Recently,  RainToday Contributing Editor Jill Konrath, created an eBook called “Cracking the LinkedIN Sales Code”.  Essentially, Jill explains what top sellers are doing on LinkedIn that you’re not!

Earlier this year, Jill created a survey on LinkedIN as well as leading sales people on how they use LinkedIN.  She compiled these results in her recent ebook.

In Cracking the LinkedIn Sales Code, you’ll get the inside scoop on:

• LinkedIn’s capabilities that top sellers use frequently
• Their strategies and mindset that lead to more business
• Action steps to better leverage LinkedIn for prospecting

Download the ebook today from Jill’s website

You can also view more resources and insightful information by visiting www.jillkonrath.com/

Website pictures
On both your blog and website, pictures should be used to illustrate the main point of your page or post. This helps in the processing of the information and can also enhance your writing. Pictures on your site can also effect search engine optimization. By attaching alternate text or ALT text, this allows search engines to see you are providing services to those who cannot see your image, and as a result adding one more positive point to your SEO.

In addition, pictures should also be considered on your page or post to enhance the social sharing of your pages or posts.

Social Media
Sharing images can serve as great conversation starters. They can allow you to more easily initiate your relationships online. Postings on Facebook with images and links to blog posts or web pages are more likely to get clicked on than simple links or a short description.

Pinterest has seen a major boom in growth over the last 18 months and is becoming one of the top image sharing services online. Pinterest, with its unique image sharing board, quickly surpassed its competition due to the creative nature of the images shared and with the easy way users can discover new images. At this time, 15% of all internet users are sharing pictures on Pinterest.

Mobile Apps
A discussion of using pictures online would not be complete without discussing mobile applications. There are many applications out there to take pictures with, but none have seen the popularity or sheer volume of sharing as Instagram. In two years and an acquisition by Facebook later, Instagram is the powerhouse in mobile photo sharing. More than 50 million users share 300 million pictures a day to Facebook alone. Instagram allows you to take pictures, add a filter to the image, add a message, and blast it out across Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr. This allows you to engage audiences in those channels as well.

What are your favorite ways to use pictures? How do you share them? Leave us a comment below or join the discussion on our Facebook page.

Today, keywords do not hold the same value in search engine results pages, but are still very valuable while conducting business online.  Consistency in the use of a keyword strategy is a powerful base for an overall content strategy.

How do you decide on your keywords?

Think about your business in the most simple of terms. What do you sell or what service do you offer?  What words do you use to describe them? If we use Starbucks as an example, words such as coffee shop, coffee beans, instant coffee, coffee drinks, latte and espresso may come to mind. Each of these terms reflects a major offering of the company. The keywords you select should do the same.

Avoid Selecting 1-Word Terms

Unless the term is something completely original to your brand, it may be difficult to win top placement for the term; not because it is a bad choice, but because there is too much competition for the term.  A more popular approach is to select a number of other keywords that relate to the one-word term. In the Starbucks example above, “coffee” is really what they are about. Selecting the terms including “coffee” will build authority for that keyword over time.

Google and Bing only know what you tell them

If you want to be found on the top two search engines, you need to have content dedicated to talking about the subjects (using keywords) that are important to your business. In an optimal situation, Starbucks would have individual pages that talk about “instant coffee” and “coffee shop.” Sites with higher authority and brand equity, like Starbucks, will deal with this concept in a different way. They may be able to skip some portions of a SEO strategy that will have much greater impact on a smaller business.

Think Local

What is your area of service? Do you have multiple locations? Localized keyword strategies can be very effective. This is when you mix a location name with a keyword. For Starbucks, examples would be “Seattle’s best coffee” or “Indianapolis coffee shop.” Google takes into account what location you are searching from. If you are searching in Indianapolis for a “coffee shop,” a result for Starbucks would come up if they were optimizing for “Indianapolis coffee shop.”

Meta Information

Keywords should still be used within page/blog titles and meta descriptions. This helps to ensure users are finding a reliable source of information related to their keyword search. Currently, Google does not use meta keywords to rank pages, but it still holds some value on Bing. For this reason, if you are creating new content it would be worth the smallest bit of effort to add a few keywords to your meta information.

