We’re excited to bring you our second edition of The Digital Rundown. This new series seeks to give you a glimpse into what is peaking our interest in the world of digital when it comes to marketing tactics, how to build your website and even technologies that help you run your day-to-day operations.
We’re passionate about the power of digital and hope that these highlights from around the world will inspire you to leap forward with new technologies, tactics, and techniques to drive your business goals in a more advanced digital way.
Privacy & Security, What Is Impacting Your Website
Privacy continues to be front-of-mind and with GDPR now fully active for our friends in Europe, it is shining a glaring spotlight on what to include in privacy policies and a string of YouTube videos teaching consumers how to spot dubious and questionable policy verbiage (look out for those “such as” phrases). Torque recently put together A Beginners’ Guide to Privacy Policies which we think is definitely worth a read.
The Achilles heel of cyber security has always been our weak attempt at protecting our data with a myriad of passwords we can barely keep track of. But new technologies may put an end to the password. Gizmodo took a look at everything you need to know about the plan to kill internet passwords.
Speaking of passwords, who out there stores their hundred’s of account user and password data in an easy to access place – come on, raise your hands, we know you are reading this right now. If you are guilty of this, please make sure that you are storing this information in a secure location, as noted by a piece from Tech Crunch, hundred’s of public boards were discovered on Trello that contained username and passwords.
You may have heard of vulnerabilities with WordPress and the potential for hacks. It’s true, it can happen. But, there are steps you can take to mitigate the risk and ensure you are safe. Smashing Magazine went through several options recently.
The Social Buzz…
Social proof is a valuable way to build cred for your brand. But there are some downsides to opening up your business to multiple avenues for consumer feedback. Fast Company recently ran an article posing the simple question, Should you post a negative review of your former employer. It’s a good question. They open their piece with the age-old advice ” If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Maybe that’s a start, but you might want to be prepared for what happens when disgruntled employees decide to blow the horn on perceived bad behavior.
Entrepreneur recently had one of their readers post a series of questions to Claudia Sheridan on social marketing and does it really make dollars and cents. For us, Claudia is preaching to the choir – you really can’t rely on just this one channel to bring miracle results. You need to look at your entire marketing strategy and ensure you are leaving no stone unturned.
Looking for a new way to get your message in front of consumers? Have you looked at video content yet? It’s probably time to start. Forbes put together their Top Tips For Using Video In Your Social Media Marketing Strategy. When you get right down to it, it’s pretty simple stuff, but “stuff” you need to be aware of.
If you are struggling to get attention on social media, it might be the content you are serving up. Forbes asked several experts and entrepreneurs what they do to cut through the noise.
Do You Have Your Measurements Correct?
One downside of the digital age is mountains of data, and what does it all mean? If you find terms like PPV, Time-On-Site, and Bounce foreign, then our friends at MOZ have a great read for you. Find out when certain measurements are helpful, and when they aren’t on one of their recent “Whiteboard Fridays” posts.
Don’t forget click-through-rate (CTR), there are some tried and true simple steps you can take to really drive this up. Torque outlines a few and we completely agree with each and every one.
How Do They Find You? Organically That is…
Google quietly rolled out a couple new post types for their Google Business Listings in March, last month they formally announced the change. If you are hocking products or want to share a share a special offer, we recommend hitting up that business profile and take advantage of the new features. If you aren’t familiar with Google My Business listings or don’t have one – what are you waiting for?!?!?
Blog posts and original content remain the primary way in which you can expand the number of keywords you will rank for and increase organic traffic to your website. But, what do you do with that treasure trove of hundred’s of blog posts? Well through them through the recycler according to BobWP, he offers up some great tips to freshen up your content – we think an annual cycle of this activity may be worth it.
In other search news, Alexa is being installed in Marriott hotels to provide guests with quick access to requests like, “Alexa, please recommend a good restaurant nearby” or “Alexa, I need a dry cleaner”. Is your business optimized for Alexa search? Will these Marriott guests find you?
Trying To Nab Great Photography? Don’t Get Sued!
Great photography is the key to elevating content and ensuring you have a polished online profile. But don’t make silly common mistakes that can you leave you at risk. ProBlogger looked at some sure ways to find images that won’t get you sued.
Just For Fun!
There is life on Mars? Who knows, but The Guardian reported that the Mars rover found organic matter in an ancient lake bed on the planet, so aliens?
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