Before You Publish–Check for Spiders and Opportunities

March 9, 2006 by Liz

Before you hit that PUBLISH button . . .

Publishing occurs whenever an author shares a work with an audience. An email memo, a note that says where you are going, a paper you wrote for a class in Econometrics, these are all forms of publishing.

–ME Strauss

Reading for Spiders

Publishing for the web has two audiences–people and search engine spiders. The first time I read my work over, I read it for people. I checked for errors that get between my readers and the message. I also had my proofreader check it to catch what my dyslexia missed. Yesterday, she caught quite bit.

Then I go over it a second time quickly for my second audience–search engine spiders–to make sure the spiders don’t trip and have plenty to eat.

Making Sure the Investment Pays Off

Prorating the time that I spent gathering ideas, I’ve probably spent 60-90 minutes on this one post. Time is money, and I think of that time spent as an investment. Now is when I make sure that investment pays off. I’ve made a short Pre-Flight Publishing list that I run down, before I pass say, “Go.”

Is the content keyword rich? By waiting to read for keywords until after all other checks, I make sure that I don’t forfeit quality to pray at the altar of SEO. Now, I can look for keywords my readers might search for and make sure that they find the relevant content that I have to offer. I won’t be reaching, and they won’t be disappointed. Current relationships will stay strong, and new readers will be pleased with what they encounter here.
What tags might I add that belong with this post? Tags can help search engine spiders properly index my post. Post tags are definitely blog, brand, and business promotion. If your blogging software doesn’t easily allow you to tag your posts, there are plug-ins and hacks for every platform out there.
What related articles do I have that readers might be interested in reading? Offering related articles for readers to go to when they finished your post, gives people more information about a subject they’ve already shown interest in. It also gets readers more involved with you, your blog, your business, and your brand. The intra-link that you make at the end of your post shows people how your content relates and is relevant throughout your blog–this helps search engines index it as well.
Are there opportunities for trackbacks? If you’ve mentioned another blogger’s work or if what you’ve said meshes beautifully with the conversation on another blog, send a trackback to let that blogger know.
Is this that one-in-a-million post that I should self-promote to other blogs? If you’ve written the post that reveals the nature of how to get “Google Goodness” from every post, carefully write a brief introduction of yourself and your post to a select few bloggers you wish to share it with. Do be sure it’s a one-in-a-million post, and do explain your reasons for thinking it’s a match with their blogs. If you don’t read a blog, don’t send a link. Period. Either way, it’s a long shot that a post really is the one-in-a-million post that we think it is.

Those are just a few ways I try to diversify and grow my investment. I like to make sure the time I spend continues to pay off, compounding interest well into the future.

You probably have other ways that you build promotion into the posts you write. Will you take a minute to share one with us?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Blog Archive Promotion To-Do List

March 8, 2006 by Liz

I’ve been having to go to meetings lately. So I’ve been printing my most popular articles and taking them with me, using them as writing fodder–as a place to get ideas. That’s what got me thinking how often it is that we forget the best promotion that we have is sitting in our blog archives.

Letting readers know what’s in our archives is a great way to invite them to become a part of our brands, our blogs, and our businesses in a more intimate fashion.

Blog Archive Promotion To-Do List

Here’s a check list of a few things we all should be doing to promote our blogs from within. I call it the Blog Archive Promotion To-Do List.

Put Popular Posts where folks can find them. I’m as guilty as the next guy, as I’m not a tech and I’ve not yet charmed one into helping me put up an automatic list of popular posts. But in the meantime, I have a Popular Post Page in the sidebar, and I’ll keep it even after I get that list of Popular Posts. If you can’t create a page, hand code links to your best posts.
Feature Related Articles at the end of every new post. When you finish writing a post, let folks know about other articles you’ve written that they might be interested in. Intra-linking of this nature is not only a service to your readers, it lets search engines know how the content on your blog has relevance and context for your readers.
Intra-Link to Past Articles when you can. If you have an article that perfectly fits what you’re talking about as my post Think Before You Intra-link so perfectly suits this one, remember to include a link to it.
Read your stats to see what’s popular and make more. Then read those posts to learn what made them favorites with readers. Keep popular posts in a collection. Try to figure out what they have in common. Use those common features to guide you as you write in the future.
If you get key word traffic, make sure it’s landing on the posts that it should. If it isn’t find a way to tag your posts so that the next person who searches with that key word gets to the post that delivers the right goods.

I’m sure I’ve not thought of all the ways we might be using archives as promotion. You must have ideas too. What are some creative ways that you’ve used your archives to encourage readers to visit more and stay longer at your blog?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Who’s Reading Your Comments?

March 3, 2006 by Liz

Who’s Listening?

Washingtonpost.com Blog Buzz Article screenshot

You’re looking for a new TV. . . . You’re not certain whether you want Hi-Def or plasma screen. You decide to research it online. You find a few blogs and forums. You start reading, asking questions, making comments about the TV that you have now.

