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This our first video podcast.  It’s not Hollywood quality, but we’ll get to that someday (maybe).  This is an introductory podcast on Twitter aimed at marketers who have heard about it but haven’t yet jumped on the Twitter bandwagon.

Twitter is a micro blogging platform used by individuals and businesses to communicate rapidly about anything they want.  You can search for people and businesses using keywords.  As you find people of interest you can choose to “follow” them in Twitter.  Each person you follow is sent an email notice with a link to your Twitter profile.  They can choose to follow you (or not). 

Optionally you can require that people send a request to follow you.  This is the way to create a private Twitter community.  The default is that anyone can follow you.

Twitter is being embraced by early adopter businesses.  Examples of companies using Twitter include Oracle, Apple, Comcast and the Los Angeles Fire Department.  Locally in Tampa Bay, ABC Action News uses Twitter to communicate breaking news throughout the day.

A small company who is using Twitter effectively is inbound marketing pioneer, Hubspot.  Several staffers at Hubspot are actively “tweeting” throughout the day.  Additionally, Hubspot has a company branded Twitter profile used to communicate new blog posts and updates on company activities.  They get it!

One big advantage of Twitter is access to good content.  If you build a following of people with common interests you will benefit from links they provide to interesting content such as blog posts and articles.  You should be one of those who contributes good content to your community.  Your following will appreciate it.

I liken Twitter to “many to many instant messaging.”  Businesses can use Twitter as an effective platform by setting up private communities of subject matter experts who help each other out.

Follow Bernie Borges on Twitter: http://twitter.com/berniebay and Chuck Palm on http://twitter.com/chuckpalm

Tags: Hubspot, Introduction to Twitter, micro blogging, Twitter

Lee Odden wrote a great blog post about 5 ways to re-purpose content for blog SEO.   I will add a 6th way here inspired by Lee’s blog post.

While reading Lee’s list of 5 suggestions, he reminded me of how many times I encounter smart people in a business who have so much domain expertise.  I often marvel at it and think “man, if only we could get him or her to write a blog!” 

Lee’s suggestions include re-purposing content that smart people have previously created in the form of PowerPoint slides, press releases, articles, old blog posts, etc.  Great suggestions.

One observation I have made in my career is there are two types of people in a business: those who like to write and those who hate to write or are not good at it (no wisecracks please).  :)  Ok, so there are other attributes, but for this topic these two attributes are the key point.

When someone who likes to write interviews someone with domain expertise and writes it up as a blog post, it leverages the great content inside the head of the person with the domain expertise without placing the burden of writing on him or her.  And, the person who likes to write gets to write.

If the domain expert is someone high up the ladder like the CEO, the writer will gain good recognition.  If the blog content produced (and this could be a big “if”) is good content and gets good SEO results, the likelihood of making a habit of this approach is pretty high, resulting in good blog content with SEO value.

If this approach sounds like ghost writing, that’s exactly what it is.   As Lee Odden said in his post, using something old to achieve blog SEO success is a fine strategy.  Right Lee?

Tags: blog SEO, Lee Odden

This blog post is an excerpt from my forthcoming book on social media marketing…This chapter discusses the risk factors in social media marketing.  The book’s version is considerably more detailed.

No Strategy
Perhaps the biggest risk in social media marketing is diving in without a strategy.  Too often, companies jump on the bandwagon without first developing a plan.  The second worse risk is having the wrong strategy.  A social media marketing strategy requires research, observing and planning in order to develop a plan which can succeed and can be measured. 

Another risk marketers run is to ignore social media.  I often hear from marketers “we plan to get into social media somewhere down the road.”  That’s not a bad strategy if they are listeners in social media.  But, if they are totally ignoring the existing communities and conversations already taking place, they are potentially ignoring threats and opportunities TODAY. 

Lack of Understanding
I believe the biggest risk any organization faces when considering using social media is a lack of understanding its potential and the (mostly) unwritten rules of social media marketing.  The interesting thing about this comment is that social media is an evolving platform, yet there are fundamental components and characteristics in place which are very black and white (with a few shades of gray).  Organizations who come to understand the social, viral and technological characteristics of social media have the greatest potential to achieve positive experiences. 

Lack of Top Down Support
Understanding social media starts at the top of any organization.  Isn’t that usually true of most new business ventures?  For a large corporation with thousands of employees, it’s not totally necessary for the CEO to understand social media for successful experiences.  Staffers can experiment with social media, but they risk getting embarrassed if something goes awry and the CEO learns of it.  In fact, the possibility of the CEO learning about a negative experience from social media is extremely high due to its pervasive nature.  So, while I believe the CEO doesn’t necessarily need to be on board with a social media experiment in large corporations, I strongly advise it. 

