Who are you?

When someone connects with me, one of the first things I do is look at their profile. I want to know who they are and what they tweet about or what their interests are. If they leave their “about me” section blank, I don’t follow. I don’t know who they are or whether their posts will even interest me.

A simple one or two sentence description can do wonders to increase your followers.  Keep it simple and don’t try to pitch your product. Mention your main niche or what your primary topic is so you attract people who share your same passions. In other words… introduce yourself.

Start with the 80/20 Rule

Social media is not a marketplace for spam.  If you do nothing but plug your own stuff, people will instantly be turned off and un-fan you.  They might even just be polite about it and “hide” you from their stream.  Either way, you lose.

This is where the 80/20 rule comes into play and it’s relatively simple. For the most part, you want to post things that are NOT a sales pitch (see ideas below) – that’s your 80%.  The other 20% of your posts can be pitches for your product or a special offer, etc.  So if you tweet 20 times per day, only make about 4 of those related to selling something. Your fans won’t mind the “ads” as long as there’s more fun and useful content sandwiched in between.

If you start out with this rule in mind, it will be smooth sailing for you. If you’ve already blown it and posted 100 product links in a row, delete your account and start over.  No one is paying attention to your current one.

Make a plan

Social media is typically spontaneous. People usually post things as they happen – like a news outlet of sorts. That doesn’t mean you have to constantly be checking and posting to your social media apps. With some careful planning and some secret tools – like HootSuite – you can create a months worth of posts more and schedule them in advance. This is an incredible time saver and it enables you to reach visitors in different time zones or keep your fans engaged while you’re on vacation. You can still post spontaneously, and use the scheduled content as a backup for when you’re too busy to keep up or your creativity is momentarily tapped.

Planning what to say can be tough, but if you stick to a few predetermined themes it can be as easy as copy/paste. Here are some ideas to get you thinking…

Creative Ideas

As stated previously, social media is usually spontaneous, but coming up with topics on-the-fly is not always a good way to roll. It can give you instant writer’s block and trying to come up with a single tweet can be a great way to procrastinate.

Instead, pick a topic or a theme and start brainstorming a list of potential ideas from the suggestions below. You then build an arsenal of content to pluck from when you need it, or you can take your brilliant ideas and schedule them as future tweets.

• Ask questions that are fun and easy to answer. For example if your audience is mostly female, ask who their favorite author is and why. Be current – if the Oscars are on, ask about a movie that may be relevant to your topic. Keep it simple and make it related to your niche as much as possible.
• Post a poll. Some social media tools allow you to poll your audience. People are a little more prone to participate when it’s as easy as clicking a button to vote. Polls can also be embedded into your blog (ask us about setting this feature up for you) and integrated into comments.
• Ask an off-the-wall question. “When was the last time you went to the bathroom outside?” Often the answers you get make for a good blog post later. Keep it relevant or just plain fun. Let people know you have a sense of humor.
• Post Videos. Who doesn’t like videos? Or retro commercials or 80′s flashbacks? Throw in some fun YouTube clips or even make your own. Be smart about it and try to work your product in like the blender guy.
• Post facts, inspirational quotes, historical trivia…whatever fits your theme. For example, a feminist site would do well to post “On this date in…” type trivia with facts about the women’s movement.
• Share the Love! Don’t be conceited and post only links to your blog, your products, your site or links to other sites that mention your site… share your knowledge. If you’re aspiring to be an expert in your niche, then you probably already have a pretty steady stream of content and related topics flowing into your RSS reader. Don’t hog the resources – retweet (share) them. Your fans will thank you.

Step it up a notch

• Use pictures. Whenever a social medium allows photos, use them! They are guaranteed to get more attention than text.
  
• Use hash tags. Hash tags are words and phrases preference with the pound sign. Like #BadDay, #girlsrule, #MarthaStewart. You can make up your own or use ones you see others using.  These tags help others find related content for a specific topic.
• Give credit where credit is due. If you borrow a quote, cite the author and also mention the person who posted it. Use the RT (retweet) feature and promote others in your niche. Do this and they will come… because if you promote others, they will most likely reciprocate and you will gain new fans you wouldn’t have otherwise reached.

