Some new Twitter users want to help me get rich, find peace with my life and help me tap my inner invisible pink unicorn to be spiritually one with the universe. I know this because they post links telling me they can make this happen if I buy their books and CD's or read their blogs. They just never tell me exactly HOW this is supposed to happen.

Instead they babble repetitively in varying sized and colored typefaces, repeating their promises over and over again, but with slightly different wording. They do this because they read somewhere that "long-form" copy is persuasive and sells. I'm not buying it.

If you're in business for the long run, no matter the field, content that merely badgers readers into buying your whatsits and whatnots is not the solution. It may help you sell a short run of something, but it won't establish a relationship with your clients, build a solid customer base or solidify your branding strategy. So what will?

You have goals, but so do your site visitors.

People visit our sites for a reason. They have a need they wish to fill. After having searched Google, discovered your site on StumbleUpon, followed a link from a source they trust or typed in the link they saw on your business card, they've come to your site in the hopes that you can fill their needs. This is true whether you are peddling products, services or information. For example, your visitors may need to:

• Buy a glow-in-the-dark dog collar with built in GPS so they don't misplace Fido at night.
• Pick the right graduate school so they can research light-emitting polymers that will help them develop new green technologies.
• Decide which restaurant to visit next Tuesday.
• Find a skin cream that will soothe itchy winter skin.
• Choose a good book for their nephew's 3rd birthday present.
• Learn something new about Web marketing strategies.

If your site can serve that need, then you need to make this clear right away. As soon as they see your home page, or some interior page they've landed upon, they should know if you provide what they seek. If your site isn't meant for them, they can move on. If your site appears to offer what they seek, they will stay a bit longer to find out if your offering is the one most appropriate to their specific needs.

Give readers the tools they need to make an informed purchasing decision.

Now that your visitor has decided to explore your site, you need to give him or her the information needed to make a decision. Doing this is merely a matter of offering content that accurately conveys the features and benefits of your product or service. This will allow your readers to judge the quality of what you offer, and determine if that offer will serve their specific need.

How much information your reader requires depends on your offering. If a visitor is picking a graduate school, he or she will want to know about the faculty, the facilities, fellow students, courses offered etc. This is a big decision that requires making a well-informed choice. If your visitor has a hankering for Italian food, then your restaurant menu, location, hours and some photos (of both food and the restaurant) will probably suffice.

Imagine yourself in the role of your visitor. Let's say you're looking for information about Web marketing. If you are reading this sentence then you've already made a decision. You've decided to read this entry and you've stuck around past the first few paragraphs. If you'd been looking for information on developing Web sites with AJAX you'd have already left.

People talk about Web content in terms of stickiness—methods they can use to keep visitors on the site or encourage them to return in the future. But that's not an end goal. It's merely a tactic used in the hopes that long or repeated visits will encourage readers to buy, or otherwise consume, our stuff. If we provide content that let's visitors make an informed decision, then we've done our job. We've established trust and given them the tools they need to choose wisely. If they like our program, skin cream, menu, Web advice they'll buy/eat/read it now and come back for more later.

By giving visitors the information they seek, we serve both their goals and ours, while forging customer relationships that can last well into the future.

Web Content Development Resources

• Are You Using the Right Content Development Strategy for Your Website?
• Long vs. Short Articles as Content Strategy
• The Discipline of Content Strategy
• Web Content Strategy - The Official Presentation

Social Media Marketing is hip. It seems like everyone wants to get involved, call themselves an expert and use the magical powers of social media to triple sales, recruit students, etc. But social media isn't magic. Social media, like advertising, direct mail and telemarketing is but one of many tools in the marketer's toolbox. Like any tool it needs to be used in the proper context—in conjunction with other marketing strategies. As such social media—when used for marketing—still relies on basic marketing principles such as understanding your target audience, the features and benefits of your product or service, brand awareness and so forth.

Lately I've noticed that a great number of online marketers are unfamiliar with these marketing basics. So today I'd like discuss the importance of understanding your target audience. On the most basic level this is a fairly intuitive process. If you are marketing a new glow-in-the-dark dog-collar with a built in GPS unit, then you can guess that your core audience will consist of:

• Dog owners
• Friends of dog owners

Your secondary audience may also include:

• People who like to make a unique fashion statement by wearing a collar
• Night-time joggers in need of additional safety accessories
• Ravers who see this as a cool alternative to glow-sticks, etc.

Targeting the market: The group of 'dog owners' is too broad to reach effectively.

Your product will not appeal to everyone on the planet who has a dog, so there is no point in spending the time and money it would take to reach all of them.

For example, I recently mentioned the word "dog" in a Tweet (a message I posted on Twitter.) Within 2 minutes I received an e-mail saying that person X was now following me on Twitter. (X had probably set up a search on "dog" and was auto-following anyone who mentioned the word.) I clicked on the link to see who person X might be and discovered that he is marketing some sort of dog-related service. Being currently dogless and unclear of the mission of his site, I neither signed up for the service nor followed X back on Twitter. Instead I posted a brief rant to friends on why following everyone mentioning the word "dog" was not a viable marketing tactic.

