Reading Makes Better Bloggers

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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Feeling a bit all over the place today, so here we go! Take the time today to look at some little things that you might not otherwise consider:

No More “Batch and Blast”
I saw this tip as it applies to email marketing, but you can apply it to different platforms. Twitter, Facebook, and even blogging. Have you ever wondered why you constantly get postcards and junk from your local real estate agent? They often use this batch and blast method because it’s cost efficient and effective. Just think of it, the commission they make from one sale makes their direct mailing costs very minuscule. Sure… social media marketing is free, but you really are paying a cost if you blast your followers with self-promotion. No matter how you choose to carry out your campaign, think of it as a continuous process.

Copying Competitors and Copycats
Google alerts is a great way to keep an eye out for your reputation, but have you thought about using it to watch your competitors? This article does a great job of compiling a variety of different ways you can stay in the know. Have you dealt with plagiarism in the past? You might have a piece of content that people love to steal. You can check by searching a certain phrase in parenthesis or checking CopyScape. We’ve had 3 different “companies” steal content on our video marketing page and reported them to Google as soon as we found out.

Google Webmaster Tools for Your Wordpress
Did you know that you can use Webmaster Tools to get insight about your Wordpress? The Wordpress dashboard already allows you to see how many visitors you get and who’s linking to you. Once you verify ownership of your Wordpress account with Webmaster Tools, you’ll see where your blog ranks in search engine results along with relevant keywords. You’ll also be able to see any crawl errors and other useful diagnostics. Best of all, this tool doesn’t cost anything. Feel free to add all your blogs/sites and master Webmaster Central today.

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Currently, waiting for Twitter’s fail whale to disappear…

Anyways, I’ve been thinking about Facebook advertising lately. Have you ever used it for your business? It can even be a pretty effective way to get new fans to your Fan page and more. When you start your Facebook ad campaign, you can either set a maximum price per click (CPC) or per impression (CPM ). You will also be prompted to set a daily budget, which Facebook will not go over (unlike Google). Facebook is going to roll out a beta version of ad conversion tracking. The service will allow you to calculate the ROI of your ad campaigns. Really excited for this to make its way to my account so I can try it out!

The key in direct marketing is choosing your target audience, and with Facebook ads, you can do just that. There are 11 different criteria that you can use to your advantage. Don’t hesitate to take your time to think of the relevant users you want. Did you know that you can target users on their birthday? You can also target a specific radius within cities and even users who have a certain interest or activity. Facebook coupons come up frequently, so make sure to check. I just got a $50 credit and it’s a great way for small businesses or individuals to test their ads.

Some more interesting-reads for advertising on Facebook:

10 Rules for Advertising on Facebook
Facebook Ads Best Practices
Facebook Advertising – An Opportunity for Deep Targeting at Very Low Cost
25 Bad Facebook Ads
Is the big Facebook advertising experiment working?

Is the big Facebook advertising experiment working?

A Blogger’s Worst Fear

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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Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010

2009. What a year! It was a year of the, Palm Pre, the Snuggie, Zhu Zhu Pets and more. Filled with celebrity deaths and scandal, it is surely one to remember. What a better way to close off the decade with some top of 2009 lists! Let’s reminisce:

What were your favorite memories of 2009 and are you ready for the new year?

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Innovation Breeds Revolution

What happens when the Apple giant acquires online music streaming services offered by Lala? Some observers think that this will change the future of how consumers will obtain their music. Gone are the days of a need for tangible objects to hold our music…
From vinyl, 8-tracks, to cassettes and eventually CDs, consumers have always been looking for a more convenient way to store and listen to their music. Lala technology allows users to stream their favorite music over an internet connection. With similar sites, like Last.fm and Pandora, there’s no longer a need for physical CDs or even storage space.

What Does This Mean for the Music Industry?

Since the early days of Napster, the music industry has been scrambling to regain their past vigor. They claim losses of album sales due to internet downloading. But the internet and music streams may be a place where the music industry can regain their momentum. Trendsetters will want to investigate this new potential, so that they don’t get left behind. And you can bet that this is exactly what Apple’s strategy is. Surely, they don’t intend for the Lala technology to cannibalize their iTunes market, but they realize the powerful potential. For now, some experts believe that it is a long way before a majority of users switch to solely streaming their music online. Internet and wi-fi connections are still problematic, even with smart phones. For now, this is a viable market to keep your eye on.

Consumers are Still Key

Music and music fans will always exist. You won’t get anywhere if you blame your failures on consumers. Internet music streaming may frighten some artists, but others have begun to embrace it for novel ways to promote themselves. For example, solo artist, Beck, has always been known for his unique techniques for marketing his music. His 2006 album, The Information, came with a CD cover that fans could personalize by using accompanying stickers and other artwork. Recently, Beck has launched several websites where he releases exclusive new recordings, interesting interviews, and just plain weird videos. This is an easy way to keep in touch with your fan base and keep them up to date with the latest news. So, whether it is an interactive MySpace or entertaining Twitter account, there are many ways musicians can supplement their online presences and embrace technological upgrades. Internet music streaming may seem new today but it’s just a matter of time before something new comes out. Maintaining your consumer base will help you, regardless of the change to come.

