by asking advice in soc.culture.czecho-slovak. And I knew about social networking when you had to be a warrior, healer, wizard or thief to participate.

What I want to get across to you is that the Internet makes my business more productive. Sure, I get emails from my clients, sometimes several times a week. But how I use the Internet really separates me from my competitors.

Example: online file storage. Most of my competitors require their clients to buy printed materials. My clients don’t need to buy anything, as I have approximately 8 million pages of resources online, that they can consult day or night, print (don’t worry, it’s all public domain!), or if they don’t have a printer, they can log onto my printer’s website and order it printed and pick it up at our next appointment. They can print out one page or a whole book, replace lost pages, etc. And because it’s secure, my clients can see only the files I let them have access to.

Example: online booking. I have booking set up to be automatic–my clients log in, request times, and get a reminder email or SMS message for each appointment. I get an email reminder. Appointments are not confirmed until I okay them, and I get an immediate email for cancellations. (I could get a SMS too, but I don’t really use my cell phone that much.)

Example: Bliki. A bliki is a hybrid of a blog and a wiki (think Wikipedia). My clients and colleagues contribute to my bliki, link posts together where they see fit, comment, and edit to add new information. They link old posts to new ones, new ones to old ones, blog posts to static pages and vice versa, and instead of a one-way communication, they get to participate in the process. This keeps my clients excited about being involved with me. They can ask questions and read the answers, talk with other clients, and they feel as if they are part of something much larger.

Example: Files. I inventory supplies on a program specifically designed for what I do. The developer gave it away for free for a 24-hour period. Each day I get to preview (and keep!) a new application.

Example: Automatic payment reminders. Each of my clients gets an email before their next payment is due, reminding them to bring the check. I don’t have to do anything except make one entry when they begin, and one when they leave.

Example: Social networking. Whether it’s microblogging, chat rooms, forums, Linked In, or Facebook, I can make connections all around the world with people in my industry or any other industry. If I need a resource, I can find it in minutes, by sending out a message targeted to the people most likely to have that resource, who already know something about me, and if they don’t know, can ask others on the sites for recommendations about me.

And what’s great about all this is, it costs me nothing out of pocket, and only a few minutes each month, if that. If you have a business and an Internet connection, and you’re doing emails, web sites, and a blog, you’re using only a tiny fraction of the possibilities available to you. Business today requires a different way of thinking, and unless you’re willing to adopt new methods, you’ll find yourself like my competitors–left in the dust, wondering what in the world happened!

And just so you know, my particular business is in a very traditional field. If you think this doesn’t apply to you because you don’t have a computer-based business, it’s time to rethink those basic concepts. Even as Internet-savvy as I am, there were things I was not doing as well as I could have. It was Kat Rice at Veribatim who helped me see the potential I had missed out on and taught me how to maximize my business by adding certain aspects of the Internet that I originally couldn’t see a use for. Yes, it definitely brings me new traffic to my website, which results in new business, but I also get new business simply by having a presence in some of these Internet circles.

So thanks, Kat. You’ve really helped my business and thanks to you, I’m adding improvements to my business each week that are leaving my competitors in the dust!

Image from icanhascheezburger.com

I started thinking about some of the common mistakes I see businesses make with their online presence. So I asked some of my social networks what their biggest pet-peeves were. Together we came up with a list of 100 blunders that businesses make with their online presence. (To make things simpler, I quoted people with their twitter or plurk alias and linked to the site on their profile.) Normally I don’t point to myself in my blog posts but today I’ll say if you see one of these errors on your site or the site of a loved one, feel free to contact Veribatim and we can help you out!

Now, without further ado, a really long list:

1. I typ gud: Typos happen. Make sure to have more than one person comb your site (or newsletter!) for errors. If someone emails you about an error: fix it!

“not sure it counts, but we decided against one local school for our son based on multiple spelling errors on the website.” -etherjammer

2. The Sleeper: It you’re just posting flat facts, don’t expect people to follow you hungry for more. If your business is +100 people, either find or hire someone to write your blog.

“BORING!!! damn.. how do people actually stay awake reading them???? you need CREATIVE WRITERS writing CREATIVELY. blogging is like sex- not everyone can do it right but everyone thinks they ROCK.” -reneguerrero

3. The “Duh” Moment: List your obvious important facts.

“Business sites tend to leave out the simple, important bits of info. LOTS of sites don’t list hours of operation, WTF?” -UnholyKnight

4. Ghost Town Blog: If you’re going to bother starting a blog, don’t post twice and then give up. Have a littler persistence.

