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Thirty years ago, a landmark piece of legislation was passed. The Americans with Disabilities (ADA) Act ensures that people with disabilities have equal access to government-funded locations. This included things most people without disabilities take for granted: sidewalks, train stations, airports, public transportation, parking lots, bathrooms, voting places, schools and universities, and more.

But does it include websites?

When the ADA was signed in July 1990, few people had heard of the web, let alone used it. At that time, the internet was a rudimentary information distribution system. Fast-forward 30 years later and not a day goes by that most people don’t use the internet. Websites are ubiquitous. We watch our favorite movies on streaming services, listen to music via the web, read our daily news and weather, and shop from our favorite stores all with the tap of a button.

Because the internet has now become the main source of information, entertainment, and commerce for most people, many argue that yes, ADA compliance must also encompass websites, too.

Here’s what you need to know about ADA compliance and your company’s website.

Disabilities Come in Many Forms

The original Americans with Disabilities Act was primarily concerned with accommodating people with physical limitations in public settings. Such limitations may include physical impairment, coordination, motor skills, sight, or hearing impairments.

Today, the term “disability” now encompasses a much broader range of impairments. People with dyslexia, color blindness, and cognitive impairments may all come under the umbrella of disabled.

The ADA requires that all federally funded organizations, both for profit and not for profit, and companies with 15 or more employees provide ‘reasonable’ accommodations for people with disabilities. The burden of proof as to what encompasses ‘reasonable’ accommodations is on the business itself; any customer can complain (or file suit) that the business does not provide adequate accommodations. If a lawsuit is filed, it is up to the business to prove it has provided reasonable accommodations.

Aspects of Website Compliance

This notion of reasonable accommodations now encompasses website accessibility, too. During the pandemic, as people were forced to work and learn from home, it became painfully obvious that few, if any, websites are accessible by people with disabilities. Parents of special needs children, for example, found that many online learning portals did not accommodate children with dyslexia, learning disabilities, or color blindness.

Depending on the nature of an individual’s disabilities, screen readers, adaptive devices, or other equipment may be needed to make the internet accessible to the users. If a website is not coded properly to render websites for such devices, it may be considered “inaccessible.” It’s the digital equivalent of high curbs, narrow doorways too slim to allow a wheelchair through, television shows without closed captioning. Not everyone can use it. Such websites can then be deemed discriminatory against people with disabilities.

Search Engine Journal provides an excellent overview of the many aspects of website compliance that site owners must consider. Everything from forms to images and navigation must be considered to ensure that every site visitor can easily navigate and understand the information you are sharing.

Making Your Site Accessible

If you have never considered making your website accessible, it can seem like a daunting task. Where do you begin? How do you ensure that you have taken every reasonable precaution to welcome all visitors to your website?

The first step is to conduct a brief accessibility audit. Dashboard Internet Marketing can help you with this step. The audit examines both the site itself and the code underlying the site to ensure that adaptive devices can render your site properly.

Depending on the results of this audit, your site may need some major or minor tweaks. Major tweaks may require fixes to the code structure, buttons, and site hierarchy. Minor tweaks may include added alt tags or updating tags to ensure they read properly.

Remember that every aspect of your website must be compliant, not just the web pages themselves. Videos must have closed captioning available. If you offer PDF downloads, images and links in PDFs must also be accessible. Podcasts should also have closed captioning available so that hearing-impaired individuals can access transcripts.

With so many low-cost ways to render content, including video and audio files, accessible in multiple ways, it just takes a bit of time and know-how to ensure your site is accessible to all. There are plugins and other technologies to transform non-compliant sites into ADA compliant sites, as well as website themes and frameworks that are built with full accessibility in mind.

And while you may think you can shrug off ADA compliance as just another fad or tell yourself that you have only five employees and thus aren’t going to be targeted for a lawsuit, think again. Remember the stock photo lawsuits? There are attorneys who specialize in sending scary, threatening letters to business owners claiming they are using unlicensed images and thus violating copyright laws. Such letters, dubbed stock photo extortion letters, demand high fees to make the threat of a lawsuit stop. Similar letters are now arriving daily in the mailboxes of small and mid-sized business owners demanding money or face a lawsuit over website ADA-compliance issues. Do plaintiffs win in such suits? Do you want to find out firsthand? Most business owners would prefer to avoid such headaches in the first place. The way to do that is to take simple steps now to ensure your website is ADA compliant.

