Social Media Examiner Stops Posting its Videos on Facebook

Here at ICTADVISOR we are avid followers of Social Media Examiner which is a well established U.S.based media company, founded by Mike Stelzner. It publishes online magazines, blogs and podcasts about how business people can use social networks.

So, when Mike Stelzner comes online with a VERY SHORT TO THE POINT VIDEO about a decision he has taken regarding the amount of effort he and his team had been putting into promoting the business via Facebook, then you have to sit down and listen.

Social Media Examiner has taken a very difficult decision to cancel doing any more of their long form content videos for their Facebook Channel. So, for example their weekly tips and tricks show and their ask me anything shows answered by Social Media Experts are amongst those being cancelled.

If you are a micro small business reading this, what we are talking about here is a very established Social Media Company. And, they were doing what you are probably doing right now – creating long form content – but sticking it up on Facebook, and wondering why you are only seeing less than a handful of likes or shares.

Mike Stelzner at Social Media Examiner says, long form content does not necessarily have home when it comes to Facebook

Mike Stelzner said,  “when putting their video stuff up on Facebook it was like putting a TV Show on a screen at the side of the motorway, and people watch it as they went zipping by. Facebook is a motorway.” And so Social Media Examiner are not going to publish 3 out of the 4 videos they published every week on Facebook anymore for this very reason.

How Often Are You Analysing Your Marketing Efforts?

Mike Stelzner and his team came to this hard decision to stop posting their videos on Facebook after analysing their data and looking at things like;

• Retention Time
• How Many People are Actually Watching their Videos etc.

They came to the sad conclusion that hardly anyone is watching their videos!!

Social Media Examiner said the metrics are very deceptive.
Well, take what you will from this article Facebook’s algorithm HAS been commented upon as being so hard and cruel

What now for Social Media Examiner?

Mike Stelzner and his team at Social Media Examiner have decided to publish one of their favourite shows exclusively on………You Tube.
They are doing what is right because this is a rapidly changing world online, always has been.

What Hope for The Micro Small Business Owners here in Scotland?

Well if an organisation like Social Media Examiner is taking such important steps – bearing in mind their brand was known and established, then what hope has the micro small business owner who is yet trying to be found online and still hanging all their strategy in just being on Facebook?

There are many businesses and not just here in Scotland putting all their hard earned efforts just into the Facebook Platform. But the more you read about the facts when it comes to marketing online and being regularly involved in measuring the ever changing dynamics, there is a clear message that businesses need to rethink their digital marketing strategy.

Be ready to adapt Yoour Digital Marketing Strategy and Consider What Next?

There are still a lot of micro small businesses who are not guided from measuring data. Many still don’t use or understand any of the free Analytics dashboards that are available for them to use. But a bigger problem is, for those who have the analytical dashboards in place, they either can’t interpret the data, or simply don’t have time

So this story serves as more evidence about what leading marketers are constantly discussing re FaceBook and the use of video.

If Social Examiner is bailing, that says a lot.

So if you continue to post your 7 min, 30 min or 60 min videos up onto Facebook – think about cutting that video footage to about 2 mins or less which has always been seen as the sweet spot in amplifier channels such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.

YouTube the Number 1 Channel for Video?

It’s no surprise that YouTube is regarded the platform for longer form videos – has been for ever (despite what has been said or seen from efforts towards using FB)
When it comes to online video strategy, it becomes more and more apparent that the “blast it everywhere” technique isn’t what people think it is.
People realized years ago that there is no revenue sharing on Facebook, all you have to do is create a 30 sec or 1 min preview video and let the viewers know that the full version of the video is available on the YouTube channel.

It can be guaranteed that 90% of videos that people actually watch on Facebook it’s a YouTube Video link that was shared.

Keyword Research Still Overlooked by Small Business Owners in Scotland

Lots of small business owners across Scotland are still not doing enough Keyword Research.

I have come across a huge amount of evidence from Edinburgh up through Fife and across the Highlands and Islands of Scotland of no keyword research being done. This is especially ubiquitous in the micro and small business communities where large swathe have not used a Keyword Research Tool. I find this absolutely astonishing.
The reason being when speaking with these micro small business owners, you ask what their biggest challenge is with their website, and they answer – I am not getting any traffic.

