 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
Improve your text instantly with this simple rule: Eliminate “to be” and all forms of -ing. Your sentences will gain purpose and strength as you articulate exactlywho does what. You will no longer lope along with constructions that posit a vague notion of activity—someone is going to be doing something—instead you will claim the subjects and their predicates with equal enthusiasm.
Don't blog in the dark. If your business has a blog, these simple steps help you set conversion goals and measure and track them with Google Analytics. First understand that blogging is an awareness channel, positioned at the top of the conversion funnel. Conversions assigned to the blog should be things that create another connection between you and the audience, like a newsletter sign-up or Facebook like. The goal of the blog is to have people actively choose to connect with you elsewhere, a position that will put you at the customer’s top of mind when a need for your product or service surfaces. A 2011 State of the Blogosphere report from Technorati Media surveyed bloggers, and the results of the question, “How do you measure the success of your blog?” saw a variety of responses....
...What can you achieve with a blog? As a content management system that can be optimized for search and social shares, blogs with great content can help a company attract new customers, engage existing customers, connect with journalists and connect with potential new hires. There are many business communication goals that can be realized through blogging. How? The fundamentals that many companies seem to gloss over include: - Create a hub and spoke framework for blog publishing and promotion. - Source content that customers care about and that can influence sales or other goals. -Integrate blogging with SEO, Social Media, PR and Content Marketing efforts to amplify content where customers are actively looking. Those are general guidelines, so here are 4 steps for small business blogs to get big business results...
Try these 11 social and blog content creation tools to get organized, inspired and more efficient at creating content your audience loves.... I wanted to share a few of the tools I absolutely couldn’t live without as I go about the content creation tasks that, over the years, have resulted in 60 e-books, thousands of blog posts, dozens of technical or educational manuals and over 300 assorted client writing projects. The right tools make content creation easier and faster, but also more purposeful. Give these 11 tools a try and see if they can help you get organized, more easily access information, and produce higher quality content....
Become the best guest blogger & you'll get more traffic, links, partnerships, exposure, credibility & ultimately more business. Do it with these 10 posts.
The new social web provides that all important leverage of “world of mouth” to reach and engage with a global audience. In this article we will look at: Step 4: Creating content that engages your audience Step 5: How to market to a global audience with social media Step 6: Maintaining momentum These final three steps will assist you in building a global and engaged audience for your blog....
Ian Cleary shares excellent advice. How to improve Google ranking for blog posts so your posts appear higher in search results..... You spend so much time creating great content ideally you want Google to reward you by placing your blog post high in Google search results for relevant searches. Optimizing your content can be difficult and it can be like a maze trying to figure out the best approach. But have no fear, there are ways to improve this! The following is a list ways that you can improve google ranking of your content....
...After you’ve thoroughly researched keywords that customers are searching for and organized them into the glossary template above, the next step is to form an editorial plan. Managing content creation schedules will help you stay on topic and consistent with content creation. The template below considers everything from topic to keywords to customer segment to position in the buying cycle for every blog post, article or video. I really shouldn’t be giving this one away, but you know what? I know these kinds of basic spreadsheets can be really helpful to DIY marketers. If you think these are just a little useful, you’ll find Optimize a LOT useful....
What makes a good science story? There's no one-size-fits-all rule, since stories come in many flavours, shapes, colours and sizes. There are Eureka moments, disasters, personal battles, amazing discoveries, baffling mysteries, power struggles, quirky findings, weird insights, you name it. Here's one way you can tell: if you find yourself excitedly recounting a story to a friend who cares not one jot for science, and they don't reach for their beer in despair, or start twiddling with their mobile phone, you're in business. What do you need to know to write well about science? Whatever the subject, angle, tone, length or style, your story has to tickle the fancy of your readers and maintain their interest to the very last word. The aim is not to impress a professor with your knowledge, amaze your mum or to get something off your chest. Think hard about your intended audience. They may be ignorant but they are rarely stupid. They have all kinds of interests and preoccupations and, when it comes to getting their attention, these are the best places to start. Remember that they always have better things to do with their time. If you don't grab them with your first sentence, you might as well give up...
