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Dot This & Dot That: What’s The Scoop On New TLD’s? We Asked SEO Expert Bill Hartzner.

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Can your business get a sudden boost in search results by switching to one of the nearly 400 new Top Level Domains (TLD’s). We have answers from the expert.

Transcript

Brad Besancon: Well, hello, everyone it’s Brad and Robert with our Clairiti clip of the week again and we’re standing here by the Newton cabin in old town, small town America, in Midlothian, my new home. I just recently built a house down here and moved down here, and got out of the hustle and bustle of the northern, really Southern Kansas, Prosper. And we’ve been having a lot of discussions and seeing a lot out there online about these new Top Line Domains or TLDs, and we’ve had a lot of discussions about–I mean, I know there’s a lot of confusion out there and really give us the rundown, kind of where these things started and why now, everybody seems to be all in uproar about it.

Robert Riggs: So these new top-level domains are .horse or .dentist, .news, so there’s–good Lord, there must be 400 of them and they’re all aimed at business: .attorney, .lawyer, .legal, so whatever your business, that’s there. So one of the things we know, it will help Google in their indexing of trying to determine what is your website about. There is a little advantage there, and then what we’ve seen and we’ve talked with Bill Hartzer, and what Bill, he’s been doing domain sales and auctions since 1996, and so what Bill is seeing is that, this also gives you some new real estate for keywords. You might want Dallas-Fort Worth plumber, well, you can’t get that in a dotcom but in these news, and there’s a .plumber, you can go get it. It’s going to cost you some money but Bill explains here what the advantage is, what he’s done on one of his studies.

Bill Hartzer: The idea is that there’s a keywords in the endings and they really describe what your website is about or your business is about, and that allows you to really have that branding opportunity to show users and visitors and the search engines in Fort Worth that that’s what your company is about, that particular keyword. There’s a lot of really good opportunities there.

Besancon: Well, I think one of the interesting things that we heard from Bill just end-wise, it’s really about keywords but not keywords that you’re going out there for Google ad search and paying for it, it’s a little different approach.

Riggs: Well, just because you went out there and buy a .attorney doesn’t mean you’re going to automatically rank, but if you get the right keywords in there, you’re going to be more competitive in those search results. And he’s got two case studies that he talked about where that has worked, so.

I mean, one of the unique ones was, just real quick, just kind of put in perspective is, he took an attorney in Jacksonville, Florida who was not ranking at all; had the standard so-and-so law.com kind of deal. He put Jacksonville.attorney and he immediately ranked on the first page within a small, a very minute period of time.

If you are in a particular region like a city, in one particular city, and it is fairly competitive, if you can show everybody, by having your city name, Dallas.attorney, Jacksonville.attorney, Denver.attorney, and you are the attorney in that city, and you have the premiere domain name for–you are the Denver attorney, and when people do search for Denver attorney, if you move from your dotcom to your Denver.attorney and you use, you change your address to where you literally move your website from that dotcom to .attorney, I do think you’re going to see a lot of better results by using a .attorney domain name.

Let’s say I’m in national practice as an attorney. Am I better off leaving my firm name there? Or should I do a specificity of what practice I specialize in?

Yes, if you have the option, if you have the option to, and that name is available, if you are a criminal defense attorney and you go get to criminaldefense.attorney, if you are, if there is a generic word that you can pair with that perfectly describes your business, then that just as buying criminaldefense.com, criminaldefense.attorney really perfectly describes your business and that is a great opportunity for not only just search engine rankings but overall branding, and you’re showing all of your visitors, you’re showing your customer base and potential customers, your potential clients that you are the criminal defense attorney or you are the Denver attorney, or you are describing your business right at the beginning, even before they even click on your website, they will know what you do. And whether they see it in an offline ad in the newspaper or an online ad, or they see it in the search results, they will see that domain name. That’s the first thing they see before they click your website.

And when you think about that, that makes sense because what are people searching for? Jacksonville attorney, so he automatically gets that. It’s that little pop

But you have to think this through and also, some of these domains, they’re difficult to get. It might cost you $3,000 to $4,000 on somebody’s–they’re premium. But it looks like they’ll pay dividends particularly if you’re in a paying business.

What do you think about that compared to ad budget? It’s the way you got to look at it. I mean, that’s the way–

That’s a good way.

And you still have to do–everybody talks about, “Oh, you mean I can just–” No, there’s no shortcuts online; you still have to build the content, you still have to drive people to your site, you still have to have the links, you still have to do all the normal things that you need to be doing with the website. The difference is, you’re just taking a little different approach with keywords in your actual URL.

