In this interview we talk about what makes for great content, how he came up with the title of his latest book, what Enchantment means for business, why businesses need to embrace nobodies and how he promoted his book. (Be sure to listen to the MP3 of this interview below.)

Mike: Most of our readers are marketers and business owners. Can you explain what Alltop does for them and why they might find it useful?

Guy: One of the functions of marketers, PR people and social media people is they need to keep on top of things.

The vision of Alltop was that we should aggregate RSS feeds for people by topic and create essentially an online magazine rack so that you could go to one place and say, “Okay, these are all the social media blogs and websites aggregated in one place.” It’s the five most recent stories from each source, and we give you a preview of the first paragraph of each story so you can see if you really want to click through.

This way, if your audience went to social-media.alltop, for example, they would see several hundred sources aggregated in one place, the five most recent stories from each source, and in seconds they could scan through hundreds of stories and get a good feel for what’s going on. That’s the vision of it.

Mike: Now you can create your own custom Alltop, right? How does that work?

Guy: Yes. We have about 850 topics ranging from adoption to zoology. A person who has a greater interest than just social media might have a few favorite tech blogs. Maybe the person has a desire to adopt kids, is a foodie, is a Macintosh user and is a real hockey buff. So he or she would want a couple of hockey blogs, a couple of tech blogs, a couple of social media blogs, some food blogs, an adoption blog, and that would be the person’s custom magazine rack. What we let you do is select from any of the 40,000 blogs that are at Alltop, and you can create what’s called “My Alltop.” That’s your custom magazine rack.

The difference between us and Google Reader is Google Reader says, “We’re giving you a container. Fill it up.” We say, “We have preselected 40,000 blogs for you. Just click on a plus sign and you’ll subscribe and create your own shelf.”

Mike: Obviously, you’re looking at a ton of content, and Alltop is really not just any content—it’s from the best content providers. Thinking about content, in your opinion, what do you think makes good content? What separates the best of the bunch? What makes certain blogs stand out?

Guy: For me, one of the easiest, quickest and most effective ways to determine if content is really useful is if it uses either unordered or ordered lists; i.e., bullets or numbers. Maybe it’s just my mind, but whenever I go to a blog post and I see 1), 2), 3), 4), 5) or bullet, bullet, bullet, my mind says, “Better organized, better thought out, more easy to use.”

When I go to a blog post that’s just paragraph after paragraph with nothing in bold and no sort of navigation tips, it’s hard to find the value. The ones I hate the most are “How to Be a More Effective Social Media Marketer” and you go to the post and it’s just paragraphs. There are no bullets. So you have to dig out of each paragraph what the tips are. Where are the tactical, actionable items? I think one very good indicator of a good blog post is, “Is it in bullet list format?”

Lots of people say, “Guy, that’s such a superficial way to look at things,” and “It’s not my style to write in bullet points,” but try looking at the world through the bullet point filter, and I think you’ll see that the best information is bulleted.

Mike: I’ve often said that I think the path to the mind is through the eyes, so if you can get the attention of an eyeball through formatting, then ultimately you can ensure your content makes its way into the minds of people. I think what you’re saying resonates true. It’s all about the way it’s presented, first and foremost. And you know, if it’s crappy content, then people won’t pay attention to it, but if it’s great content and it’s presented in a way that accommodates the eye, then I think you’ve got a magic formula.

Guy: With a bulleted list, I would make the case that even if it’s crappy content, it will be easier to determine it’s crappy with a bulleted list because you won’t have to dig through the crappy paragraphs to determine it’s crappy. You could just glance at a bullet, which is much faster.

Mike: Most of us are becoming inundated with content, so we have to make it easier for people to digest, and that’s where bullets come in.

Guy: I think a second and related point to this is that the greatest headlines to me are “Top 10 Tips…”, “How To…”, and “The Art Of…”. It happens that I’m a very tactical, action-oriented person. I’m looking for ways to do things better. Just give me what to do, tell me the 10 things to do.

Mike: Let’s talk about your story a little bit. Let’s talk about Enchantment. What is that word in your mind? What does it mean? Why did you choose it for your book? It’s quite an interesting word.

Guy: Well, I came at it from two directions. One very pragmatic, which is I needed a word that Guy Kawasaki could own in the same sense that Tom Peters owns the word excellence and maybe Geoffrey Moore owns the word chasm and Clayton Christensen owns the words innovator’s dilemma. Everybody has his or her word, and I needed a word.

The genre of this kind of writing is influence or persuasion, and those kinds of things.

Mike: Cialdini has the word influence, right?

Guy: Right. Cialdini owns influence. He’s also my friend, so I’m not going to try to steal the word from him. So when it came right down to it, coming from that pragmatic direction, enchantment was the word.

Coming from the other direction, which is a more philosophical direction, I wanted a word that went beyond influence and beyond wooing and beyond persuading. I wanted something that took it to the next level. It’s one thing to influence another person—it’s another thing to enchant the person.

Mike: What does that mean, especially for a business?

Guy: I think that a business that enchants a customer has a customer who’s beyond loyal. It’s delight. You can influence me and you can woo me and you can persuade me, but when you enchant me, that means that I’m head over heels in love. It’s the difference between like and love.

Mike: I think of Walt Disney World fans. People who are fans of Disney are enchanted, and they’ll do anything to participate in any of those kinds of activities endorsed by Disney because they’ve been enchanted, right?

Guy: Yes, and of course, the greatest example of all is Apple. What other company gets people to buy a phone that can barely go one day without charging, and that has the worst (until a few weeks ago) carrier in the world exclusively? That’s the power of enchantment. Anybody can sell a great phone with a great carrier.

Mike: What’s the benefit to a business of enchanting its customers?

Guy: Two levels. One is loyalty, repeat business, forgiveness at times. It just makes sense to have this relationship, this Nordstrom-esque kind of relationship with your customer. So that’s an obvious sort of business return, bottom-line answer. But I also think there’s a higher-level answer, which is that it’s a lot more fun to have a customer relationship based on enchantment rather than arm’s-length, sort of tit-for-tat, quid pro quo. I think that permeates the entire organization.

That’s a very different attitude than, “Oh, let’s just get up and see what our click-through rate is, and can we get a better CPM deal? How are we being rated in a statistical survey?” It’s a very different outlook on life.

Mike: Well, in Chapter 4 of your book, since we’re talking about Apple, you say the following about Steve Jobs: “Steve Jobs can enchant the shell off an egg without disturbing the yolk. But without Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, or iPad, Steve wouldn’t have anything to sell.”

You worked for Apple and you worked with Steve. Can you talk to me a little bit about the connection between being enchanting as Steve Jobs is, as you talk about him in your book, versus having something that is enchanting? What’s more important?

Guy: Neither, or both, actually. A great enchanting person with nothing to sell has nothing to sell. And a great product, without people who can enchant people and evangelize people to embrace, it is also a half-completed project.

Apple has this sweet spot of a CEO who really can enchant people with just his keynotes alone, and he has an enchanting product. So if you said to me, “Guy, you can either have an enchanting person or an enchanting product. Pick one,” I would pick the product. I would say, “Give me an enchanting product and then I can train people to be enchanting with it.” Whereas, if you give me enchanting people but a crappy product, it’s a lot harder to fix the product.

Mike: What makes an enchanting person?

Guy: I think an enchanting person starts off with a fundamental basis of being likeable. If you think about it, have you ever been enchanted by someone you can’t stand? Probably not.

The second component is trustworthiness, because you can like a person—you can like a Hollywood star, or their persona anyway—but that doesn’t mean you trust them. So the second component is trustworthiness.

