WordPress recently released version 3.7 affectionately dubbed “Basie” in honor of “Count Basie,” and with it come automatic updating! Of course, this might be a nightmare for older sites with “custom” themes, but for most people it’s a helpful way to improve website security. (more…)
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[/twocol_one] [twocol_one_last]The Vancouver Business Journal published their Business Spotlight about Workshed! Both the author (Jodie Gilmore) and photographer (Buck Heidrick) were enjoyable to work with and did a nice job of conveying what we’re trying to do for our clients.
Read it on the VBJ site here: Workshed Inc: Business Spotlight
Read the pdf version here: Workshed Inc: Business Spotlight – pdf[/twocol_one_last]
Owning a business and being a parent have a lot in common. Effectively communicating with your children and your clients is essential to maintaining good relationships in both areas. Unfortunately, regular meaningful conversation is often the first casualty when we get busy. An email newsletter is one way to communicate with clients and still get your work done. [Note: We do not recommend sending an email newsletter to your kids]
An email newsletter can be a great addition to your client communication and marketing strategy, provided you follow a few simple guidelines. (more…)
In our last post we shared how Google+ quietly (subversively) became an essential piece of the smart business’s marketing tool box. Here we’ll give you 3 quick and easy ways to incorporate it into your social media plan and give you a few resources for learning more.
Get Credit for what you write. The first step toward incorporating Google+ into your marketing plan is to make sure you are getting credit for the content you publish. To do this you have to create a Google+ profile. Details on how and some additional convincing from Copyblogger here.
Link your blog. Some WordPress frameworks like Thesis integrate Google+ authorship into their theme, but if yours doesn’t, Automattic (the company behind WordPress) just released an update to their popular JetPack plugin that makes it easy. If you are not using WordPress, try this from Google.
Use it. After you are all set up on Google+ you need to use it. Interact with people in your Circles, post and comment, host a Hangout. Heck you might even find that there is a whole lot more to Google+ than you realized. Did you know you can have an online meeting and share your screen too? More on that from Google here.
Google+ is important, ignore it at your peril. There are lots of things that can be done to improve your search rankings, this is both easy and free.
Need Help?
“What?” you ask. “I was just on Facebook this morning, chatting with my 362 friends and updating my status!” There’s no need to grab your phone and sound the alarm. Facebook is still alive and well. So are Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram. “But you said Google+ killed Facebook.” Ok, so maybe it was more like a poke in the eye than murder, nevertheless:
Sure, you’ve heard of Google+ and possibly even checked it out. Then, like many other people, you went back to playing Candy Crush on Facebook. Why? Because EVERYONE has a Facebook account, and it was easier to use than Google+. Not only was Facebook more familiar, the first versions of Google+ were wonky (like many early Google releases).
But my Facebook page has 4652 likes!
Admittedly, when I see a Facebook page with 4,652 likes I sometimes think to myself, “WOW! That business is popular!” Popular is great. It can be an important measure of influence, but it’s not necessarily the best one for attracting paying customers. You’ve probably heard that social media is an essential part of marketing for your business. So how is it possible that Google+ could be more important than Facebook? Ask yourself one question (or query if you prefer technospeak). What do you do when you need to search for something? Do you post it on Facebook and wait for your friends to respond? Nope. You G-O-O-G-L-E it.
So here’s the not so well kept secret that you’ve probably never heard and why Google+ is likely more important to your business than Facebook. Google’s search algorithm favors Google+ content. Your Facebook posts aren’t even captured by the Googlebots (Thanks Zuckerberg). Just like the Dad who gets his slacker kid into an Ivy League school, Google LOVES Google+, it’s nepotism at it’s finest. There’s no point in complaining, it’s their search engine, they make the rules. Now that you know the rules, how can you make Google+ part of your marketing strategy?
If you have questions or need to grow your business, contact us; it’s what we do.