Of course this alerted the public to the paintings existence and South Africans rushed off to Google to see what all the fuss was about. The picture has been published in just about every newspapers website in the country and even in the print media. Yesterday the ANC secretary general ratcheted up the media and social media frenzy another notch by calling the painting racist at a press conference. Just reading the News 24 comments is quite nauseating.

In contrast to this situation a satirical painting of Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, by artist Margaret Sutherland went on display at the Ontario Public Library a few days ago as well. The artwork was an entry in an art competition. This painting depicts a naked Canadian Prime Minister with a dog at his feet and surrounded by headless people in suits. In contrast to the South African reaction The Prime Ministers Spokesperson, Andrew MacDougall reacted to the painting in a Twitter message saying “We’re not impressed. Everyone knows the PM is a cat person.”

Two very differing ways to react to a similar situation. One approach deflects the heat and another stokes it.

I often quote the case of Jaco van der Nerwe and his legendary battle with General Motors as an example of how the internet has changed the power balance in favour of the individual rather than the corporation. In brief, Jaco started one of the first electronic media campaigns (email letter and website) against a corporation (General Motors) that tried to use it’s money and power to squash his claim that the vehicle he purchased was sub standard. General Motors came off second best in a typical David vs Goliath battle. This saga started way back in 2001, long before social media was around. Facebook was only opened to the public some seven years ago.

Social forces have changed and technology has without doubt increased consumer awareness and the way we communicate with each other. Regardless of whether the ANC is successful in their court action to have the painting removed from the Goodman Gallery or not, a very large number of South Africans have seen the painting arguably because of the ANC approach to the matter.

Now I am not sure if that was the ANC’s intention in this case, but if not they could have taken a far more measured approach to protect the President’s dignity.

Sooner or later your business may face a negative comment on one of the social media platforms. How you react will determine how people perceive you. My advice is that you take a big breath, think about it and bounce your intended reaction off someone knowledgeable in these matters before taking the plunge with your reaction.

Naturally this has it’s downside. All this information or “stuff” lands up swirling around in our brains. We deal with work issues, new projects, new technologies, our kids education, sporting activities, leaking roofs and sick dogs, not to mention forthcoming birthday parties, gift selections and declining or rising bank balances. On top of that we may be concerned about the political situation, declining infrastructure, crime levels and how to deal with the next power cut. (Eskom says be prepared). We are concerned about the economy, losing accounts and the list is endless. Just having this stuff swirling around in our heads is very stressful.

Then along came a fellow called David Allen who wrote a book called “Getting Things Done” and he runs a management consultancy based on the principles espoused in this book. Now David is no techno geek and his system is based on 43 hanging files… It’s an amazing system and allows us to get all this stuff out of our heads and into an organised approach on how to deal with it. It allows us to combine work and home related actions and ideas into a systemised approach to life. “Getting Things Done or GTD as it’s more commonly known has revolutionised productivity for millions of people all over the world.

Of course as the GTD system has realised cult status throughout the world, a plethora of adherents have developed computerised systems to support the theories. Most of which are available at relatively low cost. So which is the best one to use?

And along came Evernote

If you are like me, I have accumulated dozens of files over the years filled with quotes, proposals and past work. Of course keeping all this data on ones computer is the answer but when you work in teams then it becomes more difficult to share all this work. This gets a little more complex when your team members are not in the same town and even in the same country. www.Evernote.com comes to the rescue.

Evernote is an amazing system that allows you to store pictures, text files, audio notes, video clips, PDF’s in a searchable database in the “Cloud”. When I say searchable I mean it even identifies text in PDF’s and you have the option to transcribe audio files as well. Evernote also allows you to forward emails related to projects into the system. You can clip entire webpages and links to YouTube videos to Evernote as well. It really is one place to store everything you ever want to keep.

You can use Evernote everywhere. It’s a huge bucket just waiting to hold information. You can store contacts, recipes, ideas for projects, receipts, notes for school, varsity and courses. You can synchronise all your Evernote files onto your laptop or desktop, your smartphone and your iPad. It doesn’t matter if you run on PC or Mac, iPhone, Blackberry or Droid. Evernote is supported on all these platforms.

And Evernote is FREE!

As an example I was recently in Cape Town to do some training and I had forgotten to take my data projector. I got someone to drop it off at Airfreight and I was able to collect it later that evening. When I got to SAA Aircargo they wanted a positive form of identification. A quick search on my iPhone Evernote App, delivered a  scan of my ID document. Good enough for SAA Aircargo.

Evernote is also a great place to store photos of all those till slips that form guarantees. How long ago did I buy this washing machine that’s just packed up? Is it still under guarentee. Where do I store serial numbers of my electronic goods for insurance purposes?

A marriage made in heaven

Now here’s the great news. You can configure Evernote to support GTD. This then forms the ultimate organisational system ever created. If you want to know how it’s done then head over here and watch these video’s that will show you what to do.

