I would never recommend that any business owner invest time or money toward something that does not provide a measurable return on investment. And the results from viral social networking are highly measurable. So, I have collected a few of my thoughts from my latest book (Increase Online Sales through Viral Social Networking) to share about social networking aggregation tools. Theoretically, social networking aggregation tools are designed to reduce a person’s time commitment in managing all of their accounts.

Some of the aggregation tools are excellent, and in my opinion, one tool shines above the rest. See what you think.

Q: How many different social media accounts do you manage?

A: I personally manage accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

Q: How do you go about managing all the different accounts?

A: I invest approximately 10-minutes per day toward managing the accounts. I follow the 15-step viral social networking process that is detailed in my current book. The process produces maximum results in the least amount of time possible.

Q: Are you using any aggregation tools?

A: I have experimented with HootSuite, TweetDeck, and Ping.fm with varying success in managing my online brand community. Right now, my favorite aggregator tool is by far NutShellMail.com from Constant Contact. I have experimented with NutShellMail for the last several weeks, and to say that I am impressed, would be a significant understatement. I recommend NutShellMail to small business owners because it compiles the activity taking place within your online brand community (compilation of your Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and LinkedIn connections) and delivers it right to your e-mail Inbox in about 10, easy-to-manages batches a day. NutShellMail is an excellent tool for anyone interested in reducing their social networking time commitment.

However, reducing one’s time commitment with social networking is actually less about the aggregation tools that are used. Being efficient is primarily rooted in only investing time toward knowing what works and what does not. For example, did you know that sending more than two tweets per day on Twitter is essentially hypertweeting. In fact, more people will likely “unfollow” than will begin following you. Avoiding these types of common mistakes will save a business owner a ton of time and help boost results.

Q: Is it a good idea to aggregate since the audiences on various social networks can be different?

A: I have made mistakes using Ping.fm to distribute a single status update across Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. What I did not realize at the time was that the context of the post was personal in nature and therefore more relevant to my Twitter followers and Facebook friends but not appropriate for my LinkedIn connections. I later received negative feedback (constructive criticism) from one of my LinkedIn connections who let me know that personal-related updates where not appropriate. That was great feedback because it helped me refocus and greatly improve my 15-step viral social networking process.

Q: What are some tips, besides tools, to simply your social media streams?

A: One of the best ways a business owner can simplify or reduce their social networking time commitment is to only tweet or write status-network updates regarding content that really matters to the members of their online brand community (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn). A business owner should also avoid the temptation of getting involved in time consuming Facebook games or other applications…entertaining but they do not serve a business purpose. Instead, focus on writing two posts or status updates per day on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

A business owner should also resist the temptation to turn their online brand community into a selling free-for-all by following a simple six to one (6:1) ratio. A business owner can maximize results by writing six life or professional-related posts-tweets to every one product or service-related post. This will provide your online brand community members with balanced and valuable content. Your Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and LinkedIn connections will feel informed versus being sold. This is such an important point that I devoted all of Chapter 7 to explaining it precise detail.

 Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.org

I love seeking out challenges that push me to be better, to perform, and to reach new levels that I did not think I was capable of reaching. I literally thought I had met my match on a crisp, early morning in April 2000. It was on that day that I learned the keys to total happiness. I learned that my ability to focus and relentlessly pursue what I loved and wanted most in this world were the keys to making me happy. And on that April morning, there were times I definitely felt like quitting and giving up the pursuit. But I did not give in — and I am so glad that I pushed forward because total happiness found me that morning on the side of Mt. Hood.

I had arrived in Portland, Oregon several days earlier to continue the due diligence process regarding a company called Global Health & Fitness (GHF). The company was owned by Chad and Jody Tackett and it represented a very strategic acquisition for the company I had recently founded called FortifiedNutrition.com (FN). From the moment I landed, Chad Tackett and I worked well together and we got along great. Our personalities and goals were completely in sync. A friendship that lasts to this day had been born.

The idea for climbing Mt. Hood came up after Chad and I had finished playing basketball with some of his friends and eating way too much pizza one night. While we stood around the kitchen, one of Chad’s friends asked him what we were planning to do the next day and at that point there was nothing on the agenda. So when Chad suggested we climb Mt. Hood, it sounded like a once in a lifetime opportunity. I had no idea what I had just agreed to do but would quickly find out.

I woke up early the next morning with a nervous and anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach. Was I seriously going to attempt the climb? How had I let Chad talk me into it this? I was starting to reconsider the wisdom of my decision for several important reasons.

