It doesn’t take long to find heroes in the social media world. OK I really hate the word hero, I know everyone has their good and bad points so perhaps the term ‘leader’ is a closer description. I know I’m not alone in my choice of top social media leaders, I admire Brian Solis for his deep analysis of the psychology of social media and how it changes business, Mari Smith for knowing everything about Facebook, there’s even a few in Ireland but I’m not going to embarrass them by naming them here. For me Chris Brogan is top of the heap. I’ve been reading his blog for as long as I’ve been interested in social media but it wasn’t until I saw this video that I was totally sold.
So what was it that attracted me to him from this video? It was his giving more than you take, or sharing rather than broadcasting philosophy. This is something I try and mirror at Spiderworking.com and although I don’t quite manage his 12:1 suggested ratio of sharing v promoting, giving more than taking is a rule that will stand you in good stead whenever you use social media. But it’s not just that video, Chris is a full on blogger, he blogs daily but still finds time to Tweet, update Google+ videocast, write books and work. This is the stuff our leaders need to be made of. Although this is a work ethic most of us would struggle to attain it does give us a goal to aspire to.
Last year when Google+ was launched I felt I began to find out more about Chris, he’s very open on his social network and shares a lot about his life. This human side is something that many business owners forget about, sharing your interests can help you find conversations that make business relationships stronger. It may seem trivial but my love of cats, cycling and cakes often become an ice breaker at network meetings.
Of course no leader is perfect! In the interest of balance I thought I’d try and discover his flaws. Chris doesn’t seem to be the biggest fan of Facebook, in fact when Google+ opened he famously left a profile image on his page saying ‘Moved to Google+’ (although I note his profile is still there and converted to timeline). Even in the video above he refers to Facebook as “…people from High School that you didn’t like trying to re-friend you”.
He has such a huge following that it’s easy for him to see benefits of Google+ or any other network he chooses to join. These benefits may not be there for the rest of us yet. For me the jury is still out on G+ as a social network and without a passionate following the size of his it can seem like a struggle. It’s easy to loose your perspective on a new network when you have a ready made community as Chris does. Google must be delighted to have such a strong advocate on board but for me it’s going to be when more ‘normal’ people start using the network that we will see the real benefits.
These are both minor quibbles, I find it hard to find anything to dislike about Chris or his approach, I even Googled ‘I hate Chris Brogan’ and ‘I don’t like Chris Brogan’ with virtually no results.
It’s for all of the above reasons that I’m really looking forward to attending Social Media World Forum (#SMWF) in London this March. He’s the keynote speaker and I’m sure there will be loads to learn from him. If you want to join me the event takes place on 27th & 28th of March 2012, tickets can be bought here.
If you can’t make it in person I’ll be tweeting, follow the tag #SMWF to keep up with the events on the day.
Do you have a top business leader, one that would make you travel to a conference to see them speak? Who am I missing? Leave your suggestions below.
Many businesses dive into using social media without a thought, they learn as they go and some of these are hugely successful. Others assume it’s not the right fit for their business so don’t bother looking. On Tuesday I’ll be talking at the SME Business Summit in Kilkenny about how to decide if social media is right for your business and busting some common myths about social media. Here’s a taster of what I’ll be talking about.
Where to start
Using social media as a marketing tool is in many ways the same as any kind of marketing, you need to identify your customer. It’s no use trying to reach ‘everyone’ even if your target market is ‘everyone’ you need to segment it, define exactly each type of customer you have. Once you have done this you can endeavour to find out if they use social media tools.
One sure fire way to know if potential customers are on social media is to see if your existing ones are, do they have Facebook pages? Twitter accounts? Linkedin profiles? Next draw up a list of dream clients and see if they are using social media. If the answer to any of these is yes list the networks are they using. This should form your starting point, if your customers are there you should be there too.
Things we might not think of a social networks
When we talk about social media most people think of Facebook, some think of Twitter and others may look further. However it’s not just these online websites that are social. Social media reaches much further, essentially it is all interaction on the Internet, whether this happens on an online forum, a blog or through product reviews it is all social. For those of you who know they’re customers are not on Facebook it’s worth looking at how else you can interact with them online. Is it worth you setting up a forum on your website? Can you mobilise a group of people and form your own community? A great example of this in action is Design Spark from RS components. They have built a social network where engineers can share knowledge and learn, it gives them the opportunity to understand their market and sell key products on the back of it.
