I read and process about 150 business emails on a daily basis and look at over 80 websites. Adding any social media activities to this already heavily multitasking type schedule is overwhelming. I feel first and foremost I need to be responding to clients and scheduling projects with our team. I tried delegating this social media aspect to my assistant and that just didn’t work. I think social media is something one personally needs to do. It’s kind of like sending my assistant to a networking meeting – it’s not the same as me being there in person.
I gotta tell ya, this twittering is like texting on steroids. I’m still weighing out the time vs. benefit. Stats show that 60% of people who start on Twitter become Twitter Quitters. The piece I find fascinating is that it can be educational and easy to find resources with Twitter search. The company is growing rapidly and new uses for it are developing all the time. So, we’ll see what transpires in the next few months.
Flash, Frames & Blinking Banners – Avoid building an entire site in Flash. Search engines cannot find or read a site built totally in Flash. A good alternative is to create an html site and implement Flash elements inside this type of site. Frames are difficult for users and search engines can’t read sites built in frames. Avoid frames completely! Too many blinking banners, moving text or images can be distracting to the visitor and give the wrong impression. Too much bling is not a good thing for a website.
Whenever I do a workshop or speaking engagement I ask the audience, “What search engine do you use for finding sites and information?” I’m often surprised at the responses and almost always learn about one or two search engines that I’ve never heard of before. Google, MSN & Yahoo remain in the top three so I’ll summarize some of the data for those.
I often hear from weary website owners that they just don’t have the time to market their websites. Thinking about doing this in large chunks of time can be overwhelming. Just the thought of it may discourage you from taking any action at all. So here’s a challenge for each of you. Do you have 5 minutes? Here’s what you can do in 5 minutes:
This is an expanded version of what was written in the March 2009 Muse News. If you’d like to subscribe to the free monthly Muse News or read the archives then 
It’s baffling to me when people put up a website and expect people to just find it. If you read these suggestions and smack your forehead saying, “Oh, I can’t believe we ran that $3,000 magazine ad without our web address! “ You are not alone! Businesses every day are frequently overlooking offline marketing to bring visitors to their site.
