I had coffee this week with a fellow marketing consultant like me, with one big difference: she’s an SMS (Social Media Skeptic). We spent much of the hour we were together talking about the merits (or lack thereof) of social media. Since I’ve already written a similar post about Twitter, Why You Shouldn’t Use Twitter, I thought I’d focus this time on blogging.  So, here are some of the objections she had, along with my thoughts on the topic.

• SMS: Blogging takes too much time — it’s a full time job.
  • Me: It doesn’t have to be a full time job… if you commit to write one post per week, that’s a great way to get started, and that will only take a few hours per week.  If you have a few people blogging on a rotating schedule that shares the workload across people.
• SMS: Even if you only write one post per week, you still have to respond to all the comments.  Who has time for that?
  • Me: Yes, it’s important to make time to respond to comments, but think about it in a positive light… if your customers (or potential customers) are engaging with your brand and what you’re blogging about, isn’t that worth the additional minute you spend responding to them?  What other form of marketing can you engage customers like this? (a lot, but many of them are in social media!). Isn’t the point of marketing to engage with your consumers?
• SMS: Not everyone is a good writer, so they shouldn’t be blogging.
  • Me: There are so many ways to blog.  You can use video, audio, photos, short paragraphs, etc.  Not all of these require 4 hours to write a post, or good writing skills.  In addition, you can rotate your bloggers on a schedule so not one person is carrying the load, or also use guest bloggers on occasion to mix it up a bit.
• SMS: I’m not technical, so I could never figure out how to put together a blog.
  • Me: Just over a year ago, I didn’t even know what WordPress was (it’s a Content Management System that allows you to easily put together a blog/website in a very user friendly way), and now I know it very well, and even train others on using it.  Sure, occasionally I get stuck, but 95% of the time, I can manage it on my own.  In addition, there are some VERY user-friendly WordPress themes out there, such as Headway, that allows you to drag and drop boxes, and edit the design elements by just clicking.
• SMS: Blogging (and social media) are fads, and will not be around for much longer.
  • Me: I do agree that there are some social media tools that might not be around in a few years.  But, I think that the overall categories such as blogging, micro-blogging, etc. are here to stay.

Once I had responded to all of her objections, I pointed out some of the other positives of blogging:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - The more you write, the more activity and comments you get on your blog, and the more inbound links you get.  This is exactly what the search engines look for when analyzing websites.  All of this activity is viewed very positively, so will positively affect your search engine rankings.
• Interact with customers – As mentioned above, isn’t it a POSITIVE thing to be able to interact with your customers?  To hear their feedback, get them engaged, get them asking questions?  All of that happens on a blog, and it’s all on YOUR website.
• Establish yourself as an expert in your area - Writing blog posts in your area of business allows you to establish yourself as an expert, and display what you know in your area.  It may or may not be directly related to your product, which opens people up even more to hearing your message.
• Low cost - For the cost of $10, you can buy a domain name and build a blog.  If you want a premium theme such as Headway or Thesis, that will run you $90. So, for $100 you can have a blog.  True, the biggest cost with blogging is time, but the actual budget outlay is less expensive than most other forms of marketing.

(Photo credit: No social media, Blogging sucks)

So, what do you think?  Is blogging a good idea?  Are there any other objections you’ve heard?  Or benefits I haven’t mentioned?

Are you wondering why I’m writing a post about how to cross-post, when I JUST wrote one about how I’m not a fan of cross-posting? Well, for starters, some of these tactics are temporary, meaning you turn them on and off for each update, so it’s not just a flow of ALL of your updates.  And, second, I thought it would be helpful to have all of this in one place to keep track of it! And third, to me, even some of the “permanent” cross-post tactics (such as Blog to LinkedIn) can be useful. So, if you do decide to cross-post after reading my post here’s how:

Twitter to Facebook Profile

• Individual updates
  • Tweetdeck Desktop – Add your profile to your Tweetdeck account by clicking on the plus at the top of the screen.  Once your account has been added, you can toggle each account on and off by clicking on the account name.
  • Tweetdeck for iPhone – Go to the settings page and add your Facebook account.  When updating  your status, select your Facebook account.
  • Selective Tweets – Install the Selective Twitter application in your Facebook account.  Once you’ve done that, any Twitter update you make with #fb, will also update your Facebook status.
  • There are many other mobile and desktop applications that do this, such as Seesmic Desktop, Hootsuite, and many more.
• Permanent
  • Install this Twitter application in your Facebook account.  Once you’ve done that, EVERY Twitter update you make, will also update your Facebook status.  CAUTION, this can be annoying to your Facebook friends.

Twitter to Facebook Fan Page

• Tweetdeck Desktop – see above.  Hootsuite and Seesmic also do this.

Facebook Fan Page to Twitter

• Individual updates- There is currently no way to update Twitter from your Facebook Fan Page on an individual update basis.
• Permanent 
  • Install this Twitter application in your Facebook account.  Once you’ve done that, EVERY update you make on your Facebook Fan Page, will also post to Twitter.

Twitter to LinkedIn

• Tweetdeck Desktop – see above.  Hootsuite also does this.
• Adjust your settings in LinkedIn.  Once you’ve added your Twitter account, you can choose to have all or some of your updates flow to LinkedIn.  Again, I CAUTION  the use of permanent update cross-posting.  For individual updates to flow to LinkedIn, simply use #in or #li when you update your Twitter status.