Not only will doing so offset the risk of a lawsuit, but it means you’re doing the right thing for people with disabilities. And in the end, that’s what counts; ensuring that all customers have equal access to information, goods, and services. It’s the right thing to do.

Dashboard Interactive Marketing is a full-service digital agency offering ADA compliance audits and fixes, website design, SEO, and SEM services, and much more. Please call us at 763-242-2454 if you have any questions or would like to request a free consultation.

You’ve just purchased a new flatscreen television and are setting it up for the first time. The television comes equipped with easy apps to connect to your favorite streaming channels: Netflix, Hulu, and…YouTube? Yes, YouTube can now be added to your television as a channel, and with your login credentials, your favorite content channels and subscriptions are just a click away.

Welcome to the new world of social media video. Whether you are a business-to-business company or selling directly to consumers, video has risen in prominence to the point where it is now ubiquitous. Everyone, from the local dog groomer to the largest air conditioner manufacturing company, seems to be producing videos. Should you add videos to your social media channel? And how do you get started without hiring an expensive camera crew and production team?

The State of Video for Social Media Marketing

First, a few eye-opening statistics on the state of video use in social media marketing. It’s not your imagination: video is everywhere and it is likely to increase in importance as part of the social media marketing mix over the next year.

• Video is the most underutilized social media tool, according to Sprout Social. Across three popular platforms, video comprises only 14% (Facebook), 11% (Instagram) and 5% (Twitter) of posted content.
• Yet companies say that videos work to help them acquire new customers. In fact, 93% of companies said video has helped them obtain new customers.
• Viewers retain 95% of a video’s message as compared to written content without video.
• And viewers like video. Half of the respondents to the Sprout Social survey stated they prefer video to other types of content.

It’s clear that people enjoy watching videos and remember their message. And it’s also clear that videos can work well for marketing purposes. They stand out from the constant flow of messages, especially because so few companies are taking advantage of the medium itself. If you’re wondering whether or not you should jump into using video in your social media marketing, the answer is clear: it’s worth a try.

Business-to-Business Video Can Be Effective, Too

“But,” you may be thinking, “my products aren’t interesting. I manufacture [screws] [nuts] [bolts] [fans] [filters] [lubricant oils] [insert your product here….] This is boring stuff. Nobody wants to see a video of my products!”

Many business-to-business companies with seemingly ‘boring’ products have used video effectively as a social media marketing tool. Videos need not be exciting or dramatic to capture customer interest. B2B companies may find that informative, how-to videos work well for their brand and marketing strategy. Other ideas for videos include:

• How something works – answers common questions customers have about your products
• Sneak peek – what’s coming soon to your product line
• Behind the scenes – show customers behind the scenes glimpses of your offices, manufacturing plant, warehouse, etc.
• Tips – offer tips to use your product, store your product, etc.

Getting Started with Social Media Videos

Now, here’s the reality of getting started with social media videos: it’s scary.

Yes, we said it. Scary.

It’s scary to put yourself out there and film yourself. Some people hate the way they look and sound. Still others are very uncomfortable on camera.

And that’s okay.

With the right gentle coaching, we can guide you through the process of producing video content for your social media platform. Our expert social media marketer and content marketer can help you:

• Create a video strategy for your social media channels that works with your overall digital marketing strategy
• Optimize videos around choice keywords so it is part of a multi-channel digital marketing campaign
• Develop story ideas
• Produce videos from still photos and stock footage (licensed videos from other companies)
• Work with the people on your team willing to be on camera
• Find specialized talent if you wish to hire a spokesperson

You needn’t invest in expensive equipment, but you do need the expertise to produce videos that get results. We’re here to help you achieve your business goals.

Social media videos are effective and they are underused by most companies. Videos are a great opportunity to maximize your social media presence.

So, whether you’re a local restaurant, HVAC company, or distributor of fan belts, we can help you stand out from the crowd in a positive way on social media through professionally produced videos. To speak with an expert, call us at 763-242-2454.

