Just Step Out!

The words that cause a tremble for young paratroopers the first time they jump from an aircraft. Followed by an encouraging size 11 to their rears!

This is the third in a series of posts on business blogging initiated by the blog post:
‘Don’t make your blog a slog!’

Getting started is all about taking the first step - the hardest step. So how do we get started? Is there any help available? What are those first few steps? For many people the biggest issue is what to blog about.

Start by reading other blogs especially in your industry or area of interest. This will give you ideas for subject material and enable you to follow other blogs and comment on the same. Some bloggers focus solely on responding to other bloggers’ posts.

Think of a name for your blog. Yes you can use your own name if you’re a key person and leader. But for many it is the industry, interest, profession or trade which attract followers. Be inventive and not to serious. It needs to indicate your subject matter yet be interesting. I was quite pleased recently to think of the title ‘Desert Geeks’ for an IT services client in the United Arab Emirates.

Now choose a blogging platform. There are several good ones including these:

• Typepad
• WordPress.org
• Blogger
• WordPress.com

My own preference is for Blogger as I can use my Google login there.

Once you sign up for Blogger, for example, quickly get it configured. Choose a theme and layout. Add your biography and photo which should be your regular social media photo. Add your blog title and define your easy to remember hyperlink. Each blog has its own url link just like a website. There are lots of gadgets available such as social media links, share to Facebook and Twitter etc. So choose some and get some help if necessary. Images and video are powerful too! Now you are ready to write your blog post and get it published.

Ok and ready to go? So what should I blog about I hear you say... Here are a few ideas:

• Write about your passion – it will just flow
• Write something informative – add value to be enjoyed by readers
• Write about your expertise – bear the audience in mind and no jargon
• Write of topics that personalise your business – reveal a few secrets
• Add some humour – write with a smile on your face
• Comment on others’ blogs – start the conversation and generate ideas for blogging
• Tell great stories – we all love great stories!
• Lots of shorter posts is better – keep readers in suspense too
  

If you are getting the same question about your work or interest then write a blog post about it. Then when you asked again simply refer people to the blog post on the subject. It will save you time for sure.

Then paste it in the body of your blog, add a title, save and publish!

Have you done it yet?

Solid Foundations

This is the second in a series of posts on business blogging initiated by the blog post:
Don’t make your blog a slog!

It’s useful to understand some of the fundamentals around business blogging. These are best highlighted in answering a number of questions:
• Can it be used as a marketing tool?
• Are there any personal benefits?
• Who is my audience?
• Is it cost effective?
• What’s the difference between a website and a blog?
• What is a blog?
• Does the Google search engine like blogs?
• What are the common mistakes of business blogging?
• Any good tips?

Can it be used as a marketing tool?

Yes of course. It’s a website and you’re free to promote your goods and services. Some companies have sold their wares exclusively on their blog page. Check out: http://clip-n-seal.com/blog.htm Post content which is appreciated by your target audience and in a subtle way, promote alongside it!

Are there any personal benefits?

Yes you are promoting your personal brand with each and every post. Your posts will illustrate your ideas as a thought leader in the industry. Experiences shared will highlight occasions when you excelled in challenging situations. Your personality may shine through as you relax and write often. Buyers will gain trust in you and prospective employers will see your strengths.

Who is my audience?

Who are you writing for and why? Clearly identify the attributes of your ideal customers and business partners. Then go out and find them on social media sites. They are in LinkedIn groups, on Facebook pages and under the relevant hashtags on Twitter. Include your current clients and peers in your target audience too.

Is it cost effective?

I use Blogger and it costs nothing. That’s not a bad deal. There are lots of benefits including free promotions, new leads, sales, increased brand awareness and personal branding. Is it worth an hour of your time once a week? It should be a big boost to your visibility, credibility and revenues!

What’s the difference between a website and a blog?

A business website is you in your business suit and speaking in a very formal tone. Generally, it is broadcasting in one direction. Your blog is you wearing your smart casuals and speaking more informally. You’re more relaxed and happy for interaction to take place.