“…lack of content.” -Tarliman

5. The Song that Never Ends: Back ground music can cause issues, especially without an obvious off button. A business site should never interrupt or annoy a client. Random midi files playing on repeat are the number one reason for me to leave a site.

6. Who’s There?: Why have a website if no one can call or email you? List relevant contact information.

7. Who’s There? Part 2: Contact forms: It doesn’t work, goes to an unchecked email… whatever. Its almost worse than not having information up.

“…there’s no excuse for no contact form.” -ablereach

8. Flash Intro Fail: A flash intro can be a total waste of time, but if you’re going to put one in, at least add a skip button.

“Flash intros that have nothing to offer about the company, and then including a SKIP button. If you have a skip button, obviously it’s not all that important of a feature on the site.” -Glyphrunner

9. Nose to the Screen: Text that’s too small to read. 12 pt. font is the smallest you should go. I always have my parents tell me if they need their reading glasses for a frame of reference.

10. Dating Yourself: Make sure your site updates regularly, your information is current.

11. Imaginary Friends: If your company has changed staff, make sure you update the email address. This also applies to general info@ or contact@ emails. They aren’t much use to your client if no one actually checks them.

12. Rainbow Bright: Hot pink, neon green, brown… use normal conservative colors for your sites basics. If you desperately need an outrageous design, pick a bright accent color. But, seriously, your website shouldn’t look like a tye-dye T-shirt.

13. Ad-tastic: If you spam your readers with so many ads they can’t find your content, they may miss your site all together.

“Pop-ups and in addition too many adds squeezed into every corner of a website especially when all the ads have animation.” -williamedia

14. Home Run: Sometimes, basics are key. Have a home button or make your logo link back to your main page.

15. Treasure Hunt: Make information on your site easy to find. If one thing draws people to your site, put it front and center. Don’t bury info just to keep people around longer.

“Deliberately making contact info hard to find. Or deliberately hiding your phone number to encourage ppl to e-mail instead.” -Ginkgo

16. Disappearing Act: Don’t forget to keep current with your domain and hosting. Losing a domain to a squatter can hurt your business. Not to mention the cost of reprinting anything with your website on it.

17. Gophers: Many people put some kind of blocker on for pop-up ads, but even knowing they are there can hurt your reputation. Advertise some other way!

18. You’ve Got Mail: If you put your email somewhere on your site… Check it! Don’t leave a possible sale hanging!

19. The Nullifyer: The navigation on any website should be intuitive. Links should correspond logically and clearly.

“Biggest issue I run into, actually is Nav[igation]. If you can’t find or make your way around the site the content is meaningless.” -Big Poppa

20. Bad Spy: Stay far away from Tracking Cookies. It should be obvious why.

21. Private Club: Some sites require a log-in to access certain features. That’s great, but don’t make your entire site log-in protected, at least have an about section or some reasons why they should give you their email!

22. UnHooked: So what if someone comes to your site, checks out your blog, thinks everything looks cool but then they can’t “opt-in” for more information. Make sure your RSS feed is highly visible, that its simple to register for your newsletter, ect. If you’ve hooked ‘em, make sure to reel ‘em in!

23. Not-So-Invisible Cloak: Never, ever put “invisible” keywords on your webpage. Its tacky when someone scrolls down and Google will penalize you for trying to outsmart their bots.

24. Doesn’t Play Nice With Others: Occasionally a website won’t be tested for multiple browsers before going live, and even worse is when its meant for an obsolete version of Internet Explore. (Sidenote: Please update to your latest version if you haven’t!)

25. Twitchy: Be careful in using excessive animation on your site. Sure, it looks cool, but it can be distracting or take forever to load.

26. Impossible to Decode: Ever seen a captcha that was impossible to read? If you don’t know, good captchas look like this:

27. Dead-ended: Internal links that don’t work can be frustrating to a client. Make sure everything in your site goes where its supposed to.

28. Webslave: I can’t tell you the number of horror stories I’ve heard in the past from business owners who didn’t keep copies of all their information (logins, passwords, hosting company info), they just trusted their webmaster to take care of it all. Then one day the guy disappears, so suddenly they can’t change or fix anything. Or better yet, he does something to piss them off, and then decides to hold their site for ransom when they hire a new developer.