There’s a saying among marketers, “Don’t build your house on rented land.” It means do not build your website on someone else’s platform – for example, don’t rely on your Facebook page as your business’ primary presence online. Facebook and other ‘free’ places to build a web presence can shut down at a moment’s notice, taking your hard-earned followers and content with them. Or, they could decide to charge exorbitant fees for the service they once offered gratis.

The only way to ensure your website is your permanent storefront online is to pay for your own domain and hosting. Then, as long as you continue to pay for hosting and domain name registration, the site is your own to do with as you please.

But there is a corollary to the statement “don’t build your house on rented land.” Make sure you have the keys to your house. What does that mean?

Over the past several years, the team at Dashboard has encountered numerous examples of companies literally ‘locked out’ of their own digital properties. Perhaps they wish to bid the work out to multiple agencies to see who is the best fit for their current needs. Problems arise when they ask the initial site builder for the username and password. “Sorry,” they are told. “All changes must go through us.” And suddenly, they find themselves literally locked out of their own ‘digital home’ and unable to access their own website.

Who Owns Your Website?

The issue with businesses becoming ‘locked out’ of their own websites typically arises from the contract between the agency and the business. Most business owners read through the service agreement, neglecting the fine print.

When an agency creates a website, if they purchase the domain name and make an agreement on behalf of a business owner for hosting services, in effect, they are in control of the site. The work product itself, unless specific in the contract that it becomes the property of the business owner, may indeed remain legally ‘owned’ by the agency.

We believe that this loophole has allowed many web developers to literally hold digital property hostage. In some cases, small business owners have been forced to pay for the release of their own websites from such developers. In other cases, business owners have been forced to set up a second website elsewhere and hope for the best, since they are unable to get the “keys” – the password and user name – from the original contractor who worked on the site.

Read Contracts and Understand What You Agree To

The old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” applies to work as well as to health. In the case of website ownership, the way to prevent someone from preventing access to your site is to insist on access from the start – and that step begins with reading every word of your contract and understanding what you agree to.

When you partner with a digital agency or a web developer, do not assume that you are on the same page with them and that they understand you wish to own the final website. Insist that this item is listed in the contract and that you will be the ultimate owner of the site. Also insist on full administrator rights to your own website and Google properties, including Google Analytics, from day one. Administrator rights prevent others from changing passwords, like changing the lock on the door, without your permission, and ensure you retain access to all of the content on your site that you’ve poured so much time and effort into.

What to Do If You Are Locked Out

If you find yourself on the other side of the digital door and the key no longer fits the lock, meaning you cannot access your website, Google Analytics, or social media profiles because a developer insists on retaining access, you have several choices.

You can:

• Continue to work with them (even though you may feel your trust has been breached and they no longer fit your needs)
• Insist, through patient and firm repetition, that they turn the properties over to you
• Retain legal counsel – sternly worded letter from a lawyer can often do wonders
• Learn your lesson, move on, and begin again with a new digital property that you ensure you own and access

We mentioned at the start of this article that we have seen this issue many times over the years. Recently, this was encountered with a digital file for a print catalog, too. A printer refused to release the files back to the company. It appears that the trick of withholding access to try to lock in business has spread beyond the digital world and into the print world, too.

Whatever the reason, the outcome is the same: lost business, lost revenues.

Working with an ethical marketing agency that understands the disruption such a problem causes is the best way to prevent being locked out, along with reading and understanding your contracts. Dashboard Interactive Marketing always ensures its customers have full access to all of the digital properties owned by the customers. We want you to receive the ROI for your marketing projects and we treat our small business clients with the same respect we wish to be treated.

If you’d like assistance with your website, digital marketing, or other marketing needs, please contact us at 763-242-2454.

By now, you’ve probably heard of ChatGPT. Unveiled in the fall by OpenAI, this natural language, machine learning platform seems to magically write seemingly perfect text. Ask it a question: it answers. Ask it to write anything, from why German shepherd dogs make great pets to a substitute for eggs in a recipe, and it produces what seems to be like the perfect answer. But is it perfect? And what, if any, role does it play in your marketing?

AI Writing Tools – Nothing New

Computer-generated text creation tools are nothing new. They’ve been available for creating content for many years now. We do not use them, and we caution business owners not to use them, for many reasons.

