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17 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community |
| Is Listening on Social Media is a Waste of Time? Posted: 22 Dec 2012 02:30 PM PST I’m a huge proponent of listening to what prospective B2B buyers and “companies” say and do online as an indication of how to create content that better engages them. But several things have drawn my attention lately that make me wonder about the veracity of people’s behavior and their expressed sentiment. It occurs to me that in a variety of online social situations it’s not really easy to distinguish someone being authentic from someone who’s, well, not. Whether buyers or just people. And I think it goes to context. In social media, we generally have no context to interpret why a person posts what they post. Twitter presents a bunch of scenarios that raise questions for me. For example: Have you ever wondered if you’re listening to the same webinar or sitting in the same conference as others when you’re watching its Twitter stream roll by? I understand the need to say something nice, but I often wonder what that says about people. Are they really finding value? Or do they just want to be seen participating on the platform? Or, maybe they’re bored out of their minds and are Tweeting for something to do… Has the exposed nature of social media made us so vulnerable that many of us are afraid to speak the truth? [Obviously that's not me] Then again, I very much understand the idea of whatever you say being permanent once posted to the web. That definitely makes you think twice. But doesn’t skirting the truth correlate with being inauthentic? Has there been a time when a “guru” posted something that made you say, WTF? Did you question or reply with something that challenged or inquired about the Tweet? If so, did you get an answer? When you post a Tweet that gets retweeted so fast it’s not possible that the person had time to read whatever it linked to, but they append it with “Great Post!” – what runs through your mind? When things move so fast, are we giving up our ability to think and consider and just reacting to keep up? I don’t have the answers to many of these questions. They’re just a few that I’m pondering as I continue to develop ways to get my clients closer to their buyers. I’m continuously searching for new ways to mine through all the noise out there to validate assumptions and influences to content strategies. Thus far, I’ll remain doing lots of research to back up what I hear on social media. But I think it’s getting harder out there to find the truth. For every opinion that gets posted, there’s a counter (or four) to be considered. So do we use weighting? 10 positives to 3 negatives indicates that positive is the way to go? Is it the roles and backgrounds of those speaking? Although, this being said, I see a lot of false gurus out there that have convinced people to listen to them. Or, if it’s an influencer whose opinion differs from a decision maker’s, what do you choose when the influencer is researching the purchase? One thing I do know is that the voice of one person shouldn’t influence a content strategy. Remember that personas are a composite sketch of a target market/segment. It’s important to look for trends and patterns before believing what you see and hear. The new challenge is in figuring out just how to use the data. I remember a situation back when I was running a software company. The customer who voiced the loudest request for a new widget often got it. But that didn’t mean that all the other customers were clamoring to have it, too. Same rule applies here. Ultimately, the insights we can gain with social media are beyond whatever’s been possible before. We just need to be careful and diligent about how we go about using what we hear. What do you think? What questions do you have about what you’re listening to on social media? |
| 3 Ways You Can Expand Your Platform Right Now Posted: 22 Dec 2012 02:20 PM PST Bet you thought I was going to say, add more people! Isn't that the answer? Find more potential readers, send them a friend invite, try to get them to follow back, beg them to click your blog link, entice them with a giveaway. . . But what about the people sitting right in front of you? What about Ms. Twitter Follower #654 or Mr. Facebook Friend #2209? You might recognize their avatar, maybe even know where you found them or what website they run, but do you communicate with them? Your platform is not the people following you. It is the people you connect with on some basis. There is a difference. So how do you easily expand your platform? Get to know them! Twitter @ mention or leave a Facebook wall post for someone you haven't talked to before. Just say good morning, wish them a nice weekend, comment on a photo. Be genuine. Comment on a blog you don't normally follow. Contribute to the informative posts, or send good wishes to a more personal post. Either option is a good way to get to know the people hiding among your growing followers list. Share an announcement about someone else. Did a follower just reach a milestone with their blog or book? Retweet on Twitter or share on Facebook. People generally like to see when others have obtained even a modicum of success; it gives encouragement they can do it too. So the occasional cheer for someone else is always a nice gesture. It's not that bloggers and authors don't mean these things. In fact, I think it's safe to say most of them would love to be able to chit chat with everyone all day. But since they simply can't, they tend to avoid everyone who doesn't take the initial step. And while it's okay to continue to strive for more followers, don't forget to connect with the ones you already have. Do you find yourself focusing more on numbers than on relationships? |
