Small business have consistently scored themselves  high in customer service in the  Network Solutions’ Small Business Success Index. Yet these small business owners are very sensitive to negative reviews and I can see them becoming anguished. My advice to my small business friends is to remember that in the service business a 100% satisfied customer service is a goal to work towards but not always achievable.

Don’t get defensive and stress over negative reviews. You should view it as a step to help you with your business. Look for the take away from the reviewers message.

Reviewers :

Your best reviewers are your existing customers who will make the best effort to give the business owner the feedback directly – using either a face-to-face (f2f) conversation or the phone or email. If your business uses comment cards or sends out customer satisfaction surveys, these customers may give you their feedback.

If your customers are not satisfied with their experience, they may not feel comfortable addressing it with the business themselves. They will seek out places where they can post their experience or they may just talk to colleagues and friends about their experience with you.

It is important for your business to provide them an easy way to give you their feedback especially if they are not satisfied. This is your opportunity to address it, make changes if necessary and also retain the customer’s business.

Review Sites :

The sites to pay close attention to are the ones that get the best traffic and deal with your business vertical. Some examples :

• Yelp for restaurants (of course yelp has many more verticals )
• TripAdvisor for travel related business
• Angie’s List (this is a review site you have to join for a fee)
• Amazon – I look at reviews for products here even if I am not buying from here. The product pages come up high on search results.

You may find this article A Review of Review Sites on kk.org interesting listing a few other review sites for other subjects. Check if the review site is full of negative reviews about all the businesses listed, research and weigh your options. One way of doing this is to check the rankings of the website on Alexa.com or other sites. Look to see if the comments are getting responses.

Points to consider when studying reviews of your business:

1. Look for the take away, is there a symptom that is common to all the reviewers?
2. Respond to the reviewer to seek more feedback if necessary
3. Make the follow-up personal with a phone number or email address that can help you get more details
4. If the review is a rant and there are no specifics, you may be tempted to ignore the review rightfully. Remember your response to that review will be looked at by all your prospective customers so it is important to respond.

As a rule of thumb, when I look at reviews personally before buying products I read the negative reviews as well. If the product gets 7 positive to 3 negative I am fine with that. I am also thankful for all the folks on sites like Amazon, Yelp and Trip Advisor who take the trouble to write detailed reviews of products for others. I have had many great experiences following the advise given on Trip Advisor.

For an example of a reviewers dilemma see the reviews of the Residence Inn Hershey Park PA on Google Places and on Trip Advisor. It is clear to me that I should follow the Trip Advisor reviews and Marriott should pay more attention to the Trip Advisor reviews as well as they seem to be doing.

What is your strategy for reviewing reviewers? Do you monitor reviews of your business?

Shashi Bellamkonda : Social Media Swami, Network Solutions

Shashi Bellamkonda is the Director Social Media for Network Solutions a company that provides domain names and online tools for small business customers and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and serves as a member of the Marketing Advisory Board of SCORE . The employees gave him the title of “Social Media Swami” Shashi  has  contributed  to the Washington Business Journal, American Express OPEN forum, SmallBiZtrends  and other tech blogs like Smallbiztechnology.com and Techcocktail.

Recognized as one of the Top 100 Tech Titans by the Washingtonian magazine in 2009 & 2011 and awarded the honor of being in The 100 Small Business Influencer 2011 Champion List by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com. Featured as a speaker at national and regional small business, communications and marketing at conferences such as Digital East 2010, SXSW, IABC, PRSA, and Affiliate Summit.

“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Chances are you’re probably doing some of this. Most businesses today have a website, some have a presence on social media channels, and some even have a Blog (or two). Let’s break this content marketing definition down a bit…

• Relevant and valuable content – Blog posts, video, podcasts, eBooks, white papers, etc.
• Attract, acquire, and engage – make a connection that has value to them and you
• Defined and understood target audience – your ideal client
• Driving profitable customer action – your goals met, be they monetary or otherwise

At Wood Street, we’ve created lots of websites, lots of blogs, and have worked with many of our clients to help them integrate social media marketing into these and other content channels. This is all important and useful.

If you’re doing some or all of these things, good for you! But, is your business getting the most it can out of all of this content? Do all elements of the definition above apply to your content marketing efforts?

Content marketing should be fluid. Before I expand on that, let’s take a look at what the word “fluid” really means. According to Merriam-Webster, fluid means…

1a: having particles that easily move and change their relative position without a separation of the mass and that easily yield to pressure : capable of flowing

1b: subject to change or movement <boundaries became fluid>

2: characterized by or employing a smooth easy style <the ballerina’s fluid movements> <fluid recitation of his lines>

When you think of your content, do words like move or change come to mind? Is your content capable of flowing? Does your content have a smooth easy style? It should.

The idea behind content marketing is that you’re targeting your potential clients with valuable content where they’re looking for it. And you’re doing this with the intent of driving them to some sort of movement. Action.

Fluid content can live anywhere. An idea on Twitter can lead someone to a Blog post. A post on your Blog and be shared on your Facebook page and then transformed into an eBook or a YouTube Video or SlideShare presentation – all working towards a common goal, allowing an idea to change position without a separation of the mass.

In order to have a fluid content marketing strategy, you must accept the fact that you’re aiming at a fast moving target. Your audience, more than ever before, is on the move – blogs –> websites –> YouTube –> mobile…

You need to know who you’re marketing to. What are your buyer personas? What do these people look like? What are their hopes and dreams? Ok, a bit far, but you see what I mean.

Let’s say you run a local chapter of the Humane Society. You know your target audience is made up of people concerned about animals who are looking to adopt a pet or looking to care for the pets they have.

What content is going to help them achieve their goals when it comes to their pets? Blog posts about pet care? Sure. Video about animals? Of course. A white paper on the endocrine system of a parrot? Maybe, but that’s one you need to work up to.

The white paper example is important to look at. A white paper can be an important part of your content marketing efforts. But, can you post a technical white paper and expect hoards of pet enthusiasts to flock to it? No, of course not.

Your content marketing is an organism made up of many parts working together as one. Our parrot example could have many parts. Sure, you have the white paper about the endocrine system of the parrot. But, this would be considered “in the weeds” and not the first place someone with a parrot issue would necessarily look.

