Minneapolis Interactive Marketing Events – September, 2010

August 30th, 2010 | Posted by Diane Kulseth

Are you ready for fall? This September brings many entertaining and invigorating interactive marketing events to the Minneapolis/St. Paul interactive scene. With events from the following organizations, there is sure to be an event that’s perfect for your needs. We look forward to your suggestions. Contact us to add an event or tweet us at @threedeep.

September 2nd
Java Meetup Minneapolis 7 (#JMU612) : LinkedIn
Urban Bean Cafe
8:00 – 10:00 am

Find out how to use this important and often overlooked tool for business and personal development. Discussion will be led by LinkedIn experts Nicole Harrison (@SocialNicole) and Kate-Madonna Hindes (@girlmeetsgeek).

Cocktails with Creatives
Uptown Cafeteria and Support Group
6:00 – 8:00 pm

Each month AIGA Minnesota hosts a mixer event at various bars and restaurants around the Twin Cities. This event is a great networking and social opportunity so bring your business cards and your ideas! Members and non-members alike are welcome.

September 3rd
Social Media Breakfast – Minneapolis/St. Paul # 29: State Fair Social [Media] (#SMBMSP)
State Fair Blue Ribbon Picnic Area (Section D24 on the map)
8:00 – 10:00 am

What do you get when you combine livestock, thrill rides and hashtags? Join us for our second annual Social Media Breakfast State Fair event on September 3rd, 2010. We’ll be talking with vendors at the fair who are using social media in their business at the fair. There will be live music throughout our event, some fun activities (Bacon Haiku returns!), and great food.

September 9th
Design Conversations: Gael Towey and Stephen Doyle
W Minneapolis – The Foshay
5:00 – 8:00 pm

Join AIGA for part two of Design Conversations, an informal three-event series hosted by W Minneapolis – The Foshay, benefitting BrandLab, and featuring internationally recognized design experts. Grab a cocktail, pull up a chair, and join the conversation with some of the nation’s leading creative geniuses as they discuss the state of visual arts, brand identity, and design.

September 11th
MN Blogger Conference (#mnblogconf)
CoCo Collaborative
8:30 am – 4:00 pm

Learn about all aspects of blogging, from design to storytelling, book publishing and more at the first annual MN Bloggers’ Conference. Tickets are all sold out, but you can sign up for the wait list.

September 15th
MIMA Social: It’s a Target Field Social (#MIMA)
5:15 pm
Target Field

Sad, but true: summers almost over. Reconnect with your MIMA peeps the Annual Fall Social. Oh, did we mention that this year’s Fall Social will be at Target Field.  Yup, we thought that would get your attention.  We’re holding this year’s event at the Home of Minnesota Baseball. Leave your laptops at home, but not your Old Spice Guy imitation.

September 21st
September Marketing Mixer: Fall Group Speed Networking
View Restaurant & Bar
5:30 – 9:00 pm

The Minnesota Chapter of the AMA is kicking off the fall with another Speed Networking event—this time in an all new group format! Attend this “can’t-miss” event and meet more people in one evening than in a month of traditional networking. It’s fun and easy!

September 23rd
Pour it Like you Mean it: The Evolution of the Caribou Coffee Brand
Caribou Coffee Headquarters
7:30 am – 9:30 am

Join us at Caribou’s corporate office to hear SVP Marketing & Product Management Alfredo Martel present the story behind the brand. He’ll cover the strategic business objectives that led to Caribou’s brand evolution, how the company measures success, what’s next after the branding dust settles, and more.

September 27th
MIMA Summit Intensive Half-Day Workshops
Minneapolis Hilton
1:00 – 5:00 pm

This year, MIMA has added more to the Summit, starting with a half day of Intensive Workshops. The half day will feature both beginner and advanced how-to sessions over the course of almost 2 hours. The 10 in-depth sessions will focus on key topics relevant to marketers.

Shout out to our very own Jeff Sauer, who is hosting a workshop on Google Analytics!

September 28th
MIMA Summit Full-Day Conference (#mimasummit)
Minneapolis Hilton
7:30 am – 9:00 pm

Complete Details: MIMA Summit Web site

Our usual full day conference will offer more breakouts this year! We’re taking it to a whole new level, with 8 tracks of breakouts and 2 separate Geek Outs…that’s 40 different places to pick from throughout the day, or 10 different ones each hour! I know, I know. Sometimes choices are hard, be we think you’ll like it in the end.

