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Steve Erickson
President, Creative Director
800-728-2656, ext. 126
How to See Who’s Linking to Your Site
A site that’s online isn’t much of a site unless people go to it. The raw website visitor stats that services like Analytics and Quantcast provide sometimes aren’t enough for gauging the traffic flow to a site. A “link” is a fundamental way in which visitors reach a site, and direct links (typing in the web address) and search engines are the two other ways. Of course, there’s “good company” and “bad company” online that could be linking to you. I’m not going to discuss right & wrong in this article, but I will go over how to be more aware of one factor that affects all sites… backlinks.
Which method is best?
There’s a few different ways to find who’s linking to a site. Some are tools made available by search engines like Google while some are various services that are available online.
Google’s link: command (perfect for URL-specific stats)
Using link: as part of a Google search will list the webpages that have links to that specified webpage. For instance, link:www.google.com will list webpages that have links pointing to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the “link:” and the web page url. It’s also important to know that this finds the backlinks for that one URL, and doesn’t provide matches for every URL on the site. By the way, you can use the number of matches below the search box to get a rough number for assessing the online penetration of that webpage.
Google Webmaster Tools (perfect for site-wide stats)
As part of Google’s Webmaster Tools, they have “Your site on the web” => “Links to your site” in the side navigation that shows backlink stats for a site as a whole. Essentially, this provides:
- A list of sites and what pages they’re linking to
- Which page is being linked to the most
- The terms being used for the links
- and you can get fairly granular with each data set
Everything else
The above methods obviously depend on what Google has indexed, and similar tools are available using Bing and other search engines so one can diversify their data set. There’s also a great service from SEOmoz called Open Site Explorer that’s worth looking into.Unfortunately, searching for a tool that accumulates these stats resulted in finding a lot of adware/junk sites so your mileage may vary depending on the service being used.
Knowing who’s linking to a site a good way to understand what sort of company that site is involved with, and this can be helpful when working with the public relations & marketing for a website. It’s also a decent way to see what others are saying about a particular site, but do keep in mind that this is just one way that websites establish a connection with one another.
Kurt Zenisek
Lead Web Developer
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kzeni
Went to Chicago for the National Restaurant Association Trade Show
The first thing I noticed upon entering McCormick Place on Sunday was the overpowering, but very pleasant, aroma of food. Enticing smells of pork, beef, fish, teas and spices filled the air. It’s all part of the fun at the National Restaurant Association’s annual convention and exhibition. I spent part of the weekend in Chicago in support of a new client who was exhibiting at the show.
Over the years I’ve attended many trade shows, most of them related to supply chain, bar codes, RFID, electronics, IT, aviation and aerospace and even rental products. But I’ve never before been greeted at the registration desk with such an attention-getting gastronomic assault on the senses. Foods and beverages of all types were being prepared throughout the enormous North and South exhibition halls. Each dish or drink was presented in an attractive and inspiring setting. Free food was everywhere and freely distributed to anyone who happened by. That was a new experience for me.
There is a sense of irony here because our client is in the technology business, one of our specialties. Numerous technology providers were at the show demonstrating their wares. What struck me most was the amount of automation software available to restaurants to support loyalty programs, geolocation couponing, online ordering and a lot of integration with Facebook and Twitter to drive store traffic and grow the database.
Generating and managing data was a major theme for those providers, a key message they were trying to get across to the restaurants.
At the end of the day, the trip made me think about you and your business.
Are you managing your data? Are you making offers and creating calls to action that generate leads for your database – leads that you can use for your email marketing campaigns? Are your lead generation efforts integrated with your CRM and email marketing platforms? Have you been able to bring some automation to these efforts? We’ve been able to integrate and automate our online marketing efforts. And, it has paid off by generating more leads through our website.
How important is lead generation and data tracking to your operations? Please post a comment and let us know what’s working – or not – for you.
Jim Thebeau
Partner/CEO
800-728-2656 ext. 121
Follow me on Twitter @JimThebeau
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jimthebeau
Paying attention pays off
I was reminded recently of an anagram (transposing the letters of one word to produce another word) which, to me, seems to have real significance in this business of advertising and client relationships. The word is “SILENT.” Rearrange the letters and you get the word “LISTEN.” That seems like more than a coincidence.
