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Blog (a verb)

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By Lisa D. Jenkins

“Others may be talking about the same thing, but they aren’t talking about it with your voice.”

How many times have you heard this when people are encouraging you to blog?

A lot? If you’re like me, it’s a lot.

Here’s how it happens in my head:

  • I have a thought about something timely.
  • My brain takes a walk along that thought path and reaches a conclusion.
  • I consider blogging about it and then I think there’s no need to write what everyone else has already published.

Why clutter up the internet, right?

fly with a tiny microphone

Now, the Husband doesn’t do work that’s remotely related to mine. In fact, his sole concession to getting anywhere near what I do for a living was to open a Facebook account six months ago – and we’ve been together for almost 8 years.

So you can imagine my surprise when he was sitting next to me last week and started asking informed questions about big data, segmenting, conversions and other magical things that make my nerd heart sing.

He was reading a blog – a blog I love. He continued to read through that blog for a number of days. Clicking ever deeper into the content and looking at me every so often like I was a supernatural being because these were things I not only knew but used. He asked questions, I answered and that went on for a while, so I pointed him toward three more blogs that feature similar content. These blogs are also on my not-to-be-missed roll.

Aaaaand here’s how the lesson of the opening statement from this post was driven almost painfully home for me.

He read a couple of posts from each of the new blogs and dove right back into the first one. Why? Because the voice, style and format of the first blog made the content easier for him to consume and relate to.

Hmmmm.

It’s almost like all those people who’ve come before me – those people I look to for guidance and advice – know a little something about this world of online business. Weird.

Now, I’m open about not blogging for myself. But I don’t for a second advocate that strategy for you – partly because I don’t know you and your business. And partly because it’s almost a given that the people who will love what you do need to hear what you do, and why you do it, from you. In your voice.

So lay it out there. Write what you’re thinking. Write about what you do. Write about the tools you use. Write about how you solve people’s problems. Let people read you. Blog.

Author’s Bio: Lisa D. Jenkins is a Public Relations professional specializing in Social and Digital Communications for businesses. She has over a decade of experience and work most often with destination organizations or businesses in the travel and tourism industry in the Pacific Northwest. Connect with her on Google+
Photo Credit: Adam N. Ward via Compfight cc

Writer’s Block. The Pain and Panic are Real.

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By Lisa D. Jenkins

There’s nothing quite like that feeling of knowing you owe the readers of your blog several hundred words and realizing you’ve got no idea what to write about. The realization that you can write on just about anything only makes it worse. It mires your brain in some sort of one track spiral that does nothing but turn around and around on itself.

Sorry, there are no blogs coming out of the station today.

So you take a walk. You open up the Google machine and surf around. You browse your book collection. You check your blog roll. Hoping for some sort of inspiration to drop an idea into your head.

Been there?

We’ve all seen the lists of X Ways to Beat Writer’s Block and there are often some great bits of advice in them. The problem is sometimes when you’re so stuck you can’t string a cohesive content thought together to save yourself, light prompts usually don’t cut it. You need serious, focused help.

Enter the blog topic generators of the world!

They aren’t perfect, they won’t write for you and they can’t be held responsible for everything, but topic generators have saved me more times than I can count. Here’s a look at 4 blog topic generators you can use to get writing, right now.

BlogAbout by Impact Branding & Design

“BlogAbout was an idea born out of frustration.”

Blogabout

Start by clicking the refresh button in the center of the screen until you find a prompt that strikes a spark.

Clicking it 5 times has given me:

  • preparation
  • the customer experience
  • customer service
  • a challenge
  • saving money

I’ll use preparation.

Now, click the Next button that generates a fill-in-the-blank phrase you can use with your own keywords. Hit the refresh button to get a new phrase or hit the heart to save a phrase to your notebook.

Here’s what I got:

  • When It Pays to
  • Why __ Timing is Everything
  • 7 Things that Really Great X Do
  • 7 X Tools No X Should be Without
  • 4 Ways to Make Your X More Successful

And that’s how I ended up here with a post on blog topic generators no blogger should be without. How great is that?

Here are a few more generators for you to check out.

ContentIdeator

Enter in a single keyword and click Get Ideas. Pages of existing headlines come up and all you have to do it choose whether you want to see 10, 20 or 30 ideas at a time. Use what you see as inspiration for you own post.