LinkedIn to Twitter

• This functionality is built right into LinkedIn now, so each update you make on LinkedIn, you can select if you want it to also post to Twitter, by checking the check box below your update.

Twitter to Blog

• Add a widget to your blog that displays your recent tweets by installing the “Twitter for WordPress” plugin on your blog. Your tweets will stream into a widget on the side of your blog, similar to mine on the bottom right.
• You can also install the Wibya toolbar (see mine at the bottom of this page) which shows your Twitter updates.  If you want to know more about the Wibya toolbar, take a look at my post on the topic.  Another similar toolbar is the Meebo Bar.

Facebook Fan Page to Blog

• This is possible using the Wibya toolbar or the Meebo Bar.  See above.

Facebook Profile to Blog

• This is possible using the Wibya toolbar or the Meebo Bar.  See above.

Blog to Twitter

• Twitterfeed - You can easily automate the posting of your blog to Twitter by setting up a feed on Twitterfeed.
• Ping.fm – Newly added feature allows you to add your feeds to be automatically sent to a variety of social networks.

Blog to Facebook Profile

• Create a Facebook note for each of your blog posts by following these instructions: In the “Applications” menu (in the bottom bar), choose “Notes.”, under “Notes Settings,” click on “Import a blog” and enter your feed address.  For more detailed instructions and screen shots, see this post.
• Wordbooker – This is a WordPress plugin that imports your blog posts to Facebook.  The difference in this versus using Notes, is that your posts get a separate area on your profile, and any comments are imported back into your blog.  (Thanks to @tpapi for the suggestion!)
• Ping.fm – See above

Blog to Facebook Fan Page

• Wordbooker – see above
• Social RSS – Install this application on Facebook, and your blog posts will feed directly as updates to your Wall.  You can also create a box that will show your posts in a box on your Fan Page.  See WebinarListing fan page for an example.
• Ping.fm - See above

Blog to LinkedIn

• Install the WordPress application on LinkedIn or BlogLink onto your LinkedIn profile and have all your blog posts flow to your profile.
• Ping.fm - See above

Not possible at this time (if you know of a way to do these, please let me know in the comments!):

• Facebook Profile to LinkedIn
• Facebook Profile to Twitter
• Facebook Profile to Facebook Fan Page
• Facebook Fan Page to Facebook Profile
• Facebook Fan Page to LinkedIn
• LinkedIn to Facebook Profile
• LinkedIn to Facebook Fan Page
• LinkedIn to Blog

You may also be familiar with Ping.fm, which allows you to update 50 social media sites at once.  You just post it once, and it updates the sites you choose.  So, obviously this is a great way to cross-post.  A few weeks ago, Seesmic acquired Ping.fm, so the Ping.fm functionaility will be incorporated into Seesmic in a few weeks, making it a great option to cross-post.  Ping.fm is currently incorporated into Hootsuite as well.

Did I leave anything out?  I plan on keeping this updated over time, so please let me know if I have missed anything!

Last week, I found out about a really cool new toolbar for websites called Wibiya. I asked them for a beta invite and they said it would be launching to the general public soon (I guess I wasn’t special enough!), and sure enough, I was notified about it today.  So, what do I think?  Well, considering I was inspired to write a blog post about it within 15 minutes of installing it, I’d say I like it! :-)

So, what is Wibiya?  If you’re viewing this post on my website, just look down at the bottom to the pink bar.  If not, here a screen shot of it broken into 2 parts.

What it does essentially is bring your social media components (and a few other things) all to one place, and a place that is available everywhere on your site.  People can do the following right from the toolbar:

• Facebook
  • update their status (with automatic link to your site)
  • become a fan of your Facebook page
• Twitter
  • see your tweets
  • follow you on Twitter
  • tweet (with an automatically shortened link to your site)
• Blog
  • subscribe to your RSS feed
  • See your recent posts
• Search your site
• Chat with others
• Message your site visitors
• Translate your site into different languages

…all without leaving your site.  There are also a bunch of other apps, such as photo galleries and YouTube integration, that you can easily install.  What a great way to give people the functionality they want, without forcing them to leave your website and you never get them back.  Sure, most of these tools are available with other WordPress plugins, but it’s great to have everything in one place, so you can fill your site with more good content.

In addition to all of this functionality for your site visitors, you get analytics too!  So, as soon as I posted on Twitter, I could see how many people were visiting which pages, and where in the world they are.  What a great way to get instant feedback, to see if people are driven to your site.  It also shows you overall stats for the past 7 days, including assumed bounce rate reduction, and new RSS registrations.

As I said, I JUST downloaded this 1/2 hour ago, so I’m still poking around.  But, overall, this is a VERY cool app… a definite BUY recommendation from me! Oh, wait, it’s free.  :-)

What do you think? Have you discovered anything I haven’t mentioned above? Any downsides you see?

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I attended the Inbound Marketing Summit conference put on by New Marketing Labs at the Gillette Stadium. Attending this conference was an interesting milestone for me, as it is where I really got my start in social media last year.  Day 1 of the conference last year I showed up without a computer and barely any knowledge of Twitter (I was registered but wasn’t using it, and didn’t “get it”) and much of social media.  Day 2, I showed up with my laptop, and started tweeting.  I haven’t stopped since, and have learned so much since that time about other forms of social media, and have put them into practice at work and through consulting projects.  A lot changed for me in that year.

Anyway, the conference was even more incredible than it was last year, so I thought I’d share some of my favorite quotes/learnings. (Not necessarily quoted word for word; and if you know who said some of the unknown quotes or if I made any errors, please let me know!)

Day 1

• How do you engage customers without pissing them off? Just need to listen. And then figure out WHEN in the conversation it’s right to jump in. ~Citrix (name?)
• SM needs to get out of the corporate communications group. It should be spread throughout the company ~Innovative marketing panel
• In terms if marketing, it’s not about the thickness if your wallet, it’s about the thickness of your mind. It’s a great time to be a poor marketer. ~Justin Rasmussen, Coffee House Ideas
• Who will own social media in the future? PR agencies, interactive agencies or ad agencies? Answer: The companies. ~Brian Halligan, Hubspot

• PR is dead. ~Brian Halligan, Hubspot (I couldn’t disagree more.  I do believe PR is changing, but it will never be dead.  The big difference I see is that rather than companies finding press, the press will be finding them.)

• People turn to social media traditionally to solve 3 problems: 1) sales 2) get the word out , 3) need to make a relationship better or change it.” ~Katie Delahaye Paine, KDPaine & Partners
• You need to look at your “share of suckiness” vs. your competitors. “We suck less” ~Katie Delahaye Paine, KDPaine & Partners (it’s important to look at what your detractors are saying, but also keep in mind industry norms for sentiment.)
• PR = helps groups communicate with one another and facilitate discussions. What is PR2.0? A new approach to PR (PR isn’t just media relations) — it’s about building long term relationships, and now we can do it directlly with the customer. ~Katie Delahaye Paine, KDPaine & Partners
• What is a social media press release? Integrating keywords, SEO, interactive content, links to SM sites, enabled for social media. ~”Getting the Word Out” panel
  
• Measure engagement (not impressions), which will then lead to sales. ~”Getting the Word Out” panel
• Marketing = getting people to know, like and trust you. ~Rich Ullman, Ripple6
• What do you say to the people that say they don’t have time to create good content? Tough! ~Valeria Maltoni, Conversation Agent
• If you’re doing SM, and not email, you’re insane. It has a $44 ROI per dollar spent, on an email campaign. ~Email panel
• Using purchased email lists is just spamming. The people didn’t sign up for the email. ~Email panel
• “Rented list” – means using another list to communicate your message (i.e Daily Candy). ~Email panel
• 20% of tweets mention brands (source http://bit.ly/MVSlV). Twitter users are twice as much likely to engage with brands than on other platforms. ~Jesse Engle, CoTweet
• For a company with multiple tweeters, it’s best to have logo as avatar, twitter background with faces/names of tweeters, and use cotags. ~Jesse Engle, CoTweet
• Kodak’s blog is not about the actual product, it’s about HOW we use our products. ~Jennifer Cisney, Kodak
• Cool free listening tool www.socialmention.com ~unknown
• How to get your video to go viral? Story, spectacle, emotion, conflict, questions. ~Tim Street, APE Digital

Day 2

• Listening helps you find ppl who are passionate about what you do, out on the web. That’s how you build a comunity centric way to market. ~Listening and monitoring panel
• Email’s role in the marketing mix is more important than ever. Email is a main DRIVER of social web activity. ~Greg Cangialosi, Blue Sky Factory
• The blog is the ANCHOR of our social media efforts. ~Paula Berg, Southwest Airlines
• Where else can you get immediate and passionate feedback from your customers other than in social media. ~Paula Berg, Southwest Airlines
• Social Media optimization created the findability of social objects – keywords, titles, descriptions, tags, syndication. ~Christopher Carfi, Cerado
• If there are a bunch of kids in a playground, and there are no toys there, they’re going to leave. (referring to making your Facebook and website interactive). ~CC Chapman, Campfire
• Everyone needs a CMS (even if it’s just WordPress), in order to update site,keywords, tags, etc. ~CMS panel
• Whereever you are finding the most uncomfortable information about you, look there 10 times harder! ~Tim Walker, Hoover’s
  
• What are Social Media Influencers (SIM)? Harnessing social media and social influencers to achieve a goal. ~Shiv Singh, Razorfish
• Market to the community not just the individual. ~Shiv Singh, Razorfish
• Social engagement results in purchases 24 days later on average. ~Shiv Singh, Razorfish
• Focus not just on the platforms, but on the relationsips… focus on WHO is influencing your customer. Research influencers. ~Ken Chow, R2 Integrated
• Great Marketing = Convince people to SELL. ~Dharmesh Shah, Hubspot
• Google’s ranking algorithm = context (does it match what they’re looking for?) + authority (how much does Google trust you?). ~Dharmesh Shah, Hubspot
• Titles are the most important piece of information you’re giving to Google about what the page is about.The MOST important is the one on your home page. Earlier words send a stronger message to Google. So, your title keywords need to be ordered appropriately. Don’t make your Home page titled HOME (even if you sell homes!. ~Dharmesh Shah, Hubspot
• Don’t buy ads on Facebook. Use it to look at the demographic info to find who meets your target profile (brilliant!). (I don’t agree about not buying ads, but the target demos are great!). ~Dharmesh Shah, Hubspot

If you want to see even more highlights from me or others during the Inbound Marketing Summit, check the #IMS09 hashtag on Twitter Search.

Overall, an incredible conference!! A few suggestions for IMS next year. Include people’s Twitter names in the program, on their nametags,  and on the screen while their speaking. Improve the wireless.  Add a case study component… so many great minds together in one room!  We can break into a group of 10 and all work on a different case to put together a social media and marketing strategy and tactics.  Do short presentations so we can all learn from eachother.

(Photo credits: Group, Chris Brogan, iPhone, CC Chapman)

Anything important I missed?  Feel free to add or comment on the above!

I am honored to have received an invitation from BzzAgent’s Founder/CEO Dave Balter to review the private beta for the new product they are launching, called BzzScapes. I was invited with eleven other people, and am truly excited by this site, so wanted to talk a bit about it.

First… what is BzzAgent?  It’s a word of mouth marketing company.  The way it works, is that people sign up to be an “agent” for a particular brand’s campaign, they receive materials in the mail, and then report on their experiences.  For example, a few months back, I was an agent for the Boston Market campaign (completely unrelated to my Twitter name of @BostonMarketer!).  I received a package in the mail that educated me about Boston Market and gave me coupons to use. I was supposed to use the coupons and buy the product, and then report my experiences with the brand and with telling other people about the brand.  This model is incredibly successful at spreading the word about products and services.

About BzzScapes

But, being immersed in the online world, I had been surprised that BzzAgent didn’t have more of an online presence or plan for using online for word of mouth.  BzzScapes is their first answer to that question, with online communities that allow consumers to create, add to and interact with the brand “Scape”.  Consumers create a central place for content they find about brands they are interested in.  They can upload their favorite photos, videos, experiences, websites, etc. Anyone can create a Scape for a brand, anyone can add content to a Scape, and anyone can rate/review the content.  Community members can “follow” brands so they are updated when new content is added, and also follow and communicate with other community members.  The site has only been in beta testing until its launch this morning, but there are currently three thousand community members, 300 Scapes and 4,000 pieces of content already on the site.

All of this is free to the consumers and free to the brands, as it is all user uploaded content.  However, if a brand chooses to, they can pay BzzAgent $5,000/month to “activate” their brand, which gives them additional services.  For activated brands, BzzAgent will upload the brand’s content into the BzzScape (only consumers can rate content though).  The brand will also be promoted in certain areas throughout the site and in BzzAgent emails.  And, most importantly, the brand gets access to consumers, so can poll them, ask them questions and test out new ideas.  A brand can also pay BzzAgent to find new users for its Scape.


I LOVE the idea of BzzScapes, and think it is interesting from both the consumer and brand perspectives.

Consumer perspective

For consumers, this platform is interesting, as it allows people to connect with a brand and shape the way the Scape looks, without a corporate influence. Consumers have the opportunity to become an opinion leader in the eyes of the brand and other consumers.  And, they can connect with others who have a passion for the brand.

Brand perspective

For brands, this is like free marketing research.  They can see what consumers are uploading and how they are rating these items, which can provide valuable information about where people are focusing their attention.  Its giving the brand a window into the minds of people who want to engage with the brand. It can also help enhance a consumer’s loyalty and passion for the brand, by seeing more content about it.  With the “activation” option, having the ability to find your top supporters and detractors is something that often times can be difficult to do.  In addition, since each item is categorized into “type” (good, bad, why you buy, etc.), brands can track changes in the sentiment about the brand over time.

Another benefit to the brand is that bringing all this content together in one place will certainly have an impact in search engine rankings.

Landscape view of the Lego brand

My overall thoughts

I think this is an incredibly exciting and innovative way to build an online community, with content as opposed to conversation.  As a marketer, the benefits of being able to use the information in the BzzScape is a great addition to other research and data.  And, being able to reach out to supporters/detractors is invaluable.  Like any research, however, it needs to be looked at in a context of other data, and analyzed for it’s inherent potential biases.  For example, I would imagine that people who participate in a Scape will more likely than not be passionate fans, and secondly passionate detractors, but not much in the middle.

I also see the Scapes as encouraging loyalty solely by people participating in the Scape.  By talking to others, seeing more content, they may become even more loyal.

A primary way I see these Scapes becoming viral is for people to use the Share  feature in BzzScapes, where you can click a button to share content on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, etc.  The sharing option is there, but could be beefed up on the site a bit more, by suggesting sharing when a person is engaged with rating or commenting.

One concern I had is surrounding transparency, which is something important for success in social media.  I was concerned that consumers would think that the brand owners rated their content highly in order to make their BzzScape look more favorable.  But, Dave educated me that brands that are “activated” are not able to rate their own content (they can just add content).  I think this is something that needs to be communicated, to educate consumers that the Scapes are consumer generated and driven.

In order to start a new Scape and have it visible to others, a consumer needs to upload five pieces of content, which seems to be a high barrier to participation.  I’m not sure why there needs to be a limit, but if there is, I believe that three would be more reasonable.

What do you think of this new product?  How do you see it being used?  Would you participate as a consumer or as a brand owner?

On Tuesday, I attended the Online Marketing Summit in Boston, which was 1 of 18 stops on their “Whistle Stop Tour”. I attended the same conference last year, at the beginning of my journey learning about online marketing, so it was interesting to see how much I have learned in just one year.  I definitely recommend checking out this conference if there is one in your city.

Below are my notes from the day.  By far, the most interesting and personally useful topic to me, was the talk by Chris Baggott.  You can also see other people’s tweets from the day here.  Feel free to ask any questions or make a comment below.

Keynote (Aaron Khalow)

• Online retail up 11%, overall retail down 3%
• 63% of people who go to a website and don’t find why they want will never come
• 92% of people go first to search to find what they are looking for

Integrating Online Into Your Local Marketing Strategy (Internet Advertising Bureau Local committee)

• Weather.com is a great place to advertise because it’s national but local at same time. National news can be Same if register
• Why pay when you can create your own content? Answer – speed
• IAN smart brief is their weekly email
• Technographic – targeting based on a specific technology
• 66% of Internet users would click thru an online ad if it’s well targeted
• Auto, real estate and general merchandise are highest categories.
• 70 percent of Bostonians (city, not Boston area) are online. Higher than national.
• Only 26% of marketers feel that their company is tech savvy
• Local advertising is growing faster than national

Online Video: Secrets to Viral Video and Advertising ROI (eConsultancy, YouTube, BrightCove, Visible Measures, Nabbr)

• Very cool HD18910 Samsung camera phone ad on YouTube – engaged people
• Once you get popular in video it’s easy to stay popular
• Video campaigns that work invite people in and get people to share
• Advertise on YouTube. It’s not a about getting a million views. It’s about getting the right views
• Healthination is good example of video use. Use answers.com.
• Nabbr is about push and YouTube is about pull
• Another way to get involved in video is with sponsorships
• Video knows no limits. May even want to see what ended up on cutting room floor. May have legs
• YouTube is 2nd largest search site after Google
• Kobe Bryant Nike video was watched for 82 seconds although only 1 min. Rewinding and watching again
  • Only 40% of 14million views were on YouTube. Also users engaged with comments and ratings

Improving Search Marketing ROI During a Recession: Top 10 Insider Tips (Ben Hanna, Business.com)

1. Look before you leap

• Know your goals and priorities

2. Don’t try to boil the ocean (take one step at a time)
3. Improve relationships with sales
4. Find where you’re not capturing value

• Marketing Sherpa increased conversion rates by 39% by adding offers to their thank you page

5. Start from a focused base

• Exact match or advanced match
• Advanced match advertises for keywords that are similar to the keywords you’re paying for
• Search implementation vs. content implementation (??)

6. Pick apart the buying process

• You must cover all buying stages

i. Could focus social media on early state of process
ii. Focus SEO on later stages
iii. Early stage – SEO & relevant community participation
iv. Mid-state – directories
v. Late-stage – branded keywords

7. Reduce buyer risk & barriers to conversion

• Office depot boosted paid search revenue 200% by incorporating customer reviews into ad copy

8. Roll out the purchase incentives

• To improve conversion rates, attack conversion barriers
• Clarify target audience & purchase type

i. Blank slate –> free trial (extend it if need to increase?)
ii. Repeat modified
iii. Repeat

• Simplify landing pages

i. Clear call to action
ii. Compelling trial discount or other incentive
iii. Eliminate sensitive form fields
iv. Indicate commitment level – 30 day vs. 90 day vs. autobill

9. Get social

• Search marketing is the glue that holds together all of their activities

10. Target the doer

• 2 basic buying roles

i. Doers – have to get something done
ii. Buyers – attempting to enforce a rational buying process
• Most people focus on doers

11. misc

• Ad copy – what is the person trying to address? What issue are they trying to solve? Benefit not feature.

Advanced Blog Strategies – Chris Baggott, Compendium Blogware

• People who find you because of searching and finding your blog convert more, bounce less, buy more and stay
• Experience is that if you give people the capability to give content, they will
• Search is an acquisition tool; Email isn’t
• Phones and website are changing the way we do business. It’s not the phone or the website itself though. It’s what you can do with it. And it’s not going to be with ads!
• Fastest growing key words are 5+ words. Grew 22% last year
• Benefit to social media and blogging is to win in search! Not to broadcast.
• What is content? Text, pics, video
• Search means nothing of you don’t have good content
• Most of clicks in search happen in organic results; BUT most qualified leads come from PPC – answer to this issue is blogging

i. If you need to target many keywords, best way is PPC, but it’s expensive;
ii. Most clicks in search happen in organic
iii. So blogging is best way to change organic results

• Most people don’t subscribe to blogs – it’s ok because blogging is for search; most are 1st time visitors
• While they say blogs are good for comments, engaging, community dialogue, it’s ok, but much more important as a foot in the door.
• Good for – More inquiries, increased traffic, more qualified leads
• Can’t control referrals or direct navigation, you can only control search — that’s what a blog is for
• Why does blogging work so well?

i. Search works on titles, keywords, recency/frequency, blog volume, relevance, links

• Blogging is not about thought leadership, although it might happen as a benefit
• Why blogs are your #1 search marketing tool; Keys to successful search blogs

1. Title – instead of Chris Baggot as title, use “list building technologies” … you need MULTIPLE blogs for capturing various types of business – need fleet of blogs

2. Use the language of your customers

• Think about what people are going to type and rank on that

3. Keywords

• 4-7% of your post should have to do with the keywords
• Key to writing posts
• Blogging is a volume driven strategy. Not every post has to be a white paper or major thought leadership. Minimum every day or multiple times a day.

4. Recency/frequency

• Need to blog every day
• Employee bloggers are 5 times more credible than C-level bloggers
• All employees who get a business card, should have capability to blog – tough to do, but ideally would be great
• The more you write about a topic, the more traffic you’ll drive

5. Measure both relevance and ROI

• Great thing about effective search is that the customer gets exactly what they wanted. Blogging does that very effectively.
• Need a way on your blog for your customer to convert to a purchase – Best Buy doesn’t have that
• Ok to use same content on your multiple blogs is good if you have a clear path
• Host multiple blogs on same site, with same domain name – still on same website
• Best way to do a link strategy is to have strong content – it will happen

Big Brands, Big Plans Panel

• How handle irrelevant user generated content? Community will automatically vet it
• What’s a proper extension of your brand and what’s not? (bud tv, ESPN phone failed) you have to listen before doing anything
• Is meaty content generated by users or paid? Must be balanced.
• If you’re not authentic, accessible and consistent yours setting yourself up for failure
• Smartphones will really change how we buy; GPS will change things too
• An injection of negativity in content helps the credibility

Any questions about the above? Comments?

Note: This is a version of a post I made on the Wall Street Journal online blog on 3/18/09.

With so many people out of work these days, I have noticed that it’s very easy to get caught up in the job search process, and forget to stay current in your industry. Staying current is not only important to be on par with your future employer, but given your flexible schedule, you may be in an even better position than they are to be more in-the-know.

I am a marketing professional with a background in consumer products, non-profit and social media.  I have been out of work for 7 months, but I have taken this time to learn and stay updated in these areas.  Here’s what I have been doing:

ATTENDING seminars, conferences and speaker events

There are so many local seminars, conferences, networking events and speaker events that are specific to particular industries.  For marketing, I attend American Marketing Association (AMA) events, networking events with speakers, or other social media conferences.  The cost of these events can often be high, but I have frequently asked for a discount given that I am out of work.  A few conferences have been open to this in the past.

Examples: AMA Boston, Inbound Marketing Summit and Social Media Jungle.

PARTICIPATING IN social networking

• Twitter – Follow people in your industry and you will find more links to articles and information than you can ask for.
• LinkedIn – Join groups, ask questions and answer questions.
• Blogs – Write, read and comment on blogs – it’s fast and an easy way to learn
• Other social networking sites and communities – Seek out other relevant sites based on your industry.  For example: Govloop (for government), Firefighter Nation, Finance 3.0

READING books, industry newsletters, magazines and blog posts

With the internet continuing to explode, finding websites with good, relevant information is easy.  I subscribe to over 30 industry blogs and have read a few social media books since I have been out of work.  In addition, Slideshare is a website that allows individuals to post presentations, so searching the site can provide you with a lot of relevant content to learn from.

Examples: Chris Brogan blog, Mashable, Groundswell and World Wide Rave

WATCHING online webinars

Ultimately, companies create webinars to get potential customers familiar with who they are and establish themselves as experts.  Lucky for us, they are usually incredibly informative and can easily fit into a busy schedule, as they are typically only an hour long.

Examples: AMA, Hubspot, The Kbuzz

VOLUNTEERING and TEACHING

Next week, I am teaching a class at TDC, a consulting company that runs training seminars.  Unfortunately, I am not getting paid for this, but it provides me an opportunity to put something new on my resume, and learn something while preparing for the class.  Another idea is if you are affiliated with a local non-profit, why not offer your services to the organization at no charge?  This will keep you current, while still being involved with an organization that is meaningful to you.

Overall, there are a plethora of ways to stay current while you’re out of work.  Doing so, could make the difference between getting a job or getting another “ding letter.”

What do you think of the ideas I have?  How do you ensure you stay current while you’re out of work?

When you spend the time to write a blog post, you obviously want to find people who will be interested in reading it. I have a list I go through every time I write a new blog post to syndicate the content. Here’s what I do:

1. Post it on Twitter 3 times over the next 24 hours, at different times of the day

2. Post on Ping-o-matic (updates search engines that you updated your content)

3. Change status updates with a link to the post:

• Facebook
• LinkedIn (this also adds an update to the weekly update emails people receive)
• Utterli
• FriendFeed

4. Post on Digg (for some posts… it’s frowned upon to do it for every post)

5. Automatic updates:

• Regular RSS feeds using Google Feedburner
  
• Facebook RSS feeds (add the program Simply RSS to your profile and fan page)

What do you think? What else do you do to get the word out about your blog posts?

Most people know that the best way to find a job is through networking. You can go to networking meetings, tap into your own personal network, or ask friends who they know.  With the Internet buzzing with social media, there are similarly many ways to use social media in order to network, and eventually find a job.  According to an article in DMNews, Jeremiah Owyang from Forrester Research agrees that social networks allow all parties involved to better search for and reach their target: “Instead of having a broad, over-arching resume, these tools let people connect over detailed experiences…”

I decided to write down my thoughts on the topic.  I also had an opportunity to talk to Warren Sukernek (@warrenss) who found his job at Radian6 through Twitter!  He gave me lots of great advice in this area, so I’ve incorporated his thoughts below.

1. LinkedIn

If you’re not already on LinkedIn, you definitely need to be.  Basically, it’s a site that allows you to connect to people you know.  It also allows you to see profiles of anyone else on LinkedIn, and gives you ways to connect to them.  There are a few ways you can use LinkedIn in a job search:

• Company search – One of the best ways to use LinkedIn is if you have a very specific company you are interested in.  You search on that company, and hopefully find people who are connected to other people you know.  Then, you can ask your personal contact to connect you.  Or, if you pay $30/month, you have the opportunity to email people who you don’t have a contact in common with.
• Job postings – LinkedIn allows employers to post jobs on the site.  The jobs are usually high quality, professional jobs.
• Email – When I was first laid off, I sent a large email to everyone in my LinkedIn network, letting them know of my situation, and asking for any help or people they could put me in touch with them.
• Blog Link – LinkedIn now gives you the ability to link your blog post to your profile.  So every time I post a new blog post, it updates on my profile, so anyone looking at my profile will see what I’m writing about.  It also includes the updated post in the weekly update emails that go out to your connections.
• Twitter Link – Similar to Blog Link, LinkedIn also pulls your conversations from Twitter.  So, anyone who is not on Twitter, can see what you are tweeting about.

Warren’s advice

• Recommendations – Warren suggested getting many more recommendations on my profile.  (I currently have two, and am nagging a third to write one!)  The idea is to get recommendations not necessarily for jobs, but from more casual interactions.  For example, Twitter.  Someone could write that you provide information and have insightful things to say.  Or, someone you’ve networked with, could say that they have interacted with you on a number of occasions and you were always professional.
• Status updates – Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn also has status updates.  Warren suggests that it’s a good idea to update your status, to better inform your connections what you’ve been up to.  I previously didn’t update my status often at all!  I now plan on updating it more frequently, but also updating it with a link to each new blog post.
• Headline- LinkedIn gives you a place to add a professional headline.  I didn’t realize that was really seen by anyone, so I had mine as “Consultant”.  Warren’s advice is to make the more exciting and enticing.  Mine now reads “Innovative marketer with a drive for results.”

2. Twitter

The best part of Twitter is that it allows you to connect with people you don’t know, based on common interests.  What a great way to do some networking!  I wrote about my thoughts on using Twitter for a job search tool in “How and why I use Twitter – Part 2“, so I’ll repeat a bit of that, and add some more.

• Basic networking – I am now much more connected to people who are involved in areas I’m interested in.  Today I heard about jobs available at two companies.  I tweeted two people I met on Twitter, and in minutes I had some information about the jobs.
• Job postings – I am connected to a few people who know about jobs that I would not have otherwise known, i.e. @socialmediajob or other recruiters
• Connecting – When someone follows me or I follow them, I read their bio thoroughly.  If it looks like they work somewhere I might be interested in, or if I think they might be someone who could connect me to others, I get in touch with them.  A few have said no or not responded at all, but for the most part, everyone is very open to meeting or talking.
  • Sidebar story… I have been interested in Communispace for a while now.  I signed up to go to a Marketing event at Harvard Business School, and was excited to see that Diane Hessan, the CEO and founder, was going to be on the panel.  Coincidentally, a few days after I registered for the event, Diane started following me on Twitter.  I sent her a private message (DM) saying I was looking forward to meeting her.  She responded quickly, and it was clear that she had looked at my website and had a good sense of my experience.  She said she was looking forward to meeting, and I should bring my resume for her at the panel.  When I did meet her, it didn’t seem like we were meeting for the first time… it just opened up the lines of communication that much more.
• Companies – My new favorite Twitter tool is Twellow (on my list of programs I “use regularly“), which actually searches people’s bios and URLs on their bios.  It’s amazing!  For example, I did a quick search on Shift Communications, a company I would love to work for.  As you can see in the results, I can see that 13 people from Shift are on Twitter.

Warren’s advice

• What’s going on – Warren suggests I be more proactive in talking about what’s going on in regards to my job search.  So, mentioning things more often about interviews I have had, or people I have met with.  This keeps it fresh in people’s heads that I am looking for a job.
• Reaching out – Warren also suggests just reaching out to people I want to network with and saying something like “Hi – I’m looking to break into social media.  Is there anyone you can think of to refer me to?”
• Twitter name – Warren opinion is that your Twitter name should be your name, as it will help in your search engine results.  For example, bostonmarketer (my Twitter name) will not help get my name ranked higher.  And, people aren’t going to search on bostonmarketer, they will be searching on my name. (I’m not sure I’m ready to take Warren’s advice on that one!)

3. Facebook

I use Facebook primarily for connecting with friends or people I know and reconnecting with people in my past.  But, it can also be an effective networking tool.

• Notes – While I do know everyone I’m friends with on Facebook, I don’t necessarily know or remember where each person works.  And, I definitely don’t know where each of their friends work.  So, when I first was laid off, I posted a “note” on Facebook, explaining the situation, and what I was looking for.  A note tends to stay on people’s screens longer than a status update, and you can write much more.
• Status update – I do frequently post status updates relating to my job search, to keep it top of mind that I’m still looking for a job.  I’ll say things like “I had a great interview this morning… keep your fingers crossed!” or “I have a networking meeting later today with a company I’m really interested in!”.  I also write a status update with a link when I write a new blog post.

Warren’s advice

• Notes for blog posts – Create a “note” for each blog post.  As I mentioned above, notes stay on people’s screen’s longer.  Also, I think that some people may be more likely to read it if the text is right there on the screen rather than having to click through to the blog.  Also, if they comment on it on Facebook, it becomes even more viral.
• Tag your friends – If you write a blog post that includes a reference to a friend on Facebook, tag them in the note.  That way, their friends will be alerted to your post, and your message will spread more quickly.
  