Use Keywords Outside of Your Website

Remember, search engines attempt to index everything on the internet and provide the best results possible related to user search queries. Whether it is your account bio or your listing on a review site, using keywords will have an effect on your company being found. In addition, using keywords when posting on social media channels allows for more potential results for searches within those sites. Also, keep in mind that hashtags and tagging are essentially another way keywords are used.

Do you need help identifying or using keywords in your internet marketing efforts? Contact us online and we’ll be glad to discuss the possibilities.

Last night Google announced that Google Reader will be shut down as of July 1. Prior to some changes in 2011, there had been a significant social networking presence with Google Reader where people would share news stories. Many others, including myself, have used Google Reader as a tool to aggregate news into one centralized location through the use of RSS feeds. While the social sharing elements from Reader have died out, there are alternatives to replace its RSS functionality. Here are a few other tools to try out before July:

Feedly
Feedly is available as a browser-plugin and an app for iOS, Android, and Kindle devices. According to the Feedly blog, they have been working on a clone of its product called Normandy that will allow for the seamless transition once Google Reader is shut down. I set up an account this morning and Feedly quickly soaked up my Google Reader feeds and folders. It was quite impressive. The site design is simple and easy to navigate. Your feed folders act much like sections in a newspaper with some of the top stories appearing prominently at the top.

Flipboard
Flipboard is my top pick if you primarily look at news from a mobile device. It is super thumb friendly and very visual, much like a magazine. Flipboard already has the ability to view Google Reader subscriptions. On the Flipboard blog, they also claim that if you have a Flipboard account and have signed into Google Reader that your feeds will be saved once the service shuts down. You can also add RSS feeds to the service at any point. It is available as an app for iOS, Android, Kindle and Nook devices.

Newsblur
Newsblur has been touted as another replacement for Google Reader. The interface of the browser-based application appears to be very useful. I have tried out the demo account on the site and it runs smoothly. So far, I have not been able to get the Google Reader feeds to transfer over to Newsblur as part of the account setup process. I am excited to try it out once all my feeds are included. Newsblur has the potential to best replicate my current workflow. There are two editions of Newsblur. The free edition allows for up to 64 feeds with 10 stories at a time while the $1-per-month paid option is unlimited. It also has apps available for iOS and Android.

Do you have another alternative? Leave a comment or join the discussion on our Facebook page.

Web experts have been talking about the topic of share buttons for months and many have been discussing the psychology behind decision making and presenting too many choices. There are a lot of sites that will plaster as many options as possible with the theory that users will find the option they want. Research has shown that attention spans regarding content is limited for users thus most marketers advise limiting the number of share buttons. Some suggest you should use only three share buttons on your site. How do you decide what to do?

What are others doing?

In looking at several blog sites there is a variety in how many share buttons there are. They also differ in which social services they feature. Of the 20 blogs I reviewed, all used sharing buttons to Facebook and Twitter and Google+ and LinkedIn share buttons were used in about 90% of the blogs with just a few not using one or the other. In addition, Pinterest share buttons were used on most of the sites. Social bookmarking services, such as Delicious, Reddit, or Stumbleupon, were used on less than 10% of the sites and out of all these sites, the fewest number of share buttons was three and the most was eight.

Where are your customers?

One size does not fit all. Your customers are not the same as your neighbors. What works for some businesses most likely won’t be optimal for your business. Based upon your business, you will need to find the best services that match where your clients are active. If you are a music-oriented business, you may want to use Last.fm or MySpace share buttons. If you are primarily a business-to-business company, you may want to stick with LinkedIn as a primary share button if that is where your audience is active. A photography studio may want to use Pinterest or Instagram for a mobile effort.

Recommendations

You almost cannot go wrong sticking with the three major social networks – Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. These carry with them the largest audiences and usually the most recognized names. Google+ will continue to become more important as a social network. LinkedIn would be the next likely option to use. However, you don’t have to stick to these four if they don’t work for you. Don’t be afraid to try a few other services.