Abandonment
Throughout the course of history, there are countless failed marketing experiments.  As consumers we have been witness to some failed marketing experiments – remember the DeLorean car? How many Super Bowl commercials can you remember from companies still in business (other than Budweiser)?  And, of course, there are gazillions of failed marketing experiments we’ve never heard of in market niches with no consumer exposure.  So, it behooves most organizations to venture into social media conservatively.  I’m talking about the proverbial dipping your toe in the social media waters.

Poor Allocation of Time and Resources
Another risk is not spending enough time at it.  Organizations that choose to embark in a social media strategy must allocate time to it.  When it is considered additive, the risk of abandonment is high. 

Poor Definition of Roles
A related risk is not redefining job roles to reflect a commitment to using social media.  If you consider social media marketing additive, then who do you add it to?  Once a social media plan has been developed, or a successful trial has been completed and you’re ready to commit more to a social media plan, I recommend a formal review of people’s job description and in most cases revising job descriptions. 

Not Having the Right People on the Bus
Once the roles have been defined, documented, discussed and everyone is on board, the heavy lifting begins.  In most cases, some heavy lifting has been in place for some time, but now you are in a better position to turn it up a notch. But, what if you realize you don’t have the right staff for social media marketing?  The fact is some people just don’t understand social media.  Sometimes the barrier is demographic, but most often it’s just a “don’t get it” mentality.  Or, worse yet, some may just resist it for any number of reasons.  There are still many people who are stuck in a paradigm, and they are not ready to shift to the social media paradigm. 

It’s your job to recognize who may embrace using social media and who may shun it.  If you are not the manager and you want to convince management to begin using social media, you may have a tall task ahead of you.  But, you should look for the same openings I’m describing here.

Measuring Results Poorly
As your social media strategy progresses, you want to measure progress or results.  A big risk is measuring the wrong metrics or not measuring at all.  The key is to develop a strategy that allows you to measure something that is meaningful.  Measuring the wrong metrics that don’t correlate to your strategy is potentially dangerous.  Likewise, attempting to measure prematurely is potentially dangerous.  Depending on your social media strategy, results can take months to develop and to blossom.   Measuring results over a sustained period of time is the key to measurement that matters. 

There are risks in using social media, but the potential benefits are outstanding.  The risks outlined here should not dissuade any marketer from harnessing the collective power of social media. 

Tags: risk factors social media marketing, social media, social media marketing, social media strategy

Business blogging is a hot topic.  I recently podcasted on the importance of having a blogging strategy.

Yesterday, Chris Brogan wrote a great post with 9 ways to promote your blog.  I agree with all his tips, especially sharing your best blog posts (not all your blog posts) with your network. 

But, I want to be direct about an observation many of us in the Internet marketing world experience.  Business blogging is getting harder.  Business blogging requires a big commitment.  Guys like Chris Brogan of CrossTech Media, Mike Volpe of Hubspot and Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester Research spend a lot of their time blogging because it’s a big part of their business.  And, not only do they have a lot of good content to share with us, they have developed a loyal following through their blogs.

What about the average business competing to sell widgets every day?   How do you develop a strong business blog with limited time for blogging?

I don’t know if my tip is the silver bullet….But, here it is.  Think “small.”  Forget what you’ve been taught about “thinking big.”  Think small! 

Target your blog for a narrow audience with a very narrow topic.  Don’t worry about what you can write about, unless you don’t have a subject matter expert (in which case don’t even consider this idea).  You’ll be surprised how much you can write about a narrow topic.

Most businesses have a well defined target market.  Pick a segment of your target market and start a blog on it.  Maybe it’s a very specific industry segment such as office furniture dealers.  Just write about office furniture dealers.  If you have more than one person in your company qualified to write about this narrow topic, that’s even better.

There are at least three advantages to a narrow approach to business blogging.

1. You don’t have to write very often.  If you write about once per week or so, that is sufficient.  Just be consistent and write good content for your target audience.  Don’t write every other month, then once a week, then every other month.  Your blog will go stale.

2. The probability of your blog being noticed is greater because it is so narrow.  In fact, if you get a little lucky, you may get a handful of people in your narrow niche that really embrace your blog and promote it for you to others in your niche.  If that happens, you’ll find out that your niche is bigger than you thought.

3. Less competition.  Tecnhorati is currently tracking 112 million blogs.  In your narrow niche you’ll only be competing with 10 of them.  Ok, I made up this (second) number.  My point is you’ll compete with a fewer number of blogs for mindshare in your narrow niche.

4. Promoting your blog will be easier.  Just refer to Chris Brogan’s list of 9 ways to promote your blog.  If you do just half the suggestions made by Chris, your blog has great potential to become popular and give your business great exposure and open new doors for your business.

