Google Analytics can provide you with the information you need to better connect with your audience. The data is easy to collect, the question is: Are you using it?

How many people visited your site last month?

What page was the most visited?

How long did the average person spend on your website ?

How many pages did your visitors look?

What page were your site visitors on when they left your site?

What type of browser or what screen resolution are your visitors using?

What sites referred the most visitors to your website?

and MUCH MUCH MORE!

We will be showing you over the coming weeks how to get the most out of Google Analytics. First though, an introduction for those of us that may not be familiar with Google Analytics.

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way. With Google Analytics, you're more prepared to write better-targeted ads, strengthen your marketing initiatives and create higher converting websites.  (http://www.google.com/analytics)

Click on this image for a guided tour.

 

Have a question about how to use Google Analytics to connect with your audience? This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or phone at 616-457-0300

 

Have a blog? You will almost assuredly get comments. Unfortunately, many of these comments will be from supposed pharmaceutical companies, personal enhancement firms and numerous get rich schemes. To give you an example, this morning I "cleaned out" the spam comments that had accumulated on the blog over the weekend (over 200 spam comments were deleted). Tonight - a mere 12 hours later nearly 60 more spam comments had been added. 

Spam comments make you look bad and can easily be considered offensive to your blog readers. So what is a blogger to do?

I'm glad you asked.

There is a simple solution that is supported on all major blog platforms, re-captcha keys. A re-captcha key is:

reCAPTCHA is a free CAPTCHA service that helps to digitize books, newspapers and old time radio shows. Check out our paper in Science about it (or read more below).

A CAPTCHA is a program that can tell whether its user is a human or a computer. You've probably seen them — colorful images with distorted text at the bottom of Web registration forms. CAPTCHAs are used by many websites to prevent abuse from "bots," or automated programs usually written to generate spam. No computer program can read distorted text as well as humans can, so bots cannot navigate sites protected by CAPTCHAs. 

For additional information go to http://www.google.com/recaptcha

I installed re-captcha in about 2 minutes and that included the time it took me to get the free code from their site. Simple and effective.

Now, when someone goes to leave a comment on the blog they are presented with a simple question that only a human could answer. The re-captcha inquiry looks like this:

Simple and effective, my comment spam will be virtually eliminated. As a side benefit, by having readers take just a moment to complete the re-captcha inquiry, we are all helping to digitize books.

What is your favorite way to stop comment spam?

Mashable held their Summit Conference this week and one of the discussions revolved around those urban legends of web content that we need to stop believing.

Which of these Urban Legends of Web Content do you cling to?

1. People will watch my branded content

2. People will be patient with my content

3. People will find my content

4. The internet is a level playing field

5. We have no idea why things go viral

6. Experience is more important than documenting

7. We need to build our own community/tools

8. Keep things professional

9. Traditional media is irrelevant to the web

10. People will create good content for me

Our next series of blog posts will deal with each of these "urban legends."  Take a moment and tell me your thoughts and leave a comment.

Talk to us via Twitter @mmjtech or on Facebook

Using the right social media tools will help you engage with more potential clients in less time.

Spending less time on social media means you have more time to spend on your business.

Using social media as a marketing tool and managing your time effectively is key to ensuring that your online marketing strategy succeeds long term.

So, what tools can help you manage your social media marketing time more effectively?

NetVibes - a web based RSS reader or news aggregator that makes it simple to keep up on the latest blog posts, news and articles from your favorite websites without requiring you to go to each website to see what is new. A popular alternative to Netvibes is Google Reader.

Hootsuite - a web based (also available as a desktop client) tool that allows you to read and post to your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other social media accounts. Hootsuite allows you to stay up to speed on what is going on with your connections, easily search for key topics and post or schedule posts to your favorite social media platforms. A popular alternative to Hootsuite is Tweetdeck.

Bit.ly - the standard in url shortening. Bit.ly sidebar, a simple tool you can load to your bookmarks toolbar in your browser, makes it simple to shorten the urls that you share with your readers. Bit.ly also offers users the ability to track the links they share and determine how many people have clicked on your links. There are a number of popular alternatives to Bit.ly including Hootsuite's ow.ly and Google's goo.gl url shortening tools.

Stock Photo Exchange - one of the most extensive free photo sites online. There are a number of paid alternatives such as iStock Photo that may work a bit better, although none of the FREE alternatives are as easy or as extensive as Stock Photo Exchange.

Google Alerts - a web based tool that allows you to monitor various search terms, such as your business name, and track when and where you are mentioned online. Knowing where you are mentioned is crucial in being able to address your customers and prospects. A popular alternative to Google Alerts is Yahoo Alerts.

For more information about how to effectively engage with your target market make sure to check out these articles.

To "Follow" people on Twitter?

The best places to find FREE pictures to use for your blog posts.