| Posted: 22 Dec 2012 02:07 PM PST Visual content is more important than ever before when it comes to user engagement. There is so much information available to us that users need a quick and entertaining why to digest it. Video is a great way to do this but you need to make sure your videos are found by those looking for the information you have to provide. In this week's Ask An SEO Expert feature, Steven Shattuck explains five steps you must take to optimize your videos so they will be found by the right audience. Do you have an SEO question that you would like to have answered? Simply submit your question on our website or via Twitter by using the hashtag #AskAnSEOExpert. Transcript:
Well, that's a great question. Video SEO is something that's very important in order to get your video seen by as many people as possible. It's something that's written a lot about online. So I'm going to try to boil it down to five really high level of components in terms of video SEO. My first suggestion is to make a good video. A lot of people kind of consider SEO to be a fix or some sort of magic bullet in terms of any video, but if the video isn't that great, no SEO trick in the world is going to help it get seen. So quality content wins online. Just remember that. Make sure that your video is educational or insightful or entertaining and is right for the audience that you want to reach. Once you've made a good video, the next thing to do is to transcribe your video. Notice that I put transcription before publishing. I will get into that a little bit later. Basically, you want to transcribe everything that's said or heard in the video. That's for people who may have audio impairments. You want to make sure that your content is accessible to those folks. So be sure to get it transcribed, and I will list a couple resources for that in the video description below. Once you've got your video and you've got it transcribed, it's time to publish the video. In terms of hosting, you basically have two core options. One, you can self-host, so the video file will actually reside on your domain through some sort of custom player that's actually on your site versus a third party host, like YouTube or Vimeo. So the decision you have to make is, is it more important that people are on your domain watching your video through self-hosting, or that it can maybe a little bit more accessible on a site like YouTube. So you kind to have to decide which means more to you. If you host on YouTube, you're actually driving traffic to YouTube. Now they're watching your content, but YouTube's domain kind of gets all the credit in that regard. Of course, YouTube has a lot of other benefits, like all the social features and things like that. So you kind of have to decide which means more to you there. Regardless of your choice, once you've made that decision, it's time for the on-page support. Now whether you're self-hosting or hosting through YouTube or Vimeo, you're probably going to want to embed your video on your website, either on a web page or on a blog post. When you do that, you want to make sure you support it with a lot of things. So if you write a blog post for example, you might want to write some text that introduces the video, then embed the video, and then you'll want to also include the transcript literally on page. That's a really kind of nice format for posting a video. There are things you can do on the back end as well to support it. So there is schema markup. There's actually markups specifically made for video content, and I'll actually include some of those resources in the description because it's pretty technical and I don't' want to get into it too much in this video. Keep in mind that if you host on YouTube, you want to also fill in all those on-page factors, like the title of the video on YouTube, the description field that they give you, and all of those other keyword type things that you can fill out on YouTube. All that's really important. So make sure you do a good job filling those out. Finally, you've got your video, you've got your transcript, it's hosted, it's on your website, and it's supported by great content as well. Now what you want to do is create a video sitemap. Now a video sitemap is actually different than a HTML sitemap or an XML sitemap. It tells Google, or any other search engine for that matter, what video content specifically is on your website. It's a little technical to put together and to explain in this video, so I will also include that in the description of this video. A video sitemap is definitely worth the time and investment to create, especially if you have a lot of video embedded on your site. So that's sort of my five quick tips for video SEO. Hope it was helpful and good luck. |
| 4 Reasons Why your Facebook Page Sucks Posted: 22 Dec 2012 01:30 PM PST It has been one year since you launched your Facebook page and you still have a very low number of likes but most importantly none of your fans are talking about your brand. Before I move on, you need to understand that it takes time for your social media investment to realize any return; this is why I intentionally said, one year. Investing in social media, as in any other field, requires patience and long term thinking. Anything that is worthwhile takes time to build and growing tribes and followers on social networks and creating community takes time. One way to think of it is like building a house…"one brick at a time". In the case of social media it is one piece of content at a time. So, in other words, your Facebook page sucks and there are many out there that really do. So, here are 4 reasons why your Facebook page sucks: 1. No social media strategyWhat is the goal of your Facebook page? Get more likes? Increase brand awareness? Increase sales? Actually, it can consist of all these goals; however, you need to be very clear. This will help you determine the tools and tactics you need to use in order to achieve your goals. Do not just launch a Facebook page because your competitors have one. A key factor to a successful social media strategy is having the right resources available, so make sure you have everything you need to make things happen. 