There seemed to be a common theme at the KLCK Bloggers Network on Tuesday night, as we made our introductions many of the members said it was their New Years Resolution to blog more or to start a blog. My own resolutions include blogging more both on my own blog and on Bloggertone.  With that on mind I asked Facebook what their resolutions were and yet again blogging scored high.

But how can we ensure that we stick to our resolutions? How can we be sure that at the end of the year we’ll look back on our plans and wonder what happened?  Here’s three ways I’m going to keep the momentum going.

Mind Mapping

A mind map is a diagram of tasks and ideas structured around a single word or idea.  They are a great way of clearing all the good ideas from your head and putting a visual structure on them.  I started mind mapping last year and I’ve found it a great resource, when I’m stuck for a blog idea I can simply open up my mindmap and choose and idea to work on from there.

For more on MindMapping read Frank Bradley’s excellent post on the subject.

And for information on getting started with MindMapping I’ve found this article very helpful.

Carry a Notebook

We’ve all been there, we have an excellent idea but we’re so terrified we’ll forget it before we get a chance to write it down that we try and fixate on it, commit it to memory for life pushing everything else out of our mind to hang on to it.  I have the best ideas when I’m out cycling, changing my environment and exercising always seems to get my mind working at full capacity and I carry a notebook so that I can write my ideas down leaving room in  my head to create more.  It can be a bit inconvenient to keep stopping and writing stuff down but I always return with a bundle of ideas.  Having a notebook beside your bed can also be a good way to free your mind and allow it to sleep.  Instead of churning ideas over in your mind, commit them to paper and you’ll find you sleep much better.

Of course there are alternatives, most phones have voice recording apps now so it’s easy to make a verbal note on the go and as most of us carry our phones with us everywhere you are never without a way to record your thoughts.

Content Calendar

Planning can really help you stick to your goals and by creating a content calendar you will always know what it is you are supposed to be doing and when.  There are lots of tools that allow you to create calendars but whether you decide to use Google Calendar, a word doc or even write it down in a diary it’s the process of creating the strategy that is important.

I always start by creating a rough plan for the year, think about any seasonal events that relate to your business, think about themes that might carry through specific months.

Next think about the sort of blog posts you want to write. Some will just be general posts like the one I’m writing now.  But what other sort of content could you create?  Can you include case studies, book reviews, interviews, videos, weekly or monthly round ups of industry news?

The final step is to slot these ideas into your calendar.  I would commit to a maximum three month calendar and review it at the end of each month to discover which posts gain the best readership and traction.

Do you have a secret to keeping motivated with blogging? Share it below and I’ll share them on our Facebook page.

Yesterday was the first Wednesday for a long time that I’ve failed to blog. It’s been coming for a while, the posts seem to take longer and longer and there is something… stopping me from getting it done quickly. I’m suffering from that phenomenon known as Bloggers block.

So what is the problem? Why has my usually tight blog schedule taken a dip? Maybe if I can discover why I can also discover a cure. So here’s my thoughts.

1. I’ve changed my blogging style – long time readers of my blog will remember that it used to be full of tutorials. Whilst tutorials are good, and I still do the odd one I don’t want that to be all my blog offers. I’ve found that most tutorials are better demonstrated with video. That’s not to say I’ve abandoned them completely but I love the opportunity that writing gives me to look into social media in a more in-depth way. Why is this a problem? Because I’m writing more opinion now I want to make sure I’ve researched properly and this takes time. I may have already read the articles on the issue but rifling through them for the stats or case studies I need to prove my case proves time consuming… and this brings me on to my second issue.

2. The Wall – because it’s taking me longer to write my blog posts these days I tend to put them off. To me blogging looks like a big wall that is going to be hard to climb. So I do the little things, the small jobs or the bigger jobs that are easier to achieve first. This has resulted in me blogging late in the evening or even putting it off to the next day (as today). The strange thing is I know the cure for this one, I practice it all the time with other tasks and recommend it to clients. Break the job up into sections so it is easier to digest. So I should break down my blog perhaps into ‘research’ ‘outline structure’ ‘composition’.

3. Not knowing if I’m making sense. This is a big one for me. I often read my blog back and am completely unable to know if it makes sense. I sometimes ask friends to have a look at it for me but it’s unfair to expect them to read a post every week. I don’t’ really know the solution for this one, hire a proof reader? Find a circle of friends that will help me out so I’m only asking them once a month or every two months rather than every week?