The example I cite in the book of trustworthiness and competence and likeability is someone like Terry Gross of NPR. I don’t know her personally, but in listening to her on Fresh Air, you have a very good sense of her that she really is competent. She really can conduct a great interview across many, many subjects. She’s laughing, she’s teasing. You have a sense that she’s just not reading off a teleprompter that some producer put up 30 seconds ago.

So it’s between likeability and trustworthiness and knowledge and competence. And the difference between knowledge and competence is that knowledge is what you know, competence is the ability to apply it. A knowledgeable, competent, likeable, trustworthy person is enchanting.

Mike: Now let’s flip it over to the enchanting product. What are some qualities of an enchanting product? Can you give us some examples?

Guy: Sure, there are basically five or so key elements to the product. The first is depth—a product that is feature-rich. It does a lot.

The second thing is that it’s intelligent in the sense that its makers have intelligently figured out the customers’ problem and a solution to their problem, maybe even before the customers have.

The example I like to cite is that Ford Motor Company has a product called MyKey. What that enables you to do is program the top speed that the car can go. Imagine if you bought a really hot Mustang and you had to loan the car to your teenage son. You could program it so that the car could go no more than 60 miles an hour. I think that’s a really brilliant idea!

The next quality is completeness. Great products, enchanting products, they’re not just a physical entity and they’re not just a download. There’s a totality of the experience, which would be a string of enhancements, online documentation, technical support, all the good stuff. It’s not just the car. It’s the totality of the experience.

Another quality is elegance in terms of user interface. Someone has cared about the interaction between you and the product. That’s where Apple really shines.

The last thing is that I think enchanting products are empowering. That is, they make you feel better about yourself. A Macintosh is enchanting because it makes you feel more creative and more productive. Some computers you fight and some computers make you better.

Mike: I like the way you’ve analyzed that. I think a lot of businesses can really be thinking about this when they’re developing their products and services.

Guy: The acronym is DICEE. It’s deep, intelligent, complete, elegant and empowering.

Mike: Let me switch into a totally different discussion. You talk about the importance of embracing nobodies in your book. I’d like to explore this a little bit with you because so many people simply go after who they think is the highest profile individual when it comes to trying to get endorsements or support. I like the fact that you’re kind of going countercultural here and saying maybe you should not just look at those people. Can you explain what it means to embrace nobodies and why it’s important?

Guy: My theory is that nobodies are the new somebodies. In the old world, information came down from the mountain and trickled down to the masses. You had to look up at the mountain and see god, and god was the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fortune and Forbes, Wired and CNET.

So in a world dominated by gods or goddesses on a mountain, you had to suck up to the gods and goddesses, hoping that they would like your product so they would tell the great unwashed masses, “We, the gods, have decided that you should like Facebook, and you should like Twitter, and you should like Macintosh, and you should like Shutterfly, and you should like Delicious.” I guess Delicious is a bad example now.

That’s the old world. In the new world, with blogging and tweeting and Facebooking and all the other stuff, I think it’s just as likely that someone you never heard of who has absolutely no platform compared to any of these publications will love your product and spread the word.

LonelyBoy15 on Twitter might tell 200. But it may be that LonelyBoy15 who is really a database administrator telling people about your product is more powerful in aggregation than this godlike person on the mountain.

I’m not telling you to ignore the gods, what I’m telling you is that the LonelyBoy15s and the Tiffany65s, they all add up.

Facebook grew because nobodies signed up for it and these nobodies created this total force. Now the somebodies have to say that Facebook was interesting, and they had to cover Facebook because if they didn’t, they’d look stupid.

My theory is that you don’t know who LonelyBoy15 is. It’s not like there’s a LonelyBoy15.com that’s ranked according to Alexa or Compete in the top 500 sites on the Internet. What you have to do is plant a lot of seeds, and you just hope that some of them are LonelyBoy15s.

Mike: What kind of practical tips would you give to your fellow marketers who want to try to plant seeds with nobodies?

Guy: The more seeds you plant, the more likely some will take root. With my book, the typical business book rollout involves inviting a few hundred reviewers. Obviously, you try to get The New York Times and The Washington Post and whatever. That’s the traditional method.

I happen to have a very valuable asset that’s kind of unique in the world, which is I’m the co-founder of Alltop, which has 40,000 blogs created by 20,000 people. I sent an email to all 20,000 saying, “I’m coming out with a new book. Would you like to review it?” Of those 20,000 people, roughly 1,200 said yes, so 1,200 people are going to review this book.

In a perfect world, I’m going to send out all 1,200, so on or about March 8, there’ll be 1,200 reviews of Enchantment. I don’t think that all 1,200 are going to come through, but let’s say 500 do. I don’t think there’s ever been a book that rolled out with 500 reviews, to put it mildly.

One of them might be Silicon Valley moms blog, or it could be the homeschooling blog because I have homeschooling.alltop, so homeschooling bloggers got my email. If they responded and said, “Yes, we would like to review your book,” then my book might be reviewed in Homeschooling World. Homeschooling World might only have 1,000 readers, but God bless them.

Mike: And they’re probably very influential people, I would imagine too.

Guy: In homeschooling, absolutely they are. So do I care if the person who’s the homeschooling main blogger tells all the other homeschoolers, “You have to read this book”? That is my best-case scenario!

Don’t get me wrong. I would love for The New York Times Book Review to say, “Everyone should read this book,” but that’s highly unlikely. On the other hand, I think I’ll get a lot of homeschooling blogs, I’ll get travel blogs, I’ll get mommy blogs, I’ll get food blogs.

Mike: And social media blogs.

Guy: Social Media Examiner. And they all add up.

Mike: Just a few closing comments. I was skeptical at first, I’ll be honest with you, because I wasn’t sure what you were trying to accomplish with the word enchantment. But having read through it, I believe that it’s really powerful what you’ve done here, and I think that time will prove that what you’ve done is created your next bestseller, so congratulations.

Guy: Thank you. Everybody has to have goals. Do you know the book How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie? That book is totally awesome. It came out in 1937, and it has sold roughly 15 million copies. If you go to Amazon today, you’ll probably see that it’s in the top 200 sellers to this day. That’s kind of my goal.

Mike: You want it to be a timeless book.

Guy: Yes.

Mike: That’s awesome. I want to close with this last question. If folks want to learn more about you specifically, and your book Enchantment, where would you like them to go?

If you want to find out more information about Enchantment, go to Facebook.com/enchantment. It’s a fan page where I post all my information. Mari Smith opened my eyes to Facebook and she introduced me to the Facebook programmer who did my custom work. She also introduced me to Wildfire, that is doing an Enchantment quiz for me.

Mike: Guy, thank you very much. I know that you’re a busy man and I greatly appreciate your taking the time out. We look forward to seeing more great things from you very soon.

Guy: Michael, I know you would do the same for me!

Mike: You know it!

Listen to our complete extended interview (below) to hear some of the interesting ways Guy promoted his book, as well as the dark side of enchantment.

Click here to download MP3.

What do you think of Guy’s ideas? Leave your comments in the box below.

Be sure to watch this edition of Social Media Examiner TV with our host Mari Smith.

In this episode, Mari introduces you to the concept of curating content and how it can help your business. And Mari also reviews 8 content curation tools to help you find the best information for your business.

Share your feedback, see the show notes and discover how you can be part of a future show below!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mKJQuREIHw

Here are the content curation tools Mari reviews on this video:

#1: Google Alerts

Use Google Alerts to get notifications of your important keywords. Mari also explains how to use Google Alerts for reputation management with vanity searches.

