The only way to know exactly where you are positioned in the marketplace is to compare yourself with your immediate competitors.

Online, the case is the same. In fact, if what you’re trying to compare is your social media presence, it might even be easier because there is data that’s public and available to you.

I will explain to you how to get started and for that we’ll be using an example in which we’ll compare 3 blogs. In order to get out of the social media circle a little bit, we’ll use blogs in the Career/HR/Working Environment segment which is also a competitive one.

There are a couple of things I want you to consider before we dive into our exercise. First, I’m not suggesting that a business that has a higher reach online or a better mention sentiment is more profitable, they are two separate things. Now, an exercise like this will open your eyes on how much stronger your competitors are or if they are stronger only in certain areas.

It can also reveal that you’re kicking everybody’s ass (hopefully…).

Exercise

So the 3 blogs we are comparing today are Punk Rock HR, Rehaul by Lance Haul and Work Awesome. Just to make it clear, this info is available online, I’m not discussing private information.

It doesn’t even matter if they are exactly the same or not, just focus on the exercise and the steps we need to take so you can duplicate this at home..

Mentions

SocialMention is a free tool that allows you to search for any term and it gives you a few digits that you can use in order to start comparing with your competitors. Some of the definitions on the data they deliver are:

• Strength: measures how much the brand is likely to be discussed.
• Sentiment: is the ratio of positive to negative mentions
• Passion: if individuals are mentioning your brand repeatedly.
• Reach: is the unique authors divided by the numbers of mentions.

We can argue all day about how these digits are created or how accurate they are, forget that, we’re trying to get started on getting an idea of our presence against our competitors. Personally, I think something like “Sentiment” cannot be completely automated.

So we’re grabbing the data for our 3 competitors and so we can visualize it, we drop it on a spreadsheet.

Strength

It’s important that you know how they get these numbers, Strength is the number of brand mentions during the last 24 hours divided by the possible total mentions. Also, these digits change rather quickly, it might just happen that WorkAwesome just published a new post and it’s getting a lot of action and then you’ll see PunkRockHR getting all the love in a few days.

Passion

It means that people mention your brand repeatedly. As you can see, it really doesn’t matter how big your network is because you could have a higher impact with a smaller group of hardcore fans.

Reach

SocialMention considers this a measurement of Influence. It’s the unique authors divided by the number of mentions.

Sentiment

I think it’s good to get this data but only as a start. Sentiment should be something that you monitor closely and apply your own criteria. The other thing is that all those neutral mentions might be simple retweets and, last time I checked, they’re pretty positive for most folks. Just because it’s not followed by a “Yeey!” doesn’t mean it’s not positive… so make your own rules!

The good thing about SocialMention is that you can find these mentions and see exactly what is being consider positive or negative.

Pageviews

The easiest way to compare some basic traffic stats against other sites is Compete. A more robust set of metrics is also available on their paid service.

Content Engagement

PostRank has this new tool to compare Social Web Engagement. This looks very much like Compete but it’s based on its blog engagement system. You should get familiar with this as it’s slowly becoming a standard among bloggers.

In my opinion, engagement is the most important aspect of blogging, even more than traffic. It has been proven that blogs with significant smaller followers can perform equally or even better than those with insane amounts of traffic.

Engagement is pretty much telling you if you are connecting with the right crowd or not. If people are not commenting on sharing your content, it is possible that there is nothing wrong with your content but you have missed your target.

Network Size

As I always say, network size is important for some people and for others is not. The reason I include it in this example is because it adds value, for example in this case it’s pretty obvious that WorkAwesome has half the followers on Twitter but much higher visits and content engagement (according to Compete and PostRank). That kind of information is relevant to your objectives.

Search

Let’s go crazy and compare the 3 sites for best performing search terms, that’s kind of important. Again on a simple spreadsheet so you can also track over time. This is a great way to decide if you are willing to compete for the same keywords or if you rather find alternatives.

What Else?

It really depends on what your needs are and what’s relevant to you. Add Facebook Likes, Klout Scores or Alexa Rankings, be creative but don’t go crazy and lose sight of the ultimate objectives. Playing with stuff is highly addictive.

Your Turn Now…

Do you compare yourself to your competitors? or maybe you think it’s a waste of time… What tools do you use to do so? Share your thoughts with me in the comments section.

Well, of course the main section of your blog is the content area but the sidebar gives you the opportunity to display some really useful information to your visitors.

