In layman’s terms, the W3C is non-profit organization that develops standards by which all web designers and programmers should attempt to adhere to when writing code for the web. At Gray Spectrum, we’re pretty diehard about adhering to these standards. That’s not to say that from time to time, a page won’t validate 100% perfectly. In fact, in many cases we use proprietary scripts that don’t validate, such as many Facebook scripts. The options are either don’t validate 100% or don’t use the script. We choose to use the script to offer the functionality our web sites need. Otherwise, all proprietary scripts aside, our code validates 100%.

Why is this important? It’s important because it’s a sign that we take incredible pride in our work. It shows that we dot the ‘I’s and cross the ‘T’s. We want everything to be perfect, and although we’re not, we never stop trying.

Anyone that has ever managed costs for a business can understand the rationale in asking these questions, and therein lays the problem. Large corporations have trained their managers to manage by the numbers. Sure, valuable, real-time demographic data can be extracted and analyzed, and a variety of stats and facts can be conceived, but this approach misses the most incredible opportunity available to business owners in social networking – the real ROI.

You see, a social network isn’t an advertisement per se. It shouldn’t be published with the intent of generating as many likes, fans or followers as possible. This is flawed thinking, and using this approach will surely leave you wondering where your return on investment is.

Social networking is a communications medium. It’s a place where your customers can go to share their unique insights about your products or services. And it’s a place where you can speak back to them and show them how you handle customer complaints and show customer appreciation. Social networks are about being social. They are about having 1-on-1 dialogues with your customers that require nothing more than a bit of insight, patience and a few minutes to type up a smart, calculated response to their comments.

You can choose to do what many companies are doing and just ignore it. This is about the equivalent to ignoring their phone calls or even their requests to speak with you in person. If a customer is going out of their way to voice their opinion about your company, what more could you possibly want? They’re giving you their honest feedback.

Unfortunately, some companies have tried to embrace social networking, only to find that they weren’t prepared or didn’t understand how to best use it to their advantage. As a result, many have been burned. These stories have been amplified by brand managers and corporate executives to the point where many people feel so uncertain about these new technologies that they’ve chosen to ignore them. This is a huge mistake.

I credit the guts of this article to Gary Vaynerchuk and his new book, The Thank You Economy, in which he points to some great examples of brick-and-mortar powerhouses that failed to embrace new internet technologies that were changing the way we do business.

For example, at the beginning of the new millennium, Blockbuster Video had a virtual monopoly on the video rental market. The internet came about and they chose to ignore its endless possibilities. Look at them now.

Borders is another example. They were a powerhouse bookstore company with over 500 stores in 2010. Today, they are bankrupt. Rather than see the incredible potential of e-commerce, they turned over their online sales to Amazon, believing that the majority of their customers would still prefer to come into their stores for their purchases. They were dead wrong.

Sure, these examples refer to the internet and e-commerce rather than social networking, but the point in using them as examples is that they both chose to ignore new technologies that were fundamentally changing how we do business. Because they didn’t have any hard evidence that their customers would embrace them (they were still so new), they assumed that their customers would continue to follow their traditional buying patterns.

Fast forward a decade and both of these multi-billion-dollar corporations cease to exist in any relevant manner. Netflix staked a huge piece of the video rental market and Barnes & Noble (BN.com) and Amazon have emerged as the leading bookstores of the world.

Technology is changing how we do business in almost every way imaginable. Business owners can live in fear, resist change, ignore reality, and they may soon find themselves in the same shoes as the aforementioned failed conglomerates. The other option is to embrace these new technologies, and understand that they offer the most powerful means of communicating with your customers that the world has ever known.

Your social network is a forum. A place where your like-minded customers can come together and celebrate the joy they share in doing business with your company – or their frustrations. Whichever it is, to ignore this free, priceless feedback is to ignore your customers. As any successful business owner understands, your customers are the lifeline of your business. Ignore them and soon there will be no business.

So what is the ROI with social networking? How about just that? Free, unedited, raw feedback from the people that keep your business humming, and the ability to efficiently maintain communication with them in a place where everyone can see how much respect and appreciation you show for your customers. Sounds like a worthwhile investment to me.