X missed out for three reasons.

1. I'm not currently a member of his potential audience.
2. I do not buy things from people/organizations who take marketing short-cuts. They may be taking short-cuts with their product or service as well.
3. Customers and potential customers share bad experiences and I shared this with many friends who now also will not buy from X.

Targeting the market: who among these groups would be most likely to buy your collar?

In the long run we'll make more sales if we can match our product to customers who have a desire or need for that product. A good way to examine this need is to explore the features. Our collar:

• Glows in the dark—a valuable safety feature for night-time dog-walking
• Features built in GPS—handy for tracking your dog if he's walked off leash, sneaks out of the yard or is used in hunting
• Is available in a range of sizes—meant to accommodate either the smallest puppy or the largest Mastiff.
• Is offered in a range of styles including 5 colors of leather as well as 5 durable canvas models—accommodates different preferences and holds up to strenuous use
• Includes an innovative quick release buckle—that can be easily opened or closed with just one hand

Our collar has practical rather than decorative features. While it comes in a variety of colors, it's not a huge variety and none feature rhinestones. From this alone we can guess that it will not appeal to small dog owners who dress up their pets in decorative outfits. It's rugged and easy to use and may appeal to hunters and other owners of medium to large dogs, especially working breeds.

Market research can help us segment the population further.

We may learn that certain breeds are more likely to wander and their owners would desire such a collar. Perhaps owners of Golden Retrievers are 50% more likely to buy multiple collars for their dog than German Shepherd owners. If we have an existing customer base for related products we can analyze past purchases to look for buying patterns that may relate to our new product. If our Fluffy Anti Flea shampoo buyers have been good collar purchasers in the past, while our dog brush buyers have not, then we should promote our collar to the shampoo buyers.

Our market research team can also offer additional demographic information that may help us fine-tune our lists. Perhaps college-educated Volvo drivers replace their dog collars 50% more often than Cadillac drivers. If such correlations exist, we may want to consider those as well. The more we learn about dog-collar buying patterns the more likely we are to narrow our audience down to the group most likely to be interested in our product—while ensuring that there are enough potential buyers in that group for us to make a profit.

We've identified and fine-tuned the market(s): how do we reach them?

Let's say we've decided to target college-educated Volvo drivers with Golden Retrievers as one of our market segments. We've discovered that we can buy mailing lists for this group, that they watch the Discovery Channel and regularly buy from L.L. Bean. Accordingly we might want to initiate a direct mail campaign that we send to the list, advertise on the right shows on the Discovery Channel and make an arrangement with L.L. Bean to distribute the product through their catalog. As our focus, today, is on social media let's assume we already have these (and other) strategies in place. Now we want to supplement these efforts through social media.

Where do these people spend their time online?

By now we've learned something of the demographic make-up of our target audience. We know they've gone to college and have enough disposable income to afford Volvos. Perhaps we've also discovered that their average age is 35-60 and they tend to live near major metropolitan areas. A little research on the more popular social media services may show us that we're more likely to find these people on Facebook and Twitter than on MySpace.

Our audience is easy to find on Facebook.

Facebook skews a bit younger than our target age, but a quick search shows there are over 500 groups relating to Golden Retrievers on Facebook. This may then be a good place to put up a Facebook page, to advertise, and to participate in discussions about dogs and accessories. It will take time, but it might be worth reviewing the various groups and selecting a few active ones to join. There we can participate in conversations and even talk about our dog collars, so long as remember that social media is about people and not just about our products.

Tracking them down on Twitter will be more labor-intensive.

Twitter searches on Volvos and Golden Retrievers pull up many hits, but many of these won't be relevant to our project. Twitter conversations aren't as easily segmented by topic as they are on Facebook or StumbleUpon. Choosing who to follow on Twitter will take more research. We could do several additional searches on "dog collar" "hunting dog," etc. By carefully reading through these results we can pick people one-by-one that may fit our audience.

Services such as Twellow can help us find people by categories, such as "animal welfare" that may give us leads. We should also look into dog-related associations, dog shows and related groups that may be communicating about a related topic through the use of a Twitter Hashtag such as #dog. Ideally you would want something more specific, but there are countless Twitter services and tools available to help you with your research.

Finding the right people and forging those connections on Twitter takes time. This is not a place to push our product, but a place for us to join a community in which we can share ideas on topics of common interest.

It's important to remember that people will only follow us back if we have something worthwhile to say. Before following any of them, we have to make sure that we've posted some worthwhile Tweets—most of which are not about our new collar. Here we want to keep it human. We can post Tweets about our own dog, dog-training tips, and observations about life in general that have nothing to do with dogs. If we offer interesting insights and links that might intrigue members of our audience and respond to questions within our areas of expertise we'll forge far stronger connections than we would if we treated our Twitter stream as an advertising platform.

