A while back I wrote a post about some of my favorite free online graders.  And, as an update to that, I wanted to point out the recent change to Hubspot’s Website grader, being updated to Marketing Grader. In the blogpost announcing the launch of the new grader, Hubspot explained the reasoning behind the change. Saying “In 2012, marketing is about more than just your website. It’s about social, mobile, blogging, email marketing, lead nurturing, and analytics”, and I couldn’t agree more.

Like with any other grader, the marketing grader isn’t perfect. For instance it didn’t recognize the Twitter accounts associated with flyte, nor did it recognize the sharing buttons on our blog, as they are not a plugin but rather hard coded.

Overall I like Marketing Grader, it’s definitely more comprehensive than the original website grader, measuring over 30 aspects of your marketing and web efforts and creating a grade based on a scale from 1 – 100. The incorporation of social platforms, analytics and sales funnels will prove to be very useful.

Great Job Hubspot! A+!

Recently, my friends and I have been hiking every weekend. It’s a great way to get some exercise in and it’s a fun activity to explore nature with friends. Not to mention it’s something that I can do with my dog on the weekend to give him a much needed energy release after being cooped up in the house all week. But, it wasn’t until I wrote a blog post for a client on Maine’s Waterfalls that I started to get really inspired.

Maine has a crazy amount of beauty and so many things to discover. But, the caveat to that is, in order to see a beautiful waterfall or awe inspiring mountain view, you first have to make the hike to do it. Hiking is NOT easy. In fact, many of the trails that are required to get to these Mountain Tops can cause you pain and exhaustion. However, once you hit that apex you get to stroll down and the endorphins kick in and it was all worth it.

But, the more you hike, the easier it gets. You develop your muscles, strengthen your heart and lungs and build endurance. In the end, it becomes more natural and more enjoyable.

SO, what does this have to do with web marketing success? EVERYTHING!

Social media doesn’t come naturally to everyone. I can’t count how many times we hear clients say that they didn’t know it was going to be so much work.  Blogging is work, creating content is work, posting updates takes time and imagination and it all has to be valuable and interesting information for your audience.

Waterfalls were my inspiration, what’s yours?  What is going to get you excited to put the work and effort in to get the web marketing and social media results that you want? You can look for inspiration for your posts in many places, did someone say something to you today that sparked an idea, did you hear something on the radio, did you read a blog or magazine article that got you thinking? Anything you hear, read or do can be used to spark an idea for a blog post or Twitter update.

Like with starting a workout or starting to hike, it takes time to adjust and adapt to your new activity until it becomes easier or a habit.  This also goes for web marketing.  Right now it may not seem like it fits in your schedule or it may not feel natural to you.  But, the more you do it the easier it becomes.  Create an editorial calendar for yourself and stick to it. Commit to posting one blog post a week or making 3 updates on Facebook a day. Do that until you master it and then add on the next phase of your web marketing plan.  Like with taking a hike, the first trail is the hardest and with every new trail (or marketing step you take) the easier it becomes.

Results! We all do this because we want the web marketing results.  With a hike it’s an amazing view, endorphins released from exercise, fresh air or a waterfall, with web marketing we want to get our message to the right people resulting in our end goal.  Whether that goal be more leads in the sales funnel, more people attending your event, more traffic to your website or better customer service web marketing and social media are just our tools to help us achieve those goals.

So, what are you waiting for? Find your inspiration, make the commitment, and take the first steps.

If you’d like help developing a social media plan for your business, or a personal trainer for your social media marketing to help you stay with it, flyte can help. Just contact us to get the ball rolling.

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Hiking Web Everest

If you’ve ever been interested in what your Facebook statuses of the past were, or just wondering what you were doing today last year, Facebook is now giving you a little glimpse.

Okay, so we all know that not all posts are created equal.  Some updates on Facebook are brilliant jewels of wisdom and others, well, they can be kinda dumb.  And, to remind us of that fact, Facebook has started displaying “On this Day in 2010″ on the right hand column of your Facebook profile.  It’s not there constantly, it just pops up every once in a while.  And apparently, on this day last year, my Facebook update was this…

While not incredibly helpful or brilliant, it did however make me laugh.  And, since it’s Friday I thought I’d share it with you.

