by Scott Howard | Nov 6, 2015 | ScLoHo's Web World
When I wrote the title: How The Web Has Changed Your World, I knew that was too big of a topic for one article. But today I invite you to play along and participate.
This is a thinking game. Take some time and jot down your answers to the question, How Has The Web Changed My World? And I’ll share with you my answers. 
I’m 55. Access to the internet began about 20 years ago, with Windows 95 as an operating system.
I met my wife, Kathy 15 years ago via an online dating site which was somewhat new back then.
I’ve gone from a desktop computer in our living room to multiple laptops and a smartphone that has more power than that original desktop.
The only reason I need to go to my radio station is for a meeting or two each week and to print stuff that I don’t want to print at home.
I no longer need to fill out any paper work for my job. I mean real paper, made from trees. Everything I do I can do online and access everything via the web. My files are stored in the cloud with backups. However I still use paper for presentations and to get signatures on agreements. But those signed papers are then scanned and stored digitally and the original paper… gone.
Shopping. My adult kids who live out of town are good at using Amazon Gift Lists which is helpful. Just this week, I ordered something for my son who lives in South Carolina for his birthday this month. (My wife ordered coffee last month online but still does most of her shopping and sending of gifts the old fashioned way.)
Need a phone number? Google it. Need to check a movie time? Google again. I even bought movie tickets the last time with my laptop. Want to find an article on my own website that I wrote? The answer again is Google, because that search function located at the top of the page is powered by Google too.
Instead of paying bills by hand, I do it online.
The landline phone has been gone for years, replaced by computers we carry in our pockets. I can take a picture with it and it will be saved in one of my Google accounts automatically.
I can communicate with others via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, text, email and of course with a phone call. I did a Google Hangout Video Chat last month with my daughter and family in Colorado.
Okay, enough about me. It’s your turn. If you are 30 or older, the web has changed your world. Think about how and share.
by Scott Howard | Nov 4, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
The past few weeks I have had meetings with business owners and marketing managers about how to use the resources I have available through WOWO radio and our parent company Federated Media that go beyond traditional radio ads.
I thought I’d let you in on some of these ideas because they might be appropriate for you too.
Email marketing. WOWO and our sister stations in Fort Wayne which include the local ESPN Radio stations and music stations K-105, WMEE and The Bear have an email database of over 40,000 people who have asked us to email them offers and promotions from businesses.
We have it broken down into specific categories like Entertainment, Home Improvement, and others so we can target people with different interests. One of the first campaigns I did with an advertising partner was a birthday promotion. In the first 3 months we sent over 10,000 individual personalized emails to people on their birthday offering them a free gift.
I’ve also used this to alert our database about a sale for a client and we have plans to send an email announcing a new store grand opening later this month. I already have a tax consultant that is going to use our email program to promote her business in her communities next year.
Website development. Last week I had to tell a business owner that his baby was ugly. I used those words too. We were talking about his website. Now this guy has been in business for 40 years and it was his Dad’s before he took over. He does not sell to consumers and doesn’t need help reaching potential customers in Fort Wayne.
His business model is what is called B to B. Business to Business. The very first thing he needs to do is get his website cleaned up. It failed Google’s Mobile Friendly test and had a few typos. He didn’t deny his baby was ugly and now I’m going to get some quotes on a new site. He needs a professional looking website with a responsive design so it will load correctly for everyone visiting, no matter what kind of computer or mobile device they are using to check his business out.
That’s just a couple of the Marketing Options with WOWO Radio Besides Commercials that I’m working on right now. See, my job is not to sell you the advertising package of the week that some media salespeople try and do. My job is to help you make smart marketing decisions.
by Scott Howard | Oct 27, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Search Engine Optimization. It’s been a “thing” since 1997 according to Wikipedia.
Here’s the basic premise. The Internet has close to 1,000,000,000 websites right now. How in this World Wide Web is anyone going to find yours?
Directories were created and that was okay for awhile then this company called Google came along and developed an easy to use simple way to find stuff online. The modern Search Engine was born and by the end of 1998, techies were praising Google.com:
“PC Magazine” reports that Google “has an uncanny knack for returning extremely relevant results” and recognizes us as the search engine of choice in the Top 100 Web Sites for 1998.