Define your audience then connect with them on their terms.

Taking the time to narrow your audience to an easily defined niche makes marketing more cost effective. People think of social media as being a free alternative to traditional advertising or direct mail, but making successful connections requires time and labor. By targeting your audience you can focus that labor on connecting with the people who matter most to your goals.

Once you've found that audience you need to connect with them on their own terms if you want to achieve any level of success. Study the usage patterns of the social media services/platforms you intend to use. Find out how your audience uses these tools, then follow their lead. If you put as much effort into tailoring your communication methods to your market as you put into developing a product or service that suits their needs you'll have a far better chance of establishing connections than you would with a more generic approach. It doesn't take magic, just time, research and work.

Market Segmentation, Demographics and Social Media Marketing Resources

• Bureau of Labor Statistics: Demographic Data
• How Marketing Plans Work: Psychographics
• Market Segmentation
• Market Segmentation: A Guide to Sources of Information
• Social Media Marketing Beginner’s Guide
• The Beginners Guide to Social Media ebook

Now that the New Year has been rung in, it seems that the meme of the moment is to blog about the year in review. So I thought I'd follow suit. I looked over my blog entries to see if I'd trended towards any new themes for 2008. While I have written more on social media this year (who hasn't?) I quickly noted that my topics overall continued to range across a wide array of Web related subjects. Next I looked at my stats to see which articles were getting the most traffic and comments.

As it happens the most read article of 2008 was also the most read article of 2007. While quick trendy subjects such as Plurk: Social Media Marketing in Action brought in new readers and temporary traffic spikes, the more timeless subjects such as writing, marketing and navigation were the ones that drew in the most readers overall. So, instead of presenting you with my top 10 articles of 2008, I've decided to break them up into 2 groups, the top 5 written in 2008 and the top 5 from year's past that continue to draw readers—even with the passage of time.

Top 5 Web Development Blog Entries written in 2008

5. Testing Web sites with multiple browser versions

Suggestions on ways to test sites in multiple browsers, reasons for testing and why we still can't ignore Internet Explorer 6.0.

4. Reflections on social media networking and marketing

Overview of popular uses for social media, nature of word-of-mouth and the impact of social media on marketing goals.

3. Wayfinding within your Web site

This follow-up to Your home page is NOT your index; it's your store front provides tips on navigational aids that will help users to explore your site no matter which page they may enter through.

2. An URL by any other name would still work like an URL, part 1: subdomains

Exploring the differences between subdomains and subdirectories and their impact (or lack thereof) upon marketing.

1. Embedding YouTube Videos the Standards Compliant Way—SFWobject 2.0

Embedding YouTube Videos is one of the easiest things you can do on the Web, but if you're a stickler for standards compliant HTML, you can't just copy and paste. SFWobject 2.0 provides an easy remedy.

Top 5 Web Development Blog Entries read in 2008

5. CSS Tip: Positioning photos with floats

Positioning photos with hspace or tables is awkward and dated, but the CSS float property makes it easy for anyone to include images in their Web sites and blogs so that they float cleanly to the right or left of the text.

4. An Introduction to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Part 1

Search Engine Optimization may seem complicated, but by following these simple SEO basics you can make a significant impact.

3. I'm not going to teach you XHTML/HTML, but you should learn it anyway

This brief introduction to HTML provides links and resources for learning HTML as well as a homework assignment users can try as a way to get started.

2. So you want to build a website

This is the first in a series of articles that make up my Planning your Web site tutorial—in which I walk readers through a process of identifying goals, understanding their audience, choosing content, outlining a site and organizing pages and navigation.

1. Voice and Tone: Writing to reflect your personality as well as your message (Part 1)

Writing is more than the stringing of words into a sentence. This article addresses the importance of using a tone suitable to both the audience and the subject matter in order to better connect with readers and clearly convey your message.

Conclusions

The Web is constantly evolving and we're all trying to keep up with the latest trends and technologies. But no matter which platform we use to publish, which strategies we apply, it always seems to come back to the basics. The most basic element of the Web is content. While video and audio continue to build in popularity, the core of our content is still composed of words. That's probably why the Voice and Tone article was read more than any other.

You, my readers, understand the importance of fundamentals over the latest fad. I think that is why—for the most part—the most popular subjects on this blog are the ones that address these basic strategies, those that can be applied now and in the future. In 2009 I expect to be writing more on social media topics such as Facebook and Twitter, but I'll also be writing more about content and general marketing principles, the foundations we build upon in all of our Web-based endeavors.

What about you? If you're a blogger what will you focus on in 2009? If you're a regular (or new) reader, what would you like to see here?

Happy New Year!