Oh and by the way… if you have any feedback on this article, please feel free to post a comment below or visit our Facebook Fan Page and comment there. I promise you will hear back from me:)

- Benjamin Gray
Principal, Gray Spectrum

So what does ‘search engine friendly’ mean? Search engine friendly means that the code of your web site is written in a way that is congruent with the major search engines and the algorithms they employ to find relevant search results for the parties conducting said searches. Sound like Greek? What good would a search engine be if you typed your search into the search field, hit Enter, and got a bunch of irrelevant results? You would be reluctant to use that search engine again. As such, major search engines developed by Google, Yahoo, Bing and others employ algorithms that essentially compete for the best, most relevant results in hopes of providing you with the resources you’re looking for, and subsequently earning your repeat business.

Search engine spiders scour the web for web site files stored on web hosting servers. In other words, search engines (i.e. Google) send out little programs that scan very specific parts of the code that make up your web site. The results that they find are essentially tied to your site’s files and are then indexed on the search engine’s servers. What is a server? Just a fancy name for another computer similar to yours, except that its primary function is to host files to be made accessible (or not) to other people surfing the web. In some cases, if you use Google.com to search for something, Google will actually check their servers first for any indexed files of your site. Those files may even be served up to whoever requested them, rather than going to your actual site’s files, which are located on the server run by your web hosting company.

That last paragraph was a bit confusing, so a simplified explanation is as follows: Google sends out programs to scour the web for web site files. It finds your web site files and keeps a copy of them on their own Google servers. If someone types your domain into their web browser, the web browser will go to your web host’s server to retrieve your web site files. However, if someone searches for your site through Google.com instead, Google may look within their own servers first to see if it has any existing (cached) copies of your site’s files. If it does, it may display those instead of the real ones existing on your web host’s server. One possible consequence of this is that you may have recently launched a new site that Google hasn’t yet indexed. Thus, if someone searches for your web site through Google.com, they may end up seeing an old version of your web site.

There are pieces of your code known as ‘meta tags’ that are used to communicate with these search engine spiders. Meta tags relay much of the information that you want search engine spiders to know about your web site. Many people that have some familiarity with search engine optimization have heard the term ‘keywords’ or ‘keyword phrases’. Keywords are just that – ‘key’ words. They are the words that best describe the content of your web site and the relevancy that it may have to someone’s search. Keywords are delivered to search engine spiders by way of these meta tags. The key to determining the best keywords (no pun intended) is to think about what word or phrase someone would type into a search engine when looking for a web site that has to offer what your web site offers.

Let’s assume for a moment that you own a handmade wedding invitation business in Atlanta, GA. Your target markets include brides-to-be, mothers of brides-to-be, friends of brides-to-be, wedding planners and others. You might want to target wedding photographers, florists, caterers and any type of business that serves the local wedding industry, as they could become a good source of future referrals. Back to thinking about keywords, if a member from one of these target groups were to go online to their preferred search engine to look for a wedding stationer in Atlanta, GA, what would they type? The answers to this question is the answer to your keywords.

You might quickly jump to the conclusion that the best possible answer is ‘wedding invitation companies in Atlanta, GA’. Or maybe it’s ‘handmade stationery for Atlanta weddings’. Perhaps its ‘custom wedding invitations 30305′. In truth, it’s impossible to know what someone is going to type, but it is possible to find out what people have typed when looking for similar services in the past. Expensive programs are available that allow web developers and SEO specialists to access the search phrases that people typically use in relation to the services or products that you offer. These words and phrases may change slightly based on a variety of demographic data. You might also jump to the conclusion that if the most popular phrase is ‘xyz’, then this must be the word or phrase that you should base your web site’s optimization on. Not necessarily. If it’s the most common search phrase, there is probably a large group of web sites already competing for that phrase. In these cases, unless you have a budget that will allow you to compete for that phrase, your best bet is to optimize your site based on a less common search phrase. Sure, there aren’t as many people searching with that specific phrase, but there probably aren’t as many sites competing for it either, which means your chances of getting to the top are better, faster and less costly.