These so-called ‘article spinners’ can create absolute rubbish. The way that older AI writing tools work is by ingesting an original document and replacing various words with synonyms. The result often reads like the child’s game of Mad Libs with many hilarious faux pas.

Some will scramble and reassemble text into a document that mimics the original without dinging Google’s monitor for duplicate text (a no-no that doesn’t help with your SEO). But the result is almost always poor quality text that does little to serve the reader’s needs, and may hurt your SEO efforts in the long run.

Enter ChatGPT

When the OpenAI project unveiled ChatGPT, perhaps the most astonished and slightly frightened group of users were marketing writers. The chatter on business social networking sites like LinkedIn ranged from “it’s the end of our profession” to “bots will never replace us!” But both extreme views do not understand the value of ChatGPT and where it may fit in the overall creation process.

And, faster than lightning, comes yet another conversational chat model – Google Bard. Google announced its new Bard rival to ChatGPT for more AI-powered conversational search. The search engine giant has not allowed the public access to Bard as yet, so we were unable to test its ability to write in conversational language. Nevertheless, with the release of Bard, it’s apparent that the future of search will be around conversational AI chatbots. But will this impact marketing writing?

ChatGPT Is a Smart Search Engine, Not a Writer

Despite the fact that the output from ChatGPT appears to be original text, it frequently plagiarizes other sites. We put it to the test and discovered this for ourselves.

First, we asked ChatGPT a simple question: Why do German shepherd dogs make good pets?
Here’s the platform’s answer:

We then put the ChatGPT answer into a plagiarism checking tool called Grammarly. Grammarly also checks grammar and spelling. It found one punctuation error in ChatGPT’s tool – and 14% of the text directly plagiarized off of another website.

We repeated the test with a simple definition and asked ChatGPT to define content marketing. After receiving the response from the platform, we also ran it through Grammary’s plagiarism detector. Its response was 97% plagiarized from The Content Marketing Institute’s definition.

These are both short text examples but point to the limitations of using artificial intelligence to write original text. While some common phrases do occasionally set off Grammarly’s plagiarism detector, the sites such phrases come from are generally wide-ranging and not linked to the topic of the piece. For example, phrases like “makes a good pet” may refer to dogs, cats, goldfish or lizards; it might show up as plagiarism in a plagiarism detection tool, but by reviewing the sources referenced by the tool, it’s easy to see they aren’t directly related and thus not likely to be plagiarized.

ChatGPT, however, seems to be taking text from very closely related sites, with a high degree of plagiarism. Thus, it is not useful as a content generation platform.

ChatGPT Is Useful, But Not for Original Marketing Writing

The answers produced by ChatGPT are not meant to replace marketing writing. A good marketing copywriter infuses their work for a client with the client’s own messaging points, brand voice, and tone. The ChatGPT platform cannot do any of this. Instead, it searches the web and in just seconds, cobbles together the best result it can find.

We tested it several times, and some results were better than others. The harder, more industry-specific questions we asked it, the likelier it was to produce a slightly wonky response (and sometimes, a flat out wrong response). Because it cannot think like a human being, but can only scour the web for text that it believes matches the user’s intent, it’s like a smart, slightly more personable search engine. But it is not by any stretch of the imagination a creative marketing copywriter.

ChatGPT can, therefore, be used for writing prompts. What we’re suggesting is using it to inspire your own words. A question typed into ChatGPT may yield a quick answer, one that can be enhanced and modified by your own opinion and brand vision to become an original thought leadership piece – the kind of content that your customers, and Google, loves.

So, ChatGPT has a place in the marketing world, just not the place some seem to think it has. As it evolves, that may change, but for now, business owners would be wise to trust their marketing teams, and their copywriters, to craft original, brand-specific content for their websites, social media posts, blogs, and other needs.

This is the time of year when many publications and pundits offer up their predictions for the new year. Today, we’d like to share a few of our own marketing predictions with you for the new year. It’s always fun to see which predictions pan out and which flop, but one thing we know for sure: digital marketing is here to stay. Happy New Year!