The sidebar should not be underestimated, it is a key element to your blog that should be aligned with your goals.

I want to share with you a little list of elements that you should consider having as well as some you should get rid of for different reasons. I hope you find it helpful…

Let’s start at the beginning then:

Your Blog’s Main Goal (And Sub-Goals…)

The first step to decide what goes on your sidebar should be to get reminded of what the goal of having the blog is. For example, if you are an independent consultant maybe your goal is to attract potential clients. Let’s not lose focus of that when we jump into the design phase and start getting widget-happy, we don’t want to add a bunch of unnecessary items.

Your goal should be pretty obvious, if it isn’t maybe you need to rethink the whole thing. Let’s now jump into sub-goals, how are you going to get to your main goal. Let’s stay with the same example, a good idea for a sub-goal will be to gather some emails for a database, maybe through a give-away like an eBook. Another idea could be to offer a free consultation to establish relationships. Get creative on how to get closer to your main goal.

Prioritize

Establishing some priorities will make it easy when deciding the order of the widgets on the sidebar. Whatever is most important should stay above the fold. Your main offer should probably go at the top while your Twitter feed should take the backseat. Yeah, it’s obvious but the other day I saw a published author promoting his book at the bottom of the sidebar…

Should Have

1. Subscription Options

Give people options to get your content delivered and a way to stay connected. RSS and Email subscriptions will do, some people like to add the Twitter icon here too, makes sense. Don’t go crazy promoting your RSS, after all it is better that people visit your blog. Email is a different story, people are giving you their address in exchange for your content and you can probably start building a database this way.

2. Social Profiles

If there are other relevant networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn then you should add them but if they are not important, just leave them out. One thing for sure is to avoid adding a bunch of networks you belong to, keep it short. Don’t confuse people. Also, if you are planning to add a network widget, decide if it is necessary to have the icon too. If there is going to be a Facebook Fanpage Box, perhaps you don’t need to have the icon.

3. Personal Brand

Having your face displayed on your sidebar is like having it on your Twitter profile, people feel comfortable seen who is behind the business upfront. If you have an About page to tell your visitors a little more about yourself, you should add a link to the sidebar with your picture, make it a little preview. I have said before, your prospect is more likely to make the decision of hiring you over the competition based on your relationship, start building this from the first visit.

4. Blog Organization

Some widgets like “Popular Posts”, “Categories” or “Archives” are key to provide some organization to your content and also to encourage the user to visit other posts. I’m currently building a blog with quite a number of contributors writing content, we are adding a widget that displays these authors with an avatar and the option to subscribe to individual RSS feeds.

5. Search Box

Pretty obvious too, although I ignore the percentage of people that actually use the search function on a blog… You should have it. It doesn’t take much space and if you keep it simple it’s light too.

Maybe’s

1. Advertising

Paying your bills is totally OK but unless your blog is a magazine or the main goal is to sell ads, you should keep it short. Make it a couple of ads and be sure they are relevant to your readership to improve performance. A good starting point if you’ve never done it is AdSense. Where should ads be positioned in the sidebar? It’s up to you, depending on how important it is, just don’t annoy your visitors.

2. Social Widgets

Sure, why not. Having a Twitter feed or a Facebook Page box can be useful to expand your network on those sites. You should be careful in not adding to many things, don’t go crazy.

3. Badges

I’m in favor of badges that give you some kind of credibility in front of your visitors, if you are a big deal on the AdAge list for example then you should of course display the badge. Think of what the badge is telling your visitors, make sure it’s relevant.

Shouldn’t Have

1. Counters

I don’t think counters are very useful unless you have a hundred thousand subscribers on FeedBurner, that will also build some credibility but showing off how many followers, friends, subscribers and all that stuff is pretty useless. Also, some of those little badges can be pretty ugly.

2. Google Friends Connect

Let me ask you this, what does this thing do for you? when was the last time this ugly widget do something for you? I read last week that this widget is known to slow down your site. Decide if it’s worth keeping.

3. Huge Lists

Avoid big lists. If you have been blogging for 5 years or have a million categories on your blog, consider using dropdowns instead of displaying the whole categories or archives lists, you don’t want this to take too much real estate.

4. Embedding Media

You gotta be careful also with adding too many sources of other media, using a YouTube video as introduction is not a bad idea but adding 3 or 4 videos can really slow down things on your blog. Same thing with adding other forms of media such as Flickr feeds or SlideShare presentations. Ask yourself if your Flickr account is relevant to this blog.

