What is Front End Design Conference? It’s a conference geared toward the design of websites.  The visuals and aesthetics that make web-based communication possible.  The ideas and strategies and thought processes behind why we click where we click (and how to make people click).  The “why is this green” or “can we move that next to this?” of building a website.  Believe it or not, good web designers don’t just throw things on a page and call it a day.  There’s a why and how and a best practice schema to which we adhere in order to help guide visitors and influence click behavior.  Gasp!  So much to think about!

Not a web designer?  The Front End Conference line-up really encompasses web-based communication of all sorts – not just web design.  The topics are relevant to anyone with a website who wants to learn more about how to use visual communication to get a point across or influence action.  Marketers, bloggers, small business owners – there’s information relevant to all of you.

Topics include:

• Learning to love ideas: Brainstorming 101
• Taking your designs from wireframe to design
• The art of self-branding
• Design in the details
• CSS organization and workflow (ok, this one might be geared directly toward web designers)
• Fuel your brand (but this one is great for anyone!)
• Principles of UI design

Conference organizer Dan Denney put together a great lineup and an exciting weekend of events.  There’s an awesome after-party planned at the Lobby in downtown St. Pete.  On Saturday, stick around for a Tampa Ignite meeting at Studio 620.  Sunday, he’s got a guided photo walk around downtown St. Pete – sure to be very cool.

Learn more and register:

• Front End Design Conference and blog
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Tampa Ignite Meetup
• List of attendees

See you all there!  We’ve got a big contingent representing Big Sea (and their own amazing talent) so please say hello.

There are so many places your business can be reviewed online – Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, TripAdvisor, LinkedIn – the list is long and growing. If you’re doing something right (or seriously wrong), you’re sure to have at least a few reviews out there.

People are more likely to post online reviews in extreme cases – either they’ve had a really great experience, or something went horribly wrong. A waitress was having a bad day; a hotel room smelled like smoke; a project didn’t flow the way it should have. Whatever the reason, now you’ve got a negative review out there and you can’t do anything about it.

Here are some tips to handling negative reviews so that you can turn them into positive feedback in the future.

1. Sign up for Google alerts. Now. Get alerts for you company name, your name, and if you’re brave or interested, your competitors. Start watching what’s published out there about you and your industry. You can’t address issues if you don’t know they’re happening.

2. Don’t respond in knee-jerk mode. If you happen upon a negative review, don’t respond immediately with snappy retorts. Let it settle in and find a good approach. Whatever you do, don’t tell future customers about your negative reviews and complain about their inaccuracy. Especially when you haven’t fixed the problem.

3. Look at each review as a chance to get it right. Reviews are invaluable feedback that you would never get by simply asking. Use that information to fix what’s wrong. Then, respond to negative reviews (some sites let you respond as the business owner directly to the reviews) with a detailed list of how you addressed the issue.

4. Ask for another chance. If you can identify the customer, see if he or she will give you the opportunity to resolve the issue offline, then ask them to update their review. You’ll find when you satisfy a previously unhappy customer you’ll be creating one of your strongest advocates.

5. Do nothing. We can’t always be perfect – and that’s ok. Sometimes attempts to fight back simply fuel the fire and can turn a small blip into a big problem. Just let it go – but be sure to get as many good reviews as possible to balance the opinions.

6. Get more good reviews. Encourage your customers to post reviews on the above-mentioned sites. I’ve seen tour groups give out a card at the end of the tour asking for TripAdvisor reviews; restaurants who ask for Yelp, Google or UrbanSpoon reviews after a customer finishes dining. Don’t be afraid to ask – many satisfied customers are happy to share their experience online.

7. Don’t sweat it! If the reviews are piling up, you have some work to do. Take them seriously. But if you’re finding one or two among a pile of happiness, then let it roll off your shoulders. Consider an appropriate response but don’t stew over it. Move forward and do the best you can to remedy the problems and get more good reviews.

8. Most importantly, PAY ATTENTION. Regularly check out your listings on the sites mentioned in this post and make sure you know what’s going on with your brand image; how people feel about you. As a small businesses owner, it’s your responsibility to use these bits of public information to build relationships, improve customer service and enhance your products.

Just how significant are bad reviews for the future of our businesses? They’re significant, but not for the reasons we immediately think. They make us aware of and provide us with an opportunity to fix genuine problems and turn opponents into staunch allies. Unjustly negative reviews are often exposed as petty and have little sway with intelligent consumers, and in the case of outright illegal reviews you generally have a remedial process to get them removed.