There are many components to search engine algorithms, search engine spiders, keywords and the research that revolves around them. This article was written to give a general overview of how the spiders work, what keywords are for, and how to go about priming your site for success with search engine optimization. If you have any questions, give us a call or shoot over an email, and we’d be happy to discuss it with you in more detail.

Benjamin Gray

Principal, Gray Spectrum

To have a device in your hand that is constantly streaming thoughts, ideas and links from some of the brightest minds in your industry is nothing short of brilliant, and certainly nothing to scoff at. I’ve spoken with many people that just don’t seem to get what value there is in Twitter. Twitter is an incredible application that has the ability to keep you up to speed on what your favorite people are doing. It’s really that simple. In addition, it gives you the chance to find out who wants to follow you and what information you have to share that may be of value to others.

Twitter is best served up on a mobile device, specifically your cell phone. Most modern day mobile operating systems, such as Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android, have applications that make the Twitter experience virtually seamless and easy-to-use. When someone you’ve chosen to follow sends out a new tweet (a message limited to 140 characters), you become an immediate recipient of that tweet. The more people you follow, the more tweets you’ll have feeding into your device on a regular basis. Ignore them if you like, or simply scroll through and see if any of the tweets spark some interest. It may contain a link to a story that goes into greater detail about the subject of that tweet. It may link to a photo album depicting details about the subject of the tweet. It may offer a link to a video or some other type of digital media.

The point is, Twitter gives people a forum to share their thoughts, ideas, opinions and other information in a brief, concise, interactive format. Followers don’t have to check their email to get your news and they don’t have to visit your web site or blog to know about a new article you’re promoting. All they have to do is glance down at their cell phone and review their latest tweets. If they like your tweet, they can retweet your tweet. This means that they’ll forward your tweet on to their list of followers. Your tweet comes through their follower’s device with your info and a link to your Twitter profile, potentially becoming a follower of you themselves. So your followers can propagate your messages for you if they believe there is value in doing so. Naturally, quality tweets are the goal, as you want your followers to become your brand ambassadors and share your news and ideas.

Twitter lets you share with people what you ordinarily wouldn’t. The 140-character messages ensure no one post is too long-winded. It also allows you to keep in touch with people you want to with out harassing them. As more and more people navigate toward depending on their mobile devices for their communications and web browsing experiences, Twitter will continue to grow. At last count, Twitter has over 175 million users.

Much like Facebook, Twitter lets you stay in touch. You won’t be able to see pictures of the friends and family of those you follow on Twitter (unless they tweet them), but you will be able to keep up with the latest news in their world – at least whatever they’re willing to share. And you’ll also be able to share with your followers what’s going in your life. You might be surprised at who’s interested.

-Benjamin Gray

Principal, Gray Spectrum

Much has changed since the days from when this practice began, but the underlying principles remain the same. Create a unique mark, apply it to your communications mediums, and over time consumers will begin to associate your brand with your products or services. The effectiveness of the branding comes by way of your consumers remembering their experience and the brand associated with it.

Digital Branding 101 is meant to be a brief article highlighting some of the unique opportunities to develop one’s brand in this incredibly vast and intimidating new world of digital media. Be it in the form of a web site, a Facebook Fan Page, a Twitter page, a blog or any other form of digital media, the number of users able to come into contact with your brand is virtually limitless. At the mere click of a button, a user can forward your brand to 500 of his friends or followers, who in return can forward your brand on to 500 of their friends and so on. Each online impression contributes to the ongoing growth and value of your brand. The rate at which your online brand can propagate is like nothing the world has ever known.

All of this lends to an unprecedented opportunity to share with the world what you have to offer. The entire internet-using population is now potentially your audience, whether you want them to be or not. How will you communicate with them? How will you present yourself, your products or your services? How will they remember you? I’ll cover each of these questions in sequential order below.