5. Other External Widgets

Choose wisely. Let’s say you want to add a book section to your blog, is this important enough to display a Shelfari bookshelf on the sidebar? Can you go with Amazon instead? Why not making a page on your blog and just display a link? While Shelfari can be very attractive, it can also be very distracting.

The other thing you need to consider when bringing external widgets is that some of them could really affect your loading times. A slow blog will definitely make you lose some traffic.

Last Word…

To leave you with one final thought, it would be to focus on simplicity. A sidebar with too much clutter is confusing and it can be get in the way of successfully getting your key messages across. Question every single widget on it and make wise decisions.

What are you doing with your sidebar? Share your experiences…

Photo Credit: lilit

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Is it possible to generate business through blogging? You bet.

One of the best things you can do online for your business or your freelance services is to start a blog. A blog will allow to attract very targeted prospects by providing content but just as any other marketing approach, it can also damage your business if not done correctly.

Here is a basic list to help you consider a few things before you jump in the water:

1. The Goal Behind The Goal

Before thinking about what you’re going to do online there is a general objective for your business. If you’re an independent consultant then you are looking into selling your services, if you’re an author your main objective might be to sell books. Establishing this from the beginning will help you stay focused and not lose sight of why you’re doing this.

2. Online Goals

What you’re trying to achieve online might be a small list of sub-goals working towards your main business goal. I recently had a conversation with a published author that told me she needed to increase her subscriptions to show her publisher. That is a great online goal, while she also needs to sell books, she’s already trying to improve her chances for a new deal.

3. Observe The Ninjas In Your Industry

Most likely there are a few individuals already kicking ass in your field and most likely you already know who they are but if you don’t, identify them and pay attention to everything they do from the design to content to every single element on the sidebar. I’m not trying to encourage you to “copy and paste”, that’s not cool, but to learn from them, get inspired and trigger your own ideas.

4. Plan To Leverage The Real Estate On Your Site

Now that you know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish, plan how your elements are going to be displayed on the site. If you are selling an ebook, perhaps it should be at the top of the sidebar. Make sure whatever is secondary goes below the fold in case people don’t scroll down. People will very easily fail to see your offer and that my friend… will be your fault.

5. Simplicity

Simplify, simplify, simplify. The more information on the screen, the more chances your visitor will miss what the point of your blog is. Eliminate the clutter and make sure your primary message is very obvious. Take a look at every single element on your site and question everything. How is the Twitter Counter helping you improve conversion? If this gives you some kind of authority fine but if there is no real reason other than feeding your ego, kill it.

6. Call To Action

Tell your visitor what to do. Don’t be afraid to say it because if you don’t the user is going to bounce around the screen for a few seconds and will probably do… nothing. You can have more than one call to action, for example “Order our eBook” and then “Subscribe to our RSS”. Be very clear, having just the RSS icon will probably do the trick with some people but why risk it.

7. Design

Design for many of us is not important, if you think like that let me tell you that you are wrong. When I land on a website with poor design I get a bad first impression. I can assure you my next click will be on the back button. Having a good outside perception is as important as having a good inside reality. You can have a remarkable product or service but a bad first impression and people will not even consider giving you a shot.

8. The Platform

This is not a matter of having the budget or not, pretty much all the platforms are free. While Blogger or WordPress (.com version) are good ways to get started, today they are considered more of a personal solution. If you are serious about blogging for your business, you should consider the self-hosted version of WordPress (.org version) which will allow you to work on your own customization.

9. Content (But Not Just Any Content)

Content is still king, no doubt about that, but just saying that doesn’t really change anything. I will say this, take the focus out of yourself, nobody cares about you or your product (sorry). Instead focus on how to cover a need, how you can benefit your prospect. Aim to turn yourself into a leader by helping your tribe.

Become a resource for your public rather than trying to get direct sales. Forget the sale and let it come to you.

10. Schedule Everything

One of the most important things on your blog is to be consistent with your content and everything you do. Schedule everything, how many posts per week you are publishing, when and how to promote that content, how are you going to respond to comments. It is very easy to fall behind and a blog that’s not updated regularly can only damage you. That doesn’t mean you should post every day either. Have a balanced approach and a plan to execute it.