What is a blog?

Blog is short for weblog. It is a website in itself with its own web address. It includes special features such as social media links and comments from readers. It offers a great opportunity to get to know customers and partners better too. It can also be one part of a conversation in the blogosphere.

Does the Google search engine like blogs?

Google absolutely loves blogs and all activity is quickly reflected in their rankings. Together with videos on YouTube, blogs are a great way to get great exposure!

What are the common mistakes of business blogging? There are many and here are a few:
• No author bio, picture and comment section
• No social media buttons
• Broken Links
• Stealing blog content from others
• Inconsistent posting
• No personality in the writing
• Not commenting on other blogs
• Posts are too long
• Being a know-it-all

Any good tips?

Yes! Don’t make these mistakes; be interesting; write for your audience; be passionate; and, get blogging!

Next time around we’ll look at getting started as a business blogger. In the meantime check out my latest blog set up for a client: http://it-serve-gcc.blogspot.com

Would you like to be known as a thought leader in your industry?
A simple yes or no please.

Don’t make your blog a slog!

Everybody’s doing it or threatening to do it. Some are personal blogs and some are written about interests or hobbies. These are relatively straight forward and it’s easier to write about things we like so much. Business blogging tends to be dreaded a little more. It shouldn’t be. It’s time to take a more relaxed view. Don’t make you’re bog a slog.

There are five areas to address to overcome any anxiety:
• Fundamentals of business blogging
• Getting Started
• Using a blogging platform
• Attracting followers
• Business benefits of blogging

It’s useful to understand some of the fundamentals around business blogging. These are best highlighted in answering a number of questions:

• Can it be used as a marketing tool?
• Are there any personal benefits?
• Who is my audience?
• Is it cost effective?
• What’s the difference between a website and a blog?
• What is a blog?
• Does the Google search engine like blogs?
• What are the common mistakes of business blogging?
• Any good tips?

We’ll try to find answers to these questions in my next blog post.

The first step is always the hardest. So how do we get started? Is there any help available? What are those first few steps? For many people the biggest issue is what to blog about. We’ll go into more details later. But for now writing about your expertise or those subjects you are passionate about will inspire you more. Tell great stories – we all love story tellers. Also try to answer those issues that commonly arise from customers and employees for example. More later...

Do you need to be a geek to set up your blog? I’ve set up a few blogs at Blogger.com – a popular blogging platform. The answer is no. You can set up a nice design with images, embedded videos and social media links without any technical skills. More later...

Once we have a blog set up and we are posting content how do we get people to follow our regular posts? It’s all about creating good content, interaction with other bloggers, leveraging your connections on social media sites and utilising specialist blog search engines. More later...

Is it all worth the time and effort? As a social media marketing tool business blogging can add value is several ways. The benefits come from the interaction with stakeholders, building trust with prospective buyers, search engine optimisation and sharing with your network. More later...

We’ll have a look in more detail at all five areas to address to overcome any anxiety business blogging in the next few posts.

Would you like to be known as a thought leader in your industry?

A simple yes or no please.

Hello My Friend

We are on holiday currently in Goa in India. It’s a nice place and the people are very friendly. The rain was hammering it down when we arrived 2 days ago but since then it’s been warm and dry. I decided to use the 2 weeks to chill out, keep the plates just about spinning at Drive Social Media and do a little blogging. The best tip I can give on holding the readers’ attention or the delegates’ attention during training courses is to tell stories...people love little stories. My stories are a mixture of wholly true, partly true or made up...and I am confused myself now which is which... J If the story adds a little value or helps someone to be successful or overcome a problem it’s worth telling.