29. 3rd Grade Reading Level: Basic grammar, get some.

30. Write On: This goes with #29, but its more specific. If English is not your first language, please find someone to write your content. I have friends fluent in Spanish but they say they still have trouble writing complex documents. It’s just harder. Lots of great companies started outside of America, but I bet they hired English-speaking residents to make their site. Be professional, do it right.

31. Name Dropping: A few companies assume no one actually reads their site. So instead of writing understandable content, they write simply for SEO. Usually the site has a loose sentence structure and repeats keywords throughout: This Crocs sentence Nike is a Microsoft example.

32. But Mom Said I Could!: Remember when you were little and wanted to go out to a late movie? You asked your dad, and he said no. You ask your mom and she said yes. Then your mom and dad talked (they always did!). They find out you got a no but kept asking. Clients will do this too. So make sure all your internet verbage matches. If you write an email about a sale, make sure your website and store reflect that, and vice-vera. Keep all your literature consistent.

33. Subject to Change: If any information on your website has the risk of changing, at least put a visible notice somewhere on your site. Arguments over this just aren’t worth it.

34. Show me the Money: Be very careful about listing prices for products or services on your site. In fact, if you are not sure you can maintain the prices you list don’t list them at all.

35. The Rabbit Hole: Make sure the directions and map you put on your site are accurate. There is nothing more frustrating then getting lost even when you take the correct turn.

36. Dead Men Tell No Tales: Every once in a while check links you’ve created to external sites, even on your blog.

37. Unworthy Relationships: Some websites allow advertising on their site that undercuts what they are offering (aka adult material on a family site, or advertising someone who does the same thing as your site, etc.) These kinds of ads won’t sit well with possible clients.

38. Unworthy Relationships (Part II): The same thing but backwards: Advertising on sites that are unrelated to yours, it has the same result and probably won’t earn you much traffic.

39. UnProfessional Professional: I hate to be the one to say it, but most people think they can design and can’t. It’s something about the arts, people think they can sing (when they can’t) and do it anyhow, or write creatively… design is the same. Leave the designing to the pros. The same goes for coding, in truth, you can tell pretty quickly if a site was created by a web tutorial. Buckle down and find a pro if your business is important to you.

40. The Broken Watch: Some websites are technical wonders but force you to wait twenty minutes before you can see it. Your front page should load as close to “instant” as possible. Check in other browser and slower connections.

41. Mirror, Mirror, on the wall: If you must have a website built in flash, pay the extra money to put up an html mirror site. That way all your information remains searchable and Google friendly.

42. Attack of the PPC: If your company does “pay per click” advertising, spend the time and money researching the company. Don’t get scammed.

43. But it’s Pretty: Design and content should compliment each other. Don’t put a design on your site that’s unconnected to the subject. Certain designs make people think of certain things and you want the right emotions and images to be portrayed by your site. If you’re unsure get a professional (See #39). i.e. No fluffy bunnies on your business management consulting firm.

44. Mr. Personality: Be careful about crossing the line between personal and business information. If you are a one-man show your business may be directly connected with your personality and that’s fine, but make sure there’s still a space between the two. If you really want to share, keep a personal website that’s separate.

Pet Peeve: “personal stuff (not informed opinion but memes) on business sites” -classicalgeek

45. Seizure-Site: Keep bright flashing graphics to a minimum on your site. You’ve seen the painfully red to white transitions… it’s not a joke that these can cause seizures for some people. Image the lawsuits possible there.

46. Super-Sized: Your screen should never have more than one scroll bar. If you have supersized your text or images, or not left room for advertising… And if you do have it, please consider getting a real web designer who can fix this easily.

47. Framed: Frames, don’t do it. This makes your site look cheap (and it probably is).

48. No Way Home: Be careful about links that take your clients away from your site. Make sure it is obvious that they are not an internal link.

49. Window-Happy: Its one thing to have links open in a new tab, but new windows can take too much time to load and be distracting. Be care not to have your links open up with too many “pop-up windows”.

50. Naked Code: Ever open a page that looks like this:

This means no one actually looked at their pages before publishing them. Review your site!

51. Chain Links: It’s not very hard to create a hyper link. You know where there is underlined text describing the link instead of http://…. First, it looks cleaner and has more description. And it keeps you from having a link three lines long.