Monitoring
Are people talking about you online already? This is one of the most compelling reasons to use social media. It’s a common misconception that starting a Facebook page or a Twitter account leaves you open to complaints. In reality if someone wants to complain about you they will, whether you are online or not. If you have a presence you have the opportunity to manage your customer care in a transparent way. Twitter is often used as a customer service tool. I’ve found 02, and Asda very receptive, responding to just a mere mention of their names.
It’s important to know if people are talking about you. If you are a larger company it’s worth investing in a monitoring tool, here’s a list of paid monitoring tools & the costs involved [thanks to Black Dog New Media]. Smaller businesses are less likely to have people talking about them online so the free tools such as Google Alerts are adequate. Here’s a list of free monitoring tools. As a small business it’s also important to monitor the internet for industry trends and competitors, this will keep you clued in and help you decide whether a social media presence is relevant to you.
For more on how to decide if social media is right for your business come along to the SME Summit on Tuesday (29th November 2011) and follow the hashtag #sebiz on the day.
#Krocomm is Ireland’s free e-commerce event happening in Dublin on Tuesday 4th October at Kro HQ. There are lots of great speakers, clinics and giveaways. Book here.
Back at the beginning of the year there was a lot of buzz about f-commerce. In other words selling directly from a shop on your Facebook page. It’s true more people are looking to Facebook to start a shop, it’s also true that lots of large brands seem to be embracing it but is it right for your small business? How else can Facebook help you sell? These are topics I’ll be discussing at the #krocomm e-commerce conference next week but here’s a sneak preview of my presentation.
Why sell from Facebook?
Facebook is a massive community, research has shown that Facebook fans are loyal customers who are more likely to buy online. If you can connect with these potential customers you could be building powerful brand advocates who will not only buy from you but also recommend you to friends.
Buying online is all about trust, you are asking someone to hand over their credit card details so it’s important that however you choose to sell, your web presence oozes professionalism and trust. If you don’t have the budget to create a great e-commerce website straight away Facebook is often a better option. There are several applications that are simple to add to your Facebook page that make setting up a shop easy. Two Irish based ones are Owjo and VendorShop and there are lots of other options out there. However simply adding a shop to Facebook doesn’t ensure trustworthiness. Make sure your page is designed well, add as much detail in the info page as possible and be easy to contact offline.
Once you’ve set up your shop the same rules apply as with any e-commerce venture. Customers won’t just come to you, you will need to attract them. One of the biggest disadvantages of f-commerce that I can see is that people who ‘Like’ your page often just visit once, once they’ve clicked the ‘Like’ button they rely on seeing your updates on their newsfeed. Having a shop tab as part of your page means that you will need to get them back to your page, you will need to drive them to your shop and entice them to buy when they get there. This is true of both f-commerce and e-commerce.
So how do you encourage that purchase using social media? I’m not going to talk about general strategy here and it’s important to remember that these tips will only work as part of a full Facebook or social media campaign.
Offers
I’m not sure if it’s a sign of the times but consumers don’t expect to pay full price for anything anymore. If you want their attention you are going to have to discount occasionally. Creating offers exclusively for your Facebook community is a great way to push them over the edge into a purchase. You can simply add a discount code in your updates or as an image as these are more likely to attract the attention of your fans or you could create a customised page with vouchers. If you are a bricks and mortar shop give your fans a fun phrase they have to say when they come into your shop, this will create a bit of fun instore too.
Exclusives
Every Christmas a member of my extended family gets an invite to a special shopping night in Brown Thomas, they give her a glass of champagne when she arrives and the shop is less busy so she’s able to shop in peace and is guaranteed a personal service. She’s a loyal Brown Thomas customer and this experience makes her feel special. They are ensuring her loyalty for the future. You can replicate this on Facebook.
Why not offer an exclusive to your fans, if you have a new product or a new range of products give your Facebook fans the chance to buy 24 hours before the general public. Not only will this encourage them to buy, it will create a buzz around your launch.
Reviews
We tend to buy from shops that are recommended to us by our friends and I for one know I research a product online before I buy it. Reviews are therefore an essential part of any e or f-commerce site. If someone is able to see frank customer reviews next to the product you are selling they are more likely to buy. Another Irish company LouderVoice makes the process of getting and sharing reviews easy.
