Tag: Blogging

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An interesting perspective from Jay Baer…

“If you read Convince & Convert, this probably doesn’t describe you, but if your computer usage consists primarily of email and the Web, I would seriously consider making the iPad your primary device. I think I sold about seven of them to older ladies on a flight from New York last week. They were instantly in a swoon over the size, light weight, and ability to do what they consider to be “everything” in one package.

I am considering with at least moderate seriousness getting rid of my iPhone and getting something that actually functions well as a phone (hello Verizon), and using the iPad for all the rest.

Now, the bad news.

The iPad is not a computer. Not even close. The virtual keyboard is barely better than the iPhone, and you still cannot touch type. You can’t save or store files. There’s no USB port. Or CD drive. Or camera. Or ability to run two programs at once. I would never, ever, ever write this blog post on my iPad (although people that bought the external keyboard for it might disagree).

As a content creation device, the iPad is pretty much pointless for anything exceeding a two paragraph email. The exception is content that is created by touch. The drawing apps I’ve played with are simply incredible, but that’s not really my line of work – and probably not yours either.” Source: The Truth About the iPad | Blogging and Content Creation | Social Media Consulting – Convince & Convert

Is Jay just cranky? What’s your take…

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John Jantsch
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2011 marks my eighth year of blogging. In that time I’ve logged over 2500 blog posts, acquired around 143,000 subscribers and had this blog named by the likes of Forbes magazine as their favorite for both marketing and small business.

If this asset has delivered any measure of success I can tell you that the primary reason is that in that same time I’ve also read some or all of approximately 120,000 blog posts written by others. I’ve stated repeatedly that anyone that wants to start a blog, get better at blogging or make their blog a serious marketing tool for their business must first and foremost get very good at reading blogs…

Go to the source to read the article if you’d like to know John’s logic. Find it here: ducttapemarketing.com. Business blogging for both production and consumption are two of the most important activities in my day. ‘Connect with me’ if you’d like to know more about it…
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I have great hopes for this product, but the experience of this reviewer is not so hot…

“Everex’s CloudBook aims to one-up the Asus Eee PC with a larger hard drive and a flashy new operating system. 

Along with our review of the CloudBook, we’re taking a closer look by using this new UMPC to perform everyday activities from blogging to editing images to listening to music. Follow along with our CloudBook adventures.”

The hardware is from Everex and the OS is a version of Ubuntu optimized by the folks at Google for use with Google Apps for Domains and other applications.

Based on what I’m reading here, I’m more than underwhelmed. Let’s hope these folks get their act together. Click here to read the full article online…

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We preach it every week.

Attract the right kind of traffic by creating exceptional content.

Engage your audience so they know, like, and trust you. Let them know you’re the likable expert who’s going to give them the information (and eventually the products and services) that won’t let them down.

Then use smart copywriting and conversion techniques to turn those raving fans into customers.

No, it’s not paint-by-numbers, but it is a proven, systematic way to build your business.

But sometimes I hear people say, “Geez, that sounds like a lot of work.”

Well, ok, I’m going to give it to you straight. It’s work.

But a lot of work compared to what? Digging latrines? Losing your mind in a cubicle farm? Spouting half-baked opinions on a reality TV show?

So let’s break it down … building a business our way versus building a business by other people’s methods.

via copyblogger.com

Want more? Follow the ‘via’ link…

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Reaching out to mobile travelers is good business, especially where I live on the Door Peninsula of Wisconsin. Every year, thousands of wired [that means “internet connected” for you folks from the U.P., eh?] travelers drive through our area on their way to Door County. The smart restaurateur should be looking at ways to figure out how to get their fair share of that mobile business! Here’s a interesting article that I found on the topic…

“For my project, I had a chance to develop top-level social media strategies and participate in the day-to-day management of social media presences. There is no better way to to hone your social media skills than to roll up your sleeves and “just do it” as this process gives you a way to see firsthand what works and what doesn’t work so well.

Based on my experiences, I have come up with a list of “7 Must-Do’s” for the restaurant industry. Some of these tips are no-brainers and can be implemented immediately. Some of the other tips are bigger projects and tasks that will need to be updated and monitored on an ongoing basis. Each of these tips will contribute to what should be the social media goals of any business: expand corporate mindshare, augment and expand existing marketing channels and increase the number of customer interactions.” Source: 7 Social Media Must-Do’s for the Restaurant Industry « Social Media Musings by Tom Humbarger

You’ll have to click through to the source to get the author’s thoughts, but here are the tools he recommends…

  • socialmention
  • Google Local Business Center
  • Yelp for Business Owners
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Wikipedia
  • Blogging

It’s all great stuff and I recommend the tools he suggest for any small business looking to connect with wired travelers. Unfortunately, however, he forgot to mention Foursquare which is rapidly emerging and Snacksquare which is a location based coupon provider that sms’s coupons to people looking for places to eat in your area. Here’s the skinny:

“Users can get a glimpse of deals on a map, filter by category, check in at venues and have specific deals sent to their mobile phones. From a consumer perspective, Snacksquare offers a nifty way to explore deals before heading out.

The site also caters to hungry business owners anxious to get into the location-based promotion game. Essentially, merchants can use Snacksquare to add their venues to Foursquare (Foursquare) and to compile an SMS contact list of past and present customers for push marketing purposes.

