For Your Blog or Social Media: Write What You Know, Not What You Think People Want.

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People often inquire whether a topic is good.  Usually they want to know whether it will attract search engines or an audience.  This is the wrong question to be asking.  The right question is whether this topic directly applies to what my blog or social media site is about.

Why is trying to write for what you think there is an audience for misguided?  Two reasons:

  1. You’re asking an unanswerable question – It’s almost impossible for anyone to predict an audience for a topic.  With enough testing, a conclusion could likely be arrived at but the problem is that it’s just as efficient to just write and post on a topic.  If the audience is there, they’ll show up.  If not, then you still have posted meaningful content that will remain available to anyone interested in the material.
  2. It’s an irrelevant question – There is an audience for any topic if the content is well written, straight forward, and easily acquired.  It might be a small group or take time for them to arrive, but there is always a demand for orginal valuable content.

So how do you select a topic to write about?  Easy, what currently inspires you.  It can be a small tip or a larger essay.  As long as it’s in-line with the subject of the blog or social media site, it’s fair game.

Don’t get hung up on what people might want.  There is likely an audience (no matter how small) for any insightful content you can provide about your selected subject.  Go with a steady constant which is relevant material from a content expert. 

Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

An Online Single Content Source Has Singular Content

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I previously posted about making social networking sustaninable through a single content source.  There is a hidden pitfall here.  A single content source needs to be singular.  That means it speaks to a single topic.  My blog is an example of stretching about as far as possible.  I cover internet marketing, SEO, email marketing, and website maintenance.  These three pieces are pretty closely related.  I could probably include something like web design to stretch it further if I chose.  What I can’t do is make posts about an action movie I just saw, coin collecting, or my favorite recipes.  They aren’t related so they don’t belong.  The single content source needs to have a single consistent topic.

Many people that have social networking sites and point them to a single content source start bending this rule because it saves time.  There professional blog starts getting notes about a party with their friends.  Worse yet the two worlds collide when their crazy friend leaves expletive language about how crazy the party was.  Pick the singular content and never stray from it.

Breaking largely varying topics into categories is not appropriate.  Categories should be very specific and interrelated to other posts, not a whole new topic.

So what if you have a professional blog but want to write about stamp collecting?  Easy, start another blog.  You can write about as many topics as you’d like, time allowing, just make sure it’s in the right place. 

Two problems arise when you break your topic into multiple blogs:

  • The amount of work has just doubled
  • Social networking needs to be intelligently segmented to get that audience to what they want.

For the extra work, there’s no way around it.  Think of it as opening up double the audience.  For segmenting social networking, you can start by reviewing some I covered in a previous post.

Identify who likely wants the content.  LinkedIn likely doesn’t need your stamp collecting posts.  Business contacts probably want info from your professional blog.  Facebook might not be interested in your professional site but your stamp collecting friends will want an update on your stamp blog.  Twitter might need both.  Since commenting is restricted that might not be terrible, just make sure titles make it clear what people should expect.  You don’t want your professional blog readers stumbling into your stamp blog and thinking your business has taken a radical turn in expertise.

The real reason to make a single content source singular is to provide readers with the content they desire.  It promises content about a certain topic.  Filling it with unrelated material is not only confusing, it betrays the people that find it.  Make sure that people who find their way to your single content source via social networking or search engines receive what they were promised.

Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Web Maintenance

Pick Appropriate Social Networking

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After posting about funneling social networking sites to a single content source, I had several questions arrive that showed how expansive social networking has become.  One person had 12 profiles.  Twelve!  While my suggestion was still to funnel to a single content source, simply updating that many sections could still be a maintenance headache.  Make sure that a profile is worth updating before wasting time on it.

A good way to thin out the workload of social networking sites is evaluating which are appropriate.  Below is a sampling of three of the most common sites and my observations on their best use.