4. Topics, in fairness there is more than enough happening in social media that I shouldn’t be short of topics to cover but somehow I still seem to be staring at a blank page every week. I’ve tried lists of topics and even mind-mapping but I don’t seem to be able to keep this up for longer than a few weeks.

So what is this post about? It’s slightly self indulgent, as someone who encourages others to blog I want you to know that sometimes I find it hard too. I’d love solutions, how do you combat bloggers block? What is stopping you blog, even writing these down has helped me move on.

All suggestions will be more than gratefully received and in the spirit of curing me I’m going to do a follow up post full of your best tips.

This week Domino’s Pizza made a really brave and innovative move by posting live customer feedback on a display in Times Square.  The comments were edited for language and relevance but not for positive or negative opinion.  This kind of transparancy has become one of the hallmarks of social media.

It made me think about how important it is to get real and believable testimonials from customers.  It is no longer good enough to have a ‘Testimonials’ page on your website full of glowing, well thought out recommendations.  People need to believe that they are 100% real.  Social media gives us the opportunity to prove the validity of our customer feedback and although we aren’t all going to be as brave as, or have the budget of Domino’s Pizza there are a few ways we can collect convincing testimonials.

Twitter

If someone says something good about you on Twitter mark the tweet as a favorite.  Once you have collected a few you can link to your favorites page from your website, blog, Facebook page  or email signature.  You can even embed the live stream of your favorites directly onto your website.

YouTube

If someone is speaking their praise direct into camera there can be no denying that it is real.  Video testimonials can really work.  Try to keep them short and to the point and most importantly in the words of the person giving feedback.  Try not to put words into their mouths.

Channelship have done this really well as have the Kerry County Enterprise Board however I do feel the Enterprise Board could have benefitted more from a lot of short videos rather than editing them all toghther.  Internet Video viewers have a short attention span and an 8 minute long video would be enough to put some people watching.

Blogging

We’ve mentioned Buyers Broker’s Blog here before.  They use blogging to display customer testimonials, written in their own language and including a photograph.  They are very believable.

Screen Grabbing Facebook posts

It can be frustrating if people compliment you on Facebook as even though they have gone out of their way to recommend you the post is only visable to people who visit your page, it will not appear on the news streams of people who like your page unless they happen to be a friend of the person posting it.

To share these comments with your Facebook likes you can screen grab them and post them as photos to your Facebook page.

You can grab recommendations from anywhere on the Internet forums and add them as a photo album to Facebook or even Google+.

What creative ways do you have of collecting testimonials from your customers?  I’d love to hear your ideas so please leave a comment 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.

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.

KLCK Bloggers Network was set up by Spiderworking.com and Garrnedenny Lane in 2010 to bring together Irish bloggers to share knowledge.  It’s been more successful than either myself or Lorna could have anticipated in the beginning and we’re almost a year old now.

Bloggers International

This month we’re getting even bigger.  KLCK Bloggers Network and The Chipping Norton Social Media Club have become the founding members of a brand new organisation Bloggers International.  The plan is to take our knowledge sharing further, to share and gain blogging and social media tips across the globe.

The first meeting, linking live with the UK over an internet live stream features a panel of blogging and social media experts on both sides of the water ready to answer all your Blogging and Social Media queries.  The diverse panel can answer anything from technical WordPress questions to finding inspiration, increasing readership and marketing through Social Media.

The Panel

The Irish panel features Niall Devitt, co founder of Bloggertone and advisor to Social Media Today,  Amanda Webb (me!) Social Media consultant and co-founder of KLCK and Bloggers International, Beatrice Whelan from Website Extrodinaire, website developer and WordPress and SEO expert.

The British panel includes Social Media Expert Shaun Fagan from Black Dog New Media and to answer your techie questions Chris Hogan amongst others.

Ask The Panel

If you’d like to put a question to the panel you can submit them in advance by completing your details below or you can tweet them at @bloggersint2011 using the tag #BI11.  Follow #BI11 on the night or join our Facebook Page for details on how to join the live stream.

The Time and Place

And of course you can attend an event in person.  In the UK, Chipping Norton Social Media Club will be meeting in the Chequers Pub.  In Ireland KLCK Bloggers network will meet somewhere in Laois (venue tbc).

