My Visit to the WWII Museum Memorial Day Weekend

As luck would have it, this weekend I finally got a chance to visit the WWII Museum in New Orleans.  It seemed like a great weekend to finally check it out (with it being Memorial Day weekend) and I’m really glad we did.  This museum is a real treasure and the organizers, including Tom Hanks, really did this one right.

As for the overall thoughts on the museum, all I can say is “Wow.”

A global story told on an individual level

The museum does an unbelievable job of telling the story in a manner which makes you appreciate each one of the men and women that served.  The photos, stories and detail are laid out in such a manner as to help you appreciate what the individual men and women went through as well as capturing the essence of the overall conflict on a global scale.  So while you definitely got the big picture, you also read the letters and heard the stories of individuals that could have been one of your own family members.

Celebrating Victory Without the “Rah Rah”

Perhaps the most noticeable thing (at least to me) was that the museum told the story of the evil threat that was the Axis.  They also told the story of the heroism of the US and Allied Troops and ultimately how they won the war.

But the interesting part was that while they celebrated the victory of WWII, they also consistently remembered its human cost.  In fact, the video presentation starts with a reminder that more than 65 million people were killed in WWII.  And throughout the video and the museum you are continually reminded that this was the worst, most damaging conflict in human history.

So after touring the museum and watching the video you are touched by the story – but at no point do you feel like standing up and cheering that we won the war.  You are left with the feeling of “Thank God we won – but what a terrible cost to everyone” which is ultimately the feeling I think the museum is looking to give it’s visitors.

Reminder of My Family Members Who Served

So on Memorial Day I’d like to give a special remembrance to my grandfather, Lester Boos who served in the Navy as a radarman on an aircraft carrier.  He passed away a few years ago.  I’d also like to remember my other grandfather David Savoie who served in the Army as a tank repair specialist.  Many thanks to both of them, as well as all of our US Armed forces veterans for their service and sacrifice to our country.  Especially for those who paid the ultimate price with their lives.

Business Pages for Facebook

One of the first things people ask me about these days when we talk about online marketing is Facebook.  They want to know if it’s really a tool for business and if anyone actually makes money from being there.  In short the answer is yet.

Now, if you are not currently on Facebook, you may not be aware that before you can get started on a page for your business, you must first create a Facebook page for yourself. When you create a personal page, it is important to remember that your business will be linked to the personal page.

Not quite what you might expect

This means that the personal page should be created with the image of your business in mind, and privacy settings should be carefully monitored to make sure that nothing is visible that you do not want to be seen. After all, a great picture of you and your friends at last year’s Halloween party might not be the image you want to project to customers!

How to Get Started

Once you have set up a Facebook page for yourself, you will be able to set up one for your business. You can load pictures such as an official logo or photos from recent publicity events as well as videos and other information. You can also begin to recruit fans and develop Facebook-specific marketing promotions or link the Facebook page to other social media tools such as Twitter or a blog.

A Word of Caution

Facebook is an easy to use, user-friendly interface, so once you get comfortable, you will be able to update and change your page whenever you have new products or promotions that you want to bring to the attention of your customers.

HOWEVER, with Facebook you are opening your business up to additional exposure and one to one interaction unlike any you may have seen before.  Be cautious to start slowly and learn the ropes before going crazy, because the last thing you want to do is annoy your current or potential customers into finding someone else.

Learn the ropes of social media slowly by listening, learning and interacting.  Add value when you can and look for opportunities to gently remind people of what you do.  Follow this advice and you’ll be off to the right start.

A New York Superbowl in February

The big news today is that the NFL will be hosting the 2014 Super Bowl in New York.  At first I thought this was a joke.  I mean really – who would have believed they would have the Super Bowl being played in an outdoor stadium in the northeastern United States in February?

Apparently closed minded folks like me lost out on this debate. That won’t keep me from complaining though.

