Oh Ted Williams where are you now?

Today as I was planning my day a thought crossed my mind.

Most people think of Google, Yahoo and Bing as the big dogs, and the place to be seen on the web.  Optimize for those search engines, and you’ll have all the traffic you can handle.  Well that’s only 1/3 right.  Google is the big dog of the search engine world, but you have to factor in Facebook and YouTube into optimization plans, they’re the other most used/searched sites.  This explains why social marketing, and video marketing are so important to maximize your SEO efforts.

Your website needs to be visible to your target market.  Plan to be where the visitors are surfing.  Facebook and YouTube aren’t just for the 20 somethings.  Seems like everyone is joining the social global conversation.  With the smart phone revolution it’s only a matter of time before mobile phone marketing becomes another segment of your marketing mix.

You can’t just set it and forget your social marketing.  Facebook purges information quickly.  YouTube has an equally short shelf life.  People don’t have 15 minutes of fame anymore – now they have a minute and a half video clip. (Anyone remember the Golden Voice guy…Ted Williams?)

Has our attention span gotten shorter?  I’m sorry – what did you say – I forgot what we were talking about.

So thoughts of FREE advice went though my head.

Yesterday I posted a tweet about the one-eyed website designer.  This thought stemmed from a recent email exchange.  A family member asked me to evaluate his  website.  Hey we’re an Italian family so you don’t blow off a family request…so I took a look as the site.

The site was average, lacking HTML keywords, and stuffed with slick graphic elements.  Funny thing about the website – big promise –  he was an SEO expert.  He claimed he would put together websites for his clients that “reached the first page of Google.”  Why would he want a second opinion from a fellow marketer like me?

Because he wasn’t a website designer, nor an SEO expert.  He was a business person who purchase a franchise in a box, and really didn’t know what he was doing.

I’m all for new business opportunities, but you should probably know something about the industry you’re planning to join.  Especially if you’re going to call yourself an “expert.”  That’s a title bestowed upon you, not something you put on yourself.  Heck you’re not Napoleon, you can’t crown yourself emperor.  When you get a gut reaction your adviser is full of BS…run for the hills.

As my grandfather said – free advice is worth the money you’ve paid for it.

Have a good week and market well-
Christine

P.S. – Keep those comments coming, and as I said before if you have a project you want me to evaluate please contact me. I’m evaluating a few new social marketing products and services to launch soon.

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