6 New Social Articles on Business 2 Community |
- So Blogging is Dead? Think Again!
- The Role SEO Plays in your Social Media Crisis Plan
- 20 Blog Post Ideas That Will Leave Your Readers Glowing From Top to Toe!
- 5 Reasons Social Media Isn’t Working For You – And How to Fix Them
- Myth: Nothing is Off Limits on a Corporate Blog
- Get Bossy with Your Blog: Five Ways to Boost Your Blogging Confidence
| So Blogging is Dead? Think Again! Posted: 29 Apr 2012 03:00 PM PDT An article in USA Today says RIP Corporate Blogging. According to a study by UMASS fewer companies in the Fortune 100 and INC 500 are maintaining their blogs. I hope that these companies don't have any women customers. The recent BlogHer survey of 2000 women in the US found that women regard blogs as their most trustworthy source of information and advice. Blogs beat out Facebook and Twitter by a big margin. In fact Facebook was in a distant third place for the general US female population.
"Blogging requires more investment. You need content regularly," said Nora Ganim Barnes, who wrote the UMASS report. Yes, it does. A blog is a publication. It's not a quick conversation at the water cooler. It's not a news feed. A blog requires good writers and editors. It needs images and graphics. It needs an editorial calendar. The content has to be timely, relevant, interesting and worth sharing. Oh, and did I mention that it's a publication? A BofA spokesman said the bank dropped its blog because its social media strategy is focused on Facebook and Twitter. Facebook and Twitter are completely different methods of communication and should not mean that you don't blog. And since BofA has many female customers (I know, I am one of them and I see many women in the bank) looking at the BlogHer figures, I can only say 'Good luck with that". If you are not going to maintain your corporate blog o blog, best plan you should embark on a blogger outreach program and build relationships with other women bloggers. I agree that the reason companies don't blog is more likely to be a lack of resources or insight into how to blog and the value of a blog. "Companies often underestimate the amount of work a blog requires" Pete Stegee, director of marketing communications and Web strategy for digital storage device maker Rimage. "Many corporate blogs fail to attract readers because they exist solely to pitch products and are badly written." Lou Hoffman, PR veteran. If you have a blog and are struggling to fill it with good content read these tips from Darren Rowse at ProBlogger And stick these tips on your wall.
A blog should be the hub of your brand journalism. |
| The Role SEO Plays in your Social Media Crisis Plan Posted: 29 Apr 2012 11:30 AM PDT
When it comes to a social media crisis, the search engines are most definitely your friends – or at least you want them to be! In a crisis you have a message to share, one that you want to be heard by as many fans, customers and prospective customers as physically possible, and the search engines are a great tool to help you achieve this goal – if you know how to use them! Aside from this, in a social media crisis, many – and I mean many – people are going to be searching for the story. What happened? Why did it happen? What's happening now?… And the goal is that they find your version of story and your messaging, before they find the offending content, reviews or any other content that you did not create and for which you have no control over. In order for the search engines to work to your advantage in a social media crisis, consider the following preparations and strategic implementations: How to become friendly with the search engines before a crisis strikesHave an established blog and post frequently Be active on Google+ Understand how the search engines work How to optimize your social media crisis responseThe before strategies, as seen above, will help you gain rankings within the search engine results pages (SERP), which have many benefits for your online marketing and online reputation. But when you find yourself faced with a social media crisis, you'll want to use those already acquired benefits to your advantage, as well as properly optimize your crisis-related content to rank as high as possible within the search engines. Follow these simple yet crucial techniques when optimizing your social media crisis response. Keywords
Using the appropriate keywords within your official statement will assure that your message gets found by the right people, at the right time. Titles Here's the secret: Title your response the same title as the offending content and add "your brand name responds" at the end of it. One great example of this is Domino's Pizza. When the offending video was released to Youtube that launched Domino's into the biggest social media crisis they had ever seen, Domino's responded by means of their own youtube video and titled it perfectly to be found within the search engines by anyone who may have been searching for their response or the offending video. Take a look: Offending video name: "Disgusting Domino's People" The goal is to regain controlThe key, in a social media crisis, is to control as much as you possibly can. A crisis takes the control away from you and gives it to your fans, followers, subscribers, bloggers and the public. Your mission in a crisis is to regain control of the situation as quickly as possible and to come out of it with the least amount of repercussions to your brand. In order to do this, you need to focus on the areas where you always have the control:
And the way you title these ares of control, and the higher you rank within the search engines, the more control you will have and continue to gain. Do you have any other SEO tricks to help others rank high within the search engines when faced with a social media crisis? Share your comments and insights with me below! photo by: Paloma Gómez |
| 20 Blog Post Ideas That Will Leave Your Readers Glowing From Top to Toe! Posted: 29 Apr 2012 11:00 AM PDT As a small business owner you have probably been told that you need to create fresh content for your blog on a regular basis so that the search engines find you. If you're doing this regularly you'll begin to develop an online community of regular readers, build up your trust factor and increase the chance they will do business with you. Great! But what happens when you just simply cannot come up with blog post ideas that are suitable? Well first off it happens to all of us. The simple fact is that if your aim is to produce quality content that directly relates to your audience and empowers them to take action and join your email list, then you need to produce content. There is no way around it. Yes you can outsource it, and there are many good freelance writers out there that will provide copy for you, but ultimately you still need to be able to provide them with blog post ideas around the content you want to publish. But what if you have no great blog post ideas?As an entrepreneur and a business owner you have a wealth of knowledge about your business and this is the fuel for the content it can generate. You just need to get your thinking hat on. It doesn't matter if you're a tree surgeon, a mechanic or an accountant; there is information you can provide to your customers which they will value. Let's say, for the sake of argument, you're a beauty salon owner (It was a suggestion, trust me, I don't frequent beauty salons!). Here are 15 blog post ideas for your small business:
As you have probably guessed by now I have very little knowledge of what goes on in beauty salons and long may that continue! The point is, just think about the desired outcome of what a potential business partner or client would expect from your experience. If it is to feel like a supermodel, then write about it. If it is to change the oil filter on your car then tell them. If it is to file your own self-assessment, then give them the advice to do it. Some people will always gravitate to doing things for themselves and that is just fact. Others will hunt out the advice and that could come from you or your competitor. Whose advice would you rather they follow? Wouldn't it be better that you are seen as the business owner that has helped them? Yes, it might mean that they don't come to you at first, it might mean that they read your information, join your email list but never actually make an appointment. What if that woman (and I say woman because fewer men go to beauty salons!) who usually does her nails herself is going to a formal event? She might decide that she will get a manicure, pedicure and a face mask. What about another woman who has been reading your blog ideas and following your tips on how to make her skin silky smooth is getting married and she has decided that for her special day she wants the full works and brings in the entire bridal party for the same. Can you see the benefit of offering expert advice, alongside your marketing message positioning your service, highlighting your expertise and building trust? Get a pad and pen out jot down all things that you think your clients would find useful. In fact go a step further, ask your customers what they would want to know. What are the most common questions that they ask? These will possibly be the best blog post ideas that you will ever get. Then all you have to do is create that content and tell your audience about it. |
| 5 Reasons Social Media Isn’t Working For You – And How to Fix Them Posted: 29 Apr 2012 07:00 AM PDT
Disappointment. Not a word anyone usually wants to hear in a business meeting, but music to our ears. The theme of this last week's work with some new clients has been disappointment – feeling that they started investing time in social media because the world and his dog had told them it was a sure fire route to business growth, and it's not turned out that way. But as with so many things in life, the devil is very much in the detail – So here are our top five social media failure points, and what you can do about them. 1. InconsistencyThis one's really a failure to integrate social media properly alongside the other regular key tasks for your marketing. You're set up on all the main social media sites, but only find time to check and update them sporadically. From your contacts' point of view, that means you're either swamping them with updates ("might as well post everything I can think of on Twitter while i'm here") or absent and not holding your end of the conversation. You'd not dream of leaving your email inbox unchecked for a week or more, so why do the equivalent on social media? The remedy: Decide how frequently it's realistic for you to post – and stick to it. Even a regular monthly update on your Facebook page is much better than nothing for three months, and then three posts at once. Scheduling tools like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck are your friend here. Secondly, make your social media part of your regular schedule, or get someone else to do it for you. You need to be checking your incoming contacts daily as by tomorrow, they'll very likely have moved on and not be listening to your response. 