September 30th
Kiss Me, I’m Ad Fed
Kieran’s Irish Pub
5:30 – 9:00 pm

Join Ad Fed at Kieran’s Irish Pub, and bring your friends who may be interested in joining Ad Fed or Ad2, or those who are looking to renew existing memberships. It will be a night of Irish spirit, revelry and camaraderie: complete with food, drinks, music and give-a-ways.

Disability Compliance: Target Got Sued for over $3 Million, Don’t be Next

August 23rd, 2010 | Posted by Alex Pokorny

The case of the National Federation of the Blind v. Target should send a bone-chilling shiver down the back of an e-commerce website owner. Jeffery Bashaw’s (University of Washington School of Law, Class of 2008) legal abstract makes the message clear:

Get your website in line with the American Disabilities Act or get a lawyer…. A good one.

The case ended with Target Corporation paying out over $3 million with an additional 6 million dollars in a settlement fund to further compensate because their Target.com site was not easy to use by the blind. Not being accessible to the blind is a clear violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. And yes, websites are governed by this law.

Does my site need to follow ADA Compliance?

Is it an e-commerce website? Then yes.

While you may think of Target as a normal store, the court proved that since Target.com extended services to Target customers and that it was considered a part of the stores. So it had to be ADA compliant.

What if my business is 100% online, am I OK?

Nope. Those are included too. A good example is the Attorney General of New York v. Priceline.com for failing to have a blind accessible website. Priceline.com settled the lawsuit before any ruling was even made. Be afraid e-commerce site owners, be very afraid.

But how could this be legal?

Department of Justice’s Amicus Curiae states that the definition of public accommodation includes entities that operate solely on the Internet. 100% online sites are public accommodations as defined by the ADA. Every website is governed under these rulings.

How Do I Make My Site ADA Compliant?

The visually impaired use browsers that will read the page and all image names. The browsers must be able to correctly read the page and lead the individual on where to click. Parts of Target’s site was gibberish as random image names were read and user’s couldn’t figure out where the pointer at all times.

It’s time to save yourself from lawsuits and get working on your site.

Is there any good news to come from this ruling?

In the case of Target, they were able to save face by becoming compliant and was given an award by The National Federation of the Blind to commend their work on making their site accessible. All it took was 2 years of work, countless dollars spent on fixing the problem and the massive settlement.

Side benefit: organic search engine optimization benefits

The real good news is adding in the ADA compliant fixes also have SEO benefits for your website. This allows more visitors to find your website through searches on Google.com and other search engines. Effective search engine optimization can be the difference of little to no traffic to your website becoming a household name.

What are you waiting for?

Don’t wait for your site to be investigated by the Department of Justice or an Attorney General.  Get into compliance now and save your company from potential headaches down the road.

There are countless excuses for why this might not be a focus for your company, but none of them are worth the potential fines you may receive for non-compliance.

Is your content management system too old?  Get a new one!   Are you not properly staffed for this project?  Find some efficiency tools and hire an intern!

The SEO side benefits alone are enough to get your site into compliance today!

Help: Pizza Hut Hijacked my Google Maps Listing!

August 16th, 2010 | Posted by Jeff Sauer

Search Engine Optimization on Google Maps for Small Businesses with retail locations is a passion of mine that I don’t always get to indulge in on a day to day basis.  Many of my clients are manufacturers or national service providers who do not have retail locations, so I only get to apply my knowledge in select situations.

That’s why I was very excited when I received the following distress call last week from a pizza place that had some problems with their listing on Google Maps; it allowed me to put my knowledge of the subject into action.  I was probably over exhaustive with my response, but I thought it would make a good blog post.

Pizza Hut Hijacked my Google Maps Listing

Definition of the problem:

“My favorite pizza shop has a complaint with a Google search.  When you search pizza in Culver City, LaRocco’s name comes up but the number below their name is for Pizza Hut.  It also says Pizza Hut but consumers don’t notice that.  They end up thinking they called LaRocco’s and show up asking for their pizza and get angry when LaRocco’s doesn’t have the order.  I was witness to this a few weeks ago.

Apparently Google said there’s nothing they can do.  Does that sound right?”

I knew right away what was happening, as I had read about this type of behavior happening in New York City with Locksmiths – as well as many other cases of Google Maps Spam.  Here is my response in full:

Local SEO and Fighting Google Maps Spam

This is a classic case of what has been called “map spam” in the industry –something that happens a lot on Google’s local search results.  Unfortunately, solving the problem isn’t widely supported by Google.

