Do:

Determine your marketing objectives and relevant metrics before launching your campaign.

Are you looking to boost your Facebook Friend count? If so, it would be useful to calculate your Cost-Per-Fan to make sure you’re affordably scaling up your brand’s social media presence. If you’re more interested in generating buzz around your brand, then tracking engagements (Likes, Share, Comments) and the Cost-Per-Engagement may make more sense. Facebook Ads can be used for a multitude of purposes—from promoting specific actions to building general brand awareness—so it’s important to figure out what you want your Facebook campaign to achieve before you begin spending money on it.

Think about your ideal audience and target your ads carefully.

Facebook offers some of the most granular demographic targeting functionality of any ad network. You can target people based on their geography, age, gender, employer, education and their interests in any number of combinations (21-35 year-old men with college degrees in Los Angeles who like ESPN, for example). Facebook also lets you target your ads based on connections, so you can focus your ads only on your Fan’s friends and leverage social proof to drive more clicks. While segmenting your audience across some or all of these dimensions is no doubt time-consuming, it will also help ensure that your ads are only being delivered to relevant audiences, which will boost the performance of your campaign in the long run.

Make an exclusive offer in your ad.

People like to feel special, and Facebook users are no exception. If you want your ad unit to grab people’s attention, you need to make the ad’s content worth their time. Offer people a deal that they won’t find anywhere else and you’re more likely to win those coveted clicks. Some brand marketers take this a step further and require people to “Like” the brand within the ad unit before gaining access to the special deal. While this may be a good method for gaining new Fans in the short run, be warned that many of those Fans may simply “Unlike” your page once they’ve gotten what they want.

Run A/B tests and change your ads periodically.

Facebook Ads are tiny, so tiny that even the most minute change can make a major difference in your click-through rates and conversion rates. Create multiple variations of your ad with small changes to your headline copy, body copy, and ad image to discover the optimum combination for your target audience. Even when you think you’ve found the sweet spot, change up your ads every few months so that people don’t get burn out on seeing the same ad over and over.

Don’t:

Treat Facebook like a mass broadcast tool.

True, Facebook’s reach is tantalizingly broad—everybody from your little cousin to your grandma is probably on it. But that doesn’t mean that you should treat it like a megaphone through which you can blast one-size-fits-all messages. Facebook users value relevance and authentic engagement when dealing with ads, so make sure that your ads are custom-tailored for your audience if you want to see any lift from your campaigns.

Send people somewhere irrelevant when they click on your ad.

Getting people to click on an ad is usually just a means to an end, so it’s absolutely vital that you direct users to the right place when they click. Examples of bad destinations include your company’s home page or your Facebook Page’s Wall—both of these sites are too generic and don’t offer users an immediate call-to-action so that they can take the next step. Instead, send them to either the relevant sub-section of your Facebook Page or to a custom landing page that delivers on the promises made in the ad. This will help ensure that more clicks are turning into conversions, which is crucial if you’ve decided to run your campaign on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis.

Use Facebook Ads to sell people something right away.

People go on Facebook to enjoy Facebook—they’re not necessarily in the mood to buy something. You may see better success if you pare down your expectations; instead of a purchase, request a social action (Like/Share) or direct people to a landing page where they’re required to enter their e-mail address in order to access a special offer or exclusive content. This alleviates some of the friction for the user, and makes your ad seem less of an intrusion into their Facebook browsing experience as a result.

Set it and forget it.

Facebook Ads provide a wealth of data on how your ads are performing, so it would be a shame to ignore all of these useful insights by not keeping track of your campaigns on a regular basis. Like other forms of online advertising, Facebook Ads require continuous tinkering and trial & error in order to produce real results. If you’re truly dedicated to maximizing your ROI from your Facebook ad campaigns, then you need to view your campaign as an ongoing quest of optimization, not a one-time event.

Conclusion

Facebook Ads provide a great opportunity for you to get your brand noticed and build buzz, but to get the most bang for your buck, it pays to take the time to thoroughly understand the uniqueness of the platform and adjust your advertising strategy accordingly.

Do you have a Facebook advertising story you’d like to share? Please let us know in the comments.

By Hafez Adel

Hafez Adel is the Director of Marketing at ReTargeter, a digital marketing and display advertising firm that specializes in retargeting for brands of all sizes.