First, Mt. Hood is the highest mountain in Oregon and the fourth highest in the Cascades. It is approximately 11,200 feet high and is home to 12 glaciers. Yes, 12! Mt. Hood is also considered to be the most likely volcano in Oregon to erupt. Super. Second, Chad was in significantly better cardiovascular condition than I was. Consequently, I was afraid of being left in the snow only to be found in late May by some unsuspecting skiers. My body had been trained for lifting heavy objects and moving them from point A to point B — not snowshoeing up the side of a mountain. So my endurance would likely be a problem. Third, I had never been snowshoeing and physical coordination is not one of my strengths. I lacked the experience of doing anything physical in high altitude, which meant that my energy level would be a real and present issue.

So there I sat in the hotel lobby—waiting for Chad to pick me up. I tried to choke down a protein bar while my stomach continued to churn.  And then it was time. Chad drove up and we were off to get our gear at the nearby outfitter. We then packed up all of our gear which consisted of snowshoes, boots, and some ski poles. “Hey, how about some food and water”?, I thought to myself. What I did not realize is that this was just going to be an extended cardio session for Chad, but it would physically push me to my furthest edge.

We decided to climb Mt. Hood’s West Leg Trail, which is one of the most popular ski trails that curves and twists its way from Timberline Lodge down the southern flank to the base of the mountain. All totaled, the West Leg Trail of Mt. Hood trail is 5.5 miles long. Our plan was to climb the trail until we reached the lodge located just below Palmer Glacier. Chad and I would be climbing a very significant incline and covering about 5,000 feet in elevation. Our goal was to complete the climb in approximately three hours so we could have lunch at the lodge. It all sounded like a good plan; I was so naïve!

“You can do this,” I chanted to myself. Chad looked at me and smiled. He could see from the anxious expression on my face that I was nervous and had no idea what to expect. Then Chad said something to me that I suspect was supposed to instill confidence and encouragement, but all I heard was mumbling. I had tuned everything out and was trying to focus.

We were off. I looked ahead as far as I could follow the trail. It ascended and then headed into a tree line. The sun’s glare reflecting off the snow was nearly blinding. It was one of the most impressive and beautiful scenes I have ever witnessed. Just being in the presence of all that grandeur was incredibly awe inspiring.

The splendor and beauty of the mountain quickly faded during the first 10-minutes of the climb — I thought my heart was going to leap out of my chest. Granted, I already had assumed my lack of conditioning would be an issue, but I never imagined that I would begin feeling the affect in such a short period of time. I thought I might have a heart attack and die right there at the base of Mt. Hood. And it was only going to get worse.

Chad saw that I was struggling so he coached me on how to develop a rhythm with the snowshoes and poles.  “And do not forget to breathe,” Chad said to me. “Gee, thanks for the pearl of wisdom,” I thought sarcastically to myself. “And how can we be inclining already? Doesn’t this mountain come with some sort of test trail or something so we can properly warm up? Come on!”

Once I focused on following Chad’s sequential process of pulling, stepping, and breathing my way up the trail, my efforts became much more efficient and effective. And I was covering more ground while using less energy. Darn him for knowing everything! I am convinced that Chad was enjoying the thoughts of the physical torture that the trail was about to inflict on me.

As we continued our ascent, the fatigue and thinning oxygen levels were setting in and causing me to lose my focus. Chad could see that I had begun to mentally wander so he started chatting me up and asking me all sorts of due diligence questions about how our team planned to fund the acquisition, our timing for the initial public offering of FN, and aspects of our exit strategy. It must have worked because I snapped back to the reality of the situation and thought, “You must be joking. Here we are, snowshoeing up the side of a mountain, and he wants to talk about stock options, venture capital, and who knows what else!” But that was Chad. He loved to multi-task so why not combine the two things he really loved—intense exercise with business. Chad is one of the most driven people I have ever met. But his Q&A session also helped me maintain my focus and the relentless pursuit of Timberline Lodge. I kept urging myself forward by saying, “Come on…keeping pushing up the trail. If you stop, you will never get started again. You will pass out and you will not be found until spring!” 

Chad tried a tactic that he thought would motivate me further, even though it was sort of demoralizing. He literally leaped ahead of me and began sprinting up the side of the mountain as if he were jogging in his snowshoes. I stopped and looked incredulously up at him. “What the hell? How can you even do that?” I shouted up at him. I shook my head and kept trudging up the mountain.

