Together my good friend and business associate, Craig Crook, we’ve put together our first installment of what we hope will become a regular video update on our blogs.

It’s nothing fancy, just the two of us talking about technology trends.  For our first installment, we talk a little bit about three technology trends we see developing: Mobile, Location, and Cloud.

Just this week,  I had the chance to appear on the local Public Radio station for a second time – this time focusing more on “THE CLOUD”.

Together with my friend and business associate, Craig Crook, we spent the hour talking and taking calls about cloud computing, online web apps, and how all of this might impact businesses.

You can learn more about WBOI here.

And now, for your listening enjoyments, here’s the show (just click on the play button to get started):

Social Media Talk on WBOI Midday Matters

What about you?  Do you have thoughts, questions, comments.  Let us know.  Leave your comments below!

Maybe you’ve heard some of the buzz lately… Google has introduced a new feature – GOOGLE INSTANT.  In case you haven’t seen it already, here’s the deal…

Here’s a normal Google search page:

Nothing special here, right?  Well, that is until I start to type – then something really interesting happens.  As soon as I type ONE LETTER, the page changes and I start to get search results.  Google guesses what I am about to type in, and returns an ever changing search result with each and every letter typed.

For example, for me, I type in the word “fort”.  Here’s what happened automatically:

Based upon my four keystrokes, Google guessed that I wanted information about Fort Wayne.  I didn’t hit enter or return.  The search results just appeared instantly (hence the clever name, huh?).

So, besides being cool and fun, what does this mean for you and I?

1. Search continues to get personal – increasingly more and more often there is no single Google result for a particular search.  If I lived in Fort Worth, Texas, do you think Google would still suggest Fort Wayne, IN when I type the word Fort?  Do you think it would show results for Fort Wayne?  Of course not.  It would show results for Fort Worth, Texas.  Search results increasingly vary.  They change based on your location, your history, your likes, your dislikes – all of which Google often knows about you.
2. Search Engine Optimization is changing –  Typically Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is all about getting a particular site to appear high on Google for a particular search term.  But, if everybody gets a different result on Google how can I possibly optimize?  Increasingly this is the problem presented in SEO.  While there are still many terms that don’t aren’t very dynamic (meaning they return the same results regardless), I believe that this will continue to change.  Simply put there is no longer a Google first page result.  When asked – “Does your site appear on page 1 of Google for term X”, the answer will be – “It depends” – it depends on where you live, what your history is, what you like and don’t like…
3. The Number of Search Terms will Decrease – While I’m not totally sure about this, I think that Google Instant will help push us all to the middle.  When Google gives us results, I think we’ll start to suffice – thinking that the results we see are “GOOD ENOUGH”.  We’ll click on something that comes up and hope for the best.  Rather than crafting a very specific search term, we’ll start typing, see some general results and click – hoping for the best.  Again, while I’m not sure about the result here, this could very easily mean that niche companies get pushed more and more to the sidelines while the bigger players simply grow bigger.

   For example, if I type in the letters “ORG” I instantly get the results for organic gardening.  But perhaps I was hoping to find “ORGANIC TOMATO FERTILIZER” – but, when Organic Gardening comes up, I think that  it is close enough and I click.  While I might find something of use, the problem is that the niche players can easily get squeezed out.

One last thing.  Looking for some keyboard shortcuts for using Google Instant – Gina Tripani at Fast Company has a great Google Instant guide – http://www.fastcompany.com/1687662/google-instant-how-to-use

What do you think?  Is Google Instant a big deal or just a shiny trinket?  Leave a comment and let me know.

The topic of Search Engine Optimization (SEO for short) is one of huge interest.  In short, it is the process of getting a web site to rank higher in search engine results.  Particularly, it is focused on getting a particular site to appear high in google.

Here at EH Design & Consulting, we’ve been working with many companies on the process of SEO.  And, I thought it would be interesting to give a case study of sorts – AN IN PROGRESS story.

Just recently, we started working with the Family Care Center.  The Family Care Center is a Christian Counseling organization located on the North East side of Fort Wayne.  The Executive Director of the center, Denny Howard, contacted us at EH Design & Consulting, hoping to get his web site to appear higher in google search results.

So, we began the process of working with him.  Here are some of the steps we followed and some of the preliminary results:

STEP 1: Identify Keywords

Often times, this can be the most difficult part of the journey – deciding on exactly what you expect and want people to type in to find you.