The number one rule when responding to all criticism, even the negative type, is to stay positive. Adding more negativity to the conversation by letting yourself be drawn into a fight with a customer or user will only reflect poorly on your business.  If you know you’re doing the right thing and doing it the best way you’re able, integrity always comes out on top.

Spelling Errors and Bad Grammar

Almost everyone makes typos. Most people misspell words or mistype them all the time. Despite the frequency, web users are quick to judge. They stop trusting you when they think you can’t spell or simply didn’t take the time to proofread. Have a professional or a trusted partner look over your web copy, especially if you’re selling something.

Marketing Buzzwords

Avoid writing copy that reads like a long advertisement. Basically, don’t sound like a slick-talking salesman. When web users come across clichés and overused sales terms, they start hearing the teacher from Snoopy. Write conversationally and try to be surprising. Be honest and straightforward, and save your marketing-heavy moments for important calls to action.

Too Many Words

Most of the time, you need to write at a fourth grade level. This doesn’t mean your writing should be childish or immature. It simply means that you need to make your points quickly. Use bulleted lists and fairly simple sentences.

• You can be cheeky and interesting, but you can’t write a novel.
• If you absolutely need to share a lot of information, make sure you break the content up with appropriate headings and navigation so that readers can skim to the meaty bits.
• Consider using a blog or newsletter to share ongoing updates and info in bite-sized chunks.

Still struggling? Try starting with a basic outline. If you absolutely hate writing or you’re uncomfortable with the task, take your outline to a pro who can flesh it out to fit the frame of your website.

Maria Mora offers friendly, down-to-earth social media consulting and editorial strategies. You can usually find her messing around on Twitter.

I’m stressing about it.

And I hear this from my clients all the time.

I got to reading, and realized I’m not alone. Social media is just one more thing on our plates; one more tool in our belts. It’s not the make-it-or-break-it key to success that so many evangelists make it out to be. It can be a very powerful tool if you are able to use it, but there are certainly other tools.

When you’re feeling overwhelmed or just tired of being social in social media, here are a few thoughts to help you.

1. When you want to do social media but don’t have the time, use HootSuite: Seriously a life saver. Set up a free account at this web-based social media manager. Load up all of your social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, whatever) and start posting. The best feature of HootSuite? You can schedule your posts. Schedule a few status updates for your business page to post over the weekend or while you’re on vacation or even periodically throughout the week so you don’t lost interested fans. Check in once in a while to respond to comments. Set it and forget it!

2. You don’t need to be everywhere. Read this great post about why you don’t need to be on Twitter, then stick with the social media that you think really fit your market. If your customers aren’t your fans on Facebook, you probably don’t need a page. Social media isn’t right for everyone and every business, and that’s ok. It’s not absolutely necessary to succeed.

3. Give yourself a break. Too much posting is just as annoying as a page that hasn’t been updated in two months, so ease up. Let yourself take a few days away without worry. Jump back in when you’re ready and make sure you reply to comments and start conversations. Set user expectations so that they know not to expect you online all day and night, unless that’s what you want to do.

4. Watch your competitors. There are probably a few of your competitors who are doing an awesome job with social media. They’re posting all day, replying on Twitter, starting really cool conversations with industry leaders. Then, there are probably quite a few who have no social media presence at all. Which of those competitors are most successful? You’ll probably find a balance. There are many ways to stay connected to your clients and customers; social media is just another tool in your belt.

5.  Enlist help.  Find an employee who has a good handle on social media that can spend 20 minutes a day posting for your business.  Buy a cheap netbook (or maybe an iPad!) and let them go at it.  Hand over the reigns. You’ll be sharing a much more realistic and genuine view of your business than trying to half-heartedly maintain control doing it yourself.  Give your employees a voice and let them build those relationships.

Business owners wear a lot of hats, and marketing has to be one of them, but no one is expecting you to be perfect. Do what’s best for you, keeping an eye on your competitors, and you’ll be fine.

Five reasons to skip Twitter:

1. You just don’t get it.

If you just don’t get the “point” of Twitter, you’re not alone. Some users hit the ground running, firing off dozens of tweets a day and amassing hundreds of followers. Others struggle with the structure of the site and the concept of sharing bits of information in 140 characters or less.

Give it a try and nose around for a while. If it’s simply not for you, your efforts will be forced. That’s a waste of your time — and people will be able to tell that your interactions are half-hearted.

