Blogs: How to come up with content

Last week I talked about WHY I think you should have a blog. Today let’s tackle the really overwhelming part of deciding to move forward with a blog - “how will you come up with the content?”

Karen wrote a great post earlier this week on how to keep the flow of ideas going for new content. Here are a few other ways to make content creation a little less overwhelming:

Recycle

Think about all the content you’ve written and created in the past.  Did you write articles for a community newspaper, do you have flyers in your office about the benefits of what you do, do you have interesting content on your web site that doesn’t get much attention? Another example is old newsletters. I had a client who had been sending out a montly newsletter for 5 years before starting her blog, she was able to find a LOT of content to reuse.

Repurpose that information - take it and tweak it and make it into a blog post!  You’ll likely be hitting a brand new audience and if not, it will be a good refresher.

Series

Having a common theme you tackle every week takes a lot of the guess work out of what you have to write.  Karen writes Buzz and Brilliance every week and she now has it down to a science.  She knows what information she needs to have ready, when she needs to write the post and how it will look. Knowing ahead of time what needs to be done makes things a lot simpler.

Images

Not every post needs to be content heavy. Sometimes a photo(s) with a caption is enough. Before and after photos by an organizer for example.

Guest posts

Not all the content on your blog needs to be your own. We often get guest posts from others. It’s a great way to offer varying opinions and information on other expertise to your audience.  (You can also to guest post on other people’s blogs!)

Outsource

If you simply don’t have the time to create enough content you can hire someone to write some of your content for you.  (This isn’t a sales pitch, but that is one of the services we offer.)  By having someone else write the content you know you have regular content going out and a reason to drive traffic to your site.

What method would help you with your blog content?

Blogs: Why you should have one

For many, the thought of creating a blog seems time consuming and more work than it’s worth.  We agree that if you won’t maintain it, you shouldn’t start it.  But we also really believe you SHOULD have a blog (and keep updating it).

Here are a just a few reasons why we think it’s time for you to take the leap:

1) Blogging is an opportunity to establish yourself as a leader in your field.

Blogging is a great way to share your knowledge with others. If you’re a professional organizer, show people how well you organize and tell them how they could organize themselves.  If you’re a physiotherapist tell them how to prevent injuries while doing sports or what the best ways to treat sore body parts are.  If you’re a restaurant, share recipes and show off photos of the amazing food and events that happen in your space. The opportunities to show off what you know and what you do are endless with a blog!

2) Blogging gives you regular fresh content to draw visitors to your site.

Why should people come back to your site? Do you have a reason to suggest that they do? With a blog you have a great excuse to keep sending people back - whether it be with links from different social networks or an email newsletter. Once they are on your site, you can lead them to other parts of your site. Your web site is your home base and ultimately where you want people to visit.

3) Blogging is great for search engine optimization (SEO).

Search engines are constantly trolling the web for new content. If your site is stagnant you get lost in the shuffle. Make sure you use key words in your posts; the kind you’d want people to search and find you with. The more new content you have, the more likely you will start ranking higher in searches.

When will you start your blog? If you already have one, please share the link in the comments - we’d love to visit!

3 reasons to use social media for customer service

Customer service can make or break relationships. When it’s consistently satisfying needs, complaints are minimal and growth may be steady. When it’s consistently exceptional, the bar is set and patrons are often slightly more forgiving of slip-ups. When it’s bad, your company can develop a poor reputation that will eventually affect the bottom line.

Fortunately, thanks to technology there are a plethora of tools at our disposal that can help organizations stay on top of the needs of their customers and prospective customers.

1) You want to be where your customers are.

This week updated numbers were announced for Facebook - they’re up to 900 million accounts. Twitter announced a few weeks ago that they’re up to 500 million accounts. On these two networks alone, you will find customers and prospects for your business. Being able to answer complaints, compliments and queries through the channels people are using to discuss your business makes good business sense. You wouldn’t run a business without a phone or website. Social media is yet another essential communications tool.

2) You want to know what people are saying, even if they aren’t saying it to you.

With the advent of the Internet, businesses were given a gift on a silver platter - the ability to allow the world to find them. But it works two ways. Your business can monitor keywords for your industry, products and company name. Imagine the ability to respond to a need and gain business simply by being a good “listener”. Social media tools can give you the ears to hear far more than ever before.

3) You want to capitalize on scalable word-of-mouth marketing. 

You already offer quality products services with stellar customer service and people like to talk about your business any chance they get. That’s a powerful position to be in. Social media will take that to the next level for you. Based on the infographic below, people are 71% more likely to purchase based on social media referrals. 

