Have you noticed how social media sites are giving slide presentations a new lease of life?

Not so long ago PowerPoint (and its Mac equivalent Keynote) had a bad reputation with many presentations rightfully earning the label: “Death by PowerPoint”. Slides were often too busy, too wordy to read, or just too complex to understand. Even worse were those presenters who used them as auto cues, reading word for word and boring their audience to sleep.

But now it seems that a whole new generation of talented presenters are breathing new life into PowerPoint slideshows. The best ones are creating visually pleasing and attention-grabbing images, making text short & snappy and, most importantly, keeping us interested. No mean feat in this much reduced attention span age!

So in addition to using slide presentations at traditional offline events, such as when giving talks or running training workshops, there are now online opportunities for this frequently overlooked medium.

1. Presentations uploaded to Slideshare.net quickly show up in the search engines so it’s worth taking the time to categorise and tag them properly. A basic account is free to set up and very easy to use. Here are the Savvy Marketers presentations we’ve uploaded.
2. YouTube is already known as the second largest search engine and millions of videos are watched every day around the world. Recording your slide presentation, accompanied by audio, and uploading the result to YouTube means you can then embed the video in your website or blog, and share it with your Facebook fans & friends too. Other free video sharing options worth considering include Vimeo and Viddler.
3. Another good place to share your PowerPoint presentation is on your LinkedIn profile or LinkedIn Company page. You can either add the Slideshare application or embed the video into a Google Docs presentation.
4. Webinars are becoming an increasingly popular way of sharing information online. Depending on the service used, screen-sharing means including a slide presentation is straightforward and adds that important visual element to help get your message across and keep your audience’s attention.

Creating slide presentations is yet another great way to share that all-important content, and one that doesn’t require too much writing.

What new or different ways have you seen PowerPoint used recently? Please share in the comments below.

When we spring-cleaned this website/blog recently

A ‘Start Here’ page is a good idea if the first place new visitors see is either your latest blog post, or a slightly overwhelming Home Page.

While the Home Page is where you summarise what your business is about and what people can expect to find on the site, there isn’t enough space to really give brand new visitors a true flavour of what you do, and still keep it clear and concise. A Start Here Page can fill that need and provide a step by step guide of how they can get the best from the rest of your website.

Creating a ‘Start Here’ page will act as a warm, personal welcome, and enable you to showcase some of the useful content you’ve hopefully been putting together as part of your content marketing strategy. For example, you could include:

• An introduction video
• A collection of articles to download
• Links to a selection of blog posts
• A slideshow Presentation (with or without audio)
• Links to other pages on your website

and, of course, don’t forget to include a reminder of your primary Call to Action .

One example of a great and informative ‘Start Here’ page, which provided inspiration for our own, can be seen on smartpassiveincome.com. The owner of the site, Pat Flynn, is one of the ‘good’ guys in internet marketing and he generously shares his online experiences for his readers to learn from.

Do you have a ‘Start Here’ page? If so, what do you recommend including for new visitors to read?

However, there are things that can really put visitors off websites and over the years, I’ve come across common mistakes time and time again. Here are a few things that you need to check on your own site:

1. Make sure your contact details are easy to find, preferably on each page of your website. On this site, our phone and email address are within the header image, with a separate contact page too. It’s surprising how many sites still have their contact details buried away.

2. Make sure you tell people what you want them to do – lead people through your website, tell them which pages to visit first and make sure you put a call to action on your pages, such as contact us now, buy now, subscribe etc. If you don’t tell your visitors, it may not be obvious to them. If you’re not sure what the point of your site is, then read Louise’s post from last week: Do you expect too much from your website?

3. Equally, don’t give too much choice – you really don’t want to give your visitors half a dozen things to do or look at otherwise they won’t know which way to go either. If you’re promoting your own products, make sure someone else’s aren’t on the same page as yours (for example if you also have affiliate links on your site). You don’t want to steer them away from your own offering when you’ve put time and effort into getting the visitor to your site in the first place!