P.S. Read more of my thoughts on social media and the Web on Ariwriter

Ari Herzog recently interviewed me for his blog, AriWriter: Strategies and tips on social media and online marketing. You can read the full article, Guest Interview with Heidi Cool: How a University Experiments with Social Media, online. ]]> http://blog.case.edu/webdev/2008/12/29/socialmedia.html Everyone wants to know how to take advantage of social media. Whether it's to promote a business or an academic program, it's not unusual to hear people as, "How should we be using Twitter?" or "What should we do with Facebook?" The questions often focus on the tools, but as I've mentioned before, in Social Media: Your Interactive Information Resource, social media is about making connections—human connections. While this has been apparent to me for sometime, it's become increasingly clear over the past month. So rather than writing a typical how-to or advice article, today I'll just tell you about two recent events that really drive this message home. http://blog.case.edu/webdev/2008/12/29/socialmedia.html Heidi's Entries Social Networking analytics marketing social media Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:43:09 EST Everyone wants to know how to take advantage of social media. Whether it's to promote a business or an academic program, it's not unusual to hear people as, "How should we be using Twitter?" or "What should we do with Facebook?" The questions often focus on the tools, but as I've mentioned before, in Social Media: Your Interactive Information Resource, social media is about making connections—human connections. While this has been apparent to me for sometime, it's become increasingly clear over the past month. So rather than writing a typical how-to or advice article, today I'll just tell you about two recent events that really drive this message home.

Heidi thinks the veil between the 'brick and mortar' world and the 'cyber world' becomes more elusive each day.

That's what I wrote as my Facebook status message when I returned home from the Cleveland Social Media Club party on December 10. As the name suggests the Cleveland SMC is "a community for the champions of Social Media and those seeking to learn." (If you live in Northeast Ohio and work with, or are interested in, social media you should join.) What makes this group different from many online communities is the regional nature of it. We're all here so we can actually meet in person. As such they've already had several events, but this was the first one that I attended.

My friends tell me that I'm no longer shy, but I am an introvert, so I have to admit I was just a wee bit nervous. Although I knew a few people in the group—either in person or online—many were unknown, or at best vague cyber-acquaintances. Thus I wasn't sure how well I'd handle the small talk. As it turns out it wasn't a problem. I knew the host, Dave Stack, from the real world, his best friend is friends with one of my best friends, I'd previously met a few folks from a Cleveland bloggers meet-up, and George Nemeth was there and George knows everybody and is more than happy to make introductions. Within no time I felt as at ease as I would have with people I'd known much longer.

I met some great people and look forward to seeing them again at a future event. But I don't have to wait until the next event to continue the conversations. Members of Cleveland SMC can friend each other and converse on that site, but we also post our other profiles there. Since the event I've connected with several of them on Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. And thus the conversations continue.

It doesn't matter if/when we meet again face-to-face. It doesn't matter if one person prefers Twitter and another prefers Facebook. Once the connection is made it can be continued on any one or more of the online services available. Cleveland Social Media Club (on Ning) provides an information hub, but it's also enabled us to easily create multiple redundant pathways to one another. Thus, if one service goes down, the connections aren't lost, we still have other channels available.

When a service goes down: the demise of Pownce

While multiple channels are available, Pownce was my social media tool of choice. Alas, in early December, Leah Culver announced that Pownce would be shutting down on December 15.

Pownce was the service that hooked me on social media. It's where I learned that you could forge real connections online. Pownce gave me access not only to my peers but also to leaders in the field. If I went to Pownce with an idea I had about a Web project I wasn't getting feedback from just anybody. I was getting feedback from people in all areas of the business—ranging from the managing director of Octane Interactive, Wayne Smallman, to the lead designer at Digg, Daniel Burka. Pownce was an incredible resource.

Of course, it wasn't all about work. Powncers shared photos, absurd videos and thought-provoking articles while also conversing about everything from politics to bacon. My friends group contained liberals and republicans, atheists and born-agains and people from several different continents and cultures. But we had our geekiness in common, so everyone played nicely together in the sandbox. As we shared media and stories, personal experiences and jokes we got to know each other on many levels, much as one does in the brick and mortar world.

By the time December rolled around we'd become a pretty tight community. Then we heard about the shutdown. As you can imagine, the community reeled. Where would we go? What would we do? Sure we're on Twitter, but how can you discuss global warming or share pierogie recipes in 140 characters? It was clear, the sky was falling and there was very little we could do about it. Or was there?

A community comes together

All gnashing of teeth and wailing aside (and yes there was a lot of that) one of the first things people did was to start announcing where else they could be found. Pownce always made it easy to post our other profile addresses on the site, but now people were indicating where their primary addresses would be. People posted their addresses for Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed. People shared e-mails. One fellow declared that he preferred IM and shared 5 different ways to connect with him that way.

We had this information, we had the ability to download our data, but it was clear that we were scattering into the wind. In my panic, I decided I needed to create a new, possibly temporary home for us, someplace that would still exist after December 15, where we could continue to share our contact information. Given that I was already familiar with Ning, I created Pownce Refugees, a place to keep the community alive after Pownce shutdown.