And when looking at the content on their pages sure enough, you find that the pages are not using any keywords that their audience is actually searching with and yet that small business could be offering the solution. The problem – keyword research, followed by no on-the-page optimisation to tune pages towards Searchers Intent.

I thought therefore that I would air here again a Video Blog by Rand Fishkin back in 2016 on the topic  titled;

A Step By Step Process for Discovering Keywords – Your Best Keywords

Selecting Keywords that Match Searchers Intent

Collecting Keyword Metrics and Sort Filter Prioritise them based on Goals

What you want to do is take all the keywords in each of the lists and get the metrics for them so you can prioritize them properly. Your list of keywords will have metrics for:

• Volume – how often each month are they searched for
• Keyword difficulty
• How hard will this keyword rank in the organic results
• Does the keyword have click-through rate opportunity

Rand’s video blog provides more in-depth steps to the above process before you reach your fourth step which is;

Determine Keyword Targeting for New Content Creation – Prioritise Your List

By the time you reach this final step you will understand this is a phenomenal way to go through keyword research and keyword targeting. This will help you get the content and the optimization priorities that you need, if you are going to have any degree of success from your SEO efforts.  You will have to choose the right data and the right tools, and use multiple sources. You will have to intelligently build the right kinds of keyword lists. Then, use that metrics data to prioritize your page content etc. The morale of the story is you cannot just throw content onto a page with just pure intuition. Spend the time doing some serious  keyword research and based on what you have read here and saw in Rand’s video blog, you can have phenomenal success.

Of course if you don’t have any time to do this on your own because you are busily doing what you set out to do as a business owner, then consider hiring a professional digital marketing practitioner who has access to all the tools required for this task. And then you could also get help in crafting some quality content if you suffer from writers block!!

Small Business Success Stories in Scotland from Web Design and Marketing Company ICTADVISOR

We are constantly on the lookout for small business success stories in Scotland. We want to inspire those who are considering looking at great business ideas. Are you preparing to promote your small business online? If you haven’t been on the ICTADVISOR website before or had us do any work for you, hello, and a warm welcome from me Brian Mathers.

My Website Design and Marketing Company is regularly involved in small business consulting at stages across the process of putting a website in place. If you are preparing to build your first website, redesign a website, require some website performance analysis, or simply want help with small business marketing support services, that is what we have done since 1997.

Good Business Ideas

ICTADVISOR has been part of many good business ideas. Working together with these small businesses helped them find greater business opportunities.  Even before we began building them a website which had to be fit for purpose, the exploratory phase was both exciting and important. More importantly the marketing support provided thereafter helped grow many of those business substantially over the years online.

20 Years on and ICTADVISOR are still delivering business services for small businesses. We love helping the micro and small business owners reach the key objective with our input and that is helping his or her business make money online.

Today, as someone who is also passionately involved in working in partnership with Business Gateway helping to deliver the Digital Boost 1-2-1 program where there are many small business success stories we contribute towards across Scotland. So, in this post we wanted to put the spotlight on a small business owner who has a company in Kirkcaldy Fife called Den Electrics. Why?

We don’t actually have any responsibility for this business online regarding the marketing or website design for Den Electrics. And this post is not to critique the website about whether it is mobile responsive or search engine friendly etc.

This post is commenting on the excellent service delivered by Den Electrics. But want to draw attention to something important inside this website – the content. Producing Engaging Content for website pages is what we talk about all the time. There is even a Business Gateway Workshop that we deliver on this very important topic.

Successful Small Business in Fife Producing Engaging Content

Den Electrics is in our opinion a trusted small business to us locally here in Fife. Why is the brand so memorable to us when we find ourselves with a broken down appliance?
Because, Den Electrics website menu headings and content tells us about;

• Who They Are
• What They Do
• Where Do they Work

Those three important menu links they have and the content within those pages on the website, clearly explain what is on offer and how the business will help you. The content is helping to lead you towards the decision of hiring the business.
There is no doubt, if this business owner at Den Electrics had more time, we bet, there could be an abundance of success stories that they have. Stories like how he fixed our washing machine. The story telling you about how the business has overcome issues and conducted problem solving in order to have happy customers. Those stories install confidence and that business owner becomes the GOTO guy you can trust and whose services you will use again, and so that leads to loyalty.