5 Reasons Your Business Needs to be On Facebook.

These are my top tools for social media success.  Leave a comment and tell me what your favorite social media marketing tools are.

Facebook announced, rather quietly, that they are no longer allowing organizations with Fan Pages to use customized Facebook Welcome Pages (unless you have 10,000+ fans and spend money on Facebook ads). Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations have been using customized Facebook Welcome Pages to display branded information to new visitors to their Facebook Fan pages. Without any fanfare, Facebook made this announcement in their developers forum, see below:

If your organization was not using a customized Facebook Welcome page this may not seem like a big deal. It is an important reminder of the dangers of trusting your branding to a website you do not control. In particular, many small businesses have used Facebook Fan pages and custom Facebook Welcome pages as a significant part of their online branding identity. Each of these businesses now needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan, all because Facebook made a change.

What can you learn from this change on Facebook's part? Simple. . .

• Trust your branding and marketing to your own website.
• Use your website as the hub of your marketing efforts and use social media, including Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin, Twitter, etc. as parts of your marketing wheel.

When your marketing strategy revolves around your website you maintain the control of your brand. When you base your marketing strategy on a platform you do not control you are at risk.

How do you feel about this change on Facebook?

PS - To learn more about how to make your website the hub of your marketing efforts feel free to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

 

We have all heard that a picture is worth 1,000 words.  I beleive that pictures in your marketing materials are ABSOLUTELY necessary to aid your reader in understanding the message you are relaying. A picture does three things that help you immediately:

1. a picture captures the reader's attention
2. a picture causes the reader to stay on the page longer
3. a picture makes the page appear more interesting and makes it more likely that the reader will read the entire post or article

There is one downside - pictures can be expensive to procure.  We have a solution for you; use stock.xchng.  Stock.xchng has thousands for photos that are FREE to use in your blog, marketing materials, advertising and more. Their license agreement is simple to read and understand.

We take a lot of our own photos at MMJ Technology to use for marketing and we use a stock.xchng and istockphoto frequently.  If you have a bit of a budget, istockphoto is fabulous and has a vast array of images to choose from. If you are on a limited budget stock.xchng is a great option. Add some pictures to your blog posts, articles and marketing material.

Do you have a favorite resource that helps you create impactful marketing material?  Please share it with us.

Your success online has everything to do with the quality and remarkability of the content you have on your website and on your social media profiles like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and YouTube. Here are 5 simple tips to help you create compelling content.

1 - Keep it simple
2 - Make it relevant to your reader
3 - Give your content a different spin - keep it original
4 - Take a stand - set parameters for what you will and will not do or say
5 - Get your employees involved

If you create remarkable content for your website and social media profiles you WILL get exposure and more opportunity to engage with your customers and prospects.  More engagement leads to more profits and that is good for everyone.

As a new month begins it is time to look at last months Google Analytic ratings.  At MMJ Technology we have the privilege of doing this for our own site and for many of our client's sites too.  One account snagged our attention today.  The end result was 89.95% more visits to their website! Now for the rest of the story . . .

Beginning the first week of last month (March) we helped this account kick off a new social media marketing campaign involving:

• a new blog
• an updated Facebook Fan page
• increased their interaction with their potential customers via Facebook and Twitter

I won't bore you with the details of the plan. OK, I'd like to bore you and brag a bit; I can't.  We need permission from the client to divulge their results and they are a bit timid about tooting there own horn.  No worries though - I can show you the proof of the increase and I'll make myself available to talk to you about the details. Here is a screen shot (blacked out at the client's request).  Click on the picture for a larger version.

We can do the same thing for your organization. Would you like 89% more visitors by the end of April?  Contact me and I'll tell you how we did it and how we can help you do the same thing.

Call me at 616-457-0300 or send me an email. What could it hurt?  Just think . . . MORE TRAFFIC in 31 days!!

73% of those who used local search in 2009 rated is as Highly Effective or Somewhat Effective according to a recent report released by Marketing Sherpa. Local search has been growing year after year and 2010 will be no exception.  Those rating local search as Highly Effective increased from 27% in 2008 to 39% in 2009 - more than a 44% increase - that is AMAZING growth.

One item that was noted by the researchers was that landing pages are often neglected in local search.

"this is a huge missed opportunity" - Marketing Sherpa

As with any type of search engine marketing, an effective landing page, a page designed specifically for those responding to your advertisement or promotion, is crucial to turning those leads into revenue for your organization.

Is your business using local search to expand your customer base and increase your profits? Tell us how it has been working for you by leaving a comment below.

 

 

Take a look at MMJ News and Notes for March, 2010

• Pimp Your Facebook Profile
• Social Networking Usage Soars!
• Check out the BIZIT Blog
• DeVries Meats Inc. new website
• Thanks for the kind words Tim - Prime Insurance
• A New Partnership with Michigan Retailers Association