4. Blog

I think a blog is a critical piece to getting a job in today’s world.  A blog allows you to do a number of things:

• Showcase your talents to potential employers – they see how you write, see what’s important to you, see who you are personally and even see examples of your work.  All that, before they even meet you.  It helps make you a real person versus a piece of paper resume.
• Comment on other blogs – This gets your name out there even more, and if you write something interesting, it may catch the eye of a potential employer.
  
• Blog about opportunities you want – As I mentioned in “Networking,Chris Brogan and websites, oh my!”, Chris Brogan suggests blogging on the types of jobs you want. For example, if I want a job at a specific nonprofit doing marketing, I can blog about ideas I have for them.  That was the inspiration behind my post on the restaurant group, and it was great to be able to talk about during my interview with the restaurant.

Warren’s advice

• Talk more personally about the different aspects of your job search

5. Online Communities

I hadn’t done anything with online communities, so it’s only Warren’s advice on this one!

Warren’s advice

• Look for small online communities in my areas of interest.  For example, The Society for Word of Mouth or Marketing 2.0 (website address?).  You can post your blog on those sites, pose questions, answer questions or start a discussion, and bring in my blog post.

Overall, I believe that social networking is the way to go in today’s digital world, particularly with the current economic situation.  In Warren’s words, “You need to do an integrated online marketing campaign to find Rachel Levy a job because the regular s–t doesn’t work anymore!”

Update: Jeremiah Owyang from Forrester Research has also written about this topic in “What you Need to Be Thinking About Regarding Social Media and Layoffs“… great post!

What do you think?  How are you using social media in your job search?  How do you see job candidates using it?

In today’s economy it’s a common, and understandable, fear that you might get laid off (sorry for the dose of reality). So rather than being stuck like a deer in the headlights if it happens, here are a few things you can do to get prepared, in case it happens to you:

1. Get involved with networking groups

Find a couple of networking groups in your area, and start attending the meetings. Overall, many people only network when they are actively looking for a job, but it’s a good idea to keep up your network even when you are not looking. Be sure to find general networking groups that cover a wide variety of people and industries, as well as industry specific groups. You never know who knows who, so your next job could come from the most unlikely person.

In Boston, I recommend the following: Boston Young Professionals Association, Downtown Women’s Club, Boston Salty Legs Networking Group (small group, so it may not be open) or American Marketing Association, Boston.

2. Connect through online social networking

Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are key ways to network in this day and age.  Now is the time, to start connecting with everyone you know through these websites.  Have each site scan your email address book to find people you know.  Look at the people you are already connected with, and see who you know that you can also connect with.  Update your profile so it’s current as of today.

Now is a good time to decide how you are going to use each of these sites.  For example, I use Twitter to connect to people with whom I have similar interests.  I use Facebook for friends or people I know on more social basis.  And LinkedIn is more for networking, but only for people I have met or spoken to.  Everyone has their own personal style on these sites, but it’s a good idea to decide your plan ahead of time.

Another way to use LinkedIn is to find groups that interest you or you are somehow affiliated with, and join them. For example, I am part of Innovative Marketing, PR, Word-of-Mouth & Buzz Innovators, Social Media Pros, and 7MBAClub.  You should also reach out to people you have worked with in the past and ask them to write recommendations for you on LinkedIn.  When applying for jobs on the site, it helps to have recommendations.

3. Start looking online at job postings

Even if you are not ready to apply for jobs yet, it  never hurts to start looking.  You will have a better sense of who is hiring, what the market is like and what the current salaries are.  Set up RSS feeds now to start getting the job postings coming to you.

You can also never start too early in applying to jobs.  The application and interview process can take a long time, so you might benefit from being ahead of the game.  Just be careful with confidentiality related to your current employer.

4. Update your resume

Start writing your resume early, so you’re not rushed and stressed about updating it, and so you have time to have other people in your industry review it.  You are also in a better position to access numbers and information from your current employer to show the impact you have made in your job.  You can create your resume in MS Word and/or use a program like Visual CV.  An example of someone I know who uses this is Ari Herzog and his virtual resume looks great!

5. Get back in touch with recruiters

Scour your contact list for recruiters you may have been in touch with.  Send them your resume, and tell them you are not actively looking for a job yet, but to keep you in mind if they come across something that would be appropriate for you.

6. Take on consulting projects

Start putting the word out to your network that you are willing to take on consulting projects.  This will help you make some money the short term, and will also keep a flow coming in the event you are laid off.

7. Start a blog

A blog is an important way to communicate with people who are interested in finding out about you.  A potential employer will most certainly look for information on you online, so why not give them something that you have written that interests you.  It makes you more human, and adds personality to your resume.  If you start early creating a blog, you will hopefully build up your readership prior to the lay off news.

It’s really much easier than a lot of people thing to start a blog.  You can use WordPress or  Blogger or many of the other blog writing programs out there.  You should also be sure to use the Blog Link program on LinkedIn, which will update your contacts when you write a new blog post (this has led to great exposure for my blog!).

(Photo credit: Nicole Sunday)

Do you have any other ideas for how to be prepared for a layoff?  Please leave a comment below!