LNP Politicians Told to Cutback on Social Media

The federal LNP party is planning to crack down on their party candidates in Queensland using social media sites because they can’t control the content that their members are posting on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The plan by the federal arm of the party is to provide their candidates with party monitored fan pages so that any inappropriate content can be filtered or removed.  

Social media sites are just that social, they allow the owners of the pages to post comment or content on any subject they want without censorship or control, and it is these last two that get most small businesses in trouble. The LNP’s decision is to me, closing the stable door after the horse has well and truly bolted.

The policies and procedures on how the party and it’s public office members interact with social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, should have been put in place a long time ago and the party should have employed a well thought out strategy to do just this.

Trying to censor their members after they’ve been allowed to have a free reign is going to be very difficult for them, as it seems it is now, with several of their high profile politicians defying the ruling and some asking for exemptions. Wouldn't it have been so easy to put these rules in place before they started on social media? I think so. 

I know from talking to so many business owners their greatest fears in using social media are the lack of privacy, and control over the content that is published about their business. Setting up your policies and procedures manual and creating the rules around who will manage, monitor and administer your social media strategy should be one of the first strategies implemented.

No point in following the LNP and doing it after the event.

Once the rules have been put in place it is a lot easier to monitor the content, what is posted on sites and how to engage your community to build loyalty for your business. Remember though, social media is about openness and engaging your community in your business, censoring the information you post on sites to the point of being down right boring, will not help you in tapping into the social media community.     

Social media has a very large voice, and you need to  make sure the message you are shouting about is the one you really want your customers to know about, so before you start getting too deep into your Facebook page or your Twitter account, make sure you know what the rules of engagement are.

Make sure that all staff who are part of your online strategy, are trained on what is acceptable content and what is not, before they get access to your sites.

Setting the rules early will help you control the very powerful tool social media is and will also allow you to breathe a little easier.

Remember, set up the rules before you start, trying to do it after the damage has been done can be a very costly mistake for you and your business.    

Business Intelligence Pros Iffy on SocNet Data

The majority of global business intelligence (BI) practitioners in a recent study expect the use of BI at their organizations grow at a steady pace in 2010, but most are skeptical or unsure about the value of analyzing data obtained from social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook, according to Kognitio and Baseline Consulting, which collaborated on the research.


Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the people who responded to the survey said they are “undecided” about the value of data collected from social media sites to help them understand more about their organization or customers. Another 23% called social media “overrated,” saying “there are not as many customer conversations going on as the media would have us believe.” Only 14% said they want to incorporate data from Twitter and other sites as part of their ongoing data analysis efforts.

Looking for Quick Wins

As are those in many disciplines, BI professionals are increasingly facing a need to demonstrate the value of their work. Some 29% of survey respondents say they are under pressure to justify the money they have spent on BI projects and are looking for “quick wins or new opportunities.” In a separate question, 36% say the speed to delivery of BI projects will be an imperative in 2010, saying they will need to test, evaluate, and deploy new systems within a matter of weeks. This finding is a marked change from previous years, Kognitio said, noting that BI projects have historically been expected to take months to implement correctly, and obtaining usable information could take a year or more.

The survey also found that two of every three respondents believe that business intelligence delivered on an as-needed basis (Data as a Service, or DaaS) will continue to grow in 2010. Those respondents were almost evenly split on the rate of growth, with slightly more saying DaaS-like services will continue growing at a slower pace, with the other half believing they will grow more rapidly, as “more companies realize and seek to benefit from its business and economic value,” according to Kognitio.

Less than 10% say outsourced BI is doomed to fail, the survey found.

“The survey gives us a clear road map as to where business intelligence is headed in the new year,” said John K. Thompson,CEO of Kognitio’s North American operations. “In this economy, companies want to be able to quantify their efforts and see tangible results from everything they do. That clearly extends to the use of BI, which has been a ‘money pit’ for too many firms for far too long.”

