Search Engine Visibility, Appearance and Usability in Web Design http://www.golearnweb.com/web-designer-pro-tutorials/search-engine-visibility-appearance-and-usability-in-web-design.html

Search Engine Visibility, Appearance and Usability in Web Design

Search Engine Visibility, Appearance and Usability in Web Design

I was recently asked by a visitor to take a look at her company's website, designed by a university student. I will not give the URL for that site, partly to protect the innocent, and partly because by the time you read this, it'll probably have been modified.



The site was heavy in its use of graphics with images adorning most parts of the page layout, to provide curved borders (to replace the sharp corners in enclosing boxes), different background images for different parts of the page, etc. It had a top navigation bar, driven entirely using JavaScript. The navigation bar mimicked the sort of menu bar you find in computer programs - there is a horizontal menu bar with different items listed. When you move your mouse over one of those items, the menu will automatically expand vertically. As you move the mouse cursor down the pop-up menu, the item beneath the pointer is highlighted. Click it, and you will be delivered to another page on the site.



In general, that site is typical of the kind of sites produced by newcomers to web design. It scores well in terms of prettiness and gadgetry (although only under one browser, it doesn't work well under other browsers), but fares dismally in terms of usability and search engine readiness. In fact, the reason my visitor wrote to me was because the website suffered a significant drop in the number of visitors after it was redesigned in its current form.



This article uses that site as a starting point for discussing some of the issues that a web designer needs to consider when creating a website that must exist and compete in the real world (as opposed to a site that is created merely to fulfill the course requirements of a school or university).


1. Appearance is Not the Most Important Issue

Over the years that I have dealt with newcomers to web design, it is my observation that they tend to focus excessively (and sometimes almost exclusively) on the appearance of a website. The site I mentioned earlier is a case in point: the designer tried hard to make the site look beautiful (and, if I may add, succeeded too - the site does indeed look pretty). However, as hard as it may be to believe (if you are a newcomer), appearance isn't the most important thing to look at when you are planning and creating your site.



Don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying that appearance is of no importance. Far from it. However, in this article, my intention is to address the excessive importance newcomers place on beauty.



Having said that, your site can still survive (or even thrive) if it is a plain-looking site like Google. This is not necessarily the case if you overlook the other important issues in web design.


2. Usability is Important for You to Achieve Your Purpose

All sites are created for a particular purpose. Some were created so that their owners can sell something. Others are information resources (like thesitewizard.com). Still others are designed to showcase their owner's talents (such as sites displaying the owner's resumes and portfolios).



The usability of your site is important to help you achieve that purpose. The basic question that you need to address when dealing with usability is: can your visitors easily access the information they need so that they can do the stuff that you want them to do? There are quite a number of things involved in this question.

1.
Information Availability

Is the information that your visitors need to make informed decisions available on your site? For example, before they can buy a product, they will want to know more about that product. A brief one-line summary about your product's features may work for your main page, but you will probably find that you get more buyers if you can provide a link to a page that gives a detailed list of features of each of your products.
2.
Information Accessibility

Not only must your information be available to your visitors, it must be easily accessible. A page that gives a detailed description of your products is not going to help your visitors if they have to work hard at finding it. In fact, my experience is that if visitors have to work at finding something on your site, they are not going to find it. Either put the information right under their noses, or put a link to it in that place.
3.
Navigation

A good navigational system for your website is crucial. A navigational system is one by which visitors can move from one page to another. For example, on thesitewizard.com, one way in you can access the main pages on the site is to use the navigation buttons on the left column of the page.





There are a few features to a good navigational system:


* If you are using a navigation bar or panel, standardize its location on all the pages of your website. Don't make your visitors feel as though they are embarking on a treasure hunt every time they reach a new page.



* In addition to your navigation bar or panel, provide short-cuts to places where visitors are likely to want to go. Don't force your visitors to have to go through your main page (or your site map) every time they need to visit another page on your site. In fact, put direct links in logical places - for example, on your "Products" page, you should have a links to your "Buy / Order" page as well as links to the pages with detailed information about individual products. Think like a visitor and ask yourself what are the things a visitor might want to know or do when he/she is at a particular page.