Interesting Dilemma

When Jennfier Lucente became New Media Manager for the CAF one of the first things she did was to set up Facebook and Twitter accounts for the organization. But to her dismay, she learned from the CAF social media followers that the CAF was primarily known for just one thing, the River Architecture Cruise.

Jennifer was surprised to learn that very few residents were aware that the CAF also offered exhibitions, programs, classes, and about 80 other tours that residents could experience. So she wondered what she could do to increase overall awareness of the CAF’s offerings beyond the River Architecture Cruise.

The Big Idea

Jennifer knew that she did not have a large budget for traditional advertising so she would have to come up with a grassroots marketing campaign. After some brainstorming Jennifer thought of an idea called the “Around Chicago in 85 Tours” challenge. She personally challenged herself to take all 85 of the CAF’s tours in a one year period. Her plan was to promote and document the entire challenge using social media with the goal of increasing public awareness for the CAF’s tour offerings.

So starting in spring of 2010, Jennifer began the 85 Tours challenge. Before each tour  Jennifer posted the schedule online and invited the CAF social media followers to join her. During each tour she Tweeted fun facts and observations from the docents leading the tour. After each tour Jennifer created a summary post on her 85 Tours blog  and uploaded pictures and video from the tour to the CAF Flickr and YouTube pages.

Results of the Challenge

Jennifer completed the “Around Chicago in 85 Tours” challenge in May 2011. The event ended up being a big success for the CAF. The CAF’s membership numbers greatly increased during the campaign and the organization had its best year ever in attendance and revenue figures.

There were no blockbuster exhibitions or tours in 2010 so the results were driven mainly by the 85 Tours Challenge. While the challenge did end up attracting a lot of main stream media attention, the CAF did not work with a media agency and there was no paid PR campaign. The marketing for the event was purely a grassroots movement fueled by social media.

Lessons Learned:

• Live it to sell it! By taking all the tours herself Jennifer got a better understanding of what the CAF was all about which made it easier for her to promote the tour experience to potential consumers.
• You don’t need a big marketing budget to spread the word about your product or event. Jennifer promoted the 85 Tour Challenge entirely through a grassroots social media effort. She did not use any paid media promotion.
• Spread the word about things you do that people don’t know about. Jennifer started the 85 Tour Challenge because most people only knew about the Architecture River Cruise.
• Turn your everyday activities into something compelling for social media. Things you don’t think much of because you do them everyday might really interest audiences that never get a peak into your operations.
• Invite consumers to join in your adventures. Jennifer invited people to accompany her on each of the tours she attended and many people joined her along the journey.

Question:

How have you used social media to build awareness for you company or brand? What tactics worked the best? Let us know in the comments below.

You can learn more about the Chicago Architecture Foundation on its Facebook page  or by following its Twitter ID.

By Kyle Akerman

Kyle is a recovering electrical engineer who spent the majority of his adult life designing hardware for a large mobile device company (Hello Moto!). While attending business school Kyle developed a taste for marketing. Now he enjoys devising and implementing online content strategies to help clients tell their story better. And because of his engineering background he is not afraid to dive into web analytics data to help clients find actionable insights and make sure that they measure what matters.

Kyle on Twitter

Kyle on LinkedIn

Kyle’s Blog

Chicago Cause is a philanthropic partnership between Orbit Media, Lightspan Digital, Flanigan Communications, and ShiftFocus Productions. Together as partners we committed to donate over $32,000 in marketing services to one deserving Chicago nonprofit. Each partner contributed their time and resources in their area of expertise for web design, video production, social media efforts and public relations.

The 2011 Chicago Cause Winner

We received over 30 applications from a variety of different nonprofit organizations located here in Chicago. Myself and 4 other judges then had to narrow down the applicants to 10 finalists, threw a party to meet them all, and then after much deliberation (it was a tough one!) we chose the 2011 Chicago Cause winner.

This year’s recipient is…dun dun dun dun…Inspiration Corporation (clap clap clap!).

If you’re not familiar with the Inspiration Corporation here is their mission statement:

• Inspiration Corporation helps people who are affected by homelessness and poverty to improve their lives and increase self-sufficiency through the provision of social services, employment training and placement, and housing.

