Stretch Your Blog with Podcasts
I have been recording and distributing my podcast for several months and really enjoy the variety it adds to my blog. I can invite all sorts of interesting people to share their thoughts, ideas, and perspectives with my readers. And, I get a chance to create content, without a lot of writing.
While More Than A Few Words is not the most popular Podcast on iTunes, it is allowing me to share my perspectives in a different way, with a different audience.
Podcasting is easy. It doesn’t require a lot of expensive equipment or a lot of time. I was really surprised at how quickly I learned to use Audacity to edit my podcasts.
I won’t be moving to a completely audio format. My written posts still attract the majority of my traffic, but look for more podcasts in the coming weeks as I introduce the team at Roundpeg.
One Theme or Many?
About three weeks ago I wrote a post entitled Small Business Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Small Business Marketing. In it I compared different strategies of driving traffic to your web site.
One strategy is to stay focused on a specific theme. I decided to give this concept a try. So from Feb. 7 – Feb 23 (With the exception of a special post on Valentines Day) I wrote about business planning every day.
The results are mostly positive.
- I have a great library of content to share with clients and prospects.
- I saw an improvement on my placement on searches for key words such as ”small business planning Indianapolis” and “business plan Indianapolis”
- Lots of cross traffic between related posts, so this improved my time on site statistics
- Increase in registrations for my Business Plan eCourse and my Business Plan Seminar
The one downside? My overall traffic numbers were down slightly. What this seems to indicate is one of several things
- Maybe I picked the wrong topic to use as my central core. Perhaps there isn’t as large a population among my readers who are interested in business planning as I hoped. However, the cross traffic does indicate there is a solid niche so planning needs to stay as part of the mix. To test the topic theory, I may try another string of related posts, on a different topic.
- My readers like diversity. So if I want to continue to expand my readership, perhaps I need to continue to diversify my offerings to appeal to a wider range of interests among small business owners.
- Maybe, my readers missed the different voices of my team. Since each of the team; Jay, Michelle, Allison and Taylor each have a different perspective and following, bringing back more of their ideas may drive our numbers more than a single key word. And while I am at it, I may look for a few more guest posts as well.
So look for a few more experiments over the next few weeks and give me some feedback on what you think will get more readers engaged.
Small Business Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Small Business Marketing
Or How to Help Search Engines Find You without Boring Your Readers!
As a writer and person, I have many interests. However, as a blogger, wishing to cultivate an audience, I need to narrow those interests and focus on a few topics to help search engines and readers find me.
So, I write about small business marketing and business planning. But some times I get tired of the same thing. I feel as if I have written it before ( and sometimes when I update a theme, I have!) This creates a challenge because I want to keep the content fresh and interesting, but consistent.
I have studied a number of bloggers to see how they find the balance. And some do it better then others. One of the best is Louis Grey. Primarily tech focused, he gives us an inside view of what is going on in Silicon Valley, human explainations of new technology ( instead of GEEK SPEAK) and the occasoinal look inside his personal life, and the challenges of raising twins. His recent topics have included :
- Hard But Smart Decisions: Blogger Tackles The .5% Problem
- EdgeTheory Conversations: Twitter’s New Suggestions
- Apple & Google are Primary Enemies? At What Cost?
In contrast, local Social Media Expert, Kyle Lacy has moved in a different direction. A year ago, his blog covered a wide range of topics. Today, as his business has become more and more focused on Social Media exclusively, so have have his posts.
- Social Media from a Generation Y Perspective
- Empower Your Employees to Win with Social Media
- Marketing Through Social Media is Not Easy. Plan Accordingly
While I miss some of his customer service rants, and general musings, when I am looking for social media content, he is my first stop. And his strategy is helping him win search. Just type “social media Indianapolis” into your search bar and see who tops the list!
Some writers have found the balance by creating multiple blogs. ( I have no idea how they get anything else done). For me, the balance seems to be, writing primarily about small business marketing, but allowing myself, from time to time, to ramble off in different directions and hope my readers enjoy the detour.