So, it is worthwhile us highlighting small business success stories? Of course its is. 

Small Business Success Stories in Fife – Den Electrics

Telling the story of how this business delivers customer service might inspire those of you who have your own small business, or thinking about starting one.

You could fall into one of the following categories;

• Your already a small business trying to grow your brand online
• Are you someone with a home based business idea getting ready to plan to be online
• It might be you are setting out to deliver good business ideas towards filling a niche

So, with the help of this story, let us tell you about our experience with services delivered by Den Electrics in Fife that impressed us.

In our opinion when searching online for someone to repair our washing machine that Den Electrics was a successful small business owner who cares, who is passionate, and who delivers customer service. His content and later our experience shown through when he came out to visit us.

Den Electrics is the type of customer we like supporting. Here is someone that has been in business for a number of years and we have used them on more than one occasion over the last 5 years. The reason being, this business (in our opinion) went above and beyond every time they provided help. Isn’t that what you want from a small business owner?
And if you are a small business setting out to market yourself online wouldn’t you be focused on delivering great customer service?

What Makes a Small Business like Den Electrics Successful?

So, the scenario. The washing machine door would not open after a wash cycle.

Den Electrics arrived and the engineer successfully got the door open. It was found on closer inspection that the door handle on the inside had broken. There was a need for a new door handle. However, he needed to order a new part. But Den Electrics went a step further and lived up to what we truly look for in a Small Business – Help. Because this engineer did not leave us without a non functional washing machine until his business could source a new part. NO SIR. He improvised, so that the washing machine remained functional.
It is amazing what some electrical block connector and a small piece of fence wire can do in order to keep your washing machine door functional. So, we were able to continue keeping our clothes clean until the proper replacement part arrived.

All of the problem surrounding the washing machine was dealt with within 7 days by Den Electrics. The engineer arrived promptly. He assessed the problem. He went away, leaving us that same day still with a functional washing machine, having applied a temporary fix. The engineer returned 6 days later having sourced a replacement part and the washing machine is back to normal. TADA – This is why we like working with small businesses who have become clients of ours in both Scotland and England.

Because, we, like Den Electrics, like to work with great small businesses that help other small businesses who go out their way to assist customers.

Companies that Help Small Businesses

It makes it all worthwhile when ICTADVISOR become part of the successful small businesses out there that we  get the opportunity to work with.
We believe in being as passionate about being part of your great business idea when getting the opportunity to support your online marketing journey.

Small business success stories like this one about the washing machine engineer reminds me here at ICTADVISOR why, we are a company, that wants to help small businesses.  We begin with trying to find you short term solution. We might find you are short of the following;

• Time
• Resource
• Knowledge
• Budget

The aim from day one is to help keep the business moving towards increasing their online footprint by helping to address these issues. You need a website because you want your small business to be found. But you might be the only person in this business, and so most of your time is taken up doing what you set out to do – deliver goods or services. So, having a resource to manage the website might not be high on the agenda. On the other hand you might have some time to attend to the marketing support your website needs, but lack website marketing knowledge. And for many small businesses starting out or within their first 2-3 years of business, budget is tight. How do you therefore build and market a website on a very tight budget?

Business Opportunities to Make Money Online – How To Start?

Yet, there you are, sitting with small business opportunities we see business owners come forward with everyday. You know you can make money online but you need to get your marketing message out there. When engaging with our small business consulting services the first thing we do is is help you build an affordable website. Next, we put in place a LOCAL SEO Marketing Strategy. Then, as the business brand becomes better known and your reputation spreads you move to the next level. This is like being in motor racing!!

You might have to start by competing in formula 3 racing. This begins by getting your small business known locally online. The focus might be to get better known in your local region. Next you tackle being the GOTO company in Scotland.  A lot will depend on how much effort you put in during year 1 and 2 to increase your visibility and footprint online.

