Phyllis Zimbler Miller's Blog: Phyllis Zimbler Miller Author, page 57

Is Your Website Making the Mistake of Being Simply Brochureware?

A business owner showed me her website as part of a discussion as to why her business has been off the past year.

Although the economy might be having some impact, I told her that one possible explanation is that she does not have an active online social media presence and that her website is basically brochureware.

Wikipedia defines brochureware as:

A brochureware website is a business website that has very infrequently updated content. Often the site has been developed as a direct translation of existing printed promotional materials, hence the name. Brochureware sites therefore take little advantage of the capabilities of the web that are unavailable in printed publication.

And, indeed, this particular website took little advantage of the capabilities of the web, including the benefits of using social media to connect with your prospective target markets.

The more I thought about this conversation the more I realized that NOT having a social media presence is truly beginning to hurt businesses. I continually read articles quoting statistics of how many people first go online to find local businesses as well as check the recommendations of friends and strangers.

If people are looking for your kind of business online, and your only online presence is a brochureware website that ranks very low with search engines (which love fresh material continually being added to a website), what chance does your business have of being found online?

There's another consideration as evidenced by the website of another company I looked. This website made the company appear to be the same as similar companies. But I happen to know that this particular company has a Unique Selling Proposition – a USP that its brochureware website does NOT convey.

Someone asked me if I thought her website "pretty"? I explained that I evaluate a website on its effectiveness for what it wants to get across to site visitors. The large photo of a tall office building that had nothing to do with the website's business might be "pretty," but it also distracted rather than added to the site's home page message.

What is the purpose of this blog post?

To act as a warning bell to businesses that have not yet accepted (and acted upon) how social media has impacted all areas of offline and online marketing.

For more information on this topic, see the Miller Mosaic blog post "Facebook Has Forever Changed the Face of Small Business Marketing"

Take action now rather than waiting until you've been left so far behind by your competitors that you may never be able to catch up.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-s...

SEO Can Get People to Your Website But Cannot Keep Them There

Many website owners spend time, effort and money on SEO (search engine optimization), which is an important component for their site being found by search engines.

And these search engines take into consideration how long people stay on a site. In other words, is your site an accurate result for the search terms people typed in?

A very important thing to remember about SEO is:



Good SEO cannot keep people on your site!



You want the prospective clients and customers of your products and services to stay on your site once they arrive there. For these site visitors to stay, the site itself must instantly convey what is on offer as well as the benefits for the visitors.

And in most cases this is NOT achieved by a site that takes forever to load due to a Flash home page or due to an over-filled page too distracting for people to try to figure out.

In both cases an immediate response to these issues is often to click away to something easier to read, easier to navigate, and easier to "get."

The reason I'm writing this particular blog post is because, in an email exchange with someone who has an over-filled website home page, the person said he was first going to work on SEO before improving his site. The counter-productiveness of this really hit me.

Let me be clear about what I'm saying: I definitely support SEO, and in an ideal world, you would simultaneously concentrate on SEO and a people-friendly site.

But if you are only going to do one at a time, your first priority should be making your website people friendly. Remember, Google is NOT going to buy from you – and the people who come to your site may become clients and customers.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download now the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-s...

For Book Authors: Now People Can "Like" Your Amazon Book Page

Thanks to Aggie Villanueva at www.visualartsjunction.com I learned that people can now "like" your book page.

I immediately went to my Amazon author page to test this out. And based on my own Amazon items, this option is currently only for actual books and not for books on Kindle or blogs on Kindle.

After you "like" a book page, you can send an update about this to your Facebook account or a tweet to your Twitter account or an email to a friend whose email address you know.

And speaking of Amazon and Aggie Villanueva, read her very informative blog post "How I Got Two Kindle Best Sellers This Year by Choosing My Categories Wisely". I'm following her advice through the maze that is Amazon's opportunities for authors, and so far I've gotten the categories added correctly to about 50% of my Amazon listings.

(I haven't heard back for days on my request to fix the categories that are still incorrect. Imagine putting my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT in the men's adventure sub-category when the book is about women and friendship!)

P.S. Join the FREE BookBuzzr panel "Facebook Marketing for Authors" on January 26 – I'm one of the panelists. Sign up now.

And you can read all four screenplays of "Four Comedy Screenplays" for FREE on BookBuzzr's sister site www.freado.com.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download now the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-s...