How will you communicate with them? In the most obvious sense, you will communicate with them with any of your content made available on the web. But this question begs to dig a bit deeper. By ‘how’, I mean what will you have to say, to whom, and how will you say it? Let’s assume for example that you offer pool cleaning services in your local area. Your target market would presumably be anyone that has a pool. Dig deeper, and the target market becomes more clearly defined into multiple markets. There are hotels with pools, condominium buildings with pools, apartment complexes with pools, homeowners with pools, neighborhoods with pools, and so on. The next step, naturally, would be to determine who the decision-maker is regarding who cleans the pools, and this individual will change within each market. At a hotel, it may be the maintenance engineer. At a condominium building, it is likely someone on the condo association’s board. With a  homeowner, it’s probably the person paying the utility bills. Each of these markets will have their own preferred methods of researching vendors, contacting them and contracting their services. The key is to customize your communication most effectively with each one. Talk to them. You can drill down those sub targets even further. The hotel maintenance engineer for a local Embassy Suites may very well have different expectations and demands than the one from a nearby Ritz Carlton. Although it is crucially important to be consistent in the delivery of your brand, it’s not only acceptable, but becoming more and more critical to the success of any online marketing and branding initiatives to customize and personalize communications for your individual target markets. Again, talk to them.

How will you present yourself, your products and/or your services? As just identified, it’s important to customize your communications for each target market, yet it’s just as important to consider the medium being used to convey those messages. A web site is the ideal medium to professionally communicate to viewers a general overview of your company. Most web sites follow a somewhat standard format with a header, a navigation menu, a main content area, perhaps one or two sidebars, and of course,  a footer. Most visitors to your site will expect some level of consistency in the layout and delivery of your content, so in most cases, it’s best not to stray too far from that norm, else you run the risk of causing confusion for the viewer which may result in them seeking out a competitor’s site to get the information they want or need.

Another common medium being used today is the Facebook Fan Page. Fan Pages are restricted for use by businesses, professional groups and organizations, governmental agencies and the like. The Fan Page differs in this regard from personal Facebook pages which are somewhat limiting in comparison. Fan Pages are the perfect medium for sharing the personality of your company with visitors to the page. It’s a great outlet to share pictures of you and your team, projects that you’ve worked on, etc. You can incorporate just about anything from your web site into your Fan Page, although the content will be limited to a 520-pixel-wide column. Visitors to your Fan Page have the option to ‘Like’ your page by clicking a ‘Like’ button. In doing so, they become a ‘Fan’. Your company or organization will then become listed on their personal Facebook page as one of their ‘interests’. Any future postings that you publish on your Fan Page will then appear on their ‘Wall’, which is nothing more than an ongoing list of published content by their respective friends, interests, etc. Anyone of their friends that may be reading content on their wall or reviewing their interests stand the chance of seeing your company’s published content. If they perceive any value in what you’ve shared, they may very well choose to ‘Like’ it themselves, thereby sharing it with everyone connected to them. With over 500,000,000 users (yes, 500 million), it’s safe to say that there’s great opportunity to share your content with a massive community, locally, nationally and abroad.

Two other popular online mediums are Twitter and blogs. Twitter is still very new and frequently misunderstood. Although made available via a web site through your computer’s web browser, it is best served through a mobile device (e.g. a cell phone, a tablet PC, etc.). Twitter allows you to share thoughts, ideas, news or whatever tidbit of info you feel like sharing. These are referred to as ‘tweets’. The one caveat is that these messages must be limited to 140 characters. Brevity is the key to Twitter. You can choose to ‘Follow’ other Twitter users, and they can choose to follow you. If they do choose to follow you, they’ll then be recipients of any future tweets that you send out. They (and you) have the option to ‘retweet’ any tweet that you receive, meaning that if you receive a tweet that you want to share, you can easily retweet that tweet, and all of your followers will instantly become recipients of that tweet. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers… I know. Read it a few times and it should start to make sense.

Blogs, on the other hand, are almost the exact opposite of Twitter. Blogs are mostly used for more in-depth articles or discussion about a given subject. They allow for commenting by readers, control of comments by the blog’s moderator and they’re a great opportunity to present yourself as an authority in your field of work. Most blogs run on what’s called a content management system (CMS). WordPress and Blogger are just a few examples available for free to any aspiring blogger. Blogs can be published to your Facebook Fan Page, incorporated into your web site, or be completely stand-alone. Many blog articles have multiple hyperlinks to other articles, creating a ‘web’ of interlinked, relevant content.

