From all us at WebWise Design & Marketing, thank you to all involved in the nominating, selection process, and awarding WebWise Design & Marketing the 2011 Fennimore Chamber Business of the Year. Thank you to all of the Chamber Members who worked so hard on the planning and execution of Chicken Barbeque & Awards presentation. Well done as usual. Thank you to our families, friends, community members, and our WebWise clients for supporting us through our first sixteen years. We feel privileged to work and live in this wonderful area, and to be able to in some small part serve our community. Thank You!

Despite all the blog posts listing right and wrong ways to use Twitter, the reality is you should use Twitter in the manner that works best for you, and that can vary  greatly from business to business.  Of course, there are some basic Do’s and Don’ts, but you can find those nearly anywhere (including a link later in this post). Here are a few simple things to think about before sending the next tweet.

• Proof before you tweet
• Don’t retweet an url without clicking on and reading the landing page. It may not be what you think.
• Don’t use all 140 characters. Leave room so you get credit when retweeted.
• Spread your tweets out over time. Don’t flood your followers with ten tweets at a time.
• Don’t forget, you are not tweeting to @justsomeoneyouknow. Potentially, millions can see your tweet
• Help others. Retweet what is interesting to you and hopefully your followers.
• If you want to get tweeted, retweet others.
• If you want to get retweeted for specific topics, use hashtags (“#” Symbols)

For those of you who want more Twitter information, the excellent “The Ultimate Guide to Twitter Marketing” by @Copyblogger is a great resource.

And, of course, we always appreciate follows: Follow @webwisedesign

Nearly every small business doesn’t update their website content  often enough. I know we certainly fall short in that regard, though I do intend for us to change that. Why is updating the content on your website important? Well, your website visitors are important! Repeat visitors deserve to see new content regularly. After all, there has to be a reason for them to be repeat visitors, and I mean other than when they are looking for your customer service or support contact information. You don’t really want them coming to your website only when they need support, do you? 

So, why else should you update your website regularly? Google and other search engines are good reasons. Google and the others are in the business of providing relevant, and fresh, results. If your website is updated frequently with well-written content, your website will get crawled more frequently by Google, Bing and other search engines. If you have written your content well, and it is relevant to what your intended market is searching for, your website has a better chance of achieving higher positions in search engine results. Google LOVES fresh, relevant, well-written content. Your customers and prospects will appreciate the most up-to-date information about your products, services, or company news.

I Know. I know. We are all busy and it takes time to update our websites. Well, we need (I swear I am going to try to practice what I preach) to realize we don’t have to write a  PhD Dissertation regularly to keep Google, et al happy. Most businesses continually improve, enhance, or add products or services. We can talk about how different customers use our products or services. We can talk about what is happening in our store or office, or locations. We can give tips and hints on how to use what we offer better or more efficiently. Be the expert. Get the idea?

Please remember websites are not “build it and they will come.”  It takes some effort to get positive results from your website.

So, how do we do that easily? Well, if you have a blog or “What’s New” area on your website, you already have the tools. If you don’t, ask your web developer if a blog is right for you. If you have a static website that your web developer updates for you, add a ”What’s New” area or page to your website, and then regularly send them updates. Open a free Twitter account, and put a widget (free from Twitter) that shows your latest Tweets on your home or other frequently visited page. If you have a Facebook page, do the same.

Take a look at your current website analytics, and write down the average number of monthly visitors, pages visited. and their time on your website. Start updating at least monthly, or weekly, or daily. After three months take a look at those statistics again. I am sure you will see the difference.

Google will visit your website more often, index your fresh, relevant, well-written content, and your increased number of website visitors will give you more opportunities.