  • Facebook – Facebook is great for cultivating an online contact list.  However, it’s suited for the individual and while they are making strides to incorporate company info, it tends to be an afterthought.  It is almost impossible to have meaningful connections while maintaining a “company” profile which forces an individual within the organization to take ownership of the profile. So while it is a great social environment, any business/marketing use has to be monitored as the lines between personal and professional tend to get blurred.   If they get too blurred there is a distinct risk to reflect negatively on the professional.
  • Linked In – Linked In is designed for the business user.  The contacts are designed to be a professional reference and many tools are available to sync the profile up with professional websites and/or blogs.  It’s set up to promote the professional individual but is easy to incorporate into company profile information.  It tends to be a poor fit for personal social interaction and for some professional organizations it can be too sterile.  If your organization has a social aspect to it, the business focus can send the wrong message.
  • Twitter – Twitter is flexible enough to be used in any way.  Since profiles tend to have less one-on-one interaction, personal contacts can bleed into professional ones.  Since posts are less personal, organization profiles are much more feasible.  It’s really up to the poster to decide what focus they want to take.  It is limited by how much can be input and doesn’t have the expansive features that other sites do.

These are just a small sampling of some of the most popular sites.  There are literally thousands of sites with different topic or industry focuses available. 

Before creating a profile, make sure that the sites focus is a good fit for you or the organization.  If it’s not relevant, don’t waste time setting up a profile that other members likely aren’t interested in. 

Secondarily, monitor the activity on the site.  If no connections are made or no meaningful responses result, then disregard the site.  It’s either proving that it doesn’t have a viable user base or that the user base is apathetic toward your content.  Maintaining a socail network profile takes time and energy, make sure that it’s a good investment with potential for a return. 

Internet Marketing, Web Maintenance

Is Your Social Networking Sustainable?

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Everyone likes the idea of using social networks to build business or raise awareness of an organization.  However, most people don’t like the time involved in having a presence in the most popular social networks.  I am one of those people!  We all have a lot of things to get done and social networking is rarely our highest priority.  So how can we leverage social networking without sacrificing a lot of time?  Set a sustainable content funnel to maximize content across social networks.

Here is a common business approach to social networking:

  • I’ve heard people can generate business through sites like facebook, twitter, linkedIn, etc.
  • I signed up for all of them and created a profile referencing my website.
  • I try to keep up with content on all the sites.
  • I’m falling behind on checking the sites.
  • I used to have an account on those sites but they don’t generate any business so I quit

The problem with this approach is that it’s too time intensive.  Few people have enough time available to adequately keep updates flowing over multiple social networking sites. For those that have the time or make the time, congratulations, that is the ideal way to handle social networking.  For anyone who struggles to keep entries current, a content funnel can be a life saver.  It provides frequent updates but funnels all sites to a single content source. 

What’s the source?  You’re reading my single source right now, it’s my blog.  All my profiles get updated with new blog posts and direct people here.  So I write my post once, update my profiles and I’m done.  You don’t necessarily need a blog.  Facebook provides ample areas to make posts (either through a blog or on the wall) that people can funnel to.  The only concern here is making sure that your profile is accessible to all, so that people don’t have to bother with befriending you to see content.

So here’s my funneled approach to social networking:

  • Create a single source for frequent content updates (blog, dedicated website section, open social network page)
  • Create a profile for the sites you’d like a profile on
  • Update those pages with links to your single content source when something new appears.
  • Reply to responses from the single content source and/or from the social networking sites.

This model provides most of the benefits of social networking sites without an overwhelming time commitment.

Internet Marketing, Web Maintenance

Track the Whole Not the Parts

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Most site owners are beginning to see the value in tracking their results.  It’s really the only objective way to analyze results and make improvements based on data.  Unfortunately, there is still a majority of folks that gather the data but never look at it, or use it as validation for their own prejudices rather than for gradual improvement.  One common mistake is measuring each part of the data rather than the data as a whole.

Remember, the real value in tracking data is seeing how visitors interact with your online marketing campaigns and the website.  Understanding how your conversion funnel is performing is an extremely valuable piece of information to improve sales or leads.  However, it’s only valuable if it’s truthful.

Here’s a common example of segmenting tracking data.  People love to review open rates and click through rates on an email campaign.  The higher the better right?  For the email campaign that’s likely true but for overall performance that’s incorrect.  If every single recipient clicks through to a landing page and no one converts then it’s not time to congratulate ourselves on how well the email did. 

Don’t fall into focusing on the metrics you’re comfortable with.  All end analysis should be weighed on Return on Investment, either through leads or direct sales.  That’s the number that really drives the process.  Furthermore, once ROI is calculated then those numbers can be broken down into all online marketing activity to understand what the most valuable activities are and test ways of improving the process.

