Perhaps you’ve heard of it. It’s called the Page Experience Update, and it involves the “core web vitals” that has website owners everywhere scrambling.

The timing for this change is tricky. Just as we’re all emerging from the pandemic in new and more meaningful ways, we all have to pay attention to our websites.

But if you’re like many people I’ve been talking with, you’re probably trying to figure out how to adapt right now… given vaccinations, changes announced by Florida’s Governor, and other factors that are in flux.

Frankly: it’s a perfect storm.

And that’s why we decided to put together an in-person workshop on Saturday, June 5th.

We’ll talk about Google and your online visibility, but more importantly: your strategy.

Even if you’ve updated your marketing strategy in the last year… it’s critical to revisit your plans and check your assumptions about the behavior of the people you’re marketing to.

This isn’t just about digital marketing: it’s about ensuring that your business or organization thrives in this rapidly-changing environment.

And that’s one reason I’ve teamed up with Cassandra Decker for this hands-on workshop. Her background as a cultural economic anthropologist doing research in the field gives her a unique perspective on how to collect the most important data and then turn that data into a compelling story that people respond to. This is something we can all use—both strategically and practically.

We’ve kept the cost low. Breakfast is included. It’s also limited to the first 30 people who register, so please check out all the details here right away.

I’ll hope to see you there!

Oh! If you want to bring a spouse, business partner, or colleague, you can do it for half price.

And Facebook users are paying the price. Unclaimed domains are used daily on the site to promote fake shops, surplus providers and going out of business sales. The practice has increased dramatically since the pandemic lockdowns, costing users countless dollars when items don’t show up on their front porches. And no way to contact to the now non-existent seller.

In 2017, in an effort to curb fake news claims from both major political parties, Facebook introduced domain verification, and outlets claimed their sites were verified and designated by the tiny “i” on the preview Facebook posted. Clicking the “i” offered users a history of the site, the article and a few other details.

They quickly expanded the process to offer it for all websites. Those who claimed their site gained the exclusive ability to manage the image and information offered in a preview post. Now only the verified website owner could make changes to the thumbnail image, article title, and link description when sharing the link to their own Facebook page.

With the impending Apple upgrade to iOs 14, Facebook will utilize Domain Verification to adapt to Apple’s new AppTracking Transparency policy.

Framing the Argument

According to Facebook, iOs 14 will “impact how it receives and processes conversion events from tools like the Facebook pixel. Businesses that advertise mobile apps, as well as those that optimize, target, and report on web conversion events from any of our business tools will be affected.”

In other words, the new AppTracking Transparency will restrict Facebook’s ability to process certain analytics. This data allows Facebook ads to function at the level so many small businesses have taken advantage of. As disastrous as Facebook wants their business users to think the problems will be, it’s really just the latest in an ongoing shift towards privacy and away from data mining.

I talked earlier this month about similar changes that Google is implementing. And the writing’s been on the wall since Europe passed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California followed suit with their Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

As much as we’d all like short cuts and an easier flow, you can no longer rely on the data from the silicon valley giants to make finding & selling to customers easier. The only reliable solution? Have your own website and use content posts to answer questions, establish authority, target and convert your ideal customers. You need to develop a strategic digital marketing approach.

However, social media cannot be ignored. It remains a viable portion of most strategic marketing approaches. This is especially true if Facebook ads figures into your approach – or may in the future. Once the changes go into effect, anyone who advertises on Facebook will need to have verified their domain.

Trust, But Verify

There are three different methods to implement domain verification on Facebook.

1. Add a DNS TXT entry to your DNS record to confirm that you own the domain.
2. Upload an HTML file provided by Facebook to your web directory and confirm domain ownership in Business Manager.
3. Add a meta tag to the <head> section of your domain home page.

Start in Facebook Business Manager. You’ll want to hit the Business Settings button in the upper right corner. Click the Brand Safety tab (right below Data Sources), and select Domains from the expanded left side navigation list.

Click the blue “ADD” button in the middle of the page. In the pop-up add the domain you want to associate to your business. If you have more than one domain listed, select the domain for which you desire to confirm ownership. Choose the method you wish to use to verify your domain: DNS Verification, Meta Tags or the HTML File Upload. Again, you only have to select one.

For DNS Verification:

You’ll need to log in to whatever service you use for hosting. Under the DNS Verification tab on Facebook, you’ll see a unique text record that needs to be copied and pasted into your DNS configuration. Each hosting platform has a slightly different approach, so check if you’re not sure. Once the changes have propagated across your site’s domain servers, you can click the green “Verify” button at the bottom of the DNS Verification area. Tis can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 72 hours. Facebook recommends leaving the DNS TXT entry in place, as verification will be checked periodically.

To Upload an HTML File:

To the right of the DNS Verification tab is the HTML File Upload tab. Click it, then download the HTML Verification file. You’ll need to upload this file to the root directory of your website. Once the upload is complete, you can click the green “Verify” button at the bottom of this section. Just like DNS, Facebook recommends leaving the file in place for future verification checks.

Meta Tag Verification:

Navigate to the Meta Tag Verification tab. Copy the meta tag with your verification code, then paste it into the <head> section of the HTML of your domain home page. Confirm that the meta tag is visible by visiting your domain home page and viewing the HTML source. Once confirmed, click the green Verify button at the bottom of the Meta Tag Verification tab for the selected domain. And, you guessed it, leave it there. Facebook will be checking.