Today we took a taxi and adopted ‘Su’ as our driver for the holiday. Fair play to him he made sure that he had added value to our2 hour taxi ride before he raised the subject. He made sure we were comfortable for the journey. He then pointed out all the local spots we may like to visit. If we liked holy places and places of worship he told us about them with enthusiasm. He fascinated us with his talk on Hinduism. We told him we wanted a supermarket so we could buy some essentials like decent coffee and dried milk – the hotel coffee being rather poor unlike the food which is very good. He waited 1 hour while we did our shopping and had lunch. He asked what kind of things we wanted from the holiday. We enjoy a little sightseeing, nice places for lunch, and a good bar for the football. He advised us on each one. At the end of the trip he said if we needed him, he gave us his card, we should ask the hotel to call his local number. A testimonial from the hotel no less. We didn’t need it. We had already bought....and despite his Manchester United shirt.

The bartender Mallu was friendly enough. He helped us get my laptop powered across his bar so I could catch up on emails. Then he chatted with Genny as I did some work. It had been tough on business for the hotel in the last 2 years. The Europeans and especially the British were coming in less numbers because of the recession. Thankfully, the Russian tourists had filled the gap and kept the hotel busy. He preferred the Europeans. They were friendly and he learned English from them. The Russians didn’t speak English and they didn’t much like the British. They were unfriendly and drank heavily. I suggested he learned some Russian or at least show willing for his guests. He agreed but that led to another issue. He learned how to say “How can I help you my friend?” in Russian. Unfortunately, this was interpreted by Muscovites as meaning they were now preferential guests and started demanding discounts on everything..... Oh dear.

A couple of regular Indian guys today exemplified some great pointers for business people and online and offline networkers.

Listen to your customers and give them some great value. Treat them with respect and they will buy. No need for a heavy sales pitch.

Choose your customers well. Fairness and respect is needed from both sides for a long term fruitful business relationship.

Oil and Water by John McGrann

Oil and water don’t mix – neither do internet marketing and social media marketing. The former is an online version of a market trader selling direct and energetically; the latter an extension of word of mouth marketing. It’s not a question of which is more effective marketing. Both can be very effective. It’s a matter of realising that the two don’t mix easily. If at all...

Social media marketers (SMMs) leverage the relationships built on sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for business. All other forms of internet based marketing can be ascribed to Internet Marketers (IMs) including these examples:

• Display advertising

• E-mail marketing

• Interactive advertising

• Cost per impression

• Affiliate marketing

• Cost per action

• Search engine marketing

• Search engine optimization

• Paid inclusion

• Mobile advertising

So what are the differences between IMs and SMMs?

SMMs market their own limited products / services, or as an agency on the behalf of the client. It is a long term commitment and client relationship. IMs will market any products/services which can be monetized and the life of the relationship can be very short. Certain IM schemes allow for IMs to act as agents without ever meeting the client. It’s cold and clinical.

The premise for SMMs success is that of ‘word of mouth marketing’ and relationship building. We like to do business with those we know, we like and we trust. IMs success is down to identifying and exploiting internet based marketing schemes and systems. The requirement is to be sharp, on top of it, and very active using the right systems and tools. There are lots of ‘secrets’.

SMMs will clearly identify a target audience for their products / services and seek out their targets on social media sites. IMs may have many targeted audiences which change often. For them it’s a numbers game. Blast away at the numbers and a percentage will engage them.

SMMs need to be subtle, develop relationships and trust. They are highly visible on social media sites offering lots of added value to prospective customers. It is expected and free. IMs have no such requirement.

In social media, one to one conversations are very important. Emails sent to prospects would be minimal. Sales pitches to prospects would only be allowable after a certain maturity of the relationship, or at the bequest of the prospect. IMs think little of blasting emails on a daily basis to those on their ‘list.’ The ‘list’ is the basis for success. Such emails will be very repetitive and are a form of spamming. The IM would counter that the prospect has subscribed previously. The IM would claim that a prospect needs to view the same information a number of times to make that decision to buy.

The internet is littered with many examples of ‘get rich quick’ schemes which are often nothing more than scams. Many successful IMs will have built up enough intelligence to know the scams and avoid them. Others are less fortunate. Such scams give IM a bad name. There are no ‘get rich schemes’ for SMMs. It’s a long road adding value and building trust – there are no shortcuts.