• You will need to work hard to better relationships with the likes of Google.
• You have to work your way up from formula 3 to compete at formula 1. 
• It takes time to grow nationwide or even have your brand on an international stage.

Watch out for more small business success stories on the ICTADVISOR website.

Because everyone has a story to tell and our aim is to have a Digital Excellence Scotland that is filled with successful small businesses.

Globally Renowned Digital Marketing Practitioner Matt Bailey on Website Marketing Best Practice

Hear What Matt Bailey Says about Website Marketing Best Practice Standards…..

WHAT MATT BAILEY SAYS in his

ENDLESS COFFEE CUP PODCASTS WITH MATT BAILEY

Marketing Standards are important. More so when you are a micro or small medium business trying to get your website found online. But, apart from writing great content for a website page a business, there are other challenges that go with this task. Often the rules that go with laying out the content on the website is just one of many obstacles the website business owner has to overcome. It might be that the website platform itself might not be fit for purpose and you could be wasting your time trying to get found, because the content management software platform was not fit for purpose. Such things are often overlooked by the micro small medium business.

Is your website meeting your objectives and adhering to website marketing standards?

Best-Selling Author, Marketing Expert, Trainer, and Speaker. Matt Bailey has taught:

• Google employees how to use Google Analytics,

• Experian how to present data,

• Proctor & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson SEO & online marketing,

• Microsoft’s International Teams paid search and programmatic marketing.

Matt’s has worked with a vast and widely-known clientele, including;

• Microsoft
• ESPN
• IBM
• Gerber Life
• American Medical Association
• Disney,
• Toys R’ Us, and countless more.

Matt keynotes conferences around the globe, speaking at more than 20 engagements a year, and ICTADVISOR are glad to either have him drop into Scotland every wee while to share with us his vast knowledge in Search Marketing or spend time with him on Skype or recording podcasts when his schedule allows.

In all the workshops I have ever delivered, whilst saying in one breath you have to have a multichannel marketing strategy, that has been quickly followed by telling the micro and small business owners that Search Engines and especially Google, is where the money is made and this is where you should spend your time and effort getting found.

Search Engines Retake the Lead in 2017

Many a small business owner though did not heed that advice and decided to follow the lead sheep and go off in another direction. A direction that was seen as the cheapest way to market the business – down the social media channel route.

The above is part of a great article put together by Craig Zevin at Shareaholic and commented upon by Rand Fishkin. Rand added in his tweet information he shared from data gathered by Jumpshot which tells its own story.

The chat on the wires was based around the story and a number of great statistical graphs provided by Craig at Shareaholics which clearly shows that social media’s tenuous grip on being the top referral category is over. For the last three years Social was standing proud holding onto that crown but has had to give back the title to Search Engines. This dramatic turnaround comes driven by change everyone saw in January 2018 to the algorithms behind Facebook’s News Feed.

What Matt Bailey Said About Social Media – Years Ago – Still Stands

I could go back many years before this and whilst driving round Scotland in the company of my good friend and Colleague Matt Bailey author of Internet Marketing An Hour A Day.

As we took in the great scenery of Scotland we talked about the role of Social Media, and he said back then “Your not in social media to make a sale, your looking to find and establish relationships.” And in his book he said “Without a clear goal and strategy, the rush towards social media becomes one with a directive of “We need to be there!” rather than evaluating “What can we do there?” The social media message, as he said then becomes disjointed, because there is no clear message and the purpose becomes lost.

I have looked at lots and lots of micro and small business twitter and facebook pages and the most common thing I see is the neglect to drive visitors to a particular destination and everyone’s efforts were hung on twittering like there was no tomorrow and yet what was it doing for the company? Using different social media brings different results.

Lots of small business owners have something to offer and something to say in telling their story. But they don’t work hard enought at actually driving the audience they want back to their most important doorway – the one that leads people into their OWN website. Instead they leave their audience on a loop out in social media channels by simply hastagging this and hashtagging that but offering no direction.

Matt also quoted in his book “Your company does not have to spread efforts among all the Social Media Channels if it doesn’t make sense”  and “simply throwing time at Social Media will not produce results.

