SOCIAL MEDIA & INTERNET MARKETING BLOG

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Rainman and The Texas Hill Country – A New Blog Series

October 16th, 2012 by Rainman Web Development No Comments

Rainman Web Development was born and bred in the Texas Hill Country. We were founded in Fredericksburg, and recently made a move to Boerne. We like to think that our surroundings have had a hugely positive influence on the company we have become, so we’d like to share with you a little bit about our beloved neck of the woods.

Living in the Texas Hill Country is pretty great. We’ve got awesome little towns like Boerne, Kerrville, Comfort, Fredericksburg, and are only a short drive away from San Antonio! Life in the Hill Country strikes an amazing balance between city and country living, you get city conveniences and country vistas! So, to honor our great love for the Hill Country, we’ll be firing up a little blog series that focuses on what some of our employees love most about living in the Hill Country. We’ll be covering everything from restaurants to watering holes; we just want to share with you our love for what lies in our backyard!

If you live in the area, maybe you’ll find out about something new! If you have never been the Texas Hill Country, maybe you’ll find out about something that finally pulls you out here! Anyway, we certainly hope you enjoy it, leave us some feedback in the comments!

Social Media Breakfast – Hill Country Edition

October 12th, 2012 by Rainman Web Development No Comments

This week, the Rainman marketing team attended the Hill Country Social Media Breakfast in Boerne. If you’re unfamiliar with Social Media Breakfast, it’s a public group that meets at least once a month to discuss social media related topics. The particular meeting we attended was only the 2^nd meeting of the group, so we’re very excited to be involved from the beginning.

The meeting was anchored by a presentation from Luis Sandoval, Jr. founder of Social Media Breakfast San Antonio! Mr. Sandoval discussed a series of social media tools that ranged from listening/monitoring tools to in-depth analytical tools. Some of the tools discussed we already use, and with others we were entirely unfamiliar. Events and discussions like these are part of why working in social media can be so much fun.

The social environment is constantly shifting and evolving, so attending meetings like these helps our team stay ahead of the trend curve and improve the services we offer to clients. This brings to the fore a very important point, when considering outsourcing your social media or hiring an employee to oversee all of your company’s social endeavors, steer clear of anyone who deems themselves an “expert,” “guru,” or “ninja.” The plain fact is that no one can possibly know all that there is to know about social media, it evolves too quickly for any one person to be familiar with every trend, tool, or network. Your ideal social media marketing firm/employee is both well versed in social media marketing, but also has an insatiable desire to continually learn about the craft.

Not sure if you want your business to engage in social media? Give our team a call and learn about the benefits of engaging in social media!

(830) 331-9995

Follow Social Media Breakfast TXHC (you don’t have to work in social media to be involved. All interested parties are welcome!) –

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Twitter Certified Products and What They Mean for Businesses

September 10th, 2012 by Rainman Web Development No Comments

How would you describe Twitter?

My guess is that before you could answer, you either literally or metaphorically scratched your head. The world of Twitter, while far reaching, is still seemingly fragmented and not terribly well defined. When you use Twitter, you have options on how you interface with the service; applications like Echofon and Tweetbot are in no way affiliated with Twitter, but are incredibly popular avenues for people to interface with the service. If you use Twitter for your brand or business, there are many third-party services that exist to help you maintain, evaluate, and expand your brand on Twitter, but you’re really left to you own devices, as Twitter doesn’t directly offer those types of services.

Twitter has recently made a series of announcements that sign towards the end of fragmented user experience and the beginning of Twitter’s commitment to brands and businesses that use their service. In the first of two high-impact announcements, Twitter announced an updated version (1.1) of their API (Application Programming Interface. This is what developers use to link their application to Twitter’s data). This update, while incremental in nomenclature, is not so incremental in what it delivers. In 1.1, third-party developers will now be required to adhere to a set of “display requirements” and a few other new rules that are much more stringent than those of its predecessor. Essentially, this is Twitter telling companies like Echofon to get it together to look and function like Twitter’s apps or their access to the Twitter API will be cut off. The primary issue with this request is that hordes of Twitter users prefer the display and experience of third-party developed apps to Twitter’s branded apps, and see that experience as more useful or robust than what Twitter currently offers. So, the bet that Twitter is making with this change is that its users won’t abandon their service because of a change in the way they experience Twitter. To put it bluntly, Twitter users will adapt to experience, developers won’t. There are other sweeping changes in 1.1, but I focus on this particular change because of the possible negative impact it could have on the success of Twitter’s Certified Product initiative, which was the second of two recent high-impact announcements.

Twitter followed up the announcement of version 1.1 of their API by launching a set of “Twitter Certified Products.” As Seth Bindernagel stated in the announcement’s blog, Twitter is aiming to “bring some of the most innovative products and services from Twitter developers to businesses and organizations that need them most.” The products highlighted in this new program come from 12 different developers, and are based in three main areas: engagement, analytics, and data reseller products. Clearly, just by evaluating the titles of their three segments of certified products, Twitter has businesses and brands in their cross-hairs. Each category showcases products that Twitter sees as innovative, reliable, and on message with Twitter’s longing to have a consistent experience.