52. Opps, I meant to do that: Possibly worse than a dead link is a link that’s wrong. Though it is funny.

53. My eyes; they burn! Be careful about making your site too busy. Too much text, graphics and random clip art crammed into one page can make your client’s eyes bleed. Spread your concepts over multiple pages, it will keep them reading and stop them from stabbing out their own eyes with a spork.

54. Split Ends: Some sites cater to more than one audience, as in they have clients they want to sell to and vendors they want to carry products for. Trying to structure a site for more than one type of reader can be tricky at best, often this calls for having multiple sites, or splitting sites into portals. If you market to more than one audience make sure you aren’t confusing both groups and selling to none.

55. Under Construction: This blunder speaks for itself. Under construction should not be confused with “coming soon” or placement pages. Under construction pages are best withheld until they are completed. Putting up a “sign” with under construction on it and then leaving it for a year just promotes your company as having an inability to follow-through.

56. Shape-Shifter: It happens, you hire a company to build a website and you are unhappy with the results. Be careful though, not to hop through multiple companies and constantly change the design of your website. This can be disorienting. If you give your site a face-lift be sure to commit fully instead of flip-flopping to another company or template every month.

57. Text-Morph: Like the Shape-shifter, but with your content. If you completely change the information on your site regularly, reader will become confused and might even think the company or its owner ship has changed. If you like variety, get a blog.

58. Cheap: A word about templates. They look cheap. They aren’t good for your SEO. If you are going to bother paying for a website for your company, make sure to do it right.

59. TMI: TMI stands for “too much information”. No one needs to know the entire story of your company, every project and your financial history. Also, leave your audience wanting more, it helps start a conversation. Don’t over-indulge and scare people away.

60. The Single-Hitter: Don’t try to fit all your information in a single page. A page that scrolls down forever can be irritating to read. Space things out and keep people on your site. If you’re going to bother paying for a site, take time to have an about page, a contact page and a home page at least.

61. One of these things is not like the others: Navigation bars are a blessing. They can help organize your site and information in a way that makes sense to potential clients. So don’t screw it up! One of the more disorienting things on a website is when you click on the “products” page and end up at the map. Make sure your links go where they need to.

62. And now, for our feature presentation: Intro pages might be the most useless thing I’ve seen besides initial flash sequences. You’ve seen them: Click here to enter this site! Don’t make your reader click a second time to get to the meat of your site, make it the first thing they see.

63. WTF?: This should never be a reaction from a potential client. If someone spends a minute on your site, sixty seconds, they should be able to tell what it’s about. A confusing site does not result in sales. It might look artistic, or modern, or have a creative lead-in but if you can’t tell what the point is… you probably lost the sale.

64. Noise Violation: Don’t put instant start videos on your site. Having someone “walk” onto the screen and talk about your product is annoying. It’s also hard to turn off, so usually results in the immediate click of the back button. Most people multi-task while online, and interrupting their music, or podcast or news on TV will just irritate them. If you must have video, let the reader push “play”.

65. Here’s Your Sign: Don’t treat your potential client like an idiot. Sure, there are people out there who don’t understand a shopping cart, or how to use their credit card online, but that number continues to dwindle. Assume your reader has average intelligence and don’t belittle them. (Especially with emails that have questions-I’m looking at you tech companies! I already made sure my computer was plugged in!)

66. Legalese: Quite a few sites out there require some kind of legal jargon to use the site or download a product. If your site requires this go to a lawyer. Don’t download some agreement off the internet, get something real and specific to your company. If you ever have to fall back on the legal stuff, you want it to stand on its own.

67. Multiple Person-ality: It’s great to put testimonials on your site. Even better if you can get clients to write positive review on other sites (Google, forums, and so on). Not great if you do it yourself, pretending to be a customer. Even less, if you get caught.

68. Look! Its ME!: This one relates to #44. Just like you don’t want to intertwine business and personal information, be careful what kind of links you post on your site. Social media can get you in trouble this way. It’s fine to post these links, just make sure you keep them business friendly if you want to mix the two.

69. Bad User!: Sometimes, sarcasm bites. Check out a whole post about it from Chris aka etherjammer. This story made me cringe and laugh at the same time so I’m just linking to it instead of quoting Chris.

70. Selling Air: Many companies have an e-commerce part of their site. If you sell products online, be sure you have them in stock. It sounds like common sense but nothing is more frustrating than being told days later that what you ordered isn’t available anymore.