At the time I really wasn't certain about my long term goals, I just needed something I could launch quickly. I configured the page to use the colors from the Pownce home page, enabled some features that I thought might be useful and spread the word. As I and others started playing with it I added RSS feeds of Pownce mentions on Twitter, the Pownce Exiles Room on FriendFeed, the Pownce Exiles group on Vox, Pownce in the news and so forth. This way I thought we could use this page to keep track of Pownce-related activity elsewhere.

The next thing I did was to start creating groups for Pownce theme days. On Pownce we would often post content related to a day's theme. Thus we had Music Video Monday, Wordle Wednesday, Foto Friday and so forth. It sounds silly, but it was a good way to get new people involved as it gave them ideas on things to post. When you are new to social networking, it can be intimidating, but theme days provided some great starting points.

As I was busy priming the pump with groups and content, people started joining. Then they told other people to join. They spread the word on Twitter and other places, and within no time we had more than 100 members.

100? That's not much, Twitter has 6 million users

100 isn't much (we're now at 139), but it was enough to begin a new community. It was also enough to catch the attention of the Ning staff. As a result of our rapid growth, they featured us on the Ning Blog in an article entitled, Former Pownce members find a new home.

This was actually a fairly major accomplishment as Ning is a rather large enterprise. In April 2008 there were over 230,000 networks on Ning, and they were growing at over 1,000 per day. Only 3-4 are featured on the blog in any given day.

The other good news was our traffic. I created Pownce Refugees on December 1, and installed the analytics on December 6. As of December 15 (Pownce shut-down) we had

• 933 unique visitors
• 1,870 total visits
• 12,836 page views (6.86 pages per visit)

By way of comparison this blog was 20 months old by the time it started generating that level of traffic.

Our traffic sources also told an interesting story.

• 56.2% were direct traffic, meaning members (or others) who already knew the address,
• 40.11% were from referring sites and
• only3.69% were from search engines.

The top referring sites were Pownce, Stumbleupon, Gmail, Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook (I'd created a Facebook page for the site), Plurk and Ustream.

Those of you who check stats regularly know that this is atypical. Search engine traffic often plays a much larger role, often times 50% or more. But this was a social media site, marketed through social media to active social media users. It worked well because we (I credit our early adopters for spreading the word) were focused on a very specific niche (Pownce users), who were well-versed in social media tools, and we had a deadline that affected everyone involved.

Where are we now?

Since then we've lost a bit of momentum and probably need to refocus marketing on community building strategies. But traffic is steady and we have a core of regular visitors. As of yesterday we've had a total of:

• 3,000 unique visitors
• 5,193 total visits
• 25,741 page views (4.96 pages per visit)

Traffic sources have shifted slightly. The increase in direct traffic is from membership growth and usage.

• 67.8% are direct traffic
• 27.09% are from referring sites and
• 5.1% are from search engines.

Where will we be next year?

Who knows? The goal was to stay in touch. That seems to be working. In the meantime various members of the community and others are also working to build services with features more akin to the original Pownce. And while the economic climate is gloomy, new services continue to emerge. In another year we could be spending our lunch hours exploring some yet unknown site with yet another funny name.

But what this has shown me is that social media works. In the right situation it can be a very effective marketing tool. But it's the people and the connections between them, that make it so.

* For those 7 of you unfamiliar with the science fiction classic, Soylent Green, there is a classic line towards the end that states, "Soylent Green is people!" Alas, soylent green was also what people ate.

What is the secret of Soylent Green?

Last month, when I wrote about subdomains, I promised to find out more regarding the question of URL length. Site owners had been telling me that their URLs were too long for users to type and that this was keeping people from responding to their direct mail campaigns. Typically the URLs in question were 30-40 characters in length. These don't seem excessively long if you consider that even a short domain name such as www.case.edu takes 12 characters itself. But it did make me wonder if anyone had studied the role URL length plays in direct mail response rates.

In search of the answer I hopped on the Web and began searching. In a utopian marketing world, I would have found some insightful marketing research that would indicate that once an url reaches X characters in length, readers—hesitant to type so much—became less likely to visit the site. Of course, the real world is not so simple, and I found no such data. If I had, it might have included a graph like the one pictured here.

If you think about it, the reason I couldn't find such data is obvious. The length of an URL is but one of several factors a reader considers when deciding whether or not to respond to a direct mail offer. When deciding whether a mailing is potentially useful, recipients, consciously or subconsciously, ask the following questions.

Why did I get this? Is it relevant to me?

You have a Ph.D. in philosophy and the mailer is telling you how to get an associates degree in 90 days. Since you are not the target audience you will throw the mailer in the bin. But if you are restoring a 1966 Mustang and the mailer is from a parts supplier—specializing in 60's muscle cars—you'll probably take a closer look.

Is it something I need/want/can afford now?

