by Scott Howard | Jul 28, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World
#SMBFW
The title of this article, Online Advertising: Where To Start was inspired by Kevin Mullett. Kevin has been a friend and at one time a co-worker for several years. Last week he told me that the working title for today’s Fort Wayne Social Media and Marketing Breakfast was Online Advertising: Where To Start and he asked if I would sit on the panel. 
I said yes.
(The actual title of the event was changed to: Online Advertising: Let’s Do This!)
I also told him that in preparation, I’d write this article and publish it today.
Some of this I may have the opportunity to bring up in person, but even if I don’t, or you are not at the event, you’ll have my thoughts if you keep reading.
Online Advertising: Where To Start is a subject that a lot of people need guidance on and I have been there myself.
We are going to assume that you have a business. Or you at least have a business in mind. If you want to know the steps to take your idea into a full fledged business, start by reading this.
Now on to the topic at hand. 
In order to do online advertising, you need a website. Not just any website, but a domain that you own. You can host it in the “cloud”, but unless you have access to the primary domain and can control all the content, you probably don’t have your own website. This was something that Kevin Mullet convinced me of nearly 5 years ago.
I had over 12,000 articles published on various blogger sites I set up for free on Google’s platform. I really needed my own site so I would not be subjected to the whims of Google making changes. First I bought domain names but then I jumped in and created this site at ScottHoward.me.
You need your own website with your own domain name.
The following don’t count as your own website with your own domain name:
- A Facebook Page. Even though Facebook is moving towards this business model, this is not a substitute for your own website with your own domain name.
- An Etsy.com site. Not really yours.
- A Tumblr page. Nope. Sorry.
- Just about any social media account is not your own website with your own domain name, so don’t fool yourself or cut corners.
What about a WordPress site? There are differences between a site that is hosted by WordPress.com and a site built with WordPress.org but those differences are changing. Best for you to do your own research at places like here and here.
Okay, so you understand: You need your own website with your own domain name.
Your website needs to be mobile friendly. Right now the best way to do this is to make sure your website is built with a responsive website design. Responsive websites are called that because they adjust they layout of the design of your site to fit the screen you are using to view that site. If you are on your smartphone or tablet, it will render appropriately and look a bit different than if you are viewing the site on your laptop or desktop computer.
Why does mobile friendly matter? Take a look here and you’ll see that mobile has surpassed desktop/laptop as the way adults are accessing the web. And Google will penalize your organic search rankings if you are not mobile friendly.
Why does all of this matter?
You need a place to send people when you advertise online.
Again:
You need a place to send people when you advertise online.
That place should be your website, and only your website.
Nearly everything else should be a tool to drive traffic to your website.
I’m talking about Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube… you name it and I’ll tell you it should be a tool to get people to your website.
“But what about my Etsy store?”
You can keep your Etsy store alive but You need your own website with your own domain name and from there you can link and send them to your Etsy store.
Advertising online is the payment of money for advertising that appears online.
And now that we have established a place to send people who see your online ads, lets look at the options.
Search Engine Marketing is the big money maker for Google. Those ads you see at the top and side of a Google search are profitable for both Google and the businesses that use this tactic. Google will sell these to you directly or you can hire professionals and get the benefit of their experience and expertise.
The number of people who click on ads is tiny. But, it can be very profitable. I’ve heard the expression it’s like crack, once an advertiser tries it and the campaign is properly managed, they’ll be hooked because of the results. This is one of the marketing solutions I can offer through my companies digital department.
Display Ads have been around forever it seems. Technology has made it possible for them to become so much more effective than they were originally. There are ways to target the ads precisely to the people who are interested in the product or service and not display them to people who are not your target.
Depending on who you use to run your campaign, a number of tactics can be used to locate the targets you want to invite. Retargeting is the general term that started this. Retargeting began with placing a cookie or pixel on you computer web browser when you visited a website. Then as you visited other websites, ads would follow you around.
Now we can also target you based on what you search for, not just the search engines like Google, but other sites that have search like WebMD or CNN and the like.
A third way to find you is contextually. We know what you are reading and based on the keywords that are in the stories and headlines you are reading online, you can be served online ads.
Now there is a fourth way to find you based on where you are. Geo-Fencing can now be so precise that if you cross a street, and step into a “Geo-Fence” we know. And we can serve ads to you based on where you go and where you have been.
Almost sounds scary, but it’s an excellent tool for advertising online, to reach only the people you want to target. Again this Custom Audience Targeting with Display ads. is another marketing solution I offer through the digital department of my company.
This same technology is also available with video. We call it Video Audience Targeting.
Some of this you can do on your own on sites like Facebook. I used to manage the social media for an internet based retailer and would spend a few thousand dollars a month on Facebook advertising. That company I worked for spend over 1 million annually on all of their online advertising.
Want help? Have questions? Ask me.
Oh, that #SMBFW hashtag at the beginning of this article? That’s the hashtag we use for the Social Media & Marketing Breakfast Fort Wayne. And I put it there so anyone following that hashtag during the event or afterward, would find this article. That’s another way of online marketing that was free.
by Scott Howard | Jul 26, 2015 | ScLoHo's Web World
A friend of mine asked how to “stop all those emails from Facebook about his friends stupid status updates.” He may have thrown in a couple of swear words too. I told him I’d look it up and help him out, so here you go…
How to Manage Your Facebook Notifications, complete with pictures and a disclaimer*.