Mix it up

Unless it makes sense for your particular topic – like if you study obsessive compulsive disorder for example – don’t be predictable. Don’t fire off the same promotion or put your “quote of the day” in the same time slot every day. You will miss most of your audience. Remember the Internet is on 24/7 and your biggest fans could be on the other side of the globe. Mix up your content and vary your posting times. You can still use an automated schedule (see HootSuite above).

Double up

Doubling up only works well if you have a lot of content you can spread out over a day or so. To double up means to post the same link to a blog post or promotion more than once (or even more than twice). This is also helpful to reach an International audience because you can post the links several hours apart to reach different time zones. You’ll have to be careful with this one so you don’t come across as spammy. Apply the 80/20 rule here.

Talk back

Once your fans start replying to your tweets or commenting on your quote of the day, be sure to acknowledge their comment even if it’s just to say I agree or thank them for sharing their thoughts. Just be sure you aren’t starting one-sided conversations and then not listening for a response. In other words, don’t start topics you’re not interested in discussing. You never know which ones will spark mega discussions or even go viral.

Getting Fans

Fans can often be hard to come by, but when you’ve got them you certainly appreciate them. Your social media followers can often be more valuable than your web site visitors. Why?  Because most people will check their Facebook account daily. Make sure you’re a useful part of their stream. Provide them with quotes, jokes or inspirational stories they look forward to reading and you’ll have a fan for life. And eventually they may buy your product or refer your service because they have connected with you on a social level.

The first thing you should do to get fans is ask. Make sure you have social media icons/badges/fan boxes in prominent places on your web site. Point blank ask people to join your social network in a blog post or on your personal profiles. The cool thing about social media is that once someone joins, several of their friends may see your site listed on their friend’s profile and also connect with you.

The Facebook “Like” button (as seen at the end of this article) should be an important part of your web site. If it isn’t, contact us to have one installed immediately. Bookmarks and other social sharing options should also be present if you write compelling, relevant content that you want people to read. Your web site content will get a lot more attention and you will gain fans when you make it easy for your visitors to share your stuff with their friends.

Recommendations from a friend are the number one way to make sales. Thyme For Design is living proof of that. Our business is 100% referred – we’ve never had a need to advertise.

And look below to see how easy we made it to share this article about social media with your friends. Go ahead – click one of those beautiful buttons and spread the love…

Your site comes with the RSS feed technology built right in, but it helps to provide visitors with simple choices to subscribe to your site. We recommend setting up a free FeedBurner account for your RSS feeds to help your visitors subscribe via their favorite method with just a couple of clicks. FeedBurner also provides you with helpful statistical data about your visitors and like how many times your posts are read and how many people are subscribed.

To sign up for a free FeedBurner account, you’ll need to first visit FeedBurner.com. If you already have a Google account, go ahead and sign in.  If you don’t have a Google account, you can sign up for one from that same page. (Many of the Google applications integrate into the web sites we build, so having a Google account will be helpful for more than just this feature.)

Once you’ve signed into FeedBurner, you’ll need to add your feed url. Your site’s feed url is almost always going to be similar to this example:  http://yourdomainname.com/feed

Once you submit your feed url, FeedBurner will check to make sure it is valid and then suggest a name and title for your feed. You can change this information if you wish or just accept it. Once you accept it, copy and paste the new FeedBurner url you have created into an email to send to us.

It should look similar to this: http://feeds.feedburner.com/yoursite

We will then activate it on your site. Once the feed is activated, you can begin checking your statistics to track your subscribers and post data.

If you have any questions about this service, please don’t hesitate to contact us for assistance.

At Thyme For Design, we use a service called Dropbox to safely store files on a server for you to download. The free account holds up to two gigabytes of space and is sufficient enough for the amount of files we typically need to transfer to you. It is also a convenient way for you to share important project files with us.

To sign up for a free Dropbox account, click here.

Once you have opened your account, you will need to install the application to your computer by following the instructions provided by Dropbox (they are incredibly easy!). If you’d rather skip this step, you can do so and just access your data through the web interface. The desktop application is just a quicker way to use Dropbox and keep your files backed up to your hard drive as well as to the Dropbox server (added security).