Now you’re all set to keep creating Facebook ads. There are some other restrictions, like number of conversions you’re able to track and new limits to discriminatory data, but once you familiarize yourself with them, you’re good to go.

I cannot stress this enough – Facebook is not an end all and be all for digital marketing. You need a solid strategy to find and attract your best customers. If you’d like help building that strategy, training your team to develop and enhance it, or just ongoing periodic posts to stay on top of the Google algorithm, please reach out.

We built our business helping small businesses build theirs. Let’s Grow The Dream together!

Alan Turing was the mathematician famous for breaking the Nazi’s original Enigma code during World War II. But years after the war ended, he theorized that at some point artificial intelligence would develop the ability to think on its own. He proposed something he called “the imitation game” (yes, also the movie title), where an artificial intelligence could be interviewed blindly and appear to be human. The film Ex Machina also borrowed from this theory.

Despite Turing’s efforts – illustrating nine different significant objections to artificial intelligence – since his death in 1954, scientists and engineers have worked to develop true machine or artificial intelligences. The most recent work has been with neural networks. And they’ve come a long way, at least in theory.

Bert, Engage With Ernie

Back in November of 2018, Google released a new open source algorithm on GitHub. They named it “Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers,” or BERT for short. BERT was a neural network that utilized Natural Language Processing (NLP) to, for all intents and purposes, “learn” users languages.

Essentially, the algorithm, instead of just sending out a search for a string of terms, started looking “both ways.” By examining the search string and trying to determine the relationship between words, it learns what users are ‘really’ searching for, and how they speak.

The BERT neural network algorithm radically improved search results. And the underlying algorithms and updates Google made continued to help BERT learn and improve. Every day, BERT’s ability to understand what it thinks you’re looking for does provide better search results for most people. And it made other aspects of our lives easier too.

Hey, Siri, Call Alexa, Okay, Google?

While SIRI dates back to 2010, a funny thing happened on Christmas morning, 2017. A LOT of people found smart speakers under the tree. Amazon Echo’s, Google Home’s, Google Assistants, and more. And as I talked about in detail last year, these voice-activated personal digital assistants have revolutionized search. Additionally, they “speak” in more normal human language. BERT uses NLP to better comprehend what you’re asking for, calculates the best response, based on its programming and what it knows about you, and spits out a response formatted to sound more human-like.

And while the system is still based on data and number crunching, the algorithm comprehends you, uses its knowledge of you, and answers you. And it’s not giving you a menu of possible answers – it gives one response – or asks for more information. That seems much more like thinking than a lot of people on social media are prone to.

While no one will mistake Alexa or Cortana for being human, they are closer than you may think. In fact, the mechanical sounding voice may be there on purpose to disguise how well they DO understand our queries.

By the time we hit 2020, an estimated 3.25 Billion smart speakers were in use across the globe.

Revolutionizing Marketing Mock-Up

Despite literally hundreds of changes to the Google search algorithms and operations ranking each year, some marketers are still under the impression that keyword farming is the best approach. Keyword farming or blasting is focusing on words and small phrases that identify your business – or at least you think they do. But search engine optimization in the 21^st century is so much more than that. And I hate to keep harping on this, but I still see it happening so much, I want to make things clear.

In the old days of search, search engines, including Google, were limited to offering results that exactly matched the keywords plugged into them. But that changed twenty years ago! The reason Google survived and the majority of other search engines disappeared or were absorbed by companies like Microsoft, is because they actively looked for ways to deliver better search results to the end user.

One of the things that really advanced them ahead in a race they had already jumped several laps ahead in was machine learning. They analyzed what people searched for and why. They realized, as we pointed out nearly 20 years ago, that average people weren’t stringing together keywords. Nor were they always searching for businesses. They were looking for solutions.

A few people search for “obedience schools in my area.” But there are FAR more people searching for “how to stop my dog from barking.” I should also point out that in the past, “in my area” actually meant “in Austin, Texas,” or “in Sarasota, Florida.” But now thanks to BERT, Google understands “in my area” to be literally within a certain area around where you physically are when you ask. You don’t have to specify.

But Wait, There’s More

Before BERT came RankBrain, which analyzed past searches and identifies which words and phrases best match that search, even if they don’t match exactly or have never been searched. It couldn’t understand the context of the search phrase, but could estimate the efficacy of the results. Using that, it “knows” the likelihood of its response being what you were looking for.

And guess what? RankBrain is still in effect. It works both in conjunction with and separately from BERT. By uniting the two algorithms, Google can judge your website – does it answer the question being searched for? Or does it just have a few of the random terms? Guess which one gets top billing on the search results page…

Now, Google is leveraging all of that for its most ambitious new code ever. RankBrain cranked the knob to 9. BERT took it to 11. But this summer, the knob is getting ripped off. Subtle changes are already being rolled out as I type this. But come May 2021, Page Experience takes center stage. Google wants to make sure the search results you get are the best – especially if you leave their page.

So Google will now factor in load speed, size of graphics, responsive design (for mobile access), and most of all – usefulness in your website. A landing page is not good enough. Your design can be simple, but it must be robust and beneficial to the searcher. So the address and phone number of your obedience school and some puppy pictures are not enough.

Now more than ever, YOU NEED CONTENT.

