Disqus - Latest Comments for billbean

Re: How to Analyze Your Data for Decision-Making

Bill Bean — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 10:57:30 -0000

Great stuff, Kevin. Good to get these reminders. Appreciate the emphasis on actionable insights. Too easy to get lost in the data weeds.

Re: How to Improve Title Tag CTR by 20%+

Bill Bean — Wed, 24 Jan 2018 09:42:14 -0000

Ross, just came across your article thanks to Darren Shaw at Whitespark.

Took a look at your examples of Lowes refrigerators. I'm guessing that SERP looks worse now than when you did the article. No organic examples are doing what you suggest (re: page titles). What's up with that?

Re: Facebook News Feed: Website Speed Gets Higher Priority

Bill Bean — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 14:55:01 -0000

Pushing for faster page load definitely not a bad thing. All of us want "fast" on our phone. Without a doubt they're providing more incentive to use INstant Articles. Can't fault them for that. They aren't a public service.

Interesting to note this from the quote near the beginning:
"If signals indicate the page is likely to load quickly..."

This is similar to what Google's Pagespeed Insights tool does rather than look at actual page load time. They're looking for the things that typically indicate poor performance.

BTW, another good tool to check site speed/pageload is www.gtmetrix.com.

Re: Why Response Rate Is The New Click-Through Rate

Bill Bean — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 13:50:03 -0000

Aaron, how about your most successful autoresponder?

Re: Libertarian “Contract with America”

Bill Bean — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 12:36:36 -0000

I'd go with ... "They've won a few offices over the year, particularly in Wayne County. Home to the Libertarian Gubernatorial candidate, Rex Bell." And rather than "may not be able to win" perhaps "While winning will be incredibly hard' or similar.

As Mr. Thompson said, thank you for giving an addition voice to our message. It's fair coverage.

We'll see if we're up to the challenge of impressing you this year.

Re: New Local Results! Be in the Top 3 or Disappear

Bill Bean — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 09:55:18 -0000

Definitely shaking things up with this one. Who knows if the current format will be around long enough for anyone to even do a study on user behavior (re: how people will interact with the new layout). Was mildly frustrating to me just a few minutes ago when I needed to find a phone number to my pharmacy. Desktop experience not good. Call option is there on mobile. But why would I pick up my phone to do the search when I'm sitting in front of my computer?

Limiting the results to 3 is gonna make some people desperate for some SEO (t.i.c.) Many SERPs I'm seeing now have 3 big ads then 3 of these new listings. This might drive more people to spend on Adwords.

Re: Apple Maps Announces New Business Listings Data Partners

Bill Bean — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 16:15:08 -0000

Bit of an odd list, and not particularly useful. I do agree that it should be (currently is) a windfall for at least some of the list members (re: the agencies).

Re: 25 Perfect Ron Swanson Memes and Quotables :: TV :: Galleries :: Paste

Bill Bean — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 07:06:55 -0000

He's gotta be one of the all time great sitcom characters.

Re: Hacking Chaos: The Cornell Method of Note-Taking

Bill Bean — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 08:18:26 -0000

Trifecta! GTD...Levenger...Evernote all in one post. (reminded me I need to order some new pads)

Would be nice if Evernote offered note templates. A Cornell Method template could be useful.

Re: How We Go from Idea to Action at 12 Stars Media

Bill Bean — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 08:14:56 -0000

Good stuff, Rocky. Thanks for sharing an internal process. For most all of us execution, not ideas, is the hard part.

One suggestion, and I bet you actually do it already, I'd like to see the "Review" element after the current final step (re: Action). That seems to be part of the flow of your overall process already. Ironically, one of the things that stuck with me from my brief stint in the Army (many years ago) was the idea of the After Action Review.

Keep it coming. Very helpful!

Re: Authorship — BrandSavant

Bill Bean — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 06:35:56 -0000

Is your concern specifically with the relationship of authorship to content marketing? Perhaps you could further define or flesh out what you mean by authorship. I'm curious.

Re: Online Reviews Versus Personal Recommendations

Bill Bean — Fri, 09 May 2014 10:09:16 -0000

Why is this such an uphill battle with attorneys? Or is it just the ones I work with...which, of course, means I might be the problem.

Re: STOP Trying to Predict & Track Rankings Impact on Revenue

Bill Bean — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 16:57:49 -0000

Homerun, Wil. Thanks for putting this together.

Re: What is search jacking and how can it hurt your brand?

Bill Bean — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 07:59:23 -0000

Lee's advice is right on target. Could be a bit overwhelming, but maybe not as hard as you would suspect. Some of these assets will be entirely static, others would only need a temporary burst of activity.