One key takeaway he advices everyone too, if you’re a big company, big business, make sure you’re trademarked, otherwise, somebody can go hijack your domain and be out there using it. You have a way to contest things if they’re violating your trademarks.

That’s a good point.

And there are some companies, went out and trademarked without checking for domains and somebody already had the domain.

That’s a no-no.

And there’re not a lot because if you got into domain before the trademark was applied for it, that’s yours.

That’s right.

Yup.

That’s correct.

That’s our Clairiti clip don’t forget to get out there and keep hustling.

SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS: Making Yourself Real With Video

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What if your online passion provided an immediate “ice breaker” when you meet with new business prospects. Here’s an example of how a winning car from the Superbowl of high end car collecting supports our client’s business goals.

Transcript

Robert: Hi, I’m Robert Riggs, this is Brad Besancon with a Clarity Digital Marketing clip and we’ve been MIA out at the Monterey car week, at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, which is the Super Bowl of international high end collecting of the most amazing cars in the world, that you have invited 202 cars from 16 countries, including Elvis’ BMW.
Brad: Elvis’ BMW he drove around in Europe.
Robert: In the Army in Germany. Yeah, sure did.
Brad: Yeah, it was a pretty interesting event. One of the things we noticed too that was pretty unique was we saw these film crews. These weren’t guys on their cell phones. These were three, $400,000 camera groups with mics and directors and lighting, and everything else. What were they doing?
Robert: Well, they’ve been hired by many the owners of these cars to do their own personal documentaries. But you know what? No social. Nothing online. So who will ever see it? I guess they’re going to sit in their theater room at home and watch. No, these are things that you really want to get out there and share and the benefit of telling a story around cars—and we were there to do it for a client—is that it’s an icebreaker for new business. Our client goes to meetings—we run all kinds of social channels that when he goes to business meetings with a room full of 125 prospects, he doesn’t need an introduction. The first thing they want to know is about that car collection.
Brad: Yeah, “Hey, we’ve been seeing your car videos online and Facebook.”
Robert: So what’s the ROI of social media? Can you put a value on that? You walk in to a room full of business prospects and they feel like they already know you, they already have a connection. That’s what social does if you will focus on that passion.
Brad: It’s all about that connection. It’s all about making a CEO, or an owner, of a business—or an executive manager, a director, whoever it might be—it’s all about making them real. You see a card or you see a LinkedIn profile, it’s all kind of status-y. It’s all kind of, “Look at my accomplishments, look what I’ve done,” and then, “Oh, by the way, I’m also passionate about 45 records,” or “I’m really passionate about art,” or cowboy art, or whatever it is. It makes you real and it makes a connection like, “Hey, Robert, I like that too.” We already have something in connection, we already have something in common, so now I go into a business meeting with you and I can say, “Tell me about that one piece of art that you have, that I saw on your Facebook. Tell me about it.”
Robert: Exactly. One of the other values is reputation management. Everybody these days needs to be concerned about how they appear in Google search results because bad things happen, people say bad things about you, and if you’ve loaded that up with positive stuff about yourself, you’re going to win. And one of the nice things about our client—and you can do this with anyone else—around these kind of passionate subjects. We’re on all the social channels and it just stacks up on search returns for him. That’s why when he goes to give a business presentation, people ask.
Brad: Exactly and it’s the way you do it. It’s smart about how you do it. You can’t just go, “Hey, if I start putting some stuff out, I’ll rank in Google!” There’s some tricks to the trade that we’ve kind of—not mastered because I hate that word—that’s not what we do. We’re not gurus and we’re not ninjas but we’ve tested it. We’ve done the old Google of hard knocks. You know, hard knocks Google and we’ve kind of figured out this stuff. So there are some little tricks of the trade that you need to do too to be sure that you’re doing it and doing it the right way.
Robert: You have to have good content. You’ve got to have content that potential audience or a general audience is going to find interesting.
Brad: You have to know your audience, which is the critical—we always talk about our audience speech, so we knew—it’s very interesting that on Twitter, our particular client has a total different audience than he does on Facebook. For example, he has a Ferrari, a 2005 Ferrari, SuperAmerica. This is only 500 of them made This is a premiere Ferrari from that era. They love it on Twitter. They’re like, “It’s a Ferrari on Facebook.” But you put something else out, a 1948 Delahaye, or a 1946 AC Roadster and they’re like, “Whoa! This is the crème de la crème. This is awesome.” So you have to know that too so that you’re poking the bear or pushing the button, to ignite that passion within your fanbase.
Robert: All right. The takeaway of this clip?
Brad: The takeaway is there’s multiple things you can use with events, particular passions or particular hobbies and interests of leaders within your company or your business, to really drive home the message of the business. And to make connections beyond, “Hey, I’m trying to sell you something,” and “Boy, our product sure is great.” Man, make it really. Make that person that is out there calling on those people real.
Robert: That’s the Clarity Digital Marketing clip of the week.
Brad: Have a good one, guys.