If you have any gems that pop up on your profile share them with us here or on the flyte Facebook page!

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Suffering from a 2010 Hangover

If you remember a while back I posted about the marriage between Facebook and Skype. Well, now Facebook Video Chat has finally rolled out! I tested it out today with a friend and it works great. It’s very clean and works pretty much just like Skype only it opens up on your Facebook screen.

So, there are two ways that you can video chat:

1. First, go to the profile page of the friend that you are looking to video chat with.  Then you can click on the video chat icon found at the top right hand corner of their page.

2. Or you can open up chat, just like you are going to send a text message and video chat from there.  You will notice that there is now a video icon at the top of the chat box.  This is also a great way to shoot a quick text to your friend to ask if they are available for a video chat.

Once you’ve clicked on the video chat icon, a  pop up will appear showing you that you are calling your Facebook contact. (Note: if someone is calling you, you will hear ringing and see a pop up on your end giving you the option to accept or decline.)

Once the person on the other end accepts the incoming call, you will see a screen pop up, of the video image.  You can see the small image of me up in the corner and when I chat it gets a little bit bigger.  It essentially works just like regular Skype.

If she hadn’t of answered I would have gotten this message below.  Which is pretty neat, considering it will allow me to record a video message to be delivered once she is available.

So, there you have it.  It’s very simple. In fact anyone can do it.  I think it’s a fabulous tool for video chat, since all of your friends are already on Facebook anyway, it eliminates the hassle of going to another platform and trying to search for those same people.

One thing to note:  If it’s your first video chat on Facebook there will be a couple extra steps.  You first have to allow Facebook to have access to your microphone and camera.  You can do this by simply clicking allow and then checking off remember for later, so that you don’t have to do it every time.  Then you have to wait few seconds while it starts it up.  That’s it!

Special thanks to Megan for being my guinea pig and allowing me to post her pics on the blog!!

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Video Chat Enthusiast

The number one thing I have missed since I switched from my Blackberry to my Droid HTC Thunderbolt, is by far Blackberry Messenger. It was a way for me to have a conversation with a group of people all at the same time, it was easier than texting and more importantly it was free. Now, Facebook has come out with a mobile app called “Facebook Messenger” that essentially does the same thing plus more… See the video from Facebook Live talking about it’s release.

1.  It’s Connected To Facebook: I can easily pop in a contact name of one of my friends and talk to them while they are at their computer.

2.  It’s not just for Facebook Users: Don’t think of Facebook Messenger as just another extension of Facebook, you should think of it as its own stand alone mobile app that allows you to message not only your Facebook friends, but those friends and people you know that aren’t on Facebook at all. If you message someone that isn’t on Facebook (or is currently offline) it sends the message as a text to their mobile device.

3.  Seamless Communication: Have you ever been chatting via a text message and the conversation isn’t over, but now you are sitting in front of your computer with a big keyboard in front of you and you are thinking how much easier it would be to just finish the conversation online? Well, now you can and it’s seamless, all your old messages will show up on the app on your phone and ones started on your phone will be right there in your Facebook messages.

4.  Geolocations and Photo Sharing: You can attach photos and include geographic locations to your messages. An example given is now when you tell someone you’ll be there in 10 minutes they can look at the map and get a pinpoint of your location to check. (So don’t lie!)

5.  Group Chat: You can have a conversation with multiple people without texting it to many and then having to individually answer and repeat things.  This came in handy when my grandmother was in the intensive care unit and the whole family needed to keep in touch (when I had Blackberry Messenger), now I can use Facebook messenger for group chat.

6.  Available on both Droid and iPhone: Available for iPhone and Android, you can download Facebook Messenger free via the Market or iTunes. Currently it’s only available in the U.S. and Canada but they are working on building out the app for all smartphones and countries.

7.  It’s FREE!: Both the app itself and then the messaging are free. Why sit there and rack up text message charges when you can use this free service? Brilliant.

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Facebook Messenger Fan