They’re going to look for quicker answers to their questions. Answers contained in blog posts, a video showing what a parrot experiencing pain looks like or a podcast interview with a parrot specialist talking about a parrot in pain – all placed on the society blog and then shared…

These concerned parrot owners are going to ask their Facebook friends or Twitter followers for resources on pet bird ailments. They might search through YouTube for helpful parrot care videos. Is your content marketing fluid enough to reach all of these places?

As you can see in the graphic above, all of this should lead back to your website and blog, where you have strategically placed, targeted calls to action. For a local humane society, this could be a callout to signup for an upcoming workshop, or a button to donate online.

As you can see, there isn’t one line with a beginning and an end. Content marketing is not linear. It’s fluid. It moves and transforms itself so that it can be where it needs to be when it needs to be there.

Like this article? Why not share it? See the share options in the bar below…

The best form of marketing for any business is when an actual human being validates the experience of the product or service. There will always be times when customers may not have the access to another human being to talk directly and get a recommendation. In the past decade or so consumers have increasingly turned to search engines to provide the feedback personal networks traditionally did.

Search engines like Google will return results that include:

• Websites of companies related to the terms
• Wikipedia pages connected the terms you use for the pages
• Addresses of local businesses
• Results from review sites that mention businesses
• Content from websites that provide useful tips on the subject
• Videos related to the subject
• Related search terms and
• Of course the highly visible ads related to the  term being searched

Try the search for the Frederick Restaurant “volt restaurant” on Google and see the results. Hint to Volt Restaurant is that they could add some more video content or reviews. A caveat about my observations above is that Google results will differ depending on your location and if you are signed into your Google account or not. If you are a user of Microsoft’s Bing search engine – the same search for the Volt Restaurant produces similar results and in fact lays more emphasis on reviews.

Hopefully by this time you are convinced that spending some time on creating a strategy for encouraging reviews will be well worth your time. Customers may be talking about your business anywhere…

1. Off platform: Review sites, blogs, communities etc that are not connected to your online presence
2. On Platform: A form on your business website, forum or blog where customers can provide you feedback
3. Offline: Comment cards, visitor’s books or conversations at gatherings or parties

For off platform reviews you should setup a listening program, even a basic Google Alert, to see where people are talking about you. Consider adding reviews to your On Platform areas as part of your web presence strategy.

Here are the steps you should take for a review cycle:

1. Remind people that you would like a review – This can be in the form of a sign in your business, on billing receipts or order confirmations.
2. Make it easy for them to review by providing them a link in an email, a QR code on the billing receipt or links on your website, Facebook Page, etc.
3. Once you receive a review be sure to thank the reviewer. I am definitely wowed when I hear from the business owner in response to a review. This step is important even if the review is not complimentary as this is a chance to make it right and subsequent visitors will see that there has been an interaction with the business. The bad review may not influence their decision. I have seen first hand how negative review conversations with the reviewer have often converted them into becoming even more regular and passionate advocates for the business.
4. Reviews themselves can be scored by how useful a review was to other visitors. When a review gets a score or is “Liked” by other visitors you should convey this back to the reviewer.
5. Sometimes reviews become hugely popular and are seen by a lot of people, the reviewer may be thrilled by the number of people who see the review . I was thrilled when the review I wrote on a Cleveland Hotel for TripAdvisor was seen by 35 people.
6. Featured reviews are reviews that often make it to the home page of the site or is placed in a prominent position. This should be communicated to the reviewer.
7. Rewards – Cash awards are taboo but you could give reviewers rewards by elevating them based on the number of reviews or scores. Getting reviewers to go from “newbie” to “ expert” maybe an incentive for more reviews. Google Top Contributors were thanked with a trip to the Google headquarters http://b.shashi.co/oo4dMj

The best thing you can do for your business is to help your customers help you by making it easy for them to share their good experience with you and your products. Would you like to add your experience as a business in harnessing the power of your customers? Please comment below and let us know.

Shashi Bellamkonda : Social Media Swami, Network Solutions

Shashi Bellamkonda is the Director Social Media for Network Solutions a company that provides domain names and online tools for small business customers and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and serves as a member of the Marketing Advisory Board of SCORE . The employees gave him the title of “Social Media Swami” Shashi  has  contributed  to the Washington Business Journal, American Express OPEN forum, SmallBiZtrends  and other tech blogs like Smallbiztechnology.com and Techcocktail.

Recognized as one of the Top 100 Tech Titans by the Washingtonian magazine in 2009 & 2011 and awarded the honor of being in The 100 Small Business Influencer 2011 Champion List by Small Business Trends and Smallbiztechnology.com. Featured as a speaker at national and regional small business, communications and marketing at conferences such as Digital East 2010, SXSW, IABC, PRSA, and Affiliate Summit.

So, how do you make the most of your LinkedIn profile? Here are 5 quick tips that I find to be essential for making the most of LinkedIn for business.

1st Essential – Complete Your Profile

This is often overlooked but it’s very important. LinkedIn even walks you through the process and gives you a percentage rating based on how much you’ve completed.

Your picture is very important. People want to feel that they are dealing with a real person – a face with a name. I recommend using something more professional for LinkedIn and keep the fun and goofy shots for Facebook.

You want to include a complete and relevant work history as well as your work experience and achievements. This boosts your profile and creates a more search engine friendly profile filled with industry specific keywords.

And be sure to include your contact information. You probably don’t want to include your email or you might get spammed like crazy, but at least have a link to your website and maybe a phone number.

2nd Essential – Give Recommendations

Notice I said give and not get? There are tools in LinkedIn that allow you to solicit recommendations from your contacts. And while some feel this is perfectly acceptable, I disagree.

You will get more if you give more. Focus on giving glowing recommendations to your contacts. When you submit these the person you recommended will be notified.

They’ll be very flattered. LinkedIn automatically suggests that they return the favor. And more often than not, they will with glowing recommendations of their own. You might not get as many, but the quality of the ones you get will be much higher.

3rd Essential – Get Connected

There are a few different ways to do this. First, you will want to import your contacts. If you use Outlook you will need to download your contacts list as a CSV file and upload that to LinkedIn.

If you use something like Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, etc., you can directly import these contacts into LinkedIn to send out invites. Either way, these are people you’re already connected to. You might as well extend that connection to LinkedIn.

Another way to build your connections is to simply invite people to connect as you get access to their email addresses. Be careful with this. Make sure you know them and have emailed them previously.

