The BerryPatchPartnership with RedberryDesigns equals a strategy focused business

 We have clients that have experienced anywhere from a 20% upwards to a 60% increase  in sales based on the strategies we have implemented for them.  If we had to point to the one factor that was consistent among the most successful of them, it would be the fact that they all have real tangible proven business plans. Redberry Website Design partners with small businesses to help them develop and  execute their growth strategies.  It has been our experience that our clients experience exceptional ROI relative to the investment required to retain our services.  One of the biggest challenges that we face when developing a marketing, branding, and  website development strategy for prospective clients, is their lack of business plans and concrete financial planning.    So I pose this question to you... Are you managing your business for success? ...or is it a series of nebulous conversations, strategies and tactics.  Here are some questions that you need to answer before attempting to either acquire outside investors or even before making your own capital investments in resource, services and capital.   

Does your small business, organization or non-profit?

1. Prepare an annual budget?          
2. Have financial statements audited or reviewed (not just compiled) by a CPA annually?         
3. Have a mission and vision statement made known to your employees and customers?         
4. Engage in planning beyond the current year?        
5. Have an outside board of directors to help guide your company?  
6. Have key performance indicators that are reviewed regularly?       
7. Have a solid growth strategy?     
8. Have necessary resources (people, money, etc.) to grow?
9. Have the desire, drive, and enthusiasm to grow and execute growth strategies?     

We would love to hear your comments, thoughts and answers to these questions.  Also if anyone has any additional questions that we have not thought of here please feel free to pose them here.

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Redberry Designs partners with you to make sure that the findability of your online business is pushed up to the top search engine ranking position.  Contact our team to get your project started today!  Click Here to Get a Quote Now!

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About the Author: Jannice Boyd Almansur (http://www.jannice.info/) is Managing Director of  Redberry Atlanta Website Designs. Redberry is an Agency that offers Branding, Website Development and Hosting Solutions and a full portfolio of business content marketing and brand identity solutions for small businesses. To learn more and to download FREE business tools and articles, as well as join their mailing list, visit the our BerryPatch Blog at http://www.redberrydesigns.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=419 and Redberry Atlanta Website Design website at http://www.redberryatlantawebsitedesign.com. You may print this article for personal use or republish it online only if it is left unaltered and in its entirety, including bylines, links and author information. Contact the author for all other permissions.

Please click on the image to the left to get a downloadable PDF list of the top 10 places to post and host your videos and this poster.

Video is an excellent way to communicate your message in a dynamic interactive way.

Web Video is an excellent way to deliver your message and make a great impression and is one of the most effective methods of communicating your business essentials. Tell your story quickly, compellingly and relevantly! Online video adds a new dimension to content marketing enhancing your website and should be considered by any website owner who is serious about making their website effective and competitive.

Now that you have made the decision to post your video online. Here are our best strategies and tips designed to help you to be found online, presented in these three videos produced by the team here at Redberry Atlanta Website Design.

Get ready to discover how to take clear steps to boost your visibility online using video. Playlist: Segment 1, 2 and 3: 



Summary of Segments:

Building Context




Summary of Building Context 
Start with creating context for your post by giving the search engines what they need to understand your video content.  And that is text that was written with these three keys in mind as they relate to the title, tags and description.  

You will want to take some extra care to as you craft the title, tags and description. 

1. Be very descriptive 
2. Make them keyword rich 
3. And keyword strategic 

Apply these three keys to any content that you post online and you will be well on your way to creating the context and relevance that both your search engines and prospects require to find your videos online.   

Make sure that you create the title and tags that give the most detail so that your topic is clear.  Try researching your keywords before including them in your title and tags.        

Distribution

In segment two, I cover distribution, which is very important.  You can either do this yourself or if you have a large project to get out, Redberry Website Design can do this for you. Whether you do it yourself or have us do it for you, the principle is the same, you take your video and publish it to different sites such as Vimeo, Slideshare, YouTube. One thing to keep in mind about these sharing services is that they all have their own unique engaged audiences. (Please click on the image at the beginning of this post to get a downloadable PDF list of the top 10 places to post and host your videos and well as the poster.)

Once you have uploaded your video to the video hosting sites, you can then share them to variety of places. You can them embed them to your blog, other bloggers sites, your webpages, and social media pages.