WHY COMPANIES MUST PUBLISH OR PERISH ONLINE

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Robert Riggs and Brad Besancon explain why all businesses also need to be in the business of producing content. They talk to Tony Cecala, head of the DFW WordPress group in Dallas about the need for using a search engine friendly content management system on the web that makes it easy to upload blogs, photographs and videos.

Transcript

Brad: Hi folks, it is Brad and Robert again with our Clarity Digital Marketing clip of the week. You recently when over to a WordPress meet up and watch Tony Cecala, who is kind of a WordPress guru. I love that word, WordPress guru. And listened to him. What are some of the things you heard him talk about when he talked about WordPress?

Robert: Well for those of you out there in business, who are trying to figure out this stuff, WordPress is a content management system and you have got to be a publisher if you want to be successful online. The cool thing we like about WordPress, we use it ourselves, we recommend it to clients, is that Google likes it and it is very easy to do compared to any other system.

Brad: It is like website management for dummies.

Robert: Yeah.

Brad: I mean it is basically cut and paste.

Robert: Here’s Tony.

Tony: If you are building a media company, whether your company sells cars or sells Red Bull, you are a media company in the new world. If you want to market digitally you have to think of yourself as a media company. So why WordPress? Well, the New York Times finds WordPress to be a great platform for all their blogs. Huffington Post uses WordPress. Lots of people use WordPress as a publisher, that is the number platform for building your method online, it is pure, it is fast, it is built with all the standards inside it to make publishing a wonderful experience, not some technical thing you have to worry about.

Robert: Alright, I want to underscore what Tony said, that if you are in business today you got to be a media producer. In the old days when I was in broadcast journalism, I was the gate keeper. Now, there are no gate keepers.

Brad: Everybody is a media producer.

Robert: Right, if you notice, if you look at anything coming on television these days, what you see? You see cell phone videos all over the place. You know if you have the will and determination you can be a media producer. And if you are not, you know, somebody is going to tell your story and that story is being told on mobile.

Brad: Yeah and one of the things that people forget about in mobile is, you know, one of the first things you think of when we say mobile, is what? We will wait. Right, phone. But guess what, this is mobile too, the tablet. This is now my new toy, this is an iPad Pro, yes Apple you’re welcome for the promo. I am getting away from a laptop; I am not going to carry a laptop anymore because this pro will do everything that my laptop will do. The deal is when you think mobile you can’t just think phone. It is tablets too; it is also in that category. And as Tony mentions, over 50% of people nowadays are gathering information on mobile so that is phone and tablets, and that is what you have to remember.

Robert: And so does your website work on mobile? We had a founder of a law firm….

Brad: Do you got to sit there and do this?

Robert: Yeah. But we had a founder of a law firm say I don’t think anyone would ever look at our law firm on a cell phone and I said well how they are going to find directions to your office. But….

Brad: What’s the first thing they are going to do if they say, “Hey Brad, I am looking for a lawyer, you got any?” “Yeah, call Bob over here.” What are you going to do, what is Bob’s number, what is Bob’s website? You are going to look at it right there and you are going to Google it.

Robert: And I am going to get more information off the tablet. My wife sits in front of television and shops off the tablet.

Brad: Uh oh.

Robert: Yeah.

Tony: Why mobile? That’s the next question. When you are thinking about publishing you have to think to yourself when everyone is going to be on the move, looking at their phone, way more than 50%, we use mobile to access the information so you have to understand finding the right way to publish in a format that is fast and easy to digest is the next big wave. That is why Facebook has Facebook Instant Articles and Google has Accelerated Mobile Pages. They understand that people want the information fast so learning, building a team that will help you create mobile media, create information that goes out quickly, that is the number one task for this modern era.

Brad: So I think the final piece is critical for businesses to think about when they are thinking about not just online, just in general right, in today’s world because we are touching people everywhere but mainly online and through their mobile strategy is if you are not out there telling your story, your competitor will. And….