4. For service providers, explain the outcomes of using your service, how the visitor will benefit from working with you, how you will solve their problem. Don’t explain the process as most people won’t be interested in that, it’s the end result that they want. Case studies are a great way of showing off results you’ve achieved for other businesses.

5. Equally if you sell products, give your products descriptions that will resonate with your target market. A poorly written, bland description probably won’t motivate them to buy from you. Reviews can also help influence buying decisions, and I recently wrote a post on this subject: Product Reviews Increase Conversion Rates.

6. Scatter testimonials around your website, don’t just hide them away on one page. I always tell clients to put their testimonials around the site and on the corresponding product/service page.

7. Check your web stats regularly – check for trends over time and popular pages. If you’ve got a high bounce rate for particular pages on your site it could be that the page is poorly targeted, so look at the keywords you’re targeting and how the information on the page is presented.

8. Finally make sure that you’re writing for your target market and that they understand your terminology. Avoid using jargon that people won’t understand or writing in a very formal style. People scan web pages so highlight important points in bold, use bullet points and a more informal writing style.

What improvements have you made to your site to enhance your visitors experience? How have they worked for you?

If you think you could benefit from an audit of your site and feedback on where improvements could be made, please contact us to see how we can help!

Image: Frank, May 29, 2011 – choice by pat00139, on Flickr

Many small businesses have a website built because they know they need to have one. But they don’t give much thought to what they actually want it to do for their business. Most people we speak to look surprised when we ask this question, and answer:‘More business – of course!’.

Well yes, eventually that probably is the desired result of having a website. But it isn’t usually the immediate outcome, unless of course your website is an e-commerce site. For professional services businesses there are many steps between someone visiting your site for the first time and becoming a paying client.

So, if selling isn’t the point of your website, what is? Here’s what we mean by that question

Here on Savvy Marketers website, we want to inform and provide great tips for small business owners. The ultimate outcome is obviously to be hired but before that happens we know we have some serious convincing to do. That’s why the most prominent request in the sidebar is for you to sign-up to our ‘Savvy Marketing Tips’ (with free Guide). That is one of the main points of this website and everything else we offer – the twice-monthly newsletter and the free information-packed monthly webinars are all a cunning plan to persuade people to join our little community!

Once they have entrusted us with their email address, we want to build on that initial contact and start to develop a good relationship with them. To achieve this, each blog post invites comments, and most provide links to other interesting posts (perhaps here or also on other peoples’ sites), as well as introducing related products or services. We certainly don’t stop providing useful information just because we have the email address. And we don’t send out spammy email campaigns either

The point of our website therefore, is to inform and teach, to encourage people to join our online community, and to begin a relationship that will hopefully result in business in the future.

What’s the point of your website?

We’re all for creating lots of different streams of income,

You don’t want to dilute the expertise you’ve spent a lot of time, energy and money building up. Being a Jack (or Jill) of all trades may be useful, but people prefer to deal with a specialist when they have a problem they need help with.

You do want people to remember what you do. If you have a long and diverse list it will be harder to make your message clear and succinct, especially when you’re out networking.

You will have to work so much harder!

If you’re effectively running several different businesses, you’ll need to market each of them separately. Imagine the plate spinner who has to keep checking and adjusting to keep each plate from falling.

Your website will be a mess if you use it for several unrelated products or services. I remember visiting a life coach’s site a while back and being surprised and confused to see a page about candle-making! Even a hobby deserves to be separate and there are many completely free ways to do this.

It’s perfectly possible to have more than one business provided you take care with their organisation, presentation and with your time. The alternative is to ensure your additional revenue streams are clearly related to your existing business in some way, so you don’t confuse your prospects!

Have you come across a website that confused you with unrelated offerings? Please let us know in the comments below…

I’ve just received another automated Twitter Direct Message inviting me to join yet another new social network.

Sometimes the sheer volume of invitations and notifications from networks you belong to can become overwhelming, especially when added to all the usual emails and other messages demanding your attention.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post on how off-putting it is to receive invitations to connect that make no attempt to personalise the initial message and you can see in the comments that Sam feels the same!