Set up Google Alerts for keywords relevant to your business.

#2: Google Reader

Subscribe to blogs in your Google Reader for better social media management.

#3: Facebook Friend Lists for Better Facebook News Feeds

Get more control over your Facebook news feed with Facebook Friend Lists. Mari shares a great tip on how to make a Facebook Friend List with your favorite fan pages for better content curation thanks to a filtered view of your news feed.

Create Friend Lists of your favorite fan pages on Facebook to filter your news feed for quick content curation.

#4: Twitter Lists

Mari shares how you can create Twitter Lists to curate information from people who consistently share great content on Twitter.

Create lists of your favorite news sources on Twitter.

#5: HootSuite

You can use HootSuite with multiple social media profiles to make it easier to share the valuable content you find online. Mari gives you some great tips to get the most out of this social media tool.

HootSuite helps you curate content and share it across your social network.

#6: Paper.li

With Paper.li, you can publish your own virtual newspaper which pulls in information from various social media platforms.

Paper.li is an easy way to pull in links from your favorite sources.

#7: Alltop

Alltop curates the content for you by allowing you to create a MyAlltop page to subscribe to your favorite blogs.

Alltop is a great resource to help you find the best content from your favorite blogs.

#8: Mobile

Flipboard and Pulse are two mobile apps Mari mentions in this video. And she explains why using mobile apps makes it easy for you to curate content on social media.

Content curation apps like Pulse are valuable tools to stay up to date.

Watch the video to learn more about these content curation tools!  And be sure to listen for Mari’s hot marketing tips on how to craft a tweet to get more retweets.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Social Media Examiner TV, make sure to tweet about it (use hashtag #SMEtv), share it on Facebook or even embed this episode on your blog.

We want to hear from you! Do you include content curation in your marketing tactics? Which content curation tools help you find content online? Please tell us in the comments below.

This can be a real problem if you’ve made Facebook updates an integral part of your communications strategy.

These are the times when having a ready-and-waiting list of Facebook ideas will come in handy. In this post I’ll show you 26 practical ways to use good content for your Facebook pages, everything from A to Z.

Some days knowing what updates you want to post to your Facebook business page comes easily.

#1: Alltop

If you’re looking for a comprehensive list of content ideas, the online magazine-rack format of Alltop may be just what you’re looking for. According to Alltop, the purpose of the site is to help you answer the question, “What’s happening?” in all the topics that interest you. Alltop aggregates the headlines of the latest stories from websites and blog feeds, and displays the five most recent headlines. When you mouse over a headline, you’ll see the first line of the post. Perusing the vast number of headlines will give you access to loads of great material.

#2: Business Updates

These updates include news about your business and are akin to mini press releases, including: announcements of new products and services, new hires and new customers you want to welcome on board. Word of caution regarding these types of posts—limit how frequently you use them so you’re not seen as a self-serving broadcaster!

#3: Contest

A contest is a good way to engage with your Facebook community. There are a number of apps that can be added to your page and become a tab on the navigation bar. Some companies use their Notes tab as a place to post information about how to enter a contest and official rules. A contest requires planning and forethought, so it’s best to go this route only when you’ve already invested the time and necessary resources.

#4: Data

Facebook is an excellent way to share facts and statistics. You probably come across great data all the time that your fans will enjoy, too. For example, in 10 Fascinating Facebook Facts by Amy-Rae Elliott, the author shares interesting Facebook posts. Here’s a sample: 1) the meaning of the term poke has never been defined, 2) the average Facebook user has 130 friends, and 3) Mark Zuckerberg calls himself a “Harvard Graduate” on his Facebook profile (not what you learned in the movie The Social Network, was it?) What unique facts can you share?

#5: Events

With Facebook Apps you can easily share information on Facebook about upcoming events you’ve been invited to or are hosting. Events can be classified as open, closed or secret (only visible to invitees). Among other things, you can add an event description, photos, videos and links, and specify whether guests can bring a friend. You can invite friends and manage and promote the event.

Facebook fan pages can have a lighter side.

#6: Fun

Facebook fan pages don’t always have to be serious. You might want to mix up your posts every now and then by adding some fun ones. Callan Green’s post, Killer Facebook Fan Pages: 5 Inspiring Case Studies, shows how Pringles, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Adidas, and Red Bull have broken out of the mold by creating fun content. Red Bull, for example, has “aggregated tweets from sponsored athletes like skateboarder Ryan Sheckler and snowboarder Shaun White and included them directly in their Facebook presence.”

#7: Gimmick

As described on The Daily Gimmick, gimmicks are often a big way to draw in new customers and entice existing customers to buy more. Here’s one used by Miller Lite’s Fantasy Football Draft Sweepstakes: “On September 1, one lucky winner and nine of his friends will be flown to Dallas for two nights where they will get to conduct their fantasy draft in the fully stocked Miller Lite’s suite at the state-of-the-art Cowboys Stadium. They will enjoy all the amenities of the suite…”

#8: Helpful

You don’t have to be Heloise to list helpful hints. Communicate with readers about things that will help them. For example, what time- or money-saving tip can you share with your readers? Maybe there’s a new phone app relevant to your audience or an upcoming conference where if you register today you’ll save $100. Your readers will thank you for the recommendations and heads-up.

#9: Info

Depending on the business category you selected when you set up your Facebook page, there will be fields for you to fill in to describe your business; e.g., hours, web URL, detailed info, mission. It’s good practice to use the open-field space to put your other social networking profile URLs such as your Twitter, blog and YouTube channel. You only get a limited amount of real estate, so use it to your full advantage.

#10: Jokes

It’s okay to be funny on Facebook. You can be your own comedian or rely on others for Facebook jokes. For inspiration check out Jokes, Jokes and Funny Pictures, and Top 100 One Liners.

#11: Keywords

Keywords are one of the most powerful features of all online content. As Justin Smith tells us in his post 10 Key SEO Strategies Every Facebook Page Owner Should Know, “One important SEO strategy that should be employed on your Facebook page whenever feasible is placing keyword-dense prose as close to the top of the page as possible. Because Facebook limits where page owners can place large chunks of text on the default Wall tab of Facebook pages, the ‘About’ box actually represents the highest place in the CSS structure of the page to add custom text.” Are you using your About box most effectively? Take advantage of those 250 characters and make them work for you.

#12: Like

In the post, 10 Ways to Grow Your Facebook Page Following by Ching Ya, she suggests that in order for a page to be Liked, it must be likeable first; which translates to quality wall posts and consistent engagement. Facebook has some ready-made sharing buttons. Place a shout-out or a reminder to Like your status updates and instruct fans to click the Share button right next to your message so that their friends will be alerted about the update, too.

#13: Movie Reviews

On Facebook’s Blog, Austin Haugen writes that he asks his friends, “Have you seen any good movies recently?” as he’s making weekend plans. Austin suggests using Rotten Tomatoes as a movie review site. You’ll immediately see the reviews most relevant to you without having to register, search for friends or fill out a profile.

#14: Offers

Your Facebook page can be your own daily deal site. For instance, a national movie chain posted, “Last chance to win 1 of 4 prize packs, click the link below. Good luck!” What are your offers?

#15: Promote

In order to be successful, Facebook fan pages need to be promoted inside and outside of Facebook. Social Media Examiner uses Facebook Friday Expert Sessions for Q& A sessions among experts and page fans. Cindy King’s post How Facebook Friday Expert Sessions Increase Fan Engagement discusses how the sessions help to increase fan engagement. She writes, “These sessions are a great way for fans to quickly get the information they need. And you can model this for your business. These open Q&A sessions with industry experts are a great way to encourage engagement with your fans and get your updates to show up more in your fans’ news feeds.”