When I finally caught up to Chad, I dug my poles into the snow and sunk the spikes of my shoes into the trail. I reached down and pulled off the sweatshirt I had been wearing; it was soaked with sweat. I tied it around my waist and turned to look back down the trail we had just climbed. Off in the distance, I saw Mt. Jefferson and it looked larger than life. It looked so close, I thought that if I got a running start, I could leap off Mt. Hood and land on the side of it. Little did I know that apparently altitude plays games with distance perception because Mt. Jefferson is approximately 50 miles away from Mt. Hood. Insane.

Being dug into the sided of Mt. Hood gave me the opportunity to take in some of the most beautiful nature views I had ever seen firsthand.

It would have been easy to quit. It would have been easy to give up the relentless pursuit. But Chad would not let me quit. He would not let me give up. Chad knew that if he could motivate me to finish the climb, that I would remember this day for the rest of my life. Chad pushed me to persevere, to dig deeper than I ever had dug before in my life, and to ignore the tremendous pain in my legs, back, and arms. He pushed me to focus on reaching the end of the trail.

It was a miraculous sight when we finally cleared the tree line and we saw Timberline Lodge. I had willed myself to achieve something I would have never considered possible for me to achieve. I had nothing left. I was mentally and physically exhausted. And in that state of depletion, a quote from Coach Vince Lombardi made perfect sense to me. Coach Lombardi once said, “I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour – his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear – is that moment when he has to work his heart out in a good cause and he is exhausted on the field of battle — victorious.”

But it is because of that morning on Mt. Hood, as well as other experiences in my life, that I firmly believe a person’s focus and their relentless pursuit of what they love and want most in this world are the keys to total happiness.

Everything worth doing requires commitment, strategy, and hard work. A person needs to have a singular focus…as if you are pursing the one thing you have always wanted most in your life. There is no magic bullet or secret that can grant us what we want most in this world. There are no short cuts, there are no second chances, and we have to enjoy every opportunity we have.

And the same goes for the viral social networking process I am about to share with you in this book. Yes, the process is efficient and effective. And yes, it will produce maximum results in the least amount of time. But it requires your focus and relentless pursuit of the business goals you are trying to accomplish. I assure you, there will absolutely be times when you want to quit or when you begin to question whether or not your time investment is going to pay off.

Trust me when I tell you that your time commitment will pay off. But consistently communicating with the people in your social network takes time and it takes discipline to keep up with the conversation versus a flurry of posts and comments during one week and then nothing from you for three to four weeks as if you disappeared. This type of inconsistent communication will produce lackluster results.

You must relentlessly pursue your goals…never give up…keep on fighting…and enjoy the total happiness that comes your way!

It is time to learn something new! It is time to challenge the status quo! Are you ready?

I wish you the best of success.

- Stephen

I decided to write a book on viral social networking because none of the current books attempting to cover the subject even came close to providing readers with a practical and tactical social networking strategy that could be implemented. And having a specific action plan to follow is so important based on my experience in working with hundreds and hundreds of business owners. Initial successes in social networking produces confidence, which leads to momentum, which leads to more social networking successes!

But really…can viral social networking truly provide business benefit? Social networking, when done correctly, can represent over 20 percent of a Website’s traffic. Plus, a Website’s conversion rate of online sales from traffic referred from social networking sites can be as high as 22 percent versus the typical 2 to 4 percent. This translates into a 500 percent increase! Bottom line: viral social networking can deliver significant business benefits, which makes this book ideal for anyone looking for a practical strategy to increase online sales by using Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

You will learn a 15-step viral social networking process that has been proven to increase Website traffic and online sales. The easy-to-follow steps in this book will also provide you with the tools you need to reduce your social networking time investment while showing you how to measure results.

You will get started by learning the fundamentals of Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as well as the criteria for deciding which social networking site(s) are the best for your business goals. You will also learn how to harness the power of the three Cs of viral social networking: 1) creating Conversation, 2) building Community, and 3) generating Commerce.

And if you are like most businesspeople, you may be wondering what things in your life or business are “that interesting” that they should be shared with the world via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Sound familiar? If so, this book will help by providing you with suggested topic categories and recommendations regarding the type of content your social networking community will find interesting and valuable.