Most small business owners are going to get overly worked up about this (not understanding search) and will 1) spend too much time & money and, 2) spend too much time & money on the wrong things. A double shot of waste.

For business brands a branded domain, if at all possible, the usual array of popular social media profiles, and citations in business directories is probably good enough for the majority. Product related brand (e.g. book) would warrant additional PR activity (press releases, blog interviews, podcasts, etc..)

It's simply the cost of doing business. So, before you decide you want to do 12 different things, you probably want to consider all of this. And, if at all possible, find a way to make your thing (ie brand) slightly unique.

My "content shock" query (de-personalized) has you sitting at the top, Mark. CMI, CopyBlogger, SXSW, and HuffPo are your competition. Take that as flattery, I guess.

Mark, what would you do differently next time re: Content Shock ?

Re: ‘Different’ Non-Commercial Ways of Using Social Media

Bill Bean — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 06:39:48 -0000

Another good business use of social media is the "atta boy" (or girl). Why not applaud or pat a team member on the book in front of all their friends? Good potential for employee morale, and that does impact bottom line.

Re: The 3 essential steps to building a powerful personal online brand

Bill Bean — Tue, 04 Mar 2014 06:18:22 -0000

Mark,

Might have been a temporary glitch on my end, but the two Twitter links (lists & tao) were 404'ing.

Re: Using Facebook Custom Audiences For Untapped Social Remarketing

Bill Bean — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 13:41:08 -0000

You just sparked a conversation for Monday. Thanks, Megan!

Re: The Simple Guide to Bringing Content In-house

Bill Bean — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 07:23:42 -0000

Great stuff, Adam. Outlining the job description the way you did saves me some time. Lots of helpful wisdom. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Sochi on Social

Bill Bean — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 07:21:07 -0000

Hadn't seen the Wired article on the CVS/Amazon thing. Interesting take.

I realize that at some level Amazon is a threat to every retailer, but I don't see the immediate threat to CVS. Perhaps my perspective on the CVS demographic is skewed. I would have guessed the CVS demographic isn't doing a lot of shopping on Amazon.

Speaking of prankvertising...perhaps you guys can talk about Dumb Starbucks.

Re: A Content Shock Parable: The Consumer View

Bill Bean — Sat, 11 Jan 2014 10:02:08 -0000

As some have pointed to, consumers are becoming more savvy and, generally speaking, more sophisticated with their content consumption (processing, filtering, finding, etc...). So I don't think the issue is consumer fatigue with content, though many are weary of poor content, but sheer human limitations regarding consumption.

Harold, in your story, was competing with everything that costs money (rent vs eating out), other food options, and other chicken places.

To me, this parable points out the most important thing most businesses can do. Harold must make sure that when people are looking for a good chicken dinner they 1) find him, and 2) are persuaded to eat his chicken when they find him. Both of these objectives are served by content, whether content (e.g. website) Harold produces or content generated by others (e.g. reviews).

That to me is the place to start for most businesses: be findable and be a great find.

Re: The Best Way to Serve Coffee in Your Office

Bill Bean — Fri, 03 Jan 2014 10:38:37 -0000

Very helpful post for the New Year. let's get the important stuff right at the very beginning. I'm going to have to look in to the Moccamaster.

Re: The Hidden Lessons of Google and Facebook

Bill Bean — Tue, 17 Dec 2013 08:07:42 -0000

Doug, you've done a great job of practicing what you preach. I think, however, your blog reached a tipping point where basic word of mouth referrals (and long tail organic) can be the primary source of traffic. For someone just starting with a blog, they're going to be fairly dependent on the "shared" media (as Jay Baer calls it) sources.

Clearly, a long term owned media vision is best, so all the interim efforts need to have that end in mind (i.e. develop our own audience).

BTW, I have to put a plug in for "The Owned Media Doctrine" by Jacson and Deckers. Good stuff, and write in line with what you're saying.

Re: Know Your Fair Use, Disclosure and IP

Bill Bean — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 07:43:31 -0000

Very helpful, Mr. Karr. Critical info for bloggers and others.

Re: Best YouTube Hacks - User Generated Reviews, Galleries and more - Teksocial

Bill Bean — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 07:11:45 -0000

Bookmarking this one. Very useful. Thanks!

Re: Legal Marketing: a Sucker’s Bet

Bill Bean — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 08:44:59 -0000

Good advice, Keith. I like your style.

Do you not integrate your social media efforts with this approach or do you know someone who is?