4th Essential – Be a Resource Rather Than a Nuisance

There are lots of ways to build on your connections and reach in LinkedIn. One way to do this is to add value to your profile. This could come in the form of adding a feed from your Blog, including your Twitter feed or start a user group or forum.

You can also setup a page for your company and do the same things on that page. This is all great and can be very useful if done properly. The questions you need to ask are “Do I bring value?” and “What is the value to pitch ratio of the information I post?”

Similar to your recommendations, you will get more if you give more. If you promote your wares incessantly, you will very quickly get tuned out. If you have a blog that contains useful and resourceful tips, consider linking that to your account as well.

If you promote useful information, you will be perceived as a trusted resource and more attention will be paid to what you do.

5th Essential – Use It

Seems obvious right? It’s amazing how many will dismiss LinkedIn as a useless waste of time when they rarely, if ever, log in and actively use it.

Engage in conversation, read people’s posts, give recommendations, and use the tool. If you are active, you will get noticed and you will see benefits. Remember, the squeaky wheel gets greased.

This will spill over into other areas of your business. If you are actively engaged on LinkedIn you will become the person that they “remember from your LinkedIn posts.” This creates trust beyond the Cyberworld which spills over into what I like to call the “tangible reality.”

What successes and failures have you had on LinkedIn? Let me know in the comments area below.

Chances are good that you or someone in your organization is an expert – someone who has a great deal of knowledge on a specific topic or discipline. You may have even done some seminars, written for trade journals or simply been asked for your expert opinion.

Your clients and potential clients want to learn from you. They want to gain from your years of expertise. They look to you as a resource, a trusted adviser in your field.

Blogging is one more way to give them what they want. They will appreciate it, do more business with you and recommend you to people they know.

We talk to businesses all the time about blogging. We get the same questions from all types of businesses, and the answers we give prove to be very valuable to our clients. So, in the spirit of the theme of this blog post, I will share some of those answers with you here.

First, the questions… Who will write your blog posts? How often should you post? What should you write about? Who will read it? Let’s begin…

Who will write your blog posts?

Some posts are produced by one person and some are produced by many but credited to a select few or even just one person. None of this matters as much as getting the content out there effectively.

But first, you have to know your business before you can even think about blogging. Who has what role? How does each person in the business work with your clients? If you have one sales person out there dealing with clients every day, then does it make sense for the face associated with your blog to be your intern? Probably not.

You might have a team of experts who travel the country attending trade shows, conferences and seminars. These people need to be on your blog. Of course busy people make for potential blogging logjams. Schedules and priorities will interrupt the flow of your blog.

In either case you need to establish an internal “Blog Manager”. Whether it is the same person that handles the majority of the writing, or someone who never even contributes a word to the blog but is good at organization, one person or team needs to be in charge.

You know who your experts are. They are the resources your clients seek out regularly. But who can keep them writing? If they can manage themselves, fantastic. But if you know they will get distracted, get a manager.  This should be someone with those same skills you would see in an executive assistant or receptionist you could not live without. The person that keeps the ship afloat – organized, type A.

Of course, you might not have the resources internally. Don’t worry; there are plenty of great marketing firms and copywriting specialists out there that can develop a content marketing management plan for you and your budget. Sometimes a well-organized freelance writer that you trust will work well.

Once this person or team has been established, their list should look something like this:

1. Editorial calendar
   1. Topics (are they related to events or times of the year?)
   2. Authors (if you have multiple – maybe stagger their posts)
2. Management, editing and submittal guidelines
   1. Establish guidelines for all aspects of your blogging
   2. Set up a way to enforce these guidelines so it isn’t a hodgepodge of efforts
3. Live Posting – who will handle it and how?
   1. I recommend getting something like WordPress (an Open Source Blogging Platform)
   2. Train the manager so they can manage the posts
4. Tracking and reporting
   1. The manager should be telling the company how the posts are doing
   2. Keep the team excited, informed and engaged
   3. Use something like Google Analytics to track post stats

How often should you post?

I hear this question all the time. The answer is always the same… it depends. How many contributors do you have? What frequency can you honestly commit to? What is your audience going to respond best to?

Some businesses should post daily and some could be fine with once a month. Your editorial calendar (if developed with realistic goals in mind) will help to determine frequency.

Just make sure you can deliver what you set out to do. If you blast out 6 posts in 6 weeks and then nothing for the next 6, you will lose momentum and confuse your audience.

Of course, you may be conservative in your initial estimate and then find out that you really have a knack for this. You can crank out good popular posts every week. You can adjust. Nothing is etched in stone here.

You want to establish an effective and manageable rhythm that you can stick to. The worst thing you want to have happen is for people to get discouraged. You want your blogging experience to be positive for all involved. You need the stakeholders to be excited about this process.

What should you write about?

This is my favorite question because the answers I give always get the light bulbs to turn on. There are content sources and post inspirations all over the place.

Let’s start with some of the standard blog resources I use:

1. Google Alerts are great. You can set up alerts based on specific keywords in your Google account. Let’s say you are a financial firm: You can get alerts on bond ratings, financial indicators, etc. These are emailed to you as a list of links to blogs, articles, news items, etc. Great resources for blog posts.
2. Subscribe to industry newsletters and blogs – I belong to a bunch of them. As you get your Google Alerts you will notice that some of the same blogs and websites are your favorites. Subscribe to their email newsletter or RSS Feed.
3. Trade journals and magazines – read these daily, even if it just an article a day or scanning the headlines. You need to stay on top of what’s happening in your industry anyway.
4. Your seminars and presentations are great sources for blog posts. You may even want to post a video of the presentation or the presentation slides and then write brief synopses of it.

Some other sources of inspiration for blog topics that might surprise you…

1. Emails – you get questions from clients and colleagues all the time in your inbox. And the answers you give them could easily be transformed into blog posts. Also, the questions they ask could spark an idea for a new Blog post. Just be sure to keep this in mind when working on your email.
2. Your sales pitch – no, I am not talking about writing a post called “Today, for You Only!” But, when you are in meetings with clients, pay attention messages they respond to. Think about restructuring those messages into a blog post, like this one.
3. Your environment – there is inspiration everywhere; you just need to look for it. The news, radio talk shows, songs, kids, ads. Watch things happen around you and try to relate it to what you do. If you are serious about this blogging thing, you might want to keep a notebook or voice recorder with you for noting ideas.