Blog Farming
I have often used the farming metaphor when teaching classes on networking. In a recent post Chris Brogan channels the same concept with regard to your blog. Drawing a comparison to farmers, Chris lists 11 “chores” which should be part of your daily routine if you are serious about writing a blog
Some were things I do on a regular basis, ok not always every day, but fairly often:
- Get your blog post up. Make it helpful, worthy of comments and unique.
- Comment on other people’s blog posts.
- Share other people’s blog posts.
- Comment back to people who’ve commented on your blog.
There were other things on his list which are not a part of my daily routine, but should be, such as:
- Read something not related to your market.
- Connect with five people not in your vertical or your geography.
- Reconnect with people who matter. Drop an email or call. Don’t ask for anything.
And finally there were ideas which had much broader implications. These are things which are important, not just for my blog, but for business in general.
- Look at the map of where you think things are going for your business. Anything change?
- Read the “weather” from the blogs you follow. Anything there?
- Think about what seeds you might plant for future projects.
- Share at the farmer’s market your best yields.
When I looked at the list, I realized it is a lot to do every day. I guess that is why farmers get up so early.
As I work with small business owners, presenting a list like this can be overwhelming. My advice, mix it up. If blogging is not your core business, but a way of connecting with customers and bringing them to your core business, then create your own farming list, and include some of these elements every day.
Develop Good Habits!
Good habits take practice and repetition. If you want to develop good eating, exercise or study habits, you have to work at it. The same is true for your blog and the rest of your social media habit. As, ProBlogger Darren Rowse explains, it requires a system. He outlines five steps to improving your blog.
- Don’t bite off more than you can chew
- Regularity is more important than High Frequency
- Under Promise and Over Deliver
- Build a Schedule
- Have Someone (or Something) Manage You
While all of these are important, I think number 3 tops my list. This applies to more than just your blog. The same is true for email. Don’t promise a weekly or monthly email, and then fail to deliver .
To be sure I always have new content, I always write more than one post at a sitting. I like to have at least a half dozen stacked up and ready to use. If I hit a dry spell, or I am just really busy, I still have something new to share with my readers.
Twitter is to Marketing What Microwaves are to Cooking
Thirty years ago, my mother-in-law, a gourmet cook, she didn’t think she would ever use a microwave. Raised in an era of slow cooking, taking all afternoon to prepare a meal she couldn’t imagine ever using a microwave to cook a roast or bake a cake. And she was right, the microwave was not the right tool for that type of cooking. However, as she began to experiment with it she did discover, there are things the Microwave did extremely well.
Today, at 81 years old, the microwave is the most used device in her very active kitchen. She still bakes and roasts in the traditional oven, but she defrosts, boils water, parboils vegetables, reheats and steams vegetables in the microwave.
There is a lesson there for small business owners! Tools become mainstream, when we figure out how to use them as part of things we already do. For example, Twitter. I wouldn’t use it to replace a press release, or sales brochure, but it has a place in my marketing mix. It is great for the quick hit, and little extra juice to my overall marketing plan.
So if you are still sitting on the fence, unsure about Twitter and other social media, take a lesson from my mother-in-law and try it out! Boil a little water and see the results!
New Year, New Beginning
This week I began as an account executive here at Roundpeg. As many of you know, I served as an intern here last summer, and I was lucky enough to be invited back to work full-time. It’s been awesome coming into a situation where I’m already so comfortable and feel I fit in so well. With that being said, there are some adjustments for a recent college grad that hasn’t been awake before 9 in the morning since high school (hello McDonald’s breakfast menu!)
With the new year beginning, we have all kinds of new projects. This is the time of year many companies decide it’s time to optimize their marketing efforts, which keeps us plenty busy. There are tons of new things I’ve got to learn and become accustomed to. Luckily, I have a great-and patient-crew around me to help.
The best part about my new job has been the opportunity to work directly with clients right off the bat, as well as be a major contributor to several campaigns…and this has all been in the first three days.
So far, it’s been one new adventure after another. In my first two weeks I will have already worked on designing websites, attended corporate events, contributed to the blog, and opened dialog with a handful of clients. I’m discovering and learning new things every day.