The last question… how will they remember you? The best advice I can give is to be consistent in the delivery of your company’s personality. Incorporate your company’s logo into each of these mediums where applicable. Use keyword-rich content to aid with optimization in search engines. Speak with a consistent voice, albeit tailored to the individual(s) you desire to reach. In a sense, let people get to know you (and your company) by expressing yourself, what you have to offer and why anyone should choose your company over the next one.

In a world where corporate dominance has tainted people’s trust, it’s ever-so-important to be transparent in who you are and what you do. Hiding behind the veil of a rigid, impersonal, corporate entity won’t win you too many new clients. Letting them see inside your company and your team will start the process of building trust, which is the ultimate way to earn business. We all want to know that our money is going into the hands of people that appreciate it, do their job well and will treat you as an individual rather than customer #5033123519.

- Benjamin Gray

Principal, Gray Spectrum

SEO is the practice of constructing your web content in a way that appeals to search engines, such as Google.com, Yahoo.com or Bing.com. These search engines send out what are commonly referred to as spiders, robots or crawlers, which are basically programs designed to scour the world wide web for content and then ‘index’ it on their servers (make a record of the content and its subject matter for future search results). This way, when someone goes to Google.com, for example, and searches for say… “used cars for sale”, Google’s search engine will scan its indexed web content for any pages it deemed relevant to that search phrase. If your site’s content is repetitious with the use of certain relevant ‘keywords’ or keyword phrases (words or groups of words relevant to the subject matter of your site), then your site will appear higher up in results. The more relevance the spiders found on your site’s pages, and then subsequently indexed, the further up in search results your site can be expected to appear.

There is a wide variety of other practices that lend to one’s page displaying higher in search results. Search engine spiders look for links within your content and the relevance of those links. They also look at other sites that link to your site, which further contributes to the optimization. Fresh, new content is also a key factor in optimization, which is why applications such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs aid tremendously in optimization, as the content published is always new. In whatever way, shape or form you decide to optimize your site, it ultimately all comes down to keywords, relevance and links.

SEM, or Search Engine Marketing, is a way to bypass all of these practices and get your page to appear at the top of search results, via a paid placement. If you look at the accompanying image to this article, you’ll see a typical Google search results page. Note the two areas outlined by the red borders. These are paid search results. Google and other search engines offer the opportunity to bid (yes, as in an auction) on those placements based on the desired keyword(s) or keyword phrases you’d like your site to appear in relation to. Thus, if someone searched for “used cars for sale”, and you’ve submitted bids to appear in the paid placement results for that search phrase, you can expect to appear at the very top of the results if you had the highest bid. The highest bidders appear on the top of the page above all other results. The rest appear on the right sidebar. You can always tell which are paid listings, as they’re typically contained within a slightly off-colored box appropriately labeled ‘Ads’. Bidders have the option to pay a cost per click (CPC) or for the cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM). CPC is what you’ll pay when someone clicks on your ad link. Therefore, you only pay when your ad is actually clicked. CPM isn’t concerned with whether or not you get clicks. It merely ensures your ad will display at least 1,000 times in relevant search results.

Back to SEO for a moment… if you look again at the image, you’ll notice additional results under the red border-enclosed ads at the top of the page. These are known as organic search results, and are the result of effective SEO. Although you don’t have to pay the search engine (i.e. Google) to appear in these placements, you do have to optimize your site and other online content to be relevant, which takes time, effort and specialized knowledge of Google’s and other search engine’s mindbogglingly-complex algorithms.

That is SEO and SEM in a nutshell. Volumes of data and insight are available on the subject and this article is merely an attempt to simplify these terms for the less familiar individual. If you have any questions about SEO or SEM, shoot us an email or call anytime. You can connect{@}grayspectrum.com or call the office number on our main site.