The successful IM will offer his / her skills and ‘secrets’ as a paid mentor to those seeking large ‘passive’ incomes. Opportunities are in high demand and you need to ‘get signed up quickly – now in fact!’ Successful SMMs are expected to share content and ideas, help others along the way. It is giving with the expectation that rewards will come later.

Social media marketers are social and extend good networking practices to the internet. Internet marketers will go for the jugular, wear down their target if necessary – it’s a numbers game! It’s exciting and fun! It’s not very social...

I am not advocating the IM or the SMM position here. I am merely giving you a few guidelines on identifying the traits of both and their method of operation. Either can be successful and satisfying. It depends on what suits you or your brand. Beware of mixing them!

Two sides of the same coin

Is social media networking in conflict with, or complementary to, traditional networking?

The reason I ask is because I have recently joined a formal networking group here in Dubai. I am noting many similarities and some differences with the basics of social media networking. I also sense that generally there is a belief that you engage in one or the other. It’s the ‘old’ versus the ‘new’. But maybe in the future the best way is to engage neither social media networking nor traditional networking alone - but in ‘total networking’.

Social media networking and marketing is the process of promoting your website or business through social media channels such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and many more. It is a powerful strategy that will bring you connections, attention and increased amounts of website traffic and ultimately leads for your products or services. It is powerful in building business partnerships locally and globally. Social media networkers need to have a systematic approach to building a large network and targeting their niche audience within it. It includes selecting the best media sites, establishing a presence, growing your virtual network and nurturing relationships. If all that works then keep those plates spinning!

Traditional networking involves formally structured groups meeting on a regular basis with well proven successful processes in place. Most activities take place within the group or chapter. However, connections can be made to other chapters within a reasonable distance. Other members of the group will act as your salesperson generating referrals and new business. Membership is paid annually but should be recouped early.

Both forms of networking generate new connections and new business. They are both based on the premise that we wish to do business with people we know, we like and we trust. They each have a softly, softly approach to engaging connections in our sales process. Strategies are long term and hard sellers and spammers are not welcome.

There are differences of course. Social media sites are free and accessed from the comfort of your home or office. Building networks and targeting audiences is much easier via social media sites. This applies to customers and business partnerships alike. Joining relevant customer conversations, sharing knowledge and getting help is also much easier online. But traditional face-to-face networking is so powerful and nurturing relationships online is THE serious weakness of social networking. The proven structures and processes in traditional networking yield great results too. Social media prospecting without a system can be time wasteful and frustrating.

The way ahead is to engage in both forms as total networking. Using the strengths of each to address the weaknesses of the other seems the way to go. Add some enablers such as Instant Messaging and Online Meeting software to the mix too. So which form of networking is the best? I don’t know - nor do I care.

They are two sides of the same coin

John McGrann

CEO Drive Social Media

Drive Social Media presents a conference

Drive Social Media presents a conference on:

Successful Social Media Strategies

Wednesday 17 March 2010 at 10am at
The Kissos Hotel Paphos

Presented by John McGrann MBA ACMA AIMC


Social Media Marketing is the fastest growing way of generating new leads and business using internet based sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more.

Promote your website or business through social media

Support marketing, public relations, and customer service

Powerful strategy to gain connections and attention

Leverage communication and collaboration in your organisation

Generate website traffic and leads for your products or services

More than 400 million potential customers online



Programme:

Social Media Marketing Fundamentals

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

You Tube

Customizing the Success Cycle

Case Studies of Social Media Successes

Blogging & Personal Brands

Time Management & Niche Sites

Measuring Return On Investment - ROI

Social Media trends and predictions

Top 10 Keys for Success

Online follow up training sessions



Info & Register: info@drive-social-media.com

Tel: 96-728265

Website: http://www.Drive-Social-Media.com

Blog: http://drivesocialmedia.blogspot.com