I’m really excited about all the possibilities 2010 has to offer. Here at Roundpeg we’ve done a number of things to improve our business strategy and put ourselves in a great position to achieve our 2010 goals. What changes have you made to start the year off right? How will you improve and make 2010 your best year ever?
Hoosier by Choice!
If you have been reading my blog lately, you may have noticed a definite Indiana bias creeping in. It is by design! A native of NYC, I have traveled though much of the US, and lived in several cities. Today I choose to make my home in Indy.
Beyond the good friends, and comfortable life style, I am intrigued by the potential of this city to be so much more in the next decade. Like a farmer in the spring time, I see the seedlings of a great city, with art, culture, and tremendous business opportunities. And yet, we are often overlooked, the Midwest’s best kept secret.
Today, December 3, 2009 (12:30pm EST / 11:30am CST) tweeters from the banks of the Ohio River to the shores of Lake Michigan will try to change that perceptoin by sending a tweet containing “#Indiana” The goal is to get #Indiana to trend among the top ten words on twitter.
What types of things will people be writing about? Organizer Amy Stark suggests we write about “something fun about ” #Indiana” or a favorite #Indiana tradition or vacation spot. The idea is to show the global twitter audience how cool Indiana can be.”
In a vibrant conversation on Smaller Indiana others have voiced opinions we should also write about things going on in the business community, about some of the successful new technologies which are emerging here. ( Address Two, Bank Service Inc)
I will be among the bloggers posting comments at 12:30. I will probably share a note about my favorite coffees hop (Lulu’s on 86th) or my husband ( @aballstudio) and his exhibit as part of Modern Perspectives this Friday or maybe a note about something one of my clients will be doing.
What about you? Will you help grow the trend?
Social Media is a Means, Not an End
One of my favorite Social Media writers is Jason Falls. An avid social media enthusiast (his blog is called the Social Media Explorer), he still has a balanced approach to the medium.
With a strong background in traditional PR, he sees social media as a means to an end, but not the end itself. This perspective was very clear in a post he wrote earlier this week entitled Why Social Media Purists Won’t Last.
His argument: You have to do more than just talk, talk, talk. There has to be a business purpose tied to social media or companies will stop paying for it. There has to be action tied to the bottom line. His sound advice for professional or would be professional social media experts:
If you don’t stop selling the fluff and start driving the bottom line, you’re going to have to go back to whatever you were doing in 2005. It’s not about convincing the curmudgeon. It’s not about waiting it out until digital natives are calling the shots. It’s about making social media drive business for your clients or companies. If you don’t, you’ll soon hear, “You’re fired,” and it won’t be from Apprentice reruns.
For Roundpeg, and our small business clients, he has hit the nail on the head. It is not about spamming or losing the personal touch to your social media. It is about social media with purpose. For example:
- Write blog posts, but be sure to include key words.
- Share personal information on Twitter but, in between the coffee dates and the conversation, don’t forget to mention a promotion your company is running
- Drive traffic to your site with social media, but have something for people to do when they arrive.
- Track the results from different social media and invest time where you get results, not where the cool people go.
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Event – Social Media Lunch and Learn – December 2.
Join me, Colin Clark, Michael Reynolds and Dave Anderson as we discuss these and other emerging social media trends at an informal session from 11:30 – 1 at the Fox and Hound on 82nd. The event is hosted by Pinpoint Multimedia. It is free to attend, but RSVP’s are requested.
Lunch and Learn with PinpointMultimedia
My good friend Dave Anderson has asked me to be part of his Lunch and Learn program next week. The topic is social media, and I will be sharing the panel with some of my favorite local social media experts; Colin Clark, Dave Anderson and Michael Reynolds.
The event will be from 11:30 – 1:00 on December 2nd, at the Fox and Hound on 82nd Street in the Castleton Area. There is no cost to attend the informal event, but RSVP’s are requested since space is limited.
Hope to see you there, for what is sure to be a lively conversation!