Sharing
If you sell something make it easy to share. What happens when someone buys from you? Do they have the option to share their purchase with their friends on Facebook? On Twitter? The easier you make it to share the further the word will spread about what you are selling.
Examples
When I asked people on Facebook would they buy from a Facebook shop most people hadn’t encountered one. This is probably one of the biggest barriers you will come against. There are good examples out there.
Young British Designers have a beautiful shop and I’m informed they only sell on Facebook, there’s no website attached.
Handmade Jewellery store Dink Design are using Owjo to sell from their Facebook page and I think it looks quite attractive and very trustworthy.
Another Irish company Puddleducks have a store powered by Payvment. Again it looks trustworthy and it has those all important ‘share on Facebook’ buttons.
Pampers have a Facebook shop but it differs from the others as links take you away from Facebook and onto their own website.
So what do you think? Would you buy on Facebook? Have you tried selling there? What sort of results have you had? I’d love to hear your experiences so that I can add it to my presentation next week.
Ever since I started working for myself I’ve made an effort to attend a number of conferences, at least twice a year I go to the UK and there are many in Ireland that I try to get to as well. But why? The perception can be that conferences are either an excuse for a holiday or terribly boring, for me neither of these are true. Whatever industry you are in I believe that going to events like these can enhance your business in many ways. But why and how?
Why do I go to conferences?
To improve my knowledge
It’s the obvious answer. I want to be the best at what I do so I need to keep learning, keep on top of new developments and learn from the experience of others. Social media is such a fast moving field that it takes a lot of reading and discussion to keep up to date with developments.
To meet people
It’s true I do know a number of social media enthusiasts, I talk to them regularly but there’s nothing as comforting as getting in a room full of social media geeks. We can be an odd bunch and it might be hard for others to understand how we get so excited about the latest monitoring dashboard or marketing ploy. I imagine whatever industry you are in this applies. It can be a bit daunting walking into a big room full of strangers to start with but with Twitter to break the ice conversations usually occur. The recent Bloggers International event arose from a collaboration with someone I met at a conference.
To take time out
I’ve recently become passionate about work life balance. This might seem an odd revelation for someone who has been running her own businesses for around 7 years but it’s something too many of us overlook. Taking time out from your regular schedule can spark new ideas and help you see your business from a different perspective. A day at a conference learning from others can really get your creative juices flowing. It can restore your motivation and passion for your business.
#SMM11
On September 19th I’m attending the Social Media Marketing and Monitoring (#SMM11) conference in London. This is the third year I will have attended and I’m looking forward to brushing up on my skills and being challenged by some ideas from the speakers. Every year I come back buzzing with ideas about how I can implement what I’ve learnt. For me the best speakers in the past have been those giving strong case studies. It’s always good to hear directly from people what has and hasn’t worked for them and discover what insights they have discovered on the way. The event run by ‘Our Social Times’ takes place on 19th September in Central London you can book tickets here. If you want to follow what I’m getting up to on the day look out for tweets with the #SMM11 tag.
Some Irish Conferences Not To Be Missed
Dublin Web Summit – This looks like an unmissable event with speakers from YouTube and Linkedin on the agenda. I’ve heard great things about previous DWS so I’m hoping I’ll finally make it to this one.
BizCamp Galway – I love the BizCamp format. It’s a shared learning arena where businesses share knowledge. Anyone can register as a speaker and I’ve been lucky enough to speak at two Dublin BizCamp’s but I actually enjoyed it more as a participant at the first one I attended. There’s a great friendly atmosphere and the slightly informal air makes it a really comfortable place to be.
Foodcamp – Kilkenny seems to be becoming the food capital of Ireland. Foodcamp takes place in October and is based on a similar format to BizCamp. I get hungry just looking at the pictures!
National Women’s Enterprise Day - This conference has been running for years and is one of the most enjoyable one’s that I have attended. I believe men are welcome too so don’t be put off by the name. At just €100 to attend it’s a bit of a bargain.
Bob Proctor - (disclaimer Vision Seminars who are running this event are clients of mine). If you are a believer in ‘The Secret’ ‘The Law Of Attraction’ or even just positive thinking this should be a great event. Positive thinking is all very well but how do we convert this into action? Find out at this day seminar.
Are you attending any conferences this year? If so which ones? Am I missing any great events from my list? Let me know what’s going on in the comment box below.
