The difference between blog and news

Posted by: Michael Reynolds, President/CEO in General on Monday, December 20, 2010

Today's guest blog is written by Jack Shepler from Small Box. Like SpinWeb, Small Box is an Indianapolis-based company offering world class web design, easy to use content management, expert search engine optimization, intuitive internet marketing and much more. So, while we are friendly competitors, we have a deep respect for one another and enjoy sharing knowledge and information that benefits our clients.

Many of our clients tell us they want a blog, news section or both on their website. It’s common for many to opt for a blog simply because “blog” is a buzz-word, but it’s important to know the difference between the two and which choice is right for their company and which choice will have the best impact.

I’ll break it down for you.

The News section of your site should be a factual timeline of your company. This is where you announce information very specific to your company, such as new hires, upcoming events, or changes to your service or product offerings. You can think of your news section as an area for press releases. Just be sure to present your company the way you want people to think of you: your brand.

For example:

• Announce new products, services or offerings
• Announce recent achievements or awards
• Announce upcoming events

A blog serves as a space to discuss pertinent topics to your industry, not just your company. This area of your site allows you to be a thought leader within your industry and should always encourage open dialog and integration across social platforms. Blogging allows you to share your thoughts, opinions and reviews on a plethora of topics, just make sure to keep it interesting and relevant.

For example:

• Informative – teach how (easy it is) to use your product
• Editorial – offer opinions and reviews about topics related to your industry
• Promotional – announce upcoming sales, specials or contests

Remember your audience and your point-of-view. Your News section is generally going to be more official, and your blog should have a more personal tone. While it is often expected to announce the author of a blog post, that isn’t necessary for a News post. Additionally, while blogging should always allow discussion through comments, a News section usually doesn’t.

Hopefully this clears up the difference between a blog and news, but there’s one very important thing to keep in mind: you have to constantly update them. Merely having a blog or news page does not make it worthwhile, and not keeping them fresh can actually send a negative message. Constantly posting blogs or news keeps your company in mind and establishes that your company is always up to date. Not only that, keeping it fresh makes a significant impact on your Search Engine Optimization!

Track online fundraising campaigns with the Donations module

Posted by: Michael Reynolds, President/CEO in General on Monday, December 13, 2010

At SpinWeb, we love working with non-profits. We have a lot of experience with this community and the challenges they face. Online fundraising is a significant issue for non-profits and so anything we can do to make it easier for them to enable donations is a great thing.

One of the major initiatives of many non-profits is how to increase contributions and raise awareness. As we all know, being able to accept online donations is a critical piece of any non-profit's fundraising efforts. Many people today will not bother to write checks or call in to make a donation but if they can submit a donation online using a credit card, they are more likely to give.

For this reason, we are happy to have a new Donations module available at SpinWeb. While our websites have always been able to accept online donations, the new Donation module goes a step further by allowing non-profits to set up specific campaigns and track progress through a graphical thermometer.

The thermometer updates automatically as donations are submitted and all contributions are tracked in an online database. By displaying the progress of your campaigns publicly, you can help generate buzz and awareness, and get real-time data on how your campaign is progressing.

Payments can be made using a credit card, PayPal, or eCheck so your donors will have plenty of options for making convenient, secure online donations. Additionally, the organization can run multiple campaigns at the same time each with individual goals and tracking. Campaigns can be run for any length of time and the dollar amounts can be manually updated if contributions are also coming in from other sources.

This is a great tool for non-profits to use as they run campaigns with specific dollar goals. To learn about this new feature and how it can be used on your website, please contact us.

How required account creation hurts e-commerce sales

Posted by: Michael Reynolds, President/CEO in General on Friday, December 10, 2010

It seems like every time you want to buy something online, you are asked to create an account before you can purchase it. You find that product you've been looking for, you click "buy now", and you get ready to whip out your credit card.

But wait! Before going any further, the website you are on prompts you to either log in or create an account on that site. Frustration sets in as you then have to choose a username and password and reluctantly store your personal information in that website's database forever.

How often do you just give up or at least get frustrated by this practice?