For Family Care Center, we came up with the following terms:

• Christian Counseling Fort Wayne
• Marriage Counseling Fort Wayne
• Christian Counselor Fort Wayne
• Marriage Counselor Fort Wayne

Originally, the client had include the word “OF’ and “IN” – i.e Christian Counseling IN fort Wayne / Christian Counseling OF Fort Wayne.

But, we realized the these words are commonly called STOP WORDS – meaning that Google almost always ignores these words (there are a few exceptions).

After deciding on these terms, we did a little more research and learned the the terms “Christian Counseling Fort Wayne” and “Marriage Counseling Fort Wayne” we much more commonly used terms on Google.  Together, there are over 300 searches a month for these two terms.  While not a huge audience on a national scale, to be able to capture even a majority of these searches would be a huge win for Family Care Center.

STEP 2: Benchmark Current Rankings

After having identified some of the critical keywords for Family Care Center, our next step was to evaluate their current search engine rankings.  Typically, we try to create benchmarks on three major search engines:

• Google – with approximately 85% of the search engine market
• Bing – with approximately 4% of the search engine market
• Yahoo – with approximately 7% of the search engine market

We created some benchmarks for Family Care Center.  In this particular it wasn’t difficult.  Family Care Center did not appear in the top 10 pages on any of the three search engines.

So, our benchmarks were that Family Care Center’s site was non-existant on the search engines.  Nowhere to go but up, right?

STEP 3: On Page Changes

Now that e have keywords addressed and have benchmarked our current standings, it is time to make some changes.   The first step in this case was to begin with “on page” changes.

This involves updating things such at the TITLE tag (what appears in the blue bar for Internet Explorer), META tags, H1 tags, etc.

These are changes you can see.  Changes to content.

So, for Family Care Center – we updated all the title to be keyword rich titles – unique titles that included all their keywords.

In addition, we went through each page and added keyword rich H1 tags, Meta tags (stuff you don’t see and not terribly important – but still worth the time).

Also, we went through images and checked things such as ALT tags and TITLE tags to make sure they were keyword rich as well.

STEP 4: Create Links

After making updates to on page items, the next phase of Search Engine Optimization involves creating links to the Family Care’s web site.  Google sees every incoming link as a “vote” from that website that Family Care’s site is “important”.  The important you are, the higher you appear.

For Family Care Center, we submitted them to numerous directories, created links on our own site, added links on facebook, google local, and other places.  This phase is often (and in this case is) an ongoing phase.  New links are created on a regular basis.

STEP 5: Wait 20-30 Days and Evaluate

Once on page factors are updated and links have been created, it’s now time to wait for Google (and others) to re-index and then evaluate.

In Family Care’s case, we waited about 20 days and then did a new evaluation (just a week ago).

The new results were MUCH more impressive:

• Google – bottom of page 1 (Number 10)
• Bing – top of page 1 (Number 3)
• Yahoo – top of page 1 (Number 1)

Not a bad result

STEP 6: Repeat

The sixth and final step is to repeat.  We do further on page updates (tweak our titles, update images, rename directories to be more SEO friendly), create more incoming links, etc.

After all this SEO, the real question becomes – can we measure the payoff?  DO we have new leads, new contacts, new appointments, etc.?

Interested, want to know more?  CONTACT US at EH Design & Consulting to learn more.

I’m sure we’ve all heard all the incredible statistics about facebook:

• More than 400 million active users
• 50% of these users visit the web site every day
• More than 35 million users update their status every day
• If Facebook was a country, it would be the world’s 4th largest

Amazing statistics, sure.  But, the question is how do our businesses, our causes, capture this traffic?  How do we take advantage of this incredible opportunity?

Well, there are a lot of answers.  But, one that might be the most powerful is creating a facebook fan page.

Recently, I set up a facebook fan page for my church and wanted to use it as an example of the power of a facebook fan page.

What is a fan page?

When it comes to networking with other members, facebook allows to basic tools – a group, and a fan page.  A fan page, unlike typical facebook pages, is viewable by anyone (including Google).  So, anyone who visits facebook can see this page.  People don’t become “friends” with a fan page.  Instead they become a “fan”.  Once they become a fan, they will now receive updates in their news feed – in much the same way that they receive updates from their friends.

But, this ability to be seen by anyone (including search engine robots) is a big deal.  It means that links from a facebook fan page back to a web site can often help with Search Engine rankings (although links typically have the “nofollow” parameter).

Also, facebook fan pages do not have the limit of 5,000 friends that normal account have.  Fan pages can have an unlimited number of fans.