Many people may not think of Blogging as Social Media but I am a big believer that not only is it social it’s also the most important social media. It can become the hub of your social media campaign, feeding into your other social networks, I often tell people that if they do nothing else they must blog!
Whether your blog is part of your website, independent of your website or even if you just blog using Facebook notes blogging can have a massive impact on your entire Internet marketing.
What is a Blog?
A blog can be a website or a segment of a website that is updated by the owner on a regular basis. People who visit the website are able to comment on blog posts, making it interactive.
There are different kinds of blogs; personal blogs that can extend from an online diary to a blog written around a specific topic. Some famous personal blogs have even been turned into films, for example Julie and Julia. I also love 101 W**kers (excuse the language but that’s what it’s called) the blogger behind it has now branched out and is contributing to the Guradian bike blog. There are also political blogs, photo blogs, video blogs and of course business blogs.
Why Should A Business Blog?
Blogging has many benefits for businesses.
1. If it is part of your website it will work well for SEO (search engine optimisation). Using keywords that you want your website to be found for in your headlines and the body of your blog will push your website up the Google rankings bringing more traffic to your blog and website.
Feeding your blog to your other social networks and encouraging others to share your posts will increase the inbound links coming into your website – also good for SEO.
2. It establishes you as an expert – Blogging gives you the opportunity to showcase your passion and expertise about a topic. You can become the ‘go to’ person about your industry.
3. A resource for customers – If your customers commonly ask specific questions blogging gives you the opportunity to address them on mass. If they are asking those questions online and find the answers from you they are more likely to buy from you.
4. Spreads your message further - If you are a local business looking to expand, blogging and social media gives you the opportunity to reach beyond the local market. You can target markets further afield within Ireland or even international customers.
5. Attract press attention – more and more journalists and researchers are turning to the web to research their stories. Having an active blog about your topic of interest can mean getting more press attention and being asked to comment on specific stories within your field of expertise.
What Should You Blog About?
There are a number of topics you can blog about
1. Your business. It may seem obvious but you need to blog on topics related to your business and industry. A political blog may bring lots of traffic to your website but not the right traffic. Make posts relevant to your offering. Absolute Dental handle this really well showcasing their services with out the hard sell.
2. Your own expertise. What information do you have that you can share? – What information do you give to customers on a regular basis? Turning these into tips and hints will make great blog content.
3. Topical issues about your industry. What’s happening in the news related to your industry? Add your comment or take on relevant stories.
Always providing up to date information on financial issues Red Oak Tax Refunds blog handles this well.
4. Who are your target market and what are they interested in? When I used to sell organic food I targeted people with an interest in the environment so blogged about a range of green issues, not just organic food but local food, cycling, organic gardening etc. This was information that would draw my target market into my site.
Greenside Up Veg include both recipes and gardening tips in their blog. They offer training on growing your own veg and if you’re growing it you are probably wanting to eat it too so this works perfectly.
5. Case studies and testimonials. Do you have happy customers? If so ask them to write a short piece on their experience with you and include it as part of or as a blog post. Use case studies of work you have done or customers you have helped.
This is done really well by Buyers Brokers, the photo and language of the testimonials leaves you in no doubt that they are genuine.
6. Guest bloggers. Once your blog is established find other bloggers that might have something to share with your target market. If you sell Wedding Dresses for example is there a Wedding Car company or a venue that would like to contribute a blog post.
Garrendenny Lane have a weekly guest blogging slot, all adding value to their blog and business.
More Blogging Tips
To find out more about blogging, and blogs both business and personal join us at Bloggers International, an International panel of experts will be sharing their knowledge of Blogging both technical and creative. We can help you get started or help boost your current blogging. Sponsored by Blacknight the event takes place on 29th June 2011 at 7.30pm in The Heritage Hotel, Portlaoise, Laois, Ireland and The Chequers Inn, Chipping Norton, England. We’re also streaming online live… details to follow on the Bloggers International website.
If you’re interested in coming to this free event RSVP on Facebook, Linkedin, Via The Website (on the right hand side toolbar), leave a comment below or email wave@spiderworking.com.
If you’d like to book a place on the two way video conference for the night you can book your spot for free by clicking here.