We’re much more likely to accept invitations from people who have taken a few seconds to introduce themselves. It makes a huge difference when an invitation says: ‘Hi, we met at such & such networking meeting recently’ or ‘I subscribe to your newsletter & would love to connect here’ or ‘We have a mutual contact/interest in x’.

The trouble is, we don’t want to refuse an invitation from someone who could potentially be an interesting connection just because they don’t use the right words!

Setting up a connection policy or process can help

1. Is there a photograph of the person?

I like to see who I’m connecting with, so a logo, grey avatar or pet photo isn’t helpful (or professional). It’s a bit like going to a local networking meeting wearing a mask isn’t it?

2. What does their profile say about them?

It’s often difficult to know what to put in these boxes. I look for clues about what the person does and also what they’re like as an individual, so blank boxes or sales copy are a turn-off.

3. Do they have a website and/or blog?

This is their online home and I often decide whether to connect based on what I read in their ‘About’ page. If there isn’t a link to click on, this gives me the message that they aren’t very serious about their business online. The same applies if the only link takes me to a Facebook Page.

4. What connections or interests do we have in common?

If we have nothing and no-one in common then why should we connect? Another reason why 2 & 3 above are so important.

5. What do they tweet about?

For Twitter connections, I always have a look at their timeline or stream of recent tweets to see if they chat with their other connections and share other people’s stuff. If all that’s there is a list of self-promotional tweets, then they obviously don’t ‘get’ Twitter and I don’t connect with them

I hope this doesn’t come across as too ruthless, but realistically I can only engage with a limited number of people in a day, week or month. While I freely admit to making regular use of automation tools, I try hard to personally connect with as many people as I can every day too. It is called social networking after all!

Related posts:

Connecting with Social Media

Friends and Acquaintances

Getting to Know You

What have we missed? Do you agree with this post? Please let us know in the comments below.

As the brighter, lighter days show up the cleaning jobs

If you’ve been on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for a few months or more and intend to continue using social networking as a marketing tool in your business, then it’s worth revisiting all your profiles to see if they need revising or sprucing up in any way.

Here’s a short checklist for you:

1. Have you uploaded a professional-looking photograph of yourself? No matter how cute your pet rabbit is and how elegant your logo – they won’t help me recognise you should we be at the same networking meeting.
2. Check your Twitter 160 character bio. Does it include keywords about your business as well as sharing something personal too? People like to connect with people, so show that you’re human.
3. Do you have a special social media landing page on your website? It’s a lot friendlier and more professional than having fellow social networkers land on your home page or, heaven forbid, a sales page.
4. Are all your social networks listed on your website Contact page? You need to give people every opportunity to connect with you and become part of your network. They may not be ready to pick up the phone yet, but may well comment on a Facebook update.
5. Have you updated your LinkedIn profile with all recent changes? And are your website urls still current? I recent checked one for a client and found it linked to a blog last updated in 2008!
6. Do you have a ‘pretty’ url for your Facebook Page and Profile? You’ll need 25 ‘likes’ on your page, then go to facebook.com/username and claim your url.
7. Look at the info tab on your Facebook personal profile as well – are your web addresses up to date? Have you included the url of your Facebook business Page on that list? I was surprised at how many people forget to do this, and then they wonder why so few people find their Page
8. Make use of the friend list facility on Facebook so you can more easily keep up with all those important family & friends updates.
9. While we’re on the subject of urls, do a quick check by clicking on each live link you come across to make sure they still go where they’re supposed to.
10. Check your Facebook Profile Privacy Settings are as you want them to be. The latest updates made changes you may not have been aware of.
11. Go to a service like Twunfollow or ManageFlitter, find out who isn’t active on Twitter and unfollow them. While you’re about it, check to see who isn’t following you anymore, you might want to unfollow them too.
12. Sort your Twitter followers into lists – this will make it easier for you to keep track of their tweets and join in with the conversations.

What have I missed? What other spring cleaning are you going to do for your social networks? Please share in the comments.