When you have completed the Dropbox setup, look for the tab labeled “sharing”. Follow the on screen instructions to create a folder for your project and share it with us using this address: info@thymefordesign.com. Once you have completed this step, we will be able to upload your files right to your personal Dropbox account for safekeeping.

Custom Design

For a unique look to your site, we offer custom theme designs. These designs are tailored to your specific site’s content and brand. We can match colors, incorporate logos and integrate your social media. We can also create a logo concept for you if needed.

Corporate Branding

For large scale businesses, we recommend a complete corporate branding design. This type of theme completely integrates all of your site’s functionality into a single, unmistakeable style from the images to the fonts. This includes styling any additional functions such as e-commerce, portfolios, custom forms, forums, newsletters, etc. to match your corporate flair.

Templates

If you’re new to the web or just getting started with your first site, you will probably want to consider just using a web template at first.  There are tons and tons of templates available for you to choose from.  Here are some sites you can browse through to get design ideas:

http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/
http://www.fresheezy.com/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/01/08/100-excellent-free-high-quality-wordpress-themes/

You can also use this Google search to find more.

Most WordPress Themes are free, however there are some premium themes available for a small fee. You are free to use whichever type of theme you want.  If you aren’t sure if the theme you like will suit your business needs, please ask so we can determine a solution. In most cases, we can modify the theme for you (standard hourly rates apply).

Once you have selected a theme, we will inspect it to make sure it works with your site and then we will customize the header to add your pre-existing logo, business name and any other images you need.

Designs can use an existing company style or we can help you create a fresh new look.  We are also available to create matching print media such as business cards, brochures and more.

A web host is a company that provides the server (a super computer) where your website is uploaded. The server is connected to the Internet so visitors can see your site through their web browser. A web host is required in order to have a web site.

What are the costs?

Web hosting is pretty cheap. For most sites, shared hosting is the best option. Shared hosting is like an apartment complex. Many different sites are sharing the same space.  Most shared hosting costs less than $5 per month.

If you find your site outgrowing the shared hosting, you should consider moving to a dedicated server or VPS system to manage your growing size.  We’d be happy to discuss those options with you.

Do you have any recommendations?

Thyme For Design has been working with MidPhase for several years. They have been a solid, reliable host for many of our clients. They have phone support and instant online chat services within the Central time zone that makes it very convenient and easy to reach them when needed.

MidPhase has very inexpensive hosting plans for a variety of web sites. Their most basic plan will include everything you need for a small business site. Visit MidPhase.com to sign up.

I already have a web host, do I need to switch to a different company?

Depending on your current hosting situation, you may want to consider switching hosts to get lower rates or increased bandwidth. You might want to visit MidPhase.com to compare their rates and packages with your current hosting options.

Every site we build has a database as it’s foundation.This means that your host must be able to provide database (sometimes referred to as MySQL) functionality. This is pretty common and most hosting companies provide this service by default. There are a few companies that do not have this as an option, or are unable to support the software we use.  In those cases, switching to a new host will be essential and we can walk you through the steps of transferring to a new host.

If you have any additional questions about web hosting, please feel free to contact us.

For additional training, you can always visit wordpress.tv and browse their categories.  If your site uses advanced features of WordPress that you will need to access, we can email links to additional tutorials for your custom setup.  Additionally, phone support is available at hour regular hourly rate.

Using Your Dashboard

• The WordPress.com dashboard – introduction
• Checking your stats & inbound links from the dashboard
• Moderating your recent comments from the dashboard

Editing Pages and Posts

• Differences Between Pages and Posts
• Adding an “About Me” (or any other static) page (note: adding pages may change your navigation, depending on the way your theme was initially setup.  Please contact us if you need to change how this feature works on your site.)
• Writing and Publishing a Post
• Rearranging the post editor to suit your style
• Saving and returning to draft posts & pages
• Publishing your post at a later date
• Creating a post excerpt & using the “more” tag
• Using Quick Edit and Bulk Edit to manage your posts in half the time
• Getting a post out quickly with QuickPress
• Embedding photos, video & audio into your posts
• Creating an image gallery

Managing Post Categories

• Adding categories and tags to your posts
• Adding and deleting categories
• Adding & managing categories after the fact

Managing Your Sidebar

• Adding a widget to your sidebar (Most themes are widget ready.  However, there are some that are hard-coded and do not use widgets.  Please contact us if adjustments are needed to your theme.)
• Adding a new link to your sidebar

Integrate Your Social Media Accounts

• Import your WordPress blog into Facebook
• Add Twitter Updates to Your Sidebar

Manage Your Site On-the-Go

• Introducing WordPress for BlackBerry (beta)
• Introducing WordPress for iPhone 1.2

If you’re reading this via RSS already, then congratulate yourself. You’ve already arrived!