A company’s ranking in the search results for the “local” Google Maps search engine takes into account several factors, including distance from business from the city center, number of reviews for the business, number of local directories that claim this business and more.  In LaRocco’s case, they are actually doing a great job at being visible with the search engines (must be a great place and I am definitely visiting next time I’m in LA), but are running into a problem: Pizza Hut appears to have claimed their listing unfairly and possibly unscrupulously.

How does this happen?

This happens likely for two reasons:

1. LaRocco’s has not “claimed” that they own this business location with Google.  While claiming a business is fairly painless (instructions below), it’s not something many business owners do automatically.  By not claiming a business, an opportunity arises for another business to claim this location as theirs.
2. Pizza Hut is a large national retailer with many locations.  In order to ease management for mass retailers, Google provides them with the opportunity to “bulk upload” a list of their business locations and have them automatically approved.  As a result of their status, Google makes it very easy for Pizza Hut to claim all of their locations, and possibly claim the locations of their competitors.  This can either be done inadvertently or intentionally, but it appears to have happened here.

By not having claimed the listing in Google, it allowed Pizza Hut to claim that they owned the business.  This can be reversed using the methods below.

How do we fix this?

While there’s no magic bullet for fixing the listing, I would start with the source and troubleshoot from there.

• We recommend starting with having LaRocco’s claim their local business listing with Google.  They can do this here: http://www.google.com/local/add/.  They can verify that they own the business via phone or US Mail.  They should choose the phone option, because US Mail doesn’t seem to work.   This should only take a short time for the business to set up.
• Once the listing is claimed, LaRocco’s can update all vital information to make their business contact information appear properly. This should only take a few minutes and may solve the problem immediately.
• LaRocco’s should do whatever they can to claim their business listing with all possible services to make sure that this doesn’t happen elsewhere.  Claiming the listing also allows them to post special offers, store hours, menus, photos, etc.  This is recommended.  Start with the following:
  • Use the tool on www.getlisted.org to see how the site is viewed in Google, Yelp, Bing, Yahoo, etc. (I see 75% for LaRocco’s Pizzeria)
  • Promote the site using a service called www.universalbusinesslisting.org.  For $30, they will create/claim your listing with hundreds of local business directories, protecting them from fraud while also allowing their business to be found on hundreds of more websites.
  • Consider promoting with even more services, like the others on this list:  http://getlisted.org/enhanced-business-listings.aspx
• Participate in the communities around each of these sites, especially Yelp and Google.  Encourage reviews from customers, create specials on Foursquare and other location services (Gowalla, Loopt, etc.), respond to negative reviews, offer specials and discounts, etc.

Taking these steps will not only reverse the trends seen above by Pizza Hut “hijacking” LaRocco’s listing, but will also significantly increase their presence online!

Let me know if you have any questions.  If you got this far, I commend you for reading!

Google Maps Spam Problem Solved

“Jeff,

It worked! I dropped off the instructions last night and I had an email in my yahoo mailbox today.

Thanks again for making me look soooo good!”

Concluding

If you know anyone who owns a business with retail locations, this blog post should help them by outlining a series of steps that all businesses can take advantage of immediately!  I probably didn’t need to write such a long email to explain the problem (I could have just sent the link to http://www.google.com/local/add/ and said “good luck”), but I decided to write out the steps for both personal justification as well as training for others.  While local search is fairly easy in principle, it’s a lot of information for a small business to consume on limited resources.

Understanding the intricacies of Google Maps and Local Search Engine Optimization can be a daunting task for businesses, and this is an area where it may pay to have an expert on retainer.  I can’t tell you how fulfilling it was to help solve LaRocco’s problems, and I hope that this post helps others resolve theirs!

Minneapolis Interactive Marketing Events – August, 2010

July 30th, 2010 | Posted by Diane Kulseth

As summer rolls to a close, check out some great events for interactive marketers in a variety of areas including mobile apps, job hunting, networking and search!

August 5
Java Meetup Minneapolis (#JMU612)
8:00 am – 10:00 am
Urban Bean Coffee

Twin Cities Uber Marketers, Business Junkies and Social Media Rebels meet together to discuss a variety of subjects. This month’s will cover the mobile applications.

August 9
AdFed’s The Dog and Pony Show: Call for Entries
All Day
Online

Trot it out. Dust it off. Primp, fluff, shave and trim. Your creative endeavors are due for reckoning at The Dog & Pony Show. You could very well be deemed worthy…or not.

