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Posts Tagged ‘blogging’

Blog Posts are Useful

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

Bloggers tend to be insecure people. We worry about who is reading our posts or if anyone is reading them. We obsess on how many comments a post gets. Does a post get retweeted?

Guy Kawasaki in his book, Reality Check, says that a blog is valuable even if only your dog reads it. He’s right, and I’ve had some recent experiences to prove it.

One of the most obvious uses for a blog is material for books. I’m working on compiling some of my themed posts into a series of e-books. That’s in addition to the fiction ebooks I wrote about last week. I’m soon going to have a ton of ebooks for sale.

Back to my post on writing and selling short fiction. I considered that almost a throw-way post. I was tired and needed something to write quickly. Well, recently I was meeting with someone who has a friend who wants to get a book published. She asked if I could coach her friend through the process. I said I thought I could and suggested she send her friend a link to my post. Not bad for a throw-away, desperation post!

I used a post as a way to get a referral for a contact. Remember my post on the guy who was such an awesome networker? I used a link to that post in an email to a contact he wants an introduction to. If I liked someone enough to write a post about him, that should be a compelling reason to agree to an introduction.

Finally, last week, I was at a networking event, and a financial planner was talking to me about bringing me in for a lunch and learn in her office. I sent her a link to my post on Social Media and Regulated Industries. That post establishes my credibility as someone who can speak on the topic and gives a nice teaser.

So your blog posts have value beyond who read them (or didn’t) or who commented on them (or didn’t). Be creative and find other ways to make them work for you.

Anyone other bloggers have a good story to share in the comments?

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Tags: blogging, Referrals, reputation, sales
Posted in social media | 3 Comments »

Sometimes Dreams Do Come True

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

This is a little off-topic, but what’s the fun in having a blog if you can’t occasionally share cool stuff?

30 odd years ago I had the dream of becoming a fiction writer. I wrote short stories and then a couple of novels between junior high and college. One of the novels sucked mightily. Everyone who read the other one loved it.

So I tried to get it published. And after about a year gave up in frustration. The feedback was that it wasn’t bad. It just didn’t fit. I didn’t want to rewrite it to make it fit, so I got a “real” job and kind of forgot about the dream.

A couple of years later I had a vivid dream that was the inspiration for another novel, which I wrote. I joined a writers group, wanting feedback. Some of the feedback was spot on. I do tend to “info dump,” and I was okay with fixing that. But the message was pretty much the same. Not a bad book, but no agent will pick it up.

I wanted to write the stories I wanted to tell. I didn’t want to write stories for agents and publishers. So I fed my need to write by writing fanfiction. Everyone who read my stories loved them. I still get comments on some of my stories more than a decade later.

I told myself that the real test of being a writer was writing stuff people liked to read, not getting paid for it.

Now, I’m a blogger, so writing is part of my job. I told myself that I am a writer now. I’m living my dream. But it’s never been quite the same. I wanted to get paid for fiction.

I’ve been following a writer/blogger for a while now. He’s J.A. Konrath, and his blog is A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing. His story and information have inspired me. He talks about how to make it as an self-published author. I’ve been paying attention to what he’s done, and I’m ready to start trying it myself.

Having a large volume of work is key, so I’m starting on a series of short stories. When I have five or six written, I’m going to self-publish them as e-books. I know how to market through social media and networking, so I’m confident I can make money at it.

Will I quite coaching to become a full-time fiction writer? Nope. I love coaching too much to quit. Besides, I get too many great ideas from my clients. I’d be a poorer writer without them.

But I will write enough and publish enough that I can finally achieve a decades-old dream I thought was dead. And if that isn’t something to get up for in the morning, I don’t know what is.

Stay tuned. You all will be among the first to know when there’s something available.

And if you have a dream you thought was dead, pull it out of the drawer and see if you can’t breathe some life into it. Dreams should live. Not gather dust.

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Tags: blogging, social media
Posted in General | 3 Comments »

Social Media Time Schedule

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

I get asked all the time, “What is your schedule for checking in with social media?” I guess if enough of you are interested, it’s worth me writing about.

My typical day looks something like this:

1. Wake up and pummel brain into activity with reading light fiction (works better for me than coffee)

2. Read blogs in Google Reader and check Twitter (if I have time)

3. Write blog post for the day (and maybe tomorrow if the next day looks particularly crowded). I check my @1to1Discovery mentions at this time and respond if needed. Some days, this is my only Twitter check-in.

4. Head off to a meeting (client or one to one)

5. Eat lunch (preferably at home) and catch up on Twitter or blogs

6. Race off to afternoon meetings.

7. Exercise after meetings and before any evening networking events

8. If there’s no evening event, touch social media again, this time mostly fun stuff. It’s important to catch up on the latest Doctor Who news and fanfiction.