Covered in this segment is the biggest take-way which is that your video builds web context by having linked it from the video hosting site to your website and to other sites which continues to build context to help search engines understand what the video is about.  This is where the descriptive content you put in the title, tags and description really comes into play, but don't forget to also continue to build context when it comes to your blog and website.  Don't just post the video by itself. Instead, make it part of an written article and create a compelling title, tags and include links to other related resources or web pages on your blog for the video. 

At Redberry Website Design, we call this driving them back home... and is key to owning your own traffic.

Distribution on Facebook

Finally in segment 3, we have a specific conversation about how to use this video distribution technique for Facebook.  Facebook is the one time that we recommend that you not embed your video to share it. You can of course link to a YouTube video on your Facebook wall, however a superior approach is to upload your videos directly to Facebook.

Here is why....

Facebook's EdgeRank algorithm determines what we see in the news feeds. For instance, it does not include your friends' latest accomplishments in Farmville that really does not make it into the top news that we see by default when we log into facebook. It selectively pulls out the most interesting things, and most important to you is that it gives video a little more weight. So if you upload a video directly to Facebook, it is going to get some extra visibility love from EdgeRank. and if your people are liking, sharing and commenting on your video and interacting with it. That is going to boost it even higher. 

Now here is where something really awesome happens...

Imagine that you and I are friends on Facebook and I upload a video and you like it. The people who you are friends within your network are also going to see the fact that you liked that video, and they're going to see that video in their news feeds. Best of all there will be a "like" button to my video in your friend's news feed and you know what if your friend is into digital communications then I have just been introduced to them via you, now they have the opportunity to become a fan of my business page, because the invitation is embedded in that video.  So there is a real tangible bonus when you upload video directly to Facebook.

So all of this is great, but please keep in mind that video is an excellent way to get relevant information to your audience, so make sure that your video has information that they want, like or will find interesting, and will want to share, like and engage. All content is not created equal, so try to make yours interesting and relevant for your target audience ...follow these steps and you will supercharge the online visibility of your video content.  

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Redberry Designs partners with you to make sure that the findability of your online business is pushed up to the top search engine ranking position.  Contact our team to get your project started today!  Click Here to Get a Quote Now!

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About the Author: Jannice Boyd Almansur (http://www.jannice.info/) is Managing Director of  Redberry Atlanta Website Designs. Redberry is an Agency that offers Branding, Website Development and Hosting Solutions and a full portfolio of business content marketing and brand identity solutions for small businesses. To learn more and to download FREE business tools and articles, as well as join their mailing list, visit the our BerryPatch Blog at http://www.redberrydesigns.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=419 and Redberry Atlanta Website Design website at http://www.redberryatlantawebsitedesign.com. You may print this article for personal use or republish it online only if it is left unaltered and in its entirety, including bylines, links and author information. Contact the author for all other permissions.

HOSTING PLATFORM

We have combined a solution

...that takes into consideration branding, marketing and providing more than just a website, but more so a full service hosting platform with a powerful completely integrated database, content management, e-commerce and email marketing solution.  

We give you, the small business owner, the powerful tools to level the playing field, allowing you to compete with the big guys...We put you back in control of creating lasting success!   More

Main Features

Our fully integrated system gives you the power of multiple software suites, easily controlled from one central interface. Managing your business has never been so simple!  Learn More or view Full Features

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Redberry Designs partners with you to make sure that the findability of your online business is pushed up to the top search engine ranking position.  Contact our team to get your project started today!  Click Here to Get a Quote Now!

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About the Author: Jannice Boyd Almansur (http://www.jannice.info/) is Managing Director of  Redberry Atlanta Website Designs. Redberry is an Agency that offers Branding, Website Development and Hosting Solutions and a full portfolio of business content marketing and brand identity solutions for small businesses. To learn more and to download FREE business tools and articles, as well as join their mailing list, visit the our BerryPatch Blog at http://www.redberrydesigns.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=419 and Redberry Atlanta Website Design website at http://www.redberryatlantawebsitedesign.com. You may print this article for personal use or republish it online only if it is left unaltered and in its entirety, including bylines, links and author information. Contact the author for all other permissions.

Using Windows Live Writer to post on the fly to your blog on the Redberry Website Design Blogging platform is a snap.  Just follow these easy steps to first download Windows Live Writer then connect to your blog on the platform.

Step: 1 Download and Install Windows Live Writer

• Use this link to access and download windows live writer.  http://explore.live.com/windows-live-writer?os=other
• Download the program
• Once the install begins >> select windows live essentials 2011

Be patient the download will take about 5 or more minutes.

