A blog building strategy Have you ever heard the expression, "Busy people get stuff done," or something to that effect? Essentially, the idea is that if you want something done, find the busiest person you know and have them help you. Busy people for some reason often will find a way to get things done in a timely fashion. Because they're busy they know how to manage their time, and get things done. But what if you just don't feel like you really have the time to spare, or if you're like me, you can make the time, but by that point you find you don't have the energy to complete the task (writing a blog post, thoughtfully responding to a business inquiry, etc.). So, what do you do? You can certainly find a capable busy person who is highly motivated and able to help you complete your project/task, or you can figure out a way to manage your time and build a strategy of being able to complete stuff in a relatively small window of time. A constant content strategy Blogging regularly is a problem I hear about a lot. Here’s my approach (for more about how to write within a framework check out Chris Brogan's post) :
When choosing a domain name for your business or endeavor you have several options to choose from: .com, .net, .biz, .tv, .info, and the list goes on. There are several schools of thought on why you should always strive for a domain ending in .com. The main reason, which is definitely valid, is that .com is the most common, and frankly expected. How many times have you remembered a business name, but not their web address, typed in the business name followed by .com and ended up on that business’ home page? It’s that very reason why .com is the most suggested domain suffix. But what if you were different for the sake of being memorable. I personally chose nickvmedia.net for two main reasons (and I do also own nickvmedia.com): First, I truly think that my domain name with the .net ending lends itself well to being memorable when actually spoken out loud--Nick-v-media-dot-net. Here’s what I mean...With the “N” in my name, Nick, and the “N” in net, when spoken has a bit of a sing-song feel almost like an alliteration. So, when I meet with folks who may have an interest in visiting my site I’m always sure to tell them my web address at least three times, and it’s usually because of the sing-songiness of my web address when spoken that helps people remember it. Second, the fact that it’s not a .com can be memorable as well. I’ve been told on several occasions that my web address was remembered specifically because someone made a mental note that I have a .net domain, rather than a .com domain. The sheer fact that it’s different can be memorable. However, the bottom line for those in the market to purchase a domain name is this: Do what makes sense for you. I don’t think you can go wrong if you’re marketing your site well. I would suggest that if it’s available and you have the means, buy both your domain as a .com and a .net. Just because everyone is doing something doesn’t mean you have to do it too, or that it is necessarily the “right” way. Like when you're in a relationship and your significant other can finish your sentences...that's sort of the idea behind Google's new Instant search engine. The new release will offer search suggestions as you type, which means more of a need to refine your SEO search terms. HubSpot wrote a nice post about Google Instant. Feel free to read it. Here's Shama's take on Google Instant from The Marketing Zen Group . Christine Kane is a musician, entrepreneur and really a life-style mentor to many. Christine, talks about living creatively, essentially how to live the life you want, which is a creative journey whether you call yourself a creative or not. Anyway, in one of her blog posts, How to have unwavering faith in your own ideas, Christine mentions something about making quick decisions. I think this is important to expand upon because in my own entrepreneurial life and for those I often work with, it is common to question and over-analyze the decisions we make day-to-day about how we’re going to progress our endeavors (no matter how large or small the effect of the decision may be). I think one reason, entrepreneurs especially, fall into this analysis paralysis is that there is no one right way to be an entrepreneur. Perhaps, it comes down to having too many choices. Choices about the direction you take your business, about the web host you choose to use, about what shade of blue should be the accent color in your company’s logo. The thing is, every choice is the right choice, depending on what you do or don’t do after making the decision. I’m talking about simply relying on your gut a bit to tip you one way or the other about choosing a route and making it work. I’m definitely not talking about making rash or uneducated decisions, but rather, limiting the amount of time you linger on actually pulling the trigger on making a decision. Sometimes, you get to a point when taking too long to decide on something can have a negative outcome. You know, like in high school when you finally built up enough courage to ask that special someone you’ve been interested in to the homecoming dance only to find out that they’re already going with someone else. Had you just been comfortable enough with whatever his/her answer would be and been able to move on from there you would have likely found someone else to go with and still had a good time. Instead, the event of asking got built up so much in your mind that when the outcome wasn’t what you wanted, it became more damaging than if you hadn’t built it up so much. Thus, setting you back further than before, and it’s hard to rebuild that confidence after over-analyzed decisions have gone awry. What I’m realizing is the over-analyzed decision process comes down to this: the unknown. Fear of not knowing what the outcome will be if you choose a particular route over another is usually what forces people to make no decision or potentially destructive decisions. You need to build confidence in yourself enough to realize that you’ve come this far in your life and in your career that clearly if a decision doesn’t pan out the way you had hoped you have enough knowledge and skills to figure out a different way to move forward. You can build your decision-making confidence by starting with small decisions that come up. Set a time limit for yourself as to when you have to make a decision by, and make it a shorter time limit than you normally would be comfortable with. Then, once you reach the time limit, if you haven’ already made a decision, make one right then and there based on what you know and your gut reaction. Then don’t look back. I guarantee you’ll figure out how to move forward, even if you discover that you might have been better off making a different decision. I like the saying, ‘good now is better than perfect later.’ If you wait for the “perfect” time to make your decision, or the “perfect” situation you’ll likely miss a “great” opportunity now. I’m currently reading, The Zen of Social Media Marketing, by Shama Hyder Kabani. So far it’s a good read with some new-to-me nuggets of information and other not-so-new-to-me bits of info, but certainly worth the refresher. One great thing worth reiterating are three principles for an effective website, Educate, Market, Sell. For small businesses it’s vitally important that you first have a website, I would recommend a site that also contains your company blog, or better yet, a blogsite that leads with your company’s blog and is also home to the rest of your company’s traditional website info. Having a blog allows you to create and publish regular content, which is a great place to educate your target audience on an on-going basis. Also, new regular content is a reason for those who like what you post to come back. Other parts of your site, like your About page, Products/Services page, Portfolio,etc. are the areas of your site that market your wares to your target audience. Finally, throughout your site you need to ask for the sale with strong calls-to-action, or at least ask for a way to keep in touch with those who visit your site by asking them to sign up for email newsletter. - Educate site visitors about who you are, what you do and the value you provide - Market to site visitors by showcasing the value of your products/services and capabilities - Sell to site visitors by asking for the sale or for visitors to sign up for your email newsletter I’ve been reflecting lately about the economy and the many folks still out of work these days. While the economy has recently shown signs of slight improvement it hasn’t been enough to stop the unemployment hemorrhaging. Now, I don’t claim to have the answer, but personally I’ve found that my own pursuits, at least in my field of marketing, have benefited from my continuous personal marketing efforts. As a marketing professional I am constantly branding myself, reading up on my industry and exploring ways that I can experiment on my own with marketing initiatives that I think are useful--to myself and potentially other businesses (or potential employers). I’m definitely fortunate that I’m not currently looking for new employment, but when I was in that boat I kept churning away at my own blog and entrepreneurial web presences trying out things that I may not otherwise have had a chance to experiment with in any previous employment. My thought was that I’m marketing myself and my capabilities, and I’m building my own brand (and essentially a portfolio of what I can do), all the while continuing to network with trusted contacts (that’s extremely important). As I got potential employment nibbles I made sure to make known my personal efforts and demonstrate how those efforts could help the potential employer at hand. My point is, the fact that I never gave up, and never will give up, on improving myself to consistently be marketable to others and grow my skills has landed me more than one role in my career. My best advice for anyone out of work (and I’m not trying to be insulting if you’re already doing these things with what currently feels like little luck) is to continue to be proactive, think entrepreneurially, take action as opportunities arise, network like crazy and never give up. According to HubSpot.com, as posted in a recent Mashable/Business blog, small businesses with corporate blogs receive 55% more traffic than small businesses that don’t blog. That’s over half! Considering the monetary upfront cost of blogging (nearly $0), I don’t understand why more businesses aren’t benefiting from building online relationships by publishing value-added content (blogs) for their target audience. Especially if it means generating more business in cost effectively. The Mashable post mentioned offers 10 Tips for Corporate Blogging. Below are my five reasons why you can’t afford not to blog: 1. Your customers are seeking information to questions they have about your industry and services…if you’re not blogging about it your competition is and your potential customers are finding them and buying from them. 2. If your potential customers are finding info and answers to their questions from your competitions’ blogs then it’s safe to say that they’re also thinking of your competition as the expert in your industry--that’s top-of-mind brand association that is hard to shake. 3. Blogging can increase your organic search engine results…if your company website or blog posts are not coming up high on Google searches for keywords related to your business and industry then your potential customers are navigating toward your competition who is ranking high on search engine results because of their blogs. 4. Have you ever done an internet search for a topic of interest and come across a “how-to” blog post from a few months ago that still comes up in searches and is still relevant? ...Blogs have a long SEO shelf-life, which can help your traffic now, in a couple months and even a couple years. 5. Have you ever opted-in to an email list to receive a valuable whitepaper or ebook of info filled with useful take-a-aways...over time your blog posts could be compiled to create an opt-in ebook to offer valuable, useful info for your potential customers...when they opt-in, those are potential leads, nurture them and convert them to valued happy customers...that’s how the competition is winning customers over you. If you’re like me you probably still use email a lot. I know there are a lot of electronic communication alternatives these days with the abundance of social media available, and yes, I do use all of that too, but I also use email in conjunction with social media. As it turns out, so do many others. Your email signature can be another tool used to grow your social media presences in an exponential way. I’m talking about adding your social media links to your email signature. If you think about how many folks you engage in email correspondence each day, week, month, year, etc. the amount of direct exposure you can give to your social media presences through your email signature is huge. I recently issued a standard email signature complete with social media links at a company I work with, and I made all of the social media links bit.ly links to track the click-thrus of the social media links added to the email signatures. In less than 2 months the collective click-thrus for 4 social media links in their email signatures was 12,617. That means that 12,617 opportunities were created for individuals to learn more about that company through their social media efforts. That’s 12,617 opportunities for additional brand awareness, potential referrals and lead generation that didn’t previously exist--just by adding social media links to an email signature. Stephanie Orma is a San Francisco graphic designer who runs a clever card line, She’s SO Creative. She also writes for Examiner.com. I came across her article, Printing matters: Why super cheap printing plus quality graphic design = waste of money, which explains why quality printing is crucial to good design. Be sure to read this one. If you're utilizing press releases distributed online as a brand communication tool then you will likely want to check out the following article found in Website Magazine's May 2010 issue (article also available online). The article is titled Climbing up the ranks with optimized press releases. Press releases are not a new tool for brand communication and company publicity efforts. However, with the advent of the internet and electronically distributed press releases, the tactic of optimizing press releases for keyword and keyword phrases related to your company, products or services has become increasingly more popular. The SEO press release strategy can be effective in helping your release/your business get found by search engine algorithms, thus, increasing your ability to be found by your prospective and current clients. This coupled with your blogging and social media efforts can really give your brand communication and publicity efforts some legs to run with. |
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