I do try to get to meetings early and check Twitter on my iPhone. In 15 minutes, I can catch up on the important stuff.

Since social media is part of what I do for a living, I probably spend more time on it than many. And even I’m not on it all day.

By the way, you’ll notice I didn’t mention Facebook. I do check Facebook, but it comes in through Tweetdeck with my Twitter stream, so I don’t always think of them as separate.

I do try to space out my social media activity, but if you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably noticed I tend to tweet in bursts. That’s because I’m on in bursts. I’ve started to use Hootsuite to schedule some of my tweets, especially ones that aren’t time sensitive. But I never delay retweets. Those go out as I see ‘em.

One thing that helps me from spending too much time is to check social media between other appointments. If I know I have only 15 minutes, I’m a lot more efficient than if I have two hours in front of me.

I hope this was helpful. Social media is an effective way to grow your business. And you can engage in the media without it becoming a second life.

Anyone else have good tips to share?

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Tags: blogging, iPhone, social media, task management, time management
Posted in Time and Task Management | 3 Comments »

Finding Blogging Topics

Monday, April 5th, 2010

Some of you are just starting out blogging or are thinking about starting a blog. If you’re still thinking about it, I say get started. It is a very effective way to grow and promote your business on-line. The monetary cost is minimal. The real cost is in time.

I’ve done several posts on managing time in social media. Head back into the archives if you want more information on that topic. They all use the “time management” tag.

But what I haven’t yet written about is how to find the topics. New bloggers (I know; I was one) worry that they won’t be able to come up with enough material to keep a blog going. I had the same fear. Turns out there was no reason to worry.

I get ideas from reading other blogs and following people in social media.

I get ideas from networking events, both good practices and bad.

I get ideas from my clients. Sometimes they ask questions that turn into blog posts. Sometimes things they try work out very well, and I use them in posts.

I get ideas from watching the news.

Sometimes I get pissed off and need a place to rant. My blog is a good one for that.

As I come up with ideas, I jot them down in Evernote. I tag them “blog topic” and whenever I am feeling stuck for a topic, I go back to my list. Currently I have 11 notes, a little over two weeks worth of topics. That’s a lot of “stuck” I can get out of.

If you are just starting out, I suggest you create a list in advance. 10-15 possible topics is a good starting point. Write a few of them, to find your style and voice.

And then go out and post them. When you meet with clients, take a moment to think about the meeting and uncover new posts. Jot down the questions people ask about your business or industry.

But most of all, don’t worry. Topics do come. They are the easy part. The harder part is getting into a rhythm of writing, posting and promoting.

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Tags: blogging, time management
Posted in social media | 4 Comments »

Cross-posting to Multiple Social Media Sites

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

The big three social media sites (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter) all have features to link updates from one site to the others.

This can be a big time saver or a real problem, depending on how you do it and why.

If your audience/following for each site are the same, it can be a significant time savings. Just make sure the links are doing what you want. For example, if you post a link on Facebook and link that status update to Twitter, you’ll get a tweet with a link. But instead of leading to the site you linked to, the tweet will lead back to your Facebook page. Your follower must then click a second link. The more links we have to click, the less likely we are to click them.

But the bigger danger is in publishing content appropriate to your audience in on one site and inappropriate for your audience for the other.

I met with a client yesterday, and this issue came up. She’s a non-profit. She has a Facebook Cause page, a fan page, a LinkedIn account, a blog and a Twitter account. (Yes, that’s a lot of social media, and it makes sense for her.) Her non-profit is trying to attract multiple audiences, which is why she has so many accounts. The Cause page is for attracting donors. The fan page and blog are for people needing the services her organization provides. LinkedIn and Twitter are for attracting/finding policy makers in her area of specialization.

Her sites are aimed at different audiences. We talked about linking content among the different sites, and most of the time it didn’t make sense. Linking her blog to her Cause page would overload her donors with information they didn’t want or need. Same with promoting her blog through Twitter. Publishing the same content to the Cause page and fan page didn’t make sense either.

By the time we finished the session, she had a plan for what content was appropriate for each audience. We even came up with some ideas for blog topics that could be relevant to donors and her service community, and we developed a schedule for how often it made sense to cross-post.

Cross posting to different audiences can make sense. Her donors need to see their money is being used well. The people she is serving need to see she is actively raising money. But it can’t be done too often or her targeted messages will get lost.

Being on multiple social media sites can make sense. But before you cross-post content, make sure you’re aiming your content at the right audience.

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Tags: blogging, communication, marketing, social media
Posted in social media | 1 Comment »

Why Are You Engaging In Social Media?

