This past week: I looked at social media and how SMBs (Small Businesses) can take advantage of this new marketing phenomena. At the same time I tried to showcase some of the features YWD has for the SMB website and how it can connect with all these new things that keep on coming up.
The last episode from @PaulChato on YWD vs WP-> I'm sorry I hurt the feelings of that WordPress programmer
It is hard to compete with Word Press if the client can't get past the FREE part. When in reality Word Press is not all that free, just add to Word Press all the features YWD comes with for the monthly fee and YWD is the more competitive option. Not to mention, you don't need a programer nor a web developer to have a functional and unique looking business website.
Are you part of the 63%?-> 63% of B2B Companies Don't Generate Leads From Social Media
Don't feel bad if you are part of the 63%, many business owners have a hard time understanding how social media works. On the positive side, social media is not hard to learn and you could have an advantage over the 63%!
You can do all these using YWD's "embedcode" -> 8 Creative Ways to Use Embeddable Tweets
Great ideas to bring fresh content from Twitter to your website, and yes, you can do them all on YWD. Easy, see how: Embed Code
How good is your About us page-> About Us page: checklist for a successful website
Though your About Us page is not the most visited page, when users do come to it, try to make the most of it. Show them where and how your business can be reached.
Are you doing these?-> 3 Steps to Using Social Media to Improve Your SEO
Social Media is not just changing the marketing world, SEO is affected as well. Not only that, but through Social Media you can help your search results rankings and better target the right audience.
On YWD mobile can be both separate and the same-> Mobile SEO Separate From Responsive Web Design
It is recommended that your business website be different on a mobile device, on YWD we agree with this philosophy. A person while browsing your website on their phone won't want to see all of your website in mobile format. They are on the go and want specific information easy to get from their phone. YWD makes it very easy and you can manage both mobile and desktop version through the same interface, you can even share the same conten for both. See how is done: YWD Mobile
Using Google+ much?-> Great Content Marketing Ideas for Using Google Plus
Great ideas on how to use Google+, which is becoming essential for your business' website. It is clear that having a Google+ business page helps your search result ranking.
Is there a place in Pinterest for B2Bs?-> How To Successfully Use Pinterest For B2B
YWD has an account on Pinterest: pinterest.com/therealywd. We find it difficult to find what graphics to share, my feeling is that your business (whether is B2B or B2c) has to have good imagery to share on Pinterest. It always comes down to good content , that is what gets shared.
Gustavo Jabbaz started his digital career as a designer and then became a developer and these days spends most of his time as a digital marketer. A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for day-to-day operations, marketing and development strategy. He is who you talk to when you need support with SEO and/or Social Media. Gustavo Jabbaz on Google+ | Twitter
Anchor links (i.e. links within the same page) have had a bad rep for a while. Some people view it as an inheritance from the old days of the Web. However, they do a have a place. Sometimes your page content is simply too long, so it makes sense to provide links at the top pointing to specific sections down the page. A classic example is a long FAQ where you'd put all the questions at the top. They can also be used creatively in 1-page websites as your primary navigation method.
You can make them a bit more interactive now. YWD now lets you add a smooth page scrolling effect to your anchor links. You can see an example on this page of the YWD Help. Click on one of the links pointing to the different sections below on the same page and you'll notice that the page will "glide" elegantly to the destination, instead of just jumping abruptly. The smooth scrolling effect contributes to make them more interesting and responsive for visitors. (For the geek reading this, a jQuery plugin is being used.)
By default all anchor links in new YWD websites automatically behave like that now, but if you can turn that option on/off in YWD Designer / Layout / Page Advanced in the Page transition & scrolling effects group. As is always the case with the YWD platform no coding is required.
One note: if your existing YWD website has content sliders which are set to use the old slider style, you must switch them to the "Regular" style first.
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
Recently I had a bit of an online dustup with someone who objected to me calling WordPress a 'bait and switch' proposition. As our typed responses got more heated (I was thoroughly civil) it was clear that WP was his platform of choice for developing sites for his clients and he didn't like me writing anything bad about it. After all I was insulting his past work and his future WP work.
