I was hanging out a few evenings ago, checking my Twitter (as I do) and this popped up in my Must-Read stream:

Would anyone be interested in getting a 30-minute SEO consult in exchange for a blog post? (you’d be guaranteed to get 3 solid action plans)

Oh, Derek Halpern is such a smart guy. We had our 30-minute chat (at 4am his time, madness), and now I have about eight solid action plans. And now, in exchange, I am writing the blog post about his website, Social Triggers.

Seriously, all I would really need to do is to talk about that tweet. In it, Derek proved he:

• had something of value to offer
• is generous – and willing to stay awake until 4am helping people
• understands social capital
• is confident in his website (it doesn’t say it has to be a nice post)
• uses benefits and features cleverly
• knows his followers (a later tweet: i’m happy I decided to say this at 1am on a saturday night. ton of inquiries. if i said this during prime time, i’d be dead.)
• knows how to use social proof
• can get what he wants… by asking for it

In short: Derek knows his stuff. But since I said I’d review the website and not its owner, here we go…

What Social Triggers does well

Derek’s core topic is using psychology in your marketing. That’s both simple enough to be accessible, and different enough to be remarkable.

It has a very simple, clean layout where there is nothing present that doesn’t serve a purpose. It shows how minimalism can be effective and beautiful on websites. (And how to use Thesis well. I’m pretty darn sure that’s Thesis.)

Damn useful titles.

One article, one idea. Every article is useful; you can instantly understand and apply the ideas inside.

What Social Triggers does less well

Psychology and marketing are both hoodoo fields: we’re wary of people who are masters of either because we think they know Super Sekrit methods of manipulating us. Derek is using both, without showing much of his personality to offset that fear and give us something to trust.

This is good information, but less distinctive and memorable without that personality behind it. Even a rant about Symantec and their exquisitely dodgy shopping cart practices has no heat, no passion. It doesn’t build a relationship.

In fact, Derek has withdrawn into the background so far he’s almost invisible. You need to scroll down twice on the About page for him to finally be seen, with no Twitter link and no personal information that’s not providing proof.

But that could just be me. I rather liked Derek in our chat, and would like to see more of him on the site.

Anyway, it’s smart, useful and backed up with studies: Social Triggers. Enjoy.

We interrupt the stream of heresies for a guest post by Mike. Less controversial, but it’s funny and makes a lot of sense.

Whether you’ve paid much attention to it…err…scratch that. Whether you’ve jumped into the social media trend or not, one clear fact remains: Social media has taken over the web as we know it.

And the truth is, many are absolutely capitalizing on this massive traffic and building up their brand and websites through it. Whether you think Twitter is dumb or Facebook is this or that, you should still think about making your site more social. Good chances are, your visitors and readers use them so it would actually be a convenience for them if you made a few little changes.

1. Make it clear where else they can find you. Not all sites don’t do this but there are cases where people will forget to display their social profiles in clear view. Big mistake. Just because people visit your site or read your blog, doesn’t mean that’s all they’ll be interested in. You’d be surprised how many would like to follow you on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook. Try it and see.

2. Make your site “socially” shareable. What I mean by that is get a retweet button like on Be Awesome Online, a Facebook share button, and depending on what you want to do, social bookmark buttons or a plugin so people can share on Digg, Stumbleupon, etc.

You probably already do that but also pay attention to where these things are located. Maybe test them in different locations and see what happens. What could have been there may perform better here and so on. It’s awesome that people come to read what you have to say and comment, but it’s even cooler when those same people share your content and bring in new visitors that do the same.

3. The holy grail: Be social yourself! You’ve got the profiles created, you have the accounts setup, now get out there and start talking with people. Yeah, post links to your new content and things of that nature, but be more social yourself. You don’t have to have a novel idea or an amazing topic starter to get into the conversation…you just need to get talking and engaging with other like-minded people.
Your social media profiles are an extension of your brand and site so by being more social yourself, you’ll increase the value of your site and potentially create a very nice traffic stream.

In what ways are you using social media? Are you using it to build your brand/site or are you using it for personal use? Also, any tips to add to the discussion?

Mike Stenger is a social media consultant with a strong passion of business and all things Internet. You can find Mike at his blog where he talks about success, business and social media strategies. You can also follow Mike on Twitter.