2. No updated contentMake no mistake here, the only reason people visit a Facebook page is because of its content. If you do not post anything, none will visit your Facebook page. We live in a very fast moving word where yesterday's news is outdated content. Post content very often, if possible once a day. In fact 3-4 times per day is better. There is no sort cut on this. 3. Your content is boringWhen you own a restaurant, make sure you post content related to food, drinks and entertainment and not only your latest promotions. When people come to your page, they are looking for interesting and fun content:
In other words, the content must be relevant to your business and most importantly engaging and exciting. This does not mean that you should never post any special promotions or deals, however, do it moderately and collect feedback on what your fans really want to see. 4. You do not post any photosThe Facebook timeline is focusing entirely on visual content; hence, if you decide to keep posting long text messages, none will read them. Invest in getting high quality pictures that attract attention, it is human nature to stumble upon great visual content. There are plenty of tools available to help you edit your pictures and make them look appealing. If you are doing any of these 4 mistakes, you need to take immediate action. Decide what you social media goals are, format a plan and execute. |
| Improve Skype Chat Readability By Increasing Font Size Posted: 22 Dec 2012 12:51 PM PST Save Your Eyes Up The Size!Because I've been a computer user since I was young, my poor eyes regularly remind me of my punishment for abusing them! LOL However, regardless of how young or old you are, small fonts can be challenging on the eyeballs… Fortunately, it's easy to fix when it come to using Skype How To Increase The Text Font Size In Skype1. Log into Skype and in the menu bar select "Tools" and under the drop-down select "Options". This will open the options panel.
2. From within the options panel, on the left-hand navigation, select "IM Appearance" and click it. 3. Now in the IM appearance settings, click on the "Change Font" button and you can easily increase or decrease the font style, font weight and font size. You'll find that different fonts look better at different sizes and that even a small increase in font size makes a big difference. You should also pay attention to whether you find serif or sans-serif fonts easier to read (That is, fonts with our without the little tips on the end of each character… for example Times New Roman vs Arial).
The default font size of 7pt Tahoma is rather wearisome on tired eyes and you'll likely find that increasing it to an 8 or a 10 will, once you get used to it, lead to better eye comfort and eye health over time. Enjoy this cool Skype tip! I've got more coming next week too! Do you use Skype? If you have any Skype tips or pointers that others might enjoy, please feel free to share them in the comments below! |
| WordPress Changes The_Excerpt Default Length Posted: 22 Dec 2012 12:00 PM PST By default, WordPress displays post excerpts of 55 words. However, this little snippet of code can easily change the default length of the excerpt on any WordPress post.Most WordPress themes will use the built-in WordPress function called the_excerpt(); to create a 55 word summary of your WordPress post. This summary is simply the first 55 words of your WordPress post. On my site I decided that the 55 words were too much and I wanted to shorten that. It's easy when using this quick little bit of code. By default, will display a summary of the first 55 words of your WordPress post. Are you ready to change the default WordPress excerpt length? It's always a great idea to backup any themes files you're going to work on before editing it, as any error will give major WordPress theme errors. I normally always copy the file contents into Notepad, and use it as a backup just in case things go wrong. But by the fact that you see this site working, you can be sure that the code works! How to change the default excerpt length of WordPress postsEasy. On your WordPress Dashboard, click on Appearance > Editor > Select your WordPress theme, edit the function.php file. Edit your theme functions file function.php and add the following bit of code to the very bottom of the file. function new_excerpt_length($length) { return 30; } add_filter('excerpt_length', 'new_excerpt_length'); Remember to place it just above the last line of the code ?> or }, and make sure you DON'T add any new lines or spaces (other than what's in the code) as this will cause an error in your WordPress installation. So where does WordPress change the number of words for the excerpt summary? return 30; Feel free to change "30″ to be any number of words you want it to be. Just remember than without this custom code to change the default length of the WordPress excerpt, the excerpt will be 55 words. So change the 30 to be whatever you want and you now have a new custom WordPress excerpt summary size. Enjoy changing the default excerpt length in WordPress, it's easy and a great way to professionally customize your WordPress blog. |
| How I Use Social Media To Give This Holiday Posted: 22 Dec 2012 11:10 AM PST