71. Gotcha: This happens on and off the internet: hidden fees. However, now hidden fees are synonymous with “shipping costs”. Be up front about them, make sure they appear on in your cart early on.

72. Wait a minute Mr. Postman: Don’t keep your clients waiting, if your company is small and not doing bulk shipping, you still need to ship on time. And if you do have any issues, send your client a friendly email explaining what’s up. This prevents angry phone calls later demanding where the product is.

73. Opt-In to Spam!: Most companies have learned to ask clients to opt-in instead of sending emails without asking. However, now, some companies think that by opting-in, clients have asked to be spammed. Be courteous with the private emails your subscribers give. Even if they “opt-in” they don’t want to hear from you every single day about the newest sale. Opt-in does not = free-for-all.

74. Help!: Once money gets on the table, people change. They become defensive, argumentative and snippy. That’s why if your site has an e-commerce section, make sure to have help specifically for that. Unfortunately, not all e-carts are simple to use, and if an error happens a client can become particularly frustrated since it involves their checkbook. Help stop internet anger at the source; link to FAQs.

75. Hi I’m -Insert Name Here-: Once, I interacted with a political party website. I emailed them though their contact page and got an auto-response. It said something along the lines of “thank you for emailing the — party of Texas, your email is important to us” and such. But at the end it said “Sincerely, Insert Signature and emblem here“. Obviously no one had read their auto-response. But I got a good laugh out of it.

76. The Doctor Will See You Now: I think “appointment” software is really cool. I love the idea of seeing when my doctor is available without ever being put on hold. But, if you’re going to use calendar software like that on your website, make sure it works! I have in the past month walked into an online appointment only to be told they didn’t have that in their books (even after I got an auto-confirmation email). So I ended up wasting over an hour and I won’t be using them again.

77. Stupid: I can’t think of anything better to call this one. It’s funnier when big companies do it, but I see small companies make this mistake all the time, too. Think before you say things about the internet. Don’t make generalities about the kinds of people who blog (when you have a company blog on your site) or about social media (when that’s where your target audience is) or other stupid technology comments that are just waiting to come back and bite you. You never know who’s listening.

78. Prove It: The internet is full of passwords, and that makes it easy to forget one or two. It happens. But some sites seem to ignore the fact that we’re human and require you to jump through a hundred hoops, list your social security, your mom’s maiden name, your address, the name of your dog who died ten years ago, your bank account and your high-school locker combination… and then you end up having to call tech-support to beg for your account back.

79. OCD: Don’t require every single detail of a person’s life before they can use your service or contact you. People often don’t want to share that much, it makes them nervous. People are also lazy and easily distracted, if you waste too much of their time they won’t bother.

80. Internet Killed the Video Star: It may just be a personal pet-peeve but I hate “dead” youtube links. That’s when you can see the embedded video, get all excited about watching it and then: This video is no longer available.

81. Cheating: Don’t cheat the system. Don’t put keywords in your code for popular search terms that don’t actually have anything to do with your site. Like “Paris Hilton” for your Rugby tips. Google will find you-and then you will pay!

82. Asymmetry: Make sure the graphics and designs on your website match the rest of your branding.

83. Comment Hate: Don’t misuse other people’s blogs as a place to spam your link. Create a link back to your site be leaving legitimate comments that others will read and click on.

84. Permission-Based Posting: Never put client information or comments on your website without seeking their permission first.

85. Rage on the Machine: If you have a blog or a comment form on your website, chances are you will get spam. You may also get “trolled”, where some one intentionally tries to make you angry for the fun of it. Never lose your temper in response to these things. Take a few minutes, breathe and let it go or just delete it.

86. Status Quo: Wait, you really don’t want to change? Shunning improvements will only hurt your company in the long run.

“Non-profits not willing to change to grow and improve only so that they can control things and keep them ‘average’.” -Clay_Harrison

87. Stock it to me: Ever clicked on the help or contact us section of a website and seen that stock picture of a woman on a headset, smiling? Yeah, it’s not original or reassuring.

“That stock photo of a woman call center employee. That screams cheesy!” -UnholyKnight

88. Spam your Friends!: Facebook apps are notorious for this. “You can only use this widget or service if you email it to ten friends!”

89. Frequently Unanswered Questions: If your site involves anything other than static information, you probably need an FAQ or help file. People get frustrated having to email you a question and wait for a response. By the time you get back to them they may have found another site.