Ecommerce Marketing Software - All-In-One Inbound Marketing Software

The bottom line? Social media has a big mouth and big ears. Contributing value to the conversation will only benefit your business.

Have you ever had a great customer service experience through social media? Tell us about it!

Case study: Blendtec

There are many out there who are using social media to build their businesses or AS their businesses.  We will be finding interesting content and featuring their stories here regularly.

Video is one of those things that most of us know we should do (because so many people love to watch video and because video is really rich content - always good for SEO!) but that few of us actually ever do.

What holds us back?

- Fear of not producing a good enough video

- Not having the right equipment

- Not having the time to invest in video

- Feeling our product/service isn’t really “video friendly”

- Uncertainty about how to create good content

I can’t help you with the first three other than to say, you can do it, practice makes perfect, you don’t need fancy equipment and find the time, but I do want to talk about the last two points. It’s just about finding the right angle.

Make it entertaining

As a general rule, the most popular videos on YouTube are popular because they are fun or funny. People want to be entertained.

Blendtec is a fabulous example of a product you wouln’t necessarily think of as “fun” but they have done an incredible job at promoting their product and their brand on Youtube.

Blendtec sells heavy duty blenders and kitchen products (like food mills) and in 2007 they started a viral marketing campaign called “Will It Blend?”

Blendtec’s primary target audience is businesses with commercial kitchens - restaurants, schools, etc. Yet they’re reaching the masses with these videos. That means your mother’s sister’s partner who runs a restaurant can hear about this product from someone who doesn’t even run a food service business.

The owner, Tom Dickson, started producing videos demonstrating what their blenders could blend.  He has blended everything from matches, to rake handles, to cellphones and iPads.

Over the years their YouTube channel has had close to 200 million views, they’ve created an entire line of “Will It Blend?” products, and they have said that the videos have clearly accounted for an increase in their sales.

Blenders aren’t really a product you think of as “fun”. Tom Dickson managed to do something different and creative that has taken his brand further than it ever would have gone otherwise.  I certainly don’t know of any other industrial strength kitchen product brands, but if a friend of mine ever opens a restaurant I’ll definitely be asking, “Oooh - are you getting a Blendtec??”

Have you thought about how you could jump outside the expected with your business and create a fun video for your business?

The not-so-secret formula to well-rounded social media content

The Daily Beast posted a short, but fun clip yesterday about Katie Couric returning to a morning news show for the first time in six years. She joined George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s Good Morning America, which is apparently a ratings move since GMA is very close to beating out the long-dominant Today Show on NBC for the top morning spot.

Here’s the clip of Katie getting ready for her first day on the set of GMA:

As I watched a few of the videos that were released about Katie’s return to morning news, I got to thinking about these shows and their immense popularity. They run 3-4 hours during the busiest part of the day for most people, but they have huge audiences. There is amazing loyalty amongst viewers, proven by the fact that NBC’s Today Show has held the top spot for 16 years.

What is the magic formula?

Morning news shows have created a format that connects with audiences and makes them feel part of what’s going on.

• They start off with a little light-hearted banter,
• Move into some minor news items and work their way slowly into the heavier news items,
• Dial it back with some weather, and
• Jump back into banter before an interview or performance. 

It’s a formula that works.

As much as we like to say that social media is on a different plane than traditional media, a case could be made that social media use should look a lot more like a morning news show.

Provide Value, Humanity and Some Fun

Businesses often start out in social media looking too much like the stodgey news anchor as they deliver the 6:00pm news. Serious. Unflappable. Untouchable.

Every day between 9:00am and 6:00pm, the news becomes too serious and too brief to spend time creating the connections audiences experience on morning news shows.

Social media users want to see a human. When businesses don’t interact with followers, it creates a wall that’s hard to breach. There’s value in broadcasting content, but engaging the audience, making them feel like they’re part of a two-way conversation will go a lot further. That’s how loyal audiences stick around for the long-haul. 

Source: RadarOnline.comHow can you apply the morning show method to your content?

1. Don’t take yourself too seriously. It’s okay, even as a business entity, to have a little fun.
2. Talk to people. It doesn’t have to be deep, personal conversations.
3. Share your business (and even repeat it). Just don’t make business the primary focus.
4. Be true to your brand. Professionalism, integry and appropriateness do matter.
5. Post relevant content from other sources. Your business/content isn’t the only thing going on in the world. 

Tell us about a business you’ve connected with through social media.