2. Lack of reachLike any marketing activity, only a small proportion of people seeing your communication will either read or act on it – so good reach is vital. By "reach", we mean a sufficient quantity of first degree connections (ie direct Followers, Likers etc) and a willingness for them to interact with you in ways which make you visible to their own networks ( a Twitter re-tweet, or commenting on your Facebook posts for example). The remedy: Sit down and take a half hour or so to develop a "good follower" profile. What type of people, in what area of the world, do you need to reach out to? This list will have something in common with your target prospect characteristics but probably won't be the same; remember to allow for influencers who may never buy from you, but who can be very effective in increasing your visibility. Then start building relationships with those people, rather than just increasing your follower count with meaningless numbers. 3. The PR trapWe still see lots of businesses who haven't understood the difference between social media and their other marketing channels, and constantly post old-style "push" marketing content. If most of your content could be summarised as "look how great we / our products are" then this may be your problem. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, gets a social media account so that they can receive advertising, so your contacts are most likely tuning you out completely. The remedy: This all comes down to value. You need to be offering something of value to your contacts BEYOND what they'd get from reading your corporate website or trade magazine advertorials. So, brainstorm all the types of content you could post which provide some kind of value. For example, are you tapped into industry developments and able to be their first port of call for breaking news? Can you search out content which helps them solve problems (like this article, for example ;) )? That's not to say some of your content can't subtly promote your key marketing messages, but put yourself in your contacts' shoes: a photo captioned "here's Emma in her pyjamas at 5am because we're leaving for X trade show" is much more fun to read than "we're exhibiting at X trade show on the 12th of June". 4. TumbleweedAKA, total lack of engagement. You've got a good, relevant following, but they don't converse with you or advocate on your behalf. Your @mentions Twitter tab is empty apart from spammers, and your Facebook page is a one-way conversation with yourself. Remedy: This one isn't easy, we'd be the first to admit. People are busy, and often they're happy to read but don't feel the need to engage. To help make them reach for that "reply" button, compelling content helps (see above), as does asking the odd direct question and making them think less hard about responses – yes, sometimes that does mean you're going to end up talking about what you had for lunch. What's so bad about that – would you refuse to discuss anything but hardcore strategy in a face to face meeting? 5. Bad MannersYou get past all the previous tests but relationships don't progress beyond an initial contact. They comment or reply to you once, or maybe just follow you and say Hi. Then you turn them off with what they see as poor etiquette, and you don't hear from them again. The remedy: Make sure you're polite and considerate at all times. On Twitter for example, consider greeting new followers IF they're genuinely relevant and of interest to you, and starting a conversation. Check their bio before you respond . Our names are clearly in our bio, but we lose count of the responses addressed to "Rose" – not a huge deal, but not endearing either. Think about your followback policy on Twitter (and following Facebook comments by Liking the originating page). Thank people who share or otherwise pass on your content. And obviously, always reply to messages or Facebook comments! We hope these help you in the direction of a great social media presence, and if you're still struggling, why not book one of our private consultancy and training sessions? One of our clients this week summed up the benefits perfectly: "I really enjoyed {the session} and found it extremely useful. It was so great to have you focus completely on our business and make the real time changes to our pages. I felt you really understood our products, market and strategy." - more music to our ears! |