Signs of Local Social Media Marketing Are Popping Up All Over

My favorite local Los Angeles restaurant now has a little sign on each table asking people to "like" the restaurant's Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/AlGelato to be entered to win two free Lakers tickets.

The restaurant Counter has this printed at the end of the bill: "Follow us on Twitter for special Twiter only offers and promotions ….. twitter.com/CounterBurger"

My favorite yogurt place has a sign at the cash register asking people to follow on Twitter at twitter.com/toppingsfroyo



You've probably started seeing these social media marketing signs popping up at the local places you frequent.



Social media question: If these businesses appreciate the power of Twitter and Facebook to connect with people, what's holding you back in your business?

Twitter and Facebook are not numbers games. They are not a race. Do not feel you have to quickly get 1,000 or 2,000 connections.

Instead you want to get people who are interested in you, whether they are connected with you on Twitter or Facebook.

And if you are already participating on Twitter and have a Facebook Page for your business, be sure to display the links in as many appropriate places as possible.

For example, you've probably seen how caterers at events leave their cards out so that guests can know who did the catering. The truth is that those guests might not have the need right now for a catered event. But down the road they might – and if you are a caterer will you be top of mind?

Put your Twitter and/or your Facebook Page on your business card and encourage the guests to follow you or "like" your Page. This will help you stay top of mind when they do have an occasion for a catered event.

Business cards do not cost that much, so do not be penny wise and pound foolish – waiting until you've finished using your current cards. Get new business cards now to promote your social media presence. (And recyle the old cards.)

Yael and I just had new cards designed by a member of the Beverly Hills Leads Club group of which I'm a member. Check out Richard Jacobs of Lone Star Press and consider getting new cards designed by him wherever you are. Reasonable prices and great design sense and customer service. (This is NOT an affiliate link but it is an endorsement.)

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download now the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-s...

Email Marketing Offers: Don't Mix Apples and Oranges

A small business owner showed me the copy for the Valentine's Day special she planned to email her list.

The copy was quite dense, and then on the second page of copy there was a coupon for a totally different offer.

I told her it was unlikely that people who weren't interested in the Valentine's Day special would get all the way to the end of her email and see the other offer.

I explained to her that it would actually be better to separate the two offers. The Valentine's Day special should be one email with the subject line referring to Valentine's Day.

It's okay, I told her, if people not interested in Valentine's Day don't open that email. They aren't her market for this special.

But they might open an email with the other offer if the subject line of that email resonates with them.

As it is so very easy to click out of an email or off a website, every offer has to be very clear – and very targeted. You want the people who are the target market for that offer to notice the offer – and you don't want the people who aren't the target market for that offer to be bothered by it.

The business owner asked me whether it was better to have shorter copy for the Valentine's Day special. I folded the first piece of paper in half and said: "This is all that many people will see on their screen unless they scroll down."

She understood that shorter was better.

Are you making the same mistake by mixing apples and oranges in your email marketing offers?

If you are, separate the offers and make them short and clearly written to the target market for each particular offer.

You'll be doing your list – and yourself – a favor if you make it easier for the people who would want the offer to be able to say yes to you.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Get the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-social-media-consultant

Facebook Has Forever Changed the Face of Small Business Marketing

In preparing for a live presentation on social media marketing, I considered how best to convince my audience of small business owners not yet taking advantage of social media marketing that they need to do so now.

I came to the conclusion that beginning my presentation by talking about Facebook might help overcome the resistance of these small business owners to using social media to market their businesses.

In fact, Facebook has forever changed the face of small business marketing because of Facebook's impact on the expectations of prospective clients and customers.



Let's look at Facebook's reach: over 500 million and rapidly increasing. As is often quoted, if Facebook were a country it would be the third largest in the world.

Now this is impressive, but what does it have to do with small businesses?

After all, the 500 million all have personal profiles. Who knows the percentage of these 500 million people who are actually using Facebook to connect with prospective clients and customers?

In my opinion the percentage does not matter. What does matter is how our expectations as clients and customers have changed because of Facebook.

Nowadays those of us active on the Internet through computers or smartphones expect to know with whom we are dealing. We aren't happy with an ABOUT US website page that talks about "we do this" and "we do that" without any information on who the "we" may be.

Thanks to repeatedly seeing personal profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media sites, we expect names, photos and bios of the owners of the businesses we're considering for the purchase of products or services.



And if we don't see this information, we may decide to take our business elsewhere.

