Blog - Some Thoughts

About Websites

A few times per month, We advertise on WIKB’s telephone time by getting on air and talking about websites. Below are some of the things I’ve talked about.

Social Media Tips

¾ of all adults use social media.

So, if your business isn’t on social

media, get on it now!

1. Step 1 - Figure out who your audience is and where social media apps they are using. a. As a good rule of thumb, most businesses should have an active Business Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. Every business must have a Google Business Page and should be regularly posting to all accounts. Every business should use Google Business, Facebook and Facebook messenger. Then choose another like Instagram if your audience is younger, or your business is photo or video heavy like photography. Twitter is best for word heavy business and for brand awareness for business like Media, News, Magazines, Journals, and Blogs. LinkedIn should be used by professionals. Youtube should be used for videos, Pinterest for products, home decor, cooking, recipes, photography, travel, and visually appealing items. i. For more information on what social media app you should be using, go to 1. https://optinmonster.com/best- social-media-platforms-for- business/ 2. https://www.lyfemarketing.com/bl og/social-media-sites-for-business/ 3. https://keap.com/business- success-blog/marketing/social- media/how-to-choose-social- media-that-fits-your-small- business 2. Get a personal profile on each of those apps. Learn to use it, get comfortable with it. Then create a business profile. But Just a business profile is not enough. You need content on the profile. 3. Get tons of content right away. Front-load your business profile with tons of content. Make it look like you have been publishing for years. That helps you a avoid the underwhelming or vacant profile when you first start up. 4. You need to remind people to use your services or buy your products. Just like on radio ads, people need to be reminded over and over again before they remember to use your business the next time the need that product or service. So, you need to post often. Different type of businesses should post in different intervals. Restaurants, Bars, and Stores should post specials every day, Service type businesses should post at least once a week. For more information on how often your business should post, check out these articles. a. Llouisem.com - How Often To Post On Social Media: 2020 Success Guide b. Rev Local - How often should I be posting on social media? c. DigistalMarketing.org - How Often Should I Post On Social Media For My Business 5. Uses graphics, images, and videos in your posts. Be graphically pleasing even if using words, make your words graphical if needed! Always use a picture, don’t just type words, the post will get looked over. a. 25 Resources for Free Stock Photos in 2020 b. North Country Website subscribes to Adobe Stock Images. We get 10 images per month and if I don’t use them all, then they carry over to the next month. If we run out of images, we can just purchase more for an inexpensive price! c. Purchase inexpensive social media packs for your particular business. 6. Plan a month or two of post topics at once. Create a Social Media Content Calendar. Even if you pay someone to help you with your social media posts, you will still need to create the Social Media Content with them. Do this once a month or once every two months. 7. Schedule your posts 1-2 weeks at a time. You can schedule Instagram and Facebook at the same time. There are lots of tools out there to schedule all your social media at once. BUT FOCUS ON QUALITY over quantity. a. Facebook - How do I schedule a post and manage scheduled posts for my Facebook Page? b. Hootsuite - How to Schedule Facebook Posts to Save Time 8. Reply to all Messages, Comments, etc. You need to monitor and respond to your social media profile and posts. 9. Sure sure pictures are the right size for that social media site (especially for ads). a. HootSuite - Social Media Image Sizes 2021: Cheat Sheet for Every Network b. Falcon.io - Optimal Social Media Image Sizes for 2020: The Complete Guide 10. Encourage sharing of posts with giveaways. a. Rafflepress - 15 Amazing Facebook Giveaway Examples to Steal Now b. Rafflepress - 15 Super-Effective Contest Promotion Ideas (Most Are Free!) 11. Research what your competition is doing on social media and see what works. Use them to get ideas but don’t copy. 12. Research other successful companies on social media to get inspiration. 13. Build relationships and talk directly to your customers. This is the BEST thing about social media! You can interact with them directly in order to make the sale. You can even ask them to call you in a message or comment! 14. Create Social Media Groups to interact with like-minded people. Here are some successful examples. a. Local Dog Breeder created a few groups about puppy breeds. PEOPLE LOVE SEEING PUPPIES. This encourages sales of puppies directly to group members and people the know. b. Michigan-based retreat hotel has a few groups about sewing, crafting, etc and organizes retreats for its members. c. Weight Loss Group that shares recipes, tips, etc and reminds people to go to paid meetings. d. What other successful have you seen that help sell a product or service? The Complete Guide to Facebook Groups: How to Create a Group, Build a Community and Increase Your Organic Reach 15. See what works and what doesn’t. Tweak your post content and time of posts, and frequency of posts. THEN DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN!