Top 5 Reasons Why the NFL Goofed:

1. Who wants to sit outdoors ANYWHERE north of the mason Dixon line in February unless you are a Packers fan?
2. Watching guys who can barely grip the football is not entertaining
3. The Super Bowl is the NFL’s biggest stage.  Do they really want to make their premier players look like goobers?
4. The cold weather and snow only detract from what these incredible athletes can do.
5. We like offense.  I doubt anyone will be running up the score if they can barely hold the ball.

Northern friends please don’t take offense!

Yes I live in New Orleans but my disapproval of the New York Superbowl has nothing to do with southern pride or anything of the sort.  It’s about wanting to watch entertaining football and seeing the 2 best teams the NFL has perform their best.

I’m sorry – but if the temperature is below freezing and there is sleet, ice or snow around you can’t convince me that the NFL players will look and play like elite athletes in those conditions.  Actually they look like us stumbling around and trying to get a handle on things.

And at the end of the day – that’s not what the Superbowl is supposed to be about.

Maybe we’ll get lucky

Well since the decision is made I guess we have no choice but to hope for the best and think of the possibilities.  And I can think of 2 scenarios that might make this decision look like a good one:

1. Packers vs. Bills in the Superbowl that year; or
2. Global warming makes it a balmy 40 degrees at kickoff with sunny skies

Reaching target audiences

One of the hardest parts of developing an advertising campaign is ensuring that it is seen by the right people – the ones who can turn into potential customers. The greatest ads in the world won’t do anything to generate business if the only people who see them are those who have no use for your products and services.

Facebook’s Advertising Platform

So what does this have to do with Facebook? Due to the nature of the information that people share on Facebook, you can display your advertisements to the exact demographic who is most likely to respond to them and become your newest customer.

For example, if you coordinate speed dating events and are looking for more potential attendees, you would want to put your ads where they could be seen by single people in your area. Since Facebook asks if members are married or not, their age, and where they live, you can display ads to single members who live within a certain radius of the event location and are in the target range of ages.

Or, if you have developed a product that would be appreciate by male sports fans between 18 and 35, you can put an ad on Facebook that will show up along the borders of their page during the almost one hour that the average Facebook user spends on the site.

Comparing Metrics

We suggest running a campaign on Facebook and comparing your metrics with those of ads on other networks such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.  Generally speaking you will probably find the number of clicks are less – but you should also find that the costs are much less to.  So you can usually get good “bang for your buck” so to speak.

And remember – at the end of the day it’s not about the amount of clicks.  What matters is the amount of visitors who convert – so keeping an eye on the conversions will better help you compare and contrast the effectiveness of advertising on Facebook

Too Much Information?

If you have a Facebook page but would rather have fun instead of running ads we can help.  Contact us today for more information on paid search marketing programs which will advertise your business on websites such as Facebook.

Facebook for Business?

In order to understand the benefits of getting your company on Facebook, it is important to understand a little bit of how company business pages on this website function. Facebook offers more than a simple profile and a few pictures for your company; it also offers a way to advertise and promote to specific customer groups while tracking the effectiveness of each campaign.

Creating Your Company Page

When you create your company page on Facebook, you will then start to recruit “fans.” You will then have the opportunity to send messages in bulk to all those who have labeled themselves as “fans”, allowing you to send specific advertisements or offers to this group. You can then track how many people take advantage of those offers from your Facebook page, offering a highly accurate way to gauge the reach of each campaign and to use this information when planning future campaigns.

Targeted Interaction

Campaigns can be simple: a promo code for online retailers or a “mention Facebook and receive 10% off your purchase” for in-store transactions. Knowing that you are offering promotions will keep your customers returning to the page.

Additionally, customers can post comments or send messages on your Facebook page, giving them a simple way to voice complaints or sing the praises of your newest product or service. This is a simple way to get a sense of what your customers are thinking and feeling, and how you can better meet their needs.

To learn more about interacting with potential clients on social sites such as Facebook, contact us today and ask about our social media consulting services which can help get your “social profile” up and running online.

Website Content 2010

Is there anything worse than clicking on a site to find it was last updated in 2007?  If you answered YES to this question, than you are now one step closer to becoming an “SEO Expert with a Real Job” and learning a little something about what drives internet marketing.