Portent’s Content Idea Generator

Enter your keyword and click the arrow to get started. I’ll use content. Next, you’ll get a title with helpful descriptors. Don’t like it? Hit refresh for another, and another. Here’s the second title I was given:
That’s workable, right?

Portent

Blog Topic Generator from Hubspot

You’ll need three nouns for this. When you’re ready, hit the Give Me Blog Topics button. I used content, productivity and business and was given these 5 blog topics.

Hubspot content generator

So. I’m not saying these generators will fix everything but they’ll get you focused on a single thread that’s more likely to turn into a blog post or article than, say, aligning your writing utensils from left to right in order of frequency of use will.

And now I give a round of applause to Impact Branding & Design, Portent, Content Forest and Hubspot for helping us all to find our way out of the desolation that is writer’s block.

Author’s Bio: Lisa D. Jenkins is a Public Relations professional specializing in Social and Digital Communications for businesses. She has over a decade of experience and work most often with destination organizations or businesses in the travel and tourism industry in the Pacific Northwest. Connect with her on Google+

Building Your Brand By Building Guest Post Relationships

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By Diana Gomez

The internet is a great place to build a community. Take an aspiring musician, for example. If she performs for only 15 people at Open Mic Night at The Lazy Dog Café, that doesn’t mean she’s not being heard. Music fans get the latest news and tips on “what’s hot” by reading popular digital magazine sites and blogs. If she sends her latest mp3 to a few popular sites, and one posts a favorable review, her fan base increases. They “like” her Facebook page, and are now subscribers. It’s that simple.

laptop handshake

When it comes to building an audience for your brand, you’ve got to be proactive. While posting regularly on your own company’s blog and social media accounts is great for your established client base, how can you reach the broader audience of folks who are interested in what you have to say, but are not hearing you say it?

Guest blogging — simply put, posting on other sites’ blogs — is a great way to increase your brand’s visibility, readership, and client base. If you can establish yourself as a high quality guest poster, your relationships with blogs will flourish and you will see the results in your readership. Here’s how:

1. Create a pitch cache.

It’s always better to go to the grocery store on a full stomach. Otherwise, you might feel (and look) desperate. Before you start soliciting blogs, have a stock of several guest post pitches of a wide (but relevant) variety. Don’t feel constrained by the specificity of your brand; your reach is broader than you might think. If you are a florist, for example, you can generate pitches on a variety of subjects:

• How to keep your floral arrangement fresher, longer

• 5 underrated occasions to surprise her

• How to have a smooth hospital visit

• How to make a greeting card feel personal

2. Find blogs that fit like a glove.

If you build it, they won’t necessarily come. When it comes to guest blogging, actively seeking out an existing audience — say, vegan moms — is much better than convincing some general group of people to buy your organic baby toys.

To find relevant blogs, search for “[your specialty] blog” or, better yet, “[your specialty] guest post.” The latter will lead you to sites that have accepted guest posts in the past, which bodes well for your pitch.

If you use your imagination, the possibilities for blog searches may be endless. Beyond searching “organic baby toy guest post,” think about expanding to “eco-friendly guest post,” “day care guest post,” “aunt blog,” and on and on!

3. Choose blogs that have a posse.

Use a discerning eye when perusing blogs you are thinking about approaching. The big two to look closely at are:

a) Number of subscribers b) Number of commenters

If a blog has a low number of both, you may not get a lot of attention. If it has a high number of subscribers but few commenters, it’s hard to tell whether people are truly reading the posts or just have nothing to add to the conversation. If the blog has a high number of comments but few subscribers, this is an intimate but engaged audience.

Depending on what you’re going for, either of these scenarios could benefit you. Of course, a high number of both is ideal.

4. Approach with personality.

When you’ve found a blog that seems like a good fit, choose and specialize a few pitches to send over. Be sure that you’ve researched the site enough to know that they haven’t already written a post on your proposed topics.

When e-mailing or approaching the blogger through social media, writing in the tone of the blog is a great way to show your synchronicity. It is key that you make the approach feel personal and not a boilerplate that you are sending out en masse — guest blogging has been spam-tastic in the past, and bloggers are over it.

And remember, flattery will get you everywhere.

5. Post with quality and dignity.

So you’ve been invited to guest post! As you write the full (600 word+) article, continuously whisper this word out loud: quality. Never plagiarize yourself for multiple blogs. Remember, you are representing your company to a brand new audience: do it with style.