#16: Questions

While you can use questions and answers in one longer session as discussed above in #15, updates can be made on an as-needed basis to answer questions that come up on your social networking sites or in your in-person meetings with customers. Update your group or fan page on a regular basis with helpful information and answers to questions.

#17: Reads

What book or magazine article are you reading today? What’s on your future reading list? If the book is available on Amazon (what isn’t, these days?) you can add a link to the book so your readers will be able to learn more and maybe they’ll order the book based on your advice. Your audience will appreciate hearing about books that wouldn’t ordinarily hit their radar if it weren’t for your update.

#18: Separate

Fletcher Prince suggests in his post Twitter Updates and Facebook Page Updates for Your Business to keep Twitter and Facebook updates separate because he sees them as “two very different platforms with different capabilities, audiences, and tone.” I agree and would take it one step further—to establish distinct messaging strategies for your profiles.

For example, planning that you’ll communicate on Facebook about what books you recommend, but as a rule, knowing that you will not use your tweets for that purpose. This becomes helpful too when you have multiple people managing your profiles and separate them into different content turf. For a list of tweet ideas, see the companion post to this piece, 26 Twitter Tips for Enhancing Your Tweets.

#19: Static FBML

(Important Update: Facebook no longer supports FBML. Please refer to the articles on Facebook iFrame.) Nick Shin’s post How to Customize Your Facebook Page Using Static FBML shows how to add a clickable image, embed a YouTube video and how to set the FBML box as the default landing tab. As Nick suggests, static FBML gives you the ability to make your Facebook page serve as a marketing vehicle which can help drive traffic to your website and engage further with your audience. Social Media Examiner’s Facebook page does this quite nicely with the Welcome tab and the embedded video.

#20: Tagging

You can tag your status updates by including the “@” symbol before a friend’s name. This way the person will receive a notification and a wall post linking them to your post. Tagging within your status updates is a powerful way to increase the social and shareable features of Facebook. Check out this video by David Erickson to learn more.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uxw16T2tWPM

#21: URL

When you create your Facebook page, the URL will first appear with over 100 characters including the name of your business, city and state, followed by a long string of numbers. Hardly easy to communicate! But as soon as 25 people have Liked your page, you can visit here to choose a user-friendly URL for your page; e.g., www.facebook.com/yourbusiness.

#22: Visual Aids

Want to make a point with an image? Use an app such as SlideShare to upload your presentations, documents and PDFs. Remember, content doesn’t need to be limited to the printed word.

Facebook updates are checked on screens of all sizes.

#23: Web Writing

Christina Halvorson, author of Content Strategy for the Web, defines web writing as “The practice of writing useful, usable content specifically intended for delivery online.” Facebook updates will not only be read on computer monitors and laptop screens but on other devices too, such as iPads and smartphones.

Remember that you’re writing for online delivery, so be sure to use a good balance of chunked content, hyperlinks, images and videos.

Good rule of thumb: Commit to a social media content strategy.

#24: Excellence

Soumitra Dutta, in the November 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review, writes in her article, “What’s your personal social media strategy?”, how today’s leaders must embrace social media for three reasons: 1) communicating as a personal brand, inside and outside of your company; 2) engaging rapidly and simultaneously with peers, employees, customers and the broader public; and 3) providing an opportunity to learn from instant information and unvarnished feedback.

Used properly, Facebook business pages provide a vehicle for demonstrating your business excellence, which is even more reason to give thoughtful consideration to the quality and quantity of your company status updates.

#25: YouTube

As already discussed in this post, videos will enhance your Facebook updates. Here’s an important perspective from Ekaterina Walter, a social media strategist at Intel, who shared thoughts about social media initiatives in an SME interview, “The Inside Scoop on How Intel Manages Its Facebook Page.”

Ekaterina encourages businesses to upload raw video files versus just linking to YouTube to enhance their engagement strategy. As she says, “If you upload a raw video file, not just linked from YouTube but uploaded on Facebook, and your fans share it with their friends, when somebody who’s not a fan or liker of your Facebook page actually watches the video, there is a sweet little thing—a button that pops up on the upper-left corner of the video that invites you to basically like the page, or in the old terms, to become a fan of the page. That is the fastest way for folks to just click on it and become a fan.”

#26: Zen

We’ve gone over 25 tips before coming to this last one. This is a good place to wrap up by saying that Facebook updates shouldn’t feel overwhelming. In fact, quite the contrary happens when you view Facebook as a zen-like experience, commit to enlightenment and make a point to provide content that doesn’t add to the noise. Commit to memorable, thoughtful content.

Final Thoughts About Facebook Content Ideas

Whether your business communication is targeted for B2B or B2C end-users, Facebook offers a unique and powerful vehicle for creating a memorable experience.

What Facebook content ideas can you add to this list? Which ones are you already using? Which ones do you enjoy most? Leave your comments in the box below.

Photos from Flickr: smemon87, boetter & Jorge Quintero

Now social media takes it one step further. I not only can find your past exploits online, but I can hear the conversations that the entire globe is having about you, right now, with a simple click (and maybe some typing too).

Twazzup, Addict-o-matic and SocialMention are three free platforms that allow you to measure your social media mettle—or more simply put, see all of the buzz or conversations surrounding your brand online, at any time.  Never heard of these platforms?  No worries, I’ve got your back!

Platform Overviews

Twazzup, as stated by ReadWriteWeb , is a bridge between Twitter and a search engine.  Sticking with the “stay with what you know” mantra, Twazzup mostly plays in the Twitter sandbox, but plays very well there.  From logging Tweets per hour to giving mug shots of the top influencers of any search, Twazzup gives you a full-circle view of how your brand is performing in the Twitter space.

Addict-o-matic, with the least D.A.R.E.-friendly tagline, “Inhale the Web,” is exactly the first thing you should think of when you say the words “social search.”  Addict-o-matic lets you see how your brand is being presented on a number of different social platforms all in one page.  With all search engines, aggregation sites like Digg, Flickr and YouTube for media-phile searchers, Addict-o-matic literally takes the platform we just reviewed, ItsTrending.com, and puts a more comprehensive spin on it.

Even Addict-o-Matic's robot looks like he's got drugs on him.

SocialMention, with its simplistic and very professional design, would seem to be the most mature of the three platforms at first glance.  All jokes aside, while the other two platforms are either very straightforward (Twazzup), or comparing their data to narcotics (Addict-o-Matic), SocialMention sticks to words that have been made popular by today’s social media thought leaders.  Measuring things like “sentiment,” “passion” and “reach”—then having the ability to quantify such usually subjective terms—makes SocialMention the platform that your boss would approve of you using daily.

Do not ask whose measurement this is...

Enough with the intros and wit; let’s figure out what’s the best platform. We’ll start with features:

Twazzup

Twazzup pigeonholes itself out of the gate by being Twitter-centered.  But the Twitter features it does have are nothing to sneeze at.  Looking for influencers?  Perhaps your topic is the Gulf oil spill.  Guess what? The top 10 or so people you need to talk to are right there. 

What are the links leading to your keyword search? No problem, there’s a clear list.  What’s the latest news on the subject?  It’s right at the top of the page.  Pop-up previews of links are an added bonus that will make you smile because your life just got a little bit easier.