I said there are three good reasons for a narrow niche blog strategy, but I gave you four reasons.  I thought the fourth reason might be added to Chris Brogan’s list for an even 10.

Send me a link to your niche blog.

Tags: business blogging, Chris Brogan, CrossTech Media, Forrester Research, Hubspot, Jeremiah Owyang, Mike Volpe

I wrote my first blog post about Twitter on July 26th.  That was less than three weeks ago.  It may as well have been a year ago. 

The Twitter adoption rate is amazing.  To say Twitter is being adopted at lightning speed is more than just a corny cliche, it’s an understatement.

I previously wrote about how businesses, news media, non-profits and individuals are widely adopting Twitter.  So, what is all the attraction?  I know people who shun Twitter and (likely) will never join the Twitter ranks.  The polarized extreme of people who shun and people who are addicted to it is fascinating.

A lot of individuals use Twitter.  But for businesses the social marketing, branding and even SEO value of Twitter has become obvious to me.  Here’s how…

I often blog (ok, I preach) about the importance of producing good content to help your organic search marketing results.  Twitter limits your posts to 140 characters.  So, how can you produce content in Twitter that serves your organic SEO plan?  Simple - link to it from Twitter. 

Twitter is a social communication tool.  You can add any content you want, including links to other content.  The people who follow you (whether public or private) do so by choice.  So, if you post links to meaningless content, your followers may “unfollow” you.  So, be selective about the content you post.

Below are two of my sample Twitter posts (known as Tweets) with links to recent blog posts.

Adding links to your content in your Tweets is an effective way to promote your content.  Promoting content is a necessary part of any social media web marketing strategy.

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/berniebay

Tags: search marketing, SEO, Twitter, web marketing strategy

There are several tools available to help marketers measure the effectiveness of their social media marketing efforts.  Some of them include free tools like, Blogpulse, Trendpedia, Trendrr, Google Blogsearch and other vote-centric sites such as DIGG, StumbleUpon and Reddit.  These tools are some of the most popular and readily available tools used to track, measure and monitor social media content.  They are all free to the user community. 

In the spirit of sharing good content, Nathan Gilliatt, Principal at Social Target, LLC has published an impressive list of tools to monitor social media results which include commercial tools which have a cost.  The list of tools is growing every day. 

But, how do you measure brand equity? Admittedly, measuring brand equity is somewhat intangible.  But, that depends on your perspective (is the glass half full or half empty?).  Large companies place a lot of importance in measuring brand equity.  But, most companies are not Nike.  So, how do the rest of us measure brand equity? 

In social media marketing there exist new opportunities to positively affect your brand equity.   It all starts with the people in your company who are active in social media marketing.  Previously, I’ve used the example of Matt Cutts from Google.  When someone from your company takes a visible position in a social media community, and they effectively communicate meaningful stuff that the community truly appreciates, you are positively affecting your brand.  How do you measure this? 

If you hire a PR agency with good social media skills, that’s one way to measure it.  If you use some of the tools described above including some of the commercial tools, that’s another way to measure your brand equity.  But, here is a simple tip that takes ten minutes and doesn’t cost a dime.  Go to your Google Analytics account or equivalent website traffic analytics program.  Assuming you have had your analytics in place for more than one year (which you should have), look at the traffic that came to your website from the keyword “your company name” (insert the name of your company).  Study the traffic coming to your website from your company name over different periods of time starting with a period of time before you became active in social media marketing.  If you are actively engaging, listening and interacting with your community in social media, you will see an upward trend in traffic to your website coming from some combination of your company name or the name of the person (or people) who are actively involved in your social media strategy.  I’ve experienced this firsthand as both “find and convert” and “bernie borges” are two of the top five keyword phrases driving visitors to our website.  Likewise, the Find and Convert blog home page is in the top three most frequently visited pages in our Google Analytics account.  These two data points alone tell me that my efforts in social media are positively affecting our brand. 

The lifecycle of social media is a continuous loop.  The good news is that when you apply the simple principles discussed here, good things can happen.  But, the flip side is that the “continuous” part of it is such that if you discontinue participation you can lose all the benefits. 

Tags: DIGG, Find and Convert, Google Blogsearch, Matt Cutts, measuring brand equity, Nathan Gilliatt, social media marketing

 

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This podcast elaborates on a blog post about blogging strategies. 

We start with a plug for the annual Tech Jam party hosted by TBTF - a party with a purpose to support the TBTF Foundation!

At Find and Convert, we frequently get asked by our clients about business blogging strategies.  “Should we have a blog?  How would a blog benefit our business and our SEO strategy?”

Sidenote: Podcasting has its roots in blogs.  The first podcasts were posted (and many still are) on blogs.

