Most of you tech savvy business people out there have had a LinkedIn account for years, but have you been truly using it to increase your business opportunities?

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional online network with more than 45 million users representing 150 industries, and in case you’re wondering, the company itself is valued around $1 billion. Since September 2008, when the economic crisis hit, it has seen a 25% increase in the rate of sign-ups as concerned professionals look to keep their contacts up to date. That equates to approximately 1 million new users every two weeks. In terms of activity by those users, in the last two months there has been a 15% increase in the issuing of invitations to get people to join business networking circles and there has also been a 14% increase in the amount of recommendations made by users endorsing another member of LinkedIn.

The explosion of LinkedIn usage brings to mind the age old question of Quantity versus Quality.   Would you prefer to have 500 good contacts, or would you rather have 50 great contacts? The former may inflate your network statistics, but the latter may inflate your sales statistics. We can’t all be like Ron Bates, but do we want to be?

Who is Ron Bates you ask? With 44,000 direct contacts on LinkedIn, Ron has been referred to as “the most connected man on Earth.” In fact, I just tried to connect with Ron last night. I haven’t been accepted yet, but I did it for fun and I don’t expect any business to come from it. To effectively use LinkedIn to promote and grow your business you don’t need a ton of contacts, you just need a handful of great contacts that are in need of the services that your company offers and are interested in working with you or know others who would be.

If you’re hoping to reap the benefits of a LinkedIn account, you need to commit to actively using it on a consistent basis. At the very least you should look at your profile every day to see to see who your contacts are networking with, and if there are more “People You May Know” listed in your profile. Remember, your contacts’ new contacts are now in your network, and the groups they have joined may be of interest to you.

The bottom-line with LinkedIn is that people would much rather work with people who their friends and colleagues know and trust. To truly realize a return on the investment of time required by LinkedIn you need to increase your number of viable connections and thus increase your chances of getting more business. In order to make your profile more appealing you need to nurture it by being committed to completing at least one or two LinkedIn tasks every single day. Make a connection, join a group, or just enhance your profile. Be sure to track the traffic to your website and what percentage of it comes from LinkedIn.

There are many ways to establish sustainable relationships through LinkedIn.  Find out how to put the power of LinkedIn to work for your business by downloading part one and two of our three part series.

5 signs that it’s time for a web site redesign:

1.  Your site isn’t effective in helping you achieve your goals (more sales, brand recognition, community awareness, etc)

2.  Your site is no longer an accurate representative of who you are and what you offer.

3.  The site looks very dated.  Not sure about this?  Check out your competitor’s sites to see what you are up against.

4.  You don’t have a scalable web site that you can update with new content, add a blog or integrate easily with social media.

5.  Users have asked for features or made other suggestions for changes that cannot be accomplished with your current site.

Looking for specific recommendations for your web site?  Let our team of experts evaluate it!

A quick reminder for business owners that we’re nearing the deadline to purchase and install new hardware and software and qualify for the Section 179 deduction.

Please contact us ASAP at 1-866-GO-SITE if you need assistance with a quote for replacement equipment or assistance with installation.

The commercials are out, the advertising machine is hard at work and now that October 22nd has passed, Windows 7 is at our doorstep.

Having been a tinkerer of computers since modifying the config.sys file on my father’s 386 to play games, the new offering from Microsoft immediately intrigued me.  I decided to be an early adopter on my home machine, dutifully using the Windows 7 Beta and Release Candidate for roughly the past 6 months despite my general distaste for the Vista offering.

Windows 7 is the smoothest and most stable Windows OS I have encountered.  Yes, this includes my time using the Beta build.  My machine crashed exactly zero times in the past half year running it.  This honestly surprised me.  For those wondering, I have not been one to back Microsoft products without question.  In fact, my first machine ran IBM’s OS/2.  This should help form the basis that I have put Windows 7 through a certain range of paces that match my normal home usage.

While this is not a scientific top to bottom view of the OS, it will help to highlight some of the main points that one may encounter when using the software.

Part 1:  Installation.

The installation experience has been improved with Windows 7.  The wizards are less clunky and the screens more informative than in previous iterations of Microsoft OS’s.  Even better, the entire process always had a feel of continued progress.  This is in stark contrast to some previous offerings, such as XP or even Server 2003 in which you may be staring at a “Loading Devices” screen for the better part of 30 minutes.