* A good navigation system must be usable by all your visitors. As a result, try to avoid things that are dependent on certain facilities or features being available. For example, don't make your menu dependent on a specific browser. If your menu is JavaScript-driven, make sure that you have an alternative facility available for people who do not have JavaScript enabled.



* If your site has a large number of pages, a site search engine will improve your site's usability. Not everyone mentally organises information the way you do. Hence a logical arrangement to you may not be logical to another person. Giving your visitors a way to search your web site will help them locate what they want.



* It's always good to have a Site Map, unless your site has only a few pages. This allows people to have another route to the other pages on your site. It also helps search engines locate all the pages on your site, particularly if you use dynamically-generated links to your pages (like JavaScript-created links).


3. Search Engine Visibility is Your Site's Lifeline

As I mentioned earlier, the problem that my visitor faced when her site was redesigned was that it no longer appeared in search engine results even when relevant terms were used for searches.



The problem in her case was that her site relied exclusively on a JavaScript navigation menu. Apart from the links generated by the JavaScript menu, there were absolutely no other links on her site pointing to other pages within the site. Since search engines bots can't interpret JavaScript (at least not at this time, to my knowledge), they could not follow any links and could thus only index her main page. As a result, her pages were not listed in searches for her keywords (since only the main page was indexed), leading to a drastic drop in visitors.



This is a problem fairly easily fixed (for example, one way is to create a site map and add a normal link to it from the main page), but it illustrates one of the most important issues a real-world website faces: search engine visibility. If your site is not listed in the search engines, you're not going to be able to get many visitors, if at all. Without visitors, you're obviously not going to be able to achieve your purpose for the site.




Conclusion


This article is about the importance of factoring usability and search engine readiness into your web design. Usability is important because it improves the chances that your site will help you accomplish your purpose. Search engine visibility is crucial because without it, you will get few visitors. Plan with these two aspects in mind, even as you look into the appearance of your site, and your design will go far in helping you achieve the goals for your site.

AUTHOR: http://www.golearnweb.com/web-designer-pro-tutorials/search-engine-visibility-appearance-and-usability-in-web-design.html

DVD course for web designers http://www.webdesigndvd.info

web design dvd

FREE Autoresponder with No Monthly Fees and full features http://www.golearnweb.com/web-designer-pro-tutorials/free-autoresponder-with-no-monthly-fees-and-full-features.html

FREE Autoresponder with No Monthly Fees and full features

FREE Autoresponder with No Monthly Fees and full features

There are a lot of “great deals” on the Internet, but sometimes it takes a long time to find them. I finally found this company, MailChimp months ago, and it is a great service, with good support, including online chat, video instruction, a members forum, and online Webinar training.

They have over 450,000 customers, including some major corporations.

The Autoresponder you are getting with no monthly charges is $0.00, for up to 1000 subscribers, and up to 6000 emails per month. This is a great deal compared to the other Autoresponders available, because it lets you build your list for free. If you are selling products and services to your list, you will be making money even before you have to pay anything for your autoresponder. (Just a hint: I have heard that people with multiple businesses and websites have signed up for more than one account, giving them the ability to keep their entities separate, and have up to 1000 subscribers per account.

How to Get Started:

You can just go to MailChimp.com and sign up. After you set up your account, go back to MailChimp.com, and click the “Support” link at the top of the page. There you will find “Online Training”. After clicking, you will see a list of the upcoming Webinars, which are held at 11AM and 4PM Eastern USA time.

If you are unable to get onto a live Webinar, on the right side of the page, you will see “Can't Make it to a Live Webinar?” Click the link to watch a pre-recorded version. The only difference is that you won’t be able to ask questions during the recorded Webinar.”

My suggestion would be to login to your account, and look around to see what’s there. Then watch the videos you will find when you click the “Support” link:

After watching the videos, do your best to get on one of the live webinars, so you will be able to get your questions answered. If you cannot attend a live session, then you can get all the support you will need by clicking on “Email Our Support Team” or “Live Chat With Our Support Team”.