What do you currently use as share buttons for your blog? What has been successful for you? Leave a comment or contact us online to continue the conversation.

• Be personal. Even though you can’t see them, you are interacting with people. They have feelings and bad moods. Whatever you can do to make the connection emulate an in-person relationship, the better.
• Be consistent with your brand. Does what you’re showing on your website and between your social media channels appear the same? Do you use similar language in your messaging? Not being clear on these points can cause confusion and result in a poor experience for a potential customer.
• Picture Perfect. More than ever the need to use images online to illustrate your point is apparent. Pictures receive more interaction on average than text-only messages.
• Target, Target and Target. Who are your best clients? Who are your typical customers? Who do you want those people to be? No one business can be everything to everyone on every social media channel. Pick which ones will get you in front of the right kind of people for your business.
• Be active. Like television commercials, your message only gets so much time in front of consumers. A post on Facebook may last up to four hours or a tweet on Twitter may be gone in a second. Pick the channels you want to work in and go for it!

Retaining Current Clients
Outside of picking up the phone or sending an email, using social media is a great way to provide an excellent customer experience. Studies have shown that active monitoring of social media accounts with appropriate responses leads to increased customer satisfaction. Many companies have created additional accounts on Twitter to solely accommodate for customer service questions and responses.

Engaging your customers properly in social media channels is a low-cost way to reach out and show them their value to your company. These “touches” can go from acknowledging a news story or a success they have just experienced, to sharing their announcements online. This lets them know that your company is on their side!
How do you provide excellent customer experiences? Leave a comment or join in on the conversation on our Facebook page.

With the ever-growing mobile market with tablets and smartphones, QR Codes may become a great way to gain quick conversions from your mobile audience. Here’s an example of a QR code for Galvin’s blog:

Typical QR Code

Good things to do with QR Codes
Extend your outbound marketing materials. It’s hard to fit everything on a postcard. In the last election campaign cycle, several candidates were using postcard campaigns. “We have been using QR codes in our clients’ mail campaigns as a way to make direct mail interactive. It has been an excellent way to get voters connected with our candidates’ social media and keep them engaged,” said Jared Stimson of Gridiron Communications, a leading provider of political marketing solutions.

Add your own design. Up to 30 percent of the QR code can be manipulated (except for the 3 largest boxes and one small box) with whatever you want to do with it. For example, you can put your logo into the code to identify it as a link to your company’s website. When doing this it is important to test and re-test the logo on multiple devices to see if the code will still work. Once you’ve designed it to a point where you are satisfied, make sure and print it out at actual size and test it as well. The last thing you want to have is a code that takes a while for the device to read. Here is a basic modification of the QR Code above with colors and a logo added:

QR Code with Logo and Color Treatment

Add a QR Code to your business card. This isn’t for everyone, but it can serve as an easy way to get your contact information into someone’s device or contact system. Also, with the newness of a QR code, it can serve as a conversation piece.

QR Code Disasters
Avoid super-long URLs. The density, or how many and how small the squares are in a QR code, is determined by how much information you are trying to put into the code. The more information, the harder the code will be to read. If you have a really long URL to link to, use a URL shortener like Bit.ly. It will make the code easier to read.

Avoid making your code a moving target. The best example of this bad strategy is putting QR Codes on billboards. You have to be able to hold a mobile device on a code for a few seconds, at least. Billboards are generally placed along roadways and unless you are sitting at a stoplight with a billboard nearby, there is little chance of it being successfully read. There is also a safety factor in promoting the scanning of QR Codes while driving. Do you want someone to take their hands off the wheel and pay attention to their device for a few seconds while driving? For this same reason, placing them on vehicles can have the same effect. The only exception that I can think of is a promotional vehicle that sits where there is plenty of foot traffic.

Can you scan it?

Be smart about placement. Undersized or misplaced QR codes will do you no good. Placing a QR code on web page that the code links to is useless. It is extremely unlikely people will take the time to share the code with others. Why would they want to scan a code on the computer when clicking a hyperlink is so much easier? When placing a QR code, remember that someone will need to scan them. Curved surfaces are especially difficult to try to scan.