You need to be posting on a periodic basis, value adding content that answers questions your ideal customers are asking. You can start by asking them! You’ll need to develop a profile of that ideal customer – demographics, psychographics, as much specific data as you can muster. You need to speak in a language they understand. And you need to do it again and again and again.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you’re in luck. We’ve built our business helping small businesses find and target those ideal customers. We can help you build a profile or teach you how to begin the process. We also have expert writers on staff who can take your ideal customer, and start answering the questions they’re asking.

So when Google’s bots crawl over your site, they mark it as useful, valuable, essential. We’ve literally had clients who, in just a couple of months, moved to the top of Google search results for their ideal customers. And that was in the old days – now our methods work faster and harder for you.

Let us help you prepare for the new Google rollout, and excel in all of your digital marketing. Please reach out for more details. Let’s Grow The Dream together!

Hope that our nation will heal. Hope of reconciliation in so many areas where we are lacking. Hope that the vaccine will help us return to a state of some normalcy without endangering ourselves, our families and our neighbors.

It’s fitting that the first vaccine, and possibly a second one, is coming out between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanskgiving is a time to reflect on gratitude when many of us were isolated, alone and not feeling very thankful. And Christmas is the time when our country and many of our religious traditions point to the ultimate hope.

This is the time we look to the Christ child and the promise of salvation coming. We celebrate the miracle of the oil, candles illuminating our lives, our homes, and our remembrance of past promises fulfilled. And we come together, as family and friends, whether in person or virtually, to make merry, exchange gifts and prepare for the next year.

It is our fervent desire that, despite this long, troublesome year, you will see and embrace HOPE. In the midst of being with family – or in spite of not being able to come together – we hope you will discover the promises of faith. The joy of the season. And the expectation that as we start a new decade that 2021 will be everything we thought this would be – and more. From all of us here at Grow the Dream, we wish you a very merry Christmas!

Well, they’ve announced major changes coming in May of 2021 – the first time, to my knowledge, that they’ve been quite so open and specific. There have always been changes, some major, more minor, that the geniuses at Alphabet have instituted over the years. The majority have been for the purpose of making Google more valuable – presenting better and more relevant results. This update is different in that respect too. Google appears to be making the changes, not just to bolster their own effectiveness, but to give their users what they want, even if they struggle to express themselves.

It’s a welcome change, if it truly works the way they say it will – one of the biggest hurdles of the Internet these days is just the massive overload of information. It’s harder to find the exact thing you’re looking for, because there’s just so much else out there.

And Google’s efforts so far haven’t really effectively curbed that problem, and often sometimes have even exacerbated it. From AI-aided autocorrecting, to adding additional words to search, to altering the search string based on location and previous user search trends – all of these have backfired at some point. The hope is that the new algorithm roll-out is “smarter” than past efforts and truly helps.

Oh, and some bright news, if you’re like me. When the new update rolls out, Google AMP is going away.

Putting the UX in Crux

If you’re not a retail-oriented business, UX might be a new term for you. But it’s one all small businesses need to learn and understand. UX stands for User Experience and, as I hinted at, comes out of the retail business – previously it was termed CX, or Customer Experience.

But UX is so much more than customer service, store layouts and reward card functionality. Google has already been testing and partially implementing what they call “UX Signals.” When the new rollout hits, they will become Core Web Vitals – and be across the board.

I’m not going to go into the technical details, you can click the link for that, but essentially Google is going to rank higher websites that load faster and more efficiently. And they’re also favoring – no surprise here – sites that work best on mobile devices.

Think with Google found that 39% of people are more likely to browse or shop with a mobile app, while half won’t buy from a poorly designed site. 33% will go somewhere else if they can’t find what they need easily. And 60% will reach out from the search results.

I hope this gets back to some major retail and grocery chains, and most of the restaurants, who, while adapting their apps for COVID-19, have made it nearly impossible to just shop or price compare, without jumping through hoops.

Just as a real world example, I was looking for an app for my iPhone to cast to my GoogleTV. I downloaded maybe a dozen. Of that, two worked – and only after I’d upgraded to the paid version. Statista found that 25% of mobile apps were downloaded and used once before they were abandoned, presumably because of their poor user experience. Rather than continuing to frustrate searchers, those results will drop to the bottom of the search results.

Fighting Over Semantics

As I mentioned earlier, sometimes Google’s attempts to “help” you search just become irritating. The hope is that semantic search can improve on the idea of searching in context, without giving back a lot of useless results.

I talked about the trends briefly a few months back when I discussed how voice search is affecting the questions people want to get answers to. Specifically, even more so than in the past, the average person isn’t searching for a string of keywords and phrases – they’re literally asking questions.

There’s been an 85% increase in searches starting with the phrase “can I.” And the phrases “should I” and “do I need” have both increased by 65%. Conversational questions. And while my Amazon Echo Dot still gets confused when I say “please,” there’s no putting this genie back into the bottle.

Almost 70% of all Google searches, according to Think With Google, are expressed in natural language. And Google execs say that 15% of all of the billions of daily searches are still phrased in new ways. The next step in semantics is not just overcoming bad spelling and grammar, but language barriers. Just watch.

This is the Way

The most interesting development coming out of this Google reworking is that now major SEO companies are turning away from keyword hell and starting to embrace the very principles Grow the Dream has been teaching for almost 25 years.

I’m going to quote from an article, just to prove it’s not me – this is the advice now being given by SEO-based digital marketing companies to their clients.

“First and foremost, how and why do your users search for your content? What answers, information, content, or even experience are your target audiences likely looking for? How can you create authoritative, enriching content to meet the demands of these prospects, customers, clients, and partners?”