Robert: Yeah, don’t let your opponent define you.

Brad: Correct, that is basically what it comes down to. We call that here at clarity, we call it accidental brand. So if you are not controlling your brand message, someone will and you will have a nice little brand out there online. So be sure to take some of this, think about that mobile strategy, if you are in business, you better be producing content. If you want an easy way to do that, do it on a WordPress site.

Tony: So if you are in business and you are not a media producer, then someone else is telling your story. If you are hoping your advertising agency is going to tell your story, you are hoping your PR guy is going to tell your story, the PR is competing with every other PR guy, your advertising agency is competing with every other person to send out that advertising messaging but if you develop your message like Red Bull or like any company that has grasped social media, Will It Blend, I mean these people, they sell blenders and they are blending up iPhones and people are watching. I never heard of Blend Tech before but now I know Blend Tech because Will it Blend, their videos were so popular. So you have to think like a media company because the way to get the message out these day to these people is through their phone, that is where they are looking. It is a simple, it is a simple answer but learning the ins and outs of it is not easy, it’s tricky but focusing like a laser on getting the message out in that way, whether your choose Instagram, or you choose YouTube or you choose Facebook, be excellent at that delivery of the message and you will be successful.

3 Steps To Connect Your Business To An Online Audience

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In this Clairiti Clip, Robert Riggs and Brad Besancon interview Brian Sullivan of the Big Design Conference about how to understand and speak to your company’s target audience.

Transcript

Robert: Hi I am Robert Riggs here with Brad Besancon for the Clarity Digital Marketing clip of the week. You know we talked with Brian Sullivan, you know Brian is the creator here in Dallas of the Big Design Conference and he usually knocks people out of their seat down, it is down, south by southwest. But we talked about, what we like to talk about is what we call audio speak.

Brad: Yeah, I mean, he says some real critical things I think in this video where he talks about each of us speak differently right. Your mind kind of drives your thoughts and your speech and how each one of us talk differently, even when we are talking about the same subject, you had it happen, we had it happen in our business discussions where somebody will say, “Well I think we are saying the same thing, you are just saying it in a different way.” He speaks to that but I think another critical piece that he speaks to is when he talks about even with companies you have these kind of silos, which we have talked before in a clarity clip or we talked about the silos of your business. And he talks about how research and development will be talking about a product different than marketing will, will be talking about differently than product development, etc. And how all these different little languages are out there and how we all have to kind of meet a common ground.

Speaker: Yeah, I think that one of the most interesting things when it comes to language, a lot of the companies that are embracing design thinking, they are doing that so they can share a common language. People just talk different so for example a product developer will talk different than a designer and they will talk different than a marketing person. All of those people are then speaking to an audience or to a customer, so having that shared experience, that common language kind of creates that first shared understanding and again…

Robert: So now Brian has talked about the importance of listening and wants all of the parts of your organization, you break down the silos and they are all speaking the same language, now it is about how do you talk to your customers.

Brad: Yeah and he is fixing to talk about another key piece, you know it is in our slogan right. Listen, think, speak for clarity, that is our little marketing piece and that is basically what he is going to say here in the next piece which is you have to listen first to your customer base and your audience, take it back, think about it and then create that common language that you can all move forward with when you are talking with your customer.

Brian: The first step to creating anything interesting or creative is to have empathy, is to listen to figure out what are those things that your customers are saying, taking that back and using a common language that will create the solutions for them so that everybody is all on the same page, they are using the same language, solving the right problem and using similar tools in order to do it.

Robert: So wrapping up what Brian has to say here is really what we talk about and we call audience speak, which is listen, think, speak so Brad is going to walk you through those steps.

Brad: Yeah what the critical piece here, the take home message that we always like to talk about in our clarity clips are, audience speak is knowing the language of your audience and being sure that you are speaking that language. You are not going to make connections, whether it is social media, a TV advertisement, a billboard, whatever your marketing piece is, whether it is online or not, you have to know the language of your audience, which is what Brian was saying is, create the common language but don’t you figure out what that language is. The marketing, you know our little slogan is your marketing for a particular product should come from your audience…

Robert: Yes, not your marketing department.

Brad: …not the marketing department. So listen first, that is the critical piece, what are they wanting, what are they needing, what is that touch point that you can hit them at. So once you figure that kind of listening part out, then you have to develop a plan, think about right and then you have to go out and actually speak it. That is the listen, think, speak that we preach so much here at clarity and what we always encourage our clients to do, it is about them, not you.