In case you are worried heres a step by step approach:

1. Sign up for Evernote at www.evernote.com.
2. Download a copy of Evernote to your PC, Mac or Laptop. The downloads are on www.evernote.com.
3. Got to to watch how to configure Evernote and use the GTD principles at The Secret Weapon.
4. Head to your App Store on your smartphone and download the free version of Evernote.
5. Sign into Evernote on your smartphone.

Clear your head of all the stuff by following the principles on the video’s under  above. The Secret Weapon

Be productive and enjoy life more.

I’m not kidding, this can be life changing stuff and for a change… it’s all free.

Tell me how you are doing?

Itʼs not surprising then that Facebook chose the 29 February 2012 to announce that Timeline is available for Facebook Pages. For those of you who are not sure, a Facebook Profile is the place where an individual (yes you) has an internet presence and a Facebook Page is where your business or product has a FaceBook presence.

As individuals we are all getting used to our personal Timelines but now all of a sudden we have to contend with our businesses having one too. And just to add to our stress we are told that all our Facebook Pages will be converted to the Timeline format at the end of March whether we like it or not. The good news is we have 30 days to prepare and to embrace this new change.

Personally I think itʼs great. Facebook is all about engagement and a Facebook Page in timeline format offers lots and lots of options for you to engage with your customers. One of my clients, Pam Golding Properties in East London, couldnʼt wait to make the change. It needs to be tweaked a little and the real exciting thing will be adding the company history to the site. Itʼs a really great way to prove a companies credentials.

How great it will be to see milestones such as:

The year the branch was started.
The Highest price fetched for a property in the area.
The prevailing bond interest rates for each year over the last ten years.
The year they moved into their new premises.
Average house prices for each of the last ten years.

One can draw comparisons to social advances such as the year Facebook was started, the launch of the iPad or iTunes, the demise of the LP or the launch of the USB stick. You could also tie in specific milestones in your company to “This day in History” where national events have taken place.

I can see catering companies, engineering works, building contractors and event organisers using their Page as a bragging book. My prediction is that your FaceBook page will be the first place prospective clients will go to look at your company credentials.

Take a look at the examples facebook has suggested. http://www.facebook.com/livestrong. LIVESTRONG serves people affected by cancer and empowers them to take action against the world’s leading cause of death. Inspired by Lance Armstrong this timeline opens with pictures of Armstrong when he was very ill and shows his current excellent form.

If you are a soccer fan then you need to take a look at Manchester Unitedʼs Timeline.

I am currently compiling a guide to “Facebook Engagement – The way to get Fans, Likes and Customers”. This will be available via Amazon next week. If you are interested in a copy then email me and I will make the link available to you.
We also have a special package to ease the pain by helping you change your facebook Page to a Timeline. Our technical manager, Ken, has a few more spaces for clients to do the changeover. Free copies of our guide are included in this package. Making the change has some serious restrictions put in place by Facebook.

The Cover Photo cannot contain

• Price or purchase information (such as 40% off or Download it on our site.)
• Contact info such as web address, email, mailing address or info for the About section.
• References to user interface elements, such as Like and Share.
• Calls to action, such as “Get it Now” or “Tell Your Friends”

Many of those features may be included in your current Facebook Page but we have some great tips to help you get featured properly on your current page.

Happy Facebooking

Thanks
Mike

Well take heart… Facebook allows you to make the conversion. Here is a link to show you how. You can convert your FaceBook Profile to a Facebook Page and retain all your subscribers and friends in the process.

Good luck!

Firstly best wishes for 2012. I hope it is going to be a year filled with awesomeness for you.

We all spend some time at the beginning of the year planning for the year ahead and late last week I spent some time with a client reviewing what he could do to promote his guest house. I thought I’d share that with you as it may spur you on to get things right with your online marketing efforts as well.

Optimising your Google Places listing

I cannot stress how important this is. Google reports that as much as 80% of the search activity on mobile phones relates to local searches. Smart phones have GPS built into them and the people using them to look for restaurants, coffee shops and BMW dealerships. is your business in the top seven listings on Google maps? It needs to be.

You need to standardise your establishments name in all your online environments as Google looks for collaborative evidence before feeling comfortable in pushing your product, service or company.  So that means that your google places listing must be the same as your website listing, the same details must appear on your listing with your Chamber of Business and any professional industry bodies you may be a member of.

You need to be careful that your divergent listings are not competing for the same space. Google, Bing and other search engines will penalise you for that.

Promote your Facebook PAGE 

There are now more than 800 million active Facebook users. My suggestion is to look at the emotional benefits that your product supplies. Stop thinking of it as a convenience or about it’s features. What value does it really offer? For my B&B client it offers a lifestyle element so my recommendation was for him to arm himself with his camera, take local pictures of people having fun, visit the nearby beach, the gold course and the local restaurants and to snap away. tagging friends and associates is a great way to draw then to your Facebook Page. So what business are you really in? Where is the competition for the money that will be spent with you? Win over local ambassadors, show then having fun or getting pleasure from your product or service.

Back linking remains very important.

