I’m told that translators have some interesting challenges when it comes to marketing. Although companies regularly employ in-house translators to deal with localization, a big chunk of the market is handled by freelancers who own their own business. In many cases, the client doing the hiring cannot independently evaluate whether or not the work done is of a high quality, so it isn’t as easy as providing a portfolio of previous work. Often, clients don’t understand that translators have specific areas of expertise – much like marketing and technical writers – and that hiring someone isn’t as simple as finding someone who can read and write the languages in question.

So what works well? Having excellent references. Demonstrating your understanding of a particular market segment (think med tech, or legal, or software). Exhibiting superior communication skills – after all, a translator is hired to communicate on behalf of a client or company.

I hope my presentation can shed a little light on using today’s web tools. While this presentation has been tailored to the needs of freelance translators, I think many of the strategies and action items are relevant to professional service providers.

This week’s post is on SEO. While you might think search engine optimization isn’t related to (or – gasp – necessary for) a successful social media campaign, you’re missing out on a crucial opportunity to draw in more relevant web traffic.

Finally, you might also think that SEO is for super-guru-expert web developers only. To be sure, there are aspects of SEO that would befuddle the average blogger, but the big picture is well within your grasp.

With that said, let’s look at three simple steps anyone can implement.

Keep it human friendly

If you take one grain of knowledge from this post, it’s this: what’s human friendly is also SEO friendly. It’s true in every instance I can think of – quality of content, ease of navigation, site speed, etc. Google serves human beings and it’s in their best interest to direct their incoming search traffic to sites that are human friendly.

What can you do to keep your site user friendly?

• Write content that you would enjoy reading and keep it clearly organized using headings
• Keep your site clearly organized using categories and tags
• Create sitemaps – one in HTML for real people, one in XML for Googlebot (not using a CMS? you can still create a sitemap here)
• Keep the navigation simple – real people don’t enjoy clicking through six levels of navigation to get to your sterling prose

Increase your incoming links

Give potential visitors a good reason to visit your site multiple times, comment and even share your content. Provide your would-be visitors with content that offers value (without heavy marketing jargon) and they’ll be more likely to share the link with others. Since Google and other search engines place a high value on the number of incoming links from other high-quality sites, increasing your incoming links (known as inbound marketing) is a great way to raise yourself in search results.

What’s the best way to regularly update content in a simple, SEO-friendly format on a website today? You’ve got a handful of options, but the easiest is probably a blog. Post new content on a regular basis. Find other bloggers that are covering similar content or reaching out to the same target market and comment on their blogs. While it might seem like a simple strategy, it’s also very effective and easy for anyone to do.

Avoid duplicate content

Have you heard this one?

You’re a new blogger. A friend has been blogging for years. In order to help you get some additional traffic when you first start blogging, your friend copies your first blog post and posts it over on their site. A link at the bottom tells readers to “visit this site for more great blog posts like this one!”

While it might seem like your friend did you a kind favor, the reality is that they hurt your SEO. Duplicate content appearing on multiple sites is a no-no for SEO. In short, you’re in competition against your friend for ranking on the same blog post. Since your friend’s site is older, has more incoming links and likely more content, you’re going to lose.

Avoid posting duplicate content on multiple sites. Although SEO experts disagree on how dramatic the impact might be, the general consensus is that it’s to be avoided whenever you can.

Three simple, non-technical tips can go a long way toward improving how Google sees and ranks your site.

For more specific tips on how to optimize a site built with WordPress, don’t miss Joost de Valk’s excellent post and presentation on the subject (and thanks to Rebecca at Illuminea for sharing the link to the presentation on Twitter).

For more technical (and frequently comic) tips directly from Google, don’t miss the Google Webmasters Channel and more info from Matt Cutts on Twitter.

My presentation provided ideas and strategy for using web-based tools to compliment traditional methods when you’re searching for a job. It’s my opinion that many of our tried-and-true methods of reaching would-be employers have a web-based corollary.

To be sure, the elements involved take some skill, industry-specific knowledge and time, but I think they can play a role in our job search today.

I finished my presentation with tips to continue your personal branding when you find employment – cataloging achievements and building connections along the way.

