2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,900 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 32 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

6 Steps to Get More (and Better) Online Reviews for Your Business

By Jeff Haden | August 2, 2011

Every small business owner knows positive customer reviews can help promote a business and generate

positive word of mouth. Yelp, Epinions, Yahoo! Local… review sites abound, and customers use them in ever-increasing numbers.

That’s why getting customers to provide great reviews is important — but also problematic and rarely within your control.

Looking for a customer review strategy you can control?  One way is to promote your business by reviewing and promoting other businesses.

Sound impossible?  It’s not. Here are the basic steps:

1. Think relative. Sure, reviewing your favorite restaurant is fine, but if you develop software applications the relevance is less than obvious. Reviews should directly reflect on what you do as well. If you sell consumer products, reviewing a fulfillment center makes sense. Architects can naturally review CAD tools and construction companies. Just make sure the products or services you recommend reflect well on your business: A restaurant that provides a glowing review of an organic meat producer implicitly shows it cares about the dishes it serves.
2. Think location. It’s tempting to place reviews on a site that gets lots of traffic or to place a review for a business that gets lots of exposure. (After all, you do want you review to be noticed.)  Lots of visibility is great, but visibility that creates poor associations does more harm than good. Always factor visibility against the reputation and quality of the association.
3. Be specific. Fluffy, hype-filled reviews make no impact. Say exactly why you were delighted. Be short and to the point. And as you do…
4. Make self references seamless. Here’s an example of a self-serving review: “Our own customers have come to expect outstanding service, amazing attention to detail, and world-class implementation… and that’s exactly what Acme Products provided us.” Ugh. Take off your Captain Obvious costume. If a supplier came through in a pinch, just say, “Acme Products made six separate deliveries in three days and met a complex just-in-time manufacturing plan.” Specific, to the point, and readers can tell your business does complicated stuff. You don’t have to say it.
5. Don’t go crazy. Pick your spots. Don’t play the “saturate blog comment sections with links to my website” game simply to create inbound links. Never provide a review unless you truly believe what you say; only then think of ways the review can reflect well on your business, too. Your primary agenda is to give credit where credit is due. Then consider going one step farther…
6. Ask how you can help. Make a call. Say, “We really like what you did… if we can ever help by providing testimonials or references, all you have to do is ask…” Not only will you build a stronger professional relationship with another business, but you may find yourself in front of potential customers you would otherwise never have met.

5 Highly Effective Website Tricks to Steal From Yahoo

By Jeff Haden | July 1, 2011

 

Want some surprising! amazing! incredible! ways to improve your website?

Go to the carousel at the top of the Yahoo! home page and check out the headlines under the thumbnails.  A sampling from this morning:

• “Dangers of debit card use”
• “Beyonce’s very revealing dress”
• “Bad golf shot saves man’s life”
• “Real reason for weight gain”
• “ATM receipt with incredible sum”
  
• “Middle-class jobs going away”
• “Secrets of a housekeeper”

Breathless and over-hyped?  Absolutely.  By pop star standards, Beyonce’s dress was fairly tame.  The fact that people gain weight because they eat more meals and snacks each day is hardly a revelation.

But we still click the thumbnails.  It’s almost like we can’t help ourselves.

Here are five ways to use Yahoo! headline strategies — and what they say about us as consumers of information and of products and services — to improve your website and better engage your customers:

Strategy #1:  We don’t want more information; we need an anchor. Take weight loss:  Thousands of books, thousands of programs, and millions of web pages are devoted to losing weight.  People searching for a way to lose weight can access too much information.  Weight loss seems so complicated and overwhelming so we’re almost compelled to click “The real reason for weight gain” because, darn it, we just want to know what to do.

Sometimes more information makes us understand less.  Simple, clear-cut, and straightforward is incredibly attractive.  Solve my problem — the quicker the better.  Explain the benefits — the quicker the better.  Determine what is important to me as a customer, especially where buying decisions are concerned, and give me that.  Don’t make me sift or I’ll leave.

Strategy #2: We love inside knowledge. Hoping for a peek behind the curtain is a universal desire; who doesn’t want the inside scoop?  (I clicked the “housekeeper secrets” article even though no one cleans our house but us.)

This strategy is complementary rather than contradictory to Strategy #1:  First give customers an anchor, then, provide deeper, more detailed information for those interested.  (Without an anchor no one tries to learn more anyway.)  Just make sure you go past specs and fact sheets.  Show creative ways to use a product or service.  Share tips.  Help customers benefit from your experience and knowledge.  Engage with an anchor and then provide inside knowledge customers can’t find elsewhere.

Strategy #3:  Even though we won’t admit it, we actually like a little hype. Infomercial words like shocking, miracle, surprising, incredible, wild, amazing, and unbelievable are also popular on the carousel. And why not?  I like an amazingly wild surprise from an unbelievably shocking miracle as much as the next guy.

Hype can definitely be overused, but strong adjectives and definitive statements also show you believe in your services.   While you don’t have to channel your inner Billy Mays, be proud of what you do — and say so.  No one else will.

Strategy #4:  We respond to fear. Everyone wants to avoid a disaster.  Most of us fall in the middle class, either statistically or by aspiration, and most of us have jobs… and those jobs kinds of jobs are going away?  Gotta check that one out.  “Dangers of debit cards”… everyone has a debit card and worries about money.  Probably should check that out too.  After all, what I don’t know can hurt me.

While you shouldn’t try to manufacture fear, you should consider the common concerns of your customers and address them.   Don’t try to just scare me:  Identify a fear or concern and show me how you can provide a real solution.

Strategy #5: Sometimes we’re simply interested in interesting. We all enjoy a “what the heck?” moment.  “Bad golf shot saves man’s life”… what’s that about?  “ATM receipt with incredible sum.” How incredible?  (Turns out, pretty.)

Don’t assume your site must maintain a laser-like focus.  Share the unusual or offbeat.  If a customer finds a cool way to use your product, share it.  If you have a great story about a client, share it.  Don’t be afraid to let a little personality show through.  (But at the same time never be self-indulgent. If you’re sharing only for an ego boost, don’t.)  Customers buy from people, not from companies, so share a few real examples of what makes you and your business unique.