Certainly we want to celebrate victories but not at the cost of ignoring areas in need of improvement.  Think of the process as a rising seesaw.  Each time the balance goes back and forth the seesaw rises.  If email metrics are on target but conversions are low, do some testing and improve conversion performance.  Perhaps after completeing landing page conversion, email metrics will need to get even better.  So the focus can return to the email campaigns.  More likely you’ll notice that something like organic search rates could use a bump and will want to bring those up to par before putting more effort into landing page or email optimization.

The point is that online marketing is the sum of many parts.  When all those parts are analyzed and optimized, the whole is greater than the parts.

Email Marketing, Site Conversion

Make Recurring Webpage Items Easy to Update

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Everyone could use some extra time right?  One of the biggest time consuming maintenance activities on a website is having to update something on every page of your site.  Depending on the change, it’s usually a cut and paste exercise but wouldn’t it be great to change it once and have that change appear across the site?  It’s a life saver for large sites but even small and medium sites can benefit from that.  When building or modifying a site identify every recurring feature and ensure it is up-datable from a single source.

There are several ways of doing this.  The most common is a server side include.  Rather than discussing the technical aspects let’s focus on common recurring elements that can benefit from includes.

  • Primary Navigation – It should be on every page and is an obvious beneficiary of using includes.  Further more it ensures consistent navigation
  • Secondary Navigation – Secondary levels can also benefit from includes and also ensures consistency.
  • Headers – If there is any advanced header that’s more than just an image (though that too can benefit from being an SSI element) it’s a good candidate.  In some cases it can be combined with the primary navigation depending on the layout.
  • Footer – The footer should be consistent and this is especially useful if a copyright or general notice that runs throughout the site is in the footer
  • Promotional Section – Any recurring area in the layout that highlights a current promotion.  This typically needs to be carefully planned as the promotion can get monotonous on every page.  If the layout and content are effective though, this is a simple way to ensure attention to current offers.

Don’t waste time.  Identify every recurring element in your site and set it up as a single source update.  Not only does it save maintenance time, it often holds site owners accountable to consistency.

Web Maintenance

Your Subscribers Only Signed Up For Your List

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Sooner or later every successful email marketing campaign will encounter piggy-backers.  These are solicitations to send out someone else’s promotional material to your subscriber base.  Nine times out of ten it’s a bad idea to agree to sending out other promotions.  Subscribers agreed to get a particular communication.  Sending promotions for other people or companies usually betrays that trust and is likely to damage your campaign and possibly your brand.

So when is the 10% of the time that it’s OK to accept a piggyback?  Partners or co-ventures.  If a association is having a roundtable and another speaker wants to include their content in an email you are already sending about your presentation for the day, then that’s OK.  If they have a product or event that directly lines up with your product or service and is incorporated into a regular communication, then that’s likely acceptable.  In short, if there is an easily understandable content synergy, it’s probably OK.

Temptation is highest when someone offers to pay you to send a promotional piece to your list.  I’ve never encountered a situation where this is appropriate.  By the very fact that they have to resort to a payout shows there is probably not a reasonable content synergy.  If the goal is to generate revenue via external promotions then it’s more suitable to create an advertising vehicle within your existing communications.  That’s something that can be explained to subscribers and doesn’t hit them with an unexpected solicitation. 

People often feel most pressured by a client or long-time partner that asks to get a promotion to their list.  Lengthy arguments on why your subscribers would want the message are common.  Think critically and really examine how closely someone else’s offer lines up with your core messaging.  While it’s never fun to decline, it’s something that needs to happen.  The reason is that it becomes a slippery slope.  If it happens once or twice subscribers are likely to forgive the sender.  However, if you allow one promotional piece to go out for someone else, it’s hard to turn down future requests.  Furthermore, other’s will notice and are likely to make the same overtures.

Make it a policy not to abuse your list.  Subscribers want your communications, not yours and anyone else who happens to ask to piggyback.  Keep your credibility by only sending what subscribers opted in for.

Email Marketing

Confusing Technical Prowess With Good Internet Marketing

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I’m always cautious when I start working with a person that “knows technology”.  There tends to be a belief that understanding technology automatically translates into expert email/online marketing.  These intiatives typically end up being on what webpagesthatsuck.com call “the bleeding edge”.  Just because you can do something doesn’t necessarily mean you should. 