90. The Ridiculous Question: Possibly the worst thing to hear when calling Customer Service is, “Have you been to our website?” I usually reply, “Yes, I’ve been on your website… that’s where I got this number.” If someone took the time to call, they want to talk to a person, not search for the answer on your site. Or better yet they already spent twenty minutes on your site and finally gave up.

91. Outsource Hell: If your site requires tech support or customer service, employee your own people there. Outsourcing has any number of issues. You can’t understand their accent, they don’t actually know anything about the company so they just give general answers, the client assumes you’re cheap… Hire people to answer your phones if you ever want repeat business.

“I don’t have any problems with people in India having a job, but quite honestly American companies need to use American call centers. If anything, it’ll improve the ability to understand the person on the other end.” -Glyphrunner

92. Download-n-Play: Avoid forcing your potential clients to download plug-ins. Shock-wave, Flash and other non-necessary space-eaters can deter traffic. If you do put valuable information in a plug-in make sure to put the same content in text form elsewhere.

93. 90s Retro: Keep away from anything on your site that screams “I was made in the 90s!” This includes hit counters, rotating icons, obviously tiled backgrounds and the pointless “guest” books.

94. www.thisisthecoolestwebsiteevah.com: The domain for yourcompany.com is not always available. And sometimes a short, quirky title can be even more effective, but make sure your domain is still related to your business.

95. Fonts R Fun: Business sites should have clear, easily readable text. Use special fonts, bolds, all caps, italics and underlining sparingly. Special Note: readers will assume underlined text is a link.

96. The Right side of the Line: Along with funny fonts, try to keep the alignment of your text the same through the site. If you center your text, do so everywhere. If you use quotes, do it the same everywhere on your site.

97. You are a Pirate!: Give credit where credit’s due. The internet is not like high school, failing to link or properly cite someone’s idea will not get you kicked out of school, but its still a form of plagerism. Link back to concepts that aren’t yours.

98. Turn off the Lights: If your company happens to go under, or you change your domain name, take down your site. Out-dated, abandoned sites are everywhere (which means someone is still paying for hosting… which confuses me). If you still have a site like this, take it down, make a note or forward the domain. If no one’s home, don’t leave the lights on.

99. I’m Cool: Despite all the things I’ve mentioned about keeping up with the times and talking to real internet professionals, you don’t have to be on the cutting edge of technology to have a great business presence online. Some companies try so hard to relate to the younger generations that they just end up looking silly (aka, Lolspeak does not automatically endear you to teenagers, nor does a Myspace page with lots of bling). A professional, informative website that comes across as earnest and approachable can be far more effective than poking everyone on Facebook.

100. Who needs good advice?: I actually got a lot of responses from my social media questions saying things like: “It irritates me when I try to help a company with <insert internet presence need here> and they won’t listen.” Not all of these people were professionals, some were just making suggestions. I know I’ve given free advice to companies last year who aren’t around this year. If someone offers you a suggestion or feedback, take it, or at least listen respectfully.

Bonus Blunder: After I wrote this list, I found one from Rammi, she hates “companies that aren’t friendly internationally. Not just the US has an Internet connection… lack of customer service overseas. I hate phoning premium-rate US numbers.” To which Glyphrunner replied: “Ahh. The amusing thing about that is that your call will just be routed to a center in India!”

Hope you enjoyed this list (laughed, cried, bothered reading all the way to the end). Have one to add? Feel free.

If you are like me you spend a lot of time networking on and offline to drum up business. However, if your company does services for other businesses, you should consider using online freelancing sites to complete your circle. I prefer business that I’ve received by word-of-mouth or word-of-net as may be the case, but during those down times, freelancing sites can be great.

The two I looked into were:

Guru

and

Elance

Both sites offer multiple areas to bid or buy in. After looking over the sites and getting the Free profile, I decided to do some research. I got on my handy networks and asked for suggestions. I looked for blogs and reviews related to either site.

Know
what I came up with?
Right.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Okay,
a book on online freelancing that came with “free”
tips.
So…
Nothing.

So I decided, based on the lovely but terribly long help sections on both websites I would provide a shorthand Guide to how to best use these sites. I picked the two recommended to me but I assume most of the advice will work across the board, whatever sites you choose.

