For months now I’ve been watching how I and others use mobile devices. I see iPads everywhere I go: one mom I know, for example, answers her email and reads online magazines while at our kids’ fencing lessons. One of my clients is now using hers for mobile banking. I even heard one story of a symphony conductor who put his sheet music on his iPad!

And, as I’ve posted before, I use my iPhone for everything but a phone.

When I read Christina “CK” Kerley’s report about the Mobile Revolution and B2B, and then heard Pauline Jakober of Group Twenty Seven say that she’s now targeting PPC campaigns for mobile, everything “clicked.” (It was one of those “goosebumps” kind of moments when you know you’ve hit a good story.)

Despite the proliferation of mobile, too often content is very un-mobile friendly. A site either doesn’t lend itself to the small screen and the content is very hard to read, the clueless company is still using Flash (rolling my eyes), or I can’t “expand” the page in order to view the copy in a larger font.

For these reasons and more, I installed the nifty WPTouch Plugin for WordPress. This plugin makes your WordPress site and/or blog mobile friendly. I love it!

This is what my home page looks like on the iPhone using the plugin. (The plugin allows users to turn the mobile theme off — you just scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the option.)

But after hearing Pauline talk about mobile, I realized I needed to go one step further: I added a “mobile friendly version” link to my e-newsletter which went out July 1. I placed it at the top of the newsletter so that those people reading it on a smart phone would see it first thing. Here’s how it looked on the iPhone:

If you click the link, you get this nice mobile-friendly version:

When I checked my e-newsletter stats, I was pleasantly surprised to see that of the people who opened my e-newsletter, 28.6% clicked through to the mobile-friendly version. This made me go “hmmmmmm.”

What are the key take-aways?

You must seriously consider how your content looks on mobile devices — My bank, for example, doesn’t have a mobile friendly site, and when I lost my debit card, I had to wait over an hour until I was back at home as I couldn’t access their site or phone numbers from my phone. Grrrrrrrr.

Building your site in Flash is totally stupid and a complete waste of money — I had a small business call with the typical, “I’m not getting any leads from my site” complaint. Well, duh. One of your problems is that it’s in Flash. You can’t view it on Apple mobile devices nor can you optimize it.

Tablet use is soaring — You can track which mobile devices people are using via Google Analytics. Click the “Visitors” report, then Mobile, then Mobile Devices. For my site, iPad use outstrips smart phone use. That makes me go “hmmmmmmm,” too.

What’s your experience with mobile-friendly — or not so mobile-friendly — content? What are you doing to ensure people can access and read your content?

(iPhone images courtesy of my Geek Son. He has the iPhone 4 while I’m still stuck with the lowly 3GS. )

Bloggers (well-known and not so well-known) are prime influencers in your market. Although a blogger may not use your product or service, he or she may track influential trends, companies and events. Get on a blogger’s radar — and follow a few simple rules — and you can easily build a relationship and garner some favorable press.

So how do you win the ear of influential bloggers in your market? I put this question to Mary Sullivan of SHIFT Communications, a PR firm with offices in Boston, San Francisco and New York.

Sullivan is a senior account executive with the firm and the only PR person whose emails land in my Gmail Priority Inbox — which is saying a lot. I receive dozens of pitches each week, all of which end up in the “everything else” part of my inbox, which is basically the “delete without reading” section.

(Priority Inbox is Gmail’s relatively new tool that sorts your emails, separating the most important from the rest, based on your usage patterns. It’s what has motivated me to provide quality, targeted content — but that’s another post!)

According to Sullivan, your messages have to be targeted and genuine to get a blogger’s attention — as most of us are great BS detectors and can spot a “dash and blast” email a mile away. Sullivan recommends that you use whatever tools you have to customize each message to each individual blogger.

Yes, this means you actually have to get to know individual bloggers.

Because individual pitches take more time, Sullivan makes sure she’s cultivating the right bloggers. In deciding whom to pitch, she reads each blogger’s most recent posts and selects (or not) based on what she sees.