2. You only want to promote your business.

Twitter is a social media networking website. Think about it as a room full of people milling around. You can overhear their conversations and introductions if you stand close enough. You might notice a group talking about something that interests you. You may gravitate toward them and enter the conversation.

No one is standing around with a bullhorn making announcements — so don’t be that guy. If you’re not interested in a natural give and take and a good balance between reading and promoting, skip Twitter.

3. You don’t have any free time.

While it’s possible to set up some automated services to update your Twitter account with blog updates or promotional tweets, you’re unlikely to see much benefit from Twitter usage unless you put some real human effort into it. You need to reply to others. You need to follow people with similar interests. If you’re a local business, you really need to follow locals.

These tasks probably won’t require much more than twenty minutes a day as you get started — but if you can’t keep up with that sort of consistent maintenance, wait until you have more time.

4. Your customers don’t use Twitter.

Are your customers likely to be on Twitter? Not sure? Ask some of your regular customers how they use the Internet. Consider their average ages and general level of education, but keep in mind that you don’t need to have a web or technology-related business to interact with your clients online.

If you can’t interact with customers, provide customer service or develop natural leads on Twitter, you probably have no reason to be there in a business capacity. (Try a personal account to test the waters if you want to get a better idea before putting your business out there.)

5. You have nothing to talk about.

Content is king — even on Twitter. Do you have anything to say? If not, you’ll constantly be scrambling for updates. You don’t have to be a professional writer to succeed on Twitter, but you do need to have pertinent things to share. The last thing you want to do is waste time stressing over what to Tweet about.

Upcoming sales, tips related to your line of business, events, and success stories make great Twitter updates. Discussing the local weather can only go so far, so make sure to have a general idea before you get started. It can be as simple as a bulleted list of possible topics. As conversations begin, the update process will become more natural.

Maria Mora offers friendly, down-to-earth social media consulting and editorial strategies. You can usually find her messing around on Twitter.

1. Fans – not friends (page not profile)

• Don’t make people ask to friend you – fan pages are public; anyone can become a fan (vendors, clients, employees).
• Fan pages status updates are indexed by Google’s real time search results – use them to post links and it helps SEO for that website.
• Be sure to grab your business name (or something close to it) so you can easily share your Facebook page address.
• Multiple profiles are actually against FB terms and you can be banned.

2.  What to post

• Stay on topic (whatever that topic might be) and be present daily.
• Save your rants and tirades for somewhere else.
• Tell your story by sharing some personal information about your business.
• Add value to your fans – share news, links and stories (use Google or Yahoo blog search to find relevant content).
• Applaud your competitors – share good work and good ideas, give credit where credit is due.
• Speak in your own voice, not in business speak.

3. When to post

• When are your visitors online?   Chances are you can tell this by looking at your website analytics.
• Daily is not too often.  Hourly is too often.  Find a balance.
• Too many status updates clogs your fans’ newsfeeds; bores them and bothers them.  Don’t be annoying!
• Go slow and steady – don’t overdo it.  It takes time to build up the residual returns.

4. Use applications to increase engagement

• At the very least, Networked Blogs should be connecting with your blog.
• Connect your LinkedIn and Twitter profiles.
• Polls, contests and sweepstakes (there’s an app for that!).
• Others on Mashable

5. Develop custom tabs specific to your business

• Use Static FBML to create a custom landing tabs for your page – add your email subscription form, links to pages on your website – anything you can do with HTML/CSS you can do on this tab.
• Use boxes to add your business information, polls and surveys.
• If your wall is nothing to write home about (lacking comments or updates), use one of these tabs as your landing tab for new visitors.
• Hire a web designer if you need help – this is a quick and easy project that helps make your profile sticky and fun.

6. Join the conversation – but don’t control it.

• Respond to comments and make comments on your fan’s profiles and pages
• Add their businesses to your fan’s  “favorites.”
• Allow natural commenting and questions to happen (Dell is a great example).
• Respond kindly and swiftly to negative comments;  don’t delete them, but use them as feedback to improve your business – show your fans that you care enough to change.

7. Offer discounts and specials to your Facebook fans.

• Give people a reason to recommend you to their friends.
• Say thank you once in awhile!
• Track this  and use the information to improve the offer.
• Offer a choice of discount (which would you prefer?).
• Solicit feedback from your fans on your business decisions (would you rather see us open a new location in North Pinellas or add two more professionals to our current location?).
• Which incentives you use depend on the type of business you are running.