Once the program completes it will auto launch.  It will ask you to create a Hotmail account.  Just follow the steps and the system will create the account for you.  Once you have your account allow the install to complete. You will have to close and re-launch Outlook.

Step: 2 Create a Hotmail Account and Launch Windows Live Writer

If the program does not launch automatically or take you to the set-up simply select your windows explorer (Short cut= Windows Key+E

In the search bar type “windows live writer” and the program will be found. Select it to launch the program.

Because you already have a blog as part of your website on the Redberry Website Design platform you click Add blog account, and then follow the steps to set up your blog in Writer.

(This is the link to how to connect to the your blog on our system with windows live writer)

Step: 3 Set-up Your Redberry Website Design Platform Blog

Using Windows Live Writer for Blogs

Contents  [hide] 1 Configuring The Blog Account 2 Configuring FTP for Image Uploads 3 Working With Blog Posts 3.1 Opening, Editing and Deleting Posts 3.2 Creating A New Post 3.3 Draft and Published Posts 4 Supported API Capabilities

 

The system uses the Metaweblog API, allowing you to use a variety of third-party blogging clients to control your blog externally.

Configuring The Blog Account

Step 1: Select The Blog Service

Make sure you have your credentials for your an existing blog created in the Admin.

You will need the following Items:

• remote posting URL for your blog to be added to this (http://mysite.com/MetaweblogAPI.ashx)
• username and password you use to login to the Admin Console
• root URL of your website
• FTP Host Details: FTP hostname: and FTP host Username:

If it's your first time running Live Writer, it will automatically prompt you to create a new blog account, otherwise, open Windows Live Writer and select "Create new Blog Account."

The first window you should see will ask you which blog service you are using. Select "Other Blog Service" and click "Next"

Step 2: Enter Your Blog Details

Enter the web address of the blog, followed by the username and password you use to login to the Admin Console.

This is the web address of your blog: It should look something like this…

http://yourcompanyname.redberrydesigns.com/_blog/yourblogname

If you do not have this information you can contact Me or Shafik or pull up your blog in your browser and copy the full address.  Make sure that you copy the main blog address not the address of a post or secondary page. 

Your Username and password are the same as what you use to log-in to your website admin area. If you do not have those use the link above to contact us.

If you'd like Live Writer to remember your password, click "Remember Password."

Click "Next"

Step 3: Select The MetaWeblog API

Under "Select Blog Type", choose the "MetaWeblog API" and enter the following URL, substituting "http://mysite.com" with the root URL of your website.

http://mysite.com/MetaweblogAPI.ashx

Enter this in the

Remote posting URL for your blog

http://yourcompanyname.redberrydesigns.com/MetaweblogAPI.ashx

or http://yourwebsitedomainname.com/MetaweblogAPI.ashx

Click "Next"

Step 4: Do Not Load Blog Theme

Our Blog API does not yet support previewing of themes/templates.

When asked if you'd like Live Writer to detect your blog theme and create a temporary post, click "No"

Step 5: Assign A Blog Nickname - You're Finished

If you'd like to assign a blog nickname that will only appear in Live Writer, enter it here.

Click "Finish" and you're done.

Configuring FTP for Image Uploads

Live Writer can automatically resize, upload via FTP and then embed images in your blog posts. To set this up, go Blogs > Edit Blog Settings and then select the "Pictures" tab from the left.

Step 1: Select “Upload pictures to an FTP server” then click “Configure FTP…”

Step 2: Enter your FTP details as you would for any regular FTP client.

Under “Publish pictures into this folder”, type /blogimages - this will be the directory in which embedded images will be stored.

Provide the absolute URL of this directory under “URL of picture publishing folder”, ie. mysite.com/blogimages/

Step 3: Now, when you click "Insert Picture" from the Live Writer interface and insert an image from your local machine, this image will automatically be uploaded via FTP and embedded in the blog post upon publishing.

Step 4: Working With Blog Posts

Opening, Editing and Deleting Posts

Go File > Open, then select the name of your blog from the left sidebar to see a list of all existing blog posts.

From here, you can open, edit and delete existing posts.

Creating A New Post

To create a new post, go File >> New Post.

Draft and Published Posts

Save as draft: If you'd like to save a draft of your blog post in the system to work on at a later date, simply click "Post Draft To Blog" from the "Save Draft" drop-down menu.