You can view the presentation slides here. Nefesh B’Nefesh also videotaped the seminar, and I hope to make that available here on the blog shortly.

Hope to see you there!

I’m using Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook (fan page, group and my personal account) to promote our site and the content we post on our blog. We also use YouTube for video. When I post a new video to YouTube, should I share that video on the blog too? Should I post the link in Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn? We have a lot of overlap on the social networks and I’m afraid people will get sick of seeing the same content in three places.

Thanks for your excellent question! In short, my answer would be yes. But, we need to take a look at how content gets shared to understand the reasons why.

Let’s say you’re in charge of marketing, including social media, at a software company. You’ve decided to give it a shot and created a company blog. You blog regularly and get some good traffic, but you’re always looking to get more impact for the time you spend creating content. To gain a bit of exposure, you start sharing your content on three networks – Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. When you’ve got other content, you post it to a media-based site like YouTube, Flickr or SlideShare. So far, things are going well and you’re getting some success at engaging users, having posts go viral and converting a fair share of your new traffic into sales. In short, your social media is a success.

But you have this nagging worry that some of your geekier clients – stalkers, if you will – are getting the same barrage of content on multiple sites. You’re worried they’re going to get sick of you and stop sharing – or worse, stop using your software.

Not to worry – it’s not likely. While a user might connect to you on any multitude of formats (RSS from your blog, Twitter and Facebook, a fan of your YouTube channel), it’s unlikely they’re paying attention to you in each venue. Even though many of your users might be using all of the same social networks, they aren’t using all of them the same way.

Think about how you share content. When you see something you’re eager to share, do you run to Facebook or Twitter? Do you “favorite” things on YouTube and SlideShare or do you email the link to your friends (or share the link in another network entirely)? Are you active in social bookmarking sites like Digg and Delicious? No matter your answer, the point is this: you probably aren’t doing every one of them for every story that catches your eye.

Now let’s get back to your users. Even when the same story hits RSS, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, your users are going to share and spread it a little differently depending on their particular way of sharing content. By leaving out one network, you take a chance that someone who prefers to share in Twitter is going to copy and paste your link from Facebook, if that’s their preference for sharing. While it may not sound like much, it’s added work for a user – and a chance you may not want to take.

There’s another factor when it comes to sharing the same content – something akin to six degrees of separation. Although you might be connecting directly with the same people in Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, the people that they’re connecting with might be different. With the goal being that your network shares your content, the potential market you reach once you get a few steps removed from your original post might be dramatically different from network to network. Let’s look at a diagram to illustrate our point.

How networks share content

To be sure, there’s going to be some degree of overlap in each level of connections – this is especially true if you’re target market is B2B. That said, by the time my contacts have shared my content with their contacts, I’ve already reached a huge market I couldn’t touch directly. In this way, even a small but dedicated following within a social network can have a huge impact and reach well beyond their limited numbers with a valuable message.

We’ve got a couple of questions to answer today – you can submit your questions at kelli@pixelpointpress.com.

Our first question comes for a recent class participant:

A link to an interesting article was posted in a group that I’m a part of. The group is moderated, which means that you need to be approved in order to see the posts. I’d like to share the link, but linking directly to the Yahoo! group will prevent most of my readers from seeing the article. Can I post the link to the actual article? If so, how should I give credit to the person who shared the link?

Let’s talk about how to credit links in various social media outlets:

• From a private group: You need to share the link to the original article, as most readers might not be part of the group. In this case, you can cover your bases by crediting the original poster in the group (helpful if you know a real name) and perhaps mention the group you found it in (readers who link the link might consider joining the group).
• From Twitter: If you’re the first retweet, it’s easy – RT @originalposter and the link. Things get a little more complicated as a tweet gets retweeted multiple times – you’re going to run out of space pretty quickly. A wide variety of techniques exist, from saving the original poster or the final poster that you’re retweeting, saving the last tweeter and using via for the original one, but one this is for sure – try and give credit. You don’t want to be perceived as a Retweet Thief.
• From Facebook: By typing in the @ symbol in Facebook, you’ll be able to tag your friends and credit them for sharing content.
• Cross-network: If you’re moving a link between networks, you can still credit the original poster using the same techniques above.