When she finds a blogger she wants to engage, her account team follows the blogger’s posts and looks for opportunities to comment and add value. Over time, she and the blogger develop a mutually beneficial relationship: She adds value to the blog by engaging in conversation, providing information, and even (indirectly) generating blog topic ideas. In return, the blogger learns more about the products or services Sullivan promotes and may choose to write about them.

Sullivan prefers Twitter, blogs and LinkedIn as relationship building tools for her B2B clients over Facebook.

What methods have you tried to win the attention of bloggers? What’s worked and what hasn’t? Leave your comment below.

Full disclosure: Neither Mary Sullivan or SHIFT Communications asked me to write this article nor was I paid to do so. Eloqua is SHIFT’s client. I have written and Tweeted about Eloqua’s content in the past because I think they produce content that’s relevant and helpful to marketers. (Especially loved their Wikipedia Grande Guide.)

One of the big mistakes I see companies make with Web content is using the wrong font size and color.

I’m referring specifically to fonts that are small, a very light color, reversed out, or placed on a tinted background — as these screen shots show. (Note: I randomly chose these examples by doing a search for “mission statement customer service.”)

An example of small, gray type

An example of colored type on a tinted background

An example of reversed out type

What’s the problem with using these types of font sizes and colors?

They lower reader comprehension. In plain English, it means that people have a hard time reading your message.

The late Colin Wheildon did groundbreaking research into which typefaces and page layouts reduce or improve reader comprehension with regard to print. This research, which you can find in the book, Type and Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes, also applies to the Web.

Wheildon proved, for example, that text printed in black received a 70% level of comprehension and that a muted color (such as grey) received only a 10% level of comprehension.

Wheildon also tested comprehension with regard to printing text on colored backgrounds. He ran a number of tests using different colors and tints, but generally, results proved that the lighter the background tint and the darker the type (e.g. black), the higher the level of comprehension.

As stated in the book, “designers often claim that reversed out type . . . grabs readers’ attention and forces them to read the text.” Wheildon’s research showed the exact opposite. “When type was reversed, comprehension levels plummeted.”

Text printed black on white had a 70% comprehension level. White text printed on black had a zero level of comprehension. In fact, 80% of study participants said that reversed out type “vibrated . . . which made the lines of type seem to move and merge into one another.” (Reminds me of motion sickness — ugh!)

What does all this research mean? It means that if people can’t read or comprehend your message, they won’t understand what you’re offering. In effect, you’re making it twice as hard for people to take the next step in the buying process.

I’m not saying that your Web pages should be devoid of graphical elements or that you should never use color or reversed out text. What I am saying is that you should consider formatting your pages to make them easy to read:

• Use white backgrounds and black text to significantly improve reader comprehension.
• Use a font size of 9 or above — Remember, not everyone knows how to adjust font size using browser tools.
• Increase “leading” — Leading refers to the space between lines of type. A little more leading makes things easier to read. As you can see right here, the leading in these bullet points is less than the leading in the paragraphs above. Which is a little easier to read?
• Avoid large blocks of text — Reading text online is exhausting and hard on the eyes. Make it easy for people to skim by breaking up large blocks of text into smaller chunks. Sub-heads, bullets, bolding and smaller paragraphs improve readability.

Edmond Arnold, the father of newspaper design, said to “start with good typography — the kind that best suits the reader.” What works best for print also works best for the Web.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree and why?

I first came across San Jose Plumbing when I was part of a Twitter Follow Friday. I tweeted about their social media approach, they featured my tweet on their Facebook page, and soon after Carol Stephen, the voice behind San Jose Plumbing, and I connected by phone.

San Jose Plumbing got on my radar because of the content being posted: lots of relevant how-to stuff.

Owner and plumber Robie Dobkins started the business in 2007, focusing on commercial properties and re-piping services. Like many small business owners, Dobkins soon realized he would rather focus on his trade than tweets. As his business grew, he hired Carol Stephen of Your Social Media Works to manage his company’s Facebook and Twitter accounts and to develop a social media marketing strategy.

What I like about Stephen’s approach is that she’s emphasized research over content creation. She searches the web for interesting links and adds a San Jose Plumbing twist — keeping the content fresh and interesting.

For example, I love this Facebook post, with an accompanying video, about how to change a shower head. (Video posted below.)

