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Greetings!
Welcome to the third edition of The Maestro Monthly, an email newsletter published by The U.P. Web Maestro. The intent of this publication is to bring you news and updates on U.P. Web Maestro services, local business news, as well as general Web related business tips. (Please note: if you do not wish to receive this email or other messages from us, you can safely click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email.)
Successful Business Email Practices
by Nathan Lyle
Email is fast and convenient. However, this often results in less than professional use of email by business professionals. Just as your outfit or handshake make an impression on your clients and associates, your email also creates an impression of you and your business.
Here are some ways to use email effectively, while creating a professional impression.
Use a signature
People might be able to see who a message is from by looking at the "from" information on a message, but this is like expecting people to use an envelope to see who a letter (written on old fashioned paper) is from. Most modern email software allows for the creation of a signature file, which is then added to the end of all email you send. This means you don't have to type it each time, and you can have a consistent signature that contains your contact information.
A signature can be short or long, but don't make it too long. You can use formatting to emphasis text, though you should only use it sparingly. You can also include a logo in your signature, though adding an image is usually a little harder than just adding the text. Here's an example of an effective and simple signature:
John Smith
My Company Name
jsmith@mycompany.com
(906)555-5555 or 1(800)555-5555
www.mycompany.com
Edit for readability
When responding to an email, type your response at the top of the email rather than after the message you're responding to. This lets people see the relevant part of the message first. If the original email to you was longer, remove the parts that you are not specifically responding to. It's often good to retain the parts you are responding to, as this helps maintain context.
Use the default font settings unless absolutely necessary. While styled emails are possible (they use HTML like a web page does) there is unfortunately not much consistency between email programs on how things are written and displayed. If you use formatting, chances are good that it won't look the same on your computer as it will on the computer of the person who's reading your message.
DON'T USE ALL CAPITAL LETTERS UNLESS YOU'RE ANGRY. FROM THE EARLY DAYS OF THE INTERNET, USING ALL CAPITALS IS EQUIVALENT TO SHOUTING. MOST PEOPLE DON'T LIKE TO BE SHOUTED AT.
[read full article]
The Trends and Basics of Internet Marketing
by Thomas Dolaskie
Welcome to Internet Marketing, where timing is everything, and everything takes time.
Respect your resources.
An Internet Marketing campaign should respect company resources. Be it staff activity on trendy social media sites or the constant monitoring of statistical data and subsequent informed adjustments. Often problematic is finding a way to balance the time between actually managing your business and allocating time to "talk" about it on the Internet or manage an Online Marketing (OLM) campaign.
Think Big, Start Small.
Don't overwhelm your staff with a million ideas that require their participation. You are the business mind, the idea person; but take it easy on your resources. Ask your most web-savvy staffer if they'd like to get involved and how they feel they can best contribute. Work your way around the company and visualize the best team you can properly hold accountable to execute basic social marketing practices. It is best to allow one individual to "manage" (always have an up to date password log from this person!) the social service sites but be sure to ask everyone to participate. This "manager" is simply a monitoring body capable of gathering basic feedback and conversing via the Web as "the company." Do not expect this individual to initiate an Internet Marketing Campaign! Have participating staff, friends and family become fans on Facebook, follow on Twitter and comment on blogs and picture albums. Remember this takes some time and expecting magic overnight is a set up for discombobulated madness. Keep it simple!
These social service sites allow connection between outlets such as Twitter, Blogspot, Wordpress and popular photo sharing sites like Flickr and Smugmug as well as Bookmarking with StumbleUpon or Delicious, etc. Keep in mind this social exposure is only a fraction of the web presence battle. Behind the glory of social exposure exists an ever-changing science of data collection, analysis and adjustments that are the true foundation of effective Internet Marketing for your website.
My business isn't social so am I just wasting time tweeting?
Some businesses will benefit more than others with social marketing. How "social" is your business? There are countless business models and they all have a place in the social marketing culture. Bars, Bands, Restaurants, Cafés and Clubs all work non-stop to be noticed in online social circles. As with fishing guides, skydiving outfits, hotel or vacation spots, photographers, doctors, you get the idea. Typing "café" into Facebook will return close to 14,000 results. Depending on the feed or content, Twitter will do the same. A Google Search for "café blog" will net you just under 300,000 results. Rest assured if competing for business is involved, somebody (your competition) is online tweeting, blogging, instant messaging, discussing on forums and experiencing some sort of result. To break it down, they are promoting themselves.
Are they doing more than you? At the end of the day you're the one who has to live with your efforts to improve, grow and sustain your business. Being social in marketing is a choice. Choose wisely and efficiently!
Should I hire an Internet Marketing company?
Internet Marketing such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising is a highly focused and specialized skill set that constantly evolves. Your competition is always finding new ways to improve and stay ahead, one night they launch a change to their website or Internet Marketing strategy and suddenly your competitive position is compromised. Internet Marketing specialists must understand brand recognition and competitor trends to be prepared for sudden challenges. Establishing an effective online Marketing campaign that fits a budget requires experience in actually writing, monitoring and adjusting budgets that work.
This isn't rocket science!