This will store the draft blog post in the system, but set the release year to 9999 so it is not displayed on the live blog.

Clicking "Publish" will set the release date to the current day, making it live.

Publish (makes post live): Clicking "Publish" will make the current post live on the front end of your blog.

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Redberry Designs partners with you to make sure that the findability of your online business is pushed up to the top search engine ranking position.  Contact our team to get your project started today!  Click Here to Get a Quote Now!

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About the Author: Jannice Boyd Almansur (http://www.jannice.info/) is Managing Director of  Redberry Atlanta Website Designs. Redberry is an Agency that offers Branding, Website Development and Hosting Solutions and a full portfolio of business content marketing and brand identity solutions for small businesses. To learn more and to download FREE business tools and articles, as well as join their mailing list, visit the our BerryPatch Blog at http://www.redberrydesigns.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=419 and Redberry Atlanta Website Design website at http://www.redberryatlantawebsitedesign.com. You may print this article for personal use or republish it online only if it is left unaltered and in its entirety, including bylines, links and author information. Contact the author for all other permissions.

A blog attracts both new visitors and search engines to your site. Providing fresh content on your blog can increase the frequency of search engine spider visits and this promotes the ranking of your site in search results as an authoritative web site. The higher your site ranks in searches, the more likely qualified potential customers are to visit it and make a purchase or engage your services. Your blog simply makes your website easier to find. Your content in the blog is there to attract, acquire and engage customers. Here is a guaranteed approach to using keywords properly to increase search engine rankings of your website.

Your blog posts should not only be relevant to your business’ products, services or industry, they should make ample use of the important keywords that people associate with your business. A keyword is a word or phrase that relates to your niche. These keywords are used to search for your business on the internet. Google, for example, even provides tools to allow you to determine the best keywords related to your products or services.

These words should then be generously incorporated into your blog posts in a natural density that is both readable and logical. The subjects of your blog posts can be taken directly from your top keywords.  In addition, by working your location or business name into the blog post text, this will provide clear associations of your keywords to your location and/or business to the search engines.

Avoid over use of keywords by writing for humans. The complex algorithms that search engines use to rank sites have evolved to the point that simple keyword stuffing is considered an unethical practice because what you actually do is use the keyword in question throughout the text suspiciously often. Having in mind that the recommended keyword density is from 3 to 7%, anything above this, say 10% density starts to look very much like keyword stuffing and it is likely that will not get unnoticed by search engines. A text with 10% keyword density can hardly make sense, if read by a human. Google some time ago imposed a penalty for web pages that are keyword-stuffed and over-optimized in general; will result in lowered rankings. As long as your blog posts are written for humans to read and understand, then you should have little concern over possible ranking penalties for using keywords in your posts. A good rule though is to keep your keyword density around 2%. That percentage is for each keyword or phrase, not for all the keywords you might have in that post. If your keyword density is too high it can appear to the search engines that you are keyword stuffing. With the Google keyword tool, you can enter a few key phrases from your blog post and find out which terms are being searched, then nudge your post in that direction … go on, try it.  It’s fun.  There also is a tutorial to help you figure out how to use this tool and you can find it here.

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Redberry Designs partners with you to make sure that the findability of your online business is pushed up to the top search engine ranking position.  Contact our team to get your project started today!  Click Here to Get a Quote Now!

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About the Author: Shafik Mansur is CEO and Director of Marketing of Redberry Services Redberry Designs. Redberry is an Agency that offers Branding, Website Development and Hosting Solutions and a full portfolio of business conversational marketing and brand identity solutions for small businesses. To learn more and to download FREE business tools and articles, as well as join their mailing list, visit the Redberry Services Redberry Designs website at http://www.redberryservices.com. You may print this article for personal use or republish it online only if it is left unaltered and in its entirety, including bylines, links and author information. Contact the author for all other permissions.

Whew...Shafik and I have been working on our portfolio and updating some social media pages for our business. We are amazed at how much work we did in 2010 and how many new Redberry Designs creations exist because of that work. Please take a moment to visit our new portfolio... if you know anyone that needs a fresh look for 2011 please share it with them as well... http://www.redberrydesigns.com/

Findability! It's all about building a resource rich community...

