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Ten ways to create great blog content
July 07, 2010
I’ve long been an advocate of the power of blogging, but when you’re posting three times a week – or even trying to muster up something original once a week – it can be hard to consistently create compelling content for your blog posts.
We all have ‘off’ days, times when the creative juices aren’t flowing. Sometimes finding different, interesting and useful content to share on a blog proves tricky. With that in mind, here are ten ways to consistently create great blog content:
1. Re-visit your blogging legacy
Have a look through your previous posts – are there any blogs you can add a second part to, an update, additional content?
2. Read through the last 24 hours Home feed on your Twitter account
Reviewing the last day on your Twitter Home feed usually delivers a few good blog ideas or content themes to explore.
3. What are you doing at the moment – share the love
Discuss things you’re working on at the moment: projects, new client work, challenges, success, lessons learnt. Add value.
4. Check the blogosphere
Look at what bloggers are posting and expand their debates – this is a great way to further link into the blog community, too.
5. Become a source of exclusive information
Are you a thought-leader in your commercial space? No? Become one. Add exclusive content in your area of expertise.
6. Ask for help
Speak to your clients, colleagues and trusted network associates about what interests them. Ask for their help in creating content.
7. Do market research
Get online and see what your competitors are talking about. Then write something better on the same subject. Add insight.
8. Get passionate
If you have strong beliefs or proven methods around a commercial subject, share it. Share your passion. Readers love this.
9. Remain teachable
Ask your readers what they want to see. Start a survey, ask your audience what they value. Create statistical value.
10. Start with the end in mind
Remember why you’re blogging – think back to your earliest blog posts and recall what sparked you to start blogging. Share it.
- This article orignally appeared at BristolEditor.co.uk
Small business networking: Are you making the most of it?
May 04, 2010
In less than twenty years, networking has gone from something done informally to being a prime marketing tool for small business.
The opportunities are endless. You can network at any time of the day or night – face to face and online.
The big question is “Have your social networking skills and practices kept pace?”
What are the changes?
- Small business networking is now one to many and many to many, not just one to one.
- Business networking and your website are intrinsically linked.
- Networking effectiveness is boosted by switching from sales oriented messages to content and permission-based marketing.
To make the most of these, here are five networking tips:
Online social networking profiles
Create or update your online profile for all the networking groups to which you belong. Be consistent with what you write and keep them up to date.
Join social networking sites
Choose the ones that best suit your business. The top social networking sites are Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Generally, Facebook is great if you have a large following already. Linkedin is a business-oriented site. Twitter is good for both business-to-business and business-to-consumer markeitng, providing your market is there, too! There are smaller ones, most of which are industry specific or geographically based. Still, choose the ones best for your business.
Create content
If you are already glazing over at the idea of creating articles and content generally, come back!
With online networking, posts are like attending an event where the emphasis is on sharing information.
There’s a bonus for this activity; you can use this content in other areas of your marketing. What’s more, you can create lead magnets from these and the comments received.
Comment of what’s being said
Monitor what others are saying and add your thoughts – just as you would in face-to-face networking. Remember, nothing is deleted on the Internet, so keep your comments in line with your business aims and values.
People buy from people they trust and the easiest way to build this is through consistency.
Have one-to-ones
It doesn’t matter whether you network face to face or online, you want ways to explore potential. A one-to-one over the phone is a quick and easy way to decide how to move forward, even if that is to arrange an appointment.
These are five networking tips you can do today and over time they increase the effectiveness of your marketing. Tell me which of these are you doing now?
This blog post by Karen Purves originally appeared at KarenPurves.com
Like Minds: What was your take-home message?
March 01, 2010
Like Minds People-to-People was about making valuable and meaningful connections. The test now is the connections everyone makes in their sector — armed with the wisdom gained from attending the conference — be that in person or virtually.
We asked attendees to provide us with their take-home message from the keynotes, panel discussions and extensive networking that took place well into the night.
Take-home 1: Strategy's purpose is to enable execution. NOT the other way around. @chrisbrogan wisdom.
Take-home 2: Remove the "media" from Social Media. SM engineering for orgs isn't about media.
Take-home 3: Humanising corporate communications offers a wealth of operational and tactical advantages.
Bonus take-home: @chrisbrogan is every bit as smart as he claims not to be. Truly outstanding.
@theBrandBuilder
Take-home: Inspiration, reflection, motivation, acceleration, comprehension, lubrication and a lot of bloody good ideas.
@GemmaWent
Take-home: Content counts.
@GaryDayEllison
Take-home: This is a new medium not a new form of communication, Twitter is the tool, people power it. Authenticity beats brand veneer.
@markofrespect
Take-home: Like Minds was jaw droppingly awesome, the creative mix was lovely magic!
@11ReasonsWhy
Take-home: Inspiring, awesome event. All about the people as the title suggested :)
@banksy6
Take-home: Mine is never, ever take fashion tips from Americans - no matter how famous they are :) #likeminds
@MMaryMcKenna
Take-home: How can you use available tools to make others feel special? That's a key question.
@treypennington
Take-home: Stimulating, thought provoking and professional. Unexpectedly good way to spend a Friday!
@motorhound
Please do add any further take-home comments below.
How does your website stack up?
November 11, 2009
We're all aware that your website can make or break your business. But are you focussing on the right things to improve?
In these two videos, two world leading experts tell you what you should be focussing on. Stefan Tornquist is Research Director at Marketing Sherpa (just google it) and has undertaken dozens and dozens of studies into what works - right down to sophisticated eye tracking software to see where people are looking. David Meerman Scott is a leading authority on viral marketing (just google his name!): he's responsible for over US$1 billion in sales for his clients.
I think this is really refreshing advice. Keep it simple; focus on content. So against these two simple measures, how does your website stack up?
A Wordle of opportunity - Is your blog on topic?
July 20, 2009
As with many things there is often a solution and increasingly that solution is web based and I don't just mean your simple search engine query input and pages upon pages of answers solutions. Clever computer types have created a myriad of tools for web analytics and monitoring. Some tools offer fantastic graphical representations that will illustrate where you have come from and where you ought to be going. Having demonstrated the web application of Tweetdeck in my previous post as a means of monitoring your small business online in the real time stream of consciousness that is Twitter, this post will demonstrate to you just how you can analyse your company blog-where it has come from and where it ought to go. Whatever purpose your blog serves, it is expected that posts will be categorised and then subcategorised by 'Tags.' Not only will tags organise content for you, search engines love nothing more than to feast on tagged content. Tagging makes life easier for you, search engines and your reader. Now here comes the web solution to analysing your blog content. Assuming your blog has an RSS feed-many blogging platforms throw this nugget in for you- copy and paste the feed URL into the appropriate field on Wordle, sit back and watch it make a pretty diagram for you. Wordle, in their own words, ‘…is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.’ Now you could compare your Wordle diagram with your blog’s ‘Tag Cloud,’ should you have one or just take the results at face value. What does it tell you? Does the diagram match up to your perceptions of what you think you blog about and in turn demonstrate you are writing on topic and selecting the most appropriate tags for your wonderful content? Or does it highlight a need to tweak your content? It could be that it encourages you to write more broadly or to focus on one particular topic in order to readdress the balance or to fine tune your niche. You will see that I have produced the Wordle diagram for this here blog, we can see that ‘Marketing,’ ‘Business’ and ‘Online’ feature prominently, as you would hope for a blog which shares the latest thoughts on marketing to small businesses in an ever increasing online world. It could be suggested that the Marketing Donut blog would do well to drive more content along the lines of the key topics which are displayed on the Marketing Donut site itself in order to increase the depth of coverage in the field of Marketing. Give it a go and see if it gives you an illustrated guide to being on topic or not. Where have you come from and where do you want your blog to go?
Knowledge is power
April 16, 2009
The Marketing Donut is a truly collaborative project and we’ve used some of the best people available to create this fantastic new resource. Central to this is the involvement of more than 100 expert contributors.
We’ve always worked with experts at BHP and believe their involvement is key to the practical and unbiased nature of the content we produce. It can be a challenge to incorporate feedback from different experts, each with their own views. But there’s a real sense of achievement when after the umpteenth round of corrections, you end up with a piece of content upon which everyone agrees – and that still reads well.
We’ve struck gold with the Marketing Donut and have some great people working with us. From high-profile marketing writers through ex-marketing directors of blue chips to well-known social networkers, plus, all the key marketing bodies – they’ve all given their time, knowledge and support. We’re very grateful for this.
Currently, we’re recruiting for the next Donut – so if you’re an expert in start-up issues, please get in touch.
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