Personally, I’ve never learned anything by talking … except maybe how to talk more. Its in the silence of really listening to our clients that we learn the real issues they’re dealing with.
Maybe their brand is taking a nose dive in the market but the real issue isn’t the need for more or better advertising. Maybe its problem with product distribution, not being able to meet customer demand can have a huge negative effect on a brand. Or perhaps there are issues with the sales force being overwhelmed or not sufficiently trained. They are the ambassadors of the brand out in the field, if they’re not generating trust and value, they won’t generate many sales either.
Discovering those important issues starts by asking the right questions. And then by listening. It’s a lost art these days but only then can the real problem solving begin.
By the way, the letters “ERIC CLAPTON” also spell “NARCOLEPTIC.” Maybe that explains his song “Sleeping in the Ground.”
Steve Erickson
President, Creative Director
800-728-2656, ext. 126
Digging for brand truth
It’s a movie line I’ve remembered since I first heard it. Very early in “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” the first of the Indiana Jones trilogy. Professor Jones tells his inquisitive class of college students, “Archaeology is the search for fact… not truth. If it’s truth you’re interested in, philosophy class is right down the hall.” I’ve always thought it also to be a simple but great descriptor of the business of advertising and public relations.
We are in the business of discovering and delivering “truth.” The truth about a brand … the truth about an organization, a product or service … and the truth about the benefits they provide their customer. Finding that truth, a truth that really matters to the market, is the hard part.
In the final part of that same quote from Indiana Jones he states, “Seventy percent of all archaeology is done in the library. Research. Reading.” That’s where good advertising and public relations begins also. With research and reading. Learning about the market, the prevailing attitudes, new technologies, about the competition’s brand image and products, understanding distribution issues, etc. It’s only through that kind of curious “archeology” can the proper “truth” about a brand be developed.
The next time you’ve finished posting those pictures of your crazy office party and logged off your Facebook account, do a quick web search on “truth theories.” You’ll find that truth has been a favorite topic of philosophers for centuries, spawning The Correspondence Theory, The Semantic Theory, The Deflationary Theory, The Coherence Theory, and The Pragmatic Theory. Trying to read and completely understand any of them will give us agency types throbbing headaches.
For us, the simple words of the French novelist Flaubert may be more fitting, “There is no truth. There is only perception.”
When faced with a branding or advertising problem, do your archeology. Take the time and effort to unearth the facts. Then you’ll be prepared to discover the “truth” and ultimately, affect perception.
That’s my truth.
Steve Erickson
President, Creative Director
800-728-2656, ext. 126
Using the Funnel Technique to Build Superior Branding and Advertising Services
Yesterday during a meeting with HRB’s CEO, I learned a great deal about why some agencies are failing without the help of the economy. According to Jim, the main reason is because they don’t market their brand using the “funnel technique.” This is a tactic we have been using for our marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) and advertising projects and telling our clients about to help them grow their business and improve their services.
The funnel technique involves three simple steps:
1) Determining a brand‘s mission and goals (putting ideas into the funnel)
2) Choosing the best strategic approach for marketing and promoting the brand (weeding out research and ideas so only the best ideas begin to flow through the funnel)
3) Actively engaging/re-engaging with customers and key prospects on behalf of the brand’s mission and goals (creating brand loyalty via a smooth transition between initial offers, additional services and added values).
At HRB, we are very careful to select only the best ideas to put into the funnel. We inspire team members to seek out new advertising venues, read new publications and avoid recycled content. We don’t use the economy as an excuse for failure, but rather as a challenge and opportunity to own an industry and trump competitors by pushing our creative juices to the limit. And it’s because of this attitude that our client retention numbers and our clients’ customer retention numbers are high—everyone’s hungry for fresh insight to throw into the funnel and the funneling process itself .
Throughout my internship I have used the funnel technique everyday. Whether I’m strategizing new ways to keep HRB’s audience and customers engaged in our blog, social media marketing platforms, website or growing portfolio, my job is to help promote the HRB brand and let people know that our ideas are revolutionary.
