What the Heck is This Site for Anyway?

Life would be so much easier for web designers if the site owner would answer three questions before you start the design.  A web user should not have to guess your message.

A little background before we start. To often what an owner envisions for their site it is completely different from what web users are seeking. The trick to being effective is reversing your roles and become the seeker. The seeker is always after what is important to him or her. The content is the most important thing. Let them find the content, and take an action easily, and you will succeed.

If you are lucky enough to have your creation listed high enough on a search to be seen. Then lucky enough to have the right data displayed to catch the eye of the seeker, and gets him or her to select your page. Why have what you want him to do buried behind another set of menus. ( And yes I used the word lucky to give all the SEO guys out there a little chuckle.)

The standard joke about the midwest and mountain section of our country being the fly-over states is ten fold truer when it comes to much of the content that makes it on to most sites. Much of it must be somewhere, it is also very pretty, but just knowing it is there is enough.

1. What Are You Offering Specifically?

A list of your capabilities in a form that is saying here is your answer for the problem I understand you have. (The web equivalent of sound bites)
Yes support and backup are essential but always presented as “Here is the answer for your problem. Here is the cure for your pain.”  

2. Who Do You Want To Spend Time On Your Site?

This is always so obvious to the site owner, but we need to be told. People outside a profession have no clue as to what is really going on. You text addresses them. You expect them to come - they need you. You should really care less about some none potential customer not understanding why your site exists.

3. What Action Do You Want Them To Take?

This site visitor had a problem, they were seeking a solution that you recognized, and you have it waiting for them, now what?. What does he need to do next? Make his response easy and in plain sight. Do not demand any more information from him than absolutely necessary, but allow a path for him to say or upload as much as he might want.

Google Plus SMMOC First Impressions

Cindy Ronzoni asked if Stacey Soleil and I would give our first impressions about Google's new social layer, Google+.

What is it? Where is it going? and What can it do for you?

Read Cindy Ronzoni's, PR expert Los Angels, entire Google+ post by clicking here!

Are you in my orbit?

#EAvSC 2.0 Boardmeeting @SCPier

Can An Agency Tweet for a Client

“Do you think an agency can tweet for a client?” he leaned over and asked me on the last day of BlogWorld. That question had been on my mind from arrival and now it was going to depart with me. In what ways can an outside agency help a company tweet their message? Or even, gulp … should an outside agency tweet for a company?

Initially I really felt “no” was the only answer. After all if you are in the space to create relationships and if you are to be valued on your transparency and authenticity, two common value words touted in the space, you can’t be a standin for another company like some kind of digital Cyrano de Bergerac. Can you? Should you? Doesn’t it defeat the purpose? Can you engage for someone else?

It didn’t fit our philosophy of how social media should be delivered. It didn’t seem appropriate. Then we found ourselves tweeting for a client. We never set out to do it. But we were doing it. We were ghosting, tweeting for someone else.

Our intentions were to get the account going, use our experience to build the account, find the appropriate followers, to seed it well while we began training an in house replacement. We built up the account and discovered opportunities which could have easily been lost had we just uploaded a picture and background told the client to be sure to check their @’s and DMs, teach them about hashtags, advanced twitter search, inside and outside lists, strategical syntax and techniques to expand their reach.

Because talking about these things is very different from doing them.
“The law of nature is, Do the thing, and you shall have the power; but they who do not the thing have not the power” Emerson
Our experience in the accounts of our clients has led us to value our activity behind the icon of a client. I would add a few important amendments though. Transparency is important not only for clarity to your followers but to business prospects. "Tweeting out for ...." and introducing a real live human behind an icon is not only appropriate but aids in making real relationships. It's hard to have a relationship with an icon. We don't know what they do on the weekends

How do I reinterpret our delivery model to best serve our clients?

One image I like of a good agency twitter service is that of a Switchboard operator. But this switchboard operator doesn’t just know where to plug in for people, our Twitter Switchboard Operator also knows to plug into keywords and phrases, hashtags, community groups, our TSO knows the keywords, the industry leaders and online influencers as well as connections to the traditional media. It’s not your intern. The ideal Twitter Ghost is part dj and part matchmaker part sleuth and part host, reciprocity is second nature and your message is articulated, echoed and resonates with your team.

But more on that later.

On Twitter @LisaMcClure

Never Begin a Tweet with an @ and Why

A very quick and easy way to limit the reach of a Tweet is to begin it with an @.

That wasn't always the case. When @Twitter first begin
we could see Everyone's @'s to Everyone.

This is how @'s work @Twitter now,
For example if I were to Tweet out to Darin

@DarinRMcClure are you ready for lunch?

only our subset of shared friends will see that tweet beginning with an @.