What the Heck is RSS?

RSS= Really Simple Syndication The technical definition is…well…nevermind. I just Googled it and the definitions may not make much sense to you without looking up all of the other words in the definition, so let me put it to you in human terms. You have a lot of favorite web sites that you like to visit and read the latest information, right? This probably means you have all these sites bookmarked in your browser and every time you want to check on them, you have to find the bookmark and click…wait for the page to load…click the link to read the latest article…click again to read the next article, etc. Then you have to find the bookmark for the next site you want to go to…wait for it to load…find the link to click… it’s time-consuming!
Most web sites are now using this RSS technology to publish those new articles into a feed for you to conveniently access from a free piece of web technology called an RSS Reader or even from your mobile device.

Here’s how you can take advantage of this technology to save yourself hours of waiting time on the Internet. Using a free piece of web technology called an RSS Reader, you can have all of those articles delivered to you in an inbox of sorts that you can access with a single click. Yes – you read that right – one click! You don’t really need to know how it works. You just need to know how to set it up and use it to your advantage so let’s do it…

Demystifying the RSS Reader

You will need to set up an RSS reader to read the RSS snippets. These little batches of text and images are also called “feeds” because they are being fed into the reader which then displays them on your screen in the browser window. Let’s take a look at my favorite reader called Google Reader. There are many feed readers out there, but I think Google is the easiest to set up and use. To use Google reader (or any reader) you will need to set up an account. If you don’t already have a Google account such as gmail, then go ahead and sign up for one. It’s free. I’ll wait.

Ok let’s sign in to Google Reader: http://www.google.com/reader It’s pretty empty, isn’t it? Fear not. We are going to get all of those crazy bookmarks into your reader so you can enjoy having all of your favorite site updates delivered to you instantly. Here is a peek at my Google Reader (click to see a larger image):

1. Total number of new posts you have yet to dive into
2. One of your RSS feeds (number of unread posts for that site)
3. Star – for marking your favorite posts for posterity or for easy reading at a later date

Ok this is all fine and dandy, but how does one go about adding new RSS feeds to the reader? I’m so glad you asked…

Finding and Adding RSS Feeds

If an RSS feed is present, web sites usually want you to know that and if they are smart they will will make it obvious about how to sign up for or “subscribe” to their feed. In my case, there are two types of ways to subscribe to Girls Can’t WHAT? feeds. Did I say feeds? Yes – there is more than one way to get your info.

First, take a look at this screen shot. See the big orange RSS icon? Most RSS icons look like this.  If you are already logged into Google Reader, clicking an RSS icon will pop up your reader and ask you if you really meant to subscribe. Go ahead and click the orange RSS icon and follow the onscreen instructions to finish adding the feed to your reader.

(Note: In some cases the feed is being run through a service called “Feedburner” so that the feed can be tracked. By using Feedburner, I can discover how many people are subscribed and what articles interest you. That’s the only information I get from this service. If a Feedburner page opens instead of your reader, choose your reader from the list on the page and continue with the onscreen instructions.)

Most sites have caught on to the tremendous benefits of RSS and make that available to us, their audience. You will sometimes encounter sites that don’t offer RSS. You can either snub them, continually go back to them and painstakingly wait for their pages to load or do what I do and send them a polite email asking that they catch up with the 21st century. Perhaps even point them to this post so they can see what a grand service they will be providing to their visitors.

But I WANT to See the Real Site!

No problem. Clicking the title of any post from your reader screen will open a new window and load the actual web site. If you want to post a comment on the article or see features of the site itself, you will need to click the link and actually visit the site. The point of RSS is to feed you just what you need, when you need it, and save valuable minutes of your day that would otherwise be wasted watching web pages load line by blasted line.

Now What Do I Do?