Should social media take over for a

company’s website? The answer is

no.

Your company’s website is an important part of your marketing presence and whether you feel that it is important or not, your customers do. Don’t risk skipping a website and jumping right into social media, the payoff is not worth the time saved. Social media should work in conjunction with your website, not in place of it. This isn’t to say that you should drop social media and just focus on your website. Websites aren’t the only business solution you need; they are just as necessary as social media is. You shouldn’t try to run with one over the other, we need them both to achieve the business success we are looking for. Using social media WITH your website, is the best way to build a strong following, engage with your customers and ensure the continued growth of your business.

Need a website?

North Country Website Design is a website design company that creates high quality websites for small businesses. There are many reason why you want to choose our Website Design company over others: • North Country Website Design can help you with ALL of your internet needs including your website, mobile site, social media setup and marketing, online store, selling on ebay and so much more. • We will not abandon you after we have set up your website. We maintain your site in a very timely manner. Most web design companies create a website and hand it off to you for you to maintain. If you don’t know how to maintain a website, that won’t work for you. Other companies say they will maintain your site, but when it comes down to making changes, they don’t respond or just say they don’t have time. We make website updates a priority. • We have the equipment, software and the knowledge to be able to updates websites quickly and efficiently. We only charge for the actual work on your website and we do the work quickly and with high quality. • We specialize in websites for small businesses. We believe every business should have a website and a social media presence. Our low prices allow even the smallest businesses to have a website. • We can create websites for anyone anywhere. If you are local, we can come to your place of business to discuss your internet needs. If not, it is ok, we can have phone meetings and do all business over the internet. We have never met many of my clients face-to-face! • Call North Country Website Design today to get your website and social media presence started.

How do choose a good domain

name.

What is the purpose of your website? Brainstorm the top 10 keywords and the main purpose of your website to get a better understanding of what kind of domain name you might want. You really need to have a domain name that is relevant to your brand and or company. Now, if you already have a business name, obviously you would want to use that, unless someone else already has that domain name. You may want to avoid choosing a domain name that could potentially confuse your brand with someone else’s. You should try to incorporate your top keywords into your domain name, if possible. Don’t force keywords just for the sake of it, but at least keep them in mind, especially if you don’t have an official company name to go by. For example, if you’re a professional designer, you could make your own brand by picking a unique domain name with your keywords in it (or your first and last name, or nickname). Be creative, be innovative. Is the domain name already taken? We usually go to register.com and type in the name wanted to see if it is taken. If it is already taken, I go to the domain extensions and find a cool extension that fits the business. Like .store, .place, . dance, etc. Otherwise, you can always use domain extensions like .online, .biz, .website, .site, etc. So, if you wanted fishtacos.com and it was taken, you could maybe use tacos.fish instead! Is your desired domain name unique enough? You want to get a domain name that won’t get others confused of your brand or identity. You wouldn’t want someone to go to your website and mistaken you for a different company (especially if they were looking for something totally unrelated). You want to choose a unique and memorable domain name, that you wouldn’t mind keeping for years to come. How easy is it to remember? If you were to tell someone to go to a hard-to- remember domain name, then chances are they will not remember it, even if they wrote it down somewhere beforehand. This is VERY IMPORTANT. You want a domain to be easy for people to remember so they can go back to your site regularly! Here are the top ten tips for choosing a domain name: 1. Choose a shorter name, if at all possible 2. Make sure your domain name is memorable and easy for others to remember 3. Avoid using hyphens and numbers 4. Purchase a .com (if you can) because that’s what people are used to typing in 5. Avoid domain names that people may misssssspell – like thecollectiblecalendar.com 6. Try to have keywords in your domain name, but don’t go overboard 7. Avoid awkward domain names 8. Avoid existing company names, for example nissan.com 9. Avoid text phrases such as bestartwork4u.com vs. bestartworkforyou.com vs. bestartworkforu.com 10. If you have a good domain name in mind, buy it ASAP! Don’t let someone else get it first!