11. Support Your Content

It is very hard to make your blog known if you don’t get out of it. Think of platforms that can help you take that content out of your blog, you can use social media for example and use your blog as a hub. Make your blog the final destination, once the user arrives to your blog you can worry about conversion from reader to prospect and client.

12. Make Yourself Known

Give your blog some personality, make yourself present with a photo and a bio. There is something about seeing your face there that makes your prospect more comfortable, after all, you are the main ingredient in your business. Most of the time people make a decision over the relationship rather than how good your service is. Be active as an individual, mixing your business brand with your personal brand is proven to get you better results.

Final Thought

I’ll give you one more because I see a lot of this. Plugins are like toys, just make sure you don’t get too excited and install a bunch of unnecessary features that will only make your blog look like a flea market and slow it down.

Overall, this is not rocket science at all and making a few mistakes is probably not a big deal, what’s important is that you reach your goals.

Feel free to add your own in the comments…

Image courtesy of Dry Icons.

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Besides the Coffee Maker, today’s entrepreneur enjoys the benefits of many available online tools that makes it easier to run a business regardless of the business model or industry. Some of the benefits I expect technology to provide me with are simplicity, location independence and communication.

Of course there are many web-based tools available for different aspects of your business from accounting to productivity to sales. What I want to do is list those essential tools you can integrate no matter what kind of business you are about to launch or are already running. I hope you find them useful or if you want, comment about your own tools…

1. Skype

Very simple, Skype makes you global. Limitless communications. You already know it, of course, but there are a couple of thing you might not know yet, first the new screen sharing capabilities are just off the hook, I have been using it to provide training. The other one is that after being acquired by Ebay back in 2005, the company is back to private and promises to reinvent very soon and perhaps turn more social this time.

2. Google Apps

After being a heavy user of Office products for many years including email clients, I have turned web-based. Google Apps allows you to not only manage all your email needs but also your documents, tasks and calendars, which means you are not storing anything in your hard drive, you can access from any computer in the world and you don’t need to purchase or install any software. The only reason stopping me from using web email all these years was that I think having an email address that ends with “@hotmail.com” is just not professional and with Google Apps you can setup your own domain, that means that email address ending with @socialmouths.com is delivered to Google.

3. Social Media

What can I say about social media, at this point not having a Linkedin profile just hurts your credibility as an entrepreneur. I’m not saying it is the network you need to join in order to generate business, your target market may be living in another network, that’s why I rather talk about social media in general. No matter what business you are in, if you are a little creative you will be able to turn this new media into your new marketing machine, regardless if that means Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or all of them. Today’s entrepreneur can’t afford to keep ignoring this.

4. WordPress

If you want you can consider it social media too, who cares… I just wrote an article last week about why you need to use WordPress instead of a traditional website. If I had to give you a quick recap I would say that this platform allows you to own and manage your site at a cost that you can’t compare and it’s the perfect tool to integrate with your social media efforts. It is open-source, web-based and you don’t need the help of a webmaster. A must.

5. Paypal

A lot of people think Paypal is to go shopping at eBay. This is a tool I recently integrate to my business and I can appreciate not having to deal with merchant accounts, gateways, SSL Certificates or any of that stuff. My clients are familiar with it so they don’t question the security around it, I can create and manage my own invoices or even setup recruiting payments and as I said about Skype, it makes you global baby…

A Quick Bonus List Of Tools You Should Check Out

• Firefox – Not just a browser, you can turn it into a marketing machine or many other things.
• DimDim – Very cool webinar service and free for up to 20 users.
• Google Analytics – Must have if you own a website or blog. Analyze your traffic.
• Mint – Accounting. Just acquired by Intuit.
• YouSendIt – Send files up to 100mb for free.

So there you have ‘em, if you are using other online tools to help you run your business, share them in the comments.

We talk a lot about the importance of  having an online branding either for your business or personal, but I have a better question for you: What’s behind it?

I guess what I’m saying is that more important than your branding is the foundation of your business, the core of your product or service.

You can collect followers on Twitter but that’s not going to take the business anywhere if your product or service is not kicking ass itself. Sometimes entrepreneurs fall into seeking for better ways to market and close sales when we really should take a step back and rethink everything from that foundation.

It has been said that it doesn’t matter how good your product is if it’s not presented under a good image, it’s not going too far. Good design and branding can take you to next level, of course there are exceptions, I happen to think that while I love the simplicity of it, everything Google does is pretty ugly, but they still dominate the world… On the other hand, if your product or service is not remarkable on its own, awesome design and branding are not going to accomplish much more than creating a good first impression.