The main thing is that you want to duplicate your content, not your efforts. Try to look for ways to repurpose content for your Blog instead of always having to write something from scratch for every post.

Who will read it?

A blog post is only as good as the quality of the attention it gets. Notice I said quality and not quantity. The numbers will come in time but numbers alone do not equal success.

Think about your target audience. What is important to THEM? Write posts that they want to read, things they need to know about or are always asking you about. Of course, you will learn more about your readers the more you write. You will see which posts get lots of comments and which posts get nothing.

Remember, we are talking about quality. For business blogging the important thing is not that thousands of people click every day, it is that the right people click. You want the right demographic looking at your content and hopefully digging deeper – contacting you, subscribing, forwarding the post to a colleague, etc. Only the right content will do this.

To get the readers engaged the content needs to be important to them. It has to be about something they need to know. Good content brings good readers.

Another important reader is the search engine bot – those little programs that go out and sniff through web sites for valuable content. Search engines love blogs. These are generally well-organized, frequently updated, keyword rich pages of content and that’s what these bots are looking for.

Even if your Blog doesn’t get hundreds of enthusiastic fans right away, check your stats, I will bet that if you are doing it right, you will be getting lots of visits from search engines. This will help the overall rankings of your web site.

Remember, you want to add value to the reader’s experience. Are they getting something new from you, some sort of useful takeaway? Or is this just another boring piece of sales copy?

Be different, be useful, be a resource. If you are good at what you do and provide value to your clients every day, this should be an easy way to extend that reach to more clients to get more referrals online.

Questions, comments, let me know in the comments area below…

So what does this mean for organizations with marketing budgets that aren’t the size of a small country’s GDP?  Don’t worry, there is still time.  Content marketing is about the long tail.  It is about engagement.  Huge corporations still struggle with this in a major way.

To be successful with content, you need to know what content to create, how to best to create it and how to use it to your advantage.

Let’s go ahead and assume that we all agree that content is important for successful inbound marketing.  Now what?  I am going to give you 5 tips for using content to drive traffic, improve conversion, build a presence, and be successful with your online marketing.

Tip One – IDENTITY

Know yourself and what you do.  Seems simple right?  Sure it is.  But, have you taken the time to write this out?  Do you know your own story?  How does it read?

Before you can start churning out all of this great content for your web site, Blog, or social media outlets, you better know who you are talking to and what you need to say.  To figure this out I suggest you start with a little creative writing.

Take 30 minutes with a blank page and start writing.  Answer the following questions:

1. Who are you?
2. What is your history?
3. What do you do today?
4. What makes you different from your competition?
5. Who cares?

Don’t take too long to write this, just the facts, keep it simple.  We are looking for the essence of who you are as a business or organization.  Leave the technical or detailed stuff for white papers and Blog posts (a little foreshadowing for you).

Put it down, walk away and do something else.  After you’ve had some time apart from your story, come back to it and read it again.  Does it still sound like you?  No?  Make some edits and repeat the last step.

Yes, it does sound like you?  Good.  Now, share it with a few of your best clients, colleagues, associates, members, etc. and get some of the best feedback on your business you’ve ever read.  The feedback you get will help you to determine how these people think about your organization.  Make a note of this; you will want to refer back to it often.

Tip Two – INSPIRATION

I don’t care what anyone says, writing is hard.  Even if you are writing about something you care deeply about.  It still takes time and dedication.  It also takes a lot of inspiration.

Ideas beget ideas.  Even if you disagree with someone else’s idea, it can still get your creative juices flowing.  The process of creation generally starts with some sort of catalyst.  So, where do you get good content ideas?  From other content.

So, start reading blogs, newsletters, trade journals.  Watch YouTube videos from experts in your industry.  Devour.

Here are some ways to get great content delivered to you everyday…

• Google alerts – Let’s say you are a bike shop, well set up an alert on “biking”
• Blogs and newsletters – Some of the better blogs out there will have a way to subscribe.  This could be an email newsletter or an RSS feed
• Subscribe to YouTube channels – there are some great retreads of seminars, presentations, etc out there.
• Competitors – Seriously, what are they talking about? What aren’t they talking about?  Figure out how you can do it better.

Now that you have these channels open and are receiving lots of inspiration, start jotting down ideas.  Keep a notepad on your desk or wherever you do your best thinking and fill it with scribbles only you can understand.

When you find the time to write something, you can go back to your list for ideas.  Make sure you jot down on this list where those ideas came from, in case you need some reference points.

Tip Three – RECYCLING

Not all content you create for online marketing has to be brand spanking new.  Try looking back through all of your past materials for some things you can re-use.

If you are a technical firm you might have a series of white papers you’ve written in the past.  Can these possibly be repurposed for your web site or Blog?  Or could they inspire a Blog post that references and links back to the white paper, also on your web site?

How about lengthy emails you’ve written answering a client’s question?  This is often a great source of inspiration for Blog posts.  Think about it, a client has asked you about something specific.  You fire back a brilliantly written explanation that the client is thankful to receive.  Well, turn this into a Blog post.

If you are writing content for your web site for the first time or you are looking to enhance or refresh your content, you can certainly look to these same places for ideas.  You can also look back through your past marketing materials.  Which of them were wildly successful?  How can you recreate that success online?

You don’t always need to reinvent the wheel.  You might just need to put some air in the tire.

Tip Four – WRITE

If you are going to go to all this trouble, you want to make sure you are actually able to write.  You want to have the tools in place so that you can write and post content yourself.

I know this might sound obvious but so many of our clients come to us talking about content but have no plan for how they will create and manage it from day to day.  With blogs and content management systems today you can create content easily and on YOUR SITE.

That is really the key.  If you are going to write, make sure you are writing for your own site.  Don’t just give all of your good content away by posting it on Facebook or any other site that isn’t yours.

Sure, sharing content and guest blogging are both beneficial but you don’t want to give it all away.  Even with all of this transparency and openness today, ownership is still important.

There are various levels of content management systems for various levels of budgets.  WordPress, for example, is a scalable content management solution that can be templated or completely customized, depending on your budget.

You want to make sure you have all of the tools in place so that you have no excuse not to write when the time is right to write.