On the other hand, I’m a bit confused with two things.  The Highlighted Tweet seems to be arbitrary.  Unfortunately, for those of us who are slow, clicking on the heading doesn’t give us any insight on why that tweet is so important, but I’m sure it’ll give a boost to the tweeter.  If you could only figure out how to get there…

Craig Ferguson? As you can see, Twazzup is not always 100% accurate with searches…

Addict-o-Matic

Addict-o-Matic, with its “more is more” approach, has features that continue that line of thought.  Not only can you create your own page and create a shrine for your selected keywords, you can also add tons of popular (and not so popular) social sites to give you as much or as little data overload as you require.

In terms of raw features, they keep it pretty simple; either add more info or take info away.  No cool previews, but you can move any content box around to position the most important info on top.

While the ability to see what’s being posted across many social sites is awesome, there seems to be one specific 500-million pound gorilla that’s been excluded from Addict-o-Matic, even though said gorilla has spent most of the year adding social widgets to over 100,000 sites.  Maybe they should call ItsTrending.com and have a meeting.  This is a big exclusion for me.

For a site with a drug theme, I expected brighter colors.

SocialMention

SocialMention gives you tons of features to play with, but unfortunately if you’re a beginner, you’ll need to see their FAQ to catch up before you get started really appreciating what they’ve done for you.  Instead of choosing one social network, or even grouping the info by network, SocialMention chooses to give you a streaming timeline including content from places like Twitter, StumbleUpon and Google Blogs.  They also let you know how many mentions and how many different people are mentioning you.

The most important feature, if I may be honest, is one that I call the “tattletale” feature.  Clicking on the word “negative” under the sentiment area sends you to a list of the so-called “negative” posts waiting for you to jump in the conversation at any time.  They’re not very specific on how they determine why it’s negative, but check them all out and be safe instead of sorry.

While I love the feature above, I am disappointed that I can’t click on the unique authors or retweets section. It would be a huge bonus to be able to see a list of those authors.  As a marketer, if I had a list of who was talking about me, it would be as easy as pie to connect and grow those relationships from there.  SocialMention makes you dig through their timeline for that data—good for them, bad for me.  You can export the top users, but the data still required some extra effort to turn into a hit list.

This page just LOOKS like work, doesn't it?

Who’s More Ninja?

All that is cool, but who should you use?  How should you decide?  And more importantly, what are the ninja features that nobody else is thinking about to put you ahead of the curve?

Twazzup

Ninja Tactic: Get in with the cool kids quickly

Twazzup lets you see who is talking about your niche quickly and painlessly.  If you were being ninja, you would quickly make a list of the cool kids and find a way to add value to them ASAP.

These people are not only already talking about this niche, but they are sharing the most content about it with their networks.  This is how you can create something that we call an “influence circle.”  If you want to get content shared faster and farther than your account can accomplish, you need to have a relationship with the people in your industry who do just that.  Especially valuable for new Twitter users with fewer relationships.

Addict-o-Matic

Ninja Tactic: Outcast platform awareness

Addict-o-Matic lets you get all of the latest info on a subject from tons of platforms, but you can get Facebook, Twitter and YouTube info from about a million different tools.  Addict-o-Matic allows you to customize an interface and keep track of a number of sites that, to be honest, nobody else is thinking about.  While SocialMention blends these platforms in a live stream, Addict-o-Matic makes it very easy to see the latest buzz from sites like Truveo, Blinkx and Twingly, which aren’t being harvested daily by most marketers/content sharers.

Use this tip to stand out in the content crowd by posting the most unique and diverse content in your niche.  Right now, many marketers are reposting popular content, but to build your own reputation, you need to find/create content that comes from you, or is found by you.

I hadn't heard of 30% of these sites before today… I promise.

SocialMention

Ninja Tactic: Sentiment timeline

SocialMention has a feature that should make any data-driven marketer smile.  They let you export the results of your search to a .csv file.  Why is this important?  It’s important because most companies are not properly measuring their social sentiment at all, and those that do measure are seeing snapshots over periods of a month, at most.

A serious marketer will want data to examine change over months and possibly years to evaluate where the brand has come from, and if they’re progressing towards a predetermined goal.  SocialMention allows you to use their algorithms to track easy-to-understand numbers over time, and export them into your own internal system.  Once you control the data, you can manipulate it in any way that you see fit to benefit your brand, giving SocialMention another notch in the “most mature platform” belt.

Good to know that people aren’t letting the tropical storm get them down…

And the Winner Is…

SocialMention, for being the closest to a complete solution of the three.

Twazzup comes in second, but only for its focus on Twitter.  If they could find a way to integrate other platforms, or partner with other niche-specific platforms for a robust solution, they could vault to the top.  But at this point, you need about seven different solutions to use in conjunction with Twazzup to be completely covered.

Addict-o-matic, while awesome in name, falls short in this specific horse race.  Other than its fringe social network additions, there’s not much difference between Popurls.com or Alltop.com except the search bar.  Just like Twazzup, you’ll need more tools to round out your kit, and Addict-o-Matic is more of a role player than a starter.

See a feature, benefit or shortcoming that I missed? Know of an upcoming improvement that will rearrange these rankings?  Is there a completely different platform that should be in the race?  Let me know in the box below.

Matt Schlict definitely believes the former.

Matt saw Open Graph API as an opportunity to connect people across the web—not just through personal connections, but also by their connection to the most popular content.  Instead of waiting for users to browse one of the 100,000 sites using a form of the Open Graph, he decided to post all of the most popular content in one place, on ItsTrending.com.

What Is ItsTrending.com?

Itstrending.com is a site that collects all of the content shared via Open Graph, and ranks it by the number of times it has been shared.  This guarantees that everything on the site is the most popular content of its kind.

Let me give you an official tour:

Why Is It Different?

I know what you’re thinking.  Reddit.com, StumbleUpon.com and Digg.com all do the same thing, right?

Wrong.

On those sites, all the content is physically placed there by individuals then voted on for popularity.

On ItsTrending.com, there is no bias.

All of the content is shared in its own online world, and the best of the best (or most popular of the popular) gets pulled into Matt’s site, giving a true, unbiased, “passive pulse” of the Internet.

Here’s an example of the most popular videos on Facebook.

Why Is This Awesome?

For individuals and brands on social networks looking to boost the quality of the content they share, ItsTrending.com is a lifesaver.  No more guessing if your audience will find a particular piece of content relevant/funny/useful, because you’ll have testimonials from thousands of ‘likes’ across the Internet to give you a good idea of the reaction you’ll get from it.

Looking to cash in on being around the popular kids of the Internet?  No problem, you can get your site featured on the right side of the page.  Just contact Matt if you’re interested.

Why Does This Suck?

The same reason that the Internet itself is a waste of time.  Think of ItsTrending.com as a site with nothing but the most popular versions of Fred, Will It Blend and Auto-Tune The News that constantly updates automatically with even more popular versions of those shows.

Remember what happened when Google replaced its logo with Pacman?  Yeah, it’s like a never-ending version of that…

Also, some may take issue with the lack of depth of categories to choose from.  Niche content providers will not like the “30,000 foot” approach to aggregation that the site takes now.  Even popular topics (*cough* “social media” *cough*) are missing.  This isn’t so much an issue for the functionality of the site, but it could lend frustration to some industries that are looking for a solution like this.

That said, it’s pretty early in the game; as the Open Graph becomes adopted more and more, the site should be able to expand its offerings… unless you think Open Graph won’t work.  If that’s the case, then this site is doomed.

Secret Marketing Ninja Trick

You won’t find this info on the site, but brands can reach out to Matt to set up their own Its Trending page.  Similar to Alltop.com, brands can have their own customized version of the most popular shared content on the Open Graph as it’s relevant to their industry.

Why Is It Ninja?