If that looks familiar to you, then you’ve been paying attention. That is almost word for word the strategy I have recommended in countless articles, and that we teach every week on our #StrategyStream (when we’re not on holiday hiatus).

When it comes to semantic search, the major SEO companies now recommend people-targeted content that answers questions; topic optimization; and internal linking. Add in measurable results, and you have the Grow the Dream strategic approach in its simplest form. While others are scrambling to catch up and rediscover dwindling organic search results, our clients are still thriving during this economic downturn.

If you’d like help walking through the steps of strategic digital marketing; identifying and targeting your ideal customers; or creating consistent content that draws ideal searchers to your website, please reach out. We’ve built our business and reputation on helping small businesses grow and thrive and we’d love to help you do the same!

So you do your due diligence; pull up a report on what keywords and phrases you’re generating high results for on Google (and maybe Bing). It gets even stranger because the top pages aren’t even ones you or your webmaster built for your website.

The page names consist of phrases that you would not normally associate with your widget business. Or any business that isn’t advertising on adult video sites. Silicon enhancement, erectile dysfunction, testosterone booster… and several others you’d be embarrassed for your parents to see. Let alone your clients!

You’ve. Been. Hacked.

Recently, our friends over at WordFence reported that a vulnerability in the File Manager plugin on WordPress had opened the door for nearly 2-million sites to be attacked. That they know about. And even after a fix was pushed out, almost a third of the sites hadn’t been updated.

We often still cling to the picture of a Hacker from the movies – some black-hat guy, trying to break into the bank or government facility – sometimes even FOR a government facility. But the truth is far more dynamic and often invisible. Rather than using people, much of the hacking itself is now automated.

Millions of bots troll the interwebs constantly, looking for vulnerabilities. And, when they find them, exploiting them. Not to gain backdoor access to the CIA or NSA or Wells-Fargo – but to reproduce and plant traffic-stealing pages on your site…using your bandwidth, often without your knowledge, to generate income.

Every day, we here at Grow the Dream get numerous reports from WordFence about repeated, consistent attacks on the various servers and sites we own and manage. In fact, we connected with WordFence after our own dedicated server was attacked. An attack that resulted in nearly half of our highest ranking pages being, well, not ours.

Pages that promoted male and female enhancement, sex pills, how to manage your Creatine intake if you want to, well, end your date on a high note. Even p***** donation options. And those are the tamest of the group. Believe me, I wish I was just making this up.

It took quite a bit of time, and repeated, systemic deletions of spammable pages before we got it under control. And even now, it looks like business is dropping because those weird pages ranked so high.

Signs of the Crimes

Attackers – especially the bots – work hard to disguise their presence on your server or network. I even read about one particular attack that redirected a business site to a pornographic site – but only if the person clicked through from Google. Not only did the company not see it for some time, they paid a not insignificant amount of money for pay-per-clicks that never even got to their site.

Thankfully, even if you don’t have a staff member or third party monitoring your site, there are some signs of a problem. If your system starts to exhibit unusual patterns of behavior, you’ll want to pay attention. Things like:

• excessive bandwidth use
• strange patterns of network connections
• higher resource use than usual
• strange or inconsistent logins
• new or excessive user accounts
• new plugins you don’t recall installing
• unusual command prompts in the log (watch for wget or curl particularly)
• high network usage by processes – especially those that don’t typically use network bandwidth
• LISTEN for ESTABLISHED connections for various processes – even tame looking ones
• getting blacklisted by Google, MailChimp, AWeber or others

By the way, when was the last time you backed everything up? Don’t neglect this basic maintenance task, or you may have a herculean cleanup to undertake when the time comes.

And don’t make the silly mistake that you always see in movies and TV – trying to out hack the hacker – just unplug your system from the Internet, server, and yes, even power source if you need to.

Have you heard about #StrategyStream? Every Wednesday, we lay out timeless, proven strategic principles for strategic marketing and growing your business. They’re free to join and streamed live from our YouTube channel. Check them out!

“If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it”

As we reflect on the past weeks in our nation’s history, our hearts are heavy with sadness. In the midst of an unprecedented health crisis that has caused so much hardship and pain, so much turmoil and readjustment in the way we live our lives, so much separation and uncertainty… We have been reminded of our nation’s tragic history of racism and violence.

Yesterday, a nation came together with moments of silence, with blacked-out television stations and with a combined sense of devastating loss and glimmering hope, as the family of George Floyd held a memorial service for him. The police officers who apparently caused his death have been arrested and charged. His family is pleading for peace and change… But his family did not just consist of his relatives. It extended beyond blood to a worldwide community of solidarity. That includes the Grow The Dream team.

We mourn not only Mr. Floyd and some of the other members of the Black community who have lost their lives in a senseless and violent fashion. We mourn the fact that so many in the community are hurting; that it is impossible to imagine the fear and discrimination that continues to plague members of the Black community – old and young – some of whom fear to go to the corner store, ask someone to put their dog on a leash or, even, sleep in their beds at night, without thinking of the possibility that they could be a target of vitriol or violence. Those who, due to prejudice and discrimination, are not able to have the opportunities in their lives to which they are entitled.

The crisis of systemic racism in America is something that demands action and attention from all of us. We stand with those who have suffered, directly or indirectly. And we ask for transformative and peaceful solutions that will affirm equality. So that those in the Black and Brown communities can live and raise their families with the peace, safety, opportunities and joys afforded to everyone under the laws of our nation and of God. To ensure that they are afforded the promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” without fear.

