Reading Makes Better Bloggers

On 03.10.10, In Uncategorized, By jennifer

It’s March and we all know that that is – National Reading Month! Whether you read a little or a lot, there’s so much we can learn by reading. I’m currently reading Hypnotic Writing: How to Seduce and Persuade Customers with Only Your Words by Joe Vitale.

Not something I would usually read “for fun”, but he offers a lot of helpful tips for blogging and writing in general:

  • Repeat, repeat, repeat. The best writers can get their point across through repetition without sounding boring.
  • Sprinkle in a little intimacy in your writing. Your readers want to know why they should be reading your blog, book, etc. Don’t make it all about yourself and take the time to help them out.
  • Imitation is the best form of flattery. Comedians “borrow” jokes from their heroes. Athletes watch footage of sports legends. What’s wrong with aiming high? You’ll develop a style that is uniquely your own.
  • Drunk as a sailor? As fit as a fiddle? As mad as a hatter? Use similes sparingly. Maybe, you can come up some more interesting ones.
  • Don’t aim for perfection: If you edit too much and scrutinize the details, your work won’t have the same feeling that you originally intended it to. Don’t be too harsh on yourself but instead, try the best you can and then move on.

What are you currently reading? Have any recommendations?

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Maintaining a Healthy Social Media Balance

On 03.02.10, In Search Engine Optimization (SEO), By jennifer

“If Speaking is Silver, then Listening is Gold”
In order to have a successful social media plan, you need to find equilibrium. If you spend more time talking then listening, it’s time to reevaluate your methods. We’ve covered inspiration before but what about the other important aspects? Your social media plan won’t be successful if you don’t devote enough time and effort to carry out your campaign.

Get Educated
Sometimes, a little education can go a long way when you’re trying to engage your audience. There are free webinars and seminars every day, so find a topic that interests you. PRWeb often sponsors webinars that are beneficial for small business owners, bloggers, and more. You can do some live blogging, or participate in real-time discussion via hash tags on Twitter. Search Engine Watch always features interesting topics with great speakers.

Staying in the Loop
Webinars are a good way to get your social media news, but it also helps to stay more current. Like any other news room, it can be too cluttered to really stay focused. This is where newsletters and weekly wrap-ups can come in handy. Marketing Profs has a free daily newsletter which will help you stay in the loop and stay inspired. Remember, it’s easy to get distracted, but stay on the watch for credible sources for your social media news.

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Listen to Your Heart

On 02.23.10, In social media marketing, By jennifer

“Next time, I’ll listen to my heart
Next time, well I’ll be smart”

Some wise words from The Ramones. Don’t wait for a next time – start today! In other words: listen to your heart, but rely on the experience to get the best results. This holds true for almost everything in life. Fashion, love, your personal values, and even your marketing mix. Just because everyone is doing it, doesn’t mean that you should. This can go both ways but today, we’ll take the latter approach.

Here are some ways your social media presence can benefit when you take the time to listen to your heart and share your passion. Have any others you’d like to add?

  1. People want to know more. This article from Social Media Today shows that the most common retweets are actually “bites of wisdom”.
  2. Establish your unique voice. There must be thousands of mommy bloggers, but only one Jessica Gottlieb (@JessicaGottlieb).
  3. It makes you interesting! It doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong, taking a stand will help you stand out.
  4. Helps you remain consistent. Are you an avid sports fan or film buff? Your readers will probably never get a chance to meet you, but will grow to know the social you that you put forward.
  5. Even if you make mistakes, you can learn and try better next time :]
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Content is Still King

On 01.28.10, In Search Engine Optimization (SEO), relationship marketing, social bookmarking, social media marketing, By jennifer

Today’s webinar was about how to track content engagement and ROI with Byron White and Carol Leaman.
As most experts advocate the importance of testing and measuring, I’d like to emphasize another important point that I took from this webinar: You can increase the longevity of your content through social media. Whether it’s through social bookmarks, press releases, Tweets, or static pages on your site, old content can be made new again.

How exactly does this work? If you have good content that your audience can relate to, you can use social media to bring them in the spotlight again. This can happen via Digg, Reddit and even email. After going through your own articles and stories that best resonate with your audience, take the time to make them relevant again. Carol tells us that most of her clients have had success with content that was written months to even one year ago!

Come up with a realistic content plan. Recognize relevant keywords and track their position as you release content that should bring more traffic. Although content marketing is a slow and steady process, it has very real results. Get ready to focus on your content plan today. There are many free research tools that you can use to get started you keyword research that will strengthen your content efforts: Word Vision, SpyFu, Compete, Quantcast, MajesticSEO, SEOToolSet, LinkVendor, Marketleap and PageGrader.

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A Blogger’s Worst Fear

On 01.18.10, In Uncategorized, By jennifer

We’ve all heard of writer’s block, but what about blogger’s block? It might seem impossible to run out of things to blog about, but it happens to the best of us. After all, blogging can be a tricky thing. Who knew that keeping it casual was such hard work?

Here are some tips to help you get unstuck:

Use pictures
Who likes reading chunks of text without white space or pictures? If your blog features text on end, you’re just asking to put readers to sleep. Many sites feature inspirational photos, just look into some in the field you’re interested in. If you’re into fashion, Polyvore is great to help you visualize things. Flickr and DeviantART are also useful for general purposes.

Get inspiration
Go for a walk, listen to some of your old favorite tracks, or just pick a nice place to do some people watching. You’ll be surprised at the things you come across. Sometimes, it just helps to step away from the keyboard and clear your mind. If that doesn’t help, it’s time to do some reading. Subscribe to some  interesting blog feeds. It just helps keeping up with the current news. Some of my go to sites: Technorati, LA Times, Wired and even movie quotes!

Keep notes

Throughout the day, you may come across many things that would make for an interesting topic. Did you see a stupid commercial or bite into a raw hamburger? Why not write about it? Subtle insight and your personal experiences make the best topics. Instead of tweeting every single thought that comes to your mind, take note of some good ones. You don’t have to spend a lot of time thinking about it, but just pick some that you would like to elaborate on. Good luck in your blogging adventures! As for me… I just found a way to get over my own blogger’s block.

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