Think about this… If you’re a real estate guru, and you can collect all of the most popular information on real estate in one place, you can become the go-to guy for information.  By proxy, those visitors will look for answers to their questions from the person who has all of the information.

Creating a branded page on ItsTrending is more powerful than an Alltop.com page because the content has already been proven and tested.  With a simple collection of blogs, you never know which ones are dead, which bloggers are having bad weeks, or even which blogs change their focus without going through the entire list.

With ItsTrending.com, there’s no need for pruning, everything is preselected by the Open Graph and deemed popular by the Internet as a whole, not by a select few super-users.  In the very near future, the most powerful consultants, connectors, and speakers may see more traffic on an aggregated page like ItsTrending than their own websites.

Why do I say that?  Because the site is social.  Not only can you host a ton of great content, you can keep the conversations about the best content on YOUR page, something that won’t happen on other sites.

"Don't judge me for choosing this video... It just happened."

Let’s be honest, your blog isn’t Copyblogger.com, at least not in popularity, but if you could host Copyblogger’s conversations on your ItsTrending page, who’s in control now?  I always say, you want to host the conversation in your playpen, and ItsTrending gives you that option today.

Elijah’s Final Conclusion

ItsTrending.com will make my life a lot easier when I’m finding popular content to fill out my distribution schedule.  I hate scrounging around Digg or even Alltop for the best content to add to what I’m already releasing into our social ecosystem.

The premise is simple: Feature only the most popular stuff, as dictated by the people. It really encompasses my idea of what the social space should look like.

As excited as I am about the possibilities for brands to host their own ItsTrending page, I’d like to see if Matt has any intention of adding analytics for the page owners to really turn the site into a “brand profile” of sorts.  I can see a lot of possibilities here. Even the decentralization of power within the blogosphere—almost a shift from “where” a blog is to “what” a blog posts—will make finding great (read: popular) content easier.

ItsTrending may be a step toward better aggregation for content distributors—that’s a given.  By freeing up the time I would spend finding all of the popular content, I can now spend more time finding emerging content creators and building relationships with them.  It also gives me the power to host a share of the conversation on elite blogs and sites that I wouldn’t be able to tap regularly.

As a site by itself, ItsTrending is merely convenient; in the hands of the right marketer (taking into account the brand pages), it is a powerful addition to a brand’s social strategy.

My official review scores are (out of 10):

• Design: 5
• Usability: 8
• Common Use Potential: 5
• Marketing Potential: 8

How do you rate ItsTrending.com? Is it a massive waste of time or potential game-changer?  Let me know your thoughts in the box below.

After all, without a steady stream of traffic to your blog, there’s little opportunity to engage your audience and convert readers to raving fans.

Methods change and evolve over time. When I wrote my first “how to drive traffic” post about five years ago, the list looked a lot different. There was no Twitter, no Facebook, no social sharing buttons, and no retweet button.

Yet some methods I advocated back in 2005 still work, so think of this as a refresher if you’re already employing all the social tactics for driving traffic.  You would be surprised at how many people don’t actually take the time to implement a variety of tactics. Maybe you can pick up a few new ideas or implement some old ideas you may have overlooked.

This list is in no way complete. I invite you to add your favorite tips in the comment section.

First, the tried and true:

#1: Publish as frequently as possible

The more frequently you post, the more traffic you get because the search engines are indexing your content more frequently. Of course your content has to be compelling as well, but that goes without saying, right?

#2: Pay attention to the headlines (blog post titles)

Using numbers (see title of this blog post!) usually generates good traffic. Titles with “how to” also attract a lot of traffic.

#3: Send an email broadcast

Send email to your list when you have a great blog post you want to share. Ask for comments to encourage engagement and interaction.

#4: Add a link in your email signature

If you use web-based email like Gmail, add WiseStamp to your email signature so you can include links to your blog. Add your blog’s RSS feed so your recent posts are always featured in your emails. WiseStamp works with web-based email services including Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo mail and AOL.

WiseStamp adds all your links to your email signature and is simple to install and edit.

#5: Include multiple subscription options on your blog

Most blog platforms have RSS feeds built in, but don’t forget to add an email subscription option as well. Email is ubiquitous and if you only offer RSS, you lose a huge opportunity for people to get your content and become regular readers. Email subscription services include Feedburner, Feedblitz and AWeber, to name a few.

Give your readers multiple options for getting your blog updates.

#6: Try article marketing

Article marketing is a powerful way to attract traffic. Post your articles at EzineArticles.com and include a link to your blog in your author resource box. Also set up your author account to automatically send a tweet when you post new articles. That drives traffic to your article which drives traffic back to your blog.

#7: Comment on blogs in your industry

This is all about outreach and boosting your visibility on complementary blogs. Target influential blogs, read them on a regular basis and then contribute to the conversation as appropriate. When you comment, you have the option to include the URL to your blog.

#8. Do some guest posting

Writing on other people’s blogs can introduce you to a new audience and create a surge of new traffic to your blog. You can find more information and a great resource for getting guest posting gigs here.

#9: Conduct surveys and polls

People love to give their opinion. Use Polldaddy or SurveyMonkey to ask your readers what they want or get their opinion. More often than not, those who respond will help spread the word, especially if you ask and/or offer a gift in exchange.

#10: Submit your blog to directories

While it’s debatable how much traffic you’ll get by having your blog in directories, it can’t hurt to be listed. Most definitely I would recommend you add your blog to Technorati, the largest blog directory on the web, and Alltop.com, a popular directory with the best of the best organized by topic.

Now the social media tips:

#11: Make a Google profile

You can’t ignore Google. Set up your profile on Google and include links to your blogs and websites. Whenever someone does a search on your name, a link to your profile will be featured at the bottom of the first page of search results. You can include pictures, links to your blog(s), products, website, and social networks.

Build your profile on Google.com/profiles with links to your blogs.

#12: Syndicate to Twitter

Use a plug-in like Twitter Tools (WordPress) or an application like Twitterfeed.com to syndicate your new posts to your Twitter stream. Hootsuite, the Twitter management tool, also offers this function. TypePad has this option built into the platform as well.

#13: Syndicate to Facebook

Use the Facebook Notes application to pull your blog feed into your profile and/or fan page.

#14: Syndicate to LinkedIn

You can add three URLs (make sure one is your blog!) to your LinkedIn profile, as well as syndicate your content with the Blog Link application.

#15: Use Hootsuite

Use Hootsuite if you have multiple blogs to syndicate your new content to multiple platforms including your Twitter accounts, Facebook profile and fan page, LinkedIn and Ping.fm to broadcast to more sites for even greater reach.

#16: Distribute your video

Distribute your videos on all the video sharing platforms. Include a link back to your blog home page or specific blog posts that are relevant to the content in your video. TubeMogul is a free site where you can upload your video once and it will be published on up to 20 video platforms including YouTube, Vimeo, Blip.tv, and more.

Distribute your video to many sites with Tubemogul.com

#17: Add the retweet button to your posts

Grab the plug-in or the code from Tweetmeme and make it super simple for your readers to click and share with their networks.

#18: Consider share buttons

There are many plug-ins and add-ons to add buttons to your blog that make it easy for readers to share your content on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Delicious, Reddit, StumbleUpon, etc. Find the style that suits you and add it to the footer of your blog posts. The popular plug-in used on this site is Sexy Bookmarks.

#19: Use social bookmarking

Use sites like StumbleUpon, Digg and Delicious to share your content. When you have a particularly great post, ask your readers to help you out with bookmarking. Don’t overdo it, but if you think your post deserves some additional attention, don’t be afraid to ask.