This is not a partisan problem – it is a human crisis that demands unity and solidarity.

We must enact change. We must show the haters that love and compassion will always prevail, and that their violence and hatred and bigotry will not be tolerated. Enough is Enough. We must stand together.

And sure, growing up in the Midwest, in the 70’s, that made sense. After all, most people didn’t travel that far for work, school was within walking distance, and, in my case, so was my dad’s side of the family. The town itself was only 25.29 square miles total.

But where did they get that story from? Looking it up online, I found several references to 69% of accidents occurred within a 10 miles radius of your home. 51% within 5 miles. But while the numbers quoted always referenced the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), no such data was collected by them after 2008. In fact, despite those numbers being quoted in several places, I could find no evidence that the NHTSA had *ever* gathered and collated such information.

While I’m sure they probably did at one point, they don’t anymore. Yet blogs, articles, news reports and more continue to report this completely outdated statistic as fact. And because they can’t find the original source, they link to other sites that have also posted the stats, as if that makes them better.

Lies, Lies & Statistics

People like statistics. Especially marketing and sales people. Despite studies that numbers aren’t as convincing, we still rely on them to build credibility and prove our points. There’s a reason one of the steps of Tom Hopkins’ wildly popular How to Master the Art of Selling teaches us to accelerate the sale by first proving your believability.

But that’s also why bad statistics, or ones that you can’t back up, can destroy your credibility and the sale.

Yet, for some reason, marketers, who should know better, repeat outdated numbers almost constantly. I’m not sure if they’re hoping they won’t get caught in it, are lazy, or assume others are just as lazy as they are.

What’s really scary is the breakdown Mark Suster did in this article he wrote ten years ago. He details how, when he was a Strategist consulting with Sony, he tried to track down solid data. And discovered that the people collecting the numbers weren’t economists or statisticians. Further, they followed their bosses’ lead to extrapolate stats from entirely anecdotal information, and just made up numbers that looked good when they couldn’t find them.

What are the odds this stopped happening?

Just the Facts, Ma’am

Of course, that’s a worst case scenario, but as I point out every time I email a media outlet that they screwed up, it’s your responsibility to fact check. You don’t get to pass the blame onto the other guy that screwed it up and you quoted.

It’s your job to get it right.

Which brings us to some irresponsible fakers. I’m not sure why Neil Patel decided to stop dating his online posts, maybe to help them end up the ranking SERP in your Google results? I don’t think he intends it for evil, but it can be confusing. And then there’s certain contributors on HubSpot, and others marketing sites. It’s hard to grant them grace when they’re recycling old blog posts and “Latest Statistics” pages. They simply rename them “[2020 Edition],” without updating the content inside. That’s borderline evil.

As fast as everything changes in business and especially online, do you want to mislead your readers or clients by presenting numbers that are 7, 8, or even 10 years old? Just as an example, in 2011, Facebook Messenger was still known as Beluga. And one of the top social media platforms? Google+!

While Instagram and Pinterest are still going strong, how many other social media platforms have come and gone in the last 10 years? Bing was only launched in 2009. Tik Tok, one of the fastest growing platforms online has only existed since 2016!

How many times have Facebook and Google changed their algorithms in that time? If the stats you’re posting are based on a previous iteration, how accurate can they possibly be?

But What If Everyone’s Wrong?

Back in March, Disney executives announced they were shutting down Disneyland for 2 weeks because of the California governor’s COVID-19 concerns. Major newspapers, TV news broadcasts and trade magazines reported that it was only the 4^th time it had shut down in history. The JFK assassination, the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, 9/11, and now.

Only one problem – almost NONE of that is true. Some of it’s just confusion – the park didn’t open on the day of mourning for JFK, not when he was shot. It doesn’t take into account the numerous times the park opened late or closed early, or in December of 1987, when it stayed closed due to foul weather warnings. It did close for 9/11 – after the attacks, because time zones. But the 1994 Northridge earthquake? Disney had every ride inspected and then opened to the public, only missing a couple hours of traffic.

And this truly #FakeNews is continuing to be reported in the national media.

Regardless – YOU need to ensure that the facts, numbers, and stories you’re telling on your content blog are accurate. Not to, is just to open yourself up for ridicule, mistrust, and maybe even a lawsuit.

Besides, now more than ever, authenticity is what consumers trust – 90%, as of February of 2019.

You Take the Good, You Take the Bad

I’m going to close this out with a short list of the sites you should be going to for numbers first. All of these update their numbers, case studies and reports listed on a regular basis. They’re all dated. And they don’t promote numbers that are more than2 years old (although many are archived).

Most of them are free – some charge a fee to go more in depth and/or give you access to forecasting models based on current data. Here’s a hint – the investment is probably worth it, depending on who your ideal client is.

• Marketing Charts – this site has been around since 2007 and is very picky about what they will or won’t publish. It has to be accurate, unbiased, independent and attributed. They claim to only post about 5% of the materials they receive, and they’re regularly used as a resource for major business & financial publications. What’s more, they also provide colorful, at a glance, infographics for every piece they publish.

• E Consultancy – these guys break everything down into specific hubs: Best Practice, Trends, Training, and an ongoing variety of topics and sectors, so you find the info you need quickly. They also publish a weekly wrap-up of the top new stats.