I intentionally decided to not scrub my machine’s OS partition prior to installation to see what my options would be.  I was happily surprised to see that Windows 7 recognized my previous installation and essentially quarantined it.  This previous installation could later be accessed easily through Windows Explorer by going to the Windows.old directory.  Given that my normal operating procedure in any OS load would be to move all of my important files, configs etc to a different drive before formatting the partition and starting from scratch, this feature is a great benefit.  How many people forget something when moving files around?  Now those files can be easily searched and any missing pieces found.  Further, if you have decided you don’t need the old files at all, simply delete them.

The overall slick feel of the installation instilled confidence that what I had been hearing about Windows 7:  “It is everything Vista should have been” may in fact be true.

Part 2:  Your new desktop

Admittedly, I never fully adopted Vista.  As such, some of the UI features that came from Vista into Windows 7 are essentially new to me.  Logging in for the first time, I was stunned at the desktop.  My graphics card had not changed, I had no more RAM and indeed these were my same monitors, yet wow!  The difference in the UI, especially for those moving from XP such as myself, is stunning.  Again, same exact hardware but I felt like I just traded in a jalopy for a Jaguar.  The visual treatments of the start bar, the icons, etc really work.  They are not over the top, but rather understated.  The result is a tremendously clean feel.

The start menu, now a larger round button, contains all the items you would expect.  In addition, the search feature right in line with the menu allows for quick access to programs for which you do not want to hunt.  For someone who grew up professionally using net commands, this ability to type is a benefit.  For those programs you use most often, you can choose to “pin” them to the start menu or to your taskbar.

Moving a bit more through the desktop, I found the greatest use out of the Library system.  Essentially one has sections within Windows Explorers called Libraries that are linked to such things as Documents, Pictures, Downloads, etc.  You are free to edit the existing ones or create your own.  These provide an easy mechanism for organization.  They are essentially a collection of folders that are contained under a single item.  They default to locations created by the OS, usually C:\Users\…  I tend to have my information on other drives, so historically I would eschew the use or move such items as “My Documents” to point to my preferred location.  Now, I can not only do that, but I can add in folders to include into the library.  If you wish to segregate items for a home machine, you could create folders within your documents library for all the users within the household.  Or for pictures, perhaps you have an area that you want to use as a scratch directory for edits and another that you want to make sure gets backed up.  With this facility, you can access all the pictures as necessary through the library while under the hood, you can have the different folders line up with whatever backup or security regime you desire.  This single point of entry for the most used items has been enjoyable and easy to use.

Part 3:  Performace, i.e. the “paces”

My home computer serves a myriad of purposes.  From planning out home improvements, to running CAD programs, playing video games to listening to music, it is a hub of both production and entertainment.  I find I usually need to be doing two things at once and as a computer nut I find I usually try to break things.  Now that I was suitably impressed by the look and feel of Windows 7, it  was time to try and break it.

Some machines, CPUs, and Operating Systems multi task better than others.  Years ago I was able to run X-wing in a window while listening to MP3s on my OS/2 machine while people around me couldn’t run two contiguous directory commands in Windows 95 without delays between the two windows.  I essentially recreated this test, just updated by 12 or so years.  The machine in question is powered  by a 3 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, a 512 MB ATi video card and a 500GB 7200RPM SATA Drive.

I began by bringing up 3 different browsers:  Safari, IE and Chrome.  In Chrome I started pandora to stream music.  In IE I had the machine look for updates, and Safari I directed to Youtube, muting a longer video but letting it play.  I then opened up 2 instances of World of Warcraft, logging in two different characters.   To further tax the machine, I then decided to burn a Blu-ray.  With this happening, the music only skipped when I initially loaded up a new program, the Youtube ran cleanly and I was able to alt-tab between both instances of Wow and play without any framerate issues.  Looking through task manager I could see that none of the Cores on the CPU were spiked and there while there was  heavy RAM usage, it was not detrimental to any of the individual program.

I did this until the Blu-ray finished burning, at which point I ended the very unscientific test and checked to see if the data on the disc was good.  As it turns out, there were no errors.  Also, there were no errors in any Windows logs.  This same test, performed with the identical hardware on XP SP2 suffered from skips in both the video and audio playback.  The CPU usage ramped up much higher as well, peaking at 100% in some cases.  To its credit, the XP machine also did not have much issue with the instances of Wow.  As I mentioned however, these tests were not performed on the same build of hardware or similar machines, but actually on the same exact hardware.

While this is not a conclusive test of the sturdiness of the OS, it is a more practical application of the types of things that it can handle as part of normal usage.

Part 4:  Wait and see?