As an e-commerce website owner, keep this in mind as you decide how to present your products and checkout process. Do you require your customers to create an account before purchasing or can they simply check out quickly and easily?

Whether you are aware of it or not, requiring account creation before purchasing will cause you to lose sales (unless you are Amazon.com). To ensure the quickest path to the sale, don't make your customers create an account. Let them check out with a simple form.

What is your experience with e-commerce websites and account creation? Comments are welcome.

Optimize your website for social media

Posted by: Michael Reynolds, President/CEO in General on Monday, December 6, 2010

Most blogs and the websites they live on today have social widgets that allow readers to share the website's content on social networks. This is extremely important because your readers are your best promoters. If they like your content, they will share it with their networks which will drive more traffic to your website, along with a strong peer endorsement.

However, so much of the time, websites are not optimized for maximum effectiveness when content is shared. There are three things I frequently see as "red flags" on blogs that hurt the organization's chances of reaching the most people.

1. Lack of attribution in the Re-tweet widget. You've probably noticed that most blogs allow readers to share the content on Twitter via a re-tweet button. However, most of the time I've noticed that it does not include the organization's Twitter ID in the post. When someone shares your content on Twitter, it should include your Twitter ID. For example, if you click the Tweet button at the bottom of this blog, you will notice that it includes the text "via @spinweb" at the end. This does a couple of things. One: it allows us to see who is re-tweeting our content, which means we can follow up with a thank you, a follow back, or some other form of communication. Two: it grows our Twitter following because now anyone else who sees that posting can easily click on our Twitter ID and follow us.

2. Un-captivating titles. The TITLE tag of your web pages is typically what gets displayed on social networks when your content is shared. Many organizations don't put a whole lot of thought into how their individual blogs and web pages display the title of the content so it ends up being something like "Company XYZ - Marketing tagline - Content headline". This is not ideal because when a blog is shared on Facebook or Twitter, the first thing people see is the company name, followed by a tagline, and finally (if there is room), the title of the article. This looks somewhat spammy and will not generate much interest. Instead, make sure your content title leads with the headline of the article so that people will instantly be able to see the topic when it is shared on social networks. This will maximize the chances that people will click on the link and come to your website.

3. Lack of social commenting. Many blogs allow readers to post comments on articles. However, most of the time these comments only exist on the blog itself and do not reach much further. Services like Echo, however, allow readers to log in with their Facebook or Twitter accounts and post with their own photos and names which personalizes the experience. It also allows commenters to share their comments on social networks, which in turn drives more traffic to your website. Try it by commenting on this blog below. Be sure to log in with one of your social profiles and choose the option to share it with your networks.

Want more eyes on your content? With a few simple changes, you can easily increase the number of visits, followers, and readers you acquire to your website and blog. Comments and questions are welcome.

Drive traffic to your website with Foursquare

Posted by: Michael Reynolds, President/CEO in General on Tuesday, November 30, 2010

If you haven't heard about Foursquare yet, check out this blog entry from Jessica Mitchell. Foursquare lets your visitors "check in" to your physical office or store location via a mobile device (like an iPhone, Blackberry, or other smartphone). It also lets visitors connect their profiles to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, which will post their check-ins to those networks for their friends and followers to see.

All online stalking jokes aside, this is a great way to allow your constituents to promote your business because it throws your name in front of lots of people when someone checks in at your location. However, you can also use Foursquare to drive traffic to your website by making a simple edit to your venue page.

First, you will need to claim your venue. Then you can edit the title of your business name to make one simple change: place your website URL after the location name. For example, if you look at SpinWeb's venue page, you'll notice that it is listed as "SpinWeb - http://www.spinweb.net". This means that when someone checks in at our office and has their Foursquare account linked to a social network (like Twitter or Facebook), our website URL will also be posted and will be clickable. This means that if someone wants more information about our company, they can find out with one click by visiting our company website.

This simple change can allows your visitors to help drive traffic to your website simply by checking it on Foursquare. Adding specials to your venue can also encourage people to start checking in more often which can drive more traffic to you.

Foursquare is a fun tool which can be a great addition to your traffic sources. Let your visitors promote you with one click from their mobile devices. Comments are welcome below.