• EMarketer – this site is aimed primarily at B2B statistics and studies. But if that’s your ideal customer base, they’re well worth the cost of their premium sign up. A good portion of their content is also their “Behind the Numbers” podcast that features recorded live calls, discussions and statements from leaders in B2B fields. And they’re not usually that long.

• Sprout Social – if social media is your mind (and it probably should be), this site gives you the latest and greatest numbers and knowledge about platforms, users, and targeting. Some resources are free, like their annual report, others are behind a paywall.

Take the time to get accurate numbers. Sometimes this means digging back through page after page of sites that reference other sites and so on to get the original post/statistic date – as I did with much of the material here, and on our other posts.

Take advantage of the sites I’ve listed above to make sure your data and conclusions are accurate. And by all means, if you need help, please reach out.

We help small businesses use proven strategy to build their online and offline marketing presence, fill up their sales funnel and grow their business dreams. We even offer packages to locate and author content just like this post for your business and site. Don’t wait – put your dreams into action today.

“All persons in Florida shall limit their movements and personal interactions outside of their home to only those necessary to obtain or provide essential services or conduct essential activities”

According to the order, all Floridians are bound to follow the guidelines as detailed by the Department of Homeland Security. While many of these echo or parallel similar guidelines set by other state governments, there are some significant differences.

I’m also going to point out that it’s your responsibility to learn and abide by any city or county ordinances. These may further limit movement or more rigidly define essential services and activities. However, local ordinances may not lessen the state mandates.

So what are essential services and activities? More than you might think.

The Usual Essentials

All of the usual, um, suspects are exempt from the order and, in fact, are required to go to work, just as they would after a hurricane, wildfire or other natural disaster.

• Emergency Management
• Law Enforcement
• Fire and Rescue services
• Emergency Medical Services
• Corrections officers and support personnel
• Search & Rescue personnel
• 9-11 Call Center employees
• Fusion center employees to maintain emergency communication and coordination
• Healthcare providers and Caregivers
• Hospital and laboratory personnel
• Private security
• Mortuary and Funeral Service providers
• Coroner’s office
• Assisted Living facilities/Nursing Homes
• Home-based caregivers
• Mutual assistance personnel
• Military, including private and public military contractors

However, it is not just the frontline protectors, medical caregivers and rescue personnel that are considered essential. Just about anyone who works in or around law enforcement, fire & rescue, and medical facilities – or provides for their supplies – are included.

That means accountants, billing, information and cybersecurity, providers of medical supplies, drugs, personal protection aids, medical records, ammunition stores, dietary supplements, Blood banks (as well as donors), uniforms, pharmacy workers, coffin makers, victim assistance, air medical service providers, equipment vendors, mechanics, shooting ranges, Child Protective Services, hazmat providers, toilet paper suppliers and social workers all fall under the essential services category.

Of course, for any of those employees who are able to work from home, that is recommended, but their employer does not necessarily have to accommodate them.

Food & Agriculture

As long as they adhere to social distancing guidelines, which include masks or cloth covering the nose and mouth and maintaining a 6 foot distance from others, the following are allowed to stay open (they may, however, set modified hours to allow employees to restock and properly sanitize and disinfect the area):

• Grocery stores
• Farmers’ markets
• Farm and produce stands
• Supermarkets
• Food banks, soup kitchens and homeless shelters
• Convenience stores
• Other establishments engaged in the retail sale of canned food, dry goods, fresh fruits and vegetables, pet supply, fresh meats, fish, and poultry, and any other household consumer products
• Providers of animal/pet food and pet supplies
• Liquor stores
• Warehouses
• Trucking companies
• Farms
• Ranches
• Fisheries
• Businesses that ship groceries, foods, goods or services
• Restaurants and other facilities that prepare and serve food, for drive thru, pick-up or carry out only.
• Schools and other entities that typically provide free food services to students or members of the public on a pick-up and takeaway basis only.
• Beverage bottlers and suppliers
• Food packaging manufacturers
• Food testing facilities
• Employees of any and all of the above

Childcare

Although schools have been dismissed for the month – possibly for the rest of the school year – childcare facilities are an essential business that enable essential workers to assist us. However, there are set conditions that all childcare facilities may not be able to meet. Only those that can readily maintain the following criteria may remain open:

1. Childcare must be carried out in stable groups of 10 or fewer (inclusive of childcare providers for the group).
2. Children and child care providers shall not change from one group to another.
3. If more than one group of children is cared for at one facility, each group shall be in a separate room. Groups shall not mix or interact with each other.

By the way, if you’re at home, trying to find creative new ways to educate or even distract your kids to get some work done, we highly recommend Common Sense’s Wide Open School