If you ever get a moment pick up Matt’s book and go to page 30 and 31 as even after that great journey we went on around Scotland educating businesses on how important Search Marketing and hour a day is to your business, his words of wisdom and that of Rand Fishkin on working at your SEO strategy remains as being very important.

I once read from another well known Marketing Consultant in the UK who shall remain nameless here. but who said to his audience that SEO was dead. But, this was because he just wanted to have everyone spend their dollars with him doing all your Pay Per Click. But you can’t do pay per click advertising using AdWords without achieving a Quality Score.
That Quality Score means you have to ‘Optimise’ your website page to achieve your AdWords Campaign being successful.

So, this latest study in bringing Search Marketing back to the fore means that SEO is never going away. We just have to do it differently today. And don’t get me wrong Pay Per Click Advertising has its place in the multi-channel digital marketing strategy that we should all be working at.

If you want to learn more about where to put your time and effort into marketing your website, there has never beeen a better time for Scotland’s businesses to get along to  Business Gateway Workshop. Their are some great learning topics and they are being updated all the time. And if you want a review of your website’s performance and digital marketing strategy, then who should you have a chat with. I will leave that decision with you………

Brian Mathers
Internet Marketing Practitioner
Delivering OnlineXcellence to SMEs in Scotland

Snake Oil Salesman Selling Domain Names to Vulnerable Small Business Owners in Scotland

Around February 2017 a year ago, the GOV.UK website flagged up a domain name selling scam.

The aim of the seller is to panic people into buying a domain name which comes at a hugely inflated price, has probably been purchased by the snake oil salesman just hours or a few days earlier, and tells you that, because it is a keyword loaded domain name it will put the business owner who buys it at the top of the search engine results immediately.

The Warning Sign of a Bad Website Agency Begins Ringing Alarm Bells

So here we are in 2018 and ICTADVISOR recently received a telephone call from a distraught lady business owner in the Highlands of Scotland. She had recevied a telephone call from a website agency in England with a very persistent snake oil salesman on the other end of the line. It was observed after hearing this lady’s plight that the UK based website agency calling her had only been in business a couple of years.

The lady found the male person on the other end of the phone very persistent. And he was not going off the phone until the lady business owner got out her credit card to pay for not one but TWO Domain Names at £300 each.

At the beginning of this story, at this stage, the lady’s credit card would not allow her to make the payment. So, she told the person on the phone that she would need to speak to her bank. The snake oil salesmen was not happy. He said he would phone back in a few hours as he had ASSIGNED her name now to the two domains and she was liable for payment.

The lady was now very worried and distressed.

On the way to the bank, she thought about her actions and remembered a workshop she had attended and the information she had noted down about overly inflated pricing against domains. About these snake oil salesmen who believe if they have a keyword loaded domain that fits your business, then they target you and insist you buy because if you do this will put you at the top of the search results above competitors in your niche.

By the time the lady arrived at the bank, the bank’s fraud team had contacted her informing her of an attempt (7 times) from a company trying to take money from her account. She explained the scenario to the bank and had decided she was not purchasing these domains. So, the bank cancelled her current credit cards and issued her with new ones.

The Domain Name Nightmare Continued….

The snake oil salesman from the web agency was true to his word. The agency called the lady back a few hours later. But now, this was snake oil salesmen number 2.

The first bandit had now passed her onto to his side-kick. So, he now put the pressure on and explained they could not get the funds transaction to complete from her account. And so again he was not going off the phone until he got the payment. This was despite now the lady saying she had taken advice and was not going ahead with this purchase. Now bear in mind, she has not received an invoice by email or anything at this time.

Snake oil salesmen Number 2 from the web design agency said – “but you have entered into a contract and one which cannot be reversed,” claiming the domain names were now registered in her name. But the lady expressed she had not parted with any money and she did not intend too.

The snake oil salesmen’s reply was she had broken a contract and now they would put her details with an enforcement agency to collect the debt.

The web agency said they could do this because they were partners of both NOMINET and ICANN and stresses that because they are partners with ICANN the web agency has more powerful than NOMINET and that they could block any domain name if their agency is owed money. The threat now, was that the lady’s current website would have her domain name removed.