After 21 years of service, Inspiration Corporation has grown to serve over 3,000 individuals every year and continues their mission to end homelessness and poverty in the Chicago area.

In my own words; they are extraordinary humans, doing incredible things. We recently went to the Inspiration Kitchen, which is a restaurant training skills program started by Inspiration Corporation, and had the pleasure of meeting some of the people that they’ve helped. Honestly, some of the best people, stories, and food (insert “I want to hug everyone around me right now emoticon”). I highly recommend you head there with some friends to see what I’m talking about!

A little more about the other 9 finalists…

We love all of the finalists so much and what they do for the Chicago community, so we decided we wanted to offer something to the rest of the 9 organizations. Here’s how we’re trying to help:

• Free web marketing consulting (Orbit)
• Free use of EventBrite for one year (thanks to our friends at EventBrite!)
• Free half day seminar on social media marketing, event planning, and promotion (Lightspan Digital and EventBrite)

We’re so proud to be able to help these super-humans that are making a difference around Chicago. If you’d like to learn more about the finalists and how you can help, we’ve included all of their information below.

• Book Worm Angels – Book Worm Angels is a literacy organization that promotes development of recreational reading habits among students pre-kindergarten through 8th grade.
• Read/Write Library Chicago – Read/Write Library, formerly known as Chicago Underground Library, is an all-inclusive collection of Chicago-specific media, produced by and for the community whose current focus is on print. However, the RWL is planning to expand into audio, video, and performance documentation.
• Slow Food Chicago – Slow Food Chicago creates dramatic and lasting change in our local food system to ensure equity, sustainability and pleasure in the food we eat.
• Support 1000 – Bra Donation – Support 1000′s mission is to affirm the dignity of women by collecting new and lightly used bras to donate to organizations that serve women and families.
• Growing Home, Inc. – Growing Home provides job training on its organic farms, creates green jobs, promotes healthy food and organic agriculture, and increases the availability of local, healthy produce in the City of Chicago.
• Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation – The PFF is an advocate for the pulmonary fibrosis community, promoting disease awareness and providing a compassionate environment for patients and their families.
• Snow City Arts – Snow City Arts is a pioneering program that provides arts, cultural, and educational programming to hospitalized children unable to attend school because of serious illness.
• Haymarket Center – Haymarket Center’s mission is to aid people with chemical dependency in their recovery by providing optional professional care that is responsive to the needs of the community.
• Illinois Science Council – The Illinois Science Council was created on the premise that having an understanding of the scientific method and of scientific discoveries is crucial to a well-rounded civic life.

What some of the finalists had to say about Chicago Cause….

Oz, Support 1000
“Gotta tell you. I found out about the contest right before the deadline and jumped on in. Glad I did! Congrats to Inspiration Corporation, they’re really a big contribution to the community. Good choice!”

Monica, Illinois Science Council
“Thanks so much for letting us know the decision for Chicago Cause.  I’m familiar with Inspiration Corporation; they do great work and are absolutely worthy of the award.  I really enjoyed meeting you and the others, and learning about the other finalist organizations through Chicago Cause.  Even writing the application was a worthwhile effort as part of this process for me.”

Mike, Book Worm Angels
“Amanda, our congratulations to Inspiration Corporation, and to you and your partners in Chicago Cause for the excellent initiative you all exhibited in putting this together.”

Polly, Growing Home, Inc
“Thanks Amanda. Was out of the office at the farms yesterday, so just getting this. I was inspired by Inspiration Corporation too – have signed up to volunteer with them! I know they’ll really benefit from the package! All the best and thanks again for involving us in this initiative”

We’d love to hear from you about your experience with the Chicago Cause or if you have any recommendations for the 2012 Chicago Cause, please feel free to leave comments below.

Keep it up do-gooders!!

By Amanda Gant

Create Content

If you can put 500 words together in a way that teaches, helps or entertains, you’re ready. Write articles that both demonstrate your expertise and give practical advice. Write about what you care about, be concise and always respect your audience. If you write a little bit every week, it will start getting easier.

1. One article = search friendly blog post + email newsletter
   Stretch the value of that article by making sure it aligns with a phrase your audience is searching for (Google Keyword Tool) and posting the full version in your blog. Then put an excerpt and a link to it in your newsletter.
2. OPB “Other People’s Blogs”
   Some sites have large audiences and need a constant stream of articles to keep them happy. Help them out by sharing what you’ve written. Find those that your audience may be reading. These might be media sites in your area or industry blogs.
3. Write for the press
   The media, online and offline, are still looking for great stories. If your piece is a story and if the topic and tone fit the calendar of a publication, go ahead and share it with an editor. Try to give them what they need.  If you have a good following or email list, be sure to mention that you’ll help promote the piece if they use it.

Curate Content

There are tons of great articles, blogs, videos, etc…out there. There’s a lot of value for both you and your audience in finding interesting content and sharing it, or having others create content specifically for you.

1. Invite others to write for your blog
   If you know smart people with a writing style that fits your blog, ask others to guest blog for you. It will take some pressure off you and add some variety. The people you invite may really like the exposure. But first give them writing guidelines so they don’t miss the mark.
2. Interview others over email
   This is a fast way to curate: send a list of questions to an expert in your field and see what you get back. If it works out and you get an article, be sure to give them attribution with a link and photo.
3. Add great articles to your newsletters
   Whenever you come across something especially interesting or useful, bookmark it.
   If it’s not from a paid subscription site, put an excerpt into your newsletter and link to the site. You may not be driving traffic to your site, but your adding value for your subscribers. You can even use paper.li to make Tweetable mini-magazines for your following.

Start Conversations

Here’s where you go to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ to talk about the content you wrote or that you found and published. Being social around your content is absolutely crucial today. It extends your reach, generates feedback and drives traffic.

1. Mention your content to influencers in your network
   When you write something, be sure to look around at who may be interested. It may only take a few minutes to find Twitter accounts of people who have that topic in their bio (filtertweeps.com). Once the article is posted, Tweet the link and mention them. Maybe they’ll read it, share it and maybe even write a comment.
2. Thank people when you curate their content
   Always, always give props to anyone who writes about you or for you. Let them know you shared content of theirs, or thank them publicly on Twitter, Facebook or Google+. If you’re nice, they may promote your content through their social networks, which can drive instant traffic.

3. Network with possible blogs and bloggers
   Want to connect with a journalist?  Comment on their articles, tweet everything they write and mention them on all of your social networks. Want to get into a blog? Tweet with them, write to them through their sites, and comment on their blog posts. Be respectful, friendly and direct.

If you begin a journey into content strategy, you’ll likely find that almost everything you do falls within these three categories. Be sure to cover all three and watch for opportunities when they overlap. That’s where the real fun starts.

Each of these techniques could easily be an article itself. If you’d like to hear more about any one of these, please let us know with a comment below.

by Andy Crestodina. Join the conversation with Andy on Google+ and Twitter.

…the year is 1910 and the device is a telephone.

There’s the phone on your desk. Should you use it? It’s a silly question, isn’t it? You don’t use a phone unless you actually have a good reason. Twitter is the same thing. Just like that phone, without a reason to use it, what’s the point?

To understand why you may want to use Twitter, you need to know what it is and what you can do with it. Then you might find you have a reason to try it.

So what is Twitter?

Twitter is a “platform-independent-social-networking-microblogging service”…sounds fancy. But when you break it down into its functions, it’s actually very familiar. When you look at the uses of Twitter you see the ways in which it’s really just like old technology. Twitter is:

• A giant phone book
• A tiny radio station
• A party line

Twitter is a giant phone book

For finding people it may even be more powerful than Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn, because you can find people who are thinking about specific things, people with specific, real-time intentions, and people with very specific interests. Let’s try playing with Twitter’s advanced search to find some people…

• Who is asking about wine within five miles of my ZIP code? (10 people)
• Who is unhappy about snowmobiles? (5 people)
• Who is talking about tango dancing in Russian? (11 people)

Not bad! But wait, there’s more. Just like the Yellow Pages, it’s also a tool to be found. By adding keywords to your bio, and adding hashtags to topics in your tweets (that’s the “#” before certain words), you make yourself more findable. In other words, just like a phone book, Twitter is a research and networking tool.

If you want to find people in a giant, up-to-the-second phone book, use Twitter.

Twitter is a tiny radio station

Some radio stations are entertaining, others are informational. Some stations produce their own shows, some just play the shows of others. In this same way, Twitter is a tool to broadcast information, be it personal or professional, yours or someone else’s, mundane or profound.

Many tweets are simply tiny announcements, either original or shared (using RT or “Retweet”). The sum of all these announcements is the character of each person’s little radio station. If people like you and your station, they’ll tune in and subscribe (follow). Want to invite people to a public event?  Want to give some general advice? Want to share something interesting you found? These are all reasons to send a broadcast tweet.

If you’ve got something to broadcast, or if you want to listen to the broadcasts of others, use Twitter.

Twitter is a party line

Most Twitter users have probably never used a party line. But back in the day, before one household had five phone lines, five or more households had one phone line! Anyone who picked up could join in the conversation. Hard to imagine, isn’t it? Not really. It’s happening on Twitter right now.

Many say the true usefulness of Twitter, like all good things online, is this kind of two-way communication. The dialog. Yes, Twitter can be one-to-one communication by using DM or “Direct Message” in your tweets. This is a lot like a regular phone call.

But most conversation on Twitter is many-to-many communication. By using @ or “Mentions” in your tweets, they can be directed at certain people, but viewed by anyone. This lets you have a conversation that others listen to and join. So it’s actually just like those old party line phones from decades ago. Just open your browser, listen in and join the call.

In other words, Twitter isn’t just a place for one-way broadcasts. It’s useful for all sorts of broad-reaching conversation. You can ask and answer questions, give and get advice, chat, gossip and discuss pretty much anything.

If you want to talk on a huge party line, use Twitter.

Should you use Twitter?

Twitter is powerful, capable of sparking revolutions, overthrowing governments and announcing what kind of sandwich you’re eating. Should you use it? Maybe! Maybe not.

The true nature of Twitter is that it is a connector of people. But just like that phone, don’t use it unless you have a good reason – you want to find specific people, create a tiny radio station or talk on a party line.

If you’re not using it yet, don’t feel bad. Don’t start using it just because you’re afraid you’re getting left out. First, think about what you’re trying do to. Pick your purpose, and then consider what tools will help you achieve it. If you want to find people, broadcast something, or have public conversations, Twitter might be perfect.

Find me, subscribe to my tiny radio station or start a conversation with us at @orbiteers.

Thanks to @manamica from Lightspan Digital for her digital marketing and social media insights.

by Andy Crestodina. You can find Andy on Google+ and on Twitter.

So here’s a pocket guide to marketing to your pocket.

Mobile Websites

Same but smaller?

You might be surprised to find that your website may already be viewable on many phones.  Phone browsers are pretty much like regular browsers and if your site doesn’t have a lot of Flash, it may work just fine.  It’s a small thrill the first time you see your site on a small screen if you can wait for it to load.  But then, look how small it looks….zoom…scroll…zoom…click…

If you really want your site to fit in their pocket, it should be tailored to fit properly. Unfortunately, it’s basically impossible to make your site work well on both a full-size browser and a mobile device. However, if you build one site for full-size users and a separate mobile website design (the preferred approach), the site can automatically detect which medium your visitor is using and send them to the correct pages.

Building a mobile version of your site means adapting the design, content and the features.

• Design – Simplify the design.  Consider a one-column layout.  Use few graphics both to save space and load time.
• Content – If writing for websites is about being brief, writing for mobile sites is even more so.  Remember, you’ve got about one tenth as many screen pixels.  Turn your sections into single pages and your paragraphs into sentences.
• Features – Some features fit nicely with smart phones, such as Google maps, blog and Twitter feed integration, galleries and video. But keep in mind that download times on smart phones are a lot slower than most full-sized browsers

Example: visit http://www.orbitmedia.com on your cell phone – notice how you’re redirected to the mobile site (http://m.orbitmedia.com)? Compare it to the regular site.  You may get some ideas on how a mobile website design is a bit different.

Mobile Applications

Make an app for that…

Unlike mobile sites, these are downloaded and installed from the marketplace on your phone (such as the iTunes store).  We’re talking about small, self-contained programs that don’t use a browser.  So what are you thinking?