As promised, you will receive several bonuses to help you build your list. All you have to do is join my list, which you can unsubscribe from at any time. This allows me to control who is downloading my bonuses, and prevents the download link from “going viral”! Because it is best not to be
overwhelmed with too much information at one time, you will be sent multiple bonuses over a period of several days.

AUTHOR: http://www.golearnweb.com/web-designer-pro-tutorials/free-autoresponder-with-no-monthly-fees-and-full-features.html

Is Your Website Design Driving Away Your Customers? http://www.golearnweb.com/web-designer-pro-tutorials/is-your-website-design-driving-away-your-customers.html

Is Your Website Design Driving Away Your Customers?

Is Your Website Design Driving Away Your Customers?

Following my article on Appearance, Usability and Search Engine Friendliness in Web Design where I discussed the importance of looking at the usability and search engine visibility of a website, I have received countless messages from visitors to thesitewizard.com asking me to review their website.

While I do not have time to answer such requests individually, I decided that an article outlining some glaring usability flaws that I have found in a number of websites in general would be helpful. This article thus deals with the myths and fallacies commonly believed when designing a website to sell a product or a service.


Make It Easy for Visitor to Check Your Price List

Some websites try to hide the price list for their products. Some of these sites only display the price of the item after you hit the "Buy" or "Order" button, or worse, only after you have created an account on their site. Others have a price list, but bury the link to the price list somewhere deep in their site in a place not easily accessible from the main page or the products page.

I'm not exactly sure what the reason behind this is. Possibly, they think that if the customer does not see the price until they click the "Buy" or "Order" button, they will be more likely to buy the item. This reasoning is fallacious.

There are many types of visitors arriving at your site. Let's take the case of the window shopper. If they see something noteworthy on your site, they may make a note of the price so that they can return later if they want the item at some point in the future. If the price of the item cannot be easily found on your site, do you seriously think that they will thoroughly search the site just to find that elusive price tag? Or do you suppose that such a visitor will click the "Buy" button, just so that they can find the price tag at the end of the process somewhere? Or will they go through the bother of creating an account, revealing their personal particulars, just to find the price of an item?

Like the serious shopper, if they cannot find the price, they will simply go to another site. Remember: this is not a brick and mortar store we're talking about, where you need to take time and put in effort to travel to another store. On the Internet, your competitor is only a click away. And the search engines are more than happy to yield thousands of other sites selling the same type of goods or services as you. I realise that there are some brick and mortar stores (usually small concerns) who think that if they don't put a price tag, the customer has to find out the price from a sales person, who will then have the opportunity to persuade him/her to buy that item. Whether or not that is a good idea for a brick and mortar store (and I can think offhand of some types of customers that you will lose even there), it is a bad idea for a web store.

No matter how you look at it, every customer and potential customer will need to know the price of a product. Even the corporate customer buying for his/her company works to a budget. Making it difficult for your visitor to find the price list is a quick way to drive a potential customer away. As has been observed by many usability experts - the average Internet user has the attention span of a flea. If they can't find what they want within the first few seconds of glancing at your page, they will leave. And your competitors will be more than happy to attend to them in your place.


Provide Descriptions and Pictures for Your Products

I realise that the new web designer is beset with contradictory advice about how best to design their site. One set of such conflicting advice is the requirement to be brief and to-the-point so that you can catch that Internet visitor who will only give your web page a few seconds glance before deciding whether to stay or go elsewhere. Contradicting that is the requirement that you describe your products in depth and place pictures of your product, or screenshots if yours is a software product.

The best way to resolve this, I think, is to take a leaf from Amazon.com's book. For every item they list on their search results for a query (they have too many products to have a straightforward "Products" page), they usually have a brief description, a thumbnail picture, the price and a link to buy the item. If this brief description interests you, you can click the link and get a longer description and more information about the product.

A product page for each product, with a long description and pictures of the product, is indispensible. This is particularly so if your product is expensive, or has plenty of competition. Your long description and pictures of what you're selling is what cinches the sale. Potential customers will use the information on that page to decide whether or not to buy the item. They look at the page and compare it with the what is said about your competitor's product. It is thus in your interest to mention all the salient points about your product or service on that page. Think of it as the web equivalent of a salesman promoting a product to a walk-in customer.