You’re a saavy Internet user. You know that not all you read will be true–that some folks will be talking without knowing anything, and some will be there to just sell you. You also know that what you say will stay where you wrote it long after you leave it behind.

But did you know that sophisticated software could be picking up your comments, evaluating them, and sending that information back to the manufacturer? Blogging, list serve, and forum comments have become a predictor of consumer trends.

The comments are particularly valuable for measuring customer sentiment because they’re gut-level and spontaneous. “Internet word of mouth is extremely important,” said Steve Rubel, a marketing expert and senior vice president at Edelman public relations. “You see what the most vocal consumers have to say about you and about your competitors — and they’re saying it without necessarily knowing you’re watching them.” –from Washingtonpost.com Blog Buzz Helps Companies Catch Trends in the Making, March 3, 2006

It was inevitable.

Nielsen Ratings? No Nielsen BuzzMetrics

In a merger that took place last week, BuzzMetrics joined with Intelliseek to form Nielsen BuzzMetrics. The new enterprise uses trawling software to collect, sort, and evaluate consumer comments to a level of sophistication that allows an overall rank of positive or negative, with details that to the other way. An example of that might be

I’m totally sold on the new plasma screen by Company K, but I worry about their customer service.

Neilsen BuzzMetrics captures hundreds of thousands of comments daily. They are literally tracking word of mouth–well, word of keyword as mouth proxy. The data is sorted, compiled to meet specific job parameters, and trends are plotted for client companies.

What Does This Mean?

As with any new technology, it’s only as smart as the people who use it. As with any data tool, the art is in how you choose to sort and interpret it.

This new process could mean that consumer companies will start doing things that need to get done, because consumer issues will come to light.
It could mean companies will hear faster and move faster when they have a customer base that is unhappy with them.
It could mean that customer service would happen and companies will be more profitable–the economy could improve for everyone.

Companies could let the software make decision for them.
We could end up with even more “sit-com,” one-size-fits-all consumer solutions than we have already.

What I See

If you think about it, this is hi-tech version of a poll or a focus group and as such, it carries the same values and pitfalls. I can’t help but think about a court transcript that might read like this:

Policeman: May I have permission to search your car?
Driver: Oh yeah, that’s what I want.

Without context, it’s not certain whether the driver’s answer is a “Yes, please do.” or a “Not on your life.”

The leaders who know what to take and what to leave from a Nielsen BuzzMetrics report will make great gains. Those who blindly follow the numbers will be as lost as they were before.

The good news for small business is that trend, if it becomes the norm, provides one more temptation for big companies to be looking in the wrong direction–to be getting overly-involved with discussing the data rather than taking what they need and moving on.

While big companies are playing with this new toy that brings everything down to numbers. Small enterprises can channel their energy into building brands based on innovating and strong relationships with real people–their customers.

Business is relationships not numbers. No matter how you compile, sort, and plot it. If you don’t understand the people who are talking, it’s awfully hard to tell which words are important and which words don’t mean a thing.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Carnival of Entrepreneurship Is ON!

March 2, 2006 by Liz

Whether you’re blogging for business or blogging for fun, inside a company or inside your house, you have a little–or a lot–of entrepreneurial spirit. You can’t be a blogger and not be an entrepreneur of some sort. This is a carnival you might want to check out.

This week Martin Neumann, proprietor of ePublishing Daily, is hosting the

Martin said he had so many choices it was tough picking only seven. I’ve read through them, and the titles alone make good reading. Writers include Yaro Starak, Steve Pavlina, and carnival organizer, Scott Allen. Here’s a preview of what you’ll find when you get there.

If Customers ArenÃ¢â¬â¢t the Enemy, Then Who is?
You Become What You Listen To . . .
Joint Ventures Are the Way to Go
The Problem With Press Releases And Most Corporate Communications.

So head UP to click on the Carnival logo. It will take you DOWN to Australia. Visit the Carnival, and say hello to Martin too.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Blogs: The New Black in Corporate Communication

March 1, 2006 by Liz

PART 2 IN A SERIES

. . . Has the blogging sensation passed corporations by?

Not by a long shot. Instead of public blogs, think about blog technology. That’s the focus for many leading companies around the world. From McDonald’s (MCD ) to Cannondale Bicycle, corporations are using the software to revamp internal communications, reach out to suppliers, and remake corporate Intranets. Often the site doesn’t look much different from what it’s replacing. Sometimes there’s nothing particularly bloggy about the results.

But these corporate initiatives are interactive and cheap to deploy — making them an attractive form of communication. “Blogs are a way to bring our knowledge together,” says Dave Weick, chief information officer at McDonald’s. –Stephen Baker, Business Week Online, The Inside Story on Company Blogs

Who Said Blogging Has to Be Public? We might not find many Fortune 500 blogs on the Internet. That doesn’t mean that Fortune 500 companies don’t have them. It means that we’re not invited to their private party. Corporations are taking advantage of blogging technology inside their firewalls.