The new Macbook Pro looks great but if your current one is only a year old and serves your needs you may not need to order a new one just yet. On the other hand perhaps you can justify getting a new one by giving the older one to your daughter—who could use a better computer. If so you'll keep reading.

What are the features and benefits?

You've been invited to a conference in your field of interest. Who are the speakers? What is their level of expertise? When is the event? Will it fit in your schedule? What is the cost? Will there be food? If the speakers are well-resepected experts, the event fits your schedule, is reasonably priced and includes lunch, chances are you'll go.

What is the next step?

To respond to the offer, do you call, e-mail, visit a Web site? If the next step is to visit the Web site then you probably will take the mailer over to your computer and type in the address.

If you've made it to the last step in the above process then you've already made a choice. You have decided you are interested in the product or service and want to place your order, RSVP for the event or do whatever else may be appropriate to the offer. So what happens when you sit down at the computer to type in the Web URL? Do you stop typing because the URL is too long? How long would it have to be for you to change your mind and not order the product or service that you've already decided you want?

I don't know the answer to that but I suspect it would be more than 30-40 characters, and would depend on the strength of your original decision. If you've been searching for 6 months trying to find a certain part for your Mustang restoration project—and this supplier has that part—you'll probably be willing to type a lot to complete the order. If you're not as firmly committed then maybe a long address, particularly one with lots of special characters, would dissuade you.

Was it the URL or was it the message?

Let's say that you did change your mind about attending the event. Perhaps you've decided you'd rather catch a movie that day. What really caused you to change your mind? Was the URL impossibly long and too hard to remember? Or was the message not persuasive enough to close the sale?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/books/review/Zerkin-t.html?_r=1&ref=authors is long (70 characters without the http://) and includes non-alpha-numeric characters that make it difficult to remember. If The New York Times were sending out direct mail promoting their book reviews, they probably would send you to the shorter http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books. It would be unusual that any of us would need to create a 70 character URL, even for a very targeted marketing campaign, but if we did, I don't know that it would be a deal breaker.

When you consider how much most of us type every day, 70 characters isn't very much. If the chore of typing 70 characters is enough to deter someone from completing their order, then perhaps they weren't that committed in the first place. If your direct mail campaign isn't sending sufficient traffic to your Web site, then you should also review your message. Was it targeted to the right audience? Did you provide the right information to help your readers make an informed decision? The only way to really know whether the message or the URL is the problem is by testing. Test different urls with the same message, try different messages with similar urls of the same length and so forth. (I'll write about split testing for direct mail in a future article.)

Isn't there any URL length data out there?

There is, but most of it is focused on URL length for search engine optimization, maximum URL length able to be read by certain browsers, etc. For our purposes the most useful number comes from usability expert, Jakob Nielsen, who recommends we use URLs that are less than 75 characters so that they don't break into multiple lines when sent through e-mail.

That was the most quantifiable answer I could find. Many people are researching various aspects of URL length, but without very specific testing it can be hard to determine if URL length or some other factor is the relevant issue. In The impact of domain name length on Web site popularity, Jeremia Froyland analyzed URL length of the top 100 sites as ranked by Alexa. The majority of these sites have short domain names (and thus short URLs) and he concluded that there is a correlation between short URLs and site popularity. But correlation is not the same as causality. The top 100 list includes sites ranging from Yahoo and Google to Apple and Hewlett Packard. Their strong brands would play a greater role in the popularity of their sites than the length of their URLs.

Conclusion

Instinctively we like the idea and ease of short URLs, but URL length is only one of many factors to consider in our Web related marketing strategies.

Learn more about URLs

• I Musta Got Lost: URL Naming Convention
• Naming and Addressing: URIs, URLs, ...
• Talk like a Googler: parts of a url
• URLs week: Principles
• WWW FAQs: What is the maximum length of a URL?

"The site looks great. But could you take out the links? I'm afraid people will follow them before they apply to our program/sign up for our event/read the installation instructions/etc." I don't hear this as often as I once did, but it still comes up often enough that it's worth addressing. So today I'll try to dispel some myths about Web stickiness and outbound links.

Will they stay or will they go?

They will go. You know that, because you will go. Whether I bore you halfway through this article or you go on to read several more entries, at some point you will leave this blog. I could offer you videos of the cutest dancing penguins or a fool-proof Web marketing technique and you would leave. I could even tell you the meaning of life (42). You would still leave.

But that's alright. My goal isn't to keep you here forever—trapped with my musings on Web development. My goal is to share ideas and best practices with you, and learn more from the feedback you provide, so that we can all strive to make the most useful Web sites possible. Your goal may be to recruit students to your program or sell more towels, but either way the same principles apply.

What is a sticky Web site?

According to myth, a sticky Web site is one that compels visitors to stay on the site for a long time. The content and features of the site are so enticing that users will stay there wandering about for hours. This is why many Web marketers fret over the percentage of visitors who bounce out of the site and the amount of time spent on it by those who stay. But time is relative. I think a Web site is sufficiently sticky if the goals of the site owner and its visitors are achieved. If the visitor has a positive experience, follows your call-to-action and comes back to visit in the future, then the site is sufficiently sticky.

