As many of you know I have a hobby-maybe-bigger pre-occupation of late, with aquaponic gardening. I was reading an article recently with Murray Hallam and Sylvia Bernstein, two very well known leaders in the world of plants and fish. Here is an excerpt from PracticalAquaponics.com.
Murray Hallam. …Now, why do you think we need a website?
Sylvia Bernstein. You know, the reality today is that we connect to each other in many ways through the internet. If somebody is going to find you, chances are they’re going to do it through the internet. Even if they go, let’s take the scenario, they go to the farmers market and they see you there at your table, and they think “wow, Aquaponics, what’s that? Maybe I want to learn more about these people” .They’re going to go home and they’re going to look for you on the internet.
So the internet has really become the common store front for all of us, and your website is very much the front door. It’s your business on line, and that is where people get an impression of you, and so, their impression is either going to be “ooh” or “these people don’t know what they’re doing” or “they sell too hard” or “they’re very amateurish. Gosh, I’m not sure that I want to trust them with my food “, which is a pretty important thing…..Or, you’re going to get the impression that these are people that I can really relate to and that I want to do business with them. I want to really support them as local farmers. And the difference between website number one and website number two can really be some very minor differences, and we’re going to go into some of that in this class.
Murray Hallam. Sylvia, I can really relate to what you’re saying there because I know I do that, I tend to look at the website, you know, get the internet up when I’m looking for anything at all, even if I am about to go down the road to the Mall, I tend to look up the internet first, to get an idea of what I want…So true.
Sylvia Bernstein. You bet, and God forbid you can’t find them on the internet.
Murray Hallam. I think “What’s going on here?”
Sylvia Bernstein. Exactly; “What’s going on here? These people aren’t real. You know, they must be just slack, or whatever.” But all sorts of bad things happen!!! So, it’s very important. You know, it’s funny to think, that even as a farmer, you really do need to have a good internet presence that represents who you really are.
Take a look at the photo at the top of this post. Which door would you prefer to enter? Does your business have a website that is a suitable front door for your online visitors? Got one?-Great! Have you advertised? Can your front door be found online?
Today is Monday morning here. Have a great week!
Balance.
The two most common social media blunders are like most things in life, at opposite ends of a best practices continuum. If you blog, FB, Tweet or G+ to get your vital message out, consider a self-audit exercise. It won’t take but a few minutes.
Quickly review your past month of posts. Note the media type, frequency and maybe rank your content as fluff / personal / on-target / vital.
Now consider your communication goals via social media. You have goals, yes? Think about this for a while. Jot some first thoughts down and save this for future pondering-planning.
The most common social media blunders are To Much Information (TMI) and an Untended Social Presence. Based on your industry, your target audience and key messages, you pretty much know where you want to be in the space between these extremes of blunder.
What is the solution? Preplan and be intentional. Just because you can and have a thought doesn’t mean you should share with everyone impulsively. Consider pre-writing in draft your week’s (or day’s) content in social media that represents your key messaging to your target audience in the best media. This may differ from FB to Twitter to LinkedIn. Come back to it later, review what you’ve written and schedule the release rate. Sure there’s room for timely response to what you read, commenting etc. Just be sure you are making room for that in the strategy and not simply firing off posts willy-nilly without a plan.
Balance requires discipline, time and a budget. Your company, non-profit and you deserve that deliberate investment.
Photo: Carla Swope from InnerVisionYoga.ca. Justin Brown Photography
Recently the Vancouver Sun’s Education writer, Janet Steffenhagen, presented a list of BC School Superintendents who blog. I followed the links and with considerable interest noted the variety of blog presentations.
I say with considerable interest because these bloggers represent the top of the administrative and leadership heap for the school districts they lead. Their readership consists of a more diverse mix than most bloggers have to consider. They are writing to their bosses, the Board. Also their staff, their principals, teachers, students and the toughest crowd of all, their students’ parents. So, how do the leaders of the fundamental educational pillar in our communities present? What do they present?
I toyed with the idea of a superintendent blogging report card but decided against this. Here however are the basic items I consider when reviewing or developing and invite you to add your own.
While blogging has been around for a while, for many institutions it is a new venture. Like everything else the institution does, blogging involves an investment of resources. Time to write, time to research, time to edit, gather and edit photos, develop guidelines, write policy and evaluate.
While some of the blogs on this list are clearly in early days, others were engaging, well considered and warrant return visits. Interesting reading. Thank you.
Oh my, I feel a rant coming on!
I’m ready for a productive day of work with a client meeting late afternoon. S’all good. Quick morning scan through some things and we’re off, yes!
Apparently not. What is happening to this morning?
Please, before you publish, send, text, launch or even phone, consider who your target audience is and be clear about your message.
If the goal is engagement, please endeavor to inspire confidence. Maybe this can be accomplished by outsourcing the communication task, choosing a message worthy of the reader’s time and attention, simply closing your loops and sometimes, just not communicating until you know you’re ready. And hey, how about a proofer? Now there’s an idea!
I get asked; “Should I invest in our FB presence or will it (Facebook) fade away soon?”
My thinking is that if FB was leaving anytime soon, innovative integration and partnerships FB related would slow down. Innovation and FB related development definitely aren’t slowing down.
F A C E B O O K S T O R E F R O N T S
What is now coined as f-commerce is evolving continually and quickly. Online stores can be set up with providers such as Payvment.com. Here are two examples.
- https://www.facebook.com/DoLifeNow?sk=app_135607783795
- https://www.facebook.com/bikerchicjewelry
F A C E B O O K R E A C H
FB is now extendable to your website via Open Graph. For a while now we’ve been integrating FB live feeds into your website pages, now we can go the other way as well. We’re jumping on this and would encourage you to consider this as well. It is new, innovative and seems to be where online interaction between the target audience and your organization is headed.
C U S T O M F A C E B O O K P A G E S
Make a great first impression with a welcome page! Here is Target Baby’s FB page. Other custom FB pages can detail your service. Here are two examples.
So, why not just have a FB page instead of a website? Good question. All the features are certainly there. Truth is, some people don’t spend time on FB. I know, hard to imagine, yes? A website anchor presence is still a very good idea.
And why is all this new functionality so brilliant and suddenly so necessary? Well, think about how and why FB works. Fundamentally it is still about a ‘friend’ or ‘like’ connection responding to something on your FB site or FB enhanced website, and their 438 friends noticing.