5 Marketing Predictions for 2023

1. Who creates your content matters: Google unveiled a plan in which it gives credence to authors for their authority on specific topics, boosting content in those topics to the top of the search engine results. We see many holes in this plan, notably the fact that very few experts actually write their own content (presidential speech writers, for example, are still a thing, and we’re guessing that nearly every CEO in the United States has a ghostwriter or two). However, that doesn’t mean that your website should lack authority in your given topic. We believe that Google will shift its author and authority mapping to site/authority mapping as the algorithm recognizes that it is the site’s focus that counts, not necessarily the individual writer’s focus or expertise.

2. New search shopping features emerge: We’ve known for quite a while that search engines play a major role in directing online searchers to specific shopping destinations. Local search plays a huge role in how customers find local businesses to patronize. For all ecommerce companies, search plays an enormous role directing shoppers to a site just when people are ready to purchase products. Many search engines continue to add features and refine how they match customers with products and ecommerce sites. We predict that Google will launch new products such as shopping assistants to try to dominate this lucrative market. Is your website ready? Be sure to update your ecommerce website. Ask your Dashboard expert for recommendations to ensure it is compatible with the latest search recommendations to ensure it takes advantage of every opportunity to gain valuable website traffic.

3. Short videos continue to be popular: Whether you love it or hate it, TikTok-style short videos continue to gain popularity. For those who eschew the platform, other social media sites encourage short videos too: Instagram Reels, Facebook Stories, and so on all utilize the same short and quick video format that has proven to be so popular. Short messages, short videos…the trend is clear: less is more, so for many messages, if a short format works for your company’s brand and information, then use it.

4. Privacy matters: Privacy concerns remain in the news as companies start to reel in their data collection efforts. These changes in how companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook and others collect and share personal data affect both consumers and companies. While consumers applaud the trend, companies find it challenging to target potential buyers with the same ease. No matter where you stand in this debate, know that there are still many good options for digital advertising. With the right guidance, we can match you to the best opportunities for your advertising ROI.

5. Economic conditions impact customer loyalty: As inflation continues to rise and consumers feel the pinch in their pocketbooks, brand loyalty may waver. This can impact both large and small companies alike. When all things are equal, consumers tend to go with the least expensive option. To ensure that your company remains top of mind, look for ways to go the extra mile and stand out. Whether it’s stellar service, beautiful packaging, or a little something extra in every to-go bag, the key to continuing brand loyalty and repeat sales is to remain memorable (in a positive way!) in your customers’ minds. This applies to all companies: brick and mortar businesses, ecommerce stores, big chain stores, local mom and pop shops, and everything in between.

A Marketing Partner Focused on Your ROI

You don’t need fool-proof predictions for the new year to be successful. You need a sound marketing strategy focused on its return on investment.

At Dashboard Interactive Marketing, we predict that the future will be dominated by smart companies who understand the power of good marketing. We’d like to help you achieve your new year goals. If you’d like to discuss your marketing needs, please call us at 763-242-2454.

On behalf of everyone at Dashboard, Happy New Year!

If your website runs on WordPress, you’re not alone. Approximately 35% of all websites globally are powered by WordPress – around 455 million sites in 2022. And, if your digital marketing agency recommends that you transition your current site to WordPress, it’s for a very good reason: WordPress-built sites excel in flexibility and security and there are a large number of WordPress developers available should you choose additional website development support.

But with popularity comes some problems. As WordPress continues to be the go-to content management system for the majority of English-language businesses, cybercriminals continue to find new and innovative ways to exploit the system. Many find their way through the virtual “back door” of a WordPress-hosted site not through any flaw in the site itself or its coding, but through simple human habits that criminals have, since the beginning of time, recognized and leveraged to their advantage.

To prevent your site from being hacked, we’ve put together a simple checklist of WordPress Site Management tips that the average small business owner can do on their own to maintain the security and integrity of their primary virtual real estate: their website.

While we can’t guarantee your site will be hack-proof, taking these simple steps will go a long, long way towards ensuring it remains secure and under your control. And, in the unlikely event you do encounter problems, we are here to help you address them quickly.