Jump ahead 10 years to 2008 and I’m telling some of my radio clients that they need to blog regularly. At least once a month, but once a week is better. At this time, I’ve plunged myself into the blog world with over 3,000 articles I published on my own blogs that year alone, on a part-time basis.
The blog articles I was writing and sharing were being picked up by Google. Let me explain. If someone was to do a Google search for something I wrote about, I occasionally would appear on the first or second page of Google. Now Google is much more sophisticated these days and there are companies that specialize in optimizing websites for Google which still has over 65% of the search engine use market worldwide. Bing is #2 with around 20% of the market.
When I launched this website four years ago this month, I worked for Cirrus ABS, a website development firm in Fort Wayne and learned a lot of stuff I could be doing S.E.O.-wise for this site, but I didn’t. I was too busy working at my paid job and writing articles on the side to take the time to add those extras to my articles.
Time Travel with me to December 2013, about 23 months ago. That’s when I returned to radio to work at WOWO. I was given permission from management to write about WOWO and radio and advertising and marketing and just about anything I wanted because they trusted me.
As I went about my work at WOWO as an advertising sales person who prefers to offer advertising and marketing consulting 1st before the selling part of my job, I started writing about my experiences with WOWO radio and recently I noticed a trend.
People were paying attention. Mary, whom I’ve known for a few years was recommending articles I wrote to her clients. But this month in particular, I was getting phone calls, text messages and emails to my ScLoHo email account from strangers wanting my help with advertising, marketing and some were specifically wanting to advertise on WOWO. It was time to do some research.
I cleared my cookies and browser history and did a search for WOWO Advertise and was pleasantly surprised.
7 of the Top 10 Google Listings pointed to ScottHoward.me
The first three listings linked to our company website at WOWO.com But the rest all went directly to articles that I wrote over the past 22 months.
I sent a note and screenshot to my friend Kevin Mullett at Cirrus ABS who decided to investigate further wrote back, Maybe even more impressive. “radio advertising fort wayne” “fort wayne radio advertising” “fort wayne radio” incognito. Depends on how people are searching.
This is what I call the power of Accidental SEO. I almost called it lazy SEO but that’s not really what happened because I haven’t been lazy. I write and publish 5 articles each and every week on this website/blog. Many of them, but not all mention WOWO. That’s not being lazy, that’s being diligent.
The reason I called it Accidental SEO is because I didn’t add all the extra tags and metadata that would help Google find me and boost my results. I just wrote a blog and didn’t stop.
Maybe what I have done isn’t duplicate-able by you. Maybe it is. You’ll never know until you start and don’t stop.
If you want to be found online in a more purposeful way, I can help you with that with the services of the Federated Digital Solutions division of company. Contact me and we will see what is the best path for you.
by Scott Howard | Oct 2, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World
As soon as I wrote the title, Remember the “Social” side of Social Media, I thought of a different topic than what I really want to share with you.
So let’s get that other topic out of the way, Be Nice. In an increasingly hostile online world, please return to kindness when you are online. Don’t say things on social media or in the comment section somewhere that you would not say to that same person face to face.
Got it? Great.
Now the original topic for Remember the “Social” side of Social Media.
It’s a marketing tip that I see too many businesses neglecting.
Make sure you engage in conversations on Social Media. If you post on Facebook, YouTube or anywhere, keep an eye on the comments that you get and respond to them. Too often I will see someone wanting to get more information or thank you, or that have a complaint and there is no response.
Last weekend my wife and I visited some bed and breakfasts and restaurants and I reviewed all of them on TripAdvisor. One of them sent me a private message via TripAdvisor that read:
Scott,
Thank you for the great review. I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed your dining experience at The Real Seafood Company. We hope to see you again soon!
Kind Regards,
Sergio P.
Guest Services Supervisor
That’s what it’s all about on Social Media and similar sites, so be social!
by Scott Howard | Sep 22, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, ScLoHo's Web World
Creating an online personal brand is a mystery to many people. That includes me. Except after 10+ years I have some insight that I can share. 
First off, each of us has a personal brand. A personal brand is simply an identity, not necessarily one that you create for yourself, but what people think of when they think of you.
Take a second and read that again: A personal brand is simply an identity, not necessarily one that you create for yourself, but what people think of when they think of you.
For those of us who are old enough to have had a life before the internet, we had very little control of this. Do something crazy, something stupid, something heroic, and someone labels you with a nickname. That nickname became your personal brand, among those that knew you at the time.