However, developing the right content is only one piece in a viral social networking strategy. So this book will also show you how to effectively share your content with the social networking community you have worked so hard to build. You will also learn how to apply a proven 6:1 ratio of making six personal or life-related posts or status updates to your social networks for every one product or service-related post. The 6:1 ratio will help you avoid the mistake of turning your viral social networks into a selling free-for-all.

And how will you know if you have accomplished your goals? This book will also demonstrate how to track and measure your performance using Google Analytics so you can observe how your efforts are affecting your site traffic and online sales.

This book will help keep you focused because it summarizes all the steps into a tactical, action-oriented social networking checklist. This viral social networking blueprint will serve as your roadmap and can guide your daily to-do list. And lastly, this book includes several real-world social networking success stories and frequently asked questions so you can benefit from the experiences of others.

Visit Amazon.com to pre-order Increase Online Sales through Viral Social Networking.

So, if any of you out there reading this post bought my book on Amazon.com UK, thank you very much! I really appreciate your help and support. I hope you find the 15-step process easy to implement. I am confident you will be impressed with the results!

- Stephen

Tells How to Increase Google Rankings and Enhance Site Traffic Using Just 15 Easy Steps

Amazon.com 5 star rating by Midwest Book Review

“Stephen Woessner’s SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION tells how to increase Google rankings and enhance site traffic using just 15 easy steps, from adding anchor links to content to creating custom page titles. It’s an outstanding survey for any interested in search engine operations and how to improve business visibility online. Help other customers find the most helpful reviews”.

Book description: The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization is ideal for small business owners who want to learn an efficient and effective process for dramatically improving their Web site s search engine rankings and doubling their site s monthly unique visitors. Guaranteed!

Stephen Woessner, of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Small Business Development Center, is a search engine optimization (SEO) expert. But more importantly, Woessner has owned four businesses and understands the significant time and cash constraints faced by business owners every day. Because of this, Woessner placed increasing efficiency and effectiveness at the core of the 15-steps allowing a business owner to maximize results in as little time as possible. A business owner does not need to know technical skills, like Web programming, to be successful at SEO. Instead, business owners will rely on their marketing skill and the ability to think like their customers and prospects, versus an ability to write HTML or other form of Web programming. Business owners will learn how to select keywords that are proven performers, blend the keywords into site content, boost site popularity, and more. Woessner explains with precision how business owners can use SEO to achieve measurable results. This practical and tactical guide includes a free SEO toolkit and other valuable resources that will help business owners increase the return on investment generated by their Web sites. Business owners will also receive a detailed blueprint with specific checklists to follow throughout the 15-step process.

Lastly, this book can also serve as an excellent resource to business owners who are considering outsourcing their SEO work to a third-party. Developing a working knowledge of the 15-step process will make any business owner a more informed consumer. This book is also an ideal resource for marketing and advertising agency professionals who want to expand their services and need to develop a proficiency in SEO as efficiently and effectively as possible.

I can’t believe that the competition is almost here! It has been a long, and sometimes stressful, seven weeks getting ready for Saturday night (November 28th). Katie and I have worked hard on our Paso Doble and Samba routine. And we could still use help with sponsorships. Remember, every dollar you sponsor us with counts as an additional point in our overall score. And, every dollar goes directly to the American Red Cross. Just download our poster and fill out the sponsorship form or call the Red Cross at 608.788.1000 to sponsor Katie and me. We would greatly appreciate your help!

So, some people have asked me where the “Google Guru” thing came from. I actually got the nickname from a reporter with Wisconsin Public Radio who interviewed me shortly after the publication of my book The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization. Apparently the nickname is catchy because it stuck! And I confess…I kind of like it!

After the Dancing with the La Crosse Stars competition, I will post some videos and other behind-the-scenes photos. I am so excited for Katie and I to get on stage but really nervous too. Being in front large groups of people and giving a speech or teaching a class is comfortable for me…but thinking about doing the Samba in front of 900 people is starting to make my stomach turn. What did I get myself into?

But Katie has been a great teacher. I could not have asked for a better partner. She is outstanding and has worked hard to prepare me well for the competition. I just need to trust in all of our prep work and that will give me the confidence I need to keep from tripping over myself! Saturday night is going to be so much fun. I am really looking forward to it…but will be very relieved when it is over, too.

The UW-Madison participants were exceptional! They asked some tremendous questions and the discussion was very productive. For example, several of the business owners in the group were gracious enough to allow me to use their Web sites as tangible examples. And during the process, we uncovered a couple of optimization problems with one of the Web sites. These problems were likely causing problems as Google attempted to index the site’s content. The problems were simple fixes and will lead to dramatically improved Google rankings. This provided the group with great hands-on examples of my 15-step SEO process. And I enjoy making these live SEO sessions as practical and tactical as possible.