Communications & Transportation

• Newspapers, television, radio, and other media services
• Gas stations
• Auto-supply
• Weather forecasters
• Auto repair and related facilities
• Businesses providing mailing and shipping services, including public & private post office boxes
• Airlines, taxis, and other private transportation providers providing transportation services via automobile, truck, bus, or train
• Businesses that ship or deliver groceries, food, goods, or services directly to residences
• Telecommunications providers, including sales of computer or telecommunications devices and the provision of home telecommunications
• Any business that is interacting with customers solely through electronic or telephonic means, and delivering products via mailing, shipping, or delivery services
• Provision of propane or natural gas
• Workers supporting the energy sector, (including but not limited to nuclear, coal, hydroelectric, or renewable), regardless of the energy source or infrastructure.
• IT and OT technology for essential energy sector operations including support workers, customer service operations; energy management systems, control systems, and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition SCADA systems, and energy sector entity data centers; cybersecurity engineers; and cybersecurity risk management.
• Employees needed to monitor, operate, engineer, and maintain the reliability, safety, environmental health, and physical and cyber security of the energy system
• Workers and security staff involved in nuclear re-fueling operations
• Refineries, pipeline construction and monitoring
• Truck drivers
• Bus, train and other mass transit drivers
• Dispatchers
• Maintenance and repair technicians
• Truck stop and rest area workers
• Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) employees
• Towing/recovery services
• Railroad employees
• Roadside assistance workers
• Bridge operators
• Vehicle rental services
• Bicycle & car sharing and maintenance services
• Safety inspectors
• Postal, parcel, courier, last-mile delivery, including private companies
• Air Traffic controllers and maintenance personnel
• Aviation and aerospace safety
• Operations personnel
• Accident investigators
• Cargo
• Barge crews
• Businesses operating at any airport, seaport, or other government facility, including parks and government offices

Public Safety & Health

Certain secondary duties are considered essential to maintaining the health and well-being of the community as well. As well as efforts to stagnate the spread of Coronavirus and other health concerns.

• Appliance repair personnel
• Exterminators
• Laundromats
• Dry Cleaners
• Laundry service providers
• Landscape – commercial and residential
• Pool care businesses
• Waste management services, including collection and disposal of waste
• Employees needed to operate and maintain drinking water and wastewater/drainage infrastructure
• Operational staff for water distribution and testing.
• Workers who maintain digital systems infrastructure supporting water and wastewater operations.
• Operational staff at wastewater collection facilities
• Plumbers
• Electricians
• Builders
• Contractors
• HVAC Technicians
• Construction workers
• Landfill operations
• Workers providing electronic security, fire, monitoring and life safety services
• Dispatchers involved with service repair and restoration
• Trade Officials

Miscellaneous/Other

• Banks and related financial institutions
• Employees supporting Census 2020.
• Clergy for essential support
• Workers in animal shelters
• Workers responsible for the leasing of residential properties, especially Section 8 housing locations
• Hardware stores
• Customs and immigration workers
• Educators supporting public and private K-12 schools, state & private colleges, trade schools, and technical colleges, but only as needed to facilitate online or distance learning or performing other essential functions
• Elections personnel to include both public and private sector elections support
• Residential and commercial real estate services
• Businesses that supply office products needed for people to work from home
• Professional services, such as legal or accounting services, when necessary to assist in compliance with legally mandated activities
• Businesses that supply other essential businesses with the support or supplies necessary to operate, and which do not interact with the general public
• Operations of the judicial system
• Architectural, engineering, or land surveying services
• Manufacturing of metals, chemicals, industrial minerals, semiconductors, materials and products needed for medical supply chains, and for supply chains associated with transportation, energy, communications, information technology, food and agriculture, chemical manufacturing, nuclear facilities, wood products, commodities used as fuel for power generation facilities, the operation of dams, water and wastewater treatment, processing and reprocessing of solid waste, emergency services, and the defense industrial base.

As you can see, according to the state’s definitions, there is much more to essential services and operations than may be obvious at the start. Many of the companies and services we are accustomed to in Florida are still being maintained, albeit at smaller levels.

The Governor, as well as Federal officials, encourage as many people as possible to work from home, to minimize the depth and speed of the virus’ spread. This is true even if you are an essential service provider. If it can be done remotely, it is recommended that you do so.

It should be noted that this is in no way a comprehensive list, but the complete details can be found here. I also want to point out that these requirements are guidelines set by Homeland’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and they may change or restrictions may be escalated at any time. Keep an eye on your favorite local news station’s broadcasts or websites to keep abreast of everything.

Outside of what CISA defines, the Governor also indicated several acceptable “Essential Activities”:

1. Attending religious services conducted in churches, synagogues and houses of worship
2. Participating in recreational activities (consistent with social distancing guidelines) such as walking, biking, hiking, fishing, hunting, running, or swimming
3. Taking care of pets
4. Caring for or otherwise assisting a loved one or friend

However, “a social gathering in a public space is not an essential activity.”

Groups of people greater than ten are not permitted to congregate in any public space.

Again, be sure to check your local ordinances as well. Lee County closed their beaches last month. Pinellas, Hillsborough and many other counties followed suit shortly after, although open dates are set for some. Hillsborough County has limited many non-social activities, including large church gatherings, leading to a pastor’s arrest right before Palm Sunday.

One thing you might have noticed missing from essential services is most sales and marketing. While we are essential to the economy, we are secondary to the public health concerns of the state and nation.

However, whether the government recognizes it or not, marketing is always essential for small businesses. Luckily, there are resources, like our own website, which provide plenty of useful information. Content blogs, social media, podcasts, lead magnets, these can all be done – and done well – from the comfort of your home office. And small businesses will need to maintain as much momentum as possible through and coming out of this ‘Coronacrisis.’

If you have any questions or need some help figuring out the best strategic approach for your business, please reach out. We’ve made small business our business for more than 20 years. We’re always happy to assist in any way we can. And we offer programs for the entrepreneurs and small business owners who just don’t have the time or bandwidth to handle doing it on their own. Whatever you need, even just an hour with like minds to clear the cobwebs, we’re here for you.

Back in the old days, you had to offer valid, meaningful information, in the form of a white paper, eBook, infographic or other Lead Magnet in exchange for people’s emails. But about 10 years ago, something shifted. Emails became much easier to proliferate and manage.