-Benjamin Gray

Principal, Gray Spectrum

While seated, a number of individuals came to the table and introduced themselves. Some just wanted to make a quick introduction while others wanted to give their full spiel. I noticed in one instance, a gentleman reached out to offer his hand for a handshake. My compadre, eager as he was to make new connections, already had his business card in his hand and proceeded to extend his arm to pass off his card to the desired recipient. Yet the desired recipient was expecting another hand for his shake… not a business card.

The awkward exchange that ensued was unnecessary, as my compadre’s card popped off the desired recipient’s fingertips and fell to the table. Now the desired recipient wasn’t sure if to pick up the card or to continue offering a handshake. My compadre found himself in the same boat. After an amusing, what-seemed-like-forever few seconds passed, they managed to work it all out, shake hands, exchange cards, etc. No harm done… at least not on the surface. But subconsciously, what does it say to you when you’re trying to introduce yourself to someone (while offering a handshake) and what you get back is a rushed, clumsy, poorly-calculated attempt to hand you a card as quickly as possible?

Networking isn’t about handing out as many cards as possible. It’s about meeting people. It’s about getting to know new contacts that you might end up having a great working (even personal) relationship with. That said, when someone at a networking event approaches you to make an introduction, be prepared to receive their introduction and reciprocate the gesture. Match their body language as best as possible. Make eye contact. Shake their hand in a similar fashion to how they shake yours. If they offer a firm grip, offer a firm grip back. If they offer a delicate shake, be delicate in return. If they offer a slight bow, then bow for Pete’s sake! The business card comes second to any of these gestures, and should almost be an ‘in-passing’ motion. The card isn’t there to tell the recipient what you do. That’s what you are there for. The card just gives them something to remember you by and a way to get in touch.

-Benjamin Gray

Principal, Gray Spectrum

In the good old days, a budding small company could launch a new brand with a good logo and matching business card. Add a nicely-treated letterhead and a #10 envelope to the mix, and the company really began looking established. Additional materials could be produced to reinforce the brand, such as signage for the business location, print advertisements, and television or radio commercials. These, and others, were the mediums that companies used to promote their business.

Then the internet came and changed everything. After the click-and-order/bricks-and-mortar craze, and the subsequent burst of the dot-com bubble, there was a ton of speculation that these new technologies were simply a flash in the pan. The old principles of business had held their ground, and it’s more than fair to say that they still do today.

In today’s marketplace, an online presence is not only critical to the successful launch of a new brand, it’s all but mandatory. For example, according to a 2009 study conducted by the New York State Bar Association Journal, 65% of people begin their search for attorneys online. It’s probably safe to assume that this number has done nothing but increase since that study was performed. What does that mean? It means that spending thousands of dollars on a full-page, full-color ad in the yellow pages is probably not going to have the same impact as it once would have. These days, most people get those grossly overweight books thrown on their front porch and they stack them on top of the one they got the previous year, which is collecting dust in one of those unreachable cabinets in the kitchen.

The internet and all of the incredible new applications that run on it have facilitated processes of convenience for people. There’s no need to lift heavy books or flip pages anymore. Simply go to your favorite search engine, type in what you’re looking for (e.g. Fort Lauderdale foreclosure defense attorney), and your world is opened up to a plethora of options, testimonials, ratings, blogs, phone numbers, addresses and just about anything else you could want to find out. Users can take their time reviewing the information without having to worry about being strong-armed into contracting services they may or may not need. The internet has put the power of readily-accessible knowledge and information in their hands, and they get to control the flow of it.

Okay, but how does that change how I market to my target markets, you ask? The difference between then and now is that in the former outlets, you had one shot to get your message out, and once you pulled the trigger, that was it. Once it was printed, published, distributed, etc., you couldn’t change it, update it or many cases, take it back. One could perform market research, develop a sound strategy, perhaps devise different adverts for different mediums targeting different markets in different areas, but once it was out, that was it. One could only hope that their message reverberated with the individuals they were targeting.