No matter the network, just ensure that you give credit where credit is due.

Add to Favorites link

P3's Favorite Pages

Our next question comes from a fan of our Pixel/Point Press page:

Can one fan page become a fan of another fan page in Facebook?

Yes, but under a different name. While people become fans, fan pages become favorites. To select another page as a favorite of your page, visit the fan page and click the Add to Favorites link. When your page adds favorites, the other pages will be displayed on the bottom left of the page in their own popout box. For example, Pixel/Point Press is a fan of French Creek Press, our parent company.

Our final question comes from a VP of marketing who finds herself at the helm of her company’s social media campaign:

Our company has decided to pursue marketing using a Facebook fan page, among other tools. I have been asked to moderate and evaluate the interactions in our page as well as possibly place some advertising. I don’t have a Facebook account – and I don’t want one. I also don’t want to be associated personally with our company’s brand online. Is there a way to administer these accounts without having a Facebook account?

Many people don’t know that Facebook actually offers two types of accounts for individuals: Personal and Business.

Facebook Business Services

You can’t get out of having a Facebook account altogether, but you can have a business account instead of a regular, fully featured Facebook account. If you’ve never had a Facebook account, you can create a Business Account that allows you to administer all your company needs – fan pages, advertising, and other interactions with the Facebook platform, like Facebook Connect – without having a personal profile.

A couple of caveats though: If you convert your business account to a regular account, you can’t go back. And if you already have a regular account, you can’t create a business account. As always, having more than one Facebook account violates Facebook’s Terms of Use.

Social Media 1-2-3

The social media world is still abuzz about Twitter. How can simple 140-character messages help you to inform and interact with your target market?

Here are three steps to get you going with this potentially powerful marketing tool:

Step One: Create your account: It might seem obvious, but you’re going to need a Twitter account (and possibly more than one – even if you plan on tweeting from only one). Head over to Twitter.com and get started. When possible, use your real name as your Twitter handle (the @username part). Then add your real name so that others can find you easily. Use a password that’s tough to break and an email address you check frequently.

It’s a good idea to let Twitter check if your friends are already online by comparing your email contacts. You can also check in with other folks you’re connected to in social networks. It’s your choice whether or not to follow the celebs that Twitter suggests, but might help you get a start following some folks that tweet regularly. Once you’re finished registering your account, it’s time to finish editing your settings.

Click the Settings link. Inside settings, you have six tabs:

• Account
• Password
• Mobile
• Notices
• Picture
• Design

We’re going to edit your account, picture and design. When you get some free time down the road, it would be good for you to check out the others as well.

Under account, check the information and update your time zone (unless you are in Greenland). Add the web address to your site or blog. Add your location and language. For your bio, try to write a short and witty synopsis of you, what you tweet, what you do and why someone might be interested in you. It’s social media, so it’s okay for your bio to be creative – remember, you’re trying to connect with other real people. When you’re finished, click save.

Under picture, we’ll upload a small snapshot of you so people know who’s tweeting. Try and pick a tightly cropped shot since you’ve got a small window to fill. And despite how cute they are, use your picture – not your kids, your pets, or your cartoon avatar. We want to see you. When you’ve added your photo, click save.

Under design, it’s time to get creative. Your best bet is to create a custom background using of the many tools available on the Web. Make sure your background has your Web address – Twitter is even more successful when it’s used as a tool to get people back to your home base on the Web. When you’re finished making changes, click save.

Step Two: Connect with others: Now you’re ready to get going. You can fire off a few introductory tweets, but you might want to try and make a few connections first. Start by finding folks that you know are on Twitter – allowing Twitter to compare your email contacts and other networks is a great way to start. Look for any friends you know are using Twitter. When you find someone, click Follow to begin seeing their tweets in your Twitter stream.

Search for other contacts by using the search field on the right side of your Twitter site, looking for keywords that interest you. Take a spin through the trending topics and see if any tweets jump out at you.