I want to get rich quick by making the coolest new iPhone application.

Selling apps is big business.  By 2012, more money will be spent on mobile apps than on music CDs. Keep in mind that the most popular applications are games, followed by mobile shopping and social networking apps.  The best apps have great usability, integrate with other systems and often take advantage of sensors on the phone.  The best apps are made by masters of both design and technology. Its also important to note the app users have a low attention span in that 95% of apps aren’t used a month after download and or that only 20% get touched the day after downloading.

I want to promote my existing business.

You need to think about your audience (What would they like? How can we help them?) and your marketing plan (How can this help us?).  Unless your app answers both these questions beautifully, go back to the drawing board.

Either way, you need a great idea. Remember that great ideas are usually simple.  You also need a marketing plan.  Don’t assume that it will catch on like mobile wildfire.

SMS Marketing

txt msgs

The original way for marketers to appear on someone’s phone is to text them.  Like any outbound marketing, the results will be based on the how receptive the recipient is.  In other words, it’s about the quality of the list.

If you want to try, you have to build a list of mobile phone numbers carefully, making sure that everyone is interested in what you’re going to send them. As you may already know, an unwanted text message is a real annoyance.  Beyond that, it’s illegal.  The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 tells recipients complain to the FCC if they receive “any autodialed text message on your wireless device, or an unwanted commercial message to a non-wireless device from a telecommunications company or advertising a telecommunications company’s products or services.”

I’ve seen SMS marketing work for a few kinds of companies:

• Non-profits with dedicated supporters
• Entertainment venues with young, loyal followings.

Do you know other groups finding success with SMS?  Comment below.

Ready to try? A word of caution: Sending text messages will cost you (you’ll need to work with an SMS marketing company) and may also cost your recipients.  Ever heard the phrase “standard text messaging rates apply”?

Before you jump in, ask yourself if you’re getting all the results you can with Twitter, which is similar but easier to use and measure.  It’s also free.

Bottom Line

There are more ways to reach your audience today.  We have more inboxes than ever before and mobile marketing is connected to most of them.  Of the seven inboxes shown in Figure 1, six of them could be in your customer’s pocket!  Stay open to new ideas, consider your audience, and keep one eye on the small screen.

Figure 1:
Proliferation of Inboxes

This timeline shows how the number and types of inboxes have grown over time. It also shows the approximate dates for mass adoption.

By Andy Crestodina. You can also find Andy on Google+ and Twitter.

Blog Casserole with Newsletter Sauce

A delicious blend of email marketing and blogging, with a side of social media and article marketing.

Assuming you already have a website and you’re looking to increase traffic, this can be a tasty and nutritious dish at a very low cost. Your only commitment is time: two to three hours in the content kitchen, crafting delicious content for your readers to devour, and another hour putting your creation in the oven to bake (that is, posting it online).

Serving frequency: 2-8 weeks

Ingredients

3 Cups of Text (article of 500 words or more)
This could be any information useful or interesting to your audience. Think about what they like or need and start writing. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

- Choose a title for the article that’s short and spicy. It should grab attention and whet the appetite.

- Try to make the writing search friendly by including some phrases people search for on your topic. Better yet, start by researching phrases to make sure you’re aligning your writing with a popular – but not too competitive – keyphrase. As an example, this article uses the phrase “web marketing” which is a target keyphrase for Orbit.

- Cut it up into bite-sized pieces with lots of formatting: headers, sub-heads, bullet lists, bolding, etc.  Avoid long dense paragraphs.  Sprinkle in a few links to pages on your site. Links help readers dig in for seconds if they’re hungry for more. They also help search engines understand what the article’s about.

- Finally, we recommend having it edited by a professional to make sure there’s nothing in it that would make people queasy.

2 Tablespoons Supplementary Content
Spice it up! Add pictures, statistics, famous quotes, charts, jokes, citations from other articles on the topic, etc. Choose things that support the main article.

You’ll also need a kitchen with these small appliances:

-Blogging platform (we recommend WordPress)
-Email service provider (Constant Contact, ReachMail, etc.)
-Content management system (we always use Mighty-Site)

Directions

-First, put the article into your blogging platform as a post. Garnish this with a bit of your supplementary content. Adding even one graphic can really make the post more engaging. Make it live and turn the comments on.