OK, your turn. Are you using any of these tips with success? I know there are at least 100 more ways to drive traffic to your blog.  Please add your tips to the list by commenting below.

To take your social media marketing to the max, here are hot social media tips direct from 12 of the top industry masters. You’re going to want to model their priceless advice:

#1: Engage Your Facebook Fans With Questions

“Discussions are the currency of Facebook.  When your fans engage, your fan page comes up in their feed regularly.  A great way to get your fans active is to end each status update with a question.  You can add your own comments to get the ball rolling.  Do your best to respond to fan questions as promptly as possible to keep the discussion alive.” Mari Smith, author of Facebook Marketing

Asking engaging questions gets your fans involved, as seen on this fan page.

#2: ‘Listen’ to Know What to ‘Say’

“The way to make a connection is to talk about what people want to hear.  No-cost and low-cost listening tools help you ‘grow bigger ears’ and then apply what you’ve learned from listening to improve your sales, your service or your future products.  That’s the single most important thing you can do with social media tools.  Free tools: blogsearch.google.com and icerocket.com.  Fee-based tools: radian6.com and scoutlabs.com.” Chris Brogan, author of Social Media 101

IceRocket allows you to track blogs, Twitter and other social media sites for activity based on any date range.

#3: Use Video to Turn Company Mistakes Into Gold

“Even customer service errors present a powerful relationship opportunity.  Create a 2-minute video apology, post it on Viddler and tweet about it as a real-time response.  Give thanks, admit the mistake, apologize, and then WOW your customer to turn the situation around.” Ramon De Leon, Operating partner of a six-store Domino’s Pizza franchise

Watch as Ramon De Leon uses video to turn a company error into a golden customer opportunity.

#4: Leverage YouTube’s Keyword Power

“In February 2010, Americans conducted 9.9 billion ‘expanded search queries’ on Google, 3.6 billion on YouTube, and 2.5 billion on Yahoo! But YouTube users are searching for video content, so they’re less likely to look for something to buy on YouTube than they are on Google.  That’s why I use YouTube keyword tool to get new keyword ideas instead of the Google AdWords keyword tool.  Use your keyword discoveries to optimize your video pages for YouTube users.” Greg Jarboe, author of YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day

The YouTube keyword tool allows you to capture YouTube users with popular search terms.

#5: Promote SMS Campaigns on Facebook and Twitter

“One hundred million users access Facebook from their mobile phones.  So you want to be promoting your text campaigns there and on Twitter.  Send messages that encourage people to text your keyword and sign up for your mobile coupon or get on your alert list.  Example: ‘For weekly mobile marketing tips Text KIMDUSHINSKI to 95495.  Message & Data Rates May Apply.’” Kim Dushinski, author of Mobile Marketing Handbook

#6: Be Your Own Secret Shopper

“Want to know what people are saying about your brand or about the products you sell? Use search.twitter.com and type in the word ‘wish’ in front of your brand name or product.  You’ll be surprised!” John Bernier, manager of social media marketing for Best Buy

Using search.twitter.com, you can easily find what your customers want, for free.

#7: Give Audiences the Content They Want

“The nature of your business automatically creates one or more customer communities.  For example, Graco, maker of strollers and other child products, only occasionally posts product news on their blog.  Instead, they offer articles on general parenting topics such as ‘Leaving baby with a sitter,’ and ‘Becoming a mom … the SECOND time around.’” Marla Erwin, interactive art director, Whole Foods Market

Graco’s blog understands that consumers want insight, not just product pitches.

#8: Syndicate Your Blog Content to Big-Name Sites

“Syndicate your blog content to strategic, high-traffic social sites like your Facebook page, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and iTunes so you can attract new prospects and bring them back to your home base with opportunities for conversion.  Most people miss this easy opportunity to boost visibility and get a lot more traffic.” Denise Wakeman, online marketing advisor, co-founder of The Blog Squad

#9: Engage in Non–Self-Serving Conversation

“Social media is well, social, so you want to do things that have no obvious ROI, like having a conversation.  And if you’re half-decent at conversation, you know not to talk about yourself the whole time.  People are pretty good at detecting when someone is trying to sell them something, and if that’s how you’re using social media, people won’t engage.  Find fun ways that aren’t blatantly self-serving to talk to your community.” Andrew Mason, Groupon founder and CEO

#10:  Choose a Relationship ‘Golden Thread’

“Companies need to choose one business imperative that runs through their entire initiative.  Do you want to have conversations about awareness, about sales and transactions or about customer loyalty and advocacy?  This ‘big picture’ thinking allows greater clarity on whether to engage in specific tactics—and if so, in what form or fashion.” Jay Baer, social media strategist, Convince & Convert

#11:  Repeat Your Tweets

“No matter what you’ve read and what people tell you, repeat your tweets.  If you get more click-throughs, keep doing this.  If you don’t, stop.” Guy Kawasaki, AllTop co-founder and author of nine books including Reality Check and Art of the Start

#12:  There Is No Silver Bullet

“Social media success depends upon your type of audience, product, company, network and environment.  You need to know your brand, your audience, how to communicate within each specific social network or online community and the right tools to use.  Only the last of those is fairly predictable knowledge.” Jason Falls, social media integration expert with Social Media Explorer

Want to Learn More?

If you’re not fully leveraging the power of social media, relax, you’re not alone.  Most businesses are just now getting started with social media.

There’s one easy way to take your social media marketing to the next level.  By attending the web’s largest online social media conference, Social Media Success Summit 2010, you’ll become empowered to use social media to gain more exposure, better engage customers and grow your business.

The great part is you’ll be learning from 24 social media experts (including the 12 mentioned in this article).  In addition to Guy Kawasaki, Chris Brogan and Mari Smith, you’ll learn how Best Buy, Home Depot, Whole Foods, Foursquare and Groupon are all leveraging social media.

It’s the web’s largest online social media conference.  Go here for a free sample and to learn more.

Have you tried any of these master tips or want to add secret sauce of your own? Let the world know! Please leave your comments below.  After all, social media is all about engaging…

This article will provide you unique ideas that will help you keep pumping out great content.

The following 13 content ideas are designed to help save you time and stimulate some new ideas.

By the way, if you’re following the blogging basics outlined here, you’re well on your way to creating and maintaining the kind of content that will keep readers coming back for more.

And if you’ve been blogging for any length of time, you know that when you don’t post on your blog for a few days, your traffic takes a nosedive.

Here’s ideas to get you going.

1. Set up Google Alerts

With Google Alerts, you can set up alerts for topics and subtopics in your niche to see what’s making news and what’s being said by others. Monitoring online news and conversations can inspire ideas and introduce you to new content sources.

2. Search Blog Directories

In the context of blog outreach, I mentioned Technorati and Alltop in my article on The Secret to Growing Your Blog Following. Both sites are also great sources for finding what other bloggers are posting about your topic. When you’re stuck, do a keyword search on Technorati. Set up a channel on Alltop with blogs in your industry to scan what’s new at a glance.

3. Subscribe to blogs

Monitor blogs in your field by subscribing to influential blogs by email or subscribe to blog feeds with your preferred feed reader.

You want to find out what your competitors and other experts in your field are discussing. Not only will you get inspiration for your own writing, but you’ll stay on the cutting edge of your field.

4. Share from other blogs

Other bloggers’ posts are often useful jumping-off points for writing your own. Some bloggers simply report on somebody’s post, link to it, and that’s it. A more strategic way to do this is to either agree with the blogger you’re citing, disagree, or add your own perspective.

