One shortcut is ‘external endorsements’, because what someone else says about you is more convincing than anything you say yourself.

1. Use the power of social proof

• If you sell products, you need reviews
• If you sell services, you need testimonials
• If you sell ‘yourself’, you need recommendations e.g. on your LinkedIn profile

2. Use the power of perceived credibility

If you are a member of any trade or professional associations, use their logos on all your marketing. For example, we are more likely to choose a builder who is a member of the Federation of Master Builders than one who is not. People don’t often check whether the criteria for membership is stringent or not.

3. Use the power of prizes

If you’ve ever won any relevant awards, crow about them. Winning – or even being nominated – makes people think you must be good (they rarely dig deeper to find out how rigorous the conditions of entry may be).

I took this screenshot when my book was ranked 4th (unfortunately I didn't think to take one when it was 3rd)

And that’s my cue to brag that my Little Fish Guide to Networking was recently nominated for a Small Business Trends 2012 Business Book Award. It peaked at 3rd place and ended up 11th in the marketing category, with a staggering 460 votes. Although I just missed out on receiving an award, I thank everyone who voted for their support.

What’s more, I’ve just been upgraded to Diamond membership level on Ezine Articles. This is a status that cannot be bought and can only be earned by sending in high quality articles. Only a small fraction of their thousands of authors ever obtain this level.

Hopefully, this kind of external endorsement helps to convince you that I know what I’m doing (and therefore that it’s worth paying me to do stuff for you or recommending me to people you know).

What can you tell potential clients about your own work?

The first web developers were mostly techie, and created sites that worked but maybe didn’t look very pretty. Then creative web designers got involved, and built sites that looked great but maybe weren’t as effective as they could be. For example, splash pages coded in Flash that can’t be read by search engines or on mobiles, and that meant one extra click for human visitors before they can even enter the site, which of course is an opportunity to lose them.

Now, web marketers and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) experts influence site design to ensure the structure is simple and easy to navigate, the code compliant, the layout clean and clear, and the copy informative, keyword-rich and with strong calls-to-action.

With the explosion of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn since 2009, businesses need to include ‘added value’ content as well as ‘salesy’ content, in the hope that it will be shared throughout the social media community.

So now it’s important to have a blog as well as, or even instead of, a website. This keeps the content fresh and helps with SEO, as well as demonstrating your brand personality and proving your expertise to human visitors.

What’s more, clients are increasingly demanding the right to do their own updates without paying professionals every time something changes, so Content Management Systems (CMS) and blog sites built on platforms such as WordPress or Joomla are increasingly popular.

But even that is changing.

As a business, you want to get found on search, and Google is still the number 1 search engine, with YouTube (owned by Google) as number 2.

Google launched Google+ in June 2011, with business pages from November 2011 and ‘Search Plus Your World’ in January 2012. This new personal search option means that Google will return different search results when you’re logged in, based on the +1s of you and your network. That’s why Google wants to know you you’re connected with, so it’s wise to open a Google+ account and start putting your friends into ‘circles’. And it’s why you need to be clicking the +1 button on all the web pages you like from now on.

So what’s coming next?

Small businesses should take a lesson from the world’s biggest brands. Their websites don’t even try to sell to new customers these days. Instead, they offer interaction to increase the loyalty of their existing customer base. For example, Innocent Drinks has a whack-a-mole-style game where you smash fruit with a mallet to fill a juice carton.

You can use ideas like this to inspire your own website. Express your unique brand personality to filter out anyone who’s not your target market, add video to keep site visitors engaged, and include games and added-value content for sharing.

For help with your web and social media content, email me or phone 0845 899 0258.

1. Log in to your Facebook account.

2. Click the little down-pointing triangle in the top right corner of the screen and click ‘Account settings’.

3. Click ‘Notifications in the left hand navigation.

4. Click ‘Edit’ on the right hand side of each item listed e.g.

5. Click the little envelope above the ticklist / checklist so all boxes are unticked / unchecked, then click ‘Save changes’ e.g.

6. Repeat for every item on the Notifications list (16 at the time of writing).

It may be a hassle but it’s worth it!