WordPress Site Management Checklist

1. Secure the Administrator password: WordPress enables multiple levels of access, and the Administrator is at the highest level. Administrator-level rights enable the Administrator to set all other permissions, change anything in the site, and control the site itself. Be sure to change your password and use password best practices: lowercase and capital letters, numbers, and symbols, preferably in a random pattern that is difficult to guess.
2. Set up 2-factor authentication: We know, we know; it’s a pain in the neck. It is, however, the best the cyber world has to offer to prevent someone from figuring out your password and gaining access to your digital world. Two-factor authentication can save you from a lot of grief if anyone guesses your password.
3. Limit login attempts: Limiting login attempts ensures that criminals attempting to use software to guess passwords are immediately locked out. This is a good defense even if a criminal guesses your user name correctly.
4. Update plugins: Plugins are third party applications that provide additional features on a WordPress site. WordPress is an open source platform, meaning that developers can create additional tools like plugins to add functionality to a basic WordPress site. Like any software, however, plugin developers issue frequent updates; these updates close gaps and loopholes or fix problems discovered post-launch. Updates ensure that the latest, most secure plugin release is available and prevents hackers from exploiting the code in older plugins.
5. Remove disabled plugins: It’s easy to install plugins for a one-time use, disable them, and forget about them. But they’re still there, waiting in the background of your site, and a potential security risk. Disable unused plugins and then remove them entirely from the site. You can always add them later if they’re needed again.
6. Shut off comments: Some marketers believe that comments on a blog help its SEO, but most of the time, comments come from random bots that post obnoxious spam. You can either shut off comments or install a plugin to manage comments if you run a content-based site that benefits from user interaction. Plugins that manage comments are good at screening the spammy stuff that can contain malicious code, and enable you to manually approve anything that is published to your website.
7. Check your website frequently: Lastly, there’s no such thing in websites as “set it and forget it.” You should be logging into the back end (the administrative dashboard) of your WordPress website daily, or at least weekly. Logging into the site enables you to check and update plugins, monitor comments, and note any messages that appear in the site console. You should also check the publicly visible pages of your site frequently. Any unauthorized changes to the site’s appearance are a red flag that should be investigated by a competent WordPress developer.

What If Someone Does Break In?

Unfortunately, there’s no virtual police department you can call if someone breaks into your website. Some signs that your site has been hacked include:

• Unauthorized changes to passwords, users, or administrators. You may see strange names and email addresses appear on the User console in WordPress or you may receive warnings that someone is trying to change permissions.
• Your site is receiving a sudden high volume of traffic. Although we always love it when our customers get more search engine traffic, too much of a good thing is a big red flag. Sudden spikes in web traffic unrelated to marketing activities you’re doing or coming from countries you don’t normally conduct business in are signs something is amiss with your site.
• Your site isn’t opening properly, or some pages aren’t working. Sudden 404 errors, redirects, and pop up warnings are all signs of problems.
• Content on your website has changed without your knowledge. Hackers often insert content into a page for their own purposes.
• Google sends you a malware warning notice. Google does indeed send out malware indications if their search engines detect issues in a site. These should be brought to the attention of a competent Google expert immediately who can help you discover the root of the problem, correct it, and rectify the situation with Google.

These are some common signs of a security issue with a site, but not the only signs. If you suspect your site has been hacked, it’s time to call on the professionals immediately. Leaving the site riddled with problems is just making a situation move from bad to worse. You need to take action and fast before it impacts your business.

Your WordPress Security Check Starts Here

Dashboard Interactive Marketing can help you with your WordPress security, development, or update needs. We are a full service digital marketing agency with a team of content developers, designers, Google, and WordPress experts who can take your site to new levels of traffic and sales. We are happy to help. Please call us at 763-242-2454 for a consultation.

Social media is in the news. Okay, it’s always been in the news, for good or for ill. But lately, with Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, pundits and advertisers alike are tweeting about Twitter.

And then there’s Tik-Tok, the short-form video platform that continues to soar in popularity despite misgivings from some analysts concerned about unethical tracking and data mining of its users.

Don’t forget Facebook, or Meta as it is now called, and its quest to dominate your daily newsfeed with news and ads along with updates from your Great-Aunt Ethel.

No matter where you look, social media is in the news, and it’s here to stay. For small business owners, social media can still be confusing. Where should you maintain a profile? How frequently should you post? Should you be concerned about the ethics of the platform and pull your ads when something controversial arises or should you ignore the politics behind the scenes and focus on your core audience and where they like to gather online?

Here’s our take on social media and the trends impacting small businesses.