For example, if I need to order a copy of Don't Panic, I can skibble over to Amazon.com, place the order and be done in less than a minute. I'm happy and Amazon is happy; after all they know I'll be back.

This blog, while vastly different from Amazon, has similar requirements when it comes to stickiness. Perhaps you'll spend a few minutes reading the one article that answers your question. Perhaps you'll linger over the Planning Your Web site Tutorial. Either way, if I've provided something worth reading, then we've both reached our goal. If I'm lucky you'll also subscribe to the RSS feed and Stumble this page so that you and others come back for future visits.

Where will they go when they leave?

On the one hand, that depends on their plans for the day. If they're feeling peckish and adventurous they may want to run out for lunch at Milliways. But if they have time to keep surfing the Web, where they go is partially up to you.

If you've been writing a blog entry about Web site stickiness and outbound links, perhaps you've piqued their interest enough that they want to learn more. In that case you can provide links at the bottom of the page that will give them more information. If you choose these links carefully, you can:

• keep them thinking about the subject
• lead them to content that adds depth or breadth to what you have already covered
• reinforce the idea that your site is a resource—to which users should return—for quality information and site referrals
• influence the pages they visit, ensuring they see pages you trust—as opposed to pages that may be your competition
• link to sites that may return the favor by linking back to you in the future
• enhance search engine optimization (SEO)

I'm not providing information, I'm trying to sell anti-depressants to paranoid androids, where should I link?

Whether your Web site is meant to sell widgets, promote an event or disseminate knowledge, your outbound link strategy should be to provide helpful information to your visitors. If you're selling pharmaceuticals to robots, you could link to:

• studies showing the efficacy of your product
• reviews of your product by satisfied customers
• social media networks and discussion groups geared towards or run by paranoid androids

By providing such resources you can build goodwill towards your brand and help users make a purchasing decision. The same can be applied for events. If it is a lecture, provide a brief biography of the speaker and include a link to his/her own Web site, links to videos of past presentations and other pages that will demonstrate what a compelling speaker he/she is.

In the end, if you take as much care with your links as you do with your other content, your readers should come back for more.

Learn more about outbound links and stickiness

• Debating the Value of Outbound Links (for SEO)
• Linking out: Often it's just applying common sense
• The Role of Outbound Links
• 10 ways to make your Web site 'sticky'
• 21 Ways to Make Your Blog or Web site Sticky

The other day journalist Jimi Izrael sent out an e-mail about a new blogging class he's teaching at Tri-C. It occurred to me that this might be a good opportunity for those of you (in Greater Cleveland) who are thinking of taking up blogging. It also made me think that this would be a good time to share some of the other great resources available to bloggers, Web developers and those interested in social media in Northeast Ohio. Whether you want to take a class or network with others in the field, here are some things that may be of interest.

Introduction to Blogging

In this special topics course at Cuyahoga Community College, journalist and blogger Jimi Izrael will introduce you to the myriad types of blogs and explore their evolution as an outgrowth of modern journalism.

Jimi Izrael's work appears in the Los Angeles Times, Salon.com, Philadelphia Inquirer, Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, American Spectator, Washington Post, and The Plain Dealer. Moderator of the "Barbershop" on NPR's "Tell me more with Michel Martin."

Monday and Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. to 9:20 p.m. beginning October 20, 2008. Contact Jimi Izrael or view the flyer to learn more.

Bail Out Cleveland! Local Internet Guru Offers Free Consulting at the Cleveland Free Stamp

Need some free Internet advice? If so you're in luck "Jim Kukral, a lifelong Clevelander and web-famous Internet guru wants to help ease the pain. He’s offering free Internet consulting to any business that’s in need of guidance. From web marketing, or strategy or blogging help, Jim is willing to bail out Cleveland businesses in need, for free."

Wednesday, October 15, 2008, 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. by Free Stamp in downtown Cleveland.

Telling your story: Nonprofits and the Media

Sponsored by the Center for Community Solutions this half day seminar will offer ideas non-profits can use in promoting their services through social media and introduce you to members of the local media with particular insight in the field. Learn more and register online.

Thursday, December 11, 2008
8 a.m. - Noon
Cleveland Sight Center

Cleveland Web Design and Development Meetup

Founded in 2006, the Cleveland Web Design and Development Meetup is "here to help folks come together to learn about and discuss making the web, web pages, web programming, all that sorta thing. Membership is open to all. And it's free." The groups holds regular meetings, offers study groups for novices and provides a variety of helpful online resources.

Cleveland Web Standards Association

Founded in 2007, "The Cleveland Web Standards Association (CWSA) is grounded on the premise of sharing information in a relaxed atmosphere. The purpose of this association is to provide practical instruction and techniques that will elevate the quality and functionality coming from Cleveland firms and free agents. We hold monthly gatherings that include presentations on best practices for developing web sites. The gatherings are open to any person interested in web design/development, no matter what their current skill level is."