So if you are a blogger, a wanna be blogger or are just interested in networking with other businesses around the world join in on Wednesday 29th of June at 7.30pm (BST), and give us your questions!

Ask Your Questions

If you get bloggers block Social Media can help. This week in part three of our series on Social Media and blogging we look at how it can help you find inspiration for blogging.

Be inspired by others – Blog Directories

I find I am inspired by other bloggers, some that work in social media and others that just produce well written interesting content.  But how do you find blogs to inspire you?

There are a number of popular blog directories.  Technorati, AllTop, BlogCatalog are some of the most well known.  If you’re in Ireland or have an Irish interest Irish Blogs is fantastic.  A quick internet search will also provide you with topic or industry specific blog directories.

Search these for blogs of interest and be inspired!

Social Bookmarking Sites

StumbleUpon, Reddit, Delicious and Digg are full of great links and information that can both help you guage what is trending in your industry and inspire you.  Search for topics that interest you and they will throw up lots of interesting stuff you might not find elsewhere.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is not only a fantastic research tool but it can also give you a snapshot of what people are talking about relating to a specific interest.  Once you have discovered the current trends write a blog post with your particular insight into the topic.

Linkedin Groups

What are people talking about or looking for information on in your Linkedin groups?  If specific questions are coming up write a blog post addressing these questions or topics.  Ask your own questions on Linkedin Groups or within Linkedin Answers to discover what others think, aggregate the answers in a blog post or answer the question from the feedback you have received from others.

Click here for part one on research

Click here for part two on finding readers

Do you have any secrets on finding inspiration for your blog?  If so I’d love to hear your comments below.

Last week in part one of this series we looked at how social media can help you research your blog posts.  This week we look at how you can find new readers using social media.  The key to getting more readers is relationship building, build a valuable community and you will see the return in traffic.

Twitter Search

Twitter can be a great source of traffic for your blog, finding the right people to follow, communicate with and share content with will encourage others to share your posts.

But how do you find these people?  The built in Twitter search is great for quick searches, specifically the  ’People’ tab in search results enables you to search profiles as well as Tweets making it easy to discover users that are interested in you, your services and industry.

Don’t forget sharing is caring, share and be generous to other people and their content and you will attract them towards what you do.

Advanced Twitter search gives you more options, including geo location and multiple key words.  Even better results come with an RSS feed so it’s easy to keep tabs of what is being said.  To find out how to use these RSS feeds keep an eye on our Podcast series on how to use them in conjunction with Google Reader.

Even better if you are using Hootsuite you can set up a search column to monitor mentions.  This makes it easy to respond to posts in real time.

Twitter Lists

Keeping in mind my mantra ‘Sharing is Caring’ set up some Twitter lists of your favorite Tweeps, those who produce content you are most likely to share.  This makes it easy to stay on top of those really important tweets in the river of your timeline.

Commenting

Commenting on other blogs relevant to your industry is a way of raising your profile.  Make sure the comments are insightful, a simple ‘great post’ won’t buy you as much karma as a well thought out response.  When relevant, and only when relevant it is appropriate to link to a blog post of your own on the same topic.  You have to be very careful that this is part of a detailed response as it can look like spam to some bloggers.

Some commenting systems like Disqus above allow users to post their comments to Facebook and Twitter showing that you actively sharing and caring.

Linkedin Answers

We looked at Linkedin Answers last week as a tool for research.  It can also be used the same way blog commenting is.  Answering a question in full and linking to a relevant blog post within that detailed answer is acceptable.  However apply the same rules you would to commenting on blogs, be sure that your answer won’t be interpreted as spam or pure link building.

Linkedin Groups

Posting blog posts to relevant Linkedin discussion groups and asking for feedback, provoking discussion is a fantastic way to gather new readers.  Do keep your posts relevant to these groups however as spammy posts can do more damage than good and are often removed by group administrators.

Faceboook

Sharing content from others on Facebook either on your personal profile or business page is a great way to build your community.

Facebook pages now allow you to comment as a business on other business pages, this gives you the opportunity to comment on posts the same way you might comment on a blog.  Remember the more insightful your comment is the more likely a user is to click through to your profile and as with all commenting only include a link if it’s relevant to your comment.