Oliver Dempsey from Tradesmen.ie got over 14,000 views of his ‘Funny Cow Video‘ on YouTube. The video wasn’t just about getting views, it was designed to help him to get votes for the 02 Ideas room sales pitch competition. He went on to win netting €5,000 worth of prizes. We were delighted to welcome him as guest speaker to this months KLCK Bloggers Network meetup in Portlaoise this month.
Oliver’s enthusiasm is viral in itself. He showed us his videos and talked us through the process of making them, how they evolved to adding sound effects and music and how they became so addictive he even made one when on holiday.
Daisy the cow is his top viewed video and he credits this to the title ‘Funny Cow Video’ the keywords he included and the power of Facebook. It was his Facebook friends that helped it go viral, sharing it with their friends who shared it again. Not only was it a funny video but it was short (1 min), amusing and included bloopers. Other videos that got lots of hits also included ‘funny’ in the title.
The big question is did this campaign bring business to Tradesmen.ie and Oliver believes it has, it has spread the word about the business, leads and even friends have found out more about his business because of the campaign.
Oliver recommends the Flip camera for making simple videos and the free Movie Maker software for windows for editing. If your on a Mac iMovie is good too. He also recommends investing in a good tripod and credits much of his success to Daniel Beere his Intern, camera man and quality controller. Working without him has been more challenging. I’m pretty sure we’re going to see some more video coming from members of KLCK in the future. I might even try and do something a bit more creative myself soon.
RSS Feeds and converting WordPress.com to WordPress.org
Our round table discussion started by talking about RSS feeds.
What is a RSS Feed?
RSS or ‘Really Simple Syndication’ often called a ‘Feed’ is, in simple terms, a link that is attached to a website that has regularly updated content (blogs etc). This link can be used to distribute content to other sites. Doing this allows sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc to automatically post your blog content when you add a new post. Users are also able to subscribe to your feed using tools like Google Reader. This means that instead of having to visit your site to check out if you have posted recently they can check their reader for updates from all the blogs they follow. It’s a great tool for both keeping up with blogs and sharing your own content.
How do you find your RSS feed?
There are lots of ways of finding an RSS feed, some sites publish a link on their sidebar or at the bottom of a page. My personal recommendation is to use Firefox to surf the web.
When you are on a site that contains an RSS feed a little symbol appears in the address bar.
If you click this it will display the RSS address rather than the web address and you can cut and paste this into any RSS reader.
WordPress.com & Blogger v WordPress.org
A common topic at KLCK is what blogging platform to use. The most common amongst our members are Blogger and WordPress however some people want to move from WordPress.com (hosted by WordPress and with limited customisation options) to WordPress.org (self hosted and fully customisable). Some members were worried about how hard this could be but luckily we had a WordPress expert in our ranks. Beatrice Whelan assured us that it wasn’t that difficult a transition. It is possible to move the whole database of blog posts over from .com to .org and although it would require a small bit of technical knowledge it is quite simple if you have the time to put into it. I found this handy article online that could help the transition.
Next Meeting
The next meeting is in Kilkenny on 14th March 2011 at 7pm. Our guest speaker is Keith Bohanna who will be talking about commenting. How to get more comments and how to comment on other blogs effectively. Keep an eye on the KLCK Bloggers Network Facebook page for more details. We’ll be announcing the venue etc. over the next few days.
Thank you
Finally a big thank you to all the people who made the Portlaoise meeting possible. The Portlaoise Enterprise Centre who opened up their facilities to us. The room was fantastic and they even provide tea and coffee, a big hit with our members! Food was provided by Laois based marketing company Aos Si, I’m still dreaming about the chocolate cake I managed to resist! and of course the members who attended. You can see our meeting blogroll here.
This Thursday (27th Jan 2011) at 7pm GMT / 2pm ET, I will be live on the Social Media Ireland’s Facebook page chatting and answering your questions about Selling online using social media.
The hour long session is the second time Social Media Ireland has run such an event, at the beginning of January Krishna De was the guest expert talking about Facebook and there was a massive turn out with lots of information and advice changing hands. If you want to see what went on scroll back on Social Media Ireland’s Facebook page.
As many of you may know I started my business career selling corporate gifts online and much of my marketing activity was based in social media. Because of this background I will be focusing this chat specifically on Social Media Marketing for selling online. So if you are an online or offline retailer and want to know more about how to market your business and promote sales through Facebook, Twitter, Youtube etc drop in, ask a question or just find out what challenges others face.