An informative and detailed product page is not all you need. You also need to place your "Buy" or "Order" buttons both at the top and the bottom of the product page. If your product page is especially long, spanning many screenfuls, you may also want to consider placing additional buttons somewhere in the middle of the page. Do not force your customers to scroll to the bottom of the page before they can buy the item. You may have suffered countless hours drafting the description of the page. Do not pass the suffering to your customers by requiring them to read it all before they can order your product. Some customers are easily convinced, or they come to your page having already decided to buy. Make it easy for them to get to where they want to go within your site.


Allow Your Customers to Browse Your Site in Any Way They Choose

Have you ever encountered a "live" salesperson who drones on and on about a product, giving you little chance to jump in and tell him/her that you have already decided to buy the product? "I'll buy already!" you want to shout, but the guy insists on finishing his tome on the product.

Such a person, in real life, is probably seldom found. However, I have visited many websites that practise this very sales tactic. One characteristic of such websites is that the site has very poor navigational facilities. You cannot easily access other pages on the site except through a sequence of choreographed steps that the author has planned. First you have to read his introduction about the product. Then after a very long exposition on the first page, you are graced with a link at the bottom that takes you to a second page. Again, you have to endure the sermon on the second page before you can find the link to move on. Even if you have already decided to buy the product, you're forced to go through the whole sequence of steps before you can buy the product.

Such websites are reminiscent of the high-pressure sales tactics employed by some salesmen, and give visitors a bad taste. The usability of such sites is low, and the design of the site discourages impulse purchases.

One of the basic rules in selling something on the web is that you should not force your customers to click through many pages before they reach the "Buy" or "Download" button. It is never productive, leaves a bitter taste in some visitors' mouth, and drives off others. Sure, you may convince some people to buy the product after they read it all, but you are also convincing others that you're the sort of person they don't want to do business with. A website is different from a "live" salesman. People can leave any time during your sales pitch. And they do. Most people visiting a site to buy something are not there to read a long exposition. They are there to get a product. Delaying that purchase can only hurt your business. When I say that you need to give a product page with a detailed description about your product, I don't mean that you have to force everyone to read that detailed description before they can buy. Always provide a shortcut to the order form for your visitors.
Mandatory Items on the Site Navigation Bar

For a commercial site, certain links should be accessible from every page of your website. The easiest way to do this is to place them on your navigation bar. If you don't know what a navigation bar is, take a look at thesitewizard.com. On the top left of every page is a series of buttons which give you access to the main pages of the site. Your navigation bar need not be on the left side as mine is. You can put it at the top, the right or the bottom as well. However, the following items should always be present:

* Products: this is a link to a page listing all your products. If you have too many products to fit into one page, you may want to create category pages that are accessible through the main product page.
* Order Form: this should point to your order form.
* Price List: as mentioned earlier, a price list improves the usability of your site, and ultimately your bottom line.
* Support: you should place a link to a page which provides ways that your customer can contact you.
* About Us: since you are selling things, you should have an "About Us" page that tells your customer about you or your company.

Conclusion

On the Internet, customer service starts with a usable website. How you design your site will determine whether your visitor becomes a paying customer or your competitor's customer.

AUTHOR: http://www.golearnweb.com/web-designer-pro-tutorials/is-your-website-design-driving-away-your-customers.html

A Satirical Look at Some Usability Mistakes Made by New Webmasters

1. Place some (or all of) your content in a small frame and force your visitors to read the content through that window. Don't worry about what constitutes "small" here, since most of the time, even if you create a big frame, it'll be considered too small by most visitors.

This trick has a high annoyance value since your visitors have to view the information through that small little box and scroll continuously to see the text while the rest of the browser window is filled with information they don't really want to read at the moment. With this strategy, visitors cannot resize or maximize the window to make their reading more efficient or pleasurable. This method will allow you to frustrate those hapless souls and, as a bonus, make them leave your site.

2.