My UW colleagues (left to right: Tara, Julie, and Barry) at the UW-Madison Small Business Development Center run a top notch business education program within the Wisconsin School of Business. The room was packed with about 30 business owners and managers from the Madison area. The group asked about 50-60 great questions during the session. Awesome!

And when the class was over, several of the participants asked me to sign their copies of my book. I always get a kick out of doing that! I love it.

And I have been invited to teach the class again in the upcoming spring and fall semesters. It was a great day. Total happiness!

It is so easy for small business owners to learn how to optimize their Web site’s content and produce significant results. What an amazing example of entrepreneurship and creativity!

The story ran today (October 25th) on the front page of the Business Section. The story brought so many people to Amazon.com to check out my book (The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization) that it skyrocketed to the #14 best selling book in its category! Super awesome!.

Read the full story on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Web site.

However, despite the efficiency and effectiveness of my SEO process, I am frequently asked by business owners during my live SEO training programs the following question: “Yeah but Stephen…within your 15-steps, are there any steps you think are the most critical?” And my answer is always the same. Absolutely! In fact, there are three steps within the overall process that focus on optimizing what I call the three most valuable pieces of real estate on any content page. They are: 1) page title, 2) META Keywords, and 3) META Description.

In fact, if you did nothing else after reviewing this post or reading my book, I strongly urge you to optimize your page titles, META Keywords, and META Descriptions on each page you plan to leverage as part of your strategy to bring more traffic to your Web site. Based on my experience, you will be much farther ahead than the vast majority of your competitors by taking advantage of this real estate.

So what are page titles, META Keywords, and META Descriptions? And where can you find them?

Page Title

The page title is the white text over the blue background in the upper left corner of your browser window. It doesn’t matter if you are using Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. The position of the page title is the same. And it is possible to place the most searched keywords inside the page title so instead of reading something generic like “Company XYZ’s Services”, the page title should include keywords relevant to the specific content of the page. Google also uses a content page’s page title to create the link it displays within its search results. By including most searched keywords related to content page within your page titles, you are making the link to your Web site more attractive for users to click on when they see it within Google’s search results. Including keywords within your page title helps Google rank your content page higher and you increase your opportunity to attract more visitors to your Web site. A nice double bonus!

META Keywords Field

The META Keywords field is part of the HTML source code within a content page. It was very common in the past for business owners and Web developers alike to put 20, 30, or as many 50 keywords inside the META Keywords field in an effort to make a content page rank well for everyone. This tactic does not work at all anymore. Google wants specific content pages (See step 9 of my 15-step process) versus pages that try to be everything to everyone. Consequently, you should reuse the same most searched keywords from the page title by placing them directly into the META Keywords field. This accomplishes two things: 1) it further clarifies the theme of the content page for Google and 2) it creates keyword repetition and consistency, which are extremely important to Google. Some participants in my live SEO training programs have questioned whether or not the META Keywords field is even relevant anymore. I always affirm that yes it is, when it used properly. Syncing the META Keywords field with the page title is the perfect strategy.

META Description Field

The META Description field is the final piece of valuable real estate. Writing a quality META Description is critical because Google uses this content to create the little snippet of text displayed underneath the various links within its search results. A properly formatted META Description should be 23 words or less and repeat the same search keywords used within the page title and META Keywords field.

So why are the three pieces of real estate so critical to your success? Because these are the first places that Google looks when “indexing” or cataloging your content pages into their database. Placing keywords into these fields gives Google an immediate overview of what a particular content page is about. And because Google values these fields so highly, it uses the keywords found there to create the search results it displays. And then searchers see the keywords within the Google results because the words are bolded within the links and snippet descriptions. So next time you do a Google search, pay attention the links and the description snippets. I suspect you will uncover some opportunities and see how easy it would be to jump past your competitors in Google’s rankings.

Selecting the Most Searched Keywords

Now, there’s one more thing. Selecting keywords that deliver proven results is the critical first step to this process. If you use the wrong keywords, you will be wasting your time. Chapter 4 of The Small Business Owner’s Handbook to Search Engine Optimization will walk you step-by-step through the keyword selection process so you never waste time optimizing content around ineffective search keywords. Only select search keywords that are proven performers!

I wish you the best of success!