Don’t be tempted to hop on the Hyperlink Highway. Including links to your own site in the body of your post is too tacky for any blogs with credibility to consider. That being said, including a short bio at the end of your post is totally acceptable, and an ideal spotlight to reference your company, website, and expertise. This is how you increase your own traffic, so don’t forget it!

6. Foster your new relationship.

After you’ve had a guest post published on a blog, keep in close touch with the site.

Swapping guest posts, becoming a regular and reliable contributor, and collaborating with sites that aren’t in direct competition to your business will expand your visibility and credibility. Integrate your brand into a community of like-minded people, and growth is inevitable.

Author’s Bio: Diana Gomez is the Marketing Coordinator at Lyoness America, where she is instrumental in the implementation of internet marketing and social media strategies for USA and Canada. Lyoness is an international shopping community and loyalty rewards program, where businesses and consumers benefit with free membership and money back with every purchase.

Words matter

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Boilerplate kills kittens.

Early in my career, I worked as a technical writer for a large government contractor. The GPO Manual was our ultimate arbiter of word choice, I learned to spell “judgment” without a second “e,” and we relied heavily on giant chunks of pre-written text.

I was a “writer,” but one who was having her soul slowly crushed under the weight of government regulations.

orwell movie

Those formative experiences gave me an intense interest in how words are applied. How just the right word can make or break a relationship, a transaction, a pitch.

Leaders use powerful words. Entrepreneurs must have an arsenal of persuasive words in their stockpiles. Business builders need to project clarity (so let’s ditch the jargon).

When you answer the same questions over and over again, it can be tempting to fall back on key phrases. Same thing when you assume the “corporate” mantle in an email or a phone call.

“We deeply regret the inconvenience.”

See that? A kitten just keeled over.

Would the customer feel better if you simply said, “I’m so sorry”? Yes.

My challenge to you today is to catch yourself using these worn out words. Give a fresh eye to the way you talk to your customers, partners, and colleagues.

On your website, do you ask your customers to “submit a ticket” when they have a problem? Could you change that to “ask for help”?

Do you constantly use the Royal “we” when you’re talking to customers? Stop doing that. You’re not the Queen of England.

Sprinkle some surprise into your conversation, whether it’s online or in person. Humans love surprises.

Communication shouldn’t be complicated. It should just be genuine and simple, with the humility and understanding that we’re all multi-dimensional humans, everyone of which has spent time in both the dark and delightful parts of life. -Bryan Kramer, author of “Human to Human“

We can’t let ourselves be subsumed by our robot overlords yet. Their faux-human handwriting is getting better and better, but they’re not quite there yet.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Photo Credit: David Blackwell. via Compfight cc

Stop Calling it Content

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It’s official. The push for “content” has pervaded society so completely that I had this actual conversation with my 10 year old the other day:

10 Yr Old: “Mom, no-one is visiting my website.”
Me: “I visited it just yesterday.”
10 Yr Old: “I think I need to make more content.”

Boom. Throw down the microphone and walk off stage.

assembly line

There has been a robust conversation surrounding the sheer amount of “content” debris (go read Mark Schaefer’s original Content Shock post), but I think the larger issue has to do with the attitude of the “content” creator.

I propose that we just stop calling it “content,” and whip out some Barron’s vocabulary words to describe what we’re doing instead.

  • Research paper
  • Investigative journalism
  • Marketing video
  • Customer photos
  • Online brochure or catalog
  • Case studies
  • Interviews
  • Company news item

See where I’m going with this?

One result will be that we ourselves recognize when we’re writing sales copy vs telling a story. If you call it “content,” it could be anything.

If you call it what it is, maybe it shifts your point of view as a creator. You are no longer a robot on the assembly line, you are an artist, a designer, a writer.

It’s the difference between mass-produced frozen fish sticks and fresh-caught grilled trout.

Your homework today, should you choose to accept it, is to go through your marketing plan, campaign strategy, and/or social media plan and highlight everywhere it says “content.” Replace that word with phrases and words that mean something to your customers.

Are you content with “content?”

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Photo Credit: jamesjyu via Compfight cc

Proven Ways to Make People Read Your Content

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By Katherine Crayon

You have created the blog of your dreams. You regularly update it with valuable content. Everything is perfect. Except…

Except the readers don’t come.

Cat typing on laptop

No comments, only a handful of shares and tweets — and that’s all. What went wrong? Think you need to perfect your writing skills? Actually, it’s not about the way you write. It’s all about the way you promote your content.

