There are a number of factors that go into web design, including why are you building the web site? That’s first and foremost. Why? To sell something? An online brochure?

It can not be all things to all people because it will end up being nothing to anyone.

In an upcoming session in Orlando, we will be examining websites for design flaws. But luckily we will tell you how to improve it!

What does that mean?

The idea of job security is ended. The responsibility for job security, income, benefits and retirement will be solely in the hands of the workers from now on.

Whether you intended to be a Freelancer or not, you will need to make decisions and embrace the path of a freelancer to find some success.

Register for the Lunch 2.0 talk on March 10 here.

I find that if I don’t carefully monitor my social media time, I can quickly have 30 tabs open in Firefox and be lost for hours replying, commenting, reading, re-tweeting, until the morning or afternoon is gone and I have to get in fireman costume to get any real work done.

And notice that much of that is just following links and reading the feed. There’s a lot of information out there. I’m slowly learning how to scan and move along. While I am not sure what I expected from Buzz, I do know that it is becoming like Posterous. People are using Buzz as an aggregation of all of their social media interactions – tweet, blog, yadda yadda. Whereas I was looking for a filter to get less noise, I know get more noise from each person I follow.

I have to wonder, what are these people thinking?

Sally Hogshead, the author of Fascinate, noted this, “In an attempt to be all things to all people, most brands end up being nothing to anyone.”

Take a moment to think about that.

Why is that? Let’s take a look at Oil of Olay. Back in the day I worked for Richard-Vicks Research just as Proctor&Gamble acquired them. At the time, there was only the pink bottle of Oil of Olay. We were working on the first non-pink version, Young Oil-Free, which was removing the coloring and re-formulating it without oil. At the same time, we were working on a clear, colorless eye conditioner. And so began the expansion of the Olay Brand. Today, there is about 8 feet of shelf space in Publix of Olay products. They have diluted the brand to the point that no one even knows what product to buy. I watched two women look at a few bottles each and end up choosing none.

Social Media is a great platform for Personal Branding. However, I see that people want to be all things to all people. They want their message to be seen by all people. They want that message populated across all networks because someone may miss it.

Trust me on this: most of the messages (blog, tweet, whatever) are not so significant that everyone has to see it. I get to see it for many people at least twice a day – the same tweet or update – and it is tiresome.

Most of this noise isn’t even a conversation, but a broadcast. It’s a news update from your own station.

It’s not even a conversation starter. It’s Advertising. Why do I say that? Because it’s “look at me!” “look at me!” We need less of that.

I know that there is some overlap in my social networks – LinkedIn, twitter, Facebook, Buzz, etc. I do know that my goal on each is very different. On LinkedIn, it’s all business. LI is my rolodex and my resume. Twitter is about news and connecting with others in the industry. It’s a news feed as well as a place to have a fascinating conversation. Facebook is where you go if you want to see a more personal view, but I rarely connect with folks on FB and LI anymore. I push everyone to LI. In most cases, I don’t need to know that much info about someone I do business with. Remember how your mother said not to talk about politics and religion at dinner? There’s a reason for that – even moreso today in our very much polarized world.

So what does all this rambling mean? What is your goal on each network? Is it to be like Guy and broadcast your message across all platforms to every single set of eyeballs?

As Steve Tingiris of Enthusem.com told me, we are at a point when the marketing is getting closer to one-to-one. If that is so, why are people still trying to puke on the masses? They are listening less and less. (See Deanna’s stats from Spike Jones at Social Fresh Tampa: “76% of people think that companies lie in advertising. 77% Percent of people trust companies less than they did a year ago.”)

I would venture to guess that your message could be better targeted as well. It’s easier to broadcast across all streams, but what is your goal? Who are you targeting and why? And where are they? And why are they there?

Why blog?

A bunch of reasons including to demonstrate your subject matter expertise; for publicity (PR); to become a Trusted Advisor; for reputation; or to just be heard.

In general, you blog for marketing.