I think it’s so easy for me to promote this marketing technique because I believe in it. Recently I’ve been asked to spearhead the organizational and branding process for HRB’s seminar series, and I’ve had to strategize everything from advertising outlets to the presentation schedule and speaking topics to which customers and prospects we are going to target. I will need to think about the individual pieces that go into planning a seminar as well as how the pieces all fit together and continue to flow through HRB’s brand funnel.
Connect with HRB:
Like my colleagues, I am motivated and excited to start the research for this project. So far I have compiled everyone’s ideas into a six-page strategic plan. My next steps will include:
1) Creating checklists for the steps we’ll be taking to plan and execute each 2011 seminar
2) Creating a master editorial calendar
3) Creating contact and media lists
4) Writing and posting weekly polls on our blog, Facebook® page, Twitter® stream, various advertising outlets and Web services.
The goal here is to research industry trends as well as the behaviors and thoughts of our audience, clients and prospective seminar registrants to determine what events/speaking topics they would like to attend, how HRB can improve about its seminar series and process, and how to continue engaging with the community. Simply being organized and having good research and ideas isn’t enough, though. Everything needs to tie together and flow smoothly through the funnel.
To quote Seth Godin in his recent blog, “Understanding the Funnel,” “Embracing the funnel changes the way you treat people. And treating different people differently is what consumers demand.” That’s what we hope to do and inspire our clients to do by offering our expertise in these seminars. Care to join us?
Megan Jasin
Public Relations Intern
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/meganjasin
4 Reasons Why Social Behaviors are Plateauing and Mobile Usage Rates are Rising
Why Social Behaviors Are Plateauing (by Augie Ray of MediaPost)
Since 2007, Forrester has tracked the growth of social behaviors. For years we’ve seen increases in more complex communication techniques from “Creators”—those who generate social content such as YouTube® videos and blog posts.
But for the first time in three years, we’re seeing a change in social media marketing trends. The Forrester 2010 Global Update of Social Technographics demonstrates that many social behaviors have reached a plateau. Why, and what does this mean for marketers, their clients and their portfolios?
Trends in Mobile Barcode Usage by Marketers
Mobile bar code scanning is growing exponentially, according to reporting data collected by Scanbuy™. The company calls itself the world leader in mobile bar code scanning applications. It’s one of several technology innovators that lets you download a bar code reading application to your smart phone and use the camera function to capture the bar code image. The image then takes you to information on the Web–much like actually clicking on a Web link.
According to the company’s information, mobile scanning traffic increased 700% between January 2010 and October 2010. This technology is being rapidly adopted for marketing and advertising purposes. Various types of bar codes are showing up on printed materials and websites that can be photographed with a mobile scanning application to take the participant to additional information on the topic of interest.
Microsoft®, among other companies, also offers a free Tag Reader application that mobile Internet users can download to their phones. How many of you actually use such applications and what are your thoughts about the future of them?
iPad Leads Tablets Into Workplace (by Thomas Claburn of Information Week)
In a blog memo by Microsoft® Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, marking his decision to step down from his position, Ozzie asks us to “close our eyes and form a realistic picture of what a post-PC world might actually look like, if it were to ever truly occur.” For some, the post-PC world is already here. As Forrester analyst Ted Schadler sees it, tablet computers, exemplified by Apple’s iPad®, are post-PC devices—and like it or not, they’re now being used by businesses.
In a report issued last Tuesday, Schadler observes that new tablets seem to appear every day. He cites Google® Chrome OS tablets, the Cisco® Cius, the Dell® Streak, the Samsung® Galaxy Tab, the RIM® PlayBook and the HP® WebOS-based PalmPad as examples. Even if it’s only Apple that’s currently selling the most tablets—4.19 million during its most recent quarter—Forrester is predicting 13 million tablets will have been sold by the end of 2010 and 59 million will be sold by the end of 2015.
Google Improving Local Search (by MediaPost)
According to Search Engine Land™, Google® this week debuted “Place Search,” which offers a new way to experience local search results. According to the company, “There appear to be some fairly major SEO implications.” Officially, Google says that its algorithm has been improved and refined for Place Search.