Tip Five – PROMOTE

You cannot create content in a vacuum.  This is marketing, you need to share.  If you don’t put your content out there then who is going to read it?  The more you get this content out there (see our post on SEO) the more traffic your site will get.

If you are blogging, do your own “syndication.”  You can easily link your Blog to your Facebook page or tweet your latest Blog posts.  In fact, most social media outlets will have a place where you can add the RSS feed directly from your Blog.  Just make sure it is on your site first so the links you are building come back to your web site.

To promote the other content on your web site, simply promote your site.  Place your web address on everything.  Place it in your email signature, on business cards, in your advertising, your social media profiles, etc.

Email newsletters are also a great way to promote your content.  You can include summaries of your latest blog posts, information about specific product offerings or updates about what is happening in your company.

Promoting your content will make you a better writer.  Promotion and tracking help you see what content works and what content is dead weight.  You will see which Blog posts are getting comments or feedback.  You can tell which pages of your site are popular by checking your web statistics.  You can see what topics in your email newsletters are getting clicked.

The feedback you get will help you to find out more about who you are.  And it will inspire you to create more content and seek more inspiration.  It is a cycle that is perpetuated by the successes and failures it creates.

All of this leads to more qualified traffic, better conversion rates and a more successful inbound marketing strategy.

Do you have a number 6?  Let me know, comment below…

A great content resource is Content Rules by CC Chapman and Anne Handley.

However, I can make two statements with confidence…

1. Social Media is not going anywhere.
2. People are still using search to find information.

The real debate here should be about online advertising, but that’s another Journal altogether.

When looking at SEO (Search Engine Optimization) today, you have to factor in a few more things than in the past.  In previous years, you only had to worry about content, and before that (in the olden days), you could get away with a decent set of META Tags and a nice smile.

Today, you need to consider Mobile, Blogging, Bing, Facebook, Twitter and more.  You simply cannot just focus on Google, although it is still very important.  For this post, I want to focus on 4 things you can do now to make sure your SEO is on target and the traffic is coming…

1. Link Building
2. Social Media Marketing
3. Site Structure and Code
4. Tracking and Measurement

Link Building

This is, as it sounds, building links to your web site (inbound links), as well as building an effective linking structure within your web site.  Of course, the best inbound links are from the big boys, i.e. Google, Bing, etc.  These occur through indexing, where you are ranked and listed favorably for specific targeted keywords and phrases.

But there are other ways to build the number of good inbound links to your site.  Think of it this way, you are a restaurant and you need customers.  The inbound links are the roads that lead to your restaurant.  You want more roads leading to you, but you want these roads to bring the right clientele.  So, you want roads coming from the right parts of town, making the trip for your targeted clientele an easy one.

So, how do you build these inbound links?  This can be in the form of guest Blog posts on a popular Blog in your industry or a Blog for a partner company, trade org or friendly competitor.  All you have to do is ask them if they would be interested in you writing a guest post.  The worst they can do is say no.

These guest posts will contain links back to your site.  And, in that post, include references to articles or your services that link back to specific pages on your Blog or web site.  Then, within your own blog posts, add links to the services pages you reference in your post.  For example, you see that we’ve linked to the SEO services page on our site from this post.

The links can also be in the form of simple listings, a member page on a Chamber site, a profile in a group site, trade organization, etc.  Make sure you optimize these pages to include keyword-rich profile bios and link to as much as they will let you.  If they allow you to add in the RSS feed for your Blog, do that.  Take advantage of these listings to the fullest.

Another way to build these inbound links is to distribute your press releases to online publications.  Depending on your budget, this could be something you do yourself, or you might use a service like PRWeb.  Either way, getting your press releases picked up about a new product, new hire, expansion, book or published article, award, etc, is a great way to build keyword-rich links back to your site.  If you have the money, use a good service and a quality copywriter that knows SEO and the web.  They get you the most reach for you money.

Social Media Marketing

We know social media is not going anywhere, but I will argue that the vast majority of small businesses do not know how to use it to bring traffic to their web site.  Social media is social, promotional, conversational, and interactive.  What it isn’t is direct sales.

Social media marketing is about getting the word out and then getting a response.  You don’t want to go crazy and post your web address on a bunch of Facebook profiles or post ads in LinkedIn groups.  This will drive people nuts.  Instead, you need to engage.

Post useful information in your Twitter stream that you did not write.  Be a resource.  Then, when you post something from you, they are more likely to click.  All the while, all of this leads back to your Twitter profile with your web site link on it.  And these Twitter posts are getting picked up by Google and Bing.

If you have a Blog, use a tool like NetworkedBlogs on Facebook.  This tool is very useful for promoting Blog content on Facebook and also has some great promotional programs.  With this tool, you can create great keyword rich inbound links back to Blog posts on your web site.

If you are on LinkedIn, start a company page for your business.  Then, link your Blog’s RSS to this.  More links.  You can also start discussion threads in LinkedIn based on your most recent Blog posts and link back to that post.

Are you seeing a pattern here? Engage –> Be a resource –> Blog –> Integrate with Social Media –> link back to your Blog and your web site.

Site Structure and Code

The code and structure of your web site are very important for lots of reasons, SEO being one of them.  Search engines will search through your site (indexing) using the code as a guide, bad code = bad indexing.

There are many ways to enhance your code for search engine visibility.  A few right off the bat are page titles, proper use of heading tags, ALT attributes and overall code structure.  These are all areas within the site’s code that should contain targeted keywords that are well organized.  If you are not sure if this was done properly, ask an SEO expert to take a look.  They should be able to give you a pretty quick assessment of your code.

Site structure is important as well, mainly when it comes to navigation.  For example, if you use Flash in your web site, do not use it for your navigation, since search engines do not read Flash and it will block or hinder indexing.  Or, if you are using landing pages, make sure there are easy ways to bypass them or that they link to your main site effectively.

You don’t want to put up coding or structural “road blocks,” as these will block the indexing of your site.  Another tool you can use to make sure the engines index your site properly is an XML site map.  An XML sitemap is a file that lists all of the URLs (web addresses) that exist within a web site.  The search engines use this as a guide to the content contained within.

Mobile search is booming.  More and more users are looking for you on their handheld devices.  Coding will matter here as well.  Not just in how the page looks on a mobile device but also how the site is structured.  Because when a SERP (Search Engine Results Page) lists your site on a mobile browser, you want the link to be to the appropriate page and you want that page to be structured so that it drives conversion, quickly.