Robert: So Brian’s Big Design Conference is coming up this fall here in Dallas and we certainly encourage you to attend it, there are great speakers there and here is Brian’s contact info and that wraps this week’s Clarity Digital Marketing clip.

Brad: Have a good one guys.

Who Says Millennials Are Lazy?

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Millennial Entrepreneur, Angelia Trinidad the creator of the “Passion Planner” provides insights into the Millennial Mindset.

Ms. Trinidad launched a $650K Kickstart campaign to get her idea off the ground.

She has grown out of her parents garage into a multi-million dollar business.

Robert Riggs and Brad Besancon spoke with Angelia after her presentation to Morgan Stanley’s Women’s Leadership Summit in Dallas on May 12, 2016.

Transcript

Brad: Hello everyone, it’s Brad and Robert again with this week’s Clarity Digital Marketing Clip. And if you’ll remember from last week, we spent a little time with Dr. Nathan Harness from Texas A & M University and discussed the importance of targeting millennials, understanding millennials and how they think. Not just in your online strategy, but in general business. You better have a strategy for this group of people because they’re in upwards of close to 90 million people. And at the same conference, you got to spend a little bit of time with Angelia Trinidad, a very successful millennial from the Passion Planner.

Robert: Yes, Angelia started a Kickstarter campaign and raised $650,000.

Brad: Not bad.

Robert: For a paper product. It’s called the Passion Planner and you can chart your life’s journey. The women love it because it’s kind of a journal/diary/calendar and you can define your life goals. So, don’t underestimate these millennials, 24-25 years old, and she’s had million dollar months in sales.

Brad: Yeah.

Robert: So she talked to us about how to connect with them.

Angelia: It comes down to respect. It comes down to listening. Taking the time to ask, well how can I help you. Because a lot of people, they pitch themselves and they pitch themselves so hard that, millennials especially are really turned off by it. They’re like ‘okay, why are you trying to sell me?’ And once millennials feel like they’re being sold, like most people, once you realize that this is an advertisement, then it’s like ‘ugh’.

Brad: So what you saw from what Angelia just said, was basically don’t patronize the millennials and don’t pitch them. They don’t need a sales pitch. They’ll kind of figure it out on their own.

Robert: And one of the things that we know about socially is if you start; sell, sell, sell; you lose, lose, lose audience.

Brad: It really is the 80/20 rule. 20% of your posts should really be salesy and 80% of it should be about making that connection.

Robert: So one thing with her success I was curious about was the stereotype that millennials are kind of shiftless and lazy and entitled and you’ve got to hold their hand. So, she kind of debunks the myth of the people in her age group.

Angelia: I don’t know if they’re a myth. I feel like it’s hard to really generalize a large population. I feel like the metaphor that I use is millennials have been pushed in this beautiful wheelchair, that usually their parents or society provides for them. And they get pushed in all these directions until they graduate college, usually. And then everyone says ‘walk’. And we’re like ‘how do we walk, we’ve never walked before; you’ve been pushing us this whole time.’ So how you get that to change is you say ‘allright millennials, we’re taking you out of your wheelchair. We’re not going to make decisions for you anymore. And, let’s have you walk. Let’s have you crawl, let’s have you stumble, I’m not going to catch you.’ Because that’s what parents do, they catch you. And then they say ‘why can’t you walk?’ It’s like ‘well, I have to learn how to do it on my own. I have to fail. I have be able to get back up. I have to be able to take steps in the decisions I want.’ Because if not, then there’s going to be this expectation of ‘why can’t you sprint; I see this other person sprinting? Why can’t you do it?’ So I think the biggest thing is to just be patient and to understand that millennials need to make their own mistakes and you can’t always catch them. But you also need to be like ‘you know, I support you. And whatever decision you make I’m going to be here for you.’ And that’s it.

Brad: So as you can see folks, it’s very important that we spend some time in your business, or you spend some time with your necessary folks and team to really think about this millennial strategy. One of the things to think about is, the top two brands in millennials are Nike and Apple. They’ve figured it out. They understand that if you connect with this audience, at the youngest of the millennials that you can; we’re talking about people that are potentially born in 1980 up to the 2000. So they’re only 16, 17 years old. If you can connect with them and turn them on to your brand now, you’ll have them for the rest of their life. Under Armour is perfect at this. They turn on the young kids to their brand so that they can keep them for the rest of their lives.