However, change up the syntax, begin the Tweet with anything but an @ symbol, like this

Hey @DarinRMcClure are you ready for lunch? 

or sometimes you may see a dot used for this very reason.

.@DarinRMcClure are you ready for lunch?

In closing, you come to @Twitter to share and connect, do not limit that connection.

Social Media, Surfrider And The Numbers

Jim, Give us some numbers... what kind of scale are we talking about here?

How many people are being touched by @Surfrider's message?

click here to see #srfrdr tweet reach for the last 50 tweets tagged.

The Surfrider Activist Toolset via Jim Moriarty

So Jim please tell us your mix of tools, what do you use to accomplish what? What are the killer apps you ALWAYS go to...

Jim Moriarty & Surfrider Getting Activists Involved Question 2

How does a person enter this world and engage in this idea?

what should a person do to "Start"?

How do you scale "Love"?

Staffing and Empire Avenue

What is Empire Avenue?

Empire Avenue is a new social network which imposes a gaming layer over a collection of social networks. Empire Avenue then generates a score from each linked social network account attempting to value a user's influence, reach and engagement in each network using a score from 1-100.

Here is the real twist. Empire Avenue is also it's own economy with it's own currency called eaves. Your social worth is calibrated and charted and the game is to trade and sell each other to create wealth.

While some may use this as a game with the only intent being the enjoyment of playing and the thrill of economic victory, the eaves do translate into real cash, Empire Avenue's unique organization of information can make it a tool to connect and use the social web as a true resource for business.

How Can Empire Avenue be used in the staffing industry?

Here are some initial ideas and insights. If you are "playing the game" please be sure to add to the list.

A Metric of Engagement

Empire Avenue grades you. People like grades. It gives them something to evalute. Klout, a recognized standard of online influence, is currently being used on resumes to demonstrate social influence on social media sites. You can use this metric to evaluate yourself or others across networks.

The Beauty of a Dashboard

In one glance the engagement of a user across Twitter, Facebook, Facebook pages, LinkedIn, Flickr, and YouTube is displayed. You can see where an individual is most active and engage with them there.

Maybe you are friends on Twitter but haven't connected on LinkedIn where you can develop your professional relationship and find where you may have common business associates.

Share your experiences in the comments section below, oh and please, buy some Workway.

Lisa A. McClure

Jim Moriarty Surfrider CEO Interview, Question 1

Jim, What's the role of the internet in fighting to protect our coasts? & accomplishing @Surfrider's mission?

Empire Avenue: An Engagement Metrics Toolset

You should be noticing a large amount of buzz about a new iternet game called "Empire Avenue"

Do not be fooled into thinking that @EmpireAve is a game.

Empire Avenue gives you a full set of metrics from across the social space to look at.

How are you engaging @LinkedIn?

Are you spending too much time @Facebook or @Twitter?

When was the last time you updated your @Facebook Fanpage?

#EAv gives you a fun and easy way to check into all of those stats.

A lion cub can only become a great hunter thru play.

Still not convinced? Come hang out with us Saturday Night here in San Clemente.

Remember What is not Measured is not Managed.

Empire Avenue, helping you map your social footprint.

Social Recruiting Revolution Watch List

Getting from Newbie To Understanding


If you believe business is built on relationships, make building them your business. @Unmarketing






Twitter "The Opportunity Engine" @ChrisBrogan


It is all about listening like a hunter.

Listen Create Engage Understanding The Wheel

Getting from here to OH MY GOSH!

Listen, Create, Engage,

We all understand that wheels roll, but how do you get rolling in Social Media?


First, Stop and LISTEN for something that is RELEVANT RECENT & LOCAL to ME! (not you)

Find something neat? CREATE and SHARE.

Next you ENGAGE this is where serendipity comes in.

Conversations build Connections, Connections build Lives.

These are the three parts of the conversationl wheel.

If you miss any of these three parts, you are missing what will roll you along...


Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

From America

My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From every mountainside
Let freedom ring!

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said,

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is:

'What are you doing for others?'"

How about a little Freedom.

The Medium Is The Mix

Marshall McLuhan The Original Marketer In Our Digital Age

From An Unknown Tribe Member

Before there was Seth Godin, there was Marshall McLuhan inviting us all to move into the Global Village & and become a member of the tribe...

Where do we go from here? Are you "With It"?

Let me buy you an ice cream...

iPhone Photo Blogging In 4 Steps

iPhone Photo Blogging How To

1) Enable mail2blogger Settings > Email & Mobile > Email Posting Address

2) Take a picture or grab one from your camera roll

3) Email pict to your email posting address in the format above.

4) Edit as needed when home.

Sent from My iPhone

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