From the 90’s to around 2006, the majority of Internet users had, at most, two emails – one for personal and one for business. But in 2004 Gmail was introduced. MySpace had launched the year before, but when Facebook opened its virtual doors to the public in September of 2006, social media began to explode.

While some of us had multiple emails for years, the rise of social media and Gmail made it more likely that lots of people would have multiple emails. Especially since they were now virtually free. For example, I pay $1 a year to 100GB of email storage. I use only about 40% of that for well over 1-million saved emails.

Kooky New Technology

Along the line, as emails exploded, the Internet demigods sought ways of still capturing pertinent data on the people who used them every day – even if they used different ID cards (emails). But they already had at least one powerful tool to exploit.

Back in 1994, Lou Montulli had “invented” a little packet of text for the Netscape Internet browser that saved a few essential preferences. This text packet was stored in a behind the scenes folder and accessed by the browser and many of the sites on the Internet. He called the packet a cookie, after the Unix packets “magic cookies.” In Unix, the magic is the encoding that governs how the info is seen and interpreted.

But over time, Netscape engineers realized that they could store more and more info in these cookies. Instead of just being a user-id, first they were tasked with retailer retention – tracking purchases loaded into online shopping carts – including after you’ve left the site, recording how many times a user has seen a certain banner advertisement, and things like that.

But once the, um, cookie jar was opened, the genie was out of the bottle, if you’ll excuse my mixed metaphors. Cookies now became a treasure trove of data – and not just for the site you’re visiting. I recently ran across a dedicated job site that had over 200 cookies, not for the job site, but for third party outside retailers to place advertising.

Of course, that info was also no longer restricted to Netscape. Google, Twitter, Bing, Facebook, Amazon, eBay, Target, the US Postal Service – just about anyone with a website now tracks and collects mountains of data about you via cookies. That’s why the things you search for seem to follow you to other sites days and weeks after you’ve finished your research.

How the Cookie Crumbles

Of course, once it became public knowledge that this was happening, people started pointing to 1984 and similar story frameworks, demanding their privacy be defended. Right before they invested in always-listening speaker assistants. Alexa, play Alanis Morissette.

Government functionaries, not to be outdone when there’s a crisis they can profit from, rushed in and in the past couple of years, two laws were put into effect designed to limit the harvesting and use of user’s data. (Not counting medical data protected by HIPAA).

At the time of this writing, there were two major legislative actions defining use of user privacy. One is technically only for European residents, although when it went into effect, websites and email servers across the globe took steps to comply. The other is for residents of the state of California, but similarly affects all of the United States and beyond.

What Unites Them

The two laws have their differences, but let’s look at the similarities first.

Both require compliance. Businesses that store information on consumers in either California or the EU, regardless of where in the world that business is physically located, must observe the restrictions and rights of the customers under the appropriate law, or face stiff fines.

Both laws also require any affected companies to give the consumers access to the data that has been collected about them. The consumer also has the right to request that the collected data is erased. Bear in mind that Facebook recently was forced by the courts to pay a $5-Billion fine for not imforming their customers about the existence of tracking data on their users and its security.

One thing that neither law defines well is saving and use of Pseudonymous or Deidentified data- information collated, typically for research, but not specific to a particular user or household. Technically, this data is not personal because it’s not explicitly tied to a user.

Now let’s detail the significant differences between the laws:

GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was created by the European Union and implemented on May 25, 2018 (The original EU Cookie Law was enacted 7 years earlier). The language of the GDPR is broad and applies to all organizations that might interact with data from EU residents.

The GDPR defines two categories of customer’s personal data – standard, such as names, mailing addresses, and IP addresses; and special categories, including religious views, sexual orientation, political opinions and the like. Basically, any information relating to an identified or identifiable data subject is covered.

Consumers under the GDPR can also correct or complete the information gathered by companies.

CCPA

California Governor Jerry Brown signed the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) into law shortly after GDPR went into effect. It became the law of the state on January 1, 2020. It has some interesting specifics – it only applies to for-profit companies that meet any of the following requirements:

1. Has over $25 million in annual gross revenue.
2. Has over 50,000 consumers’ personal information for commercial purposes.
3. Earns over 50% of annual revenue from the sale of consumers’ personal information.

The law also applies to a business that controls or is controlled by a business meeting the above three requirements, and/or shares common branding with a covered business, such as a shared name, service mark, or trademark.

The CCPA is also only applicable to personal data that is not available from governmental records.

Consumers under CCPA have the right to opt-out of the collection of anything outside the bare minimum needed to maintain customer experience on a site.

Be a Smart Cookie

Of course, there are more intricacies than can be easily covered by this summary. If you’d like a more explicit breakdown to check against, I recommend either this one from the Center for Democracy and Technology or this high-level comparison chart from Practical Law.

CCPA & GDPR are likely only the beginning. As awareness of the value of personal data grows, expect more states and countries to enact laws to protect their affected consumers.

Because even in the midst of these laws growing in effectiveness, the United States decennial Census, the 23^rd since 1790, is being delayed. All thanks to concerns over privacy of electronic data. This issue isn’t going away anytime soon, and being compliant now – even if you have no customers in the affected areas – will be to your advantage in the future.

If you’d like more info on how to connect with and find your customers organically, without harvesting their data, please reach out. Grow the Dream has been helping small businesses take a strategic approach to their marketing for over 10 years.