No, much of what is done to produce effective online Marketing campaigns doesn't require surgical genius. But it does require full time dedication and incredible depth, exposure and comprehension of Internet trends. Internet Marketing campaigns can be small and grow with the feedback of gathered data. Continue with what works and learn from what does not. Do your research. Internet Marketing is a specialty service that can burn through budgets, eliminate R.O.I. and leave you incredibly frustrated. An efficient Internet Marketing team should provide insight on website content, coding, social media practices, forum and discussion principles, and comprehensive analysis of the competition to name only a few. Be certain you are working with an experienced Internet Marketing team. Countless businesses are claiming years of experience in "marketing," but may know nothing of Pay Per Click, Web Positioning, SEO, or data analysis. This will be covered in depth on our blog and in future newsletters.
Make sure this Internet Marketing team can mesh seamlessly with your website developer or administrator. Communication and execution are absolutely critical to campaign success.
Do not settle for less, your business deserves to "Be Found."
About the author: Thomas Dolaskie is the owner of 9zero6, an online marketing and search optimization company located in Munising. Thomas can be reached at tdolaskie@9zero6.com. Learn more about 9zero6 at www.9zero6.com.
Miscellaneous Maestro Minutia
Reminder: we have moved our office to 256 US Highway 41 East in Negaunee Township, so don't panic if you stop by our old location and don't see us! Also, Google Maps puts our address next to Teal Lake in Negaunee which is way off, so if you're looking for map directions, make sure to search for our business name (which for some reason shows up correctly) instead of just the address.
That's it for our third newsletter! Please feel free to let me know what you find useful or what you'd like to see us cover in future issues.
Sincerely,
Nathan Lyle
Phone: (906)228-5884
Email: nathanlyle@upwebmaestro.com
Web: www.upwebmaestro.com
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Business Tip
Use Google Alerts
Chances are you're pretty busy. Save time with Google Alerts. You can define a set of search terms and have Google send you an email report on new websites matching those terms, or changes to existing websites. You can customize how often these alerts are sent to you, what types of pages you want to know about (websites, blogs, news, etc.) and have it sent to any email address you like. You can manage and remove your alerts at any time. You can use Google Alerts to keep tabs on topics you're interested in, or even your competition.
Web/Technology News
U.S. slower than other nations in Internet speed
Average Internet speed in the U.S. is lower than at least 27 other countries, according to a new report by the Communications Workers of America. Surfers in the U.S. average around 5.1 megabits per seconds (mbps) which is far behind top-ranked South Korea, where speeds average more than 20 mbps.
[read more]
Google to Caffeinate search results
On August 10th Google announced a top secret project called Caffeine. It's mostly under-the-hood stuff, so users shouldn't immediately notice any differences between the old technology and the new. One of the ideas of Caffeine is to index website content much faster. You can check things out, and even offer feedback, by visiting www2.sandbox.google.com
Firefox Plug-In Frees Court Records, Threatens Judiciary Profits
Programmers at Princeton, Harvard and the Internet Archive have released a Firefox plugin (named RECAP) designed to make millions of legal documents available for free. Why this is a bit controversial, is because Federal courts use an old document tracking system known as PACER as their official repository—a system lacks basic functionality, and charges 8 cents per page. Even searches on the system aren't free.
[read more]
Neighborhood Watch 2.0
Proactive citizens are jumping into social networking technology to help guard against crime in their neighborhoods. Across the country, citizens are using Twitter, blogs, and email, along with the more standard street patrols, to help fight crime. We feel any use of social networking that does more than share the latest celebrity blooper, is a move in the right direction.
[read more]
Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard
If you're a person who loves gadgets, this is for you. Just like floppy drives are a thing of the past, now keyboards may follow them into obscurity...
[watch video]
Free Software
Nvu
Nvu (pronounced "N-view") is a free, open source software program that allows you to build websites and web pages using a simple WYSIWYG editor (what-you-see-is-what-you-get). Nvu makes creating web pages as easy as using a word processor and rivals such programs as Adobe's Dreamweaver and Microsoft's Expression Web, but Nvu is free!
[ Download: Windows | Mac ]
Firefox Add-ons
Yoono
Socialize Your Browser! All your social networks and instant messaging in one easy to use browser sidebar. Get all your friend updates, update your status and share stuff easily across Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and more—all at once! Simplify your online social life.
[ Download ]
ReminderFox
ReminderFox displays and manages lists of date-based reminders and ToDo's. ReminderFox does not seek to be a full-fledged calendar. In fact, the target audience is anybody that simply wants to remember important dates (birthdays, anniversaries, bills, etc) without having to run a whole calendar application. ReminderFox makes sure you remember all of your important dates via easy-to-use lists, alerts, and alarm notifications.
[ Download ]
Lazarus
Never lose anything you type into a web form again! Lazarus securely auto-saves all forms as you type, so after a crash, server timeout, or whatever, you can go back to the form, right click, "recover form", and breath a sigh of relief.
[ Download ]
Really Simple Sticky
Really simple sticky is a small extension where you can add notes, reminders directly in your browser. The note is stored localy in your browser.
[ Download ]
Thunderbird Add-on
Lightning
Manage your daily schedule directly within Thunderbird.
[ Download ]
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