Finally, fan pages can have “pretty” urls – while facebook groups can not.  For example, for the fan page I set up for my church, I was able to make the URL: http://www.facebook.com/blackhawkmin (for Blackhawk Ministries).  This makes it much easier to remember the URL.

How Blackhawk uses its fan page
(and how you can)

Within two weeks of setting up its fan page, Blackhawk had almost 420 fans (it has continued to grow).

This means that, with just a little bit of time invested, they now have 420 people who regularly (daily?) see there “brand”, their events, their updates, etc.  It is an incredibly simple way to get a lot of people looking at your cause or business without any investment of money.

In addition,  as a result of the facebook fan page, facebook has become the second leading referrer to blackhawk’s regular web site.  That means that these 420 people are clicking on links in the updates and visiting the Blackhawk web site.  Here’s a simple graph from Google Analytics showing how much the traffic coming from facebook has grown:

So, not only are the hundreds of people seeing updates on their own facebook news feeds, they are also clicking on links and visiting the main Blackhawk page.  And, best of all, all of this is free.

That means Blackhawk has over 400 people (now almost 450) who regularly, daily, interact with their brand and visit their web-site.  What a great tool!

Here’s a few ways Blackhawk has continued to use its facebook fan page…

Advertise Upcoming Events

Blackhawk posts upcoming events and specials on the facebook fan page EVENTS page.  People can then ask questions, RSVP, view others who have RSVP’ed, etc.  All the event have links back to the Blackhawk Ministries web page with more information about the event.

Add Photos and Videos

By posting videos and photos, Blackhawk is able to tag people – thereby encouraging them to visit the page and possibly to visit the blackhawk site.  Photos and videos also provide another reason for fans to return to the page.  And, as a result, see other items – including events, posts, etc.

Add links back to Blackhawk’s site

This is where things get really powerful.  Every time something of note is added to the website, Blackhawk adds a new update to its facebook fan page.  This means that Blackhawk has a built in way to let almost 450 people know about web site updates.  And, many of these people click on the links and visit the site!

Imagine as a business being able to have an easy way to let people know about a new blog post, a new product addition to the store, a new event scheduled, etc.  By using your facebook fan page as a method to let people know about web changes, you have a simple, effective, and free method to let people who are truly fans know about what is new on your site.

This is really just the beginning of many powerful ways to use a facebook fan page.  There literally are many, many more great ways to take advantage of this incredible opportunity.

Got questions, want to explore how a facebook fan page could benefit your business, just want to talk more about social media and your company????  CONTACT US today

In our increasingly complex and fast-paced world, creating your own “personal’ or “corporate” brand has become more and more critical.  According to an article by Fast Company, taking control of your own personal brand is a critical priority:

It’s time for me — and you — to take a lesson from the big brands, a lesson that’s true for anyone who’s interested in what it takes to stand out and prosper in the new world of work.

Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.

It’s that simple — and that hard. And that inescapable.

– The Brand Called You, Fast Company

So, understanding that both personal and corporate branding are critical tasks for all of us, how do we go about creating and maintaining a brand?

In this post, I want to suggest just one simple step, a first step we can all do to start taking control of our personal or corporate brands.

That task is simply to take control of your name.  Whether it is your own personal name or your corporate name – maintaining control over your name is critical.  I want to suggest two simple task you can do to help control your own name:

1.  Register your domain name – with every popular ending

Suppose your name is John Smith.  I would suggest immediately going to a domain name registrar (I use 000domains.com) and registering your name with as many possible endings as you can.  So, for our example, I would immediately purchase johnsmith.com, johnsmith,net, johnsmith.org, johnsmith.tv, johnsmith.me, johnsmith.mobi, johnsmith.biz.

While the domain names aren’t free (they run between $15 and $30 per year), it’s a lot cheaper to buy them ALL now than to try and buy them later from a reseller, or, worse yet, to try and repair the damage when someone buys the same name as you with a different ending and puts up an offensive web-site.

So, take the time and buy ALL your names now – by the way – I own designedbyeh.com, designedbyeh.net, designedbyeh.org, designedbyeh.biz, designedbyeh.tv, and designedbyeh.mobi.  Right now, all these domains simply re-direct to the same web-site: www.designedbyeh.com.

2.  Register your name on EVERY social networking site you can

Whether you use them or not, you should register your name on as many social networking sites as you can.  Now, before you start to freak out and think – “I don’t use these social sites – I don’t even know what they are.”  That’s not the point… YET.  The point here is to simply secure your name in as many places as you possibly can.  And, it’s not as hard as you might think.