To keep peoples’ attention on your site, it needs to be ‘great’ rather than just ‘good’. Savvy internet users are becoming increasingly fussy about who they do business with, and your site needs to stand out and make sure those people do business with you.

You don’t need to spend a fortune on a new website (unless it really needs it), but there are a few things you can do to improve your visitors’ experiences within your existing site.

1. Review your website content. If it’s a bit vague or out of date, you need to take some time to re-write it. If you sell a business service, make it clear who your target market is. If you sell a product, go through your product images and descriptions and make sure they’re clear, well written and enticing – vague product descriptions won’t inspire people to buy from you!

2. Create clear calls to action. Do visitors to your website know what you want them to do or where to go when they arrive on the home page? Do your product or service pages make it easy for visitors to know what to do next?

3. Keep content up to date. This is something we’ve written about many times on Savvy Marketers. If you start a blog or news page then you need to commit to keeping it up to date. Is the information on all your web pages up to date? Do all your links work? Broken links can put visitors off as much as an out of date site!

4. Commit to your social media activities. I wrote about this just before Christmas as social media can now influence search rankings. If you’ve made a start on some of the social networks, then plan out who you want to reach with what messages. Remember consistency is key.

By improving the visitor experience on your site even within your existing site design, you really can see a difference to the leads and sales coming through.

What are your plans for your website for 2011? Please share them here!

Have you come across any of the following, and if so do they grate on your nerves as much as they do on ours?

1.  Videos/Audios on websites that start playing automatically - especially when you can’t easily find out how to turn them off.  Not only do they make me jump out of my skin, it’s like being shouted at and guaranteed to make me close the tab and leave the site quickly.

2.  When people you’ve just connected with on Facebook or Twitter send their first message to you – and it contains a promotional link.  That’s like meeting someone for the very first time at a networking lunch and saying: “Hi, my name’s Louise – great to meet you! Can I interest you in this widget?” Even sharing a link to a free give-away is too much for a first message.

3.  Those Pop Up lightboxes that appear before I’ve had a chance to start looking around a new website or blog. How do I know if I want to sign-up to your list if the damn box is the first thing I see?  (Some people set their pop-ups with a time delay which is much better and slightly less annoying)

4.  Email newsletters that only provide short introductions to articles and then every link to read more, leads to ‘member only’ content.  Excuse me, but the email newsletter is supposed to help me decide if I want to become a member, isn’t it?  How am I supposed to know that if you won’t let me read some of your articles first?

5.  Tweeters who are too lazy to send individual thank yous and just say “You know who you are”. I always thought one of the nicer parts of social networking was when you saw your fellow networkers being publicly acknowledged by their @handle and it gave them a chance to take a bow?  You don’t have to say WHY you’re thanking them if it’s something embarrassing

OK, now it’s your turn!  What annoys you online?

When I couldn’t see any details on the home page, naturally I went straight to the ‘Contact’ page – to be confronted by a form.  And that’s all that was on the page – no phone number, no address, no email – nothing but a form to complete – which I don’t want to do.  I know forms have their place, but surely not as the only way of getting in touch?

I wonder how often this chap’s phone rings with new enquiries?

It got me thinking about how we often don’t see the obvious on our own websites (I even had a quick look at ours to make sure you can contact us easily!)

Find out if you’re a mystery to your clients by taking a critical look at your website.  Better still, ask someone who hasn’t seen it before to visit it and ask them to answer a few questions:

• How do they get in touch with you?
• Can they explain what you do?
• Do you make it clear who you do it for?
• Is it obvious what you want them to do next?

Visitors to your website should be able to easily see all this information on your home page (even if it’s just a summary and they need to click through to other pages to read more detail).  After all, the home page is often the one most first-time visitors land on, so it’s important to let them know if they’re in the right place quickly.

Make it very easy for your customers and prospective customers to find basic information.  If you don’t, they’ll click away because they don’t have time to solve a mystery.

Have you come across websites that kept you guessing?  Do share in the comments below.  And if you found this post helpful, please retweet it!