My point was, and is, that there are many systems and they all have their place and advantages. My objection to WordPress is that it is so well known that people who need a website ask for it without knowing what it is and what it is best used for.
And there's that 'free' thing again. Calling WP a bait and switch pitch is a bit harsh. First of all, WP is not making any claims it can't back up. It's a great application if you want a blog, but it has a so-so content management system and if you want anything more than the templates they offer you have to program it. If you don't know how to program, you have to hire someone and its promise of free suddenly becomes an illusion and WP becomes no different from any other system whereby if you don't know how to code you are being held hostage by people who do. Ours is the only system that goes as deep to offer a no-code experience.
The bait-and-swtich problem actually lies with the customer. You see when someone tells me that they are looking into WordPress for their website, that's code for, "I want my site for free." You can build your own website in Your Web Department for free but we always charge hosting because we're not a toy. In fact, we are the only platform that is business-owner-friendly. WP is a developer's tool, not a business owner's tool.
The usual pattern is the the client tries out WP. Runs it for a while. Grows unhappy with the limited services it offers out-of-the-box, or can't get the widgets to work as advertised, so they turn to a WP programmer and suddenly they are drawn into a never-ending rabbit hole of custom programming. No one is being dishonest. WP isn't. The programmer isn't. You were dishonest with yourself in thinking you're getting something for nothing and now you're stuck having to finish because of the investment you've made or turn to someplace else.
Finally to the person who's baby I insulted, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings but you really should get a broader perspective of what tools are out there because there is no one-size-fits-all solution. I'm happy to recommend alternative solutions to YWD after talking to people for whom it is clear we're not a good fit. The last thing we want is to sell our solution only to endure a client that gets frustrated using it. That does not make anyone happy.
Paul Chato has been many things: a graphic designer, programmer, comedian, head of network TV comedy, game producer, 3D animator, playwright, event host, director and anything else that matches his fancy. Most of the time he is a managing partner at Your Web Department and is most excited about LiveBuild™. Check out LiveBuild
This past week: This roundup is all about Blogging for your business. The benefits of blogging are numerous, it reassures your customer base that you are the right company for what they are looking for. It can generate leads and traffic to your website. It gives you control over the content posted about your services and/or products and more important it gives you a central repository for your content to be distributed among the different social networks.
Below, I collected various tweets that relate to blogging, from best practices to what not to do. I also included a tweet about YWD Blog, a tool that comes standard on YWD websites.
We still have customers who are very intimidated by blogging-> How To Increase Your Press Coverage Using Your Blog
The thought of having to write on a regular basis can be daunting, and if you are just starting your blog you won't see instant success. Perseverance and good quality content is the key, just like this post suggests.
Be careful, how optimized is your content?-> Google's Pending Algorithm Update to Penalize Over-Optimized Content
Having a blog and posting regularly will have an effect on your website search results, and there are companies that will create content for your posts that are search engine optimized. The problem arises when these posts have just too many key words and phrases intended to help your search ranking, which makes the actual content less relevant to your audience. Google is the king on web search, and google doesn't like this and they have a good point. Everyone likes to find relevant results when doing a search, therefore the best policy is to concentrate on meaningful content for your audience.
Start sharing! -> Marketers Who Share Content Drive Traffic, Gain Customers [INFOGRAPHIC]
Sharing content, notice that the central part of sharing is a blog. When I tweet or share content on Facebook or LinkedIn what I share is posts from our and other people's blogs. If it is good content and I feel it will be meaningful to our audience I will share it.
Looking for a good writer?-> 9 Questions You MUST Ask Before Hiring a Freelance Blogger
As I mentioned above writing is not for everyone, and there is nothing wrong with relying on professional writers. The thing is you need to make sure they are a good fit for the message your business wants to convey.
Looking for content writers? read this first -> 7 Dangerous Lies Your SEO Content Writer is Telling You
This tweet is related to what Google is planning to do with their next algorithm update. Good meaningful content will prevail.