With the technologies available to us today, micro-targeting has become the new standard. Messages can become so targeted that one can literally begin speaking to individual consumers, and as consumers, that’s what we all want. Talk to me. Listen to me. Give me what I want, not what a big group of people similar to me wants.

There are a large number of applications available for use that gives anyone the opportunity to capitalize on these methods of communication and micro-targeting. Facebook, Twitter, and content management systems (CMS) such as Blogger or WordPress, are a few worth naming, and are quickly becoming new industry standards.

The benefit with each of these is the ability to connect with potential and existing clients, and stay connected, all through the mere click of a button. Twitter offers the ‘Follow’ button, Facebook has the ‘Like’ or ‘Recommend’ button, and blogs offer readers the opportunity to subscribe and receive notice of any future publishing. Once someone clicks one of those buttons, they’re connected and automatically become recipients of future articles, messages or other content you choose to publish. Of course they have the option to disconnect, opt out or unsubscribe, but so long as your content is relevant, valuable and timely, they shouldn’t have a reason to.

Alas, I’ll conclude this article by attempting to tie it together and refocus on the title – Chart the Course; Then Set Sail. What I mean by this is… before you hop online and begin carelessly propagating messages, know first who you’re speaking to and what they want to hear. Tons of market data is available through a plethora of sources. Mine the data, drill it down and compose relevant information of real value to individuals that should be interested in your company’s products and services. Do this, and you’ll soon find yourself with a growing fan base.

-Benjamin Gray

Principal, Gray Spectrum

Old school methods of advertising and generating press certainly still have their place, but the traditional techniques of the past are quickly becoming irrelevant. Publishing advertisements and issuing strategic press releases to create lasting impressions and perceptions simply don’t work like they used to. Consumers today want real-time information, real-deal personalities and real value for their attention and hard-earned money.

At Gray Spectrum, we focus primarily on three social networking tools – Twitter, Facebook and blogs. The combination of these three tools offer almost any company the opportunity to communicate with their target markets in distinct ways, each having their own unique benefits, as I’ll explain below.

Twitter is first up on the list because it’s the tool that delivers your news first. Twitter is about speed and brevity. With messages (known as ‘tweets’) limited to just 140 characters, users of Twitter must be creative in how they communicate their ideas, news or any information they’re attempting to propagate. Once a Twitter account is setup, other Twitter users can find your Twitter username and ‘follow’ you, meaning they’re linked to your account and receive any future tweets that you publish. The tweets are sent immediately to all followers, whether they’re in your office or halfway around the world. Twitter harnesses profound new technologies that allow instant proliferation of news, knowledge, ideas and opinions. Although primarily embraced by the youngest generations, Twitter is rapidly gaining ground as more mature audiences are hopping on board.

Facebook (which obviously needs little introduction) is the perfect tool to publish information that just can’t be honed down to 140 characters or less. Facebook allows for the posting of various media formats, including text, photos, videos, music files and more. Although most people today have a Facebook account setup, there is another type of account called a Facebook Fan Page, designated solely for businesses or other institutions (e.g. government entities, not-for-profits, etc.). Anyone with a Facebook account can visit your company’s Fan Page and become a ‘fan’, thereby becoming notified anytime you publish new content to your fan page. Fan pages are great for sharing news, information about your company and upcoming events, or just about anything else you feel might be of value to your fans.

Lastly, there are blogs. ‘Blog’ is actually a condensed term for the phrase ‘web log’. A web log is any type of article, editorial or other discourse on any given subject. Blogs are most often published on a content management system (CMS), such as WordPress or Blogger. The articles are categorized by date and/or subject and can be ‘tagged’, or assigned a specific term related to the subject matter of the specific article, and can later be searched for based on the tag(s) assigned to it. Blogs are great for more in-depth discussions and reviews on topics (such as this one) that just aren’t as suitable for Facebook.

In a nutshell, use Twitter for short, immediate posts of your ideas or news headlines; use Facebook for slightly more in-depth content and media; and use a blog for lengthier discussions surrounding any given subject. Contact us to find out more about these technologies and see how Gray Spectrum can put them to use for your company.

-Benjamin Gray

Principal, Gray Spectrum