Your internet browser is probably full of bookmarks that you’ve never really gotten around to using. Every minute, there are so many new and interesting things that you can find online. Accumulating so many sites can quickly lead to a cluttered bookmark list. Did you know that social bookmarking can help you organize your favorite sites and make them easier to find? By using a social bookmarking site such as Delicious, you can organize and save links that you want to remember or share with others. As opposed to traditional bookmarking on your browser, this type of bookmarking is considered social because you can share it with the public, other users in your networks or specific users.

Social bookmarking is becoming more widely used in social media advertising. So how can you use this as a marketing tool? Utilizing these methods allows your website to gain exposure from Internet users allover the world. By using tags, your site is categorized to the keywords that are relevant to your business. A great advantage is that if others find your site useful, they may bookmark it and share it with other users on their network. Sharing your helpful website with others will improve your online reputation and help your business gain online recognition.

However, many people may have the misconception that bookmarking your site a few times will instantly boost your website traffic. This isn’t the case as you constantly need to update and maintain your social bookmarks. Your website won’t be successful in the online marketing environment if you are not actively networking with others. If you are unfamiliar with social bookmarking and other forms of social media advertising, it may be helpful to consult with an internet marketing firm. An experienced firm will help you with all your social media needs and keep up to date with the rapidly changing nature of internet marketing.

You may have heard of the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle, which states that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of the causes. When applied to business and marketing, this can mean several different things:

  • 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers
  • 80% of your profit comes from 20% of your products
  • 80% of your company’s output comes from 20% of your employees

This principle shows that inputs and outputs of your efforts are rarely balanced. So how do you make the best and reap the maximum rewards? One of the keys to success is to maintain and build lasting relationships with your customers. Relationship marketing focuses on communication and efforts to retain customer loyalty in order to build a mutually beneficial relationship. Many businesses forgo this approach in exchange for quick profits in the short run. In the long run, keeping customers happy will help you retain a loyal base of customers.

Rather than constantly looking for new customers, it’s important to keep existing ones happy. This can be easier said that done, especially for large companies who tend to focus on getting more new sales. It’s time to forget the phrase, “If you build it, they will come” and emphasize the point that “The customer is king”. Customers have plenty of choices and can easily choose one of your competitors if they are not treated well.

Whether they are from established or up-and-coming companies, controversial ads have always been a hot topic of discussion. The main argument is whether they are intentional or not. From time to time, many companies find themselves defending or apologizing for a controversial ad campaign. From the Whopper Virgins to their ad for the BK Super Seven Incher, Burger King has recently been known for their unusual choice of ads. Critics have accused them of exploiting third world hunger and even misogyny.

Moreover, the fashion industry is well-known for sexual images portrayed in their advertisements and magazine spreads. American Apparel is no stranger to this controversy. CEO Dov Charney has had many sexual harassment lawsuits filed against him and it may not help that his company’s ads are considered borderline pornographic. But controversial ads are not restricted to this industry; Sony has been subject to scrutiny with the release of their white Sony PSP. The ad above shows a racially charged tone that has been criticized by many. Sony actually had a similar ad that was rejected for the campaign with the tagline, “White is better”.

So, why would a company purposely put out an advertisement that could possibly be considered offensive? For some companies, that may be their intent. There are advantages and disadvantages to consider when it comes to controversial advertisements:

Advantages

  • Positive attention from a quirky or unusual ad
  • Increased awareness can generate more sales
  • Reputation for being different
  • Being memorable and subject to buzz on social media sites

Disadvantages

  • Negative attention frsom overtly sexual, racist, or violent ads
  • Boycott can lead to a decrease in sales
  • Hard to follow up with ads without going overboard
  • Other unintended consequences

What are your thoughts on controversial advertisements?

A “frenemy” is loosely defined as someone who is part enemy, part friend. Ever since their beginnings, Pepsi and Coca-Cola have been the dominant contenders in the soft drink market. With a rivalry that spans over 100 years, Pepsi and Coke have been known to take jabs at each other in their marketing campaigns. But, in the new age of social media, it may finally be time for Pepsi and Coke to be friends.

Amnesia Razorfish, a leading creative agency, invited both companies on the social utility site, Twitter. The agency encouraged both companies to become friends or Twitter followers. Surprisingly, the two giants agreed and even extended greetings to each other. This may be a first for the two and we will all be able to witness how this experiment works for them. Frenemy relationships are not solely for publicity, but gives you an edge on what your competitor is up to. A company who fails to take direct and indirect competitors seriously will suffer a huge disadvantage. Some other big frenemy relationships include: Google and WPP Group, eBay and PayPal, Facebook and MySpace.

This new online relationship will not only give publicity to Coke and Pepsi, but may even promote a positive image for both companies. Nowadays, traditional advertising may be trite and monotonous to the public. Since more consumers are turning to the internet, companies can now use social media advertising and viral marketing in order to attract online attention. When approaching online marketing, the competitor-friendliest companies may be the most successful. As the well-known saying goes, it is important to “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”.