Social Media Is Here to Stay

First, let’s be clear: social media is here to stay.

Despite many saying they are leaving this platform or that one, here’s the latest statistics on the usage of the popular platforms:

Social media remains wildly popular among all ages and demographics. Users access social media via their smartphones, tablets, computers, and with video sites, even through their television sets. YouTube, for example, has a Roku app which enables Roku users to watch YouTube as a channel the way they can watch the movie channel or any of the other content streaming through the device.

Many adults are also now getting their news from social media. In a recent Pew Research study, 31% of American adults say they get their news from Facebook. Considering that Facebook users self-post whatever strikes their fancy, that’s a sobering statistic and a far cry from just a few years ago when people relied on major news outlets for curated, researched journalism.

But it does prove one thing: social media platforms are here to stay and are very much part of the average person’s daily life. The question, then, for small business owners, is how should they leverage this fact to remain visible to their customers?

Small Businesses: Do Not Build Your “House” on Rented Land!

Given the popularity and prevalence of social media platforms, many small businesses open a profile on a given platform and then make it their promotional ‘hub.’ Some even choose to leverage their social media pages as their dominant website presence.

This is a big mistake. We would like to caution all small business owners to avoid setting up their digital ‘house’ on ‘rented’ land.

What does that mean? It means that if you use a social media platform as your only digital presence, you are risking losing everything you’ve built overnight!

Social media platforms can choose, without warning, to:

• Remove your page
• Charge for your page
• Change the algorithm to hide your page
• Remove any features you are using

Although maintaining social media profiles is an important tactic for many small businesses, they should never be used as your primary digital presence. A website, no matter how small or plain, remains your property. You own and control a website and can choose what and how to display your company’s information on it without fear that at a moment’s notice the content can be taken down.

Stay Visible Through Organic Posts

So while we do not recommend using only social media platforms for your web presence, we do recommend that most businesses maintain one or more social media profiles. No matter which platforms you choose, you can leverage their organic reach to remain visible to your customers.

A few best practices:

• Complete your basic profile information
• Update the platforms of your choice at least a few times a week
• Include links to your social media platforms on your website
• Interact with others on the platform – social media is, after all, social.

You do not have to be everywhere – you can choose just one or two platforms that fit your business needs. It’s better to be active on one platform than to have five or six inactive profiles scattered across multiple social media sites. The more active you are posting and interacting, the better chance you have of remaining visible to your customers.

Remember to keep your posts strategic and aligned to your business brand and objectives. It is always wise to steer clear of controversial political, religious, and social topics (unless you’re promoting politics, religion, or a social movement!). Focus on what your customers are interested in whether it is thermometers for the process industry or dog training hints.Customers also like to see behind-the-scenes happenings with their favorite small businesses, so consider infusing your posts with a bit of personality, like sharing pictures of an employee’s birthday cake during lunch hour or congratulating an employee on achieving a certificate in the industry.

Consider Paid Advertising

Organic reach, or the free posts that you make every day, only reaches a portion of the entire target audience, including your followers and friends. The companies controlling the social media platforms are of course seeking to make a profit from their users and do charge for advertising. Social media advertising can help you:

• Promote special offers to a specific target audience
• Reach a highly targeted, segmented group of viewers
• Find and reach people who do not yet know your business

Social media advertising can be complex, so we recommend working with a professional to set up and maintain your advertisements and budget. Dashboard Interactive Marketing provides this service and we would be happy to provide you with a consultation. It is recommended that any social media plan be a part of a larger digital marketing initiative to ensure that it is a strategically sound choice for your marketing dollars.

Ready for Social Media Marketing?

Contact Dashboard Interactive Marketing at 763-242-2454 for a consultation. We look forward to helping you achieve your marketing goals and promoting your small business effectively on social media platforms and beyond.

Have you ever been in the middle of a DIY project and needed a specific tool, but found you didn’t have it in your toolbox? What did you do next? Some people would head out to the hardware store to purchase the exact tool they need. Others, however, would grab whatever is handy, and try to make do.

Which camp do you fall into? The “use the right tool for the job” person or the “use whatever is handy to finish the project” person?