Redberry Designs is an agency specializing in Online Marketing Solutions, Brand Identity Consulting and Website Design and Hosting for Small Businesses. Website design, development and content marketing is all about developing compelling brand messages that resonate with the target market and ideal clients and is most effective when used strategically and incorporated into the fabric of your business. Creating effective conversational based content and encouraging client engagement through the use of social media (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Buzz etc.), online public relations, online community platforms and emerging web technologies is part of Redberry Designs' commitment to the sustainable success of small businesses.

Use this link to check out my Google profile portfolio... A Google profile is very effective way to organically promote your businesses...contact a Redberry Designs team member to learn more about other ways we can help you optimize your findability!  Contact Us Now!

Adapted from: an article written by Liz Metcalfe and adapted from an original piece from Microsoft Home Magazine.

Sharing a great story, resource, tip or how to article with your clients and community has never been easier.

by Jannice Almansur

Thanks to a growing number of blogging, photo-sharing, and social networking websites, such as Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Your Own Blog on Your Own Redberry Online Business Solution website, clients, prospects, friends and family no longer have to wait until you get home to hear about your tips and resources. Video on creating blogs on Redberry Design...

Free and easy

Most social networking sites are free and easy to use. Some, such as Facebook and Twitter, enable you to tell your friends what you're doing, Facebook allows up to 200 photos per album and unlimited number of albums, and you can blog about your adventures. Your status is instantly shared on your wall to let friends know you've recently updated your space.

Others, such as Flickr, Picasa, Panoramio, and Photobucket, specialize in hosting photo or video galleries and slide shows. Your Redberry website allows you to post unlimited  amount of video via embed codes. This is another great way to post your photos, share stories, and keep everyone up-to-date on your activities. Users can have multiple blogs and journals, upload unlimited photos, and pass on their individual URL to friends who can check on their site any time they want via RSS feeds.

"The quickness and ease is excellent," says Shafik Mansur, whose Over In Noonday personal blog is a great way for him to share his eclectic tastes on many topics from food, photography to music and the local history of the Noonday area. "It changes the prospective," he says. "People have already seen where you've been and the conversation (when you see them next) starts from that."

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User-friendly

When you're on the road, traveling through different countries or soaking up the sun or just conducting your daily errands and client appointments, it has become common for you to take tons of photos and then share them with clients, friends and family. On these user friendly sharing sites technical issues are uncommon and are so user-friendly, you don't need to be a computer whiz to use them.

What you will need:

1. A digital camera or camera phone
2. A computer (either your own laptop, or a computer located in a hotel, library, cyber café, any computer with internet access—the options are increasing daily)
3. A media card reader, if your laptop doesn't have one
4. You might also want to keep a car battery charger and AC adaptor for your charger, if you use rechargeable batteries.

There are also apps that allow you to share your text and photo posts from cell phones directly to Facebook,Twitter and other social media sites. Facebook mobile is a valuable resource to share post to other websites or even directly to your own. Use this link to learn more about Facebook Mobile. Windows Live also allows you to e-send blog entries and photos right from your cell phone to your Redberry Designs website blog address, from anywhere in the world where your phone has Internet access. Your friends and family just have to check your Windows Live Space to see exactly what you're up to—as you're doing it!

It can be helpful to have a Wi-Fi phone for easy access to the Web when you can't get to an Internet café. I had a Hewlett-Packard iPAQ camera phone with Wi-Fi capability that allowed me to access the Internet anywhere I could find a wireless signal. During my trip to Europe, I even found free Wi-Fi hotspots at inexpensive hostels.

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Photo-editing on the fly

If you want to modify images, there's a wide range of photo-editing software to choose from. Windows Photo Gallery comes free with the Windows 7 and Windows Vista operating systems. Its Auto Adjust feature can automatically lighten and sharpen a too-dark photograph with just one click. You can also fix red eye, crop photos, and change color photos to beautiful black and whites—with just a few clicks of your mouse.

 If the computer you're using doesn't have Windows 7 or Windows Vista installed, you can also use online photo-editing services at sites like Phixr, GIFworks, or Picnik to make quick changes. The Microsoft Professional Photography site is an excellent source for additional information.

 Microsoft Research has been working on some cutting-edge editing software that takes your photography to the next level. Microsoft Photosynth transforms regular digital photos into three-dimensional, 360-degree experiences that change the way you experience and share photos. Photo collages celebrate important events and themes, and Microsoft AutoCollage lets you create a unique memento to print or e–mail to your family and friends.