I’m very excited that this year I’m going to be able to attend the full Social Media World Forum in London. The event, taking place on the 29th and 30th of March 2011 takes place in the Olympia. It is split into three streams.
1. The exhibition and social media hub. Free to attend this offers an interactive learning and discussion space. Over the two days participants will have the opportunity to learn basic social media marketing techniques and discover some of the tools that are available to assist them.
2. Enterprise social media. This first set of workshops focuses on internal social media and B2B social media. Aimed at marketing professionals (that’s me!) there is a fantastic line up of speakers and topics. I’m hoping to gather lots of information here that I can pass onto you and my clients. Internal social networks are becoming more and more popular and I’m looking forward to seeing how businesses can fully utilise these tools.
3. Social TV and Mobile Social Media. Social TV really made a splash towards the end of 2011, applications are popping up left right and centre allowing you to share your TV preferences and Google TV is leading the way to integrate social media into our viewing. There can be no denying the growth of mobile Internet use with 200,000 Facebook users logging on from their mobile device (Facebook, November 2011) it is important to consider this trend in the future of any social media campaign.
A section of the SMWF agenda will be dedicated to looking at the impact of these new trends.
For the full agenda have a look at the SMWF website. I’ll be tweeting live from the conference so don’t forget to tune into the Spiderworking.com Twitter feed on the day.
Even better, if you are planning on going along to either the free workshops or the full paid conference tweet me or leave a comment on this post and hopefully we’ll get a chance to have coffee.
How to find inspiration for your blog posts is a common concern for bloggers of all levels. There are times where I sit here at this keyboard wondering what is it I will blog about next, what if I run out of ideas for next week? This week at KLCK we learned how mindmapping could help us with this problem. We also learnt about the power of video as part of a blog as a website.
Frank Bradley uses mind maps for all areas of his life, to manage to do lists, to ensure he has good work life balance and of course to organise his thoughts for blogging. He blogs both on Tumblr and as part of the collaborative business blog Bloggertone.
For me it was a real eye opener, I guess I had always thought of mindmaps as being a bit out there but after playing with the concept I could see how it can help effectively organise your thoughts. Franks presentation will be available on the KLCK Facebook page soon.
The first speaker of the evening was Bryan Corden from Hedgehog Productions in Carlow who talked about the power of video blogging, and how to effectively push our videos out across the Internet (presentation here). He was accompanied by a cameraman and camera and we shot a short video on the night. I’ll share this on my videocast as soon as it’s completed.
After the speakers we discussed the best way to start blogging, we talked about the differences between the different formats; Blogger, WordPress.com, WordPress.org, Tumbler and Posterous. We also talked about using Facebook to blog and anyone who checked into my blog yesterday will have seen how easy it is to do. I’m delighted to see that three of the attendees have started blogging using the Facebook ‘Notes’ application.
A big thank you to our hosts The Seven Oaks Hotel who looked after us really well. To see who was there on the night, their blogs/websites visit our Facebook page. You can also see pictures from the evening in our Flickr group. If you missed the night we’re getting better and better at tweeting, you can view the Twitter archive here.
There will be no January meetup. The next meeting will be in Laois on the 14th of February, we will post details on our Facebook page and Linkedin group when we have them. You can also join the KLCK mailing list and we will send you out details of all further meetings.
Monitoring your brand and industry on social media channels should be one of the most important parts of your social media strategy, yet it is something that is often overlooked by business owners.
Amongst other things Social Media monitoring can help you:
1. Gauge the reach of your social media efforts – are people talking about you and if so what are they saying?
2. Keep you informed about what your competitors are up to.
3. See what the current trends and sentiments about your industry are.
This year, for the second year running Spiderworking.com will be attending the Monitoring Social Media conference in London. Last years event provided us with lots of useful tricks, tips and info that we were able to share with clients and we are looking forward to learning more again this year.
Topics this year include:
Social Media Monitoring Tools and Services
Brand and Reputation Management
Sentiment Detection and Analysis
Data Quality and Filtering
Identifying and Connecting with Influencers
Beyond Listening: Measurement and ROI
The Future of Social Media Monitoring
Case studies and Best Practice
We’ll report back here after the conference, sharing any wow moments and tips we pick up but if you can’t wait till we get back watch our Twitter stream on Monday (22nd November) or follow the twitter hash tag #MSM10.