Merchants can send friend requests to customers via Snacksquare and the customers that accept these requests can opt in to SMS messages from the merchant in question. Merchants can then use this SMS list to blast out automated location-based alerts to customers within a specified radius of the venue based on their most recent checkin. The service does come with associated costs, but businesses that sign up for the upcoming Foursquare Day can get free beta access.” Source: Snacksquare Connects Foursquare Merchants to Customers

Cool, huh? At the time, though, only ONE restaurant in northeast Wisconsin is using Snacksquare — The Pub on Main Street in Green Bay. What about your restaurant? Offering deals to wired travelers is what’s next and I can help you figure it all out…

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Curation isn’t blogging as much as it is bookmarking with style. When you curate content, everybody wins; the orignal author, your readers AND you. Comment or ‘connect’ to discuss how this applies to you and your organization…

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I love Chris Brogan! Here’s an excerpt from his latest post:

“STACKING WOOD: A LIST

  • Blogging is stacking wood. More content means more readers, more search terms, more opportunities to sell.
  • Email marketing is stacking wood. Reaching out to people with useful information that maintains your relationship lures in more sales.
  • Connecting on LinkedIn is stacking wood. The larger your network, the more potential you have to help others, or find help for yourself.
  • Getting coffee with a friend is stacking wood. I owe Jon Swanson another long phone call soon.
  • Reading is stacking wood. The more I learn, the more I can improve on my execution and my abilities.
  • Fitness and nutrition are stacking wood. The more fuel you have in your body for the fire, the better your chances at success become.

You could add to this list, couldn’t you?
And how are you doing at stacking wood these days? Are you preparing and doing the chores that keep the fire tended? Or are you burning and enjoying the warmth?”

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Thinking about a business blog? I think about it all the time…

“Search Engine Land blogger Ciarán Norris says there is no right way to blog.

He cites Forrester’s recent policy decision to require its analysts to blog at Forrester.com, which seems like the wrong path to take but, given the recent exodus of a number of analysts – Charlene Li, Jeremiah Owyang to name two of the more prominent – perhaps they’re skittish about allowing analysts to build up too much of a personal brand at the expense of the corporate. (But, that’s a topic for another post, one that I do plan to address.)

Back to the question at hand, is there a right or wrong way to blog? And, what makes a blog a blog anyway?

I can think of a number of wrong approaches to blogging – simply using a blog to repost press releases, for example. Ghost-blogging for another. Not a big fan of that.

Aside from those rather obvious fails, here are some ways to make sure you get blogging right” Source: Social Media Today | Business Blogging: Is There a Right or Wrong Way?

Author Paul Chaney lists these five objectives:

  • Make it personal
  • Make it practical
  • Make it topical
  • Make it fit the platform
  • Make it happen

You’ll want to go to the source to get the rest of Paul’s perspective. Questions? Feedback? You know the drill! Comment, call or contact…

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I’d like to call your attention to a new webinar being offered by Dana VanDen Heuvel of Green Bay. In a couple of weeks, Dana will be speaking on the topic of business blogging for thought leadership and few people know this topic better than him. Dana says…

“Blogging is one of the most important aspects of a thought leadership or social media presence, yet so many organizations struggle with blogging or decide to dismiss it altogether because of the content publishing demands of blogging. Blogging doesn’t have to be hard, take a lot of time or take an entire staff to publish.

The Blogging for Thought Leadership webinar will take you through the steps from developing your thought leadership position to creating a realistic publishing plan that any organization can manage.
Some of the highlights that we’ll cover in the webinar:

  • Developing your thought leadership and blog point of view
  • How to use insurgent marketing to claim a thought leadership position in a crowded market
  • The social media thought leader’s equation
  • The weblog publishing roadmap
  • 20 types of blog posts to take your blog to the next level
  • How to create your own efficient blogging process
  • How to create the ideal social media publishing calendar
  • Getting the most from your chosen blog platform
  • How to connect your blog to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
  • Case studies of organizations with highly successful thought leadership blogs”

Source: [New Webinar] Blogging for Thought Leadership

You can go to the source to sign up. Whether you can attend in real time or no, you’ll still get the content to view later…

This humble blog is one of the highest ranked websites in the US thanks to business blogging…

…and many of the concepts Dana will be presenting are ones we both consider to be ‘common sense‘ in this space — I wholeheartedly endorse his content and recommend it to you without reservation. Understanding the connection between business blogging and thought leadership could propel your online presence to new heights and there are few people better suited to explain it than Green Bay’s own Dana VanDen Heuvel. Be there when he lights it up…

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In the past few weeks, I’ve had numerous conversations with colleagues, partners and in some cases, clients, about blogging and the challenges of keeping a blog up and running.

Most of those conversations come down to one thing: Content.

Do you have enough to say to sustain a blog? Do you have strong enough opinions and takes to cut through the massive sea of clutter that is the open Web these days? And, maybe most importantly, do you know what to look for when it comes to content your customers or audience might be interested in?

That last one is the key point I want to focus on today. So many brands, when they start blogging, think too myopically about blogging. I need to talk about my product or service. I need to talk about my company. I need to talk about what my product or service can do for my customers.

Sure, that’s part of the mix, but in my view, it’s actually a pretty small part.

The much larger portion of your blog’s content should focus on everything AROUND your product or service.

via arikhanson.com

It never ceases to amaze me that many of my client buys the logic of purchasing a blog enabled website but falter when it comes to actually producing content. After all, what is a blog post but an email to the world about who we are, what we do, why we do it and the ‘world’ in which we do it? You can follow the ‘via’ link above to get ideas for thinking like a blogger. Comment or ‘connect’ to discuss how this applies to you and your organization…

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Have you tried it? Stay tuned for a series on blogging baby steps that will show you what Posterous is all about. Hint: everything posted on the blog today got here via Posterous…

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