Are you looking for cool blogging tools to enhance your business blog? The right mix of blogging plugins and widgets can make it easier to blog and also help you achieve your business goals. To help you keep up with the latest and greatest, we asked a group of blogging pros to share the favorite new tools they’ve recently discovered. Here are the latest blogging tools adopted by these social media pros....
Corporate blogging is not an either-or dilemma. There’s a way to have your cake and eat it too: you can write your own blog yet not have to spend hours or days on it... ... You’re a busy CEO wearing many hats and with not enough hours in the day. As the founder of a small business startup, you know that writing your own thought-leadership blog will bring fresh content, a leadership perspective, greater transparency and more customers to your door. But, as with most decisions you make, you have to decide whether to write your own blog or to outsource it. Writing it yourself requires massive amounts of time – time that you can better spend working on your core talents to move the business forward. Outsourcing your blog to a ghost writer may result in loss of authenticity – how would your customers feel when they find out you don’t write your own blog?...
Represented by the Inc 500, the highest growth small businesses get content marketing as a means to expand their reach and increase profitable sales when compared to their larger, more established Fortune 500 counterparts. These small business (SMB) organizations must be leaner and more effective at maximizing each aspect of their marketing mix to compete with larger, more complex firms. Content marketing helps them build trust by offering the type of promotion-free information their customers actively seek during the purchase process.
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth research, entitled "2012 Inc 500 Social Media Settles In" reveals that Inc 500 companies continue to blog at greater rates than their Fortune 500 peers. In 2012, 44% of the Inc 500 had a corporate blog, an increase of 7% from 2011. By contrast, 28% of the Fortune 500 had a blog in 2012. While this is an increase of 5% from 2011, the Fortune 500’s blogging rate still lags that of the Inc 500....
It’s been nearly a month since Bloggers to Watch in 2013 was published. We had a fantastic response, including some compelling recommendations via the comments section and around the web. This post presents all the bloggers that people have highlighted over the past few weeks....
|
Your business blog is one of the most powerful tools in your toolbox. But how do you know that your lean, mean lead generation machine (aka your business blog) is running as efficiently as possible? We’ve created a master checklist of everything your blog should be optimizing for and how to do it. Seem overwhelming? Don’t worry! This post will act as a step-by-step guide for everything you need to know. If you have questions, we’re happy to address them in the comments section. Let’s break it down....
Not to take away from the amazing results that can be achieve by reaching a large and highly targeted audience with your blog content, but not every benefit of maintaining a business blog is dependent on having huge readership. The reality for most business blogs, at least when they’re first starting out, is that readership can be low… very low. It can be discouraging to those who are contributing content, and working like crazy to keep a blog afloat to not see unique visitors, page views and subscribers come in droves from the get-go. Additionally, it can be tough to justify the ROI of your business’ blog to supervisors, management or ownership without having incredible reach. If this feels familiar, don’t sweat it. There is huge value to be had in maintaining a business blog, even if your readership is low....
So, corporate blogging is NOT dead. Who’s doing it well? By now, we’ve all heard about the Southwest Airlines and Starbucks blogs of the world. But, what about other larger companies? Those we might not hear about as often–but those who continue to blog month after month. And do so with what appears to be some success (I say “appears” because we can never know for sure how these companies are measuring success with their blogs). Here are five companies that aren’t talked about quite as much when it comes to blogging–and how they’re pulling the right strings when it comes to corporate blogging....
By effectively using a blog as the centerpiece of their social media, content marketing and search optimization, small businesses and solopreneurs can effectively compete against the big boys. While small businesses can be more nimble and react more quickly to a dynamic environment, they still need overall planning to ensure they keep their business on track for success. Otherwise, if you’re only responding to the latest fire, you’re not working towards your long-term business objectives. To help organize your small business and maximize your limited resources, you need a blog and a marketing plan. Here are thirteen tactics for building a better business blog....