Additional survey findings:

•Nearly half of respondents (49%) said BI is becoming more appreciated as a strategic tool at their organizations, with the business side increasingly embracing its value; 43%, however, believe that BI will not grow as an enterprise-wide initiative, with “pockets” still existing across their organizations.

•BI practitioners expect to see the deeper use of technology at their firms in 2010, and plan to add capabilities to additional lines of business, with almost one-third (31%) saying they plan to add new BI tools.

•55% believe that business intelligence is used by their firms for both strategic and operational purposes.

•The adoption of in-memory databases, which enable faster analysis of immense amounts of data, is predicted to grow slowly by 61% of respondents, who said their price/value point will continue to fall.

“The survey responses confirm the BI paradox of steady-state resources and increased expectations,” said Jill Dyché, Baseline Consulting’s co-founder and partner.

Blogging For SEO

It’s no big secret that adding a blog to your web site can really improve your rankings on the major search engines, that’s because of the frequently updated content that good blogs provide. Unfortunately, most business owners don’t realise the potential of blogging in their communication strategy, and whilst the main point of blogging is to add the personal touch to your marketing, it can also be used as a promotional medium or to provide advice, talk about any subject you like, or provide customer service to your customers.

The main reason that you should add a blog is the impact it has on the search engines, in particular Google. When Google finds an active blog it tends to crawl it more frequently and often gives it a high ranking in the search query responses. The secret to getting Google to crawl your blog more often is to provide frequent updates, and I’m talking at least 5 times a week.

It’s this freshness and frequency of updates that Google likes to see in a blog, add to that, great original content that adds a new dimension to existing stories on the net and you have a winning formula.

There is no doubt that once your blog has been crawled and indexed and you are updating often, you’ll achieve a high ranking in the search engines, higher in fact that some web sites and you can use this to great effect with other pages on your site. You can select keywords or phrases that you want to rank highly for, write your post and in most cases your story or blog will achieve a top 10 rank.

You still need to do the basics of SEO on your blog, optimise your titles and write your copy with those keywords that you want to rank highly for included, and post often. Original content is the king, not copied or borrowed from someone else but your own thoughts and ideas.

Don’t be nervous about blogging, it’s a lot of fun and it really does add a very effective marketing tool to your business.

If you’d like to know more about blogs and blogging for business then email me here at SEOBOSS and I’ll be very happy to provide you with all the information that you’ll need to get set up and blogging to your hearts content.

If you’d like to learn to blog, you can find additional information on the Business Blogging Program at Social Media College.

Using QR Codes For Small Business Marketing

I’ve had a number of business owners approach me this week about QR Codes and how they could use them in their business, so I thought I’d write this post to explain what they are and how you can use them.


Lets start by looking at what they are and what they do, QR stands for “Quick Response”, and they are the next generation of bar codes. They have been in Japan for awhile with the Japanese going absolutely crazy over them and they are just starting now to appear in this country.

So what do they do?

•They contain lots of information such as your web site address
•They can be read upside down and faster than a standard bar code
•You can get a QR reader for your phone or iPhone – as long as it can browse the web.
•They can be scanned from a computer screen,a newspaper or flyer, magazine, billboard or advertising signboard.

So how does it apply to small business, by generating a code, which is a simple process, you can apply the bar code to any advertising or promotional material that you are currently using, use it on your sign boards,your advertising including print, magazine or flyers.

People can then simply scan the code and their phone will take them directly to the web site that the code has embedded.The code is scanned by simply taking a photo of the code from your mobile phone and the phone then opens up a browser which takes you directly to the URL in the code.

This is a great tool if you want to specify a web site or promotional offer in your advertising etc, as the code will take your readers directly to the URL you have specified. You can create your QR code to send people to a web site URL, a telephone number,an SMS message or text message.

You can add these to your business cards or letterhead as well, which is a great promotional tool for your business and best of all, they are free.

You can download a QR reader from iTunes if you have an iPhone and some of the new Nokia phones have the reader as standard.