8. Leverage the power of Facebook Events

• Use events only for the notable, big events you’re hosting or involved in – not your weekly or daily specials.
• Only invite fans/friends to whom the event is relevant! (Local, likely to attend or interested in your business/topic).
• Promote your events with Facebook ads.
• Decide whether or not to show the guest list (small events = no; big events = yes).
• Enable the wall if it’ll spark good discussion, not just RSVPs.
• Add links to related pages on your website or partnering businesses.
  

9. Use your Facebook URL everywhere, like a website.

• Many brands have started using it instead of their website in print and web advertising
• Creates more of a relationship than a website does
• Fresher content and more easily editable than your website
• Add to business cards and especially email signatures

10. Use Facebook ads!

• They’re cheap, targeted and you can help build your fan base very affordably.
• Run campaigns that are compelling and promote your Facebook page, a promotion or an event instead of trying to sell something
• If you build a good FBML tab with good content, you can use ads to bring people to your uploaded presentations, white papers, even your events.
• Figure that you’d spend a few hundred dollars on a Yellow Pages advertisement so be willing to test out a similar budget on Facebook
• Use the ‘social ads’ – show the connections between your page and specific users who are fans

More tips and tricks

• Remember that Facebook statuses update mobile platforms (notifications are free mobile advertising!)
• Use FB to research business prospects/partners/clients/employees
• Combine with your other social media initiatives (Twitter, blogging)
• Use Facebook to find guest bloggers and connect with others in your industry
• Use FB to syndicate other web content, links to articles and news stories

Facebook Resources

• Facebook Advertising
• AllFacebook
• Mashable
• Chris Brogan
• Social Media Examiner
• Inside Facebook
• PDF eBook from Hubspot

It’s also your best salesperson.  The first impression a lot – if not most - of your clients have with your company.  Website analytics are a way for you to hold your site accountable the way you would any other member of your sales team.

The beauty of the web as a marketing tool is that almost everything is trackable.  Measurable.  Countable.  You can use Google analytics, for free, or pay services such as Omniture or WebTrends.

Here are five easy ways to use those website analytics.

1.  To measure your clearly defined marketing goals.  Before you start building your site, you need to define what exactly you’re expecting it to do for you.  Make sure you identify clear and realistic brand and business goals so that you have numbers to optimize against after you go live.  These goals can be simple (overall visitors, time spent on a part of your site) or more complex (increase brand recognition, client education about a specific topic).  They are easily tied to behavioral actions on the website and can be measured as such.

2. To assess your search engine positioning.  This is the easy one and probably the most familiar use of analytics.  You can easily see the search terms for which visitors are finding your website.  If you dig a little deeper, you can follow which keywords lead to behavioral events like filling out your contact form or requesting an online demo of your product.  You can also see if certain phrases lead to people spending more or less time on your site (indicative of whether those terms relate directly to what you’re offering).

3.  To make your site more user-friendly and navigable. Looking how how your visitors find you is important, but you can also use analytics to find out what they do once they get there.  If they’re going straight to the FAQ, you know you need to step up your content to start answering questions right off the bat.  If they are going directly from your homepage to your products page but then are detouring through your blog, you might want to figure out why they aren’t getting to the shopping cart.

4.  To track bandwidth usage and bad links. Your analytics can help you find out what functions and pages on your site are bandwidth hogs and where visitors are encountering bad links so that you can make internal improvements.  Now that Google officially uses site performance as a ranking factor, making your site faster is more important than ever.  Bad links on your site are an instant “see ya later” to your visitors as they rarely click back to find what they were looking for, so use your analytics to get those fixed.

5.  To plan your marketing campaigns. If you knew that all of your potential customers are at their computers at 1:30 pm every Tuesday, you’d likely want to send them your eblast at that time, right?  Or if people from Buffalo, New York tend to buy 3 more widgets from your site than any other purchasers, you’d want to spend a little more on PPC campaigns targeted to that region.  Your website analytics can help you see where your visitors are from and when they’re online so that you can target your campaigns demographically, geographically and by time of day.

If you’re lost when you log in to Google analytics or don’t even know if you’ve got them set up on your site, give us a shout and we’ll get you up and running.  Decisions are best made based on actual data, and analytics are a free and easy way to make informed decisions about your website.

Enter foursquare.  Foursquare is a mobile application that combines social media with game-like mechanics, encouraging healthy competition and personal besting.   Users ‘check in’ to local establishments using their phone app as they move around town.  They are rewarded with badges as they explore new places and check in more frequently.  They find friends and share tips about the places they go.