A side effect of blogging (and other social networking) is SEO (search engine optimization) – or at the very least, search engine results. If you create enough organic, genuine content around your subject or topic (or keyword), the search engines will ikely find it (eventually). The more content and the more frequent you create content, the better your search results. So blog often.

That idea can be a service, product, a goal or an actual idea.

It only spreads if it is worth talking about. To spread it, you have to tell a story. You only get to tell the story to people who are listening to you.

Who is actually listening to you? Why are they listening? What story are you telling them?

Seth Godin talks about ideas that spread at TED Talks.

1. quite a few people do not have the skills for today’s knowledge economy

2. our education system doesn’t equip students with employment skills

We live in an Outsourcing environment. Companies are downsizing, but are also hiring contractors and consultants to fill needs and get projects done. We are moving to a world of Freelancers.

This is scary for many people because there is no job security in freelancing. There are no vacation and health benefits. And you have to sell yourself! That’s the scariest part. It’s like being on job interviews all the time.

Let me tell you something: as a W-2 (employee) you don’t have job security either. But you do have the illusion of it that let’s you sleep at night. Benefits are even being cut to the retirees! What? you put in your 20 years and along comes a benefits cut! BAM! What now?

Americans rely on the state and federal governments for too much. And the taxpayers get mad when the budget skyrockets. The government back stops insurance, banking, education, infrastructure, the military, etc. It can’t do that forever. You will need to take some responsibility for it yourself.

As we move into the Era of Freelancers, you will need to keep current on your industry as well as on skills. For instance, as a web designer you have to keep up on CSS, Java, PHP, .NET, etc. As a graphic artist, you have to keep up on Adobe products, but also mobile web sizing.

Many businesses will be relying on the skills of freelancers – consultants, contractors, 1099’s – for long term and short term projects, goals and skills.  The soon you get used this idea the sooner you can start planning for it.

1. What marketable skills do you have (what’s your cash machine)?
2. How will you market those skills?
3. What training do you need to stay current (or certified)?
4. What conferences do you need to attend to stay current and noticed?
5. What are you passionate about?
6. How will you Crush It?
7. How do you become a Linchpin in your niche?
8. Think about the Brand Called You!

Seth Godin would say that is your lizard brain yelling at you. It’s creating excuses, throwing up obstacles. I say, “Just do it.”

You can’t write, but you can if you practice. You can if you are writing about something you believe it. (You believe in your company’s products and services, I hope.)

You have to make time. Marketing costs money or time. Either hire a marketing firm or schedule some time – regular appointments when you are freshest is best.

What do I write about? I have answered this numerous times. Tell stories about your customers, your community, your industry, your employees, your charity. What do you talk about at networking events? Write a short post about that. (It’s a place to start!)

You are a lousy writer – now. With practice (and maybe some editorial help) you will get better. But to do that you have to get started!

If you don’t want to write — audio and video work too!

Maggie Fox is the keynote at Social Fresh Tampa today. And she is talking about ways to broadcast. Big Brands only understand advertising, so social media becomes another vehicle for advertising. Her formula is to combine Earned PR with Paid Advertising and syndicate it through the Brand’s channels.

It’s not a big concept. It’s just using an Earned piece of publicity and re-purposing it over and over. Syndication means that your company – every company – is now a media organization. You have a chance to control the message — in a way. (On social networks, you only have the illusion of control.)

Best quote from one panel: “Advertising is the tax your business pays for being unremarkable.”

The other way to use social networks is to engage your marketplace. Listening is the important first step. The second step is to create compelling content. The final step is to engage your audience. Interact with them.

My rule of thumb is re-tweet two tweets; tweet two interesting(and hopefully original) items; and reply to two things daily.

The number of followers is irrelevant (unless you are a Big Brand). It’s the number of listeners that you have that is significant.

Give them something to listen to. Give them something to repeat.

Tell them a story about you, your product or service, your employees, your charity, your customers. That’s human interest.

You need to be a story-teller and a good listener.