August 10
Guerilla Marketing for Job Hunters
7:30 – 9:30 am
University of St. Thomas Minneapolis Campus – Terrence Murphy Hall

Join MN AMA in August for “Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters” with noted job search expert Kevin Donlin, a program designed to jump-start your job search and set you on the path to a career you’ll love—whether you’re on the job market and want to find work faster, or currently employed but wanting to position yourself for your next step.

August 12
Alphabet Bash 2010 (#abcbash10)
6:00 – 10:00 pm
Epic Center

Don’t miss the premier networking event for advertising, marketing and communications professionals in the Twin Cities. The fifth annual Alphabet Bash is hosted by AdFed, MN AMA, IABC MN, MDMA, MIMA, MNWIFT, MWMC, PRSA, and AWM-MN.

August 18
Universal Search: Real-Time, Personalization and Social (#MIMA)
5:15 pm
Nicollet Island Pavilion

Maximizing your website search engine results use to consist of simply using the right keywords. Now, a cool new form of search results has swept the Web, all designed to bring an awesome user experience to people. Welcome to the world of Universal Search. What does it mean? Join us as Miguel Salcido, Director of SEO at Geary Interactive share his thoughts on what you can do to be integrate smart search into real results.

August 19
Twin Cities Thursday Happy Hours Summer Bash (#TCTHH)
5:30 pm
Santorini

The NSHMBA MSP Chapter is the title sponsor for this event and will be providing a free drink ticket to the first 250 guests at the event and raffle prizes; including a flat screen TV, Blue Ray, iPod and NSHMBA memberships. In addition to that Santorini has been kind enough to provide its patio/private room space, complimentary valet parking and food for the group.

8 Reasons Why Maintaining Your Website is Like Losing Weight

July 29th, 2010 | Posted by Jeff Sauer

It’s been months (maybe years) since you’ve done something about it.  You know you could do better but you don’t have enough time.  It’s easy to just ignore it, forget about it, not think about it.  You wear the signs of neglect, yet aren’t motivated enough to do something about it.  Everyone can see it, but nobody says it out loud:

You need to lose weight

You need to fix your website

I got the idea for this post today while thinking about how the typical website cycle for companies is quite similar to trying to lose weight.  A few weeks ago I saw a picture of myself and said “man, I look like Matthew Perry during his fat years on Friends.”  From that point on, I have been working out religiously, trying to look a little less like the chubby Chandler Bing.

Here is a list of thoughts that I have gone through while trying to lose weight, and their web design equivalent:

1. Whatever it takes, I need to lose weight right now

This is often the attitude of those who need to design/redesign a website from the ground up.  No excuses made or expenses spared – we are committed to getting this site launched.  Sure, we aren’t really sure about how it will look when it’s done, it might take longer than we hope, but we have a goal, and we will get there.

Much like losing weight, having a goal and target is vital to success.  Setting up benchmarks to measure success along the way is a great way to stay on track, and even if you have a few mishaps along the way, you can always keep your eyes on the prize.

2. I’m not motivated to lose weight. I probably should, but I’d rather watch my “stories” on SOAP Network

It’s easier to be satisfied with what you have than to strive for improvement.  Unfortunately, time doesn’t stand still while you are seeking motivation.  On the web, much like in genetics, time is not on your side. Your website will show the signs of neglect if you do nothing.

3. If I can just maintain what I have, I’ll be good to go

When we reach our ideal weight/website design, it’s a good idea totake continuous strides to improve the way your site accomplishes our goals.  In fact, if you do a great job with maintenance, you may never need to do a complete redesign of your website again.

* Realistically, this is a very small segment of the population – kudos to them!

4. I know I’ve gained weight, but if I’m defensive about it, nobody will say anything

Much like with gaining weight, you are only hurting yourself by being defensive about your clunker website. Maybe it’s time to start blaming others and start doing something about it?

5. Dammit Grandma, why did you have to pinch my cheeks and poke my belly?

Stop blaming your Grandma – it’s not her fault that you gained weight… she just happens to be the only person honest enough to tell you.  In the website world, this feedback will often come from your customers or clients.  If your customer tells you that they chose your company in spite of your website, you might want to make some improvements.  Your family loves you because they have to, your customers don’t have to.

6. Of Course Their Body Looks Great Year Round – They Are Athletes

You may say this when someone tries to compare your website to Amazon.com.  Obviously you’re not on the same playing field, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t compete.  Who says that you need to do this professionally in order to have a good looking site?  You can succeed in business and make an excellent website – they don’t need to be mutually exclusive.

7. If I could only afford a personal trainer, I’d be ripped

This is just like saying “If I had the money to build a website, it would be great.”

