When hiring someone to be in charge of your company’s social media presence, there are things that you can teach, and things you can't.
The key is knowing the difference between the two and hiring someone that has the potential to be a rock star for your company’s entire online presence from the get-go.
In other words, don’t try and fit a square peg into a round hole.
In this post I’m going to show you the same step-by-step process we use at Biquitous to attract the very best talent that will completely eliminate your frustration with finding and hiring the right social media manager for your company.
Step 1: Start With A Top Down Approach
Before this process begins, you need to first understand the fundamental issue that speaks to the essence of not only what social media is, but the core of every single person working for your organization.
Essentially there are things that you can teach and things that you can't.
What we have learned in our time hiring, training and utilizing various social media managers is that there are traits that certain positions must have that are naturally hard-wired only within certain people.
From a fundamental level, it’s probably not wise for your introverted CFO, your tech-averse product manager, or someone on your outside sales team, to be the face of your social media presence if it’s simply not in their DNA.
So, for a social media manager you should look for someone who is: Read more»
By focusing on how users interact with and “use” your website, you can increase sales and conversions much faster than almost ANY other traffic generating initiative
Everyone always THINKS they know what will improve a company’s bottom line: higher search engine rankings, higher levels of website traffic, more social media outreach, more products, more blog posts and on and on.
But what if I told you that just by focusing on how users interact with and “use” your website to achieve their goals – what is often referred to as usability – by making it easier, friendlier and more intuitive, you could increase sales and conversions much faster and with less time and money spent than almost ANY other “traffic” generating initiative?
So what is “website usability” and how can it be used (no pun intended) to spruce up your company’s current website to immediately convert a higher number of visitors into sales?
This is a special real-life series that analyzes and audits one website's Internet presence and SEO strategy in order to provide powerful takeaways for your website.
In other words, you're going to get an exclusive over-the-shoulder look at critical mistakes other companies are making and my recommendations for fixing them in a live video format.
My goal is to be honest in my assessments and provide that particular company with a concrete action plan to fix what's wrong, for their benefit and -- by extension -- your company's website as well.
The breakdown will focus 4 major areas:
First Impressions: Overall analysis of the website's look, feel, targeting, usability, and more
Second Impressions: Overall analysis of the website's social media and Web 2.0 presence
Top Level SEO: Analysis of the website's keywords, navigation, rankings, competition, backlink profile, content, and more
Page Level SEO: Analysis of individual page structure, tags, usability, and other details
I'll then provide a 3-step action plan for the biggest/fastest improvement to address any issues that I find.
This edition is going to focus on Proliability.com, a professional liability insurance company.
Proliability has some problems with sparse content, lack of a social media presence and -- most disturbing to me -- the possibility that they are paying for links, as well as other issues that need to be addressed immediately.
Let's get right to it:
(Click the "play" button to watch the video)
Here is the full transcript of the video:
Hello, this is Chris Fernandez, the Founder and CEO of Biquitous. And I want to welcome you to the Biquitous website and SEO breakdown, a special series that analyzes and audits one website's internet presence and SEO strategy in order to provide powerful takeaways for your website. Read more»
We get asked all the time for a checklist to specifically help companies with their ON-page SEO (vs. OFF-page, or off-site SEO).
There’s nothing worse for your website than spending hours creating great content only for nobody to ever see it or read it, because you didn’t take the time to ensure that search engines could find your page, crawl it and index it properly.
So I thought the best thing to do would be to cull together the best practices that we use at Biquitous when we either publish content ourselves or for our clients, and create a step-by-step blueprint that you can use immediately to make sure your own content is search engine friendly.
This short video will give you a handy 5-step on page SEO checklist to ensure that any content that you create is search engine friendly and has the highest chance to rank because you did everything in your power to make sure your content is ready to be crawled and indexed properly.
(Quick note: For the best experience I recommend watching the short video, but all of the critical elements that you need to know are also in text format below the video along with copious amounts of screenshots.)
First Question: Does Your Content Suck?
So let’s start at the top.
Let’s say you’ve created a fantastic page, some great content, wonderful graphics, a great lead-in, and the page delivers awesome value to your readers…
Wait a minute…before we go any further, I need to ask you about your content. Read more»
What goes terribly wrong with most websites and a comprehensive 3-phase strategy to fix what's broken
Hey Google, you’re really starting to piss me off!
And I’m not just talking as an Internet marketer, but also as a consumer.
Most Internet marketers and the folks that use your products and services are too scared, or fear reprisal, to say anything – so somebody needed to call you out on all the crap you’ve been pulling lately.
I decided to take on that challenge and write this open letter to help you learn from your mistakes and change your ways.
After all, you’re only biting the hand that feeds you.
Let’s get right to it.
Here are just some of the things that are chapping my ass: ...Read More >>
Most websites fail miserably at the only thing they were ultimately designed to do: Generate sales.
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on where your website stands, most websites fail because of one simple reason:
They were created BACKWARDS.