When you’ve got a handful of folks you’re following, see who they’re following and who else is following them – chances are higher that they’re legit (meaning they’re not spammers) and that they may share some similar interests with you.

Tip: Don’t be surprised if you have some followers before you have sent out any tweets. Some might be spammers – if so, you’ll want to block them and report them to Twitter – but others might have found something of interest in your bio, your location, or might have matched their own email contacts with your address.

Step Three: Share great content: Why would someone want to follow you in Twitter? Because you provide a resource, a wealth of information that interests them and that they can share with others. The absolute bare minimum should be a 50/50 balance in content. Half of the time, you need to share content that is useful but in no way self-promotes or references your marketing interests. Half of the time, you can gently lead your audience into articles, posts, or other links that cast you in a favorable light. Anything more heavy handed quickly becomes, to borrow a term from Chris Brogan, social media’s version of carpet bombing. Become the go-to person on the Web for all information in your focus area – whether it’s thought leadership within your industry or reasoned commentary on news events of a particular bent – and you will get followers who appreciate your work, share your links and are eager to interact.

We’d love your feedback on our new series – Social Media 1-2-3 – here on the blog at Pixel/Point Press. Don’t miss last week’s article on drafting a social media strategy. And come back next week when we look at three common Twitter terms explained: retweets, DMs and hashtags.

To read more articles in this series, please bookmark this category.

Today’s question comes from one of our recent class participants:

I’ve built my Facebook page and I’m posting content to it from my site. My page is new, so I only have a few fans right now. But I have many friends in my regular Facebook profile. Should I post the content to my personal profile too, since more people will see it there?

That’s a great question. For example, our P3 fan page has about 100 fans, but I’ve got more than 500 friends in Facebook. Don’t I want to take advantage of that network? Or am I going to annoy the daylights out of the people who are socially connected to me but couldn’t care less about my work and self-promotion?

The answer is that it depends. Evaluate your connections on Facebook – and on every network you use – and determine whether or not they are likely to help you distribute your content. In most cases, it isn’t the size of your network that makes a difference – it’s the quality of interaction you can expect from those you connect with. If there’s a reasonable expectation that your friends would enjoy and share your content with others that might subscribe or become an active fan, tread gently and ask for their patience and help as your build your online presence.

For another look at how little the size of your network matters, don’t miss Debra Askanase’s post: The Case of the 4,000 Twitter Followers Who Don’t Care.

Often skipped entirely or dismissed as unnecessary, drafting a social media strategy should be the cornerstone of every social media campaign – regardless of the company size. Whether you’re an individual looking to rebrand yourself before a job search or an international company trying to target a new market, you need to have a plan. Let’s take a look at what goes into a social media strategy in three steps.

One caveat: This three-step guide assumes that you’ve already spent some time online listening to your market and you’re able to make an educated guess at how to target them. Before you can build a strategy, you’ll need to have set reasonable goals for your social media campaign.

Step One: Resources: Social media isn’t free. Before jumping on the Facebook bandwagon, take a hard look at what resources you can allocate.

Will a new social media campaign replace existing aspects of your current marketing? If so, will it free up budget? What content are you going to contribute? Do you have a regularly updated blog that provides more than simple self promotion? Is your company in support of promoting themselves as thought leaders in their industry? How often can you add new content?

Who will search for relevant articles to post? Who will answer comments on your blog and moderate posts to your Facebook fan page? How many staffers can be dedicated to the initial setup and learning curve of various tools? Will each staffer specialize in a specific area or will you need to cross train your staff to function with multiple tools? What skills do your staff already have and what will need to be taught/learned? Will your outreach be limited to business hours only or is it possible to allocate manpower over a larger part of the 24-hour cycle?

How much budget can you allocate to purchasing support tools for your strategy? Can you foot the bill for Involver’s toolset to make your Facebook presence more powerful and easier to manage? Will you and your staff have smartphones capable of sharing content from anywhere with a 3G connection?

To build a successful strategy using social media, you’ll need to take a hard look at three resources:

• Time: How much time can you or your company dedicate to these efforts on an ongoing basis?
• Talent: What skills can you leverage that allow you to reach out online in a new format?
• Technology: Both hardware and know-how – can your current hardware get the job done and are your tech skills up to the task (or do you have a geek in waiting that could help you out)?