Photo: Charity Water Facebook Page This is a holiday of mixed emotions. It's exciting to light the candles on Hanukkah, spend time with my coworkers at the tree in Rockefeller Center and experience my son's first Christmas. But at the same time, I feel the need to give more than I ever have before. As a Connecticut resident, the people of my state have been hit hard by tragic events over the past few months. The holidays are a time for charitable giving and there are many ways to participate. To find ways to help my local community and beyond, I went to social media. The social web packs more information than the elves on Christmas Eve. Here's how I used social to give during this season and hopefully you'll be inspired to do the same. Superstorm Sandy The American Red Cross has a Digital Operations Center which monitors social media conversations around the clock. They can pinpoint issues before they escalate and provide relief and aid quickly. Moreover, they have useful ways to help including: To give directly to Sandy victims, specify "Disaster Relief" in your donation. Sandy Hook There are hundreds of articles on the Sandy Hook tragedy, but if you're like me, that's the last thing you want to read. I went to social media for ways to donate and help and there are some great resources. My Sandy Hook Family Fund – donate to the families The Stir, Cafe Mom Blog – list of places to donate Emilie Parker Fund – Facebook group to raise money for the family who lost their daughter in the shooting Lost Pets Recently I used Facebook to help a neighbor get their dog back, and there are other great examples of social media helping this effort. Here's some examples. LinkedIn Groups - an example of using a LinkedIn Group to get Buckeye the Yorkie back home Facebook ads – a story of how a coworker got his cat back with Facebook ads Local Facebook groups – how my fellow dog park members helped get a dog home Innovative Charities Many charities have a similar approach: give once and you get an annual reminder or direct mail piece asking you to give again. But some organizations have a new way of doing things. Give up birthday, host an event, see how your specific dollars helped the cause, and the list goes on. Check out these innovative approaches to donations. Heifer International – Buy a goat, chicken or many other animals for an impoverished community. See the stories of how you've helped. Charity: Water – Fund wells in communities without running water and see the break down of how donations are utilized. They include lots of way to donate including giving up your birthday. Whether you're wearing your business hat or Santa hat as you read this, you can be inspired this season to use social media to give or even create programs of your own. |
| Posted: 22 Dec 2012 11:00 AM PST
One of the major social media networks, Pinterest, has taken it to a whole new level. For those who may only be personally familiar with Pinterest, let it be known that businesses are rapidly increasing their presence on the network as well. There are many ways Pinterest is being used by businesses. Many use Pinterest for marketing purposes, and some also use it just to keep customers engaged, much like a blog or Facebook page can do. Pinterest has the advantage of drawing in people who are more interested in visuals than in written content. This year, Pinterest is spotlighting 30 brands during the holiday season. In 30 days, these brands will offer tips, recipes, and interest stories related to their companies during the holidays. Companies are able to pin images of products or things that they already have, or create unique images for this particular campaign. Companies can also explain further in the photo caption, what the image is symbolic of. Some big name brands and organizations that are participating include TOMS, Second Harvest, the NBA, and the Marine Corps. All of these companies will highlight their giving's to local charities. TOMS will show it's One for One campaign and the Marine Corps will presumably show their Toys for Tots program. Some of the Pinterest contributors are geared more towards holiday traditions and fun activities rather than being charitable. It's a nice mix of posts that feel "sponsored' and those that do not. While the 30 Days of Pinspiration calendar is likely already filled with brands, there's no reason that small businesses can't mimic this on their own pages. Here's some ideas as to how to do that:
And last but not least, try to take advantage of Pinterest to drive traffic to your company website. This can include pinning photos that are featured in blog posts on your site, or products that you offer. Pinterest, like other social media outlets, is a great way to get people to see what your company is up to. If your small business hasn't had much success on social media, then now is the time to prioritize your efforts and figure out how to succeed so you can reap the benefits of all social media has to offer. The holiday season is a great time to start integrating social media – especially when sites like Pinterest are running specials like the 30 Days of Pinspiration calendar. |
| Now Create Your Own Honey Bunny Dance Step Posted: 22 Dec 2012 10:05 AM PST Telecom brand Idea Cellular has been reigning high on the brand recall ever since it released the catchy Honey Bunny song creating quite a sensation among the youth. The crazy song seems to be infectious and getting to everyone's lips on its way. The song has garnered more than 580K views in the 23 days that it has been uploaded on YouTube! In cashing in on its current popularity, the brand has come up with an exciting dance contest on Facebook with Idea 3G smartphones to be won. Fans have been invited to create their own steps to the Honey Bunny song, be it horse riding, crazy stunt or just go wild and the most innovative ones can win prizes. About My Honey Bunny stepMy Honey Bunny step is hosted on a Facebook app and needs you to 'like' the Facebook page to get started with your honey bunny step. The song is featured as a video on the app's home page which also talks about the contest. The app seeks permissions after you click 'share your honey bunny step'.