Engagement products are those that allow an enterprise to better control and understand its presence on Twitter. Products like HootSuite and Radian6 fall into this category.

Analytics products help businesses and brands quantify their presence on Twitter and adapt their strategies accordingly. Products like HootSuite and Radian6 fall into this category as well.

Data Reseller products allow businesses to learn from the entire “twittersphere.” Brands can understand the way that users interact with the service, what types of conversations drive engagement, and how to optimize their actions. These insights can allow a business to better target its audience and be more successful in using the service. Topsy is an example of a data reseller service.

So what does this mean for business?

It means that Twitter is finally committing to helping brands effectively use their service. By “certifying” certain development companies and their products, Twitter is giving brands a road map to using their service. No longer will brands have to wander from service to service to find a good fit for their needs, they can simply look for Twitter Certified Products and select the most applicable service. I believe this program will be huge for Twitter and will really open the floodgates to brand adoption of this social channel. I also believe it will lead to more robust data, analytics, and understanding of the Twitter environment.

At Rainman, we are committed to keeping up with changes in the digital marketing arena and adapting our strategies to benefit from what they provide. Call us to find out how our expertise in digital marketing can propel your business forward.

What is link-building? Guide to better search results

July 6th, 2012 by Rainman Web Development No Comments

An often neglected search engine ranking factor, link-building can help your improve your website’s PageRank and lead to better search results in Google.

Getting links from other websites, whether from a blog post, news article or partners page, improves your websites PageRank. PageRank is determined by how many links website “A” receives from websites “B” and “C” and impacts your position in Google search results. Check out Rob Chant’s introduction to Google PageRank for more information on how link-building impacts search engine results.

Essentially, more incoming links tells search engines that people find your website relevant and that other people may, too. That said, it is important to focus on gaining inbound links from reputable websites such as industry associations, and placing less priority in obtaining links from, say, industry blog directories.

So, how do you get links to your site? Here are some areas we recommend our client’s focus on when link-building.

Joining professional organizations and accreditation associations is not only a great way to give your business a competitive edge, but also a great opportunity to network with other reputable businesses and link-build. Organizations such as the Better Business Bureau, your local Chamber of Commerce, industry-specific organizations and professional organizations such as IIAT, are great opportunities for link building. If you are a member of an organization make sure your business is listed on the organization’s website (often found in some form as “Find a … in your area”). In addition, make sure your website includes a link to the organizations and associations you are a part of.

To help our clients improve their results on Google, we encourage our small business owners to partner with and reach out to other local businesses. Adding a Partners page to your website, which features links to partnering businesses, is a great way to encourage other businesses to include your link on their website.

Locate potential business alliances in your community and ask them to add a link to your business. If you are an independent insurance agent, it’s natural to partner up with a realtor or other closely related business. If you have a solid relationship with other business owners, ask for referrals in related industries while you’re at it.

The Partners page is great, however, keep your link-building to a small relevant group of reputable businesses and avoid receiving a laundry list of linking partners. Google penalizes excessive linking referred to as link schemes.

If you’re not already blogging for your business, now might be a good time to start. Creating great content is the best way to receive links from other websites naturally and is one of the most favored link-building tactic.

To increase your inbound links try guest posting for an industry-related blog by pitching a blog topic to a fellow blogger. Make sure there’s a link to your website within the post. If they decide to feature your post it will include a link back to your website. Another way to link build on blogs is by commenting on other blog posts and including your website as a tagline. For example, if you are an insurance agent you may want to comment on a blog about hurricane preparedness, reminding folks that having proper home insurance is essential to hurricane preparedness and including a link to your website.

In addition to helping find new leads, visiting forums such as Linkedin and answering questions related to your field can provide additional links back to your website. While these links are not normally as effective as some other forms of link building, they do spread your message and create additional links to your site.

Purchasing links is discouraged. Not only because your website can receive penalties for engaging in link schemes, but also, you often do not know from whom you are receiving links before you buy.

Our clients should only receive relevant links from sites with good reputations. Keep in mind when you purchase links, it is hard to tell what website your links will appear on, and how relevant those websites will be. Having a link to your website on irrelevant or non-credible sites can actually result in your website being penalized for appearing on low-quality or spam websites. When working to establish inbound links for your website, it is important to keep high business standards and not associate with businesses or organizations that may represent your own business in a negative light.

How to delete and ban a user from a Facebook page

June 11th, 2012 by Rainman Web Development No Comments

On the Internet, spam is pervasive, inevitable and most of all annoying. It’s only a matter of time before you receive some unwanted message on your small businesses’ Facebook Page. Fortunately, there are some quick fixes.

Here’s a couple different scenarios to help delete and ban a user from a Facebook Page.

If they have Liked your Page

For starters, if the person in question has Liked your page, find the New Likes section of your administrator panel and click on See All. Find the person’s name and click the X to the right of the name. Select the Ban Permanently option.

If you want to delete a message on your wall

In the administrator panel located above your profile photo, find the notifications section. Now on the message you would like to delete. A pop up will allow you to either delete the message or delete and ban a user from your Facebook Page.

Know any other ways or have other tips or tricks of your own for Facebook? Let us know in the comments.