01 442 9410
What is Blogging & Why Should You Blog?
Many people may not think of Blogging as Social Media but I am a big believer that not only is it social it’s also the most important social media. It can become the hub of your social media campaign, feeding into your other social networks, I often tell people that if they do nothing else they must blog!
Whether your blog is part of your website, independent of your website or even if you just blog using Facebook notes blogging can have a massive impact on your entire Internet marketing.
What is a Blog?
A blog can be a website or a segment of a website that is updated by the owner on a regular basis. People who visit the website are able to comment on blog posts, making it interactive.
There are different kinds of blogs; personal blogs that can extend from an online diary to a blog written around a specific topic. Some famous personal blogs have even been turned into films, for example Julie and Julia. I also love 101 W**kers (excuse the language but that’s what it’s called) the blogger behind it has now branched out and is contributing to the Guradian bike blog. There are also political blogs, photo blogs, video blogs and of course business blogs.
Why Should A Business Blog?
Blogging has many benefits for businesses.
1. If it is part of your website it will work well for SEO (search engine optimisation). Using keywords that you want your website to be found for in your headlines and the body of your blog will push your website up the Google rankings bringing more traffic to your blog and website.
Feeding your blog to your other social networks and encouraging others to share your posts will increase the inbound links coming into your website – also good for SEO.
2. It establishes you as an expert – Blogging gives you the opportunity to showcase your passion and expertise about a topic. You can become the ‘go to’ person about your industry.
3. A resource for customers – If your customers commonly ask specific questions blogging gives you the opportunity to address them on mass. If they are asking those questions online and find the answers from you they are more likely to buy from you.
4. Spreads your message further - If you are a local business looking to expand, blogging and social media gives you the opportunity to reach beyond the local market. You can target markets further afield within Ireland or even international customers.
5. Attract press attention – more and more journalists and researchers are turning to the web to research their stories. Having an active blog about your topic of interest can mean getting more press attention and being asked to comment on specific stories within your field of expertise.
What Should You Blog About?
There are a number of topics you can blog about
1. Your business. It may seem obvious but you need to blog on topics related to your business and industry. A political blog may bring lots of traffic to your website but not the right traffic. Make posts relevant to your offering. Absolute Dental handle this really well showcasing their services with out the hard sell.
2. Your own expertise. What information do you have that you can share? – What information do you give to customers on a regular basis? Turning these into tips and hints will make great blog content.
Teamwoodcraft’s relatively new blog does this excellently.
3. Topical issues about your industry. What’s happening in the news related to your industry? Add your comment or take on relevant stories.
Always providing up to date information on financial issues Red Oak Tax Refunds blog handles this well.
4. Who are your target market and what are they interested in? When I used to sell organic food I targeted people with an interest in the environment so blogged about a range of green issues, not just organic food but local food, cycling, organic gardening etc. This was information that would draw my target market into my site.
Greenside Up Veg include both recipes and gardening tips in their blog. They offer training on growing your own veg and if you’re growing it you are probably wanting to eat it too so this works perfectly.
5. Case studies and testimonials. Do you have happy customers? If so ask them to write a short piece on their experience with you and include it as part of or as a blog post. Use case studies of work you have done or customers you have helped.
This is done really well by Buyers Brokers, the photo and language of the testimonials leaves you in no doubt that they are genuine.
6. Guest bloggers. Once your blog is established find other bloggers that might have something to share with your target market. If you sell Wedding Dresses for example is there a Wedding Car company or a venue that would like to contribute a blog post.
Garrendenny Lane have a weekly guest blogging slot, all adding value to their blog and business.
More Blogging Tips
To find out more about blogging, and blogs both business and personal join us at Bloggers International, an International panel of experts will be sharing their knowledge of Blogging both technical and creative. We can help you get started or help boost your current blogging. Sponsored by Blacknight the event takes place on 29th June 2011 at 7.30pm in The Heritage Hotel, Portlaoise, Laois, Ireland and The Chequers Inn, Chipping Norton, England. We’re also streaming online live… details to follow on the Bloggers International website.
If you’re interested in coming to this free event RSVP on Facebook, Linkedin, Via The Website (on the right hand side toolbar), leave a comment below or email wave@spiderworking.com.
If you’d like to book a place on the two way video conference for the night you can book your spot for free by clicking here.