Your back links are important. Do some Google searches for local events and activities that may relate to your business, find people who have blogs about your industry, look for forums. Then using the stealth method I taught you go and make relevant posts but include the hidden back links. You will be surprised how many you will get if you tackle just a few a day. Google loves your site being referred to. Thats the foundation for your online reputation.

If you need any help with any of these tasks don’t hesitate to give me a shout.

Google uses a separate bot to trawl mobile sites, than the bot it uses to trawl regular sites. Ok whoopee so what….

Then I read a research report that indicates that search results on a mobile phone and search results on a regular computer are different.

“Separate tests by Resolution Media and Covario both confirmed that mobile smartphone ranking differs from desk top rankings.”

Oh….

Then I did some research to see how important this mobile thing is.

A lot of mobile phone users are using their devices to access the internet and this figure is growing quickly. We also know that there are many more mobile devices out there than desk top devices.

The implication is that we need to make sure we are able to provide content to these people who are searching for it on their mobile devices.

So I went to find out from google what they had to say about the matter…

Google as always was ambivalent about it. In one post they said that if your site reads well on a mobile device then thats great. However in another post they said that it was probably best practice to register a subdomain called www.m.yourdomain.com and display your mobile content  there. In both these posts they confirm that Google uses two bots, one for regular sites and another for mobile. They also confirmed that Google would not see your mobile content as duplicate content of your regular site.

Google also recommends that when optimising for mobile devices you need to look at:

• Formatting
• Speed
• Relevance

In other words make your images smaller, make sure they fit on a smaller browser etc.

As far as relevance goes I think all my clients understand those implications. That’s been my mantra for years.

So let me express my self doubt here about an approach that I have followed.

Our approach of ensuring that all the current websites we build are also optimised for mobile is great from a readability perspective but how does that shape up from a search perspective. Well frankly I am not sure.

However I have learned from Google posts that when they suggest something as probably best practice you can be pretty sure that they are telling you thats what you need to do.

Here’s the deal.

There are more mobile devices than desktops.
43% of people with mobile devices use them to access the internet.
Google uses different ranks for normal and mobile devices as a result of their two bot policy.
We also know that Google is taking local searches very seriously especially when it comes to mobile devices. If you don’t believe me then download the Google Places app onto your iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone and see how it allows you to search for businesses in your vicinity.

Conclusion

If you want a share of local search or mobile search you probably need a mobile site built on a sub domain of your main site.

This need not be a train smash. talk to us today about your options in this regard.

Warm regards

Mike

The story is about an accountant, who a few years back after attending a seminar on how to improve his business, sat down with a client of seven years and suggested to the client that he could get more involved in trying to identify opportunities for the client to improve his profitability and increase his turnover.

In this case the client was open to the suggestion and the accountant, who was armed with a newly acquired analysis toolkit, proceeded together with the client to analyse certain key areas of his clients business. After about an hour or so of working on the problem the two were able to identify a number of areas for improvement and the client was delighted with the input.

In fact the client said to the accountant that in all the years of dealing with him that this was the most valuable interaction that he had had. The client was very happy but the accountant although initially flattered by the comment was not so happy. His thoughts went back to the hundreds of hours he had spent with his clients books each year trying to sort out the mess he was given (I have visions of a shoe box full of receipts) and how he had to struggle to create accurate books of account.

The accountant was initially clearly miffed that the majority of his efforts were not appreciated and a simple little excercise that had really been an afterthought was perceived to have such value. From the accountants perspective his main work was undervalued by the client.

There is a moral to this story. The moral is that as businesspeople, the value we offer our clients can only be measured by our clients, and not by what we think. Have you wondered in your business what aspects of what you do is most valued by your clients?

With internet marketing we are very lucky because we can tell exactly what your clients are searching for. If you haven’t googled your goods and services yet then this is a great time to do so…

Market research | Keyword research

Similarly our client www.brunchbar.co.za has an automated daily specials email delivered to those that choose to sign up for this take away business. Our case study makes for interesting reading.
Technology can make you more efficient and improve your customer service.

The Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to

Alice: I don’t much care where.

The Cat: Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go.

Alice: …so long as I get somewhere.

I want to draw your attention to the fact that the obvious isn’t always the obvious. Our perception of something may not always be someone else’s perception of the same thing.

So before you accuse me of dithering on, let me explain.

It is VERY important for you to know what search terms people are using when they are looking for services that your offer. The search terms may not be the same as the ones you would use. To use an example take the terms short sleeve shirts vs T shirts. There are about 100 searches for short sleev shirts in South Africa each month vs 45000 searches for T shirts. So selecting the correct term is crucial for your online success.

Well you may ask… “how do we know what term people may use”.

Effective research allows us to tell you exactly how many people are using which terms when they look for your goods or services. That’s the starting point for any website content producer.

This exercise is crucial to determine what other people think, when they search for your goods and services.

I know you are dealing with a million things relating to your business right now but this is the most critical to your success with your online sales strategy.

Market research | Keyword research