This is all somewhat geeky stuff so make sure you have adult supervision before going in and making and major coding and structural updates, especially if you have something like WordPress or Joomla and are using a plug-in.  Plug-ins are great but if you do not know what you are doing, you can potentially do damage.

Tracking and Measurement

Of course this is all meaningless if you don’t know how well it’s working.  The great thing about SEO is that you can track and measure the results of your efforts.  Metrics through tools like Google Analytics can tell you a lot about how well your site is doing.

With Google Analytics, you can track what keywords were used to find your site, what your most popular pages are, what search engines people used to find you and so much more.  The tricky part is navigating this information and understanding what it all means.  Google offers demos and tutorials on using Google Analytics, and we have also written a few blog entries about the subject you might find useful.

There are other tracking tools out there that serve more specific purposes.  For, example, you can see what kind of influence your Twitter account has using tools like Klout.  Or you can use the many site grader tools (Google offers these as well) out there to get an analysis of your site’s current effectiveness.

The one problem with these tools is that it usually just gives you raw data (and some of this data can be incomplete).  Some give a little advice on how to use that data but you really need to be able to apply this information back to your overall marketing efforts.  This is why SEO should always be a strong part of your overall marketing plan.  It all ties together.

I hope you find these tips useful and that you now see that SEO is still very important.  If you do what we suggest in this article, the search engines will index you and hopefully rank you favorably.

Questions, comments?  Let me know if the comments area below…

We work with a lot of clients on projects for the web – web sites, email newsletter campaigns, blogs, social media, etc.  – and content is always a main concern.

Content is still very important – some say it continues to reign as king.  Unfortunately, not all organizations have a solid understanding of how to write for the web.  So, we’ve assembled some of our consultative tips from past projects to serve as a guide for you.

Web Content Dos and Don’ts

When writing for the web, there are some basic dos and don’ts.  They are straightforward and apply across the board…

What works in web content?

1. Simple statements, to the point
2. Direct language using keywords or targeted terms
3. Headlines, lists, short paragraphs
4. Topic -> Overview Details -> Call to Action

What DOESN’T work in web content?

1. Long-winded flowery prose
2. “25 Cent Words”, complex sentences
3. Long paragraphs
4. No clear definition of sections, i.e. no headings…
5. No clear beginning, middle or end

Planning

When assembling or writing content, you will need to have a plan.  Successful content plans start with one or more of the following:

1. Identify goals or desired outcomes first
2. Host a brainstorming session with stakeholders
3. Identify what CopyBlogger.com calls the MAP… (Medium, Audience, Purpose)

If you work through these pieces first, writing your content will go much smoother and the outcome will yield much better results.

Writing for a Web Site

Bottom Up Writing

Our past Wood Street Journal entry called Organize Your Web Site’s Message from the Bottom Up talks about a different approach to writing content for the web.  Here are the steps:

1. Identify your goals
2. Assemble the detailed content, white papers, articles, etc.
3. Match areas of your detailed content with your goals (this requires a whiteboard or highlighter)
4. The content/themes that appear over & over will constitute your top-tier content (homepage, main landing pages, etc.)

The purpose of this method is to get to the content that will drive your audience to your desired action.  By writing “in reverse” you are able to better organize your message and its outcome.

Writing for Search Engines

We have written several articles and newsletters on this topic.  We’ve coached several clients, spoken about it on radio shows and given numerous seminars on SEO.  Yes, it is that important.

Please check our past issues for more on this subject.  For the purposes of this article, I am just going to give you the basics.  When writing for search engine visibility, make sure you work through the following:

1. Survey your clients, partners, etc to identify targeted keywords/phrases
2. Refine your keyword list to about 15 phrases (post it somewhere visible, tack it to the wall where you write)
3. In your code/content focus on Page Titles, Headings, Ordered/Unordered Lists, Content, ALT Attributes
4. Make sure your content is audited for keyword density in the code and in the content (an SEO expert is advised here)
5. Revise and repost, often

Writing to Achieve Goals

So you’ve organized your content from the bottom up and you’ve worked through an SEO strategy for your content, what else?  Goals!  Write your content so it drives the reader to an action, a goal.

How do you do this?

1. Know your goals!  Are they attainable???
2. Content in the top tiers should lead the reader to a goal
3. Don’t get in your own way, get to the point
4. Have someone outside your org edit/review your content, ask them what they were compelled to do if anything
5. Review, revise, repost

If you follow these steps, you will be in a better position to achieve your goals online.  Make sure you map out your plan, have realistic expectations and involve outside help where appropriate.

Writing a Blog

Writing content for a Blog is definitely a different animal.  Consider blogging to be journals, PR, newsletters, white papers and interactivity all rolled into one.  This is your chance to be an expert and to interface with your audience on a targeted and effective level.

In order to write effectively for a Blog you will need to do many of the things we’ve already discussed but in a slightly different way, such as:

1. Know your audience, what will they read and react to?
2. What are your goals and how do they relate to your other marketing content?
3. Develop an editorial calendar to plan your blogging in advance
4. Keep your posts short and to the point – if they need to be lengthy, break them up into easily digested chunks
5. Be prepared, know who will write the Blog, set a schedule
6. Promote your Blog, listen to feedback, comment on comments

There are lots of resources on blogging.  Here are a few we think are incredibly useful:

1. Copyblogger.com
2. Marketing Roadhouse
3. Our Seminar – Blogging

Writing for an Email Newsletter

You may have heard that email is dead.  Well, it’s not, not by a long shot.  Email marketing has been proven to be a powerful marketing tool for businesses and organizations.  And it dovetails perfectly into web and social media marketing campaigns.  You can even promote your Blog with an email newsletter.

Of course, as you’ve probably guessed, it requires some planning and finesse.  Writing for an email newsletter is tricky but when done well, it can produce some great results.

First, Your Email Distribution List…

1. Who is on your list?
2. What do they look like, what is their typical schedule?
3. What is going to grab their attention?
4. What is important to them and what do you want them to do?
5. What might annoy them?

You must know these people and what their wants and needs are.  Until you know them, how can you write to them???  This is why a well constructed list of actual people you are targeting is much more effective than a list of randoms you’ve purchased from a service.