Let me dispense some wisdom to you in the tone of Yoda; “Money does not a good website make.” The Internet is the great equalizer, you don’t need to pay a lot of money to learn how to make your website better. There are thousands of 100% free workout programs online, and there are even more programs online that teach you how to make websites. Seek this information and you can go a long way.

Also, sometimes you just need to pay the money to get some information that isn’t easily accessible.  That’s why I bought the P90X program a year ago, and that might be why you need to hire a graphic designer to create your web layout… or a programmer to make your site work properly.

8. I would totally work out if I had time

The easiest and best excuse in the book. We are members of the procrastination nation. The truth is that there is almost always an hour in the day when you can get things done. I have started waking up at 5:30 AM to work out, because that is the only way I get it done. You can always wake up early and find time to work on your site without distractions. Or stay up late… just stop procrastinating!

Bonus: Thing just haven’t been the same since the injury

Sometimes forces of nature occur that force you to change your strategy.  Whether it is on a micro or a macro level, strategies change.  Google was originally called “back rub” before becoming a household name.  Imagine the number of sexual harassment claims that would occur today had they kept that name.  What if everyone huddled around a computer and said “let’s  backrub Jane and see what comes up?”  Lawsuit city!

Likewise, Intel was known as a computer memory producer through the 1970′s.  In the 1980′s, they changed their entire business model to focus on Microprocessors and the rest is history.

Sometimes you need to change course.  If you embrace this change, there’s a good chance that you’ll discover entirely new avenues of conducting business (or losing weight).

How do I get started?

Motivation needs to come from within.  I became motivated to increase my workout regimen immediately after I saw some unflattering photos.  Our website motivated me after I realized that I had been putting it off for several months.  The way you become motivated will likely be entirely different. The key is to find that driving point and get started!

What are you waiting for, your Grandma to poke your belly?

Thank You For Attending Our Open House

July 23rd, 2010 | Posted by Jeff Sauer

As many of you know, Three Deep invited our friends, business partners and social media connections to join us for an open house at our new offices on July 15th.  The event was very well attended (beyond our estimates and imagination) and the overall feedback was very positive.

There is a lot of work that goes into organizing an event, and the open house was no exception.  We had to decorate our new place to make it more inviting, and found a great partner in Glenhurst Design.  Jennifer and Abby did an outstanding job of making everything come together with a very tight deadline, and the entry way and display walls in the new office look fantastic.

Dan Derosier with Glenhurst Design Group

Product Wall

Dan Derosier with St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman

Client Logos

Our conference rooms were masterfully configured for audio and video by the folks at Graybow.

Food and beverage were handled by Chow Girls (brilliant Mashed Potato bar) and Simply Service.

In addition to some great third party partners working with us, we had a great amount of effort and participation from our team at Three Deep, lead by Nicole Leach.  Nicole did everything possible to ensure that things went smoothly – going beyond the call of duty and spending many late nights at the office.

Other all-stars from Three Deep included Dan D, Erick, Mitchell, Jake, Emily, Jobin, Diane, Justin, Darren and Jeff… with many others making major contributions as well.

Last, and certainly not least, we would like to thank our esteemed attendees.  Without our friends, family and business partners, there wouldn’t be Three Deep.  We couldn’t have done any of this without you!

Thank you so much for coming and look forward to working with you in the future.

Three Deep Marketing Open House – July 15, 2010

July 8th, 2010 | Posted by Three Deep

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know that Three Deep has been growing exponentially over the past few years.  Since 2008 we have grown our team from 5 to 30 people, opened a call center, and have recently moved our office to Downtown St. Paul in the “up and coming” Lowertown area.

Our move gives us reason to celebrate, and we would like for you to join in on the fun!

Come join Three Deep for our open house Thursday, July 15, 2010 between 3 and 7 PM.

Head down to our office on Thursday afternoon and enjoy food and refreshments (including some of our clients’ popular products and a signature cocktail). You’ll have the opportunity to tour our new office, network with Twin Cities marketing professionals, and find out exactly what Three Deep has to offer you and your business.

Why should you attend?

• Are you currently a client of Three Deep?  We encourage you to attend to learn about our other services that may further assist your business. If you’ve ever wondered about something we offer, the open house would be the perfect time to talk with our staff about a new opportunity.

• Do you work for an organization that is looking to increase its web presence or generate new business leads? You should attend to learn about the projects that Three Deep has produced for nationally-recognized brands and hear from clients on what we’ve accomplished for their business.