Your Guide to Online Freelancing

Featuring:
Guru.com & Elance.com

1.  Parameters
2.   Level of Involvement
3.  Profiles
4.   Bidding
4.1 Choosing a bid
4.2 Writing a bid
4.3 Being Competitive
4.4 Selling Yourself
5.  Communication
6.  What to do when you win

7. Extra Tips

1. Parameters

Before you even start freelancing online, decide exactly what you are doing. Do you have a service that is marketable online? Can you handle a distance project What exactly are you trying to achieve.

I suggest knowing all these answers in the beginning. Set a goal of how much you plan to make with freelancing. Possibly set a winning bid goal for each website you use. Make sure you know what kind of projects you can accept and how many. Don’t overwork yourself or stress out. These websites should make your life easier, and help you make more money!

Always set parameters. No matter what area of business you are working in, you should always write down your goals. There is just so much research that supports this. Don’t let this be an exception.

2. Level of Involvement

To pay or not to pay? The age old question. Both Guru and Elance offer multiple levels. I suggest start small and work your way up. Free. Test drive the service! After being on Elance for a few days I realized free was just not enough for me, I could only bid on two projects. So I upgraded. But usually I recommend giving the service a month before upgrading.

3. Profiles

Having a profile is like being interviewed, so treat it the same way. Make sure you put your best foot forward but be honest. You never want to lie about your abilities, get hired, but be unable to complete the task. On the other hand, if you upload samples of your work, don’t put up the one you threw together for a frustrated client, instead, show off your best, most prized examples.

4. Bidding

4.1 Choosing a bid

When deciding to bid on a project, read it carefully. Guru will actually email you when you have bids that match your listing, but not every project is worth bidding on. Sometimes what the client asks for is impossible based on how much they are willing to pay. Its up to you to decide whether you over bid and explain why or just not bid at all. Also, take time to review who made the project.

4.2 Writing a bid

Use language that’s easy to understand. Check for grammar and spelling mistakes. Break down the project as much as you can, explain each section and why it costs the amount you’ve set down. Also, say thank you for reading or the opportunity to bid.

4.3 Being Competitive

First of all, never try to bid impossibly low. Someone can always do the work of a freelancer cheaper, but they will spend less time on it and turn out an inferior product. Decide what makes you perfect for this product and back-up the sticker price you choose. Also, be thorough. Take your time responding to each need the project presents. Thoroughness alone can help you win.

4.4 Selling Yourself

Don’t be afraid to sell yourself. Everyone else bidding is doing the same. Talk about your good points, refer to other work you’ve done. Tell them about your experience and even point out what makes you the best choice. This is your chance to shine!

5. Communication

At this point, the owner of the project might contact you to ask more in-depth questions. Communication is key, especially if its a remote project. Make yourself available. Call back or return email promptly. Make sure the contact details you list are ways that you can be found quickly. When you are talking, either about details or after landing the project make sure to be as clear and concise as possible. After landing a project make sure to send regular updates while you are working. Even if you’re not finished, it helps everyone feel involved.

6. What to do when you win

Make sure you are on the same page. This goes back to communication. Double check all the details. Take time to work out deadlines and any other issues. Get as much content as you need up front. Stay on top of any deadlines, and if you fall behind, be sure to let everyone know.

7. Extra Tips

When you first start freelancing, try different things. Be open and experiment. Eventually you’ll get in a groove that you’re comfortable with. I found that I prefer Guru because it offers a lot more options for its free account and has great email updates. However, I land less projects than I did with a paid membership to Elance. Its all in the balance.

Do you know of other good freelancing sites? Do you suggest any other tips? Let me know if this guide was helpful to you.

I write a lot about social media and what it can do for business. Today I want to get down to the heart of what it means for a company to be involved. First, as times continue to change, as the baby-boomers retire and the kids of yesterday are becoming adults, the demands customers make change as well. Right now 51% of adult social media users think companies should maintain a social media presence (from emarketer).

More and more customers are expecting to have a relationship with a company, not just one or two buying experiences. They want to be able to ask questions, get immediate answers, and know what’s coming up. Unfortunately, the increase in demand for interaction is not being met. Most companies are far behind, failing to keep pace.

Why have a social media presence? Because as our world becomes more and more digital, we are losing that sense of personal communication. We call customer service and get a recorded voice. Recorded voices call our answering machines. We receive automated email. Most customers don’t have the time to browse a store and ask a sales rep a million questions that they may or may not have an answer to. But if a customer can find time online to interact with a social presence and feel like someone knowledge is spending personal time with them, it makes all the difference.