To generate the bar code, it is a really simple process as all you do is search on the web and you’ll find a code generator site, in fact to make it easy for you here’s the link to one I used.

Good luck and have fun with this, it’s a great promotional tool and you can add it anywhere.

If you’d like to have more information on this or are not technical enough to add it to your marketing, send me a comment or email at info@mikeandrewconsulting.com and I’ll help you out as always.

Free Web Site SEO Report - Valued At $49:95

Image via CrunchBase

Some interesting research that has come my way just recently, points out a pretty obvious statistic, and that is that 75% of people last year did not use Yellow Pages, so where did they go to research business? to the web of course, over 80% of consumers use the web to research purchase decisions, and that is why your web site needs to rank well on Google and other search engines including Yahoo and Bing.

When it comes to ranking in the top results on the search engines for any search term, you really need to have your act together with regard to how your web site is set up and optimised. Have you picked the right keywords?do you know the trends and search habits of your consumers? more importantly, how do you get a Top 10 rank for your web site in your chosen keyword.

It is important to realise that 68% of peolpe do not go past page one of the results for any given search term, so if you are not there, you lose.

It concerns me that most small business web sites are not set up or optimised for search engine rankings and you do miss out on ranking on the first page for your chosen sector or keyword. Is it easy to get a top 10 rank? no it's not, but it is possible with some research, tweaking and keyword research.

If you'd like an SEO check up on your current web site to make sure your site is performing to it's maximum potential and you'd like to make sure that you have your site optimised for search engines, then I'm happy to provide you with a Free web site SEO health check.

All you need to do is click on this link, Free SEO Health Check Report, and I'll send you a report on how well your site performs and what you can do to get that TOP 10 Rank.

All part of the service.

Social Media – Your Brand Reputation Depends on Doing It Right

As part of any social media strategy, it’s very important that the impact of social media on brand building and the impact blogs have on the purchasing decisions of consumers is considered and factored into your strategy.


A social media strategy is not just about Facebook and Twitter, which is what some so called “experts” will have you believe, it is and should always be treated as a Corporate Communications Strategy for your business.

Blogs, play a major role in influencing the purchasing decision amongst women in particular, and in a recent survey in the US, 85% of regular female blog readers said they were influenced to make a purchase as a result of a review or comment posted on a blog. So with that in mind, if you’re the company that gets it right, you have a good chance of getting the sale, but what happens if you are on the receiving end of a negative review or comment. How do you protect your brand and how should you respond?

Your customers can now read, listen, discuss and research their purchasing decisions and you need to work harder at customer service than ever before, if you are finding negative or damaging reviews about you,your brand or service then use this as a wake up call. The world of social media networks, business review sites and blogs has provided the disgruntled consumer with a voice.

Every employee in your company is now responsible for your brands reputation, and when you as a company, start to live up to your reputation, it becomes a lot easier to manage your brand effectively on line.

If you do find a negative review on any of the sites, resist the temptation to respond defensively and do not allow any of your staff to respond, you could put the Streisand effect in motion.

What can be used to deliver a negative can also be used to promote a positive, so use it wisely.

Remember it’s very hard to remove a negative comment or search engine result once it hits the web.

Mike Andrew owns and operates an Internet Marketing Consultancy on the Gold Coast in Queensland

Emails and Social Networks

With more than a third of Internet users now visiting social media networks each month, a lot of time is spent in gathering information, and now it appears that 40% of email users visit social media sites to gather information about products and recommendations from friends.  A recent study called “Emails Gone Viral” by Silverpop found that shared emails delivered an average increase of reach of 24.3%, and that figure is due to increase as sharing becomes more mainstream in the future.
Social media sites do have an impact on the increase of opens for emails as well with at least an additional 1% of opens for emails when shared on network sites.
So when does your email have it’s biggest impact on social media users? the majority of opens and clicks on shared emails is within the first few days and the last click about 7 days after posting, although activity  on an email was extended as long 44 days.

If you'd like to read the full post on this subject you'll find it here at Social Media College