Robert: So, kind of, what differentiates the social for the millennials?

Brad: Well, it’s back to what Angelia said. You have to make a connection. You can’t just pitch them or try to draw them in, right? You’re not going to fish for them. They’re too smart for that in their own mind. So you have to connect with them at a deeper level, make the better pitch, if you will, without a sales, and connect with them. And don’t try to overdo it with them. They don’t buy into that.

Robert: Well, Angelia, she’s amazing.

Brad: She’s made it. She’s figured it out.

Robert: She’s got it.

Brad: Yeah.

Robert: Well, that’s the Clarity Digital Marketing Clip of the week; and Robert Riggs, Brad Besancon, see you next week.

Brad: Have a good one, guys.

The Millennial Mindset

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Millennials will be the benefactors of the biggest transfer of wealth in history.

Does your business understand how to connect with them?

Robert Riggs and Brad Besancon of Clairiti talk to one of the nation’s top experts about the Millennial Mindset, Texas A&M University Faculty Member Nathan Harness.

Transcript

Brad: Well you’re definitely privy to why, you mentioned in your speech, where you said Apple and Nike are the number one and number two brands in millennials. And you’re proving why they spend so much time making that connection. And you also mentioned that millennials are three times more likely to go out and get advice on social media than others. So tell us a little bit about that kind of persona they live in on social media, and why it’s important for, even mid level business, not just Nike and Apple; to make that connection because it’s the future of their business, right?

Dr. Harness: It is. Yeah, absolutely. So when you think about millennials, where are they going to get advice? They can go to their mom and dad, they can go to their friends, or they can go to the web, which combines a lot of that together.

Brad: Their phone.

Dr. Harness: Absolutely.

Brad: Immediately.

Dr. Harness: How are you discovering….So, I back up into, let’s say, my generation; and I wanted to know…

Brad: He’s not a millennial, by the way, even though he looks it.

Dr. Harness: I’m not a millennial, surprise. I wanted to know what a good dentist was. I’d go to the Yellow Pages. It’s a totally, totally different environment. And I had no feedback as to whether this was a good dentist or not.

Brad: They put those in their car now, to teach their kids how to drive.

Dr. Harness: That’s right. So, today I have the incredible ability to share; sometimes among strangers; share information to provide instantaneous feedback on, normally it’s the tales of the distribution, the ups and the downs of an experience. So I get to share with others; does this make sense or does this not make sense. One of the cool things as advisors today; people are rating us. We are being rated online. People are going to the market to say; ‘do business with this person or don’t do business with this person.’

Brad: And it’s happening in every business.

Dr. Harness: It is. Absolutely. So, to have a footprint out there; I think having user driven content is important as well. So, let’s say financial services…

Brad: Especially when it’s associated with your brand.

Robert: I love that term; user driven.

Brad: Because on of the things we always preach to our clients is, it’s about them, it’s not about you.

Dr. Harness: Absolutely.

Brad: And especially in the millennials, correct?

Dr. Harness: Well, the terminology that you use. So the terminology that we use in financial services can be acronyms. It can be shorthand information. We talk about things; I’ll give you the example; this was in Texas; I said stock to somebody, and they thought I was talking about cattle.

Brad: Cattle, of course.

Dr. Harness: It’s a different animal. So being able to have user driven content, to where they are using the key search terms in a way that they think of what it is that you do. So that when the average user comes in and starts to Google or find out information about you, you don’t know what all those search terms are. They do; let them drive some of that.

Brad: That’s making that deeper connection.

Robert: Talk about, what is it that millennials value? Number one, we know, experiences.

Dr. Harness: They’re socially conscious. So socially conscious investing in the financial realm is very important to them. They also value, you hit on the head right there, is experiences. Experiences are critical. So the question becomes how do we help them get to those experiences without breaking the bank in the process. So they don’t spend all of their assets. I think part of it is driving the experience of doing business with us. So I go to the dentist today; I keep going back to the medical analogies, but I think they’re good. I go to the dentist today. Used to, when I’d go to the dentist, it was the worst experience ever; I mean it’s going to be uncomfortable; there’s nothing I can do about that. They ease it by, my dentist has a window I can see into the forest that his building’s built up against. When I lean back I’ve got a TV on the ceiling. He’s making this environment comfortable for me. And I think we’ve got incredible opportunity with millennials to take the assets that we know that they need and overlay that with the experiences they want to have. And it may come down to reframing. Helping them to understand that I have this asset as a placeholder for your trip to Europe. And then what are you going to do when you go on that trip to Europe.