Business Owners Need the Correct Marketing Tools for the “Job” of Increasing Sales

Often as small business owners, we take shortcuts to try to finish a task quickly. Most of us wear many hats and juggle diverse responsibilities at work and at home. There always seems to be more tasks than hours in the day!

But if you’re grabbing any old marketing tool to accomplish the job of increasing leads or sales, you’re doing yourself a disservice.

Like using a screwdriver to hammer in a nail, you may get the job done, or you may ruin the screwdriver and the piece of wood in the process.

A few examples of small business owners choosing the wrong tool for the project of generating leads and sales:

• Focusing on a website’s visual appeal but not incorporating the appropriate organic SEO methods to encourage high rankings in search engines and the potential traffic and leads high ranking gives them
• Paying for link building services without understanding the place of link building in a larger marketing scheme
• Spending hours each day on social media liking and commenting on posts without a clear strategy for using each channel

In each case, the marketing tool is a useful one. An appealing website is an integral part of all digital marketing strategies. Inbound links are a vital part of improving organic SEO. Social media is a useful marketing amplification tool for brand building and site traffic. Yet, if business owners focus solely on a single tool as a means to an end, they can easily waste time and money on unproductive activity and unprofitable marketing channels.

A Comprehensive Digital Marketing Plan Is Essential

How do you avoid the single-tool focus so common when small business owners try to DIY their marketing? By working with a digital marketing agency who has the experience needed to create a comprehensive digital marketing plan to accomplish your goals.

Each digital marketing plan is crafted based on multiple factors:

• The business itself: What does your business do?
• The products or services: What do you sell?
• The customer: Who is your customer? Where do they live, work, and shop?
• The goal: What are your goals?
  • Analytics: Measuring current state and ongoing future performance, against goals.

From these four integral questions, your digital marketing agency will examine every facet of your business. They’ll dive deeply into your industry, geographic market, ideal customers, and products or services that you sell, creating a plan that should focus on measurable marketing goals or key performance indicators (KPIs).

Measurable, Accountable Marketing

After an initial period of research, questions, and potential meetings between your company and the digital marketing agency team, if you choose to hire the agency, they will create your business’ unique digital marketing plan.

From the onset, the goals of the plan should be clearly defined. And, once the goals are defined, the agency should provide specifics about which channel or tactic they are suggesting to reach the goals and why.

Digital marketing is highly measurable, meaning the return on marketing investment can be quantified. Therefore, the agency should also have a plan in place to report back to you, the business owner, how your marketing dollars will be spent, how they will be tracked, and what constitutes success.

But I Thought I Should…

Fill in the blank: I thought I should do _________ to promote my business and get more sales.

• Post to Facebook each day
• Run an ad in the local paper
• Pay someone to get me backlinks
• Write a blog
• Send out press releases each month
• Run Google ads
• Run LinkedIn ads
• Make YouTube videos
• Have a Pinterest account
• Post an Instagram story each day

Set aside your preconceived notions about how your industry (plumbers, doctors, HVAC contractors, printers, restaurants, auto body shops) should promote their business.

Often, business owners choose tactics because of something they’ve heard at a Chamber of Commerce meeting, or read in an article online, or heard from their uncle’s brother’s cousin. We’re not dismissing the helpfulness of presentations at Chamber meetings, online articles, or your uncle’s brother’s cousin.

We are, however, suggesting that someone focused specifically on your business’ unique needs may provide better guidance than a one-size-fits all approach.

Marketing Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All: A Custom Digital Marketing Plan Awaits

As you can tell, we believe that there’s never a one-size-fits-all digital marketing plan. No two businesses are the same, even if they operate in the same industry and in the same town. Their marketing plans shouldn’t be the same, either.

We’ve all been in the position of grabbing a screwdriver, flipping it over, and using the handle to hammer in a nail (haven’t we or is it just me?) when we realize we haven’t got the right tool handy to finish building that put-it-together yourself bookcase. If we’re lucky, the bookcase stands up. If we’re unlucky, we wreck the screwdriver handle and have a mess when the bookcase collapses because the nail wasn’t driven in straight.

Don’t leave your digital marketing success to luck. Speak with the experts at Dashboard Internet Marketing today. We have the right tools for the job, and will craft a unique marketing strategy and plan just for you. Call 763-242-2454 for a consultation.