Your website looks slick, your products and services are amazing, and you’ve launched multiple marketing campaigns. So why isn’t your site producing the numbers you need?

Getting buzz for your site isn’t always easy—but it’s necessary for your business to thrive. If you’re looking to ignite your audience and get them talking about your website, you need the right strategy…

…these 7 tips will help get you there.

1. Tell a compelling story

Every business has a story. How did you get started? What do you do? What’s your value?

You can translate all these elements into a compelling story that speaks to your audience and really gets people talking, or you can write a few dry sentences on each page, list your products and hope for some buzz—although it likely won’t happen.

2. Offer incentives

Nothing catches people’s attention like a promotion or a freebie. Offer contests with prizes that tie into your brand. Promote discounts. Provide a limited time offer to get word of mouth to spread.

3. Provide dynamic content

Read the content on your site. Is it engaging and eye-catching?

If you’re not providing a fresh stream of content on your pages that’s worth talking about, people will pass you and your website by.

4. Get feedback

Want to get people talking about your website? Ask their opinions; post polls and questionnaires; inquire what users think of your products, your site interface, your new logo and other changes and announcements.

People will have plenty to say about you and your website—and it’s a great opportunity to make improvements and evolve to match the needs of your market.

5. Make some news

If you want to promote excitement about your site, do something news-worthy!

Send out press releases detailing changes in your business. Be sure to post news and announcements on your site as well. Keep people talking by shaking things up and showing that your company is evolving and keeping up with the latest consumer trends.

6. Optimize your social media outlets

You put up a Facebook page and you try to tweet a few times a week, and then wonder why the Web isn’t ablaze with talk of your site.

Social outlets don’t work unless you engage people. Focus on groups that tie into your brand and then post interesting comments, videos and links. Actively converse with people, ask questions and strike up conversations—always an effective way to get people talking.

7. Focus your marketing efforts

Don’t just try to stir up buzz for buzz’s sake. Posting a video of a guy pulling off cool skateboard tricks might attract an audience—temporarily—but it won’t bring in targeted traffic or help your business in the long-run.

Outline a marketing plan and structure a brand-awareness campaign that fits your business model and goals.

Getting people talking about your website takes planning, strategy, and most of all, elements worth talking about. Follow these 7 tips, get site traffic buzzing and get your business humming!

Featured image/thumbnail, buzz image via Shutterstock.

Motiv Web App For Proposals, Contracts, & Invoices – 55% off!

The issue of race has always been a delicate one in the United States. So when the Supreme Court rules on the subject it is likely to stir passions.

That is what happened on Tuesday, when the High Court ruled on a new case- Schuette v. BAMN.  It dealt with a college hot topic- affirmative action.

What happened? The Supreme Court, in a 6-2 decision, stated a Michigan amendment banning affirmative action at public universities is constitutional. You can find the official document here.

So what does this mean? Public universities may still make their acceptance decisions based on race however, voters and law-makers now have the right to avoid such action.

Others predict that more states may now enact anti-affirmative action policies. Check out these graphs that show the changing demographics of students based on their states’ affirmative action policies.

What are the Justices saying? Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion stating:

“This case is not about how the debate about racial preferences should be resolved. It is about who may resolve it.”

Justice Sotomayor, in one of her most notable dissents, criticized the majority saying

“As members of the judiciary tasked with intervening to carry out the guarantee of equal protection, we ought not sit back and wish away, rather than confront, the racial inequality that exists in our society.”

Any similar cases? Last June, the Supreme Court took on Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. In this ruling, the court stated that states have the right to make college decisions based on race. This was in response to a white female applicant who said she was denied admission because of her race.

The Supreme Court had its say…now it is your turn to add your voice to the discussion.

If you drive from Northeast Baltimore towards the Inner Harbor, amidst the dreary browns and grays of the city, a large yellow banner adorning the entire side of a brick building shouts out like a traffic light…

MARCH ON HOPKINS!!! LEAVE THE PLANTATION!!!

Its alarming yellow casts an eerie presence over the block.  It is telling us that Johns Hopkins, that prestigious beacon of all-that-is-good in Baltimore, may not be so good for everyone.

The almighty Hopkins refuses to agree on a wage increase for their lowest-wage workers. These workers went on strike for three days after failed negotiations. They claim they must rely on government benefits to survive because Hopkins doesn’t pay enough.

Hopkins says it can’t afford a pay increase. You can read the President’s response to the strike here.

Carietta Heirs, a union representative, is not convinced:

It’s the No. 1 hospital. We give you No. 1 support to make you the No. 1 hospital. They (the workers) deserve it.

And as for the reference to modern day slavery – ironically enough, Johns Hopkins himself grew up on a tobacco plantation, but his family joined the Quakers when he was young and freed their slaves.

He then grew up to become a prominent abolitionist.

Mr. Hopkins, if he could hear the comparison people are making, would surely roll over in his grave.

The smartphone era is finally getting the productivity software it needs.

in this issue of the magazine, Brian Bergstein, MIT Technology Review’s deputy editor, interviewed Sarah Lewis, a curator, about the “accomplishments that come from seemingly improbable circumstances and the connections between art and science” (see “Q&A: Sarah Lewis”). Asked about Samuel Morse, who invented the telegraph after years of struggling as a painter, Lewis says:

It is difficult to protect your privacy even if you know how.

I am a privacy researcher with a confession to make. I’m not any better at protecting my privacy than you are. For 17 years I’ve been interviewing people about their privacy concerns, studying how companies collect and use personal information, and researching the latest surveillance techniques. I attend privacy conferences, read privacy books, and have written a couple myself. But when friends ask me how to protect their privacy, I don’t have much to tell them. Like most people, I want more privacy but find it difficult to get: few products allow us such control (see “Ultraprivate Smartphones”).

A 2001 essay warned ­advocates of free expression not to delude themselves into thinking the Internet can never be controlled.

Excerpted from “Taming the Web,” by Charles C. Mann, first published in the September 2001 issue of Technology Review.

Prospective students for UMBC's MPS in Health IT program attended the Open House on Apr 23, 2014 organized on the South Campus. Dr Koru, interim graduate program director, gave information about the need for health IT professionals in the Baltimore-Washington area and the nature of the health IT program bringing people, organizational, and technology aspects of health IT together to boost professionals' capacity to leverage health IT in the delivery of quality healthcare. Eighty six students registered for the event, and many students asked questions and received answers from Dr. Koru and Renee Eisenhuth, who is the program coordinator, about the admission and graduation requirements.

Including wearable’s, RAD Studio XE6 has now expanded their reach for Android support for C++, Delphi developers and Google’s ‘Glass’.

CliQr Technologies announced it has been recognized as one of the "Cool Vendors” in Cloud Management in 2014 for their CloudCenter technology by Gartner.