Let me explain what I mean with the graphic below from a leadership perspective (a graphic on the technical perspective follows later in the post):
(Click on image to enlarge)
(Note: Please feel free to use any original image in this post on your website, just link back to this post as the original source.)
You see, what often happens is that in a rush to get a website on the Internet and start branding, selling or collecting customer information, a business and the leaders responsible for that website, don't take the time to ensure that they are creating a sustainable and highly converting Internet presence.
Let's call this the "Ready, Fire, Aim" approach vs. "Ready, Aim, Fire" -- with an extra "Fire" thrown in the mix.
Ready: We need a website... (Mild panic)
Fire: We need more traffic! (Panic level rises)
Fire Again: Wait, the traffic isn't converting, we need more conversions! (Really panicked)
Aim: Sigh...we need to redesign our entire online presence. (Resignation)
So What Goes Wrong?
This is a classic case of basic human nature rearing its ugly head on a broad scale. ...Read More >>
The title tag is the MOST important factor for increasing traffic and SEO that is within your control -- make sure you're doing it right!
Read Time: (5-10 Minutes)
Sometimes we forget what really matters.
We forget that the primary job of marketing is to elicit a strong reaction for our brand, products and services.
Customers don't care how cool YOU think your products are, only how cool THEY think your products are!
The landscape is littered with dinosaurs who thought their products were great (and in fact they might have been) but nobody cared because their marketing and connection with their target audience was not executed properly.
Much to my surprise, a simple thermostat (really, a thermostat!) has reminded me of exactly why we cannot forget the core tenets of marketing, branding and connecting with our customers on a deep and emotional level -- call it Marketing 101.
Let's Talk Thermostats and Internet Marketing -- No Really!
It's sleek, clean, beautiful to look at, and invokes a sense of wonder at the possibilities -- if a simple thermostat can be this cool, what else in your house can be turned into a functional work of art?
But the design, function and launch strategy of the Nest "smart" thermostat -- founded by Tony Fadell, designer of the iPod -- works on many different levels that we can and should be using within our own Internet marketing and business strategies constantly. ...Read More >>
Read Time: (5-10 Minutes)
You would think creating great title tags is simple right? After all it’s just a 70-character (or less…) line of text, how hard can it be?
The fact is, every single client Biquitous has ever worked with – no matter how large – has always needed help, sometimes urgently, to fix their title tags.
So in this post, I’ll share some of our “secret sauce” for creating great title tags, explain why the title tag is arguably the most important factor for increasing traffic and SEO on your website, and show you 3 critical title tag SEO best practices for creating title tags that will yield the biggest bang for your buck.
(Quick note: For the best experience I recommend watching the short video, but all of the critical elements that you need to know are also in text format below the video along with copious amounts of screenshots.)
What is a “title tag”, why is it useful, and how does it work within search engine results?
What Is A “Title Tag”? The title tag is a small bit of code within every single web page (hopefully!) that tells search engines and visitors what the page is about.
Why Is It Useful? The title of your page (or title tag – I’ll use the terms interchangeably in this post) is critical and indispensable because it represents your biggest – and oftentimes ONLY – chance to get a visitor to click through to your website, read and/or share your content, and is one of the most powerful on-page SEO factors for search engines.
Use of social media shows range of possibilities for your company
Read Time: (5 Minutes)
I woke up the other day to the sound of a commercial...
It caught my attention because it had a little old lady talking about how she "puts that sh*t on everything".
The "sh*t" she was talking about is Frank's Red Hot sauce, and it not only caught my attention, but it made me laugh hysterically.
Here's a video clip of one of the ads (the radio spot is a bit different):
Here's another short spot that will lift your spirits and make you laugh:
UPDATE:
Frank's has since released additional commercials -- they are nowhere near as good as the old ones, but play off of the new love affair with dating apps and a new take on spiking the punch:
So let's talk about what the company did RIGHT with their offline and online marketing initiatives (as well as their website) and also look at what they did WRONG because inevitably, there are always things that could be done better or are being neglected, that a company can improve upon and that we can learn from.
And while Frank's did a lot right, they also made some key mistakes that you can and should learn from.
But what I hadn't yet experienced is the power of social media -- specifically Twitter -- when I needed it the most.
Here's a lesson in customer service, social media, and how your company can use this powerful medium to actually get real work done and increase profits, not just waste time. ...Read More >>
This is a special real-life series that analyzes and audits one website's Internet presence and SEO strategy in order to provide powerful takeaways for your website.
This edition is going to focus on Proliability.com, a professional liability insurance company.
Proliability has some problems with sparse content, lack of social media presence and -- most disturbing to me -- the possibility that they were paying for links and other issues that need to be addressed immediately.
(Click on Video Image to Play)
==> Click the post title to watch a larger video or read the full transcript so you can apply these suggestions to your website immediately.
This edition is going to focus on 
Chris Fernandez --
