It was all there at last weekend’s workshop Web 2.0: Mostly In Plain English, a guide to successful innovation through an audience centered lens.

• -The emergence of social media from the first-generation web aka Web 1.0;
• -How blogging can help make this your most profitable year (even in this fiscal climate);
• -Analytics and optimization tips for your website;
• -Next steps for our 2.0 world and business;
• -And more…

ClickForHelp’s Chief Innovation Officer Ken Fischer hosted the event along side sponsor Judy Ann Schandua, President, Enigma Business Solutions. Rounding out the speaker line up were presenters from Ruiz Mcpherson Communications marketing maverick Mayra Ruiz-McPherson, Web 2.0 real estate blogger Tony Arko, and Network Solutions own senior consultant Andrew Bates.

Web 1.0 to 2.0 to audience-centered revolution
Mayra gave an overview of how the Web was first used plus how it related to current 2.0 conversational depth (and she underscored: Don’t worry! It’s still the Web; it’s just used differently with different online tools). Tim O’Reilly a few years back wanted to excite people about his upcoming conference; and in generating that buzz, he and his team crafted the term Web 2.0. And from there, the straight forward – ‘in plain English workshop’ – took off with varied context and conversations on doing business in Web 2.0. Bottom line, online communications and media are much more audience & community centered than in the website-centric 1.0 days.

People like making connections with real people; and Web 2.0 technology should be viewed as how to facilitate this natural activity.

-Ken Fischer, ClickForHelp

Psychology factors in: how communities have replaced message control
In sharing how social media can be perceived, this concept stood out: it’s not how people “should” respond that’s as relevant. Within community dynamics, emotional, social, and logical concerns in community influence how people reach decisions and beliefs. So when creating and communicating in Web 2.0, practitioners should ideally plan strategy around how people socialize within their communities. Outreach to communities (vs demographics) is optimal because they espouse a unique, natural communications behavior.

And when considering social media solutions to engage your customers or defined audience, keep these principles in focus: relevance, interaction, connections, empowerment, and community outreach.

Despite the overall real estate market and economy, I’m now having the best year in my career. -Tony Arko, real estate agent, consultant, blogger

Blogging business power: creating a real estate boom
Tony Arko first started blogging and using social media one year ago as a real estate agent in Loudoun County, Virginia. He confirmed 1/3 of his business comes from his blog’s readership (fantastic) and mentioned prospective home buyers usually contact him after reading his blog for six to eight months. And this is just simply folks reading his industry-based content for Loudoun County real estate; with his blog – he does not practice conversion strategy beyond making content available (with added tips below):

• -perceive a blog as chance to establish expertise and trust with potential customers, community in general, and even mainstream media;
• -know your goals for the blog; some of his top intentions for his: 1) be in the top front Google search results and 2) use key blog posts to answer common, repetitive questions from different home buyers;
• -use key terms relevant to your business for SEO purposes i.e. Loudoun County real estate;
  -write about what you love – be passionate about content to find your voice;
  -remember Google will search sites that are updated more often so that helps get to top of search results more readily.

It takes at least 200 words of written content for search engines to really recognize and search it appropriately. -Andrew Bates, Network Solutions senior consultant

Your online content: search spending stats & what customers do pre-purchase
At least $21.9 billion was spent last year on search spending with expectations for that figure to grow 30% this year. But what was most compelling was learning 81% of consumers research products online before purchasing. So it’s still as critical for making it easy for customers to find you and your business online. SEO remains our friend.

For your Web presence: a roadmap to the user experience, metrics, and more

• -define goals for your website and what you want visitors to do upon arrival;
• -enact measures based on time increments i.e. progress at 3 months, 6 months, one year, etc;
• -secure a domain name;
• -focus on the user experience and what they really want i.e. don’t assume video should be on the front page just because it’s pretty;
• -remember everything can be measured; so use tools like www.analytics.google.com to assess what actions visitors take i.e. sales conversions, e-newsletter requests, membership enrollment.

And feel free accessing more Network Solutions resources (some are free!) like whitepapers or webinars on SEO, e-commerce, and more.

It was a full afternoon at this Web 2.0 workshop with even more discussions, brainstorming sessions, and networking than what one blog post can do justice. Thanks to Ken and all for making this possible and for letting me join in events!

(photo by Daniel F. Pigatto under Creative Commons license 2.0 A-NC-ND)

The theme is: Sharing your Writing & Selling Your Work in Cyberspace

Our very own Shashi Bellamkonda will be presenting a session on social networking & using it for your marketing efforts.

And every registered attendee will get a 15 minute free consulting session with Andrew Bates from Network Solutions. Andrew is a senior website and search engine marketing consultant for Network Solutions.

