Finding your Rhythm for Blogging, Social Media and Engaging Customers Online

Posted by Steinar on Mar 9, 2010 in Blog, Marketing | 0 comments

Whether you are new to blogging and social media or have been at it for a while, finding your rhythm can be a challenge and something that requires continuous improvement.  This is especially true as the tools and platforms change in relation to your marketing strategy for engaging customers online.

This is my 100th post on this blog, so I thought it would be fitting to review my daily process.  Let’s start with my goals.

My blogging and social media goals:

1. Stay informed of the latest news, trends and topics within my niche
2. Connect with other marketers, customers, and folks I find interesting
3. Share my thoughts and those of others with my network
4. Deliver valuable content to build my network, engage my market and grow my business online

Daily blogging, social media, and market engagement process:

1. I use Google Reader to find the latest news and keep my finger on the pulse of what happening within my niche.  I subscribe to dozens of news sources, popular blogs and Google searches to find relevant articles, with which I can share, comment on, or use as inspiration for my next blog post. I usually check Google Reader 2-3 times a day for 5 minutes each and complete 1-2 actions as a result.
2. I use this blog as the main source for content creation and distribution.  Creating content on my own domain allows me to maintain full control.  Sure I post information on Facebook and Twitter, but anything with substantial content resides on my blog.  I publish new posts every 1-2 days.
3. I use the WordPress ping.fm plugin to automatically share my blog RSS feed with Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, and a few other popular social media and bookmarking sites.  Again, this allows me to maintain control rather than setting up 3rd party sites to receive my RSS feed.  If I ever want to turn off my stream, I can control this from one central dashboard in ping.fm.  Not everything flows through ping.fm – only content that I want to share with my entire network.
4. My iPhone is my Internet Marketing Remote Control.  I can manage Twitter, check Google Reader, update WordPress posts, reply to comments on my blog, check in with Facebook friends and fans, snap images and record & publish podcast episodes from my iPhone with the click of a button.  Of course, I can also use email and talk on the phone.
5. At night, I like to use Google Reader to answer questions on Twitter from people looking for help.  I have several dozen search queries set up and RSS feeds organized in Google Reader to make this simple.  Answering people’s questions on Twitter allows my to meet new people, learn something new, and share content I find helpful.

Keys to Success with Blogging and Social Media

The keys to successfull blogging and social media vary, depending on your particular situation.  Here are a few things I find helpful:

1. Write original content.  It’s OK to quote others, but the majority of your content should be original.
2. Find a frequency of engagement that suits you and be consistent.
3. Reply to comments, messages, and mentions quickly.
4. Write as if you were talking with your reader, but keep search engine optimization in mind.
5. Proactively promote your content by leveraging your RSS feed and providing links for people to find you.
6. Have a content creation strategy to help define what you will talk about and how that unfolds over time.

I hope you find this helpful as you continue to define or improve your process for blogging and engaging your market online through social media.

Any thoughts?  What tools and process do you follow to increase your efficiency and effectiveness?

Related Posts:

1. 7 Tools to Increase Social Media Efficiency and Save A Ton of Time
2. Posterous makes social media and content sharing simple
3. More Evidence that Social Media is Critical to Online Business Strategy
4. Build a content distribution strategy, not a Twitter or social media strategy (Google Real-Time Search)
5. 5 ways to leverage social media to better engage customers

9 Ways to Find New Content Ideas for Your Blog, Podcast or Videos

Posted by Steinar on Dec 4, 2009 in Blog, Marketing | 0 comments

Searching for new content ideas for your blog, podcast or videos?  I just listened to a great podcast from Jason Van Orden and here are my notes and personal comments.

First, set up a capture system to catch ideas when they happen.

• MindMap – I use http://bubbl.us/ which is a great free online tool for collaborative mind maps.
• Notebook – I use my Pulse Livescribe, which also captures audio. Voted one of the best new products in 2009.
• Mobile Recorder – I use my iPhone Recorder app to either capture ideas or create podcasts on the fly
• Google Docs – this is great especially if you are working with a team.   I use Apple Works (Pages, KeyNote, or Numbers).
• or whatever other system works for you

Categorize your ideas.  For me these include video, audio, stories, blog post, etc.  Don’t get stuck trying to figure out what to write when it’s actually time to sit down and type it out.

9 Ways to Find New Content Ideas for Your Blog …

1. 5 x 5 – what are the 5 questions people always ask me within my niche? What are the 5 questions people should ask me? Create content that answers these ten questions.  Better yet, make this 10×10 or more …
2. Keyword research tools - goal is to create content that people want, especially when searching on search engines.  A good tool, for example, is the Google search-based keyword tool.  Find out which terms are being searched most often, but have little competition.
3. Fill your feed reader – sign up for a free Google Reader account and start subscribing to popular bloggers or podcasters in your niche.  Use the information you find to generate new ideas and create new content either in response to or in addition to relevant discussions you run across.
4. Ethically borrow – see what content is popular on other blogs and adapt that approach to your niche.  Do not copy their content, but seek to understand what it is about that content that’s engaging and borrow what works. If you can, give credit to the author with a link back to their site.
5. Technorati – this is a great RSS aggregator that has a vast collection of blog posts in one place – all categorized and searchable.
6. Google Alerts - this allows you to save a search from Google and receive an email whenever your search returns new results.  The frequency can be as it happens, daily, weeekly basis.  Check out Google Alerts.
7. Pre-filtered content - find what’s hot, what is most popular.  Check delicious for example.  If something has been bookmarked frequently then it might be content to consider. What’s trending in your niche and what do you have to say about it?  Another choice might be Digg.
8. Re-purpose content – do you have old content that can be reformatted or repackaged and redistributed?  Maybe an old blog post you can turn into a podcast episode or a few slides for a video on Youtube?  Find your oldest, most popular content and post an update or reflection on what’s changed since the original post.
9. Ask your audience – ask on Twitter, Linkedin Answers, etc.  Put together a quick survey on Survey Monkey and ask customers what they want.  Send a simple email – “hey, I’m thinking about such and such … please reply and let me know your thoughts.”

Based on my experience this looks like a very good list.  Pick one or two and see if you can come up with a list of 20 content ideas right now.  I bet it’s easier than you think.

What do you think?  Are these ideas you can use?  How do you come up with ideas for new content?

Related Posts:

1. Leveraging events to drive SEO traffic to your blog (Audio)
2. Does Audio or Video Really Engage Blog Readers? (Audio)
3. Twitter Search RSS Feeds to Find Customers and Blog Content (Video)
4. Get Over It and Start Blogging (Audio)
5. A popular subject – How to Podcast from your Mac

Get Over It and Start Blogging (Audio)

Posted by Steinar on Dec 3, 2009 in Blog, Marketing | 0 comments

The most common question I get from business people is “What should I blog about?”.  In this audio post I’ll talk about tactics to overcome your fear of blogging and how to leverage audio to create a library of ideas.
 
What Should I Blog About?

How do you come up with topics to blog about?  What’s holding you back from blogging?

Related Posts:

1. How do you post audio to your website – some questions to ask before you start (Audio)
2. Can You Avoid Copywriting Problems with Audio Blog Posts? (Audio)
3. Blogging – Tools, Topics and Traffic (Audio)
4. Does Audio or Video Really Engage Blog Readers? (Audio)
5. Drive More Traffic to Your Blog and Engage Readers (Audio)

Does Audio or Video Really Engage Blog Readers? (Audio)

Posted by Steinar on Dec 2, 2009 in Blog, Marketing | 0 comments

In this audio post I discuss the benefits and drawbacks of using audio and video on your blog.
 
003-audio-versus-video.mp3

Advantages of Audio Blogging
•    Quicker to record and post
•    Fewer tools required
•    Faster download
•    Greater reach with MP3 players

Advantages of Video Blogging
•    Great to put a face with your name and voice
•    Good for presentations or tutorials
•    Good to leverage YouTube channel network
•    Most engaging web content according to studies

In either case, audio and video both add color to the standard text based blog, much like photos make your posts pop.  Experiment with both and find which works best for you.  You may find that video works in some cases, while audio is better for others.

What are your thoughts?  Are you finding success with audio and/or video.  Which seems to work best given the topic or situation?

Related Posts:

1. Can You Avoid Copywriting Problems with Audio Blog Posts? (Audio)
2. Drive More Traffic to Your Blog and Engage Readers (Audio)
3. How do you post audio to your website – some questions to ask before you start (Audio)
4. Get Over It and Start Blogging (Audio)
5. Publish audio to WordPress post with iPhone via email (Audio)

Drive More Traffic to Your Blog and Engage Readers (Audio)

Posted by Steinar on Dec 1, 2009 in Blog, Marketing | 0 comments

In this audio post I’ll touch on a few techniques to drive more traffic to your blog and engage readers in a more meaningful way.
 
002-more-blog-followers.mp3

Topics Covered:
• Creating unique and compelling content
• Search Engine Optimization and long-tail keywords
• Commenting on third-party websites
• Leveraging Social Media

How are you attracting more readers? Which tactics are getting the best results?

Related Posts:

1. Leveraging events to drive SEO traffic to your blog (Audio)
2. Does Audio or Video Really Engage Blog Readers? (Audio)
3. Leverage Online Video to Engage Readers, Drive Website Traffic and Differentiate Your Business (Video)
4. Tactics to Drive More Targeted Search Engine Traffic to Your Blog
5. Can You Avoid Copywriting Problems with Audio Blog Posts? (Audio)