Disable the right click menu of the browser. Nevermind that people need the right click menu for many purposes, and that they can access the same functions through the main menu bar even after you've disabled it. After all, if your aim is to annoy, you might as well make their visit to your site as unpleasant as possible.

3.

Play background music when they arrive at your page. If that's not enough of an annoyance, make sure you loop the music so that the visitors are plagued by it continuously while they are on your page. If you're feeling particularly sadistic, place automatically-playing music on many (or even all) pages of your site. You don't have to worry about choosing a horrible tune — choose your favourite piece if you like. Since one man's meat is another man's poison, any sort of music tends to annoy most visitors.

4.

Make every link on your site open in a new window when your visitor clicks on it. That is, put a target="_blank" to every link. This will annoy visitors since every time they click on a link in your site, a new window or tab will open. Imagine the number of windows/tabs those poor sods will find open on their computer if they like your (say) 100-page site and try to read every page. Delicious, isn't it? Another benefit of this technique is that it makes your site look amateurish.

5.

Force your visitors to navigate your website using Flash. That is, place all your content in a Flash file — text, pictures, links, etc — even if Flash is not ideal for such content (a straight HTML page is best for those types of content). Make sure that visitors who don't have the Flash plugin enabled or installed cannot see anything or do much on your website. This effectively drives away all mobile users, a group of users that is growing in size, as well as cripple your visitors who have come to expect certain facilities to always be available in their browsers (such as the BACK key, the ability to bookmark specific pages, the ability to open certain links in a new tab, etc) when they visit websites. Now they will be forced to work through the more limited Flash plugin of their browser with whatever subset of features you deign to provide. In fact, exclusively using Flash for your site content might even help you to drop to the bottom of search engine listings too, thereby reducing the number of visitors to your site. After all, if you don't have visitors, you don't have to think of new ways to annoy them.

6.

Load your site with pop-up windows that open when your visitor reaches your page as well as when they leave the page. In fact, if you want to annoy them even further, open a pop-up window when they click on links on your site.

7.

Reduce the navigational usability of your website. Don't put site maps or navigation bars with shortcut links to pages that your visitors will usually want to go such as the "Download" page if you're a software author. If you can annoy your visitors by forcing them to read whole pages of your text before they can find a link to move on to do what they really want to do, so much the better.





There you have it. Seven quick ways that you can use to annoy, frustrate and irritate your visitors. They may even be effective in driving them away permanently. There are undoubtedly many other ways, but the methods listed above are easily doable by new webmasters.

AUTHOR: http://www.golearnweb.com/web-designer-pro-tutorials/a-satirical-look-at-some-usability-mistakes-made-by-new-webmasters.html

A Satirical Look at Some Usability Mistakes Made by New Webmasters
http://www.golearnweb.com/web-designer-pro-tutorials/a-satirical-look-at-some-usability-mistakes-made-by-new-webmasters.html

A Satirical Look at Some Usability Mistakes Made by New Webmasters

Social media is crap

Social media is a waste of money and time. Social media can't be measured so we're just wasting energy. Social media doesn't offer lead generation. Blah blah blah.

I've seen a ton of criticism about social media and what it can and can't do. People and companies are quick to jump in and castrate those of us using the medium as charlatans and maggots. Generally the excuse is any one of the reasons above, amongst others.

Most times the biggest complaint is that "social media isn't working for us", and because of that, social media is automatically a crap shoot.
But maybe those doing the loudest complaining should take a long hard look in the mirror and ask why it's not working. Because I'm pretty sure that it's not because of the reasons given at the start of this post, but a far simpler one - your social media strategy sucks.

And here's why.



Blogs and Books Are Your Education
You read a ton of blogs. You follow all the big names and hang on their every word, gleaning nuggets of wisdom and tips and real-life examples of companies that "did social media right". Then you take these posts and use them for your business, or product, or team.

And then get all upset because the advice in A-List Blogger's latest masterpiece didn't work for you. But are you really surprised?
A blog post isn't a strategy. A blog post isn't a campaign measurement stick. A blog post isn't a research and development program. A blog post is just a drop of water in a bigger pool of ideas that bring a strategy to life.