Congratulations, if you set up your first RSS feed (hopefully to this site) you have just gained 1,000 geeky points. Do you feel smarter now? I’m very proud of you for taking this incredible step and learning how to save time on the Internet. Now for your homework….go back to all of your bookmarks and look for that RSS icon. Start clicking and adding the feeds to your reader. Once you’ve done that, start scrolling through all the posts that have accumulated in your reader and catch up on anything you might not have read yet.

You will be amazed at how fast you can get through the material. You can easily scan through posts and determine instantly if you want to read it or not. If not, keep scrolling. The post is marked as “read” in your reader and the next unread post shows up. I currently have over 60 unread posts in my reader. That looks like a lot, but by scanning and browsing quickly through everything in a single window, what would have taken well over an hour to load and read will now take about 15 minutes.

If you get really short on time, you can close the browser window and the unread posts will stay marked as unread so you can come back later. You can also click the star icon to mark articles as “favorites” so you can return later and read them at your leisure.

For the Ultra-Geeky

If you really want to save time, setup an RSS feeder on your mobile phone and check your feeds while waiting in line at the grocery store or the doctor’s office. I can’t tell you how much more I can learn by using these otherwise “wasted” minutes. I enjoy it so much I don’t usually mind the wait anymore. Google again comes to the rescue with it’s mobile version of the reader. You can catch these mobile apps at www.google.com/m.

So….what are you going to do with all the time you’re saving now?

1. You sign up for a third-party email subscription service.  We recommend aweber.com for their outstanding customer interaction and full-featured service.

2.  A sign-up box is placed on your site, telling your visitors that they can sign up to receive email updates from you.  You will want to specify how often they can expect it and what type of information will be included.

3.  When a visitor signs up, they receive an email asking them to confirm their subscription.  This prevents unwanted spam and fake sign-ups.

4.  You post articles, news, tips and information to your site. These articles are picked up by your subscription service via the RSS feed and placed into a template that Thyme For Design creates to match your site’s theme elements, logo, etc.

5.  Your branded newsletter is sent out to your subscribers on the day/time you choose or can be held in a queue until you manually activate it.  If you choose the manual option, you can preview the newsletter before it is sent.  (Previewing is a good idea the first few times to ensure the formatting and amount of content is on target.)

Tips:

• The newsletter can be setup to include full articles or just excerpts.  We recommend using excerpts that function as teasers to bring visitors back to your site for further information or to take advantage of a special offer.
• Keep the number of articles to a minimum for each newsletter.  Too much information is overwhelming and may cause people to unsubscribe.  You may want to adjust your sending frequency a few times until you find the right balance.
• Promote your subscription service by putting the signup box in an obvious spot on all your pages such as the top of a sidebar.  Be sure to mention it to customers in any paper and email correspondence.
• Your primary objective is to benefit the reader.  Make sure the articles you include in your newsletter are beneficial to your customers and draw them to interact with your web site or your business.
• Most newsletter companies provide statistics to see how many clicks you get back to your site from the newsletter.  This is a good way to gauge how your content is being received by your customers.
• Newsletter services can be used to send out urgent bulletins and special event invitations as well.  You can also have separate lists for different groups of people or type of news.

Are you ready to add an automated newsletter to your site?  Drop us a line and let’s get started.

1. Be simple

Complicated and long forms will scare people away.  Keep it short and sweet.  If you’re not going to ship anything then don’t ask for a mailing address.  Stick to the point and you’ll have a much higher response rate.

2. Collect the right data

If the form exists to solve a problem, give the visitor room to explain the situation.  If you need to know a model or order number to help the customer, include a place to enter it on the form.  Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than for you to respond with “We need more information in order to assist you.”  Give them the opportunity to explain their situation the first time.

3. Provide feedback

A good form has an autoresponder set that let’s the visitor know their information was received by sending them a courtesy copy and also includes a time frame of when they should hear back from you.  It’s also a good idea to include business hours and phone numbers for their reference.

What else should you be doing?

Test your forms!  Not only should you make sure the form is functional once you’ve launched it, but you should also review the autoresponse emails and the follow up message on the screen once they click submit.  Walk yourself through the entire process.  It is also a good idea to let someone else test it.  If they end up having questions about the form, then it’s likely your visitors will too.  You can never over-test your communication systems.