Having a lot of money to hammer your product into your target market through advertising is not an alternative anymore specially if your a small business, don’t waste your marketing dollars.

So there it is, branding should be a secondary element, you got nothing if what’s behind it is not equally good. Imagine how many leads you can burn if you go out there on social media websites trying to promote something that is half way done because you think you can improve things with time, not only you can come short on fulfilling those expectations, but you can also damage your reputation.

Developing a product or a service is also a creative process, it might take longer than you have plan for, but it’s always better to take that time. When you create something of quality, the whole marketing approach will happen in a more organic fashion. Don’t forget that social media is based on conversations between consumers, consumers that are eager to share with their friends ALL their everyday experiences, either good or bad, and you don’t want to fall into the bad experience category. Stuff spreads pretty quick online.

Bottom line, take the time to plan your kick-ass branding and your strategy on how to deploy your message all over the internet, but first take the time to build a strong foundation.

Share your thoughts…

Elsewhere…

Don’t forget to get your Vanity URL from Facebook tonight starting at 9:01pm (PST), even if you think it’s not important today, you will one day. Just go to facebook.com/username

I guess a social network for the Hispanic Market in the US would seem like a great idea to launch, after all, they’re both hot. The Hispanic community has recently reached 11% of the total US population and Social Networking is probably the hottest thing in the planet.

So why is it that the current numbers on the few Hispanic networks out there are not looking very promising?

There are 3 reasons:

1. Knowing the market on the statistics is one thing, knowing the real Latino on the streets of L.A. is a whole different animal. This is not just for social media, I’m talking about marketing in general. Companies claim to know the market but they still waste millions of dollars every year on the wrong approach.
2. 1st. Generation Latinos are not really computer savvy. They are hard working people that have little interest in computers in general. They usually own a computer for their children.
3. 2nd. Generation Latinos don’t feel the need to be boxed in a category. They couldn’t care less, if they want to speak Spanish to their friends, they’ll do it on Facebook. They are part of this society as much as anybody else.

The truth is that targeted social sites are not expected to reach very high volume levels and if that fulfills their objective then good for them. The Hispanic market on the other hand, is a pretty big target. I don’t think any social site dedicated to this market will get into the millions, at least not now, even with the huge population.

Here a couple of examples of traffic statistics, not only the numbers are low but they are decreasing. The first one is MiGente:

Cyloop, a Last.fm type of network promoting Spanish music:

Even Univision, which is backed-up by one of the Top 5 national networks in the US and obviously drives higher traffic, seems to be decreasing a little:

Another example is what Terra has just announced, the integration of Twitter en Espanol into their site. In case you don’t know, Terra is probably the Yahoo of Latin America and Spain. They are very successful, but if you ask me about conquering the US market, I don’t think so.

In other words, if you are looking into getting a piece of one of the biggest purchasing powers in the planet, you will still have to go to the general market platforms and get really creative.

Share your thoughts…

Welcome. Our first post is to introduce ourselves and announce the launch of our services. SocialMouths started operations yesterday (4/27/09) in Los Angeles, California.

Get to know a little bit of who we are and what we do and feel free to interact with any comments, questions or suggestions. We are a “Social Company”. We intend to communicate and enforce truth and simplicity in our message as well as in every campaign we design for our clients.

What we do

Very simple. SocialMouths helps entrepreneurs, small businesses and professionals in different industries leverage from social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and others. Whether you are looking to brand a company or yourself on the web, our team can help you establish and deploy the right strategies depending on your products or services and target market.

The format? SocialMouths can consult, coach or develop those strategies to raise awareness and ultimately generate traffic so you can turn into customers. We also provide free content through our blog in order to give you the basics of social media, in plain English.

Is Social Media for you?

Of course it is! Did you know that social media is free? Did you know that businesses and entrepreneurs like you are attracting new customers through it? Are you still focusing on conventional media campaigns to market your products/services?

Social media changed the way we communicate, not only in our personal lives but also how businesses interact with their clients.

Our Opening Promo

As our opening promo, we will offer a free 1-hour phone session to the first 5 people that contact us through the comments of this post. Just claim it! It doesn’t matter where you are.

Get in Contact

Ask for our services or just say hi on:

Email Us | Visit our Website |  Or follow us on Twitter or Facebook

Social media is no longer a way to connect with your friends and family. It also means serious business. Find out how.