Thanks to Stephen’s efforts, San Jose Plumbing’s Facebook page and Twitter account (@sanjoseplumbing) are a watering hole for contractors, businesses and clients. It’s a source of information on plumbing, household maintenance and repair, and company news. Throughout, Stephen’s sense of humor keeps it light and fun.

Their unique approach has won them many Facebook “likes” and Twitter followers, and they were especially excited when renovation and repair expert Bob Vila (@BobVila) started following them on Twitter.

San Jose Plumbing’s Facebook post caught my attention because I need a new shower head and couldn’t figure out how to remove the old one. Secret tip: use a towel!

I attended the SEMNE meeting last night that featured Eric Enge of Stone Temple Consulting. Eric talked about the ramifications of Google’s Panda Update.

You can read the various points he made. (The link goes to the Twitter search results for the hashtag #semne — if you can’t see anything, just go to Twitter and use #semne in your search.)

Suffice to say, the key takeaway is this: Unique content written by people for people AND NOT SEARCH ENGINES is key. What is unique content? It’s content that:

1. Isn’t a rehash of crap that already exists.

2. Isn’t stuffed full of keywords.

3. Answers people’s questions — whether they’re making a purchase decision or writing a paper.

Google is getting much smarter (and I think with Larry Page back in the CEO seat, we’ll be seeing even more changes like the Panda Update as Google refines its core product: search). All kinds of things, from social media signals to whether people have blocked a site using the Google Chrome extension, now play into how a site ranks.

What all this means for B2B is that your content must be fresh, clean, and unique. According to Enge, Google’s Panda algorithm is going to become much, much smarter and pretty soon it’s going to be knocking smaller crappy sites off the top positions for many of the same reasons that it bumped off eHow.com and Ezinearticles.com. (As my clients know, I have never advocated adding spammy, half-baked articles to sites like these for SEO or marketing purposes).

Jill Whalen is forever saying that content that’s good for people is good for search engines. Write great content — or get someone like me to write it for you — and you won’t ever need to worry about things like the Panda Update. You’ll also increase conversions and sales.

I read an article in a newsletter recently that stated marketers should ensure their most important message appears at the top of a Web page as Google cuts off search results after a short number of words.

I know for a fact that search engine bots “read” and cache all of the information on a page because I’ve seen my own “bottom of the page” content in the SERPs.

However, things change all the time, so I checked this dubious fact with my good friend Jill Whalen, founder of High Rankings. Here’s Jill’s response verbatim:

Wow, that’s straight out of the 1995 SEO handbook. There are no rules when it comes to the search engines in terms of number of words or [their] placement on the page. Whatever is best for people is typically best for search engines since they’re looking for the best pages for their users (the searchers).

There you have it! To see how Google does view your page, you can do the following exercise:

1. Run a search for your company name. Your company should be #1. (If not, call me!) Click the “Cached” link on your listing.

2. This brings you to Google’s “Snapshot” of your page. Here you can see when Google last crawled your site — always handy information to have. Click the “Text-Only Version” link in the top right corner.

3. This brings you to a new page that shows you how Google’s bot sees your page. You should see lots of yummy text for the bot to crawl — and index.

Seeing this page should make it very clear why copy that’s good for people (your prospects and customers) is also good for search engines.

Don’t see any text or you want to create more of it? You can call me about that, too. I write damned good optimized Web content that shows up in search engines and that gets your prospects to call you.

I’ve spent a lot of time of late adding followers to clients’ Twitter accounts and RSS feeds to Google Reader. (Be sure to read my post about why Google Reader should be your BFF in terms of managing the content tsunami we’re all dealing with.)

Here’s what I’ve learned from doing this somewhat tedious but important work: For companies actively participating on social media platforms and who want to help people follow their brands, social icon placement needs to be standardized much the same way Website navigation is now standard.

(I’m purposely not covering those companies who lack a social presence but place icons in the hope that people will tweet / Like their content. That’s a whole other article.)

In short, social media icons need to be part of a site’s universal navigational structure AND they need to be placed at the top of each page on the site.

Why?

1. Due to search, people don’t always come to a site via the home page. If your icons are placed only on the home page (or worse, on your PR page or “Contact Us” page or some other obscure place), no one will find them.