Beside creating websites and

mobile sites, here are some other

services we provide:

• Create social media pages like a Facebook business page, Google business page, Twitter, Linked in, Instagram, Pinterest or any other social media page. We can also help you run a social media campaign. Meaning that we will set up posts to run over the next few weeks or months. • We can help you get an online store set up so you can start selling online and increase your business to nation wide or even global! • We provide typing services. Do you have something you need typed? Do you have a form to be created? • We can help you brand your business by using the logos, fonts and colors across all media including your website, social media, and printed documents like business cards and brochures. • We can take over maintenance of any website you had created elsewhere. We have had a lot of customers lately transfer their website to NCWD to maintain because other companies, once they create the website, they don’t want to help you maintain it. We are here for your as long as you need us. • We have many other services we provide, if you have a particular need, give NCWD a call and we will see what we can do to help you with your business!

Websites for restaurants, bars, etc.

There are a few restaurants in Crystal Falls. Some have websites and some don't. Any idea where we go to get a quick meals to-go? That's right, the restaurants with the website and mobile site that has a menu online available to see anytime. We can help any business set up a website to help get more daily customers to their business. We can also help you set up a way for you to put specials on your website daily and set up an email list to contact your customers daily or weekly or however often you need! We can also help you set up Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. We can help you create a logo, brochure, and business cards! You want your companies brand to match throughout all media and We can help you with that! Check it out the restaurant and bar websites we have completed. http://www.logans.place, http://infield.bar/, http://www.elcapitansupperclub.com/, http://www.maxsellsrestaurant.com/ and http://www.scottssubsandpizza.com/.

Outdated Websites

Does your business currently have a website? When is the last time it has been updated? Most businesses need to update their website design every 2-3 years. Website technology changes so often that not long after two years, your website looks outdated. Also, if you created your website over two years ago, you probably don’t have a mobile site. Every website MUST have an integrated mobile site or you are losing out on customers. Over 60% of all on-line traffic comes from a mobile device like a smart phone or tablet. If your website is not mobile friendly, Google might not display your website at all when a search is done on a mobile device. To find out if your website is mobile friendly, go to our homepage at www.northcountrywebsitedesign.com. In addition, if your website is over 2 years old, your design, content and pictures are probably looking outdated. You don’t want your customers to think that your business is outdated too. Your website or mobile site is the first impression you have on a potential customer. We can set up top quality, low cost websites and mobile sites for any business, local government like townships, political candidates, and even personal websites. You can get a new website for as low as $500. After your site is set up, there is only a very small monthly webhosting fee of $12.50! There is no other form of advertising that you can get for only $12.50 per month! So call NCWD today at (906) 277-0539 or go to our website at www.northcountrywebsitedesign.com. Or you can stop by our office. Our office is located in Crystal Falls, on Highway US2 next to the Jacobs funeral home.

New Websites - What I will do for

you and what you need to get for

me!

What we will do for you: • Create you a custom-built website design that is responsive and works on all devices including a mobile phone. ($495 for the design or $695 for WordPress Design). • Create you all the pages that you need on your website (home, about us, contact us, services, testimonials). ($72 per hour). • Make your website search engine optimized. • Link your website to your social media and make sure all your social media has branded (coordinated) cover and profile pictures for your business. We also check to make sure your social media has current information and is filled out correctly (or create new social medial business accounts as needed). We can also help you set up a social media marketing campaign if you wish. • Create or update your Google Business Listing All of the above usually costs around $950. Website hosting is $12.50 per month. Also once a year, there is a $27 charge for a .com domain and a $35 charge for a SSL certificate (to make your website secure). What we need from you: • 2-3 paragraphs for your home page that summarizes your business • 3-6 paragraphs for your About Us page that tells more detail about your business, how you got started, the history, information about the employees • Contact details • List of your services and information on each of those services. Be specific as possible. Google and Facebook now can be updated with each of your services and you get better search results if you really put some time into thinking about each of the different services you offer. • Hours of operation • Pictures. Pictures of you, any staff, the building where your business is located. • Awards, newspaper articles, anything that makes you or your business stand out. • Testimonials/reviews from happy customers (if you want this on your website). • Do you have a logo? If not, do you want us to come up with one for you? • Do your have a slogan? If not, do you want us to come up with one? When we meet (either in person or on the phone), we will be going over the list on this page: http://www.northcountrywebsitedesign.com/everythi ng-you-need.htm