Today in 1986 - Mary Lou Retton(@marylouretton) announced that she was quitting #gymnastics. If you were able to be good at one gymnastics event, which would it be? #SSLLC #MaryLouRetton #USA

Today in 1986 - Mary Lou Retton(@marylouretton) announced that she was quitting #gymnastics. If you were able to be good at one gymnastics event, which would it be? #SSLLC #MaryLouRetton #USA

www.scriptablesolutions.com

TRUE FACEBOOK PROMOTION IS NO LONGER FREE

One of the most important places to market your business today is via social media. No matter who your target audience members are, there’s a good chance that they are using social media to some extent and most people are logging into at least one social account on a daily basis. There’s evidence that the younger generation may be moving away from Facebook but let’s face it, it’s still the social media powerhouse for now. That’s why it’s still necessary to have an active company Facebook page.

One of the big draws to Facebook for businesses has been that it’s a free place to market your business. Obviously it’s necessary to invest resources in the upkeep and management of the page, but you didn’t need to hand any money over to Facebook in order to create a fancy page that provided a convenient outlet to engage with your target audience. In fact, it was believed that Facebook was so great that businesses started doing all they could to send people to their page. Most websites include the Facebook icon somewhere on their website homepage linking over to their Facebook page and even print advertisements exclaim, “Like us on Facebook!” Obviously Facebook has enjoyed all of this free advertising.

The thing is, somewhere along the way Facebook realized that they needed to do more to monetize the site. They were smart enough not to ask members to start paying to use the site. That would have led to a quick demise. Instead, they set their site on the businesses that had been benefiting from their free services for so long. While it’s still free to set up a Facebook page, Facebook has made it much more difficult to engage in conversations with followers. That’s because the posts that you’re sharing, along with the conversations that you’re trying to start, simply aren’t being seen by the people that like your page. Why is that? Well, Facebook has made dramatic changes to the News Feed algorithm. While you may think that your thousands of followers are seeing a post about your upcoming sale, the sad reality is that it’s likely that only a tiny percentage of your followers are seeing it. For example, one of our clients has approximately 2,500 Likes, yet their last post was “served to 10 people”. Just 10! Of 2,500! And it was only “served to” 10 people, there’s no guarantee that those 10 saw it! Is it even worth posting it at that point?

This doesn’t seem fair. These 2,500 people have opted in by Liking the page. They want to see your posts, but the behavior of Facebook users is typically only to check the News Feed and carry on with their day. They aren’t going to actively seek out every page that they like. Facebook picked up on this and essentially is now requiring business page owners to “pay to play”. Sure, it’s still free to set up a page but you’ll need to pay to “Boost” a post to ensure that even a fraction of your Facebook followers even see it. This is why true Facebook promotion today is no longer free.

Publisher: Scriptable Solutions
Source: http://www.scriptablesolutions.com/article.cfm?ArticleNumber=131

NEXT TO CHECK OFF...CHECKLIST BOARDS

Checklist Boards has just requested a new website and mobile site from Scriptable Solutions!  This Rochester, New York based company designs highly effective checklist/slider boards for healthcare, dental, manufacturing, food service, and retail industries.  We will be developing an ecommerce website that will be easy for users to navigate and to understand the checklist ordering process.  Soon-to-be new website...Check!  Soon-to-be new mobile site...Check!  Soon-to-be complete and total awesomeness...Check, Check, Check!    


View our web design portfolio to see some of our work.

Author: Scriptable Solutions

Source: http://www.scriptablesolutions.com/article.cfm?ArticleNumber=117

Today in 1969 – The “Brady Bunch” debuted on @ABC. Because of this show…how many of you have to eat your pork chops with applesauce? #SSLLC #BradyBunch #ABC

Today in 1969 – The “Brady Bunch” debuted on @ABC. Because of this show…how many of you have to eat your pork chops with applesauce? #SSLLC #BradyBunch #ABC

www.scriptablesolutions.com

Today in 1962 - @BobDylan made his first appearance at #CarnegieHall. What’s your favorite Dylan song? #SSLLC #BobDylan

Today in 1962 - @BobDylan made his first appearance at #CarnegieHall. What’s your favorite Dylan song? #SSLLC #BobDylan

www.scriptablesolutions.com

WHY SMALL BUSINESSES CAN WIN AT SEO

Small to medium sized business owners tend to think that they might be at a disadvantage when it comes to SEO. They have less resources than their enterprise counterparts and think that it’s the money that matters the most. The more money you have, the more you can “throw at” SEO and quickly see organic search traffic increase, right? Wrong. First of all, no matter how big your SEO budget may be it doesn’t change the nature of SEO. There’s nothing “quick” about it. And second of all, SEO can actually become more difficult when the budget is bigger because there are far more people involved in the process.

Enterprise organizations may have a more significant SEO budget, but they also have their TV advertising budget, radio advertising budget, print advertising budget, direct mail budget, sponsorship budget, public relations budget, social media budget, PPC budget, etc. Each channel might also have its own department and/or outsourced agency. That’s a lot of people involved in the process! The best marketing campaigns today are integrated across all channels. When there are so many people involved it makes it that much harder to get everyone on the same page. The departments and agencies all need to form relationships with one another and have a full understanding of how each piece fits into the overall puzzle. It makes it that much easier for something to slip through the cracks.

Small businesses and SMBs typically don’t have so many “cooks in the kitchen”. For example, content has become perhaps the most vital component of an SEO campaign. Within a smaller organization, there may only be one or two people responsible for writing content. The new page of the website, possibly a blog post, can be written, optimized, approved, published, and shared in social media within a day, perhaps even within a few short hours. In some cases the content writer might even be the only person that needs to approve the content, as long as management trusts their judgment. This is even better! Within a small company there aren’t nearly as many hoops to jump through, whereas in an enterprise organization the various departments and agencies will all want a say, which prolongs review and approval time.

SEO in itself isn’t a fast moving process, but in terms of executing SEO items- why wait longer than necessary? An SMB can have a timely blog post out the door and being shared and linked to in social media and across the web much more quickly than the enterprise organization that has it sitting on the desk of the 7th person in line that needs to review it before it gets published. All of the activity (links and shares) are benefiting the SMB that might have less resources, but was quicker to the punch.

Publisher: Scriptable Solutions
Source: http://www.scriptablesolutions.com/article.cfm?ArticleNumber=130

FIRST CAPITAL PAYMENTS IS GETTING LOUD

First Capital Payments has many things to say...and Scriptable Solutions is going to help them be heard!  We worked on the design and development of their current website FirstCapitalPayments.com and are ecstatic to now be handling their social media marketing!  This family owned and operated credit card processing company will soon be shouting out their services and business happenings from rooftops everywhere!  Get ready to open your windows and listen!      



View our web design portfolio to see some of our work.

Author: Scriptable Solutions

Source: http://www.scriptablesolutions.com/article.cfm?ArticleNumber=123