| Myth: Nothing is Off Limits on a Corporate Blog Posted: 28 Apr 2012 04:00 PM PDT It's a bright and sunshiny day and you're on your way to meet a prospect. You have your company's portfolio, you've dressed the best way you know how, and you even brushed your teeth and combed your hair. You have so many butterflies you're thinking about donating all of them to an arboretum. Then suddenly you're there in the office waiting to get your meeting. You're called in. You shake hands and sit down, and then suddenly you say, "I have my colonoscopy results here. Would you like to see them?" This probably is not super likely to happen in the "real world," and yet I see a lot of professional/corporate blogs that seem to operate in just this kind of scenario. The blog looks great, there's a lot of helpful content, so I decide to check it out. Then all of a sudden I'm reading something that kind of makes me want to poke my eyes out. I was visiting you for business and now I'm reading something I wouldn't necessarily want to know about my best friend. So what's the scoop here? Forget about "professional brand" and "personal brand" Often this conversation gets us into the "brand" jungle. If you want to "build your personal brand" you need to be really, well, personal. I've never really bought this line of thinking when it comes to people who are in the blogosphere for business, however. It's my opinion that when you are out here in the social media world, you ARE being the face of your brand. When someone thinks of your company, they now can say, "Oh yeah, so and so works there." That does not mean that that person needs to think, "Ah yes…that company is where so and so works. Did you know that that person had a wart problem for the first 30 years of her life and that sometimes she really enjoys picking her nose?" If you are blogging for business, logic states that your ultimate goal is to use your blog to somehow build or strengthen your business. That means your corporate blog should not be about you. It can be written in a personable tonality and it can include stories that help bring your posts to life, but over-sharing is not always a great way to bring people in. In fact, sometimes over-sharing can be a good way to keep people out. For example, let's say you decide to write a post, as a CEO, about how poor your health has been. You've been in and out of the hospital for the last 3 years, you've missed a ton of work, and it's just wearing you down. As a blog post, this will probably drive a lot of traffic to your site and you'll probably get a lot of comments, too. But what message does this send to a person considering doing business with you? No matter how hard we try to think otherwise, the message being sent here is, "Maybe I shouldn't start building a business relationship with you right now." That person may even leave a wonderful comment for you. But so far as your business is concerned, you may not be doing yourself any favors. "I know who I want to attract" A common argument in support of blogging about whatever you want to blog about is, "Well, I know what kinds of people I want to work with. If you're offended by what I write, we probably wouldn't have gotten along anyway." That can most certainly work for some people, but during these trying economic times not everyone can afford to pick and choose. Money looks the same and spends the same no matter who you get it from, and I'd even go so far as to argue that part of the fun of business is learning how to get along with people who might be different from you. If you're strongly religious, it might be good, as a business person, to learn how to function with those darned pagan types. If you're a "liberal lefty" it might do you some good to learn how to operate efficiently with a far right Republican. Why limit yourself to "who I like to work with"? This has never seemed entirely realistic to me. In fact, I might even go so far as to call it unrealistic or even bad advice. Of course, I'm always open to hearing other opinions. I expect to in this case as this tends to be a hot button issue in bloggy world. So – voice away! Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/28481088@N00/5256837309/ via Creative Commons |
| Get Bossy with Your Blog: Five Ways to Boost Your Blogging Confidence Posted: 28 Apr 2012 03:30 PM PDT
Janet writes: So many writers and experts I work with (myself included) feel intimidated by their work. But you’re the boss. We can get our ideas and writing to work (and we can get the help we need if we have the clarity and the bossy-ness to move forward). If the book and ideas aren’t coming, you can give yourself and your pages a talking-to. There’s the stern, “I can figure this out and I can write 2 paragraphs or 2 pages or 20. I can get this concept down on paper right now and I can go back and revise, add, disagree, improve.” I loved this idea, especially in conjunction with the Barrie Business Blogathon event that I presented on Saturday, April 14th, 2012 (the first of many!). One of my goals for the event was to inspire confidence in the bloggers to move forward with their blogs – whether they were just starting out with blogging, or they had started blogging and then stopped. I hear from many beginner bloggers that they’re intimidated by the process, whether they’re recovering academic writers, brand new to the blogosphere or they’re just plain stuck about what to write. Here are five simple ways to boost your blogging confidence and show your blog who’s the boss:
Like any other task, your blogging skills and confidence will grow with time and practice. Until then, even if you don’t feel like it, you’re going to have to pull rank on your blog – because you’re the boss! |
We all know that search engine optimization (SEO) is important for our online business and reputation. But what about in a social media crisis? How much help can the search engines provide to you during the stressful events of a social media crisis, and how can you leverage that help to the maximum of your capabilities?
| You are subscribed to email updates from Social | Business 2 Community To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu