Business Blogging

August 14, 2008

Successful business blogging, seven simple secrets

Successful business blogging

Today, I want to share a few secrets I've learned along the way that may help you to become a more successful business blogger.

(OK, so they're not really "secrets." In fact, they've become pretty well-established business blogging best practices. Of course, if you don't already know them, then perhaps secrets they are. Now that I've cleared that up, uh-hum, on to our program.)

1. Define your community - Determining the audience you're attempting to reach is Marketing 101. In social media terms I think the word "community" is a better representation, for we no longer "target audiences" but "participate in communities."

Defining who it is you want to reach has bearing on everything you do, and it's no different where blogging is concerned. I believe it's helpful to even go so far as creating a persona, someone who is a representative of the community in question. For me, that persona is, in fact a real person, Ines Hegedus-Garcia, a Realtor in Miami.

A year or so ago I had the privilege of tutoring Ines in a contest called Project Blogger held by Active Rain. It gave me the opportunity to share everything I'd learned to that point and Ines would tell you that she benefited as well.

2. Write with that community in mind  - When I blog, I try to do so with Ines and those of her ilk in mind. I work under the assumption that if the content is beneficial to her, it will be beneficial to others as well.

As you participate in the community you'll learn what their needs are and can address those. If you scratch where they itch, you're sure to get their attention.

Someone who keeps this principle at the forefront is Chris Brogan. Everything he writes is for the benefit of his readers, and the community has rewarded him with a huge following and credited him with a high degree of influence.

I can tell you this, if Chris links to you via his blog or Twitter, it will mean a wealth of traffic and a number of Twitter follows. I've been the grateful recipient of his kindness in that regard a couple of times and that's been my experience.

3. Write with Google in mind - Face it, you have two audiences who read your blog. One is human and the other is made up of machines. We call them "spiders," little creatures who index the content on your site with a view toward understanding its proposition and ranking you accordingly.

Make sure your posts are: Keyword-optimized, frequently updated and thematically-relevant.

As to keywords, once in the post title and twice in the body content.

Take this post for example. I used the term "business blogging" in the title and in the post itself (or variations on it). It's best to front load the keyword in the title when possible too,  as I did in this case. The title would have read better had I said "Seven simple secrets to successful business blogging," but that would have put the keyword at the end, so I opted to shift the phrases.

As to frequency, posting three to five times per week is minimal, at least until you gain a greater degree of authority where Google is concerned.

As to topical or thematic relevance, if you're writing a blog about cats, then don't write about dogs, hamsters, giraffes, kangaroos and koala bears too. Make it about cats, cats, and more cats!

Chris says to keep at least a 10:1 ratio of on-topic to off-topic posts. That's sound advice.

There's much more detail I could go into regarding blogging with search engines in mind, but will save that for a later post.

4. Find, follow and communicate with influential bloggers in your niche - That practice will garner a number of benefits. If you subscribe to their feeds, read and comment on their stuff, write your own posts in response and trackback when possible, the will take notice and may return the favor. As a result, you're likely to become the beneficiary of some of their readership and traffic.

I made this a common practice early on in my business blogging (see, there's that keyword again) career and it paid off. Though the playing field is much more crowded nown, it's still a good practice.

5. Write "Top 10" posts on occasion - My friend Rick Bruner, the founder of Business Blog Consulting and a man I credit as being one of pioneers of business blogging made that suggestion and it's also sound advice which I'm trying to take. This post is one such example. 

6. Write link-bait posts on occasion - I am reluctant to even include this on the list as the term, for me, carries a negative connotation. (It's a completely acceptable practice in SEO circles however.)

Link-bait, in case you're not familiar with it, means creating content that generates back-links. Brian Bille, my marketing partner-in-crime here at Bizzuka, lends this definition:

Link bait is a piece of content (blog post, site content or an application) created intentionally or unintentionally to obtain incoming links. Some link bait is purposely created to stir up controversy or mentions high profile individuals in hopes to recognize the content with a link from a quality site.  Other link bait is simply well-written, informative content that does the same.

It's the latter I'm talking about. I never write posts strictly for the purpose of link-baiting. But, I do write posts that, based on past experience, I assume will become link-bait. My Savvy Women in Social Media post is one example. While I knew it had the potential, my motive was to recognize the achievements of this select group of women, women I admire and respect. The back-links and traffic that may have accrued were lagniappe.

So, let me rephrase this point and put it this way: Write high quality, informative editorial content.

Last but not least...

7. Establish a presence in the social mediasphere - Used to be blogs were pretty much the Alpha & Omega of conversational media. Everything hinged around them. No longer.

Now, we have , Facebook, MySpace (cringe), Bebo, niche online communities -- an entire universe of social networking sites and applications where we need to have a presence if we're serious about using social media to communicate our message.

Our blog should be the base of operations, but we should have outposts in many of these places and become active participants. It's just how things are done these days.

I hope at least some of these "secrets" have been helpful. If so, let me know by leaving a comment or Twittering me. Perhaps you have some secrets of your own you'd like to share. I welcome those, plus any questions, comments or critique.

August 13, 2008

Realtors who get social media marketing: Rudolph D. Bachraty III

Rudy BachratyI met Rudy Bachraty at an Inman Real Estate Connect conference a few years ago at a mixer sponsored by Zillow. (I remember because I got a beer glass with Zillow's logo on it.)

He and I also served on a panel at Blogger's Connect alongside PayPerPost CEO Ted Murphy. (I still have yet to figure out why Ted was invited to be on a panel talking about real estate blogging, but oh well.)

Rudy is now the resident social media guru (his term) at Trulia.com.

As part of my ongoing series of Realtors who get social media, I asked Rudy this question: "What is working so far as the Web 2.0 is concerned? Are you seeing business off Twitter, Active Rain, other social networks or apps?"

Rudy's reply:

In my role at Trulia, I speak to a good amount of Realtors who use Trulia Voices. They are really connecting with home buyers and sellers and helping them either find their next home or by selling their current one. As with any other social network or community, you have to be there and put in the time in order to reap the benefits.

Today's agents need to be proactive and figure out how they can make all the new web 2.0 tools and technologies work for them.

Here are some public Trulia Voices testimonials:

Inman Real Estate Connect for free - have a Trulia Voices testimonial?

What is Trulia Voices?

San Francisco Style - Trulia Voices Is...

See what others Realtors who get social media have to say: Andy Kaufman, Ines Hegedus-Garcia, Jackie Colson-Miller

August 12, 2008

Business blog and social media consulting, speaking

I've never been very good at self-promotion. That being said, thanks to some encouragement from a few friends I've taken the leap and am offering business blog and social media consulting and speaking services.

If you visit those two pages, you'll note that I refer to myself in the third person, which does seem a bit weird. Let me know if you think so as well and I'll change that. Also, if you feel so inclined, please pass along my name/contact info to anyone you think might have an interest. Thanks!

PS: A video is being produced from a recent live event, so you'll get to see me in action. (I'm sure it will be need to be highly-edited. :->)

August 11, 2008

Personal branding to promote company brand

I've noticed a thread that seems to run through the social web -- an emphasis on the use of personal branding as a way to build the associated company brand.

There are a number of examples:

Perhaps the way to think of these people is as spokespersons for their company.

Continue reading "Personal branding to promote company brand" »

When Jason Calacanis quit blogging last month (he really did) and turned to the use of email newsletters, by the reaction in the tech community you'd think it was the first time someone thought of using email as a marketing or business communications tool.

Jason has always been a trend-setter, so I suspect others will follow his lead. (In fact, others already are.) I do think it interesting that he turned to something as old-school, tried-and-true as email. Like the title says, what's old is new again.

I've longed believed blogs and email can work together as a marketing "one, two knockout punch!" (Corny, I know, but I like the metaphor.) I've been writing about it and it's recently become a topic renewed , Calacanis notwithstanding.

Blogs and email can provide any company, large or small, with an inexpensive way to share its message and build its brand.

Still, it will be interesting to see if others follow Jason's lead. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if even Scoble made the shift!

UPDATE @ 3:19 p.m.: Just saw this report on B2B Magazine which says social media is affecting email marketing.

July 21, 2008

IBNMA officially relaunched today

We're officially announcing the relaunch of the International Blogging and New Media Association today. This has been long in coming and I'm elated to see the day finally arrive.

Check out the press release and the blog post. If you feel so inclined, please help us spread the message.

One more thing...

I know there may be talk about how the executive board is comprised only of men, and middle-aged white men at that. And I understand. I can promise you the Advisory Council, which we will announce next week, is far from that. It's a diverse group in many respects as you will see.

Again, help us spread the word, the IBNMA is back Jack!

July 18, 2008

Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

Groundswell I finished reading Groundswell last night, the book co-authored by Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff and former analyst Charlene Li. I have to say it's one of the most important books on the subject of social media that I've read this year.

Research - The opinions shared, suggestions made and advice given are based on solid research. What else would you expect from Forrester, right? Everything is well-documented and appended.

Case studies - Charlene and Josh support the research with real world examples showing how organizations both in the for-profit and non-profit sectors are using the tools of social media to accomplish marketing and business communication purposes. They showcase larger organizations like Dell, Best Buy and M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, but do include a few references to small business.

Writing - The book is very well-written. Again, you'd expect no less from Forrester analysts.

Continue reading "Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff" »

July 15, 2008

Where does your blog traffic come from these days?

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Back in the day (circa 2004-2005), most of my blog traffic came from one of two sources: a) blogrolls and b) other blogger's posts. Nowadays, a lot of it comes from Twitter, Plurk, Friendfeed, Facebook and, yes, Google (thankfully).

What does that indicate?

  1. The conversation is much more distributed than it used to be. Mack Collier thinks so too.
  2. Blogrolls are less important that they used to be.

As to why I'm not seeing traffic from other's blog could mean that:

  1. The value of my content is less than it used to be.
  2. There are more of us talking now so less attention is paid to any one blogger. The competition for attention is higher to be sure.
  3. I'm not spending enough time commenting on or referencing other's blog posts myself.

Continue reading "Where does your blog traffic come from these days?" »

July 14, 2008

Savvy women in social media

Savvywomen

Last week I learned about SavvyAuntie.com, a new social network for, you guessed it, aunts. In its short period of existence news about the site has spread quickly, even reaching into mainstream media. Since mine is not a news site, let me reference several for those of you who'd like to know more: Mashable, Center Networks, Huffinton Post and Washington Post (reprint from TechCrunch).

This is not merely a post about Savvy Auntie though. News of this site's launch got me thinking about women in social media, especially those I've met either online or in person, and the impact they're having.

Continue reading "Savvy women in social media" »

July 11, 2008

Realtors who get social media marketing: Jackie Colson-Miller

Jackie Colson-Miller This is a continuation of our series on Realtors who get social media. Previous installments include Ines Hegedus-Garcia and Andy Kaufman. Today, I'm adding to this distinguished list Jackie Colson-Miller.

Jackie is a Realtor with Tampa-based Toni Everett Company. She blogs at The Real Estate Sizzle.

Though I don't know Jackie as well as the Ines and Andy, I am impressed by her extensive resume. (You should read this thing.)

She was kind enough to answer my series of questions about Realtors and social media. Read on.

Continue reading "Realtors who get social media marketing: Jackie Colson-Miller" »

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