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Where to find wireless access

Web access is available pretty well everywhere these days. Most hotels and cruise ships offer wireless services that allow you to access the Internet from a laptop in your room. If you don't want to pack your laptop, many provide Internet facilities with computers.

Free Wi-Fi is available at many cafés and some restaurants, including many Starbucks and McDonald's locations. If your laptop has a wireless card, just click your wireless icon and ask for a display of available wireless networks. You can find a directory of free Wi-Fi locations on the Wi-Fi FreeSpot Web site. While Wi-Fi hotspots provide a valuable service, it's important to keep security in mind when accessing any Wi-Fi network. Wireless networks range from paid services, such as T-Mobile or Boingo, to free connections at your local coffee shop or library, but they all have one thing in common—they're all open networks that are vulnerable to security breaches. And that means it's up to you to protect the data on your PC. Get 7 tips for working securely from wireless hotspots.

On my road trips, I favored full-out Internet facilities, which provided computers and even webcams. Full-size keyboards are definitely more comfortable than cell phone keyboards. Sites like EasyInternetCafé provide links to Internet cafes in several cities. Simply search for your city and get a map and contact info for the closest café.

When booking your hotel or other lodging, you might want to ask about Internet access. "An Wifi Internet connection is part of my criteria when I book a hotel," Shafik says. Technology has helped make travel a shared experience. Not only can you send e–mail to family members back home—you can show them what you're up to at any given moment, and where you're off to next. For many people, it adds a new and exciting dimension to getting things done and to working and traveling remotely.

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About the Author: Jannice Boyd Almansur is CEO and Managing Director of Redberry Services and Redberry Designs. Redberry is an Agency that offers Branding, Website Development and Hosting Solutions and a full portfolio of business conversational marketing and brand identity solutions for small businesses. To learn more and to download FREE business tools and articles, as well as join their mailing list, visit the Redberry Services or Redberry Designs website at http://www.redberryservices.com. You may print this article for personal use or republish it online only if it is left unaltered and in its entirety, including bylines, links and author information. Contact the author for all other permissions.

It's all about the 4C's...Content - Credibility - Conversion - Customer, so let's take a closer look at the first C - Content.

This is one of my favorite sections of the valuable 4C's conversation, because if you do not get anything else out of it you need to get this part!

The truth about the web - If you are not really ready to brand yourself properly on the Internet then it is probably better that you stay off of it until you are ready to do it right because...

A professionally branded website needs to tie in and integrate seamlessly with your business growth and marketing goals.  Because as I have told my clients many times before you, your produces and your services are your true brand, you need to be diligent not to muddy and ruin your brand by putting yourself and your business out on the web improperly.

Redberry Designs provides our clients with websites that are fully integrated on the right business platform to contribute to their success... It's All About the 4C's... The 4C's explain how your website should work with your business and if it does not, then you really should not be doing it at all...

It needs to be...Fresh and Updated

It needs to have a...Clear Message

It needs to be...Creditable

The web is a visual medium!!

We have all universally had this experience...and so have your potential prospects.

You land on a website of someone or something that you are trying to learn more about either to purchase a product, service or get information from an expert.

First impressions - when you land on the page if it does not look right, not quite laid out right, graphics are off, unprofessional, not clean, crisp or clear...You get a negative gut reaction from the visual messages that this site conveys...

Now imagine for a moment that this is your site that we just landed on from our search that is triggers a thoughts of "red flags", or "questions of legitimacy", "lack of credibility" or even "questions of integrity"....Now what do you think this person's reaction will be?  Yes, you are right first if you said that "you have lost every opportunity to ever do any business with this customer forever." They will leave quickly and never return and might even advise their friends and colleagues of the same.

Anyway who could blame them for that reaction, because unfortunately there are a lot of shady people in this online "playground".  So the take-away here is that you need to make sure whatever you are putting out there as your content is well branded and lends to your credibility. You want to be sure that those prospects and customers that land on your site have the instant feeling that "Yes, I am in the right place! I found the right people to help me"... Oh and of course you reinforce this when they call you by providing your consistently great customer service.... So you have a vision for your future, but is that vision infused into your website as well your online business strategy? Well it should be!  Website design begins with great content and ends with satisfied customers.

• Win #1 Good content addresses your customers’ information needs!
  • Many people still believe that building a website is a static medium. That you just put it out there then forget it. But the truth and what they are missing is that 90+ percent of the web users of today are searching for content.  Whether it is to make a buying decision, to get information on a specific topic that they find of interest, or just to be entertained, they are looking for good, fresh and valuable content.