-Add a short blurb and a link to the blog post on the home page of your site using your content management tool.

-Put the article into your email marketing tool. Add the rest of your supplementary content and mix well. Taste a spoonful, add any other ingredients it may need to be perfect, and send it to your list! Optional: if you use social media like Twitter and Facebook, don’t forget to tweet, post, and share.

-Cook at 350 degrees (wait) for three days.

-Check your results. Look at the open rate, the click through rate, and the number of visitors to your site over the next few days. If the cooking (and your list of recipients) is good, you should see open rates in the 10-15% range or more and a nice spike in site traffic. Also, keep an eye out for comments on your blog. If people comment, that’s good. Maybe you can start a conversation!

-Share Your Leftovers
It’s always smart to help less fortunate websites by sharing your new content. This is easy thanks to article marketing services like isnare.com and ezinearticles.com. Just submit the article and needy website owners will come and pick it up. They get a page of content and you get a link back to your brilliance.

Tip: Change the article a bit before submitting it to one of these websites. Search engines don’t like duplicate content, so it’s best not to have the exact same version of the article on your site and other sites. So before uploading to an aggregator service, move some words around and reverse some sentences. Use different sauces and spices.

So now you know what we make in our own kitchen. This is nowhere near the whole cookbook, but if you’re hungry for traffic, we recommend whipping this up every 2-8 weeks Bon appétit!

By Andy Crestodina

My sister is coming to visit this weekend – it will be her 2nd-only big trip to “chi” in the 5 years that I’ve been a resident!  Naturally I’m stoked and can’t wait to figure out plans.  Problem is I’ve been as busy as a beaver with work and haven’t made it a priority until now to figure out what we will be doing.  After talking to Jen Lynn’s hubby Dave, it was indisputable that the focus will be meaty food: ribs, bbq, deep dish pizza, and a good ol’ fashioned Chicago hot dog with that silly green relish.  Yes, you can be sure I’ll be toting my TUMS and praying for heartburn relief because its going to be one crazy ride on the meat train. lol

So being the resourceful person I am, I took a quick look on Yelp, did a local “food” search at Google, and of course made a quick stop at two of my favorite sites: Daily Candy (Chicago) and TimeOut to see what they might suggest I do for food, shopping and street fests.  Not only did it just dawn on me how many resources I use to search locally, but also what a great and wonderful city Chicago is – with thousands of local merchants interacting and participating online. The bandwagon has gotten big, but still finds room to grow.

The trend of reviewing products and services online has really become the thing to do. For example, I bought a pair of dish towels at Crate and Barrel last week and was “cordially invited to write a review online”.  You’re right if you are thinking I didn’t do it, but you’re wrong if you thought I didn’t consider it.  I tend to read them on all kinds of sites including amazon and yelp to make decisions on products and dining, so why not write them?  Many times I put more faith in people that live in my neighborhood too.  Is that strange?  Does anyone do the same?

Seriously though, what is the harm in anonymously telling the world how much I love Ripple Leather Office Chair at Crate and Barrel or how the bean sprouts on my Jimmy John’s sangwich REALLY make it work or how much I looooove the cheese appetizer at Bin Wine Cafe on Milwaukee Ave?

Sad thing is,  if I were back home in Findlay, Ohio – I’d most likely call a friend before searching a site like Yelp. I might not find as many local businesses, cafes or pizzerias signed up on the local google search, and I definitely wouldn’t have the luxury of such a fun and trendy site like Daily Candy.  All of this makes me wonder if any of you readers out there have heard of this trend catching on in smaller towns outside of Chicago.  Does your mom use a local search to find a new dry cleaner or has she tried google maps to find something new and exciting around town?  I wonder to myself how long it will take for everybody to start using these types of technology to make plans. Or will it primarily stay in the big cities?

Case in point, I typed in my zip code and asked the interweb what I should do this weekend and I found a whole itinerary in less than 10 seconds, in my area, in my price range, with reviews from my neighbors.  Thats friggin’ amazing.

What are your experiences with this in Chicago and back in your hometown?  What are your favorite local search sites? I’d love to hear your thoughts and discuss.

Your Curious & Thoughtful Web Designer,
Shellie