Female Business Owner Threatened By the Website Agency

So where are we at this stage.Well the lady business owner in question had put the phone down on the website agency as she was beginning to feel sick by it all and felt so foolish having found herself being reeled.

• One distraught threatened lady
• Two domain names registered in her name despite her having not parted with any money
• No invoice received.

What was detected from the first call from the Web Agency against the second was the price had gone up. The first transaction they tried to take from the lady’s bank account was NEARLY £600 and now it had gone up to over £700. Not only could they be consistent with price, they had also then forgotten about adding the VAT!!
So, had they now broken their contractual arrangement?

At this point the snake oil salesmen decided to bring in his “line manager“.

There is always a Woman riding alongside Cowboys in these Films – isn’t there!!

So, she certainly wasn’t Doris Day or Jane Russell of their day. But this woman came on sounding all very nice and apologetic and said she could help.

However, her approach was – look we can sell on these domain names for a few thousand on the lady business owners behalf, so just pay for them now and we will drop the VAT charge since we forgot to add it……….WHAT! – How much worse could this get?

And the woman did not finish there. Her final venomous bite – I here you put the phone down on my agent. If you decide not to pay us then it is out of our hands and your situation will be escalated do you want this to happen? So let me help you make these domain names live and see how good they will be for you.

At this moment in time the lady is frightened to answer her phone as she recognises the number from the snake oil salesmen at the website agency.

Looking into this side of our industry, this is extremely shocking, that a website agency can be so forceful. And worse than that – they go and buy a domain name just hours or a few days before – at the going rate that we would all pay for a domain name, but in their case immediately sell the domain name to a non tech savvy small business and hugely inflate the price just because it is a Keyword Loaded Domain in relation to the business they are targeting.

Is it Worthwhile Buying Keyword Loaded Domains?

We did some digging around on the domains that had been offered. They had indeed just been purchased. Their domain authority was 1/100 as was their page authority.

What does Google say about domain names – quite simply, a domain is a domain is a domain. It is not about whether it is keyword loaded, and even if it was (maybe) in the long term it may do you some good. But certainly it is not going to do so immediately just because the business attaches it to their website and thinks in 24 hours (according to our snake oil salesman) the business will be at the top of the search results. Domain Names have to earn their authority and build up a relationship with the likes of Google who will then consider the domain being trust worthy. And that has certainly nothing to do with it being a keyword loaded domain name.

So, beware. We have not mentioned the actual UK based Website Agency in this article, nor the lady’s name or her business. But the story is true, and we felt it important for small business owners especially that they be made aware of the snake oil salesmen domain name sellers.

Do It Yourself SEO if You Only Have a Few Minutes Each Week

Here at ICTADVISOR we like working with Small Medium Sized businesses in Scotland when we are not working on a large website project. However, those who end up having us support their web marketing activities have come here after trying Do It Yourself SEO.

Do It Yourself SEO for Small Business Owners

Why it is so invigorating to work with the micro or small business website owner? Because this is where the real challenges are seen when it comes to marketing a website. SME businesses don’t have the luxury of being able to spend lots of time on their website so they turn to Do It Yourself SEO.

Also resource is an issue if there is only a handful of people in the business and they are all maybe all at the frontline delivering what the business offers by way of services and products. Having sufficient Knowledge skills to actually market a website is something not everyone either wants to do or is capable of doing. There is a knack to being a professional internet marketer. The small business is good at what it set out to do, be it a roofing business, a tree surgeon or selling dishwashers for example. But getting time to actually implement SEO, Pay per Click AdWords, or a bit of Link Building and Social Media Marketing – for many small business owners – this is just not their forte.

SEO Dabblers

Some will dabble at DIY SEO Marketing but from a lot of case studies and us helped hundreds of businesses over the years, evidence shows that the website is suffering from this approach. For some businesses, because the funds are tight, they take the plunge in both building their own website and then having a go at marketing it by themselves.

This is like – Can’t afford a car or van for my business, but hey, I think I can build my own. Now we all know what that may turn out looking like!

But, if you do think you can do SEO by yourself then here is Rand Fishkin of MOZ – one of the top SEO Guys in our industry providing some hints in this video on how to do SEO if you only have a few minutes each week.