Brad: See, and in our world, the whole key is creating that experience, right there in the palm of their hands, online, with your brand. We help you create that experience online.

Robert: So, finally, take away here. If you’re in business and you’re not engaging in social media; your destiny is what?

Dr. Harness: You’re behind. You’re well behind today. I would argue that, especially in the financial realm, in business in general, you are going to be an unknown commodity in the future. People will not know how to find you. What are the touch points that they have to reach out and know who you are in a real way. If there is no presence; I went to find a lawn mower; somebody to mow my yard in College Station; and the person that I chose was the only person that had a website. I didn’t know who anyone else was, other than word of mouth. So this is the new word of mouth. It is the way in which we communicate.

Brad: It’s in all levels of business.

Dr. Harness: It is.

Brad: So don’t just take Robert and Brad’s word for it, listen to the Aggie, old Nathan. That’s our Clarity Digital Clip of the week.

Are You Hitting Fouls In Social Media?

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Robert Riggs and Brad Besancon use the Twitter Rant by an Assistant Football Coach and its fallout on recruiting for a lesson on the use of checks and balances when it comes to posting in social media.

Standing at the 3rd base foul line at a Dallas baseball field, these social media experts offer advice on how not to hit fouls when it comes to Twitter and other social media platforms.

Besancon who started and managed social media for the Dallas Cowboys in his previous career talks about lessons learned.

In short, take a breath, think it over, ask a colleague for an opinion before you tap send. Or push delete.

Links to articles about the recruiting fallout for Texas A&M football:

Twitter Channel where the rant started, Aaron Morehead, Wide Receiver’s Coach at Texas A&M

Dallas Morning News Sports Day

Sports Illustrated

Transcript

Robert: Hi I’m Robert Riggs and this is Brad Besancon with the Clarity Digital Clip of the week, standing at the third base foul line, to talk about how not to hit a foul in social media. Because today Sportscenter is alive, Twitter is alive over a tweet by Texas A&M assistant football coach who’s over committing big controversy.

Brad: Or isn’t.

Robert: Yeah. The lesson is though of all of this.

Brad. Yeah. I think the lesson is though, is when you’re in a frustrated state or an emotional state, or you might just be pissed off; don’t jump on social media to express those feelings; if you’re representing a brand. Your personal stuff is your personal stuff. But when you’re out there as a football coach; we see it all the time in sports. Somebody goes off ‘the refs didn’t make a good call’ or whatever, and they go off for ten minutes on these rants; they call them social media rants. But if you’re a representative of a company, or you’re a team member of a university, or a major sports team, or whatever the case may be; take a step back, take 24 hours. If you need to do something like that from an emotional standpoint, get a piece of paper and write it down.

Robert: We do advise our business clients to hit that emotional cord with their audience.

Brad: Yeah and that’s where it gets tricky. Because we do want to attach, if you will, or connect with our clients or our followers in social media, on the emotional level. That’s the whole point, right? The whole point of social media is to make that deeper connection. It’s not just about coupons and brands. It’s ‘you’re connected with me on a deeper level’; but don’t go to the extreme. Because the minute you go the extreme, they’re going to leave because you’re going to make somebody upset, right?

Robert: Right.

Brad: You remember that from politics and some of your background in journalism.

Robert: Sure, and in broadcast journalism; we had a checks and balances in that we had producers or editors who looked at our copy before it went out. You had a second set, maybe a third set of eyes on it, so you didn’t get into trouble. Look, ask a cohort, ask a person next to you, ask a friend to take a look at it. And if you have the slightest question or doubt about your emotions at the moment, you really want somebody else to look at it. You know we do that together, because I know I’m the one who kind of pushes the envelope sometimes; and you come in with kind of a corporate view like ‘oh we’ve got to town that down.’

Brad: Yeah, and I think a checks and balances is the perfect way to look at it. Have someone on your team. Not necessarily your boss or something, maybe it is your coworker or someone who’s on your team. It’s to just review the stuff. We’re not saying be mister and missus politically correct, because sometimes in order to connect with your audience, you do have to be kind of in their face and out there and pushing that envelope. It’s just the manner in which you do it, how you do it, and remember; we hear it all the time; you hear it in your personal relationships or whatever. ‘Well I can’t tell what you meant by this on this tweet’, ‘I can’t tell what you meant by this on this text’. You have to think the same thing when you’re out there representing your company and talking to people is; they’re just reading words. They’re not with you in your presence. So you’ve got to be careful.