• Win #2 Search engines and "Social Media Mavens" love fresh, high quality content.
  • This is all about helping your Search Engine Ranking efforts. It is true that the search engines will "crawl" your site again and again devouring fresh high quality content. And the same can be said about "Social Media Mavens".  They are that set of Internet users who have not touched a "phone book" or "Yellow-Pages business listings book" in years and may not even know what I am referring to as a business listings book.
  • Win #3 achieving the first two wins ensure you own your traffic. "If you don’t own your traffic, you don’t own your online business."

What does owning your traffic really mean?  

Well, owning your traffic means that through a combination of things like your articles and blog postings, content from your social media sites and email newsletters, you are putting out valuable free content to your audience that establishes your business as a credible authority.

Giving things like for example

ü  "How-tos"

ü  Product Reviews

ü  Latest Tips

ü  History-Of

ü  Customer Interviews

 For an example we had a client who had been a lingerie buyer for many years for a major retail chain.  She had started a lingerie business selling out of her home to her friends, was ready to take her business to the next level.  She approached us to design a lingerie site for her. In our process of developing her branding and marketing strategy we suggested that she provide her online customers with how-to articles and post on a blog from her site.  This turned out to be a really big win for her that she had not really thought of before.  By putting out how-to information for mothers in a certain age group who may have teen and pre-teen daughters who are buying certain types of lingerie for the first time and giving them information on how to determine the proper bra fit and what styles of undergarment are best paired with what clothing to achieve popular looks. This is just an example of the types of information that you can provide that set you up as a creditable authority within your field.

Tying social media pages into website content strategy 

Here are my top three tips on the best way to make your social media sites work with your website and overall online marketing strategy.  This is what we have found works with all of our customers regardless of the industry, product or service that they are offering.

Tip#1: It's all about "Building a Community" and keeping them engaged!

The website tools of a well developed online community strategy are...

ü  Blogs

ü  Forums

ü  Journals

ü  Comments sections

ü  FAQs

ü  Newsletters

ü  Secure Zones

ü  Podcasts

ü  Videos

Use these tools to make it social! Don't let your business be left behind. Keep your audience up to date on your business, trends in your services, new developments, how to tricks and tips and industry updates.

Tip#2: Take advantage of the whole social media revolution going on in the web today!

Create a space for you to engage your audience where they are spending an increasing amount of their time with the things, people and places that are important in their lives.

If you have not already done so...Create a Facebook page today and use it.  Let me give you something to think about.

Facebook is a social networking website launched in February 2004

The website currently has more than 400 million active users worldwide.

Tip#3:Always lead them back home. 

Yes engage them where they are, but make sure that you are leading them back home (to your website).  Remember that owning your traffic means that you own your online business. Simply put, use your social media sites and really any external website as a tool to drive traffic back to you own website. The Redberry Designs hosting solution has a powerful blog and forum built right into our platform.  This allows our clients to keep all the search engine optimization (SEO) created from posting on the blog and forums on their site.  So we advise our clients to post a great article on their blog, and then share the link to that article to their social media sites.  That way when someone engages to post they are led back to the website; where you have an opportunity for them to see all of your products and services in a single visit, so now you own your own traffic.

So to sum it all up, when we are talking about great content it is the combination of using your articles and blog posts, your content from your social media sites, and email newsletters in a way that keeps you fresh and top of mind, keeps your relevant with what is actually going on the world at large.

It is all about content that starts with you giving them resources! Just keep in mind that it is not marketing through interruption, it is about providing value and don't be afraid to promote others who have valuable information that your audience will appreciate knowing about.  Content sharing is a great opportunity to showcase other great vendors, because you are only as good as your resources, if you have great contacts with other businesses that offer services that compliment and partner well with yours and your audiences needs, it is a great win for you and them!

Just keep this in mind...

About the Author: Jannice Boyd Almansur is CEO and Managing Director of Redberry Services and Redberry Designs. Redberry is an Agency that offers Branding, Website Development and Hosting Solutions and a full portfolio of business conversational marketing and brand identity solutions for small businesses. To learn more and to download FREE business tools and articles, as well as join their mailing list, visit the Redberry Services or Redberry Designs website at http://www.redberryservices.com. You may print this article for personal use or republish it online only if it is left unaltered and in its entirety, including bylines, links and author information. Contact the author for all other permissions.