Move Over Website, Bye-Bye Intranet

Blog technology is slowly overtaking the traditional website and Intranet structure at some corporations. Why is that?

Blogs are low in cost to set up and less expensive to maintain.
Blogs require less technical expertise.
Blogs offer a sophisticated content management system that’s meant to be updated daily. They invite communication.
Blogs are interactive. They allow relationships to form between people.
Folks can blog from their desk, their home, the local coffeeshop, even their telephone.

Like employees from another era, websites and Intranets constantly need to be brought up to speed. Blogs have the right skillset for today’s knowledge-based enterprise–they’re innovative, fast, accessible, and made for constant changing . . . and they can be as beautiful as any website. What’s not to like? I’d hire one.

Communication in Every Direction

Ever heard the saying, We’re all 100% responsible for communication? Blog software is being used to make 100% communication happen in almost every direction.

Blogs are carrying on conversations between management and employees that allow them to get to know each other as people.
Blogs are providing safe storage and collection of team project information, so that the entire team can literally be “on the same page.”
Blogs are connecting vendors with buyers, replacing fax machines, messy email inboxes. and lost correspondence.
Blogs are establishing and maintaining unprecedented information flow between field reps and home office folks, drawing companies together.
Blogs are ensuring everyone in a group has access to the same information at the same time in the same way from almost any point on the planet.

Choose your options. You can have any color as long as it’s blog technology.

Why Do We Need to Know This?

Rare is the person who doesn’t already do business with, work for, or buy from a company who is already using blogs in these ways. It’s reasonable to think that a Fortune 500 company that has made any step toward putting a public blog online has experimented with internal blogging. Think–McDonalds.

The Internet website and company Intranet are quickly becoming just so . . . old hat.

If we want to be invited to the party, we need to dress the part, know the culture, and speak the language. We need to be prepared as vendors, consultants, customers, and employees. We need to factor in this data when we think about where we fit. How does this change the way I interact with companies? How might this information affect my brand, my business, or my life in general?

For this black tie party, blogging technology is definitely the new black.

The world is getting smaller. I’m starting to think there really is only one party.

If I’ve got this wrong, please set me straight. I’ll listen. I’m the nice one.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Blogs Aren’t Mini-Websites. They’re Powerful Tools.

February 28, 2006 by Liz

PART 1 IN A SERIES

Personal Computers as Tools

In Companies
When personal computers first became standardized and affordable, and software for using them was readily available, it wasn’t that long before they were sitting in every office. The ability to push rote tasks down to the lowest level has always been a strength of an effective business. Taking advantage of computers to do that–calculate spreadsheets, retype and revise documents, generate mailing lists–was an immediate no brainer for business folks focused on productivity. It wasn’t long before Information Management and IT became terms, then whole departments.

Personal computers changed how we work. They changed how we organized information, how we stored it, and share it, and even how we thought about it. Businesses–some more quickly than others–recognized that the computer was a tool of great value.

In American K-12 Schools
Schools, on the other hand, didn’t see the computer as a tool. They saw it as a subject, a class called Computer. Its highest honor was the day it replaced the class in touch typing. Even now in some prestigious New England high schools, the college prep strand kids still only officially see computers in the mandatory class called, “Computer Applications.”

It’s worth saying again. Schools don’t see computers as tools–like pencils and paper and textbooks or desks. Granted this a is gross generalization, but as an entity, Amercian K-12 schools can’t see past the contraption to take full advantage of its uses. The problem is not one of resources; it’s one of not enough folks feeling the need for them.

Blogs as Tools

Now companies and the mass media are acting like schools did. They see the physical blog and not the uses for it. They stop at the idea of what they think a blog is. Just as the school who sees computers as another subject, companies often see the contraption–blogs as another form of website, possibly as a way to do viral marketing.

We’re all missing that blogs are technology too.

The beauty of blogs is they are a flexible tool. The technology allows them to be that website and so much more–intranet, team project site, email replacement, advertising platform, billboard, company picnic, conduit to ideas, real connection to customers.

What Every Company and School Should Know

What most non-bloggers should know is that the number of both public and private blogs will continue to grow. They will outnumber websites based solely the fact that the expertise required to run a blog makes it inevitable. Small businesses start blogs because they already know that blogs are more flexible–can do more things, more easily, more quickly, and for much lower start up costs.

We owe it to our readers and our customers to to let them know that a blog isn’t just a poor person’s website.

If you want to add value to a business relationship, share that information with someone who needs it.

Let’s talk about how many ways blogs can be used. What do you see when you look at your blog as a tool?

–ME “Liz” Strauss