Foursquare has only recently become popular in the Tampa Bay area, and as more and more users sign up (Foursquare is aiming to reach 1,000,000 members by Foursquare Day on April 16th), businesses can benefit by rewarding their loyalty.

As an aside, foursquare day was conceived and organized by Tampa’s own Dr. Nate Bonilla-Warford of Bright Eyes Family Vision Center. It’s been adopted and promoted all over the world – so let’s be proud and represent, Tampa!

There are a lot of simple ways to encourage users to check in at your business, but it all comes down to rewarding customer loyalty based on the data behind foursquare usage.

1. Reward your mayor.   The mayor is the person who checks in most frequently at any establishment. Offering perks like free drinks, food specials, discounts and public promotion of your support helps build that competitive spirit and encourages others to check-in more frequently.  (Example: Hyatt Regency Tampa is giving a 50% restaurant discount to their mayor.) (Don’t allow your employees to check-in and become mayor or it throws the whole game off.)
2. Offer discounts.  Encourage users to show their phones when they check-in at your business, and give them a discount for doing so.  Offer discounts for frequency of check-ins, sharing tips, and inviting their friends.
3. Promote your foursquare love! Make sure your patrons know that you encourage the use of foursquare with frequently updated marquees, tweets and Facebook status updates about their check-in behavior.   Use your in-store marquees and signage to promote the discounts and perks you offer.
4. Let foursquare know. On the iPhone and mobile web versions of foursquare, special attention is given to businesses that offer promotions or discounts for users.  Let foursquare know about your deals, and they’ll share some insights into what other businesses are experimenting with, what works and what doesn’t.
5. Get involved with foursquare day (April 16). Promote your deals and foursquare itself for the next couple weeks to help encourage people to get on board and start using foursquare.  Become a fan on Facebook and stay tuned to what your colleagues and competitors are doing (because if you’re not going to do it, someone else certainly will!).

To learn more about foursquare and how it can benefit your business:

• Building an army of hyper-local, mobile-connected advocates (AdAge)
• Foursquare shows the business potential of location based services (TechCrunch)
• Foursquare CEO:  We’ll hit 1-million members in a few weeks (WSJ)

But this year, I really really wanted to go.  I am running a web business, working on social media plans, engaging daily with new technology and testing new ideas – I really should be at one of the top interactive conferences of the year, right?  And the music – oh the music!

This year has been big for Big Sea.  Like mega-uber-big.   So it wasn’t in the cards.

Just to make myself feel better, here are a few reasons I’m not at SXSW this year.  (I’d make a list of why I should be there but it would be waaaaay too long.)

1. I opened an office!  Big Sea grew and grew beyond the scope of my back deck and home office.  I found I needed better separation of work and home life, and needed people around me too.  I’m an extrovert, after all.   Anyway, opening the office meant new computers (and of course, they can’t be anything but Mac), rent, all of the expenses I didn’t have when working from home.   Financially, it didn’t make sense to spend a few grand on the conference this year.
2. I have a 15 month old daughter. I know my husband and parents are more than capable of caring for her in my absence, but I would miss her!  Ok, this isn’t a really strong reason, but it’s a contributor.
3. We are swamped.  I had 4 new client meetings this week, am trying to push 2 HUGE development projects forward to launch April 1 and simultaneously finish 2 fairly large design projects.  In addition, I need to keep up with the numerous and ongoing needs of all of my clients. New web content or features, eblasts and ideas galore.  Not that this ever changes.  I’m always swamped, and I always feel guilty taking time away.
4. I’m afraid of flying. Nope, not true.
5. My cat needs to get her tonsils out.  Also no.
6. It might rain.  (I love rain.)

So I’m out of reasons, and the first three are pretty lame.   I should be there.

See ya next year!

You’re a small business owner, and you know that you need to use Facebook for promotion. You might even have a fan page already built.  But are you using it to its fullest potential? What are you leaving on the table, and how can you maximize the very little time in your day to get the most out of your social media marketing?

It’s important to understand  how, when, where and why using social media makes sense and what impact using them will have on your business.

Join us for lunch at Three Birds Tavern (pardon the music) on Tuesday, March 23 to learn:

• What to post and what not to post – and when
• How to make – and keep – fans
• Creative ideas for engaging your fans
• Why and why not to use Facebook ads
• How to translate fans into sales

Where:  Three Birds Tavern
When: Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 12:00 pm
How much: $15 for paid LS1 members / $20 non-members / $25 at the door
(includes lunch, drink and tip + 45 minute workshop and discussion time)

Register in advance at LocalShops1.com »