I looked at the opportunity to use Windows 7 as a way to ease concerns.  Machines will now be shipping with Windows 7 loaded, and for many, there is no comfort level with the new offering.  More than anything else, the experience of the last 6 months has shown that there is a lot less to fear than in the past.

Is there a learning curve?  Certainly.  However, and this is vitally important, the system is stable.  No lost files, no random crashes.  While everyone’s mileage may vary and no one can say that it is bug free and will never fail, the humble opinion of this blogger is that the benefits outweigh the risks.  For older machines that may not see the benefit of its resource handling, etc, then XP is probably still fine.
If you are in the market for a new machine, though, I would not turn away because of Windows 7.  So far I have no personal indication that there is a need to “wait for service pack 1″ before buying.  In fact, as I start shopping for my next laptop, you can bet that Windows 7 Ultimate will be one of the first choices I check off.

Have you ever Googled yourself or the company you work for?  Come on, you know you have!  It’s human nature to wonder what others are writing about you and the company you work for.  Before accepting your new position, didn’t you Google your new company to see if you could find any negative information?  Googling is an easy way to lose hours sorting through irrelevant web entries hoping to find the information you’re repeatedly looking for.  Valuable time and energy can be saved by using one of Google’s many convenient and useful tools, in this case, Google Alerts.

Google Alerts are emails or RSS feeds automatically sent to you when there are new Google search results for your specified terms.  After signing up using your GMail account on the Google Alerts homepage, you enter the search term, type of alert (search Google News, Google Groups, or the web), frequency of emails (daily, as it happens, or weekly), and your email address. Google Alerts sends you an email each time a new page for your chosen term makes it in the top twenty results on Google’s web search. You can set up alerts for as many as 1,000 search terms.  Google Alerts currently offers 6 variations of alerts - News, Web, Blogs, Comprehensive, Video and Groups.

• A News alert is an email aggregate of the latest news articles that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google News search.

• A Web alert is an email aggregate of the latest web pages that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top twenty results of your Google Web search.

• A Blogs alert is an email aggregate of the latest blog posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google Blog search.

• A Comprehensive alert is an aggregate of the latest results from multiple sources (News, Web and Blogs) into a single email to provide maximum coverage on the topic of your choice.

• A Video alert is an email aggregate of the latest videos that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top ten results of your Google Video search.

• A Groups alert is an email aggregate of new posts that contain the search terms of your choice and appear in the top fifty results of your Google Groups search.

Google Alerts’ many uses make them convenient and helpful in our daily personal lives including monitoring a developing news story, tracking medical advances, being aware of what is being written about family members, and even getting the latest on a celebrity or sports team.  But there are many professional reasons to harness the power of Google Alerts, find out how to put the power of Google Alerts to work for your business by downloading Ten Important Business Uses of Google Alert.

How often should key words and phrases appear in your web content?  What should be in the <title> and <meta> tags?  Does it matter where on the page your key words are?

There are many things to consider when writing for the web, and the questions above are answered in a white paper “7 Do’s and Don’ts of Prominent Content” by Andrew Predmore, one of ForeSite’s developers.

Search engines have algorithms that are constantly updated to try to make sure that key words aren’t used inappropriately in a blatant attempt to increase site traffic.  If your site is flagged, it can have a devastating effect on your search engine rankings.

Click here to download this timely information and get the  “7 Do’s and Don’ts of Prominent Content” usage.

Everybody’s talking about social media marketing, but how do you know if it’s right for your business?  And what if you are a nonprofit agency or a school - does social media have value outside the business world?

First let’s define social media by its most well known forms, including blogs and social networking (Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn).  Blogs, like the one you are reading right now, provide you with a way to communicate a message or share a story with the outside world.  A blog is like a newsletter that you write and share article by article.  When you think about it that way, you probably already create content that you could use for blogging.  Because blogging is more informal, you can get more people involved to write a paragraph or two about a timely topic in your industry, a success story or an experience that your audience can relate to.

Social networking requires a little more thought about who it is that you want to connect with.  Are you looking to inform potential clients about your services, or brainstorm with others in your industry, or maybe find potential sources of referrals?  Each goal will require you to think about who those people are, and what forms of social media they are likely to be using.  For example, I find LinkedIn to be a powerful networking tool to connect with clients, former colleagues, and other professionals that I meet and want to keep in touch with.  By regularly updating my LinkedIn status, I can share what I am working on with all of my contacts with one click of the mouse.  I can even include links back to my blog or a particular page of our web site that provides more information.  I have found that even people I have known and worked with for many years may not fully understand all of the ways that I can help organizations with their computer network or web site, but if they hear a success story, they suddenly think of someone else they know with that struggle who they can’t wait to refer me to.