• Currently looking for work? While Three Deep is only accepting resumes for a limited number of positions at this time, we would love to meet with like-minded individuals who are results driven and innovative to keep in mind for future openings. The open house would also provide an opportunity to meet with other professionals in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and make valuable networking connections.

Interested in joining us?

Sign up today on our Eventbrite page and spread the word. The Twitter hashtag for the Three Deep Open House is #3doh. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at any time. We look forward to seeing you on the 15^th!

Minneapolis Interactive Marketing Events – July, 2010

June 29th, 2010 | Posted by Diane Kulseth

As the weather gets warmer, the events start moving outside. Check out these events by local organizations in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area for interactive marketing professionals.

June 30
Mashable’s Social Media Day – Minneapolis Meetup
6:30 pm
Chino Latino Restaurant

Mashable is proclaiming June 30 as social media day. Join the social media enthusiasts of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area for food, fun and networking at Chino Latino to celebrate.

July 1
Java Meetup Minneapolis (#JMU612)
8:00 am – 10:00 am
Urban Bean Coffee

Twin Cities Uber Marketers, Business Junkies and Social Media Rebels meet together to discuss a variety of subjects. This month’s will cover the impact of gaming on marketing.

July 7
Young Professional Communicators of the Twin Cities (#YPCTC)
5:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Midway Stadium

Walser Automotive Group is providing YPCTC 40 tickets to the July 7th Saint Paul Saints game against the Wichita Wingnuts with tailgating food, drinks, and live music! It’s sure to be a really fun night for new communicators to socialize over some good, old-fashioned baseball.

July 16
AdFed’s Golferoo
11:30 am – 7:00 pm
Braemar Golf Course

Golferoo is a fun event that attracts players from the Twin Cities marketing and advertising community. Players include men and women with a wide range of golf skill and ability.

July 21
Integrated Communications Panel (#MIMA)
7:30 am – 10:00 am
Metropolitan Ballroom

Join the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association in discussing how to bring together a variety of media elements into one integrated marketing campaign. If your role is in planning, budgeting, facilitating, communicating, designing, or branding, you’ll want to attend and ask questions.

July 23
Social Media Breakfast #28: Social Media in Small Business (#SMBMSP)
8:00 am – 10:00 am
Deluxe Corporation

Head on over to Shoreview for coffee and bacon and a discussion on the lawn of Deluxe Corporation. This month will focus on social media in small businesses.

July 27
An Evening with Brian Solis
6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Solera Restaurant

Come and learn about the evolution of new media and how to integrate new technologies and methodologies into everyday business activity (or make the case for your clients to do so). This presentation is for newbies, champions and executives alike who work in business, marketing, branding, interactive, service, and communications.

Twitter Follower Flowchart for Businesses

June 22nd, 2010 | Posted by Diane Kulseth

The #1 rule to social media is to be social.  For businesses, it can often be a difficult premise to adhere to this simple rule, and we often see businesses criticized for having thousands (or millions) of followers and only following 5 people back.

It’s something we think about from time to time as we manage our @threedeep Twitter account. Someone follows our business on Twitter and we wonder if it’s worth our time to follow them back. Some people will advocate that you automatically “follow back” everyone who follows you, but that’s not always practical and brings your account in some spammy areas.

How does a Businesses decide who to follow on Twitter?

We’ve created this flowchart which may offer some insight into how we evaluate whether or not your business should follow someone on Twitter.

The chart starts with a simple question:

Does this account tweet in English?

Unless you are well versed in that language (as well as everyone else that manages your account), it’s in your best interest to just let them be.

Does your account know this Twitter account professionally?

This should be a simple question if you’re a business. Are you in business with this person or organization? If so, you have just found an additional venue with which to communicate with them and can also help to cross-promote each other.

Does your account know this Twitter account personally?

For example, does your brother blog frequently about photography and his blog feeds into Twitter? Or does your college roommate have a Twitter and posts amusing tweets?

Is that content valuable to your business?

Perhaps you can rationalize your brother’s account, but unless you’re a comedy business, your roommate will have to be reserved for a personal account.

Is this account local?

For us at Three Deep, we may follow businesses that have no relevance to our business, however this business still may be of value to us, such as Barrio, where we often enjoy their tacos. Another option is that the person behind the account may be someone seeking a position with Three Deep, so following them would be helpful for them to message us if they need to follow up on a posting.

Do they tweet regularly? excessively?

These terms are relative to you and the amount of accounts you follow. We say that more than 5 tweets an hour is excessive, but that is something you must determine for your account. Also, if the account tweets less than once a week, it is doubtful that you will glean any knowledge from them unless you can target the exact time that they will post a message.