Let’s start with the disclaimer:
*These instructions were current on Sunday afternoon 7/26/15 and subject to change without warning from Facebook, just like everything else that Facebook does.
Step 1. Go to your page and open the privacy shortcuts. Then click on See More Settings.
Step 2. You want to go to the Notifications section.
Step 3. This is where you can customize How you are notified and What you get notified about. My friend wants to stop the emails.
Step 4. Stopping all the emails is not recommended. But you can reduce the volume by selecting the 3rd option.
There you have it. This was done on my laptop. If you want to know how to do this from your phone, Google it.
by Scott Howard | Jul 23, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, ScLoHo's Web World
Earlier this year, Google warned us that websites that they deemed not-mobile friendly would suffer a decline in their search engine organic results.
Now we have data from Mediapost that shows us why this is important.
The takeaway is simple. People are searching the web from their phones and tablets and if your website is hard to navigate on those devices, your credibility will suffer.
It’s not that hard to bring your website up to todays standards with a responsive web design. And it’s one of the services my company offers at Federated Digital Solutions. Contact me for a quote.
by Scott Howard | Jul 15, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
See this picture?
My daughter shared it on her Facebook page Monday night. Actually she shared a post from the Facebook page of the Roanoke Village Inn that included this picture. She and her family lived a few blocks from there before they moved west.
I saw the picture and shared it on Twitter Tuesday morning:
Tuesday evening, I was notified that it was picked up in a story on Mashable.com which you can read here and scroll down a bit.
While this picture went slightly viral, it was a bit of luck and not planning. The Village Inn probably had no idea that the picture went beyond their 742 followers.
There is a marketing lesson for those of you who are trying to “go viral” and hit it big. It’s not likely to happen. Or if it does, it is fate or luck and do you want to bet your business success on that?
For help with a real marketing plan, reach out to me.
And the Village Inn is scheduled to reopen today after spending Tuesday cleaning up, which is good.
by Scott Howard | Jul 13, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
There are times when I need to walk a fine line.
In the marketing worlds I work in there are times when something is just not good.
The two areas I work in these days are radio broadcasting and digital marketing with WOWO Radio and Federated Digital Solutions. This isn’t a new field for me, I’ve worked in radio for decades and the digital world for 10+ years.
Click on this picture to read the sad story about this “ugly baby”
The past couple of years, I have had to tactfully tell business owners that their baby is ugly.
It’s hard. Recently I had a former advertiser show me his new website and while it was an improvement on his previous site, it was still lacking many of the elements needed to bring it up to todays standards.
And I’m not just talking about my standards, I’m talking about industry standards.
I’m going to give you a couple of websites that you can use to see if your website measures up or if it needs an overhaul. Be prepared to learn a few things.
First off, there is the mobile-friendly test. Google will now punish your website search ranking if your site is not mobile friendly. Click here and find out if your site passes. Oh, Yahoo and Bing are also penalizing you too.
Another place to check is Hubspot’s Marketing Grader. You’ll get a report with a score and suggestions on what to do.
This is a good starting place but instead of simply relying on these automated tools, you really need a professional evaluation done by a human being (ME) that can sort through these reports, do a few other checks and evaluations and tell you if you have an ugly baby or just need to give her a good cleaning.
We can also talk about the purpose of your website to determine if you need to hire a professional team and create a custom site, hire a smaller developer, or perhaps do it yourself.
Are you prepared to see if you have an ugly baby of a website? Click on those links and then let’s talk.
by Scott Howard | Jun 16, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Web World, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
Yesterday I mentioned using LinkedIN, Facebook and Twitter as Sales Tools. 
Today, I’ll share an overview of how I use them.
Things to remember:
- Each Social Media platform is different. Don’t auto post the same stuff on each of them. LinkedIN is a professional networking tool. You want to present your professional self on LinkedIN, not your weekend at the lake drinking pics. Fill out your profile completely take some time to tweak and add additional stuff every few months. You can also add updates and write articles that appear on a LinkedIN newsfeed. Join a few groups. Be both professional and social.
- Facebook is the grand-daddy of social media platforms and I used to avoid it because like some of you I was frustrated by the continuing changes they would make. Then in 2012 when I worked fulltime in social media, I dug in and studied Facebook for business and began using it more and more personally.
- Twitter has been my personal favorite social communication tool. But for business, I give it mixed reviews.
What to post:
- With my personal LinkedIn account, I will share an update between 2 and 4 days a week. Sometimes it is something I wrote, other times it is something I found online. Some of the folks I am connected to are posting multiple times a day and to me that is just annoying.
- Facebook. I post once or twice a day. Recently I found a plug-in that allows me to auto share on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms when ever I publish a new article on my own website. This is not the same as autoposting the same stuff, because I am sharing links, not the entire content. At least that is my story. Also I share plenty of personal and fun stuff too so I’m not cramming business self-promotion stuff at my friends all the time in their newsfeeds.
- Twitter for me is fun. A few years ago I was in a debate about whether a person needed two twitter accounts, one for personal stuff and one for business. For me, I’ve only had one and that is because I am my own personal brand, even though I work and get paid by another company as their employee. I am myself. And I don’t speak for my employer. Interestingly however, I have permission to write and share some inside information about my job and employer. This was not the case when I worked for another media company.
So what about you? Are you being social? Do you use these 3 platforms I mentioned? What others are you actively using? Do you mix business with personal on Facebook and Twitter?
Your comments are always welcome.
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