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Yesterday I talked about “what is social media.” Obviously you need to know what something is before you can decide if it’s right for you. But the next most important question is why are you there?

And no, because some blogger said that “everyone must have a Facebook page” is not a good reason.

There are lots of good reasons to be there. And your reason is going to influence what social media channel(s) you use.

Here are a list of reasons people engage in social media:

1. To keep up with far-flung family and friends
2. To make loyal customers more loyal
3. To find new customers
4. To stalk…I mean keep up with…celebrities and their antics
5. To keep up with the news
6. To be known as an expert in some field
7. To market a book or a product from their website
8. To extend the geographic reach and recognition of their brand
9. To offer a better customer service experience
10. To attract customers from certain age groups

And the list goes on. Your reason might be one of the above, or it might be something entirely different.

Certain social media channels are better than others for accomplishing your goals. Facebook is a better channel to keep up with family and friends than Twitter. Twitter is a great way to spread your message widely and to build relationships in other parts of the country, or the world. A blog is just about required to be seen as a thought leader in a particular field.

It’s not enough to just sign up for a Twitter account. If you don’t know why you have that account, odds are you won’t do anything with it. Or you may be doing good things with it that don’t meet your goals.

Example. A couple of weeks ago, I met with a prospect. Their goal with social media was to extend their reach. When they get a client, that client stays very loyal because their product is that awesome. So they need more clients. Lots more clients. What social media channel are they using? A personal Facebook page. Which is great for keeping in touch with family and terrible for extending their reach. Not to mention in violation of Facebook’s terms of service (you can’t use a personal page for commercial gain).

See why knowing your goal is so important? Their page is active. And their loyal customers friend them and interact with them. But that’s not their ultimate goal. If someone had asked them why they are using social media before they set up a page, they could have found a more effective channel. Like Twitter. Or Foursquare. And since they are a specialty shop, a Yahoo! Group might be effective as well.

If you are already engaged in social media, stop and ask the question. Why am I here? Make sure your channels are the right ones. If you are thinking about social media, ask the same question. The answer may guide you in a totally unexpected direction.

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Tags: blogging, Relationship building, social media
Posted in social media | 2 Comments »

Regular Blogging and Its SEO Implications

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Last week I wrote a post on why it’s important to blog regularly. It’s important from a trust and relationship building perspective, but it also makes sense from a Search Engine Optimization perspective. I’m not qualified to write on SEO, but I know someone who is, and I did a shout out for a guest blog post.

@seowashdc, better known to some of you as Nancy Wigal of the Search Engine Academy of Washington DC, tells us all about why regular blogging is critical from an SEO perspective. She also gives us some tips on how to make our blogs more search engine friendly.

Take it away, Nancy!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and blogging help you build relationships with your prospects and clients. Here’s how you can quickly and easily incorporate some basic SEO techniques to attract the right target audience.

Before you embark on that relationship, SEO shows you what is important and critical to say to your target market.

Start by applying SEO to your blog posts with keyword research. If you don’t know the words and terms your prospects and customers use online, how can you show up in their search results? How do you discover the words they’re using? You can read competitor’s blogs, ask your sales force/marketing team what they’re hearing and reading, and you can also ask your customers directly. By engaging your clients, you’re also fostering a relationship with them – they know that you really care, since you asked them for help.

There are number of keyword tools you can use. Wordtracker is a great tool because it shows you the number of searches, provides a thesaurus function, does lateral thinking for any term you enter, and shows you the number of competing web pages for the keyword term you’re targeting.

You can also use Keyword Finder or Google Insights for Search. The point is, do some research and target the right keywords for your market.

So you have keywords. Great – what do you do with them? At this point, look at them and start brainstorming blog topics around them. Let’s say you have six great keyword terms. Five of them could be stand-alone blog posts. This is wonderful news, because you can now develop a series of blog posts around these terms. You can create good content and if you’ve developed the theme properly, build some buzz and anticipation with each post.

Next, SEO and blogging are great relationship partners because the search engines love fresh, updated, regular content. Since you’ve done your keyword research and carefully laid out your blog posting strategy, you’re now very well positioned to publish regular, high quality content posts to build a relationship with your target audience. How often should you post?

As part of your overall marketing campaign, build a project timeline and include a calendar of regular blog posts. It could be as often as four times each week, or twice. It’s up to you. The more regularly you post new content, the more often the search engine robots will visit your site and rank your posts. The bottom line is, the more the better. The search engines love new content.

Now, you’re ready to write those blog entries. Use your keyword term in the post headline, the first paragraph and sprinkled throughout the post in context. In general, you want a keyword density of 4 – 8% for every 400 words of content. It’s not that many times you need to use the keyword term. Be careful not to overuse the term, and feel free to use synonyms, since search engine algorithms recognize those as well.