Is their content original?

At Three Deep, we follow many social media people. However, if their tweets are all filled with the latest Mashable news, then it would make sense to just follow Mashable. It’s certainly fine that accounts want to retweet people, but make sure that there is a healthy balance of original and retweeted content. Again, these are just guidelines that we use to determine who we follow for our organization’s Twitter.

We welcome your thoughts and what parameters you use for those you choose to follow.

6 Reasons Why Internet Marketing Isn’t Working For Your Home Improvement Business

June 16th, 2010 | Posted by Tom Audette

Three Deep Marketing has a large home improvement client base.   We work with a variety of home improvement companies that are truly a cross section of the industry, helping them with their internet marketing and lead generation needs.  These home improvement companies include some of the largest  companies in the country, as well as companies that are strong regional players in their local markets.

While paid search management (PPC) is usually the first service we engage with a client, we actually offer a full compliment of services, including:

• Website Development
• Landing Pages
• Blogs
• Social Media Campaigns,
• Call Center services (we operate a call center for many of our clients)

The main objective across all of our services is to use technology to develop a pipeline of cost effective inquires (prospects) for our clients.  Through this experience we have realized that how those inquiries are handled by the Client will have a dramatic effect on the success of any Internet marketing effort.

With that said we’ve developed this list of the Top 6 Reasons Why Your Home Improvement Company Isn’t Getting As Much Business As It Could From The Internet.

1. Your website sucks

Our team looks at well over 100 home improvement websites each year.  The rules for websites have changed over the last 10 years, unfortunately most of the contractor sites we see haven’t kept up and look like they haven’t been touched since the early 2000’s.  A modern website should be built with search engine optimization (SEO) as a primary goal.  That means optimized title tags, header text, meta descriptions and plenty of fresh, engaging content that is useful to your prospects.  (Content copied off a manufacturer’s website doesn’t count!)

Statistics show that over 80% of all product and service inquires now start online.  Can those prospects quickly find your company through the search engines – most importantly Google, who has 80% of the market share in search? Does your website put your best foot forward in telling your story?  Once a prospect gets to your site, does your site have a strong call to action on it?  Do you have site analytics installed and does someone monitor those stats routinely?  Setting up conversion tracking on a site is essential; once you know the percentage of visitors actually convert into prospects you can start to test new offers to improve that statistic.  Because one of the primary factors that the search engines use to rank websites for relevance is inbound links — what other websites are linking to your site?

2. All politics are local and so are most searches

Over the last two years local search (LSEO) has become an even more important consideration for the Internet savvy local business.  Local search is commonly referred to as the “map” or the “ten pack” of companies listed at the top of an organic search.  For a company that does bathroom remodeling in St. Paul its essential that he show up “in the map” for that keyword search, because the existence of the map pushes all the organic listings down below the fold.

Our home improvement clients have asked us “How do we get listed on the map?”  There are reams of articles out there about LSEO, but the Reader’s Digest version is that it takes a concerted effort of:

a.)    Claiming your listing on Google Places.

b.)    Optimizing your listing by including a complete and keyword rich business description.

c.)     Claiming other Free listings on local directories and pointing the links to your website.

d.)    Soliciting links to your site from other reputable websites that you do business with.

e.)    Soliciting online consumer reviews from your satisfied customers.  This one is likely the most important!  Google places a high value on consumer reviews.  If your customers are happy with your work, they likely would be happy to write an online review – but you have to ask them and likely show them where to do it.

We maintain that a well rounded internet marketing strategy consists of a search optimized website with good content and calls to action, a well optimized Local Search Strategy and an aggressive Paid Search campaign.  But what if…

3. Your Paid Search program is hemorrhaging money

This goes back to point number one.  We find most home improvement contractors who attempt a paid search campaign on their own start by sending traffic to their website homepage.  (The one with lousy content, no call to action and no conversion tracking.)  You know that you are getting clicks because Google is charging your credit card, but you aren’t getting many leads.  As a result you quickly form the opinion that “PPC advertising doesn’t work.”