Robert: Okay, so the take away from this weeks Clarity Digital Clip is; step out of that batter’s box. Are you going to hit a foul and it will be ugly. Thanks, see you next week.

Is Your Mobile Business Strategy Outdated?

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Two thirds of our time online is spent on the cell phone. Two-thirds of cell phone owners check it within 15 minutes of waking up. Merriam Webster added “Nomophobia” to its dictionary to define the anxiety that 30% of cell phone users suffer when they don’t have access to their cell phones.

In this Clairiti Clip we ask the question, is your mobile business strategy as outdated as the “brick” cell phone carried by corporate raider Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas) in Oliver Stone’s “Wall Street”.

Bernadette Coleman the CEO of Advice Interactive weighs in with a presentation from DFW Social Media Marketing.

Transcript

Brad: What is the first thing we grabbed before we headed out for this kind of date, this little break.

Robert: Well our phones, because this video’s being done on the phone here, but, yeah.

Brad: First thing you grab, right? And what was it recently we heard a statistics where it was ninety something percent of people, I think in the US, have this at arm’s length 24/7. It’s your alarm clock, it’s your communication tool, it’s your gaming feature, it’s everything and anything in your life is in this thing now, right in the palm of your hand.

Robert: And 65% of smartphone users reach for their phone within 15 minutes of waking up.

Brad: Isn’t that sad? I’m guilty.

Robert: So, with a connection like that don’t you think a business ought to tap into it?

Brad: Yeah, I think it brings into question, are you tapping into; or are you thinking about if you’re a business owner, how much of your business is searched for or looked at on a phone?

Robert: so we talked to Bernadette Coleman, the CEO of Advice Interactive, about how it puts you in the palm of the hand of your customer or client.

Bernadette: Why is mobile important? Because it’s the closest you can get to a consumer 24 hours a day. And if you want to reach that person, you want to reach them through mobile. It’s important to note that most people when they are doing searches now are searching on mobile devices, not on PC’s. And more importantly than that, 50% of those people that do a mobile search act upon that search within 24 hours. That’s why it’s important.

Robert: So one of the things that Bernadette talked about is that when people are searching for you, they’re doing it usually on their mobile phone and you need to be there. You need to be there with information about your business services.

Brad: Yeah. I mean one of the things that we think about is, you know when you think about an attorney or a lawyer or something; and we spoke to one of the largest firms in Dallas. And they’re head CEO, head attorney, basically said; ‘folks aren’t searching on their phone.’ And yet doctors and attorneys are two of the most highest categories of professionals searched on Google on the phone.

Robert: So, here’s what Bernadette had to say about that.

Bernadette: People searching for legal advice is many times done on the cell phone, because it happens when they’re out talking to friends or neighbors about a problem they may have and they may refer an attorney to them. And they’ll pick up their cell phone because that’s usually what’s sitting right next to them, or an ipad, and they’ll do a search from there. As a matter of fact, over 40% of searches are done for legal and 60% of medical searches are done on a mobile app and not a PC.

Robert: Okay, now that we’re back we want to show you the Clairiti mascot’s here. Our Great Danes. They’re loving it out at the park here today. How are you doing? You want to talk about mobile, okay. All right, so one of the key things is, is that you have to have a true mobile responsive site. And you’ve got to put in the kind of content that people are looking for.

Brad: Right. And when we say mobile responsive, we need to be sure we clarify that. We still run into people with a mobile site. It’s not a mobile site. It’s one site that’s mobile responsive; it’s not two separate entities going on. And when you guys think about it, put some common sense back into this. If you’re a business owner or you’re thinking about this stuff, put some common sense in. What is that you search for the most? Hours. When you’re open because I might need to run over there and get whatever it is you have. And how do I get there; directions. So it’s all simple stuff that you have to put some common sense back into your thinking with you’re online marketing plan.

Robert: So on average according to Google, we do about at least 150 sessions on our cell phones every day. Google calls this micro moments. And we’re going to let Bernadette close out this weeks Clarity Digital Clip talking about what are the two big things, if you’re a business, what do people want to know when they’re on their mobile phone.

Brad: Have a good one folks.

Bernadette: Hours of operation, mostly. And location; they are going to search for people that are closer to them within a geographic area; and that can be where they’re at close by their house or when they’re traveling down the road or into another state. It’s all about geographic location. So the two most things that are searched for on mobile today is location and hours of operation.