I agree add the link when it's called for-> Why You Might Be Hurting Your Blog by Link Hoarding
This the same issue as the content for SEO, too much and it devalues the efforts. Blog posts are great for cross linking but add the links when it is called for. Adding links on every paragraph will dilute the cross linking over all.
Next Friday I'll have another round up, in the meantime you can follow me and YWD on the networks below:
Gustavo Jabbaz started his digital career as a designer and then became a developer and these days spends most of his time as a digital marketer. A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for day-to-day operations, marketing and development strategy. He is who you talk to when you need support with SEO and/or Social Media. Gustavo Jabbaz on Google+ | Twitter
Any product details page in a YWD Catalog / E-comm can now have a "Pin it" button that lets people use Pinterest to share the product image and add it to their boards. Pinterest is a new social photo sharing website whose popularity is growing exponentially. This new YWD feature enables people to drive traffic to your website, by bringing in more visitors for you!
Because currently the "Pin it" button is image-specific, it can't be applied to regular pages of the website. To add the "Pin it" button to your Catalog / E-comm go to YWD Designer / Tools / Catalog / Product details and in the Social bookmarking override for product details setting select to display either small horizontal or large horizontal buttons.
Flavio Mester is a graphic designer as well as a systems analyst (in a distant life he was an architect). A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for the design and development of all the YWD website management platform interfaces. Flavio Mester on Google+ | Twitter | LinkedIn
This past week: Short week for me, taking some time off with my kids during March break. So I decide to showcase more YWD posts than usual. There were two big news items going around; the release on the new iPad by Apple (and it is not the iPad3) with its crazy resolution, and the second big news is Yahoo suing Facebook. Unfortunately for Yahoo everyone seems to be on Facebook's side, the patent they are suing Facebook for is very vague in its description and hopefully the judge will see it in the same way. Otherwise a lot of social networks will have to make dramatic changes and some of the things we love about the internet will cease to exist.
The latest from YWD -> Design Thinking | Thinking Design - YWD
From the YWD Newsletter archive, created to keep our customer informed about upgrades and new features. Join the mailing list and see how YWD evolves to meet the needs of businesses online.
The YWD Daily is out! http://bit.ly/caLlEI ? Top stories today via @mindxstudio @russelltripp @VAGirlFriday
I'm a fan of paper.li, great resource for any type of information. It does a great job of compiling the posts of people you follow (twitter, Facebook, etc) in a magazine format.
Bye bye -> Gowalla Gone: Facebook Shuts Down Recent Acquisition
The end of speculation as to what Facebook was going to do with Gowalla. The big winner? Foursquare (foursquare.com), now their dominance in the location base marketing will go undisputed. Well maybe until Facebook adds Gowalla know how into their own Checking in system.
Something is working -> Nielsen finds 33% of US mobile users deem location-based ads useful
This is encouraging news for everyone, since the future is mobile it is great to see the web system we like have a future. And at the same time as a consumer we get to see advertising that actually matters to us.
Timeline thing so true-> RT @erica__b: #Facebook: The Top 3 Facebook Marketing Mistakes Of All Time
So much has been written about Facebook Timeline for business pages and the truth is most of your fans only go there once, to like your page.
Next Friday I'll have another round up, in the meantime you can follow me and YWD on the networks below:
Gustavo Jabbaz started his digital career as a designer and then became a developer and these days spends most of his time as a digital marketer. A founding partner of Your Web Department, he's responsible for day-to-day operations, marketing and development strategy. He is who you talk to when you need support with SEO and/or Social Media. Gustavo Jabbaz on Google+ | Twitter
Anchor links (i.e. links within the same page) have had a bad rep for a while. Some people view it as an inheritance from the old days of the Web. However, they do a have a place. Sometimes your page content is simply too long, so it makes sense to provide links at the top pointing to specific sections down the page. A classic example is a long FAQ where you'd put all the questions at the top. They can also be used creatively in 1-page websites as your primary navigation method.
Any product details page in a YWD Catalog / E-comm can now have a "Pin it" button that lets people use Pinterest to share the product image and add it to their boards. 
YWD™ Referral Program
YWD™ Search Engine Optimization
VIDEOit