The problem is that unless you know for certain what your website’s conversion rate is, (and most sites we look at have conversion rates less than 1%) sending traffic to your website is throwing money away.  We coach Clients that a better tactic is to develop a standalone landing page and send their PPC traffic there.  While the purpose of a website is to inform and educate, the purpose of a landing page is to engage a prospect and convert (meaning fill out the form to request more information.)  Statistics show that 50% of visitors to a landing page leave within 8 seconds, so you don’t have much time to state your case and get them to convert!  We’ve tested just about every conceivable offer and have developed best practices that depending on the Client have resulted in conversion rates between 5-15%.  One of our larger home improvement Clients spent over $60K on Google paid search advertising last month.  His campaign had a 7.27% conversion rate – meaning he generated 877 PPC inquiries, not counting phone calls which we usually track on a campaign as well.  This company had direct marketing costs from PPC alone of under 10%, meaning they sold in excess of $680,000 just from PPC last month!  When you factor in the phone calls as well he likely sold in excess of $1mm.  Clearly, if implemented correctly paid search advertising works!

4. Your phone response time on internet leads is too long

This one can kill you if you aren’t on it.  Think about your own experience, if you send in a request for more information online when do you want to get an answer?  Tomorrow…?  Next week…? How about..Now!  Online shoppers measure time in minutes, not days.  If you don’t have a system set up to respond immediately to an internet request you are missing the boat.  By the time you get around to contacting the prospect the odds are likely that they will have found someone else to do their home improvement work.

5. Your phone staff treats internet inquires like any other lead

A call in from a media campaign and an internet inquiry are not the same thing, and shouldn’t be treated the same way.  A person calling you requesting an estimate is much farther down on the buying spectrum than an internet shopper who is researching their project and requested the informational report on your website.  (Oh, you don’t have an offer for an informational report on your website?  Refer to item number 1 on this list about Calls to Action!)

That isn’t to say an internet inquiry can’t be set into an appointment.  An internet lead just needs some finesse on the part of the appointment setter.  You can’t just call the prospect and say “We got your name off the internet and we’d like to schedule a time to give you a free home improvement estimate.”  Taking that approach will scare them off more often than not.  The top home improvement industry consultants refer to an approach of “Selling the Value of the Visit” in order to increase appointment setting efficiencies.  This step is crucial when it comes to internet leads.  It is also essential to have a good CRM system in place to manage the calls and contacts you make with these prospects, because if you don’t set a lead into an appointment immediately you should be able to nurture them along with other marketing methods like email marketing and direct mail marketing and so that when they are ready to set an appointment – you’ll be on the top of their minds.

6. You are over qualifying your inquires

Over a year ago, we set up a call center that takes call in inquires from paid search landing pages, and immediately responds to internet email requests and sets appointments for our Clients because we realized that there was a tremendous opportunity to help Clients overcome problems 4 and 5.  One of our home improvement Clients so far this year has sold over $800,000 off the internet with a fully loaded marketing cost under 6%, including PPC fees and call center fees to Three Deep.  This Client is well on his way to selling over $1.5 mm off the Internet, which would triple the amount of business he’s generated any other year from the internet.  We have another Client who’s business was up 150% over his best 1^st Quarter by utilizing our call center.  These results can be directly attributed to calling Internet prospects immediately with a scripted appointment setting methodology and using a CRM system to manage them.

It’s not surprising how many home improvement companies we talk to that tell us they have a problem generating enough appointments.  Cost effective lead generation is the number one problem facing the home improvement industry today.  Industry best practices would define a qualified appointment as a prospect who:

a. owns their home

b. has a need and an interest in the product

c. agrees to have all homeowners present

d. agrees to give a representative an hour of their time.

We’ve found too many home improvement companies who as a matter of course ask qualification questions over the phone about the size of the job, the prospect’s budget, financing, time frame for doing the job, number of other estimates the prospect has had before deciding whether it’s “worth their time” to set the appointment.  At the same time they complain that they don’t have enough leads and that their marketing cost is too high – notice a pattern?

Here’s an idea, if someone has reached out to you over the Internet asking for help on their home, and they fit a. b. c. and d. above – set the appointment and go see them!  A good home improvement salesperson is an agent of influence not an order taker!  Let the sales rep do his job, that is to show and demonstrate your products and talk about your company.   You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!  If you increase the number of demonstrations you can do per day, your sales will increase and your marketing costs will decrease.

This is a pretty long list and to implement all of these items likely will represent a change in culture for a lot of companies.  However, times have changed.  Media advertising isn’t working as well as it used to; neither are direct mail or newspaper ads.  The yellow pages are on the endangered species list.   For home improvement companies to survive and thrive in the future, they are going to have to embrace Internet marketing – for it represents the single largest opportunity for lead generation and revenue growth today.  The home improvement companies that we work with have realized this and are experiencing tremendous success by knocking down the six items mentioned in this post.