A blog post isn't specifically written for you, either - it's a generic cover-all that can apply to thousands of other readers, some of whom will be your competitors. So why would you replace specific with generic?

As for these never-ending social media books that are hitting the marketplace at the rate of what seems like one a week? Many are just regurgitated blog posts with a new introduction anyway, so all you're doing is doubling your chance of failure.
Forget generic - start thinking specific.



It's Not Strategy If There's No End Goal
What's your end goal with your social media activity? What are you looking to get out of it?
Brand awareness? More eyeballs on your company blog? Sales? Customer service satisfaction levels up? Head hunt new employees? None of the above?

If you're going into social media without an end goal in mind, why are you even going in? Where's the benefit? Is it because your competitor is doing the Twitter and they look like they're having fun and getting people talking to them?

Great - but what's being said between your competitor and these people? Is there an end goal there? Is it simply building relations on another platform, much like having open days at your workplace and inviting the public in?

Whatever it is, if you're not getting any results it's because you haven't set any results up to be met.
• Ask how many connected conversations it's going to take to turn into one sale.
• Ask how many products you'll have to give away via a blogger outreach program to raise awareness, positive sentiment and actionable intent on your audience's behalf.
• Ask how many people you'll need to man the social phones and react to hundreds if not thousands of questions being thrown at you.
• Ask what your cut-off date is and what happens next - cut and run or adapt and conquer?

Every single thing we do in life has an end goal. The difference with life is that our very end goal we have no choice in. But in business, you do. Set your end goals out and work strategically toward them.



You Don't Believe
You've used print and radio ads for longer than you can remember. They must be working, because you're still in business. Besides, everyone reads newspapers or listens to the radio - you have a guaranteed audience. Can the same be said of social media?

Well, yes, it can, with targeted audience marketing. But let's forget that for now, because you don't believe you can target success in social media. You don't believe you can bring in sales with social media, or improve your business practices, or customer satisfaction level, even though there are plenty of examples of these and more.

Simply put, you don't believe in social media. And as that wise little guy Yoda once said, that is why you fail.
Sure, you're tweeting. Yes, you're Facebooking. Yes, you're Linking In. But your heart's not in it. You're not in it. You're only here because others said you should be.

But you know, maybe you don't need to be - social media isn't for everyone. It is for everyone's customers, but then there's a whole other approach you can take for that.

So stop wasting your time. If you don't believe in something, are you really going to put your heart in it? No. Plain and simple.
Believe or leave.



It Doesn't Need to Be This Way
I could run a ton of other reasons off why your social media strategy sucks, but I think you get the gist. Some of it might be you, the complainer's fault; some of it might be your boss and his or her whip cracking on you.

But it's not a lost cause. It doesn't need to be this way.
Everything can be turned around; all courses can be plotted again and new directions taken when an obstacle or turbulence kicks in. Just because you think it sucks now doesn't mean it can't suck a whole lot less in a fairly short amount of time.
• Stop acting on what works for others and build for what works for you.
• Take advice with a grain of salt and ask if that great post is really talking to you, or just talking (albeit greatly).
• Write your own books. They don't need to be physical - successful campaigns are books, just in a different format.
• Think with the endgame in mind, or don't play the game, period.

Bad strategy sucks, not social media. But then isn't that true for everything?

Author: http://golearnweb.com/seo-tutorials/social-strategy-with-an-end-goal.html

Social Strategy With An End Goal http://golearnweb.com/seo-tutorials/social-strategy-with-an-end-goal.html

Social Strategy With An End Goal

Social media is crap

Social media is a waste of money and time. Social media can't be measured so we're just wasting energy. Social media doesn't offer lead generation. Blah blah blah.

I've seen a ton of criticism about social media and what it can and can't do. People and companies are quick to jump in and castrate those of us using the medium as charlatans and maggots. Generally the excuse is any one of the reasons above, amongst others.