The next screen welcomes you with 3 tabs: Upload, View gallery and Invite friends. You can either upload your previously recorded video file or share the link to a YouTube video with your honey bunny step, through the upload tab. In addition, the upload tab also takes in your name, mobile number, email and address. You can browse through other entries through 'View Gallery' and you can like or share entries too. Invite Friends enables you to invite your friends on Facebook. You can get details at the Terms & Conditions page displayed at the bottom of the app. How cool is it?Riding on the infectious nature of the Honey Bunny song ever since it was released this month, Idea Cellular has been occupied with promotional campaigns to popularise it even further. A full 360 degree media spread across TV, radio, outdoor and digital have been deployed to support the campaign. Getting fans to be creative on the song with 'My Honey Bunny step' is a clever extension to a song that has quickly gone viral. Sometime back the Idea Twitter page had been running the 'Who is your Honey Bunny?' campaign where one had to dedicate the song to someone close and tag them too. The tweets were hashtaged with #honeybunny and winners got iPods and gift vouchers from Idea. From creating a catchy tune and lyrics to a dedication contest, the telecom brand had to go the 'dance' way as a logical extension to cash in on it. Moreover, the app is simple with clean features and offers a smooth navigation. 'My Honey Bunny step' works for me for its sheer connect to the community and the ability to engage with them further. But, I'm not really convinced about the app taking in all your contact details at the time of contest submission. Also, it remains to be seen how far can it build a relevant community for Idea. What are your thoughts on the 'My Honey Bunny step' contest? Do share in the comments. |
| Hockey India League On Facebook Posted: 22 Dec 2012 09:55 AM PST Long before Cricket became our national passion we were known as a nation powerful in hockey. Not surprisingly, hockey is our national sport. But over the years, the popularity declined due to the emergence of cricket and various business models built around it. We have seen how the sponsors are pouring money on cricket. Lately, this trend is changing though. With decline in performance and busy cricketing schedules, people seem to have had too much and are moving to other sports. The hockey association has been quick to understand this trend and also they know how successful (from a business perspective) the IPL or EPL are. Also, the Premier Hockey League last year was pretty successful and so this year we have 'Hockey India League'. Am sure the short and fast game would catch everyone's fancy and we will have a better show! You may wonder what does it have to do with Social Media! So here it is – there is a Facebook Page associated with it, an unofficial one so far. But it's quite an interesting campaign to create awareness about 'Hockey India League'. While, the concept of 'Hockey India League' is similar to cricket's 'Indian Premier League', the Facebook Page is quite an interesting place to visit. With over 1700+ likes and also similar amount of people talking about it, you surely have a page that has some great engagement going on for them.