What's more, we are usually very much influenced by what our friends or even strangers say online about a business. For example, I just changed my mind on who I am calling for a specific home maintenance job after reading customer reviews on Yelp. (It would be silly of me to call a company with only negative reviews when there was a company with all positive reviews who can do the same job.)

You may be a small business owner who up until now has been resisting taking advantage of the Internet to connect with your prospective clients and customers.

(Yes, you may have a website, but the website doesn't resonate with site visitors because there isn't a social media presence on the site. There's no link for a Facebook Page – formerly called fan page – or for a Twitter account or YouTube channel or LinkedIn profile.)

Your prospective clients and customers want to know who you are and what you've been up to. (Not what you ate via a tweet on Twitter, but what helpful info you've shared online that relates to the products or services you offer.)

Perhaps you already know that you should be taking advantage of these opportunities to create relationships with your prospective target markets. But you haven't yet taken advantage of these opportunities because you don't have the time or you're worried about learning new things or any one of dozens of excuses.

Warning: Stop procrastinating and start learning before your competitors get so far ahead of you that you'll never catch up.

Start with one social media site. Read blog posts, articles, and books about how to effectively participate on the one site. Then start participating while always being willing to make changes in your social media marketing strategy as you learn more.

When you feel you are doing well on one site, expand to a second site. And repeat the above.

Remember to be consistent and professional in how you present yourself and your business online, use the same good headshot for all social media profiles, and be open to continually learning because social media opportunities often seem to change quicker than the speed of light.

For a specific example of how Facebook and other social media sites have impacted business, read the blog post "Networking: Impact of Social Media on Business Cards"



© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download the FREE Miller Mosaic report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets"

Niche Movie Marketing: One Message Does Not Fit All

Oren Aviv, new domestic theatrical marketing president and chief marketing officer for Twentieth Century Fox, is quoted in a January 12th front-page Daily Variety article as saying:

"I think the main thing is dealing with a shifting marketplace, dealing with new consumer habits. When you're marketing to consumers that have a variety of lifestyles and a variety of needs … one needs to come up with messages that are able to address all of those things."

According to the article, he will be involved in the "evolving landscape of digital platforms and devices."

Did Aviv mean messages that would "address all of those things" or "address each of those things"? This is an important distinction because the concept of niche marketing definitely applies to movie audiences, especially audiences being targeted on digital platforms and devices.

If you look at movie marketing campaigns in the past, there was usually one billboard ad redesigned to fit bus stop signs, magazine and newspapers ads, and all other print sizes coupled with one television ad and one in-theater trailer.

Often, if the initial campaign didn't appear to be working well – the billboard/print ad, TV ad and film trailer were all changed to another approach.

Today, with the multitude of ways to reach movie audiences online, one-size-fits-all movie campaigns would be a waste of the power of the Internet and social media.

Now a targeted film campaign – targeted at different online demographics – would offer several messages instead of one message.

Imagine message A being used for QR codes for smartphones, message B being developed into a game app, message C targeted at Facebook members of a certain age, message D targeted at Facebook members of a different age, and so on and so on.

Each message would be targeted to the specific interests of that online demographic. And whenever a specific demographic didn't seem to be responding to the message directed at it, that demographic's message could be easily changed without impacting the messages to the other demographics.

This would truly be niche marketing at its best – giving targeted audiences the call-to-action messages that are most likely to resonate with them.

Oh what a brave new world we live in. And it just gets braver.

P.S. Check out our new website page "Miller Mosaic and the Magic Beans" about Miller Mosaic's ideal client niche.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download now the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-s...

How to Allow Others to Manage Your Facebook Page

Here's a question about Facebook that I've received that many other people may also want to know about:

When I launched the [company] Facebook Page, I did it via my personal Facebook account. Somehow now I can only get there through my personal FB account, which obviously doesn't work so well as the company grows. What do you recommend?

This is probably a very familiar scenario. You set up your Facebook Page (formerly called a fan page) for your business and you manage the page yourself. But as your business grows, you want to hand this off to someone else. And you may not want to give the password to your Facebook profile page to that person.

Facebook itself has provided a very easy solution:

You can make anyone else an admin for your Page and then that person doesn't need your password in order to make changes on the Page.