Additionally the CWSA publishes a blog aggregator featuring member blogs covering Web development and related topics.

The Cleveland Weblogger Meetup Group

Founded in 2002, the Cleveland Weblogger Meetup Group meets once a month to discuss blogging, Northeast Ohio, politics and anything else that seems interesting. I finally made it to my first meeting with them last month during which we ate some tasty vittles while discussing gender roles and a variety of other topics. As I understand it topics vary widely depending on who shows up. If you're a local blogger or just thinking about becoming one, you may find it interesting.

Social Media Club - Cleveland (SMC)

Founded this summer, "SMC is being organized for the purpose of sharing best practices, establishing ethics and standards, and for promoting media literacy." Members can share ideas and questions through online discussions as well as meet each other in person at monthly meetings.

Not in Cleveland?

Similar organizations and meetups occur all over the world. Whether you want to join a meetup group that meets in person or prefer to share information online, the following will help get you started.

• Find Web Design Meetup Groups
• Social Software Meetup Groups
• Search Engine Optimization Meetup Groups
• FriendFeed Social Media Room
• FriendFeed Social Media Club Room

Obviously this is but a tiny sampling of the resources available. Feel free to suggest other resources that may benefit fellow readers in the comments below.

Forthcoming topics: More about URLs, Linking Strategies…

In prior reflections on social media, I've mentioned how services such as Facebook, de.licio.us, Twitter, etc. can be effective marketing tools. Much of this has to do with the fact that they foment two-way communication. When we join these communities and services we participate in a dialogue between our friends and contacts. We make connections based upon common interests and share information accordingly. The fact that we can share things—such as our blogs, Web sites, products or services—that will be of interest to those who follow us is what makes these so useful to us as marketers.

What we don't discuss as often is the fact that these same qualities are what make these tools useful to us as consumers of products, services and information.

We know that success in social media requires us to participate in both sides of the conversation. We must speak, listen and respond online just as we would it a real world conversation. But the point of listening isn't just to abide by the rules of the game; the point of listening is to learn. The ones who do all of the talking are missing out because they don't give themselves the opportunity to learn new ideas or to hear vital feedback about their own ideas.

Imagine a social situation in the real world. Have you ever come home from a party all excited because you spent the night telling 18 different people all about your collection of pressed flowers and the methods you use for preparing them? Neither have I. But I have come home excited that I met interesting people. Usually I find them interesting not just because of the topics they discuss, but because of the way they discuss them. They share their viewpoints, listen to your responses, then respond in kind. In this way the conversation evolves in a way that will be of interest to both parties.

The same thing happens in social media. If you follow a like minded group of people on Pownce, Digg, StumbleUpon (or wherever you hang out online) you soon get a sense of who just talks and who is also listening. This may happen over the course of weeks or months rather than hours, but over time you get a sense of who you should be following.

As you do so you find that they start sharing more and more information that is of value to you. I noticed this in particular today when I forwarded on yet another bit of information I'd found via social media.

Recent tidbits gleaned from social media

Today at lunch I was checking Pownce, Twitter and Facebook. On Twitter I saw that David Bradley had shared a link to an article called, "How ‘Mini-Funnel’ Websites Can Help You Increase Traffic, Generate Leads and Build Exposure." Initially the title of the article sounded like it might be some sort of nefarious black hat SEO strategy. But I followed the link because David, who I know through Wayne, wouldn't condone, let alone link to something dodgy.

When I got to the article I saw that it was written by Maki who I first met on Pownce and now follow on Twitter and Friendfeed. The article demonstrated a fairly clever idea that might work well for some upcoming projects in our department so I forwarded the link to my teammates.

A few days earlier I saw that George Nemeth had posted a link on Pownce about the newly formed Social Media Club - Cleveland network on Ning, so I passed that along via Twitter—just in case there are any Clevelanders following me who aren't already following George. (This seems unlikely because George, of Brewed Fresh Daily, is like the Robert Scoble of Cleveland in that he is online almost everywhere and somehow manages to keep up with it all.)

A few days before that I received a shout on Digg from Kyle James, a fellow bloghighed blogger, linking to an amusing video Butler University produced (shown on this page) in which a Bulldog showcases their athletic facilities whilst trying to find a missing mascot costume. I passed this along to colleagues as well.

Listen and learn

Those are but a few examples of intriguing things I've found through social media. The Internet is rife with information, but when you make the right connections, and listen to their recommendations you'll soon find that the most useful (or amusing) content begins to stand out.

Where have I been hiding?

For those who may be wondering why this blog has been so quiet lately, I've been doing a lot of traveling this summer and have been swamped with other projects in between. I've just returned from the Galápagos—it seemed like a good way to kick off the Year of Darwin and Evolution—so as soon as I catch up on all the email things should be returning to normal.