What I liked?1. Information: The page is full of information, about the team, players and owners. It's kind of go-to place for anything on the event. 2. Theme: The page is very strong on theme – player interview, owner details, etc.Each post that we see has photos about either the players or the event and these updates are built around a strong visual theme. What could have been better?1. Engagement: If you're considering the number of likes for each update as an engagement, then it's good. Personally, I do not share your view, for me until someone doesn't leave a comment, I have very less chance to engage. So, I would have hoped that the Admin could have responded to each comment and that would have helped them in gaining further page views. 2. Apps: As a Facebook page for 'Hockey India League', I would have loved to see some app that would have had a small game or videos or even some contests. Furthermore, they could have tied-up with the sponsors to have some give-aways. Since contests are a great way to garner attention and I hope that toward the start of the season, we might see few. Nonetheless, if you are hockey fan or remotely associated with hockey, do visit this page and share some love. As of writing this post, even the match schedule has been announced on the page, so go watch one in your city! |
| Decorate A Christmas Tree And Wish Poverty Away Through Rang De Posted: 22 Dec 2012 09:35 AM PST Come Christmas and one finds many ways to play Santa. Rang De, the non-profit organisation that wishes to make poverty history in India, has an adorable proposition this Christmas. You can help the organisation fight poverty away by making a social investment and getting a free gift in return, with which you can decorate the Christmas tree. Your social investment becomes microcredit for needy rural entrepreneurs and a special Christmas for them as well. There is a dedicated link at the Rang De website which is decorated with Christmas cheer complete with falling snow. You can choose a gift based on your social investment to decorate the tree with. For instance, you get a star for investments between Rs. 100 – 400 and a gift box for investments above Rs. 2000. Select a gift, then select a borrower from the featured list whose life you wish to improve. Then add your gift by making the investment and mouseover the gift on the Christmas tree to see your name! You can see the total number of gifts and the amount raised at the top. You can also spread the message by sharing on your Facebook wall or tweeting about it.
The Rang De Facebook page has been regularly updating about the Christmas tree decorations with social investments. A cover page invites fans to add their gifts and help grow India's biggest Christmas tree. An update asks fans to become Santa of the day by decorating the Christmas tree. In addition, the Rang De Twitter page is also running a Tweetathon where fans can make a wish for India by tweeting using the hashtag #xmaswish4india. For a social enterprise whose long term goal is to provide a meaningful connect between the urban and rural population and enable individuals to make social investments of their time and money, the Christmas tree decoration is a beautiful concept. |
| Posted: 22 Dec 2012 09:30 AM PST Ning can be an awesome source for networking, but it can also be a little hard to define. Visiting Ning.com with the intentions of joining this social networking can lead to a small heart attack: 25-60 dollars a month. . .for a glorified Facebook? But it's not really like Facebook, and it doesn't have to cost you anything. So what it is? Ning.com is the parent site, where people who wish to build a Ning community sign up. That fee provides the tools and hosting to create a site, which can turn out to be quite huge. I've seen many go into the tens of thousands in membership and continue to grow. Signing up to an existing community, however, is free. Features. The features can vary but usually include: a main forum, groups, profile and friends list, blogging, and private messaging. Many will include chat, as well. The best part are groups. Most Ning communities allow anyone to start a group, on any related topic. Some are subject to approval from the admins, but that's usually to keep down the spam. Groups don't offer a wide range of features, but they have the basics: forum, main "comment" area, admins, and the ability to turn on and off group messages. Why you should use it. As I said above, many Ning networks are quite large. They are usually created for one particular topic like "blogging" or "book promotion". the groups which fall under that are related to the main topic. This can turn up all sorts of like-minded people, whether you're developing fantasy or crafting a memoir. Larger networks tend to have groups exclusive for promoting and networking. I love Ning networks, and I think they're a great alternative to the classic forum. There are a few Ning directories, but you probably see the network badges far more than you realized. They are usually a box with the name of the network, sometimes random avatar pictures, and the word "join" appears when you run the mouse over it. For an example, see my Rainy Online page under contact. And hey, sign up and friend me while you're at it. What Ning networks do you belong to? |
| Writing a Persuasive Blog—The Key to Content Marketing Success Posted: 22 Dec 2012 08:30 AM PST
What Makes a Blog Post Persuasive?It’s true that a certain amount of “spice” in the headline gets your attention, even if the body fails to deliver the goods, but attention is not enough. To make a blog post memorable, you have to deliver the whole enchilada. A lot of experts will tell you to “tell a story,” but what kind of story? What’s the point, and how does it get resolved in the end? I would say it’s better to tell a parable than a story. A parable doesn’t just tell a story, it makes a point. It drives home an object lesson. Reader satisfaction comes from finding a blog post that’s relevant to their needs or interests, then learning something new or resolving an issue. So the blogger’s job isn’t merely to captivate interest—it’s really to persuade the reader to “buy-in” to a premise. Milestones in the ParableIf you want to persuade someone of something, there’s a logical sequence you should follow in each post:
This is Marketing, Not a Court of LawYou can still tell a story and make it memorable. Just remember your job as a marketer is to persuade someone to do something. If you want to persuade someone, you need to make a very clear statement of what you want them to do (or think), why they should do it and how they will benefit. A single blog post can do just that if you structure your argument well, present the facts and ask for agreement. Never assume that anyone will take your word for it. We’ve all learned how to turn on our BS filters. A well-reasoned argument is still the best way to persuade people. The added benefit is that your readers will find value in your blogs and subscribe to them for more. Photo credit: MDGovpics
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| A Foolproof Plan for Spending Time Improving Your Blog Content Posted: 22 Dec 2012 07:30 AM PST
Monday: Self-EducateWhat's going on in your field, anyway? Bloggers should self-educate daily, but make sure you're really delving deep at least once weekly. Don't just scroll through your RSS feed while you sip your morning coffee, either. Expose yourself to what's new and fresh in your field. Download the latest Marketing eBook from HubSpot, Marketo or Scarborough Info, take the time to subscribe to the Factbrowser newsletter. Do you think most experts and thought leaders ever stop learning? Absolutely not. Keep it up. Tuesday: Edit and Edit againWe all make errors. Bloggers who've developed a dedicated readership have generally learned to catch grammar and spelling issues before hitting publish, or there's a good chance they'll be called out. And having to respond to a comment on your blog that points out grammatical errors is just embarassing. If you're the sole manager of your blog or you're responsible for monitoring a group of contributors, set aside enough time each week to edit your content thoroughly. Social Media Strategist Natalie Contreras recommends against solely relying on spell check. Ensure the links are working in the content, and that you or your writers have taken the time to cite the right sources. Wednesday: Read News ArticlesHaving your content referenced on a major news site like Huffington Post or New York Times doesn't only create a high-authority link to your blog, it lends authority to your brand, and can send a surge of new readers. Blogger and SEOMoz Associate Dan Shure recommends you spend a few minutes once a week reading news articles in your niche. You can really save time by editing your Google News settings or setting up alerts for key phrases in your industry. Notice what kinds of content and experts are being cited, and make an effort to emulate their expertise. Thursday: NetworkWhat are you trying to get out of blogging, anyway? If it's higher organic ranking in major search engines, more leads and a healthier bottom line, you need to network. Set aside time each week to boost your blog's visibility through personal connections. Can you participate in the #SMBiz Tweetchat every Tuesday night at 8pm? Is there a blog in your niche that you could write a guest post for? If you’re committed to impoving your writing, you could likely benefit from a critique circle, forum or word challenges in the Write or Die app. StrategizeSo, what are you writing about next Tuesday, anyway? If you're not currently using a content calendar, it's time to get started. There's a lot of compelling reasons to plan your topics, keywords, formats and target buyer personas well in advance of publication, but realize it's normal. Most print magazines have a good idea of what they'll be publishing a full year in advance. Besides, did organization or preparation ever hurt anyone? A full month's content calendar typically takes me a little less than 2 hours – and that's with keyword research and some very basic annotation. If you're just dipping your toes into planning out your business blog and decide to do it on a weekly basis, you can expect to spend 30 minutes a week at the most. Is being able to provide your readers with more varied, interesting and relevant content worth that time commitment? I sure think so. How Do You Approach Spending Time Improving Your Blog Content? image credit: Under Consideration |
| Ask An SEO Expert – Budget Allocation - Posted: 22 Dec 2012 05:30 AM PST To say that search has changed in the past year would be an understatement. Search has pretty much undergone evolution and traditional search tactics as we once knew them are no longer cutting it. This may lead marketers to wonder if search is a worthwhile investment and how much resources should be dedicated to it. In this week's Ask An SEO Expert feature, Jesse Laffen offers advice in understanding if search engine optimization is a worthy investment for your company and how to determine what the budget should be. Do you have an SEO question that you would like to have answered? Simply submit your question on our website or via Twitter by using the hashtag #AskAnSEOExpert. Transcript:
This is a pretty good question. Basically, I'm trying to allocate resources. How do I know if I'm spending too much or maybe not enough to win the search game? I think the first thing that you need to do is figure out how big of a problem is search for you. If it is a big problem, where are you losing? There are lots of expensive tactics that can possibly help you address that. Some really good link building – and when I say really good link building, I mean on relevant sites with really good content around the links. That's a very labor intensive effort. Another reason why you might be losing is just really bad content on your site. Sometimes to get content that people find via search engines, but also converts really well, can take quite a decent amount of money to find a good copywriter that understands your brand. So, there are some heavy expenses that could be involved. But I think that this is actually, maybe, a lot simpler question to answer than that. So, I want you to think for a second about this is kind of a classic e- commerce model, right? So, there's a homepage and a there's a category page, and then there's a product page. Pretty simple, right? You'll find this on websites all over. This category page right here is really trying to get people off of it as quickly as possible. I promise I'm going somewhere with this. So, think instead – so, I went on the homepage, right? I get to this category page and I want to find the product as soon as I can. This model exists with Google to. So, if you think of this instead as, this is my user, this is Google, and this is my result. The purpose of Google is to please their user by getting them to the right result right away. So, how does this really relate to my SEO budget? Glad you asked. Thinking of Google as the world's category page, they want to make sure that they're always, always serving up the right results. If they don't do that there users aren't going to come back, right? They're just going to say, "Well, I'm not really seeing – I'm not finding what I want from Google. So, maybe I'll go to Amazon for the shopping query. Or maybe I'll go straight to Wikipedia for this other thing." They don't get the chance to actually serve up the ads and things that make Google money around it. So, with that in mind, I think the best use of your budget is to actually populate the results that Google wants to serve up. Okay. We always talk about be the result that you want to see in the SERP, or things like that. What I'm really talking about is, think about the user's query. Every single user's query is a question that Google's trying to answer. So are you putting the right result up that they can actually find and want to return? In light of Google's constantly changing algorithms the only thing that they're really ever actually changing is their ability to get the right results. So, if you are the right result, and even if it doesn't rank today immediately, it will down the road as they get better and better, trying to get the users to the right result right away, the first time. |
| WordPress Plugins – Love Them or Hate Them? Posted: 21 Dec 2012 04:57 PM PST
Just when you thought WordPress couldn't get any more amazing, you discover the existence of plugins for this incredible CMS and don't know where to start! Some people who have been working with WordPress plugins can tell you that they offer amazing add-on functionality that can really take your blog / website to the next level. And there are other people who will tell you that plugins are nothing but trouble because of something they or a friend have experienced in the past at the hands of a less-than-amazing plugin. What do you think of WordPress Plugins? Some Great Things About Plugins for WordPressWhile using plugins for WordPress can certainly have its downsides, plugins can provide some pretty awesome benefits as well, especially for SEOs and internet marketers!
WordPress is fairly well set-up for SEO right from the start, but sometimes in order to reach your goals you need to step up your game a bit. Plugins can be one way to do this without having to switch blogging platforms or make any major changes to your blog's code by hand. Some plugins do require a bit of tweaking, but nothing a professional web developer shouldn't be able to handle! Some Not-so-great Things About Plugins For WordPressIf you use WordPress plugins, eventually you will come upon one that is more trouble than it's worth. Some of the top risk factors when using plugins are:
Some plugins are also just plain ineffective. They do not do what they promise, they can slow things down, make things crash, and just generally be unpleasant. Not all plugins are like this, but enough are that it definitely pays to be informed and research each plugin you are interested in before you add it to your WordPress blog. When it comes to adding that extra OOMPH to your blog or WordPress-based website, sometimes you just can't beat a good plugin to help get things going. Some plugins make social sharing easier and some make it easier for non-technical people to take care of the basics of their own SEO. Whatever the issue you're trying to address, chances are there is a plugin that can help you. Just be careful which plugin you choose and research any possibilities before trying to install them or handing them over to your web developer to install for you! |
| How To Tell A Good Story (infographic) Posted: 21 Dec 2012 04:51 PM PST As we close the year, I suspect that you may hear or share a few good stories. This infographic from NCM Fathom Business Events (an AMC company) offers some great guidance in how storytelling can increase revenue. Wishing you all the best as you close out this year and prepare to share your brand story in the New Year!
Source: Fathom Business Events |
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This holiday season, many retailers and online businesses have made charitable giving a focus. This isn't really unusual, however, the ways that they are going about it could be considered unconventional. For the past few years, retailers have been turning to the internet for sales and marketing. This probably isn't news to anyone. However, they are beginning to use these social outlets to promote charity as well. Companies are not only showcasing their own charitable causes, but also encouraging their followers and customers to do so as well.
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The question is, "In the wake of Google's constantly changing algorithms, what percentage of an annual budget should be dedicated to traditional search tactics? Or could that money be better spent?