If you are a small business, you probably want the second way. If you are a big Brand, you are probably trying to figure out how to capitalize on the first way (Earned+Paid+Syndication). It boils down to advertising versus WOM. Word-of-Mouth is the friend of small business.

Here are the Top 3 Online marketing Assignments

1. Have an overall plan for the entirety of your online marketing.

2. Have a plan of attack for each platform.

3. Execute by scheduling time.

In some ways, all of your online messages should be aimed at one theme. An editorial calendar to let you know that in January you will be talking about this one subject or charity or purpose all month in some way across the online world. In February or in the second quarter, it can be another theme or subject or case study. Or it can be the same one all year long.

Note: You want to be speaking about the same keywords across all platforms to tie you to that keyword. (Usually we call this SEO, search engine optimization).

When you have disparate internet properties – more than 1 domain name for example or you blog on wordpress – you have to find a way to tie the properties together. Maybe it’s a blog roll box, a contact page, an about us page, a where-to-connect box, etc.

Note: This is linking it all together. Your theme based on keyword(s) will tie it all together.

Many companies want to be everything to everybody. That’s fine if you are GM, Subway, Nike, Coke or McDonalds – and have their marketing budget. But you don’t. So the more finely tuned your message is, the better.

The more targeted your message is to a very specific audience, the cheaper and easier it is to market to that niche.

I ended up coining this term during a twitter discourse with Jim Alexander (@tweetmaker) about whether or not this practice was good or not, and whether it should be transparent.  The point about social media that I like is that it needs to be both authentic and transparent.

Apparently, many companies hire tweet-makers like Jim to do all of their social media for them. If it is not disclosed, when (not if) it comes out, you will have lost some integrity.

Consumers understand that press releases are written by a firm.  Customer service can be done by an outsourced company – as long as the company is actually delivering service (which today sadly doesn’t happen enough). There are other tasks that can be outsourced.

But the conversation that you have with your customers, the dialog that builds a relationship, should be authentic. And by that I mean, it needs to come from a stakeholder – an employee, an owner, a shareholder, even the owner’s spouse. That’s the voice of the business.

When the CEO hires someone to blog for him, why bother?Just issue press releases. It’s about the same idea. The good blogs from executives offer insight, a story, a look inside, a personal touch. A good example is the Bear on Business blog from Zayo CEO Dan Caruso.

Do you think that Steve Jobs can hire someone to do the Apple presentations? Nope. The Mac-heads would freak out. Their relationship with Apple and Jobs is what gives the company that cult-like feel.

Do you think that Tony Hsieh at Zappos could have outsourced his social media and still built a $1B business?

Dell could probably have outsourced their Outlet twitter sales, but I bet it wouldn’t have worked as well or been tracked as accurately.

Can Rubbermaid outsource its forums and blogs? Probably not because it’s the tone and voice (and continuity) of the blog that keeps readers coming back. They come for the story from the storytellers that they know.

There’s the other side of the coin: companies complain that they don’t do social media because they can’t control the message. How do you control the message by outsourcing it?

I will say that in relationship building, it would be difficult to outsource. And the relationship would be damaged when it comes out that the conversation wasn’t with the manager at company X but their social media mercenary. And it will come out. We live in an age where privacy is disappearing more and more every day. It’s just a matter of time before that brand gets damaged due to a lack of transparency or authenticity.

And for Jim who says that his small business clients can’t find the time: I call bull sh!t. Employees are on social networks all day anyway. As a SM mercenary, my job is to get them all to spend 15 minutes per day on social networks for the good of the company. That’s a little harder than just doing it for them, but you can fish for someone or you can teach them how to fish.  (Of course, there’s more money in just fishing for them).

At the very least, these social media mercenaries need to be transparent. There needs to be a disclaimer that it is the agency not the actual company.

Would you hire someone to go to a business networking event for you? “Hey, Jim, here’s $40, go to the Hotspaces event and meet people for me and collect business cards. Hey, give them my card too.”

Would you hire a stand-in for a cocktail party?  These are the analogies I hear for social networks – cocktail parties and online networking events. How do you substitute?