Web users in 2010 are really getting savvy.  This makes it even more important to have content on your website that is either useful, interesting, informative, funny, or all of the above.

In this installment in our “SEO Explained” series we will take a look at why you should be creating content and practical tips for how you can implement it on your website.

So People with Real Jobs Can Understand, Please

Like meta data, SEO types like to over complicate the content issue.  Want to learn about keyword density, long tail phrases or keyword relevance?  Forget it.

The “secret sauce” to creating good content that web users want to read has more to do with being recently created and interesting to read than anything else.

Why Should You Care?  Because Google Says So!

Google has done an incredible job of protecting their methodology for how search results are displayed.  However in this case they are handing us the playbook and telling us exactly what we need to be doing!  The snipped from Google’s Webmaster Central pretty much sums it up:

And, as if you needed more than just Google’s guidance, take a look around the web and see what the most popular sites (according to Alexa) that are not search engines:

1. Facebook
2. You Tube
3. Wikipedia
4. Biadu
5. Blogger

What do they all have in common?  Content.  The popularity of these sites is driven by content that is being updated on a regular basis.

What Can and SHOULD You Be Doing

Getting excited about writing is a bit like making a commitment to losing weight – it sounds great for the first 2 weeks and then it eventually gets pushed to the back burner.

I talk to website owners everyday who have made a few blog posts or done a video but never stayed with it.  And they are frustrated because the little they did do has not yielded results.  And the best thing you can do if you want to build content on your website is to start making time daily or weekly for it.

6 Practical Tips for Creating Content and Sticking To It:

1. Find a subject you are passionate about or have an area of expertise.
2. Budget some time daily to write or create content
3. Create a content plan that has a schedule of topics for 3-4 months so you don’t have to remember what to write about.
4. Use free tools such as Google’s Wonder Wheel to see what other topics people are interested in
5. Shoot for articles of 350 -600 words.  No thesis or doctoral papers necessary!
6. Share your work on social sites like Facebook, Twitter and Linked In where you are already participating.

No Excuses

For those of you who hate writing, are seriously limited on time or simply aren’t creative there is hope.  You can easily find writers out there who will learn your story and help you tell it to the world.  You can find everything from high school students to seasoned writers with web experience who are out there ready to help.

Katrina lessons apparently not learned well enough

Residents all along the gulf coast, and especially metro New Orleans, are having a bad case of déjà vu right now.  A month ago we first heard the news that an oil rig exploded and eventually sank in the gulf might be “leaking” oil into the water.  The oil “leak” turned into an all out geyser, and now that problem has found a home squarely in the marshes of southern Louisiana.

Oil finally invades the marshes

The big news this week is that the oil has invaded the marshes south of New Orleans.  The bad news is that the oil is not the light, fine crude or manageable “tar balls” that many were predicting.  Instead the photos taken yesterday clearly show thick brown oil as dense as paint covering miles of delicate marshland and heading further inland.

And while residents are clearly frustrated with the ongoing crisis, local politicians are raging mad about many of the same issues we faced less than 5 years ago with the Katrina response.

Slow responses from federal government hampering efforts

Local political officials including Plaquemine’s Parish President Billy Nungesser, St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro and Governor Bobby Jindal have been critical of the federal response to their pleas for emergency help.  In an interview on WWL Radio Nungesser indicated that federal officials are sticking to their procedures for issuing permits and still reviewing requests made weeks ago that could have been granted and potentially stemmed the damage which is currently taking place.

Local officials are still awaiting approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for an emergency permit needed to dredge sand from nearby areas for the construction of a line of sand berms which would act as protective barrier islands to help block the oil.   And while no one is quite sure how effective they would be, almost everyone agrees that sandy beaches are easier to clean than the broken marshes that make up much of Louisiana’s coast.

The New Ground Zero

Plaquemine’s Parish is home to towns like Buras and Venice which have been the scene of first response.  However politicians all over the area have been actively telling anyone who would listen about the road blocks they are encountering when trying to obtain the help they need.