Email Content vs. Web content

So, what is email newsletter content and what makes it different from web site content or Blog content?  Email content is quick, hyper targeted and must drive action.

When you write your email newsletter, think conversion.  What can you place in your headline and copy that will drive someone to read it and click for more?

You don’t want them sitting there reading all of your content in their Outlook or on their Blackberry (mostly because they won’t).  You want them on your site or on your Blog (especially if you sell or advertise there).

So be brief and strive to convert.  Here is a breakdown of how this can work:

1. Write compelling headlines that grab attention
2. Keep the email content brief with links to long versions online
3. Develop effective Landing Pages
4. Post your full newsletter content on your Blog or website
5. You want them to scan the email then click to visit your site/blog

Track Your Email Progress

An email newsletter campaign is completely worthless if it isn’t tracked and measured.  If you are simply shooting out emails with no idea of what’s working and what isn’t, you are missing the point.

Most email newsletter services offer stats (if yours doesn’t, switch).  Some will let you incorporate Google Analytics, even better! With these stats you can…

1. See what headlines were the most effective, which ones get the most opens/clicks
2. Track what links were clicked the most
3. Duplicate what works!

If you plan, track and adjust, you will succeed.  Here are some good resources for email marketing…

1. Blue Sky Factory
2. MediaPost
3. Our Newsletter on Landing Pages and Email Marketing

Writing for Social Media

Again, who are you talking to???

Since Social Media Marketing is relatively new there are a bunch of different approaches out there.  But, if you stick to the basics, you will see results.  As with any type of marketing online, content is important.

But before you can start blasting out content on any given social network, you need to know who you are talking to.  Do some research; are your clients, potential members, fans, etc. on these networks?  Which ones?  Ask them.

Engage!

Social Media Marketing is a bit different from the rest in that it is mainly an ongoing conversation.  You need to be yourself (or a reasonable facsimile thereof).  In this conversation you will need to…

1. Interact with friends/followers, be transparent and authentic
2. Establish your voice, use a consistent style
3. Give more than you take, be a trusted resource

Remember though that the same rules apply, just slightly modified…

1. ADD thrives on Social media, write accordingly
2. Have goals with each engagement
3. Is it for fun? Is it to promote? Is it both?  What aligns itself best with your goals?
4. Be consistent with your tone

Writing for Twitter

Yes, you have probably heard of it and no, it’s not all about Ashton Kutcher.  Real marketing is actually happening here, and quite well in fact.  The problem with writing for Twitter is that you have 140 characters, that’s it!

So, with Twitter you will need to be laser focused.  Having a strategy and some goals will certainly help you.  A checklist of Twitter tasks could look something like this:

1. Post links to useful articles
2. Post links to your Blog
3. Retweet with comments
4. Post thoughts and commentary
5. Be careful with abbreviations, cut out all unneeded words

Here is a snapshot of my twitter feed…

@JonMikelBailey Twitter Sample

Writing for Facebook

Yes, even marketing on Facebook requires a content strategy.  Similar to Twitter, you need to be brief.  You can write longer bits of content here (at least it allows you to) but I don’t recommend it.  You are competing against a lot of information for attention so get to the point.

With that in mind, a strategy will help you be certain you aren’t getting lost in the sea of Facebook posts.  Here is a general overview of what a Facebook strategy could look like:

1. Have a plan and an agenda, publish useful content
2. Start a fan page and promote to clients, colleagues, etc.
3. Similar to Twitter (in fact the two should be connected)
4. Use it as an extension of your website and Blog
5. Build your fan numbers with valuable content

Here is a sample of our posts in our Facebook fan page…

Wood Street's Facebook Fan Page

Let’s Review

Remember to Use What Works

Planning, strategy, testing, trial and error are all important.  Start with the basics and grow from there…

1. Simple statements, to the point
2. Research, plan and identify goals
3. Direct language using keywords or targeted terms
4. Use effective headlines, lists, short paragraphs
5. Topic -> Overview Details -> Call to Action

A Writing Challenge for You

To reinforce our lesson here, we’ve developed this simple exercise.  Try rewriting this sentence based on what you’ve learned.

Here are the parameters, it is for a plumber’s web site, the audience is potential clients and the goal is a phone call or contact email to schedule an appointment.  Here you go…

Our targeted diagnostic approach and technologically proven plumbing methodology are what sets us apart in our ability to resolve plumbing issues and correct problems caused by inadequate plumbing practices.

This article was adapted from our seminar “Writing for the Web”.  Slides from this seminar can be viewed here.

One – HTML5

You may have heard some people talking about Apple and Flash.  Basically, Steve Jobs and his crew have decided, once again, not to support Adobe Flash (you know, all that cool video and animation stuff on web sites) on their iPads, iTouch, iPhones, etc.

This has really upset Adobe and Flash evangelists (as well as Apple haters).  But, this does not mean you can’t have animation on these devices.  You just need to use something other than Flash.  That something is HTML5.

HTML, or Hyper Text Markup Language, has been the standard language for all web sites since forever.  And it has gone through some updates and enhancements over the years.  HTML5 is the latest standard to come out for publishing content on the web.  While not all browsers currently support it, it looks as if most will soon.

With it you can do things typically only available with Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, etc. like video players, rich animation or drag and drop functionality.

Of course, there are still some limitations.  Flash is still the preferred language for most of this.  But while HTML5 may not be a complete game changer, it has made this type of feature more accessible as a possible web site enhancement language option.  Just don’t drink all the Kool-Aid just yet; HTML5 is not quite a universal standard. Be sure to consult with a professional.

Some HTML5 benefits:

• No plug-in needed to watch video as long as the browser supports HTML5
• Standardizations for future HTML coding will cover more elements contained within a web site
• Works on Apple devices and will allow developers to show video and more on mobile devices that do not support Flash

Two – WordPress as a CMS

Yes, WordPress has been around for a while.  I believe at the time of this post, WordPress 3.0.1 was available for download.  But, WordPress is still in the early stages of adoption as a Content Management Solution or CMS. Typically, it’s been used primarily as a blogging platform.

You may have seen these sites, very basic with a look and navigational structure that seems strangely familiar.  The reason being is that there are a bunch of free WordPress sites out there using a free theme – a templated look that you can plug-in to your WordPress blog to spruce it up a bit (“templated” meaning you aren’t the only one with that look).