What is your experience with QR codes? Leave us a comment or join the discussion on our Facebook page. As always, if you ever want to discuss internet marketing, contact us online.

• Social Media
• Inbound Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Website User Experience
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems
• Marketing Automation

For more information on CXM, subscribe to our blog to be notified of upcoming posts or check out our CXM page. If you’d like to discuss CXM and what it can do you for business, contact us online.

“Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.”

This validates the concerns and speculations of those working in social media and search engine optimization, as well as reinforces the need for organizations to get involved on the platform. This is certainly important to those who are concerned with their site’s visibility on Google.

Here are a few steps you can take to get started with Google+:

Sign up – The process is very simple if you are already using Gmail, but not a challenge at all if you don’t. It takes only a few minutes. Use your email address to create an account and log in. It is important to remember that there needs to be a personal Google+ account to create a Google+ Page for your business. You can add more administrators later.

Add your images – Google+ accounts allow for a square photo (can be cropped) for an avatar and a skinny cover photo. The optimum cover photo size is 890 x 180 pixels and the avatar is 250×250 pixels.

Complete your bio – Add as much or as little information as you want about yourself.

Create your business page – Google+ has created an easy to use wizard for creating your business page. First you select what category and sub category your business fits into.

Next, you choose a name and also link your page to your main website. At this point you will have to read and agree to the page terms of service if you wish to proceed.

Then, you can add your images as you did with your personal profile.

Complete the Business profile – Be sure to enter your business name, location and hours. Also, make sure not to miss the description.

Verify your account – Google will want to verify your page. They will send a postcard to your location to verify ownership.

Start Exploring – Try out the unique features of Google+, like Hangouts, and post links to some of your best content to your page.

For extra credit, you can connect with Galvin Technologies on our Google+ page.

Web and Software Development

• Implementing your own Cookie Storage
• Populating a DataSet Using SQLDataAdapter Fill DataSet
• RT @TJBarrie1 #OpenSource Programming Language #Scala Gets A New Version 2.10.0
• RT @mrpaladin Junior : a front end editor for creating mobile apps with HTML5 #programming
• RT @skalinets Still confused by floating point arithmetic? check this out #programming
• Getting Started with HTML5 Video
• 8 Mistakes Most C# Developers Make
• What is Cleanroom Software Engineering
• Making a sphere with CSS
• Very cool spinning circular menu done with CSS
• RT @campusMVP Eight Reasons C# is the Best Language for Mobile Development
• A Comparison of Methods for Building Mobile-Optimized Websites
• Content Hover, a JQuery Image Hover Plugin
• Seven Wonderful and Creative JQuery Login Form Ideas
• Secrets to Selecting Elements Returned From JQuery Ajax Response Strings
• Why Testing Your Web Site is Important
• 20 HTML 5 Tutorials, Tips, and Tricks
• Building multi-threadded JavaScript applications using Web Workers
• RT @VisualStudio Here’s a simple bit of code to help you position a MessageBox in C#. It can be done – with ease!

• VMware and Red Hat In Battle Over Control of Vert.x Open-Source Project
• Homeland security recommends disabling/uninstalling Java on computers in lieu of newly discovered exploit

Web Design

Project Management and Business Analysis

• RT @CalvinSitt Exclusive Webinar: How You Can Save Hours Of Time By Making Project Management Simpler … via @rdempsey
• RT @thePMObox Project Managers Need an Elevator Pitch Too @halasaleh1 #pmp #pmbok #projects #pmot #pmi #apm -
• RT @ZilicusPM RT @ClarityProjMgmt: Top 10 tips for a successful delivery of a project: via @ZilicusPM
• Thre three pillars of the whole team approach to project management
• A 3-Step Process to Painless Project Management
• Continuing the series — Chess and the Art of Business Analysis, Part 3
• Continuing the series — Chess and the Art of Business Analysis, Part 2
• You’re most likely proud of your communication plan, but you probably missed the barriers to effective communication
• Leadership Failure: 4 Signs of Inevitable Disaster and How to Avoid It
• Ambient Productivity Strategies