“Now, fully fleshed out Place Pages will assume much greater importance, as will being present and reviewed in the various sites featured in the ‘clustered’ links,” notes Search Engine Land’s Greg Sterling. As a result, he says, local directories like Yelp®, Citysearch® City Guides, Insider Pages® and Urbanspoon® will benefit greatly from the change. Visually, maps have been moved to the right column and “floats” or scrolls down the page as users move down results.
Selected third-party sites referencing a particular search topic are “clustered” with the listing. In cases of ambiguous queries, if Google isn’t sure whether users are seeking local information, there’s another type of result that will appear, which Google refers to as “Places Mode.”
What are your thoughts about such news? We’d love to hear your opinions in the comments section below.
Jim Thebeau
Partner/CEO
800-728-2656 ext. 121
Follow me on Twitter @JimThebeau
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jimthebeau
Positively Tired of Negative Advertising
If you’re like me, you’ve been “enjoying” the deluge of pre-election advertising. The vast majority of them being completely negative…blaming their opponents for everything from the trade deficit to global warming, or questioning their ethics because of an unpaid library fine from grade school. “Would you trust someone this fiscally irresponsible?” they ask us.
Instead of proving themselves to be the best candidate based on their personal character, portfolio and stand on the issues, many candidates seem more focused on proving their opponents are the worst choice. The gurus of political advertising must have decided negative ads work, otherwise they wouldn’t run them, right?
Connect with HRB:
Seeing one of the latest candidate crucifixions got me thinking about the opportunity product advertisers are missing. They’re obviously wasting their time and money by touting the positive features and benefits of their brand. They should spend their advertising budget trashing their competitors instead. That’s how to really make an emotional connection with a market.
So Buick, here’s an example of an ad you should consider. You have Toyota right where you want them:
Okay, so we’ll probably never see an ad like this from Buick®. At least I hope not. And we probably won’t see political ads becoming anything but more negative in the future. Unfortunately, I think they contribute to the growing skepticism of advertising messages in general and on our brand as an industry.
But that’s as negative a comment as I’ll make. For now anyway.
(Don’t forget to vote.)
Steve Erickson
President, Creative Director
800-728-2656, ext. 126
The Power of Camaraderie in the Workplace: 5 Everyday Office Challenges and Solutions
The other day my co-workers and I were walking to Jimmy John’s when we happened to catch a glimpse of a strange scene inside the neighboring Cold Stone Creamery® window. A mother was restraining her squirming baby as she tried to eat her ice cream.
While he flailed and wailed, the baby’s grandmother met our gaze with one of those looks only a Grandma gives. It went something like, ‘Are you staring at my grandson? Nope, didn’t THINK so.’ We laughed ourselves silly at her serious demeanor and decided this encounter would make a great blog subject.
What, however, can one compare a squirming baby to in an office atmosphere? Is camaraderie essential to workplace productivity or does it prevent employees from getting the job done?
Consider the following analogies…
Office Analogy 1: Squirming babies are like programming bugs. They’re annoying, but you can’t ignore them because doing so will initiate a domino effect of problems later on—for your client, your brand and your reputation.
How Camaraderie Can Solve This Challenge: Address any programming issues as soon as they come to your attention. This will alleviate unnecessary stress and show your clients your employees are capable of resolving even the most minor Website issues quickly and efficiently.
Office Analogy 2: Squirming babies are like clients. They’re curious, they always have questions and they like to try new things. Treat every client with respect and make their concerns your #1 priority. Keep an open mind and approach research and branding challenges with an open mind.
How Camaraderie Can Solve This Challenge: Ask your coworkers for help if you can’t address a client concern immediately, don’t know an answer to a question or can’t finish a task by deadline. Working as team members rather than as “coworkers” will demonstrate your company’s ability to engage all employees working on an account. It will also help inspire greater ideas and greater results.
Office Analogy 3: Squirming babies are like contracts. Clients often like to negotiate. They’re looking for the best deal for the best results and they the relationship is usually on their terms. They’re certainly not afraid to seek out your enemies to get that extra attention.