Facebook tagging gives you the opportunity to let others know when you are sharing their content and is another important way to build your community.  Tagging is a compliment and has the potential to bring traffic into a Facebook page.  However only tag when it is relevant.  If you are sharing something from their page or their blog it’s great however randomly tagging pages could be interpreted as spam.

Make it easy to share

Adding share buttons such as the Facebook and Twitter to your blog makes it easy for others to quickly share your content on their social media channels.  Think about where you want to be shared most and make sure that you include a share button for those networks on your blog. (See ours at the bottom of this post)

Do you have any other tips that bring traffic to your blog? Do you agree that relevancy and sharing and caring are key?  I’d love to know your thoughts so leave a comment below.

The title of this post is a bit of a misnomer after all blogging is social media. However I was inspired to write this series of blog posts by the KLCK Bloggers network in response to a presentation I gave at the last meeting.

Researching your ideas for blogs or gauging the opinion of others can be a long process.  Social media makes it easier.  Asking your social media communities for opinion and suggestions is a fantastic way to get new insights on what you are doing.  But what tools can you use?

Facebook Questions

The recently launched Facebook Questions tool always gets a great response.  The beauty of this tool is that you can ask the question on your own page but as people respond their friends see the question and are encouraged to respond giving it a larger reach than simply your own community and freinds.  There is also an option for respondents to add their own answers, suggesting answers you may not have thought of before.

Ask Twitter

Simply putting a question out on Twitter can provoke responses.  My recent call out for Facebook landing page examples returned lots of suggestions, some of which made it into my Bloggertone post.

Linkedin Answers

Linkedin is a huge mine of information and the Linkedin Answers tools allows you to get suggestions and answers from Linkedin users around the world even if you are not connected to them directly or through a group.  You will find Linkedin Answers by clicking ‘More’ on your Linkedin home page and selecting ‘Answers’ from the drop down menu.  Answers are categorised by topic.

Linkedin Groups

Linkedin groups are a fantastic resource to ask you question or monitor trends within your industries.  Again it gives you the opportunity to gather opinion from people outside your networks.

Quora

There’s been a lot of buzz around Quora this year.  It’s simply a questions and answers network but it’s very well used and has become a fantastic space to find out anything about everything.  Although mostly techie at the moment it is growing.  It can be used both to answer your own questions

Internet forums

Whatever industry you are in there will be a forum or message board for you.  Searching these out, joining them and becoming an active member can be a great resource for information.

What other social media do you use for research?  Do you have any tips and tricks to share?  If so let me know by leaving a comment below.

In the last eight months of the KLCK Bloggers Network I have learnt a lot.  My blog posts are getting read more, I’m getting more comments, and I’m even writing better posts.  This week I thought I’d share with you my personal formula for a successful blog post, it’s a very personal thing and definitely isn’t the only way to do it.  In fact I’m often surprised at the success of some of the posts I’ve cobbled together whilst blogging in the middle of the night that break some, if not all of these rules.

1. Headline

When naming your blog post bear in mind this is your ‘Headline’ as with a newspaper headline it needs to peak the interest of your reader and persuade them to read on.  Using phrases such as ‘How to…’ or ’10 ways to…’ or recently popular amongst the blogs I read ’10 ways not to…’ always attract more readers.  When you have composed your headline look at it again and decide if you would read a blog post with that title.  If the answer is no go back and try again.  Try and keep it short too, the max length should be 60 characters, this is good for search engines (according to ‘All In One SEO Pack) as well as easy to share on Twitter.

2. Leading paragraph

As with the headline this should be something that reels your readers in.  This is your chance to state what the post is about and why people would want to read on.  Keep it short and think about what keywords you would like to add to this section.  What terms would you like your blog post to be found for.  For example, above I’ve mentioned blog, blogging and blogger quite a lot.

3. Body of text

Unless you are an exceptional writer I’d make this as concise as possible.  Some readers when confronted with a wall of text will leave.  I like to try and break down text into easily digestible chunks.  Make it easy to read and your readers will get to the end and understand what you have written.

4. Call to action

Many readers may read your introduction, scan the rest of the post and then read the last line.  This last line is important and should contain a call to action.  A call to action could be as simple as asking for a comment, a suggestion of further reading on your website or Facebook page or even looking for a sale.  I generally ask for comments (see example below).

Have I missed anything out?  Do you have a formula of your own?  If so leave a comment below, I’d love to hear your suggestions.

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.