Maybe you realize that you have something to say, and you know who you want to reach with your message, but there are other considerations to making social media marketing a success.  The questions in our “10 questions to ask before starting a social media marketing campaign” will help you determine if this is the right step for you.

Having a website was a good first step (in 1997).  By the mid 2000’s your web site actually had to have interesting information on it and look more attractive than your competitors’.  You may even rank well in the search engines for keywords you have chosen as important ones for your business.  If you’re at that point, congratulations!  But wouldn’t it be nice if your website was actually generating business for your company on a regular basis?  Well it can.  You just need to call it to action!

This is not as difficult as it sounds, but it will take some effort and regular attention to what is happening with your web site, your clients and in the world of social media. At ForeSite we have been following the methods below for our own business and saw a 10x increase in lead generation in the first month.

To begin you need to create some compelling offers for your site visitors.  Unfortunately an information request form is NOT a compelling offer.  There must be a reason for the visitor to take their time to fill out a simple form to get what is behind it so you have their information.  We have found that numbered lists work very well such as “10 Tips for Developing an Effective Website“.  For more tips on compelling calls to action, download 6 Best Practices for an Effective Call to Action.

Once you have a call to action for people to download, you need to create a landing page for them to download it from.  This page should have some information about what they are getting for their time as well as a SIMPLE form for them to fill out.  Collect only the information you need to get in touch with them.  Long forms are far more often abandoned than simple ones.

Now that you have a place to send people, you need to send them there.  You must PROMOTE your new content to get people to download it.  This is best done using the powers of social media and taking advantage of the connections you have and the connections those people have.

Lastly, get ready to collect your leads and work your sales magic to convert them into new business.  We’d love to hear how this works for other people using these methods as they have been working very well for ForeSite.  Ready, Set, Sell!

As a business owner, it’s sometimes difficult to think about upgrading things that seem to be “working”, especially in tough economic times.  The question is, “are they really working as hard as they can be for your business?”.  A great example of this is your company’s website.  While it was OK 5 years ago to have someone take your brochure and turn it into a website so you could put it on your business cards, that’s just not the way the web is working today for businesses who are taking full advantage of it.

Today, the first thing most people do when they are looking for a product or service, even if it was referred to them, is Google it.  The first few seconds form a large part of the impression the visitor will have of the target business forever (remember what your mom always said about first impressions).  Below are a few key things that people react to  - whether they know it or not.  You should keep them in mind as you look at your own web site, even if you think it doesn’t matter for your business (because it does).

1. Is the design attractive and does it look “current”?  A design that was nice 5 years ago does not always stand the test of time.  Compare how your site looks to others in your industry, or even other sites you feel project the type of image you want for your company.  You might be surprised.
2. Is your date specific content up to date?  If the last newsletter or news item you posted was in 2006, you should probably pull that section of the web site out.  Its hurting you more than helping you.
3. Is your site cross browser compatible?  While the world used to only view the web through the eyes of Internet Explorer, other browsers such as Firefox and Chrome have come a long way in gaining market share.  Make sure your web site looks the same (or at least presentable) in all of the major browsers available today.

These are just a few items that can make a good first impression.  But once people decide they are “OK” with you, you need to keep talking.  There has to be enough valuable information on your website to make the visitor (prospect) contact you instead of the next person on the search list.  Keep it interesting.  Add content regularly and give people reasons to come back.  If they browsed by but weren’t ready to buy the first time, impress them with fresh content and ideas the next time they “stop by”.  People want to get to know you by visiting your web site and be comfortable that you can take care of them.  You have to work to keep that conversation going, especially when you sometimes don’t even know that the conversation is happening (we’ll talk about how to know exactly when someone is on your web site in a future post).  One of ForeSite’s web site experts wrote a paper on “10 Tips for Developing an Effective Website“.  Check it out if you are interested in how to upgrade your web presence.

In general, think of your web site as your ultimate marketing tool which if used properly will bring leads (and ultimately new business) to you so you don’t have to go searching for it yourself.  View your site through the eyes of your prospects.  And if you are having difficulty doing that, ask some of your current customers to do it for you.  Make sure that the conversation prospects are having with your web site is the same one they would have with you if you were in front of them.

Download 10 Tips for Developing an Effective Website

A writing project from successful-blog.com:

Use social media to contribute something of value, or make new connections with people who can provide ideas or opportunities.  Don’t be passive!