I suggest two services to help you with this:

1. NameChk – www.namechk.comThis site is simple to use.  Simply enter your desired name (username) into the text box at the top of the page and click on the “CHK” button.  The site will automatically check if this name is available on 145 social sites and let you know the results.

   For example, here’s a screenshot of the results when I did a Name Check for “ehdesign”:

   
   The red sites are sites where I have already registered “ehdesign”, while the green sites are sites where it is still available.  As you can see from the screenshot, I have already registered the name on many of the sites.  A few are typically reported incorrect (about 6 were on this example).  But, a service like this provides a GREAT starting place.  Just reserving your name, so that no one else does, is a GREAT way to be ready for personal or corporate branding.

2. KnowEm – www.knowem.com

   KnowEm can be a lot more advanced – it will look through more sites – grouped by cateogries such as entertainment, business, blogging, etc. – AND even register your name for you (although you have to pay for this service – usually around $100).

So, are you in control of your own personal or corporate brand?  If not, maybe these two step are two easy steps to get you started.  While there’s a LOT more you could do with your own personal brand – including adding real content to all the site you registered in step 2 above – these two steps are a great starting point.

Ready to go deeper?  Want to know more?  Want to find out other ways EH Design & Consulting can help you? Contact us today for more inforamtion!

Keeping track of your brand can be a difficult task.  With all these on-line, social conversations happening it can be difficult to really know what is being said about you, your company, your products, etc.  But knowing what is being said about you, your business, your key markets is CRITICAL. As I’ve said before, if you don’t know about these conversations, you can’t join in the conversations.  And, I guarantee, conversations are happening.  The only question is – are you going to participate.

So, if we agree that there are conversations happening online (blog posts, product reviews, twitter posts, facebook comments, youTube videos, etc.), the question is “how do I find out about these conversations and join in”?

Well, that a great question and there are a lot of good answers.  In a previous post (Two Simple Business Uses For Twitter) I described one method – using the Advanced Twitter Search based on location.  This is a great way to find people who are twittering about you or a topic of interest within a certain distance from you (i.e.  anyone talking about “antiques” within a 50 mile radius).  But, what if you want to join in on conversations happening on other mediums?  What if you want to know about blog posts, web site updates, facebook posts, etc.?

The answer now is Google Alerts!  Google Alerts are a great way to get regular updates any time Google finds a web page with your search term.  Using Google Alerts, you could get an e-mail every time Google finds a new web page that mentions the search term you chosen.  You can choose to get e-mails immediately, and daily or weekly digests (summaries).  You can also choose to have the results delivered to an RSS feed – my personal favorite.  Assuming you choose instant e-mail notifications, you would receive an e-mail every time Google finds a new article, blog, video, image, etc. that contains your search term.  What an awesome way to join in the conversation and help to control your brand.

Here’s the basics of how Google Alerts work:

1. Visit www.google.com/alerts and create your Google alert.  The main screen (once you are logged in – you will have to have a Google account) looks like this:
   Simply type in your search terms, select a type (for instance – if you only want to get results from blogs, etc.), select How often, and select where to deliver the information to (you can choose RSS later)
2. After you click “CREATE ALERT” you’ll be in the manage screen.  It looks like this:
   You can see from this screen shot that I had two Google Alerts set up – both being delivered to an RSS Feed, updated immediately (as-it-happens).  So, any time the words EH Design (my company) or Eric Hall (my name) appears in a new page in Google, the RSS Feed will get updated.  I’ll know immediately whenever sometime is talking about these terms.  Since this time, I’ve added a couple more Google Alerts – basically centered on my around some of my key SEO terms – Fort Wayne Web Design, Fort Wayne E-Commerce, etc.

   Here’s what the RSS feed looks like in my browsers (I’m running Apple Safari – so Internet Explorer would look a little different):
   

3. My final step is to Monitor my RSS Feeds in a convenient RSS Feed Reader.  Since I use an Apple, I monitor my RSS Feeds in my E-Mail program (called, Mail).  So, just as I would go to Mail to view any no e-mail message, so I go to mail to check if there is a new e-mail message, I also see if there are any new Google Alerts.  Here’s what it looks like in my Mail program:

Google Alerts – a great way to keep up to date with your own brand, product, search terms.

Want to know more? Have other ideas about? Leave a comment and share your thought. Or, contact EH Design & Consulting today, and we can talk about all the ways Social Media can help your business!