So if writing is your passion & you’re wondering how to take it online then you should attend this workshop. More information can be found here.

Andrew loves to consult and provide customers with solutions that will help their businesses grow. Here at Network Solutions he is a senior member of the direct sales team and has been with us for about nine months. While we have dedicated customer care groups for handling phone inquiries and customer support, Andrew Is with the outside sales group working directly with small business customers. He works out of our headquarters in Herndon VA, and his territory is the greater DC area market. He offers robust solutions that include web design, e-commerce applications, and online / search engine marketing like SEO.

I was able to spend some time with him recently and here is a transcript of our interview:

Steve: How long have you been doing business development and online marketing?
Andrew: After attending UVa in Virginia I moved to the DC area to work with a small IT firm in Herndon. I’ve spent the last 12 years of my life immersed in technology; professionally and personally – I’m a geek. My first paying tech job was testing ecommerce websites over a dozen years ago. I was an engineer, a presales engineer, and then worked my way into sales and consulting roles.

Steve: The most basic thing for a customer is to buy their domain name to establish their web presence. What do you recommend to customers as the next thing?
Andrew: Once a business has a domain name and a basic website, our biggest issues is getting their customers to find them at the time they are looking for that product or service. Most business think having a website is enough, but today everyone has a website. Having a website does not mean their customers or even the search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN can find them.

Steve: Network Solutions has an excellent array of services that can be up-sold or cross-sold when someone is building their online brand. Do you recommend a certain order that customers scale up their online business?
Andrew: It is easy to get swamped with all of the ways a business can promote itself online. The industry, market, and unique aspects of that customer determine our strategy. If that customer is focused on their brand and the long-term performance of their website, then I will likely focus our activities on search engine optimization and natural search results that must be developed over time. If an immediate return is more important, I may put our efforts into managing a pay-per-click sponsored advertising program that focuses on a faster ROI.

Steve: Is there the ability to do custom development and configuration to their sites that your recommend Network Solutions help with?
Andrew: To compete on the internet, each business needs more then just a single page with their name, address, and phone number. We help business design new websites, add to or change existing sites, and we focus on providing functionality important to doing business like ecommerce shopping carts or lead conversion tools. Once you get them to your website, then you have to give them a reason and an easy way to get what they want.

Steve: How do you handle a customer that says “I want it all now”. Do you help them lay out a plan? Should they get everything at once?
Andrew: Our online marketing campaigns are often based over a year with major landmarks, services, and changes occurring every 3 months or so. Every part of SEO from keyword research and content building, to linking, to sponsored advertising like pay-per-click can be measured down to every second, every click, and every dollar invested to the tenth of a penny. Because everything is so measurable, it is our practice to lay out a business’ campaign over 3, 6, 12, or 24 months depending on goals. We stagger activities and run a great deal of reporting so that we can measure each activity effectively.

Steve: What is your philosophy on providing stellar customer service through your sales approach?
Andrew: No one wants to be sold to; I don’t like it very much myself. I do like a knowledgeable consultant who asks the right questions, learns his or her customer’s business, and then helps apply proven and trusted solutions to meet the problems or goals. My focus is good follow through, proper communication, and keeping my skills and knowledge fresh with the industry.

Steve: Wrapping this interview up I was thinking we should leave our readers with a top 5 or 10 list of things a new business should consider after they get a domain name? What would be your recommendation to potential customers?
Andrew: The basics are the same for all businesses:
1. Register a domain name (or many) that most pertains to your brand, products, or services
2. Determine the top goals for your website (for your website, not your business)
3. Research you’re audience and customers. When they look for what you have to offer, how do the “search” for it. This is a good time for keyword research
4. Build a website to HTML and SEO best practices. Include lots of fresh, relevant content. Update it and add to it as much as you can
5. Develop a marketing strategy for your website that takes into account your website goal with both short-term and long-term objectives
6. Take base-line metrics and install an analytics program
7. Implement an online marketing campaign that includes both organic SEO and some sponsored / advertising activities
8. On a monthly and quarterly basis, review your website analytics and marketing metrics
9. Make adjustments and changes based on real statics and real metrics. This is not a time for impulsive decisions. Web advertising can be a simple ROI, or it can be a way to lose your shirt
10. Evaluate, repeat, evaluate… Growing a website’s rankings in search engines and presence on the web is an ongoing effort. Markets, industries, competition, and search engine algorithms change all the time. A business must be prepared to continue to compete for their spot on the internet.

Steve: Thanks for taking the time today to talk with us about how customers can leverage Network Solutions.

Andrew: My pleasure. If anyone has questions about how they can grow their business online, they are welcome to email me at Andrew.Bates@NetworkSolutions.com, or they can reach me our headquarters at 703-668-5052.