Just keep everything in context and most of all, write high quality, informative, useful blog posts. Just to be very clear – you’re not writing the blog post for the search engines – you are writing for your target audience, but applying these SEO techniques will get your blog posts to come up higher in search engine results for the keyword term you selected.

Now you’re armed with some simple, but powerful SEO techniques to help your blog posts build a relationship with your target market for increased sales and profits. Happy hunting!

Thanks Nancy! Anyone have anything to add?

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Tags: blogging, Relationship building
Posted in social media | 4 Comments »

If You’re Going to Blog, Do It Regularly

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

Blogging is an important part of social media. Blogging gives you space to express your thoughts and opinions. If you want to establish yourself as a thought leader in your field, blogging is an excellent way to do it. As much as I love Twitter, there are concepts that need more than 140 characters.

But blogging is also an important part of relationship building. If you like what the bloggers you follow say, you can link to their posts, comment on their blogs, tweet their content and link to their articles from your Facebook page. And that’s only scratching the surface of relationship building through blogging.

But we can’t build that relationship if you don’t post regularly.

No, regularly doesn’t have to mean every day. Even once a week keeps you enough on someone’s screen. But regular and on some predictable schedule is important.

An example. There is another blogger I want to build a relationship with. He’s a more successful speaker than I am, and he has several books published. He’s farther along my success path than I am. So I want to learn from him. And I want to build a relationship because who knows how we could help each other.

His posts are fantastic, and I comment on them every time they appear. Which isn’t a big time commitment for me because he posts less than once a month.

That’s very disappointing to me. I like his content. I learn something or get a good idea every time he posts. And I promote him through Twitter and my Facebook page. So he gets benefit from the relationship as well. But he doesn’t do it very often. Which runs the risk that I will forget about him and move on to another blogger.

Okay, I’m not saying that failing to build a relationship with me is terribly harmful to him. He’s more successful than I, and obviously something he’s doing is working. But if you are newer to the blogosphere and still building your reputation in the social media sphere, know that regularly updating your content is important.

It’s all part of the know, like and trust aspect of relationship building and effective networking.

And @seowashdc, if you are reading this, can you chime in the comments and tell us how important regular updates are from an SEO perspective? Or if you need more space than the comments, might you be willing to write a guest blog post on the topic?

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Tags: blogging, Relationship building, reputation
Posted in social media | 5 Comments »

Lessons Learned from @wilw and His Book Just a Geek

Monday, January 18th, 2010

This seems to be my year to find insight in the most unlikely books.

Over the weekend, I read Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton (@wilw).

Wow! That was a lot of links in one paragraph.

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled blog post. What does a book by an ex-Star Trek actor have to do with networking? Glad you asked!

One of the things he talks about in his book is his blogging. At the time, he was going through a very rough patch. His acting career was going nowhere, and he was trying to prove to himself and others that leaving Star Trek hadn’t been a huge mistake.

This “Prove to the World that Leaving Star Trek Wasn’t a Huge Mistake” side of him wanted to make his blog sound like everything was great, even when it wasn’t. He included a few examples of those posts. They were funny. But they didn’t ring quite right.

Every so often, something would happen, and the real Wil Wheaton would show up in the blog. He’d write frankly about things that weren’t going so well.

Which posts do you think had the most reads and responses? Yep, the honest ones.

Which is an excellent reminder for those of us who network. The temptation is there when people ask, “How’s it going?” to say, “Oh, great.” Even when it’s not. But there’s nothing wrong with showing a little honest vulnerability. No, I’m not suggesting you go around with a dark cloud and “Everything sucks” attitude. But sometimes we want to help the underdog. Showing a bit of vulnerability can motivate us to help more.

Think of it this way. If you tell us “business is great!” we might think, “Okay, he doesn’t need any help or referrals.” But telling us, “I’ve got some potentials brewing, but I’m not quite where I want to be” sends the clear message that we can help you get the rest of the way.

A lot of networking is working with, not against, human inclinations. We love to help others who aren’t doing so well. It makes us feel good, and it lets us think, “Whew! Someone else’s life isn’t perfect either!”

So work with us, not against us. Let us see you as someone who needs and is deserving of a little help. We’ll work harder on your behalf, which is what you want, right?

Not bad for a book by an ex-Star Trek actor. By the way, if you haven’t read it (or his blog), do so. Wil Wheaton is easily one of the funniest guys I’ve ever read. And he gives us some life lessons as an added bonus. Pretty good deal, I think.

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Tags: blogging, communication, Networking, Relationship building
Posted in Networking | 1 Comment »

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