Of course this is not ideal for companies looking to maintain their brand online and to establish a unique and effective web presence.  Recently, however, developers have updated the source code so that you can control so much more of your WordPress web site.

It’s only been since version 2.8 or so that you’ve been able to create unique sub pages, landing pages, and blog templates.  With these enhancements, companies can now build their site on a WordPress platform without losing the richness of a fully customized site with user targeted content layers.

Since WordPress has certain editing tools built into it, it can also be used as a full Content Management System.  Now, companies that were faced with a tricky CMS choice – Adobe Contribute (low end, cheap and limited), proprietary CMS (middle to high end, usually cost prohibitive) or Open Source like Joomla or Drupal (high end, free code, high cost development) – have a more scalable solution.

Some WordPress as a CMS Benefits:

• The source code is Open Source which means it is free and requires no fee or license
• Source code is well supported, documented and can be easily migrated
• Search Engines, so far, tend to index these sites very well
• The admin interface is straightforward and user-friendly

Three – Third Party Social Media Integration

Social Media is nothing new, but the ways in which you can integrate it into your marketing strategy has turned Social Media into a viable marketing enhancement option for most businesses. Basically, this means unifying your message across multiple media outlets.

In the early days of Social Media, some companies, in an effort to be bleeding edge, abandoned their traditional web marketing efforts and put all their eggs in the Social Media basket – case in point, Skittles.  The problem with this approach is that you ditch what the masses are used to in hopes to be first in a marketing trend and… your clients don’t get it.

Now, with certain trends like Facebook’s Open Graph Initiative, Twitter, and other available APIs, you can link all of these without abandoning your web site as your organization’s online communication hub.  You can feed your blog posts into your homepage, your Twitter posts (tweets) too.  You can feed your blog posts into your Facebook fan page and your LinkedIn profile.  And your YouTube videos can go on all of it.  And so on and so forth.

The companies that are doing this while still treating their web site as their marketing “home-base” are really seeing the benefits.  Your message is spread further and through more channels.  Search Engines have more ways to find your content.  And your target audience is better able to find you, interact and convert.

Some Third Party Social Media Integration Benefits:

• Unified messaging translates to Social Media
• More ways to engage your target audience (find them where they live)
• A stronger opportunity for your message to go viral
• Can maintain more control by keeping your company owned web site as your information hub

We hope we have helped you see some of what is happening now and see how it could be of actual use to your organization.  As is in the case for most of what we post, these trends are proven and can be viable options as marketing add-ons.  If there are others you would like us to expound upon, please comment and let us know.  Of course, if you have questions or would like some assistance with implementing these tools, etc, please contact us and let us know.

Unfortunately, more often than not, one of the first things to go is the marketing budget.  This can be a huge mistake.  The companies that make it out of a bad economy in the best shape are the ones that marketed smartly and effectively during the down turn.

The key is to be creative and find ways to market both frugally and effectively.  This is where you move away from “Outbound” marketing and towards “Inbound” marketing.

“Outbound marketing” – what is commonly considered to be a traditional marketing plan for most businesses and organizations – generally involves:

• Advertising and promotions
• Public Relations
• Sales and In Person Networking

Unfortunately, because of the high costs often associated with these efforts, they tend to be the first to get cut in uncertain economic times.  Welcome to the realities of today’s business world.

Fortunately, however, there is another form of marketing that is more flexible in terms of approach and costs involved.  It’s called “Inbound Marketing”.  For this article we would like to focus on inbound marketing as it relates to the internet.

Inbound marketing for the internet can consist of but is not limited to:

• Search Engine Optimization or SEO
• Blogging
• Social Networking or Social Media Marketing

These are great ways to reach your target audience without spending the many thousands of dollars you might spend using Outbound marketing methods.

As businesses experience the economic squeeze of late the first instinct may be to cut spending.  Unfortunately, when it relates to spending on marketing, it tends to be a “slash and burn” approach as opposed to a redirection of efforts. Now is precisely the time when a business needs to look for new opportunities to fill certain vacancies left in the market by those who “slash and burn”.

During this time as marketing (or advertising really) dollars dry up, smart companies look toward more cost effective solutions.  Inbound marketing is such a solution.  Let’s look at the three categories of Inbound marketing for the internet we have already identified…

Search Engine Optimization or SEO

Organic search results in Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc (those not found in sponsored links but in the top ten listings) are mostly the result of what is called Search Engine Optimization.  This refers to the practice of enhancing the content of your site to include more keyword rich content so the search engines and ultimately your target audience can find you more easily.

This is a prime example of inbound marketing because it is involves an active search by your target audience looking directly for you.  And when they find you they find tons of information related to their specific needs.

For more information on SEO, please contact us.

Blogging

Blogging (or Web Logging) is an inbound marketing tool that can be much more effective than a traditional newsletter in that the audience is engaged and can interact through comments and discussion.  Viewers can now follow your blog, capture specific information and look up articles based on your keyword tags.  Some popular blog services are:

• WordPress.com
• Blogger.com
• BlogSpot.com
• And there are many more, including the blogs on your social networking sites

Through blogging you can gain maximum exposure to the webisphere while still targeting those who most want to hear what you have to say.  If they find your blog and subscribe to it, then you are an instant expert in their minds.  So, when you offer them more information through a link to a landing page (see below) you have a much better chance of them seeking your services.

For more information on Blogging, please contact us.

Social Media Marketing

Social networking sites are group sites where you can connect to those who share a common interest or purpose.  These can be one or more of the following:

• Twitter.com – where you can follow and be followed and engage in public conversations about content specific matters all limited to 140 characters/li>
• Facebook.com – where you can find friends, co-workers, colleagues, etc and join in various groups specific to your interests
• LinkedIn.com – where you can take your personal or business resume to a whole new level.

While these are all great ways to stay engaged, you need to be careful not to get lost in the quagmire of all of these sites.  You must maintain a purpose.  That purpose is inbound marketing; the idea is to draw these connections into your web site, newsletter, or blog.  Areas where you can more specifically elicit a targeted action.

A very effective way to integrate social media with your web site is by using landing pages to track and direct the visits.  A landing page is a page on your site that is linked from a specific location.  So, if you are promoting your services through a social networking site like Twitter, you will want to link that to a landing page that is an extension of the discussion you were having on Twitter and then direct that person to where you want them to go.

For more information on Social Media Marketing, please contact us.