Step Two: Content: Before you create that corporate account at Digg.com, take a step back and consider what content you’ve got to share with the world.

The first part of content brainstorming should be a raid of your archives. Have you got good informational articles that can be repurposed as blog posts with a facelift? Do you have some PowerPoint presentations explaining your product or service that can be shared at SlideShare.net? Videos teaching someone some tips and tricks that you can add to YouTube? Audio files that teach – can they be made into a regular podcast? Content is king in any social media campaign, so consider first what you’ve got to use. In many cases, generating new content is also the most time consuming (and therefore resource consuming) aspect of your strategy, so make sure you use what you’ve already got.

But your own content is less than half of the equation. In order for your outreach effort to be a success, you need to become a valuable resource to your target market. And that means sharing a wealth of top-notch content that extends well beyond your own self-promotion efforts. If you’ve done a good job of building a successful listening system and know what content is relevant to your target market and where they can find those resources, you’re well on your way to sharing great links.

Instead of trying to steer your market to your content only, serve as an aggregator of relevant information on the Web in a variety of platforms. Become the go-to site for news and information, tips and tricks.

Instead of the staid model of solely diseminating information to your target market, become part of the discussion and encourage a focus group atmosphere.

Step Three: Tools: Finally, we reach the aspect of social media with which folks are most familiar. Once you’ve got the content, how are you going to reach your target market?

If you’re lucky, the most powerful tool in your social media toolbox might be your own Web site. If you’re unlucky, and your Web site doesn’t meet the needs of your target market, you’re going to have a hard time with any Web-based marketing campaign – despite your best efforts. Your own site is home base for your presence on the Web. If your ultimate goal is to sell a product, be contacted by a prospective client or be hired to perform a service, your own site is the most likely gateway for new business. Make sure you have your ducks in a row at home before spending resources trying to promote a weak site.

Whenever possible, your use of social networks like Facebook and Twitter should be a means of getting people back to your own Web site. Don’t let your networks serve as an end point. While it’s useful when someone shares your Facebook fan page, you’ll have a lot more leverage if the link they share is to your blog or Web site. Train your target market to come back to you as a destination for useful content. Any links to your site that are shared will improve your search engine optimization – this technique is known as inbound marketing.

Which networks are the best fit for your target market? Will you reach the same market on two different networks, such as Twitter and Facebook? What sites for rich media fit your content the best? Does your Web site have tracking software in place to determine from which sites people click through to you? Which networks are best suited to your specific goals?

In summary: Evaluate your resources, raid your archives for content and target your market on the networks that are most conducive to achieving your goals.

We’d love your feedback on our new series – Social Media 1-2-3 – here on the blog at Pixel/Point Press. To read more articles in this series, please bookmark this category.

My husband is a history geek. He just finished his master’s in Middle Eastern History and is now starting a Ph. D. in Political Science. As such, he’s prone to share tidbits of “interesting” information that he comes across during his research.

Husband: “Hey, I just found out what Saddam Hussein did before he became the leader of the Baath Party.”

Me: “Marketing?”

Husband: “No. He was a torturer.”

Me: “There’s a lot of overlap.”

I think I was at least half right.

On that note, I’ll take a minute to share a great post by a true social media expert – Chris Brogan. His post “How to Market an Offline Event Online” provides great basic information for anyone looking to promote a live event. But the real gold nugget we can all take away is something that isn’t said frequently enough:

Without being “that guy” (and never forget, I mean this for either gender), mentioning your event is easy across your Twitter, your Facebook, your LinkedIn status, and all the other social sites that make sense to promote. A word of caution: this gets close to what feels like carpet-bombing, so go gently. In fact, out in front of such a promotional effort, make sure you’re doing your good deeds and promoting others, and sharing other good information. People don’t like a tireless self-promoter, but they don’t mind someone who shares the good stuff, even when some of it’s their own.

Keep an eye on subtlety and make sure your self-promotion is only part of the content you’re sharing. Otherwise, it’s just torture.