In the past few days, Senator Mary Landrieu has been questioning a federal regulation preventing local fisherman and other affected businesses from securing emergency loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA), despite the pledges of British Petroleum (BP) to put up the collateral needed to repay these loans.

Meanwhile David Vitter, Louisiana’s other senator, has been wrapped up in battles over flood protection and trying to advance funding of oil related dollars from oil royalties to help pay for the cleanup.

Perhaps the most unfortunate politician has been new mayor Mitch Landrieu who has been forced to toss out any plans he may have had for his first days in office to focus largely on the local response to the oil spill.

Apparently no lessons learned from Katrina

Local residents and politicians are clearly disgusted from hearing that things like “procedure” and “red tape” are holding up the process.  This oil spill crisis, much like Katrina, has a time sensitive element to it in that the faster the response the better changes of minimizing damages.  However in this case, nearly 4 weeks after the initial incident, help is still slow in coming and the residents, wildlife and marshes of the coastal Gulf South will be the ones to suffer for it.

One of the best reasons to put your company on Facebook is that it offers unique opportunities to protect your brand, both on Facebook and on search engines such as Google. Often, people avoid bringing their businesses into online forum that they cannot control because they are afraid of the negative ramifications that may result.

Who controls your online brand?

The Internet is a very democratic place – with a few exceptions, anyone can put up a blog post, a video, a picture, or even a website about your company with or without your approval. However, if you set up an official company page on which you can control the content, the first thing that shows up when people search for your company name will be your page rather than someone else’s blog or a competitor bashing your products.

Why Facebook for Business?

With hundreds of millions of users, protecting your brand on Facebook is more than a good idea, it’s almost a necessity.

And now that Google and other popular search engines can access the information on Facebook pages, that brand protection goes beyond the social media or networking site and adds to your overall brand reputation on the Internet as a whole.

Protect Your Online Resume

When your Facebook page shows up on the first page of a search, it does so in addition to the company’s actual web site, giving the potential customer two opportunities to be directed to your company. It also pushes one more competitor off the page, allowing you to control that much more of the valuable real estate on Page 1.

Not just for kids anymore

Depending on what you have heard about Facebook and whether or not you are familiar with it, using it for business might sound like a crazy suggestion. However, no matter how much or how little you know about the biggest social networking site on the Internet, there are several reasons why you should learn more about how it can help your company:

-  Facebook is not a passing trend. There are over 400 million people around the world who are using Facebook. Can you afford to ignore this huge base of potential customers?

-  Brand protection. Establishing your company on Facebook will help to protect your brand, not only on that particular website but also on Google as well.

-  Reach more clients. Facebook offers a unique way to reach out to your customers and interact with them. The average Facebook user spends a little less than an hour a day perusing the website, offering you a great opportunity to reach out to them as customers.

-   SEO value. Facebook can also be used for search engine optimization, bringing more potential customers to your website regularly.

With all of these advantages, it’s hard to come up with any reason why you wouldn’t want to get your company on Facebook!  Visit our website for more information about social media consulting.

The Nigerian Police, Really?

This may be my last blog post as today, I received an email that the Nigerian Police Force needs to know if I am dead or alive in order to process my rightful claim.  Apparently some local Nigerians presented a death certificate on my behalf and are claiming to be my beneficiaries.

Now, today’s settlement is more than my usual fortune.  This one is for almost $15 million.  I guess I’ll contact them after my noon conference call and get the paperwork started.

Who writes this stuff anyway?

The daily spam barrage never ceases to amuse me.  Well ok, some days it’s annoying as hell.  But other days it cracks me up the things people take the time to distribute out to the world.

Remember, for every garbage email like this you get, someone somewhere had to take the time to sort through your email address and write the email. Then take the time to setup all the details in the event someone actually replies back?

I often wonder if these spam emails are bad jokes or serious attempts at fraud.  I met with a client yesterday who actually called the FBI about these emails and they didn’t take it too seriously.

So I guess its back to work as in the time it took me to write this blog post I was contacted by another lawyer in Africa with even a larger settlement.  So I guess I can stop worrying about the Nigerian Police looking for me!