In fact, I would advise you to have at least one additional admin on your Page besides yourself just in case your personal account gets closed. This could perhaps be due to some unintentional error on your part that violates Facebook's terms. (See the Miller Mosaic blog post "Good Idea to Read Facebook's Terms to Avoid Being in Violation")



Here's what you do to add an admin to your Facebook Page:

Sign into your Facebook account, go to your Page, click on "Edit Page" and then click on "Manage Admins" and "Add another admin."

From now on your new admin can do everything that you could do without going through your personal Facebook account.



BONUS TIP: If you allow comments on your Page (which does encourage involvement on the part of others):



Every day or so check your Page wall for inappropriate comments, including ones blatantly trying to sell things. You want your wall to be an inviting place and not be littered with the equivalent of advertising billboards for other people's products and services.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download now the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-s...

Importance of Having a Domain Name to Support Your Unique Selling Proposition

When one of our clients asks a question about something that we take as obvious, we learn what isn't so obvious to everyone. This post, then, is an answer to a client's question.

Let's take an imaginary scenario:

You've figured out your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) although you are not yet ready to have a website. But you do want to have a professional email address (not a gmail or yahoo or similar one) to use on your business cards.

Plus, now that you know your USP, you want to protect it.

What do you do?

You get a domain name from a registry company such as Register.com and, although there is no website yet on that domain name, you have the registry company set up an email account for you with that domain name.

Imagine I didn't yet have millermosaicllc.com set up. But if I wanted the email address pzmiller@millermosaicllc.com I would simply have my registry company set up an email account for this address.

On the other hand in this imaginary scenario, I couldn't give out www.millermosaicllc.com as a place for people to go because, although I now own that domain name, there are no website files sitting on a host server for that domain name.

In fact, some registry companies use these non-existent sites on which to advertise. You actually might go to a domain name you bought and find advertisements at that domain address. This is because you haven't yet set up a website that goes with that domain name.

Obviously in a perfect world you would have a website accompanying the domain name you bought. But if you don't yet have a website, you could have the domain name "pointed at" one of your social media profiles.

For example, you could have your registry company point the domain name to your Facebook (business) Page. Then, when you have your own website, the domain name will be pointed to that site instead of your Facebook Page.

Caution: Just any website won't do so don't rush into getting a website. As I said in the Miller Mosaic blog post "Something Is NOT Always Better Than Nothing":

Thus, while it's a good idea for professionals to have their own websites or blogs, I would NOT recommend you include on your LinkedIn profile a link to your website if that website does not reflect positively on your reputation.

P.S. And speaking of business cards, see the Miller Mosaic post "Networking: Impact of Social Media on Business Cards"

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download now the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-social-media-consultant

And for help in figuring out your Unique Selling Proposition, see our one–hour branding brainstorming service.

Social Media and Website Marketing: Two Halves of One Whole

While looking at the website of a local business with currently no social media presence, I considered which is more important:

A website with basic SEO (search engine optimization) to help people find the site through Google, Bing, etc. searches as well as to positively reflect on the business when prospective clients or customers come to the site?

Or active social media participation on major sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter with a touch of YouTube and blogging (or at least posting comments on other people's blogs) thrown in for good measure?

And the winner is?



These are both equally important although they are effective for attracting different prospective clients or customers.

For a prospective client who isn't on social media but uses Google or Bing to look up everything – obviously a website with basic search engine optimization is very useful.

For a prospective client who primarily relies on the opinions of his/her friends on Facebook and tweets on Twitter – obviously consistent active participation on these sites is very useful.

Voila! We now have the question of which comes first, the chicken or the egg?



In other words, if you have neither, which to do first? Why both of course!

You want to attract both the people who rely on search engine results and the people who rely on the opinions of social media friends. And in the year 2011 it's going to be vital to want to attract more sets of prospective clients.



Warning: All websites are NOT equal. Before you jump on a free website offer, make sure that you can include basic search engine optimization such as metatags and preferably a blog as part of your site. (Search engines like websites with continually added new information.)

And, of course, put your social media links in a prominent place on your website. Do NOT bury the icons at the very bottom of long home page copy.



If you have a website and aren't sure how effective it is or if you are planning to have a website, check out our website plan or website review service at www.millermosaicllc.com/website-review/ It's always important to have a solid foundation for your online marketing activities.

© 2011 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) is the co-founder of Miller Mosaic Social Media Marketing. Download now the company's free report "5 Tips for Staying Top of Mind With Your Prospective Target Markets" at www.millermosaicllc.com/los-angeles-social-media-consultant