Archive for year 2011
29 Reasons Why Your Company Blog Has Stalled
Apr 25th
By Stanford Smith, Contributing {grow} Columnist
At {grow} we spend a lot of time talking (sometimes arguing) about the intersection of social marketing and smart business. In almost every situation, publishing a blog is an excellent strategy. A blog creates a new marketing asset that generates leads, qualifies prospects, builds loyalty and retains customers.
Unfortunately, publishing a blog is much easier than maintaining its growth. A quick tour around the blogosphere offers ample evidence of how challenging business blogging can be. Empty comment sections, single-digit retweet tickers, lackluster headlines, and anemic topics are just par for the course.
It’s easy for the social media cool kids to chalk these missteps up to corporate laziness. However, there is a different answer. I think it’s just plain ignorance of what’s required to keep a blog moving in the right direction. Marketing managers are just blind to the danger signals that indicate that a blog is heading for obscurity.
So, we’ll take a quick look at 29 reasons why business blog has stalled.
Starting Without A Vision
1) Focusing On The Wrong Audience: Sometimes your audience isn’t the buyer of your products. I’ve seen companies jumpstart their blog growth by focusing on the user of the products rather than the “decision-maker.”
2) “I” Focused: Remember, social business is not about YOU. Blogs that focus on customers, problems, answers, and dreams build value much faster than online sales pitches.
3) Doesn’t Inspire: Your blog must stand for something beyond making a transaction. Readers must catch a glimpse of your hairy audacious vision of the future.
4) Focused on “Things” and not People: Don’t make the mistake of thinking that products enhance more than people. I love Apple products not because they are well designed but because Apples explains how they are designed for me.
5) Infested with Jargon: It’s impossible to craft a successful blog around jargon and abstract principles. The more specific you are about your vision – the better.
6) Doesn’t Lead (pandering to polls, surveys, and testing): Mark and I have been talking about this for a few months now. Your readers don’t want to lead you. They want to be led. Your editorial calendar is proof of your brilliance; it can’t be outsourced.
7) Isn’t Innovative: Blogs die when they depend on me-too topics. If you are unlucky enough to manufacture a commodity product then you’ll need to blog filled with innovative topics.
8. Hypocritical: Your stated vision isn’t reinforced by your social communications. You can’t say the customer service is a priority and not respond to customer service inquiries via Twitter.
9) Shallow – You aren’t creating the stories and content that adds vibrancy and relevance to your vision
Confusing Monologue with Dialogue
10) Barring Comments: Not accepting comments is stupid. If you need to bar comments then you don’t need social media. Period.
11) No Response: People are funny about communication; if they talk to you they want to hear back! Not responding to comments demonstrates that you don’t respect or care about your audience.
12) Robotic, Party-line Responses: When you do comment make sure you sound like a human being. Leave your buzzword bingo skills back in the cubicle.
13) Spotty Posting and Updating: Erratic and unpredictable posting schedules says “you can’t rely on me for information/”
14) “All About Me”: If your blog comments start with “I”, “We”, “Our”, or “My” then you can bet that they will get ignored. Your readers will listen to you after you’ve talked about them.
15) Lack of Gratitude: Saying Thank You is a dying art. Show genuine appreciation for your readers spending time with your blog. Give them free stuff, thank them in your comments, follow them on Twitter, retweet their stuff, link to them in blog posts. It’s the best investment you’ll ever make.
16) Not Encouraging Feedback – Close-Ended Posts: Business bloggers have a devilishly hard time getting readers to comment. After reviewing hundreds of blogs I’ve discovered that most of these blogs don’t encourage feedback. Their posts are neatly summarized statements that scream “don’t comment”. Consider writing your post as if you need reader input to complete the post. Remember The question mark is your friend in social media.
17) Talking At versus To Your Readers: Here on {grow} almost every commenter is addressed by the first name. Do the same. When a readers sees their name they instantly feel that the blog is talking to them and not at them.
18) No Follow-up in Other Channels: Comments, tweets, and updates isn’t the whole ballgame. Email is still an essential communication channel for businesses. Often your most influential readers will ask questions via email. Answer these as if your business depended it on it.
19) Machiavellian Comment Policy: Deleting everything but the rosiest or blandest comments will destroy your blog. Grow a thick skin or go back to putting brochures in the mail.
Failing to Build Rapport
20) Confusing Logos With People: Using a logo as the face of your social media effort is a risky proposition. I understand that branding is important but people identify with visionary people and passionate communities not logos.
21) Not Talking About Your People: Social business works because it tears away the curtain and shows that your company is human, authentic, and engaged. Talk about your people and their contributions.
22) Not Cheerleading for Your Customers: Your blog is a powerful platform for including your customers in your marketing. Celebrate their successes and crow about their people. They will quickly become the #1 source of traffic for your blog.
23) Treating Your Blog Like a Brochure: Blogs build audiences and establish credibility. They suck at directly selling product. Do so and you will drive away visitors in droves.
24) Using Twitter and Facebook for Advertising: Be careful with using Facebook or Twitter as tool for broadcasting links to your blog. These tools require an upfront investment in rapport building before you can use them for driving traffic
25) RT Laziness: Simply hitting the RT button without reading and adding value puts you in the “spam” category and devalues your contribution.
26) Not Following or liking your customers: Find your customers twitter handles and Facebook pages and follow them. This shows that you are interested in them and want a relationship beyond the transaction.
27) Letting your lawyers control your voice: Social Media requires a degree of empowerment and trust. Craft a clear social media policy and educate your team. They are your voice – not the legal team.
28) Confusing Brand with Voice: One more point, your brand is usually built and set in stone by agencies, graphic designers, media planners and copywriters. Your “voice” evolves through communication, engagement, and collaboration with your customers, readers, and enthusiasts. Don’t confuse the two. You might even find that your social Voice is your true brand.
29) Thinking Social Media is the Marketing Team’s Job: Surprisingly, your marketing team a relatively “small” part to play in your day-to-day social media plan. Successful social media programs inspire collaboration between PR, Customer Service, Production, and the executive team.
Are you responsible for steering a corporate blog to success? What are some of the challenges you’ve faced?
Stanford Smith is a hopelessly addicted angler, father of 3 hellions, and the wild-eyed muse behind PushingSocial.com. Follow him on Twitter to get his latest unorthodox tips for getting your blog noticed and promoted.
Take the Mystery Out of Twitter!
, the best-selling Twitter book in the world! Learn the three elements behind every Twitter success, 22 ways to build a relevant audience, strategies to create personal and business benefits, and hundreds of amazing tips and time-savers.Click on the image for a Special Amazon promotion!
The 20 all-time funniest Twitter bios (part 2!)
Apr 21st
A few months ago I introduced a blog post about the 20 all-time greatest Twitter bios I had come across. I have had more requests to repeat this effort than any other blog post I have ever written (I’m heartened to see that I’m making such an impact!).
Could Twitter bios be the ultimate creative effort? It’s not easy stating your case in 160 characters. So here we go Twitter lovers — Round Deux of the funniest Twitter bios ever … and all of these are real (and fabulous)!
@badbanana
Sometimes I just want to give it all up and become a handsome billionaire.
@jeffnoelmidlife
Aggressively unfancy.
@ZacharyColbert
S P E C T A C U L A R V E R N A C U L A R
@bgibbs73
Currently working towards an MBA with an emphasis in fantasy football.
@killer_bunnie
Have own hair and like ugly things
@JAMCollective
Puttin’ the ‘elation’ in ‘Public Relations’
@iamaveronica
I always feel sad for seedless watermelons, because what if they wanted babies?
@TheBloggess
I have friends in spite of myself.
@matsbe
Probably the best meat eater in the world
@jpundyk
Nice guys finish lunch.
@HotAmishChick
Will show ankle for five minutes of wireless
@JeffCThorson
I recently gave up Warcraft so my productivity, and drinking, have increased dramatically.
@growden
there is a problem with this mattress
@howardgr
A man of mystery and power, whose power is exceeded only by his mystery.
@ohyesshecan
social strategy & implementation. will work for shoes.
@katefettie
You know the burnt-out college student in front of you in line at Target who was intermittently chuckling to herself? Nice to meet you, too.
@radmul
If I could sum up my life in one line I would die of embarrassment
@nancyfalls
I’m @JasonFalls’s wife. I am not on Twitter. Go do something useful.
@shariv67
I’m 25% mom 25% comedian 62% boobs 48% mathematician and 100% woman-monkey.
@robburnsbrain
I once sneezed a beenie weenie through my nose. I also made a horse faint in Costa Rica.
Take the Mystery Out of Twitter!
, the best-selling Twitter book in the world! Learn the three elements behind every Twitter success, 22 ways to build a relevant audience, strategies to create personal and business benefits, and hundreds of amazing tips and time-savers.Click on the image for a Special Amazon promotion!
Previous funny Twitter bio editions:
20 of the world’s wittiest Twitter bios
20 of the all-time most clever Twitter bios
A process to connect social media, content marketing and sales
Apr 20th
By Neicole Crepeau, Contributing {grow} Columnist
You’ve probably heard the term “content marketing.” You’ve certainly heard of social media. How do these two trends fit together in your sales and marketing plan?
Here’s a method you can use to determine where content and social media fit into your online sales strategy. Let’s start with your good ol’ sales funnel. These vary somewhat by company, but here’s a typical B2B sales funnel showing the steps a customer typically experiences:
Once you’ve documented your sales funnel, look at the customer touchpoints where your website is important. Your website is usually the hub of your online strategy. Determine where the user is likely to interact with your website.
Next, look at where content can provide a good touchpoint. Remember that content can be distributed allowing the customer to discover it in their own online contexts. Assuming you can reach customers at the various points in the sales funnel, where can content add value?
In this case, content could be valuable in the early stages of the sales funnel, to make customers aware that there are solutions to their business problem. It can also be useful when customers are trying to get buy-in for a purchase, doing detailed research, and during the demo or trial process.
Now, let’s see where social media/social interaction can play a role in the sales process.
Online social contact, not surprisingly, can be helpful at all stages of the sales funnel.
Now you know where the different elements can contribute to the sales process. Let’s look at how they can contribute–keeping in mind the basics:
Compared with content and websites, social engagement is obviously the most personal type of online contact with a customer. It often takes the form of a conversation. Your website, on the other hand, is the least personal form of contact.
At the same time, social media tends to be the least self-promotional. It’s generally frowned upon when companies promote themselves strongly on social media. It’s perfectly acceptable to promote your business and your products on your website, however. It’s both expected and accepted.
Given these caveats, here’s how you might try to leverage content and social engagement in your sales process:
Awareness. At the top of the funnel, you can be present in communities where customers are talking about their business problems, and use social media and content to make them aware that products and services exist. Of course, that means walking the line of self-promotion. You need to be a little more hands-off and neutral when informing customers through social media and content.
Early research. At these early stages, you can try to move the customer to your website through both social communications and content. You use both social contact and content to give basic information about your products and services, the kind of information a customer at this stage of awareness can best benefit from.
Buy-in and short-listing. When the customer is getting buy-in to make a purchase, you can provide support and information. You can develop content that provides data, arguments, case studies, or executive summaries the customer can share with decision-makers. The idea is to specifically target the decision-maker and provide content developed for that person, who may not be the same as the person who discovered the content. On the social side, you can be present and responsive, answering questions that arise.
Likewise, at the short-list stage, you can be available to answer questions, direct the user to appropriate information, and otherwise assist in that decision.
Research and demo. Obviously, the research stage is one that can benefit from a rich set of content and strong social connections. One goal may be to encourage the customer to try the product. If the user demos or downloads a trial version, you can be available to answer questions, provide support, and address any problems. You might want to develop supporting demo content or data sets for specific verticals or roles.
Purchase. Of course, you want to be available before and during the purchase process to make sure it goes smoothly.
That’s how you can use the sales funnel as a way to evaluate the role of content and social media in your sales process.
Of course, there are other tools to use as well, and lots of work to do after this. You’ll need to research your audience and segment them, in order to develop targeted content and social offers. You’ll need to update the website to support these touchpoints, at a minimum creating landing pages to support your content and social strategy. Ads and email may be added to the mix. Etc. However, identifying these customer touchpoints and the methods you’ll use to integrate content and social media can provide a solid start to your planning and form the basis for your work.
P.S. If you prefer to consume your content via video, here’s a video tutorial of this post:
Neicole Crepeau is a partner in Coherent Interactive, which specializes in web, mobile, and social media design and implementation for small and mid-size businesses. You can read more of her original material at her blog, Coherent Social Media or on Twitter where she is @neicolec.
How to save your butt when the social media bubble bursts
Apr 19th
I am going to go on a rant. But first, while I still have my composure, allow me to tell you a short, yet relevant, story.
I started my corporate career in the midst of an economic downturn for my industry. I was working for a Fortune 100 company and to get through this difficult time, the company brought in an outside consulting group to conduct a little exercise called “Overhead Value Analysis.” Simply put, every person from the adminstrative assistant to a vice president had to stand up in front of a group of strangers and justify their existence by explaining how they were contributing to shareholder value.
This was a very stressful exercise, especially for a young man who was still finding his way to the water cooler. But thankfully I was always a numbers geek and could pull out a chart (probably drawn by hand in those days) to show what I was doing, why I was doing it, and how what I was accomplishing was tied to the company objectives. This was an important lesson in my young career and one that has always served me well through many downturns along the way.
So when I hear another round of gurus pontificating last week about the unnecessary annoyance of measuring social media activities I want to shake somebody. I am so very sick of people who have never had to work in a corporate bureaucracy or manage through a budget crisis explain that measuring social media is like measuring your mother, or your pants. Here’s another one that drives me nuts: “The ROI of social media is that your company exists in five years” … again implying that you need to do social media, just because you need to do social media. Bullshit.
Don’t you believe it. You MUST keep measuring, assessing, adjusting, improving. Never get caught with your stats down.
At some point in the life of every company, there will be a financial imperative to slash overhead costs. The bubble always bursts, at least in a free economy. When that happens, everything will be evaluated under the icy glare of number-crunchers — do we cut or not cut? This is the day of reckoning that defines the ”implied economic value” of any effort. Even something as seemingly mundane as social media. You better be able to articulate a business case, and it better be something better than page views and Klout scores, Bub.
Why? Social media is NOT FREE. Every economic activity in a corporation directly or indirectly has to contribute to shareholder value.
Let’s look at how “un-free” social media really is. Let’s assume you have one person working full-time on social media marketing. We’ll assign that person a salary of $60,000. In a typical company, standard health, 401(k) and other benefit costs equal another 50% of the base salary, or in this case, $30,000.
We’ll assign another 20% of base salary for overhead such as office space, shared services support and technology. That’s $12,000. We won’t even address travel, training, or bonuses.
So, our minimal full-up cost for one social media professional is $102,000. As a business owner, are you willing to spend more than $100,000 per year without requiring any accountability for a return? What kind of a company are you running?
I’m a practical guy. I know it may be cost-prohibitive or even impossible to determine the specific ROI of your efforts. Sometimes you need to look at qualitative tools for social media measurement. But there is no excuse for not tracking key measures that contribute to your company’s goals. To support your credibility, your long-term viability, and your personal career in social media marketing, YOU MUST MEASURE.
This is an emotional topic for some, but it shouldn’t be. This is basic business common sense. Are you with me on this one?
Welcome to {grow}
You’re in marketing for one reason: Grow.
Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here.
-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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