Here's a blogging blueprint you can put into action... ...As I said in an earlier post, the Internet is littered with abandoned blogs that failed because their owners neglected to construct a strong foundation. They either didn’t didn’t realize they had to, or they were arrogant enough to believe they were above all that grunt work. But if you remember the story of the three little pigs then you’ll realize how important it is to build your blog on a strong foundation. It’s Time To Start Planning Your Strategy Break It Down With A Timeline: Your action plan will contain specific tasks with an eye toward your ultimate goal. Break those tasks down into manageable bites that you can realistically achieve. It also helps to set time limits. For example...
Mobile is a must for your blog: learn how to create a mobile version of your website and the different options available to support your blog. Do you want more mobile subscribers and readers? Is your blog suitable for a mobile device? In 2012, mobile users spent 63% more time on their devices accessing mobile websites and apps and this is set to increase. In this article I’ll explore the importance of mobile for your blog and the different options available to support your blog on a mobile device....
There is a lot of conversation around the topic of building a community around your blog. It is a fantastic technique, but it is actually an extremely complex issue. The ‘rules’ differ for each community. A business blog doesn’t have the same goals as a personal blogger. In this post, I curate my favourite resources on building a engaged and loyal blog community.
Social media marketing: learn how to enhance your social media efforts using your business blog. Do you blog? Are you active on social media? Have you integrated your blogging with your social activities? Blogging can help you improve your social media marketing. In this post, you’ll discover four tips to enhance your social media efforts using your business blog.
Content - Does your content sound like everyone else's? Did you do any research before producing your content? Do you always use the same media format? And do you tailor your content ... Editor's note: The previous installment covered three content marketing mistakes: Your content doesn't have specific goals; your content doesn't have anything to sell; and your content didn't bother asking for the transaction. In this installment, the author lists and discusses four more content marketing mistakes. 4. Your content sounds like everyone else's Am I imagining it—or does it sometimes feel as if the same blogger writes for every blog? Word choice, metaphors, structure, cadence, they all sound the same! Don't be assimilated into the blogger Borg collective. Write with vulnerability, enough that it makes you nervous to hit the publish button....
Blogs are more influential than social networks in shaping consumers’ opinions and purchase decisions, according to Technorati’s 2013 Digital Influence Report. Even so, brands seem to be investing more on other social channels, particularly Facebook, than on blogging. Below, additional findings from the 2013 Digital Influence Report, based on surveys conducted among 1,200 consumers, 150 top brand marketers, and 6,000 digital influencers. When making decisions about what to buy, consumers rank blogs as the third most influential digital resource (31.1%), behind retail sites (56%) and brand sites (34%)....
Telling your company’s story is important in social media marketing. Your website and your blog are the primary platforms for doing so. You have complete control of the message and the shape of the story. If you want people to see the real story, you are the best person to tell the story truthfully. For these seven primary reasons, we are committed to the importance of blogging. A blog is an ideal format for a “think piece” – a post in which you can share your thoughts and ideas with your audience without limitations on the number of characters you use and without risking loss of ownership of your ideas....
SUMMARY: Interesting! The typical reader of the world's top blogs is 38 years old, according to a new @Pingdom study We studied the blog readership demographics of the top 80 blogs in the world.. The number of blogs in the world today is huge. Tumblr and WordPress alone have over 157 million blogs. But who reads them all? Following a similar report from last year we now have new and interesting facts that can tell you who reads the world’s top blogs. One thing that took us by surprise was that the average reader of the top blogs is older than we thought. Read on to find all the statistics, some massive charts, and interesting conclusions....
|
![How to Optimize Your Business Blog [Checklist] | Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight | Scoop.it](https://img.scoop.it/IPAEKj9LMVoFj8L91O6wXDl72eJkfbmt4t8yenImKBVvK0kTmF0xjctABnaLJIm9)
Be fearless, not passive in your writing.