The web is flooded with thousands of recommendations on how to attract users to your website.

It’s important.
It matters.

The Internet was created to let you share your thoughts with millions of other people — it’s meaningless if they don’t read them. That’s why today we’ll concentrate on the ways to get people to actually read your content.

If you think that stuffing your posts with keywords and optimizing them for search engines will draw armies of followers to your resource, you are mistaken. Your blog will undoubtedly rank higher in search results, but will people come back?

The way people perceive your blog posts should be your highest concern. Combine catchy writing, impressive design and some basic ways of promoting content (described in this article).

Success will follow.

Written vs Visual Content

There is a general misconception that people ignore online content. They do read it. However, the way they perceive online data has changed a lot. Content marketing has generally revolved around written data, though more recently, visual content has greater appeal.

Modern users prefer skimming to reading. In order to make them actually read your post, you have to grab their attention (with a relevant image, video, infographic, etc.).

Statistics show that blog posts featuring at least one image are more popular among web users, which results in more shares.

Relevance

Will you read a post on a topic you’re not interested in? Most likely, you will scan the article and leave. As a rule, people surf the web searching for content that meets the basic criteria of relevance:

  • Publish content that coincides with the current time and season. For instance, will you read about Christmas on July 4th? Do you find it relevant posting about winter vacations in summer? Relevance has its own chronological order.
  • Consider your readers. You will hardly be able to attract artistic people to a chemistry blog. Each web resource has its own audience. Working on your blog, think about the target user who will most likely enjoy your content. Specializing on something particular will help you look like a pro and build trust with ease.

Skimming

Users will scan your posts first to decide whether the content before them is relevant. If they come up with some points that look relevant, people will likely stay and read the entire post word-by-word. How to organize content in such a way that users will easily find exactly what they need?

Here are several points to consider:

  • Headlines are the first thing people will pay attention to. The more relevant and to the point they sound, the more likely it is that readers will come — and stay.
  • Subheads help give users a quick overview of the things you discuss in the post. Once again, if they find these relevant, chances are they will read till the end.
  • Text formatting helps to highlight the content you want to draw skimmers’ eye to. Remember that highlighting too much content in bold or italics will equal highlighting nothing. Put emphasis on the key points so that users will quickly pick them out.
  • If skimmers find your headlines and subheads relevant, they will move to bullet points and numbered lists that will help them with decision-making.

Let People Choose

Readers’ tastes differ, so if you want them to keep returning to your blog, you should provide them with several forms of content to choose from.

We have already found out that people are more attracted by visual rather than written data. However, there are many web users who prefer reading detailed posts word-by-word, without missing a single thought.

Try to publish different forms of content through multiple channels and see what works best. Diversify your content marketing with images, videos, and infographics to let people choose what they want. And don’t forget to make all of your content look good no matter what device is used.

Post Regularly

Publishing content on a regular basis will make people come back. Though it requires significant and sustained effort, this is a proven way to build up a following. Whether you are posting 10 articles a day, three posts a week or simply update your blog with something new once a month, doing this consistently will increase traffic to your blog.

Leverage Social Media

With so many users learning about the latest news and valuable information in social media, including ‘Share on Facebook’ and ‘Tweet This’ buttons will make it much easier for your readers to spread posts online and draw new visitors to your blog. The easier you make sharing data, the more likely people are to do so.

It doesn’t require much time and effort to add social share buttons to your site. Make this one-time investment and you will reap great rewards.

Communication

Communication always matters. Make sure you respond to all of the comments left on your blog. Your readers put an effort into leaving their feedback under your post, so don’t miss an opportunity to show how much you value this. Communicating with people on your blog, leaving comments on other web resources, as well as participating in discussions on social media platforms – all this combined will show how much you care.

Final Words

When it comes to content marketing, always write with personality.

Engage your readers by sharing interesting posts on a regular basis and starting a debate online. Keep the writing short and sweet, and never forget to refresh it with some relevant photo or video content.

Are you an experienced blogger or just plan to start your web resource? Which of the aforementioned techniques do your find effective? Maybe you know some other proven ways of how to blog effectively. Share with us in the comments below.

Author’s Bio:Katherine Crayon is a copywriter with a fresh voice, reporting on tech news and all aspects of the web design industry. Meet her in person on Google+.

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