Formally known as 2E Network, Social Media Workshop is a monthly gathering to educate the business community on this constantly growing and changing form of communication, public image, and marketing tool.  Topics and presenters vary every month, while the general focus of Social Media remains constant.  The workshops are coordinated by the Chamber of Commerce Grand Haven, Spring Lake, Ferrysburg and held on the first Friday of the month from October through June, 7:30 am – 9 am.

October’s workshop will focus on the importance of blogging.  According to Huntley, implementing a blog into a company’s website is the single most important factor in search engine optimization.  “A blog gives the ability to provide fresh content to users, which in turn gives the company the opportunity to expand their website into an unlimited number of pages.  A properly executed blogging strategy will increase traffic to a website exponentially, helping the site climb the search engine rankings,” Huntley commented.

Specific points Huntley will cover at the Social Media Workshop include:

• Why should I blog?
• How blogging works
• How to make any “boring” company sound interesting
• Setting up your own blogging strategy
• Tips on executing the strategy

Chad Huntley is the president of Element Design LLC, a West Michigan based website development and internet marketing firm.  His website development portfolio covers over 50 industries including several Fortune 500 corporations, and is a contributor to various open-source web projects. His company offers specific packages for non-profits and small businesses, as well as custom solutions for larger projects.

If you are interested in attending, please register by calling 616.842.4910 or contacting Courtney at colson@grandhavenchamber.org.  The fee is $15 for Chamber members and $20 for non members.  A continental breakfast is provided.  This workshop will be held at JSJ Corporation, 700 Robbins Road.

(Updated 8/30/11) 

1) Login to Facebook

2) Go to http://www.facebook.com/username/

The “Page Name” drop down is a list of all pages where you are currently an admin. Simply select the business page, then a “Enter Desired Username” will pop up on the right.

Whatever you type in this box will placed directly after “facebook.com/”. Be sure to capitalize each word in this box, as it will retain capitalization when users visit your page. Also note that once you click “Check Availability”, you will never be able to go back and make changes. Triple-check your spelling!

If it gives you the message “Your Company is not eligible for a username at this time. In the future,Your Company will be able to set a username.“, this can be due to several reasons. One is that your page may be to new for this feature, or you do not have enough fans or activity to warrant an easy to remember URL. Keep working on building a fan base, post relevant content, and keep checking back!

Update 11/10/2011: Thanks to Woody in the comments, he pointed out that all Facebook URLs can be abbreviated to an even shorter version. The URL fb.com redirects to the normal facebook.com for all URLs. For example, instead of http://www.facebook.com/ElementDesignLLC, you can use http://www.fb.com/ElementDesignLLC.

First, watch this video on an explanation on why they have chosen to ignore keywords:

Is it even worth having META keywords on your site? Search engines such as Yahoo and others place a small amount of importance on the keywords, but there is no guarantee that it will stay like this in the future.

When it comes to an Adwords campaign, you will most likely buy keywords you already have in your META keywords (since they are the keywords you consider to be the most important). Now think of a competitor doing marketing research, all they have to do is simply check which keywords you have listed, then directly target your company with their campaign. Without listing the META keywords on your site, you leave them only to guess.

Would you want them to have full ownership of your company name and logo?

It’s very common for web development companies to purchase and handle your domain name in their portfolio. While this is the most convenient method, it can lead to problems in the future.

Some scenarios to consider if you allow them to own your domain name:

• What if the web development company went out of business?
• What if they forgot to make a payment for the domain name?
• What if you wanted to switch to another web development company?

Each scenario can lead to you completely losing the domain name, disastrous to any marketing plan. Even the slightest change to your domain name will lower your search engine results and break any links to your site.

Element Design feels its very important that you own the domain name, and will guide you through all of the steps to make it happen. Other than having you purchase and register the domain name, we take care of everything else.

1. “Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings”

That quote is straight from Google’s support site. This is by far the most used and misleading promise of all. Without lifting a finger, they have already given you front page placements!

If they never promised what keywords will bring you this placement (which they never will), this is most likely a scam. Lets pretend we have the company Fred’s Advanced Plumbing and Heating in Grand Rapids, MI for the following example. Ideally, you would want the following search phrase “plumbing in grand rapids” to pull up your company first. However, the SEO company could complete their contract by saying that the search phrase “fred’s advanced plumbing and heating in grand rapids mi” is giving your site a front page placement!

It is also important to be aware of the websites currently above you in your rankings. Ask yourself the questions:

• “Do I have the resources to get above theirs?”
• “Is their website larger than mine and most likely getting more hits? If not, why is their content considered better?”

2. “We will submit your site to Google and other search engines!”

Again, another scam. There was once a need for this, but not anymore. Your site is automatically indexed in all search engines, and will continue to be scanned for changes. While the process is never instantaneous, after a week or two of a new site launch, search engines like Google will begin to index the site and place it into search results.

3. “META keywords will greatly improve your sites ranking” is no longer true

Keywords do not effect search engine rankings, and will soon become obsolete.

Part of the evolution of search engines is to ignore keywords. These are far to easy to fake, and can have nothing to do with the rest of the site. For this reason, keywords are no longer used to rank search results (Yahoo still reads them, but it provides very little help in increasing rankings). Instead, search engines now pull “key words” out of paragraphs of text to rank your site.

4. There are better ways than stuffing your pages with more text to get higher rankings

This is the double-edged sword of increasing your search engine rankings. It is true that in some cases adding more text will give search engines more to index (and more “key words”), but what about your customers? You do not send out flyers, brochures, or purchase advertisements that are long winded and boring. It’s important to keep your website concise and never lose its main purpose as a selling tool. If you absolutely need to throw a lot of information at your customers, consider breaking it into several different pages.

In the end its important to always be skeptical of any sales pitch. Take in the facts and remember to do research to determine whether or not a SEO company has any merit to their claims. Element Design can determine if your website is standards compliant, and if it meets search engine guidelines. For further reading, please visit any of the following articles:

• Google Search Engine Optimization
• Google Basics
• Google Webmaster Guidelines