Online you have more control because you get to decide what to share. You can even create a new nickname. That’s how ScLoHo began.
Actually ScLoHo started as an alternative to my given name, Scott Howard when I was setting up an email account on Yahoo! years ago. I started using ScLoHo also when I began blogging and carried it over to all my online accounts.
Enough history, on to what I do now.
5 days a week, I publish an article on my own website which is where you are reading this right now.
I have the wordpress plugin Jetpack that will autopost these daily updates to my Twitter account and to my personal Facebook page. I also have them autoposting to my two Google+ Accounts. This is the primary method I am currently using to share content that I write.
But there is more.
I hand select certain updates from this site to share on LinkedIn.
However, (and this is important): I share more than just my stuff on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
My Facebook account also has stuff from others and personal stuff that is original.
I fill my Twitter feed with all kinds of stuff from others including articles and stories that may be controversial. I am tweeting at least 10 times daily, but I use the buffer app to autotweet most of these Tweets. That way I have a real life that is not tied to the computer or my phone. I subscribe to a few newsletters that send me links to stories that I am often interested it and those are often the links that get buffered.
I avoid political talk on social media. Too much risk of offending others for no good reason. I will not shy away from my Christian beliefs. But I would rather live them then preach them. There is a verse in James that I try and follow regarding this.
I listen, at least I try to.
Responding is critical.
If someone comments on something you have posted, shared or said online, please reply.
Also comment and share with others on their stuff too.
A few more random but important thoughts:
- I still believe in blogging. At one time I was posting over 30 articles a week. Now I do 5. That’s 5 articles every week, 52 weeks a year. Some of the people who read what I post are not in the United States and don’t observe the same holidays we do.
- I do not write articles every day. I write in batches. I schedule in advance. I wrote this article while sitting in a coffee shop on Labor Day weekend a couple weeks ago. I have some articles scheduled months ahead of time. (There will probably be fresh articles appear after I die, which is weird.)
- Share more than once on Twitter. I follow around 1000 people on Twitter and have 3700 following me. I don’t see every tweet because I have a life that doesn’t involve staring at my Twitter feed. Share your content on Twitter at different times on different days to get more exposure to more people. Unless you only have 30 followers.
- Join Groups. Facebook and LinkedIn has groups you can join. Or create your own and invite others to join you. A friend of mine started a Facebook group in Fort Wayne to match employers with career and job seekers. In less than 6 months he has over 6,000 members. And it is helping people get jobs that need work.
- Be yourself but filter yourself too. You should know what this means but let me help. If you would not want your minister, mom or grandpa to see or hear what you share, then think twice before you share.
Even though I was honored this year again with an award for blogging, I didn’t jump online a dozen years ago to become an expert in any of this. Yet there are some who think of me as an expert. (I reply to them that an expert is a former pert). I just started doing this and never stopped. I learned from others and continue to learn. I know there are somethings I could do better but this is just a portion of my life. Have any thoughts or questions? Tell or ask.
by Scott Howard | Jul 31, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World
Last week I saw a new furniture store in Fort Wayne pop up on Twitter. They did about 4 tweets including pictures of some one-of-a-kind pieces that caught my attention. They mentioned their hours in another tweet and invited people to stop in.
One thing was missing however.
Their location was not listed in their twitter profile. No one is going to come to your store if you don’t tell them where you are. I sent them a tweet and they fixed it along with adding a link to their website.
I realize that there are people who are still new to using social media and I see a lot of the same mistakes over and over again. With that introduction, here are 3 Social Media Marketing Musts you need to do right now:
- Fill out your profile completely. Every social media channel gives you opportunities to help others find out more about you. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest, all of them offer a combination of important items that your followers want to know so they can check you out. Address, especially if you have a physical location. Website, phone number, email address, fill them all out. Include appropriate pictures too.
- Post updates regularly. Update Facebook every day you are open. Tweet a few times a day. If you are on LinkedIn, share some articles or updates at least once a week.
- Listen and respond. Social media is a two way conversation. When someone comments on something you posted, set up an alert so you can answer and reply back. The worst thing you can do is ignore them. You can create negative perceptions of you and your business by ignoring those who say something to you via Social Media.
Earlier this week I shared this link on How To Create A Social Media Marketing Plan From Scratch which is filled with lots of helpful info and details.
Want help? Ask me.
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