2. If I’m a prospect, I may want to learn more about a company by passively following via Facebook or Twitter. Making it so that social icons are easily found makes it easier for people to follow you and begin the engagement process.

3. For people like me who are helping clients build their online brand / presence, following industry influencers, players, journalists, etc. is important. I want to be able to go to a site, find those icons and get back out. I don’t want to have to scroll up and down a page hunting for tiny icons.

Once I realized the importance of where social icons are placed on a page, I moved mine from the middle of my site’s sidebar to the header.

(Also note that my phone number is at the top of every page. This makes it easy for people using smart phones to call me — all they have to do is touch my phone number, which appears as a link on a smart phone. No searching around my site for a “Contact Me” page. It’s little things like this that make your brand / Website “people friendly.” Trust me.)

You can also do a “Social” tab the way Food Processing does. I like how this organization created a drop down menu that shows links to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Click on each link and you get taken directly to the social page. Easy!

What do you think? Take my Twtpoll or leave your comments below.

This is the second in a series of occasional posts about small business owners in my community who embody the idea of being a “Linchpin” as defined by Seth Godin in his book, Linchpin.

I’m fortunate enough to live near the Atlantic coast, which means one thing: fresh fish from Gloucester. I’m even more fortunate that I can purchase my fish from a fishmonger. (Ok, yes! I love it that I can use the word “fishmonger” in a blog post. )

Family-owned and operated by the brother and sister team of Jennifer Donahue and Mark Donahue, Donahue’s Fish Market was started by Jennifer and Mark’s father in 1970 when he began selling seafood from the back of a truck.

What I love about Jennifer and Mark — and their employees — is that they take the time to talk to you. In the years I’ve been purchasing my fish from them, I’ve learned the differences between wild and farm-raised salmon, how much fish to serve per person, how to cook fish and the government regulations regarding commercial fishing.

Technology replaces local knowledge
Just a few weeks ago, Mark spent about 15 minutes explaining to me how he now buys fish. In the old days, a fishmonger relied on his knowledge of the environment, weather, the local fishing industry and the individual fishermen when it came to buying fish. Mark said, for example, that you knew when the boats were going out and that if a boat were out for too long the fish might not be as fresh.

Now, however, technology has replaced the “old ways.” To purchase fish, Mark and others “bid” on lots of fish via an online lottery — which means he drives to Gloucester with a laptop. He has no idea who caught the fish or what the fish look like. He also has no idea who he’s bidding against — but the bidding does include the “big boy” supermarkets, which drives up the cost of fish.

And, because you can now buy your fish at a supermarket, people don’t want the inconvenience of making a separate stop at an establishment like Donahue’s. They also don’t know the difference between fresh fish and supermarket fish. (The difference is that supermarket fish is *nasty.*)

Mark said that he sometimes pays more for fish than what he can charge in his shop. He keeps the price as low as he can; to offset the loss, he and Jennifer offer other items. In addition to fish, you can purchase from a limited selection of meats and veges, boxed pasta and rice, coleslaw and other prepared items, and take-out food, such as fish and chips and fish platters.

Donahue’s makes a mean coleslaw
Yes, I pay more for my fish at Donahue’s and yes, I do have to make a separate stop to get it. However, the benefits outweigh these “inconveniences.” One, I get the freshest fish available and two, I’m treated to excellent customer service, which in this day of rudeness run rampant, is worth every penny.

Because they offer other items I’m able to run in on my “rushed” days when I’ve forgotten to take something out of the freezer and buy the components for a complete meal — without having to stand in the long lines at the grocery store.

And, I get the best coleslaw on the planet. I’m serious. I love coleslaw and Donahue’s make the best stuff I’ve ever eaten. I’m addicted to it. When I told Jennifer that one day, she laughed and said, “You’re not the only one.”

Technology has changed how all of us do business — and it’s changed our business relationships. However, what hasn’t gone out of style is old-fashioned customer service and values such as integrity and offering the best of yourself.

Jennifer and Mark are Linchpins because their “art” is providing these things. Be sure and “Like” them on Facebook.