The real question is what is your social media strategy?  A blog is a component of a social media strategy.  Social media is not rocket science.  It is any web platform where communities of like minded people go, they subscribe, they contribute thoughts and user generated content.  They “socialize” online! The collective influence of communities in social media is very powerful.

When considering a blog within a social media strategy, a business should first consider what they want to accomplish.  Do they have subject matter experts, thought leaders AND the available resources who can be committed to a blog? 

Many companies start and stop a blog because they don’t get instant results.  One reason is they don’t commit the resources to the blog.  I sometimes visit a blog and see the last post was three months ago.  That blog instantly has NO credibility!

Where do you start?  Start by being a “listener” first.  Before a business starts a blog, they should visit other blogs where their community hangs out.  Read about what they’re talking about.  Get involved in those conversations with any frequency that suits your comfort.  You can gain really valuable insights from other blogs.  People can be talking about your company, your products, your competitors and even your employees.  They may be talking about issues your company addresses well but they don’t know that you do.  That’s an opportunity!

What should businesses blog about?  Most companies should blog about what they are capable of blogging about!  Begin by finding the person who has the interest in writing and the knowledge (authority) to write.  If a business has more than one person who likes to write, divide up the roles on the blog.  It’s ok to have more than one person “hosting” a blog.  They should be able to write in a blogging style.  Write conversational, not as corporate speak.  Always write relevant content!

Mistakes to avoid? One big mistake is not being transparent.  Don’t be someone you are not.  Be honest with your community.  If you use a screen name, be real behind the screen name.  No smoke and mirrors.  Your community will eventually find out and trash you.  Don’t underestimate the power of the online community.

How often should we blog?  No one answer.  Just be consistent.  Not too infrequent.  I blog about once per week.  Each business blog is unique.  As long as the content is relevant and of interest to your audience.

What’s the benefit to my SEO strategy? Blog content is an effective way to add content to your website if your blog is connected to your website.  If your blog is standalone you can link back to your website with relevant anchored keywords.  Blog content is an effective way to add content because many businesses struggle with adding fresh content on their website.  The link value of your content is what counts the most in your SEO strategy in the long run.

What’s your blog strategy?  Is it in the context of a social media strategy? 

Tags: blog strategy, Blogging, link back, SEO, SEO strategy, social media strategy, Tampa Bay Tech Jam, TBTF

As social media continues evolve, grow, blossom and even mature among both personal users and businesses, the lines are beginning to blur among them.

Well known social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn are now being used in the same sentence as Twitter and Flickr.  Isn’t Twitter a micro-blogging tool?  Isn’t Flickr a photo content sharing tool?

What about YouTube?  Is YouTube a social networking site?

I don’t intend to give you a concrete answer to these questions.  Who am I to define these platforms? The user community is defining them.  But I will offer some offline comparisons to consider as you ponder this question.

If you belong to a health club, you joined it (presumably) to exercise.  On the surface, that is the purpose of a health club (or gym).  If you belong to a business organization such as a chamber or local business club, each of these organizations has a defined charter.  When you join any of these organizations mentioned here as examples, the premise of your membership is to participate in their charter.

Even if you joined any of the above for pure networking, you have to play by their rules.  You can’t go to your gym and hand out fliers and a business card in street clothes.  You’ll annoy so many patrons you’ll get kicked out. 

I have developed some very good relationships at my health club that carry into my personal and professional life.  I can say the same for a local non-profit business club I belong to (TBTF).  In both cases, my intent has been sincere.  I go to my healthclub to workout.  I go to TBTF functions to get involved, give of my time and talents and meet smart people.  Because both of these examples are local to me, I occasionally overlap.  I see people at my healthclub that belong to TBTF and vice versa.

The same can be said of social networking, even though the local aspect is much less a factor.  I know people in Facebook whom I also know in LinkedIn and Twitter, and vice versa.

So, what’s the benefit to this cross platform networking online?  I submit there are many benefits.  At a minimum I can meet other smart and interesting people through both platforms, and I really enjoy meeting smart people.

Since my profession is Internet marketing, and in particular we do search engine optimization (SEO) for our clients, another benefit is exposure to the content I produce.  Such exposure can result in content being shared among the network resulting in quality links.  Some content exposure can be incidental and some can be intentional. 

As I continue to network in the online social media world, I’m amazed at how the mutual benefits of social, networking and relationship building coincide with SEO value through the propagation of content and organic link building that occurs.

What’s your experience on social networks?  Which platforms do you use the most?  Which platforms mentioned here are social networking sites and which are (fill in the blank)?

Tags: Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, search engine optimization, SEO, social media, social networking, TBTF, Twitter, YouTube