Most times the biggest complaint is that "social media isn't working for us", and because of that, social media is automatically a crap shoot.
But maybe those doing the loudest complaining should take a long hard look in the mirror and ask why it's not working. Because I'm pretty sure that it's not because of the reasons given at the start of this post, but a far simpler one - your social media strategy sucks.

And here's why.



Blogs and Books Are Your Education
You read a ton of blogs. You follow all the big names and hang on their every word, gleaning nuggets of wisdom and tips and real-life examples of companies that "did social media right". Then you take these posts and use them for your business, or product, or team.

And then get all upset because the advice in A-List Blogger's latest masterpiece didn't work for you. But are you really surprised?
A blog post isn't a strategy. A blog post isn't a campaign measurement stick. A blog post isn't a research and development program. A blog post is just a drop of water in a bigger pool of ideas that bring a strategy to life.

A blog post isn't specifically written for you, either - it's a generic cover-all that can apply to thousands of other readers, some of whom will be your competitors. So why would you replace specific with generic?

As for these never-ending social media books that are hitting the marketplace at the rate of what seems like one a week? Many are just regurgitated blog posts with a new introduction anyway, so all you're doing is doubling your chance of failure.
Forget generic - start thinking specific.



It's Not Strategy If There's No End Goal
What's your end goal with your social media activity? What are you looking to get out of it?
Brand awareness? More eyeballs on your company blog? Sales? Customer service satisfaction levels up? Head hunt new employees? None of the above?

If you're going into social media without an end goal in mind, why are you even going in? Where's the benefit? Is it because your competitor is doing the Twitter and they look like they're having fun and getting people talking to them?

Great - but what's being said between your competitor and these people? Is there an end goal there? Is it simply building relations on another platform, much like having open days at your workplace and inviting the public in?

Whatever it is, if you're not getting any results it's because you haven't set any results up to be met.
• Ask how many connected conversations it's going to take to turn into one sale.
• Ask how many products you'll have to give away via a blogger outreach program to raise awareness, positive sentiment and actionable intent on your audience's behalf.
• Ask how many people you'll need to man the social phones and react to hundreds if not thousands of questions being thrown at you.
• Ask what your cut-off date is and what happens next - cut and run or adapt and conquer?

Every single thing we do in life has an end goal. The difference with life is that our very end goal we have no choice in. But in business, you do. Set your end goals out and work strategically toward them.



You Don't Believe
You've used print and radio ads for longer than you can remember. They must be working, because you're still in business. Besides, everyone reads newspapers or listens to the radio - you have a guaranteed audience. Can the same be said of social media?

Well, yes, it can, with targeted audience marketing. But let's forget that for now, because you don't believe you can target success in social media. You don't believe you can bring in sales with social media, or improve your business practices, or customer satisfaction level, even though there are plenty of examples of these and more.

Simply put, you don't believe in social media. And as that wise little guy Yoda once said, that is why you fail.
Sure, you're tweeting. Yes, you're Facebooking. Yes, you're Linking In. But your heart's not in it. You're not in it. You're only here because others said you should be.

But you know, maybe you don't need to be - social media isn't for everyone. It is for everyone's customers, but then there's a whole other approach you can take for that.

So stop wasting your time. If you don't believe in something, are you really going to put your heart in it? No. Plain and simple.
Believe or leave.



It Doesn't Need to Be This Way
I could run a ton of other reasons off why your social media strategy sucks, but I think you get the gist. Some of it might be you, the complainer's fault; some of it might be your boss and his or her whip cracking on you.

But it's not a lost cause. It doesn't need to be this way.
Everything can be turned around; all courses can be plotted again and new directions taken when an obstacle or turbulence kicks in. Just because you think it sucks now doesn't mean it can't suck a whole lot less in a fairly short amount of time.
• Stop acting on what works for others and build for what works for you.
• Take advice with a grain of salt and ask if that great post is really talking to you, or just talking (albeit greatly).
• Write your own books. They don't need to be physical - successful campaigns are books, just in a different format.
• Think with the endgame in mind, or don't play the game, period.

Bad strategy sucks, not social media. But then isn't that true for everything?

Author: http://golearnweb.com/seo-tutorials/social-strategy-with-an-end-goal.html