How Camaraderie Can Solve This Challenge: If clients want to negotiate a contract, work with them to meet their budget or project needs. Confer with all parties who will be working on the client’s campaign and make sure all employees are “on the same page” before presenting a proposal or contract amendment. Show them a little SEO love by writing a news release about them and posting it on your company’s Website. Every client has different needs but they all require special attention.
Office Analogy 4: Squirming babies are like coworkers. Sharing a cubicle or office with a loud coworker might be uncomfortable. It’s unrealistic to think you’re going to like every person at your company (or in life).
How Camaraderie Can Solve This Challenge: Instead of complaining about your coworker, build a relationship with them by inviting them out to lunch. Life at the office will be much more enjoyable if you try to get to know your coworkers on a personal level as well as on a professional level. As Carl Jung once said, “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” Work towards understanding your coworkers so you can better understand your own habits and attitudes and ultimately create an atmosphere that you enjoy being a part of on a daily basis.
Well…you get the point!
Connect with HRB:
I think the best lesson to be learned from the squirming baby analogy is that camaraderie can produce some lasting results in terms of your creativity, work ethic and productivity on the job. It’s essential when you’re working on a long proposal, stuck in a two-hour phone conference or debugging a thousand-line program. It’s truly all about approach and attitude.
HRB is living proof of the power of camaraderie. In my opinion, the seemingly insignificant daily bonding activities—like observing a squirming baby on a lunch break—don’t detract from workplace productivity. They actually enhance it because they enable me to relax and focus when I return to the office. Not only do I enjoy coming to work every day, but I am constantly inspired by interactions with my coworkers—both in an outside our humble building in Cedar Rapids. If it weren’t for them, my blog post this week would definitely have been a lot more boring!
Kestrel Henry
Internet Operations Intern
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kestrelhenry
You Won't Be Fetching Coffee As An HRB Intern…
…But you will be expected to pull your weight.
When I started as a Creative Intern at HRB, I never dreamed I’d be conveying my ideas about projects in client meetings. Lately I have spent much of my time working alongside our Creative Director, Steve Erickson, to plan the re-branding campaigns for a few local businesses’ Websites. It’s been an exciting and challenging opportunity to contribute to these projects and I appreciate and respect our clients’ demand for attention to details.
In my college graphic design classes we’re almost always acting as our own clients—the design is arbitrary, there aren’t existing brand images to maintain or grow and our project themes generally can’t stand on their own. We’re constantly learning about typography, identity systems and the ins-and-outs of the Adobe Creative Suite. There’s not much in the syllabus about how to run a client meeting, convert a company’s vision into an umbrella campaign or craftily package Chex Mix in Pilsner glasses.
At HRB I’m lucky enough to work under some very talented professionals and learn a great deal about all of these things. Perhaps the most important concept I’ve taken away from the client meetings I’ve been involved in is that we want our clients to be proud of the way we’ve helped them grow their brands. We want them to trust our ideas and become excited about what the future may bring—new customers, higher sales, greater brand recognition or even the ability to hire more employees as the company grows. No two brands are alike and it’s extremely important that the ideas we present to our clients are personal and memorable.
Having the opportunity to take a crack at Website design has been especially rewarding. For one, it’s great portfolio material and experience outside of the classroom. It also enables me to be involved with an advertising project throughout the majority of its phases, including the challenge of learning how to think like our clients’ clients. Some questions to consider in the design process might be: Who is this company’s primary audience? What’s the best way to call visitors to action? What are people looking for when they visit this Website? In what ways would this company want to be reached? What types of social media will be enabled and how will these page designs stay fresh and keep up with Internet Marketing trends?
This is where the “form follows function” concept comes into play. A Website design doesn’t have to be dull, ugly or harsh—but it does have to test the flexibility of your creative muscles. Your designs might not always be exactly what the client anticipated—they could love them at first sight, or they may go through numerous rounds of revision. But at the end of the day they need to accomplish your clients’ goals. Encouraging your clients to “think outside the box” and stray from their own visions and opinions may not only push them out of their comfort zones—helping them achieve an unexpected and outstanding result—but also solidify your own company as a competent and unique force among local and national competitors.
Allison Maze
Creative Intern
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/allisonmaze