Two weeks ago my Krups coffee grinder bit the dust. I bought it while in college . . . ca. early 1980s. That means I’ve used it, day in and day out, for approximately 28 years.

Once I confirmed that it was truly dead, I immediately made the trek to one of those big box stores to buy a new one, but alas, all they had was a Cuisinart Grind Central(r) Coffee Grinder. Even though I really wanted the Krups, I let myself be sold by one main feature: the Cuisinart can grind enough for 18 cups of coffee!

Except I’ve never had the occasion to make 18 cups of coffee.

But I bought it anyway, because you know, now that I can make all this coffee I can have more friends over to dinner.

It’s an ok coffee grinder, meaning it does its job, but I hate it. It scatters grounds everywhere, it needs constant cleaning and it has too many removable parts. All I really want is a coffee grinder that lets me make my one cup of coffee each day without a lot of trouble and mess.

While cleaning up coffee grounds and mulling over the articles I had just read about social media marketing, I realized that social media hype works the same way. Pick up any publication and you’ll find at least one article on why you and your small business should be using social media.

If you read a lot, you come away feeling anxious because you get the impression that you’re missing out on one giant marketing bonanza: 100 million users on LinkedIn! 500 million on Facebook! 1 billion YouTube views per month!

It’s this anxiety I hear now when prospects call.

Well, here’s the skinny: Just as I don’t need a coffee grinder that makes 18 cups of coffee, if you’re a small business owner or marketer pressed for time (and aren’t we all?), you don’t have to be on every single social media platform nor do you need thousands of “fans” or “followers.” Honest.

If your customers and prospects use Facebook and you yourself love Facebook, then stick with Facebook. If, on the other hand, the bulk of your prospects use LinkedIn but not Twitter and you feel more comfortable on LinkedIn, then make LinkedIn your focus.

Then, work to make connections while creating some solid content on a regular basis. It’s better to go deeper with fewer connections and a couple of white papers or an e-book than it is to constantly post superficial crap to thousands of people who just ignore it.

As for my coffee grinder, I broke down and ordered a new Krups because I miss its simplicity and elegance. The Cuisinart is getting returned.

What’s the ROI of social media? People in B2B ask this question all the time — and rightly so. Spending time on Twitter or Facebook posting things to hundreds or thousands of people you don’t really know does seem like a huge waste of time.

When I need a business product or service recommendation, however, my Twitter network is the first place I turn to — which is what I did last week when I learned that my HP laser printer needed to be replaced.

Within minutes of posting my request for a recommendation, Nathan Dube, aka @DubiousMonk, a salesperson for Expert Laser Services responded.

Nathan and I have been following each other for over a year now (I think we met through @BillyMitchell1). We’ve also connected on LinkedIn. When he initially responded to my request, he had already built social trust with me. In addition, he genuinely wanted to help me versus sell me something. This genuineness came through in the questions he asked to help me determine which printer I needed to buy.

Long story short, Nathan and I connected via email and in short order, he sold me a refurbished printer — one that suits my needs and my budget.

Here is what Nathan did right:

He asked me questions — Rather than “hard sell” me, he asked what I needed and why did I need it.

He gave me alternatives — Sure, he could have sold me a fancy new printer, but I don’t need one. The bulk of my printing is black and white printouts of all the stuff I write (I write a TON of stuff) so that I can proofread it. I don’t need anything fancy. I just need something that works.

He offered to meet me! — Since Nathan’s company is in southern MA and I’m in NH, he offered to ship the printer, but after checking with his manager, said he could meet me half way. Since I had a meeting in MA on Monday, this worked.

Too often companies go for the quick sale. Companies send out bulk emails that sell, sell, sell. Clueless people on Twitter push out impersonal direct messages or respond to requests with a hard-sell, one-size-fits-all approach.

The thing that these people / companies don’t “get” with social media is that when you follow someone (or a brand), you get to know that person over time through tweets, re-tweets, the content they publish and how they interact with others. You may not interact on a daily basis with everyone, but you do get to “know” people. You know who the “good” people are and who you can ignore.

Because Nathan gets it, he made his first direct sale via Twitter. Thanks, Nathan! It was a pleasure meeting you and learning more about you. Loved lunch, too!