Integrated Digital Marketing

I have a great story to tell you today

About reading and writing the world-wide-web way!

A way that makes clicks and conversions and views

fill metrics reports full of whopping good news!

It starts with a plan to cut out the clutter

and make your site sticky, like thick peanut butter.

But first, you must audit- find out what you’ve got,

And try to determine if you like it or not.

Next step- you should cut…

Cut!

Cut!

Cut!

Cut!

Cut!

Rid yourself of that clutter, get out of your rut!

Cut out that bad filler,

No if, and, or but.

Because sometimes you’ll click to a not-so-good page

Where HUGE blocks of text send you into a rage!

And you feel like you must find that writer to ask,

“How’s a someone supposed to perform a quick task?!”

Because that’s what your goal is, your reason for being-

To give information that’s easy for seeing.

Make sure that your copy is clean, clear, and dapper

(Otherwise, please… toss it into the crapper.)

Remember that people don’t visit to read-

They want to make use of the things that they see-d.

So remember when writing, there’s one simple rule:

It’s YOU that’s so helpful- a word’s just a tool.

Social Media is all about trust.  The ones who win are patient, because trust takes some time to build.

That time frame, the time it takes to build trust online, should be considered ahead of time.  It needs to be part of your strategy.  The little decisions, the conversions,  that go into someone deciding to trust you are way more important than advertising your special online.  Plan for it.

They’re micro-conversions.  Lots of little, helpful interactions that you give away for free.  It’s just like if you had a shop, and people came in for directions.  Same thing.

Well, you can give directions by just pointing at a map.  But to make an impression, you’ve got to be a real person.

People who are talking into the social media bullhorn without planning are going to be left behind when it comes to making big conversions or sales.  If they would have spent time making micro-conversions instead of trying to be the biggest, things might have worked.

All you have to do to start is take some time to listen.  Then, introduce yourself.

There.  You made your first micro-conversion.

Now keep going.

Email and a telephone is Twitter and a blog; you already know how to do this.  -Liz Strauss

Well, I’m here in Falls Church VA for a lovely day and a great conference- the 2nd annual Blog Potomac.  Lots of friendly folks and interesting speakers.  And… and… the talking heads on sound system right now (I’m a fan).

Everything I’ve heard so far has been worthwhile, even if it’s covered some familiar ground.  Here are a couple of the take-aways as I digest my (delicious) lunch from dccenntralkitchen.  You can find all of these folks at the Blog Potomac website.

-Sphere Of Influence (SOI) is great, but you better connect it to ROI.  -Shel Holtz

-You can make up your own #hashtags on Twitter to make your point.  -Shireen Mitchell

-Ford has 200,000 employees, and one social media guy (who happens to be Scott Monty).

-If you want to be a leader in social media, don’t start with people; start with relationships.  -Liz Strauss

-Social media is dead.  -Geoff Livingston, who hosted the conference.

What are your thoughts on these thoughts?  Have you heard it before, or does this sound new to you?

This post isn’t going to be about marketing. (But just so I don’t leave you hanging, there are some interesting posts on digital marketing today here, here, and here.)

Pat and I were chatting last night a bit about what family means to this business.

The short answer is that it means pretty much everything.  We work around family, we make time for family… family shapes things here at Matterhorn.

A couple of weeks ago, we headed to Harpers Ferry to make a presentation on social media.  We could have left the day before the presentation and gotten there in time for a dinner with the conference attendees- it was a networking opportunity, for sure.

But Pat needed to see his daughter’s first T-ball game.  Couldn’t miss it.  We left late in the evening, got there around 1 a.m., worked a little, and got up early to set up.

Yesterday, we had a presentation to make in the afternoon.  I had to leave early to coach my son’s soccer practice. It was an obligation I had made months before.

No problem.  We changed things around a little, I presented first, and made it to the field just in time to set up cones.

We make those allowances here because, for us, that’s what really matters.  What’s cool is that it shows up in our work.  Family isn’t an excuse to duck responsibility here at work; it’s the reason to take on big projects here at work.  Better work makes us better at home.

We’re Saturdays-at-the-field, helping-with-the-homework, never-miss-a-birthday guys.  And that makes the way we do things not for everybody.  That’s fine- there are plenty of other digital marketing companies out there.

But for us, family is first.  What about you?  How does family fit into your business?