As a rule of thumb before implementing a high tech or new-to-you technoligy ask “How does this enhance or improve my message to my target audience.?”  If you can’t think of a relatively simple answer within five seconds, it’s probably worth rethinking.

Here’s an example I recently encountered.  A client said, “I’m pretty technically savvy.  I can get the images into my emails.”  When I asked what emails were included in the “image makeover” and why, I got a blank stare.  Finally the answer was, “to make it look better”.  I had two problems with that answer.  One the layout didn’t make anything look better and two”looking better” doesn’t help the recipient.  Had he said, “It drew attention to an offer.” or “It instills confidence that the company is legitimate through a professional branded layout.”, I’d have thought he was on to something.  Unfortunately, he had no good reason to ad an image that, in reality, had little or nothing to do with the email’s content and made it look less professional.

Same thing goes for newer technology.  If there is no useful and interesting content that can be updated on at least a semi-regular basis, don’t start a blog.  If time and energy can’t be put into doing a professional video segment, don’t do a video podcast.  And never use a piece of technology because “it’s the next big thing.”  Keep it simple and useful and there will always be an audience.  Anything else will end up being overly complicated, useless, ignored, and potentially damaging to you or your company.

Email Marketing, Internet Marketing

Search Engine Rank Improvements Take Stamina and Evolution

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A lot of people are frustrated with their organic (Not a pay per click service) search engine rankings.  When they finally have had enough the frustration usually takes the shape of wanting to rank first for almost any related keyword.  Barring a massive budget and a group of talented web professionals, that isn’t likely to happen.  Start out gradually with Search engine optimization and gear up.

Think of SEO as a marathon.  No one decides the morning of a marathon that they’re going to do it (Well maybe someone has tried that but I guarantee they had a painful and unsuccessful experience).  It takes months and months of training.  Marathon runners set a running schedule that is designed to get them into their best running shape on that single day. 

SEO should work the same way.  Pick small steps and vital keywords.  Focus on a single geography before hitting wider reaching areas.  As you achieve success you can evolve from there.  Once certain keywords or areas point to your site, put new keywords in place.

There are a lot of Search Engine Optimizing strategies online (several have been covered here).  However, none of them will immediately propel a site to the top of search engines for every desired keyword.  Start slow and use your experiences and victories to achieve more.  It takes some thinking and work but if you stay consistent and keep the stamina up you’ll find that one day you’ll have built your site up to rank among all your desired keywords.

Internet Marketing, Search Engine Optimization

Email Marketing is for the Long-Term

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With the economy sagging many people are looking to email/online marketing as a way to open new opportunities for them or their companies.  Of course, that’s something I love to hear!  However, in the case of email marketing I’m noticing a disturbing trend.  I’m calling it “The Down Economy Panic”.  People who have lost some clients or feel that their existing base is shrinking are desperately trying to use email marketing for added exposure.  No long-term plan is put in place and the only ground work laid is for an immediate send.  These short sighted email marketing attempts almost always fall flat and waste valuable time and money while providing limited results.

I remain a proponent that “email blasts” don’t work.  This can be  a one-time large promotional send from either a rented/bought list or a dormant in-house  list.  It’s the same thing really.  The explanation I’m recently hearing is “I need to send out now to prop myself up over the downturn.  If I do an ongoing campaign the economy might be righted by the time I’m in full swing and I won’t need it.”

If that’s the line of thinking, save yourself the trouble, don’t get started.  You’re just creating one more selfish SPAM message.  We have plenty of those to go around!  If there is no commitment to an ongoing campaign that provides value to recipients and then drives sales or leads, it’s a waste of time and money.

For those people that want to use it as a method to generate new business and feel that it can be a valuable vehicle down the road, despite the market conditions, go for it!  That is the mindset that will reap rewards.

Anyone trying to do a short-term marketing email to solve their current losses are likely to find another loss in a wasted marketing effort.

Email marketing is a great way to communicate with potential clients but only if done appropriately.  It will surely help bring new opportunities during a down economy.  However, it needs to be designed in an ongoing way that will provide opportunities in any market condition.

Email Marketing
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