Adding to the conversation makes your blog more valuable. Although you can read a lot of good stuff in the blogosphere, it hasn’t all been said. Use the good stuff as inspiration and ask yourself, what can I add to that? The blogosphere loves controversy and a good argument. How can you stir things up and encourage your readers to interact and comment?

5. Post a poll

This is a great tool that can boost readership and encourage people to come back to vote and share with friends. Set up a poll as a blog post or in the sidebar, and ask readers to vote on their biggest challenge, their worst nightmare—you name it—as long as it’s relevant to your topic. What do you want to know from your readers? Ask them.

There are many free polling services that enable you to add polls to your blog: Polldaddy and Vizu are two I frequently use.

Use poll results as fodder for writing additional follow-up blog posts, an article, or a media release.

6. Toot your own horn

Announce your own live events, speaking appearances, products, and services. Any time you have something new going on, let your readers know about it by writing a post for your blog. If you’re writing press releases for your business, post those on your blog as well.

7. Share information

Share information and tips you think might interest readers. Do it in a way that provokes a conversation, rather than reporting on topics as a journalist. This is also an opportunity to ask your readers for their perspective. Remember, an important reason to blog for your business is not just to disseminate information, but also to engage in a conversation with your readers.

8. Make smart use of categories

Take a few minutes to make a list of the main topics you’re blogging about, and then make a list of three or four subtopics. If you think about it, when you’re focused on your reader and your expertise, most of what you’re going to be blogging about falls under five to seven main topics.

Once you’ve got the list, set up a simple editorial calendar. Each day, you can write about a particular subtopic. On Monday, you write about subtopic A. On Wednesday, you write about subtopic B. On Friday you write about subtopic C. This gives you focus for each day of the week, so when that day comes around, you don’t find yourself wondering what to write about.

9. Ask your community

Similar to doing a poll, throw a question out to your communities on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. You’ll probably get an immediate response.

On Twitter:

On Facebook:

10. Invite guest authors

When you don’t have time to write, you can write posts in advance and postdate them so they’re published on the days you’re away. But if you’re really pressed for time, a great way to avoid a gap in blog posts is to ask someone who writes on a similar subject to be a guest author.

This is a win-win-win. 1) The guest blogger writes a few posts while you’re away, giving you content. 2) The guest blogger gets links back to his or her website or blog, as well as exposure to your readers. 3) Your readers get new perspectives on your subject.

11. Grow blog antennae

It sounds funny, but this happens. After you’ve been blogging for a while, you develop blog antennae. You’ll find yourself continually scanning the web, newspapers, magazines, email, and even your own personal experiences for interesting items to blog about.

Expect this to happen after you’ve been blogging for a couple of months. Even the slightest life challenge or mistake can become fodder for great blog posts. But to make that happen, you have to keep your ears and eyes open and receptive. The good news here is that just about any event can make an interesting blog post. Make sure to jot down your ideas and keep a running list. About 90% of my blog ideas never get posted but they serve as great inspiration when I feel at a loss.

12. Write a top-10 list

Here’s a great tip for creating content and building readership and getting links back to your blog: Make a list of your top 10 favorite blogs in your industry.

Generally the people on that list will be excited because they made the list. More than likely, they will write on their blog about you and your list because they’re going to be tooting their own horn: “I just made so-and-so’s list of favorite blogs.” It’s a great way to get known and build readership.

13. Refer to the classics

When writing about nearly anything, your content can be more valuable and unique when you can refer effectively to the classics, history, or authoritative books written about the topic being discussed. Many people in the blogosphere treat content superficially.  How can you place your product or service in historical context? A great example is a post on Copyblogger called 5 Essential Blogging Tips from the Father of Chinese Philosophy.

By adding depth, you add value to your blog. This helps position you as a thought leader and a credible expert in your field.

Now it’s your turn! I would love to add more ideas to my list. Where do you find inspiration for your blog posts? Please share your tips and resources in the comments.

Outreach is key to having a blog that actually works for your business, yet it’s the one element many professionals ignore. And it’s contrary to most competitive thinking because it involves spending time away from your blog.

Done correctly, however, reaching out to other bloggers in your field will actually create more business opportunities, increase traffic to your own blog, and enhance your business brand more than any other tactic you could employ.

Here’s how:

In taking this one step, you will be setting yourself apart from the majority of business professionals who skip implementing this important element in their blogging plan.

What do I mean by blog outreach? I’m talking about strategically participating in the blogosphere with the goal of boosting your visibility, driving traffic to your blog and enhancing your credibility.

It’s not just about spreading your own message, although that’s important. Outreach is about building community and personal relationships among your peers, your colleagues who are also writing blogs, and the people in the blogosphere who are reading blogs in your industry. And yes, some of those people may be considered competitors.

Don’t be afraid of your competitors; you can learn from them and connecting with them may present new opportunities for your business.

Find Blogs in Your Niche

Where do you start? First, you need to find a few blogs in your industry that you enjoy and will consistently read. Choose blogs that will give you content ideas along with the relationships you’re seeking. Blogs can be found in practically every professional and business niche, and a quick visit to a few websites can help you find them.

Technorati is the web’s largest blog search directory and is a good place to start. Be warned, this site can be overwhelming the first time you visit. You can search for blogs or blog posts by keywords in your field. I recommend you set up an account and make sure your own blog is listed so it can be found by others.

Use Technorati to find blogs and blog posts relevant to your niche.

Another site is Google Blogsearch. Like any Google search engine, it’s going to return a list of links based on your keywords, only this time the links will be sites for blogs and specific blog posts.

Use Subject-specific Directories

My current favorite for finding the best of the best in subject-specific blogs is Guy Kawasaki’s Alltop.com. It’s a curated site, which means blogs must be approved in order to be included. You can create your own collection of blogs to watch and read. Here’s an example of my Alltop list of business blogs.

TIP: Make sure you submit your blog for inclusion on Alltop.com!

There are more than 200 blog directories, some of which are subject-specific and others are general. Blog directories come and go, and each has its own list of criteria for which blogs it includes. You want more blog directories? A comprehensive list of blog directories is posted here.

Engage in Smart Commenting, Building Relationships

In all likelihood, you will find many blogs in your niche that have similar audiences. What do you do when you find one of these good blogs?

Start engaging! Read and comment on posts that interest you. Smart bloggers allow comments, although sometimes they are moderated to keep out the spammers. Always include your name, blog URL, your email address and your thoughtful, useful comment.

The guidelines for commenting are simple: use common sense and respect. There are no rules, but being courteous will help you establish positive relationships within the blogosphere. When you comment on a blog, follow the same etiquette that you’d follow in conversation at a cocktail party.

In other words, you’re not going to approach somebody at a cocktail party and say, “Hi, my name is Joe and you should buy my widget.” You would be a little more subtle. Listen and add to the conversation in a meaningful way. Talk with and get to know the other person first. Start establishing a relationship.

Share Expertise, Not Marketing Offers

Using blogs to promote your business requires you to act like a professional when commenting. And etiquette dictates that you don’t promote your business on another person’s blog. Instead, share your expertise.

You can demonstrate your expertise in many ways. Add something the author may have overlooked. Add historical context or suggest a book in which the ideas are discussed. Add your perspective, experience and opinion.

Be polite and add something new to the conversation. Writing “Nice post, I agree” is not adding to the conversation.

If you think this all sounds very basic, please just bear with me. Every business owner has a different level of familiarity with the online world, particularly the world of blogging. I see these mistakes every day in comments on my blog as well as on those I read.

So what does this all mean?

Resulting Visibility = Opportunity

By engaging with other bloggers (in other words, your colleagues), you are making yourself known (visible) and laying the groundwork for creating opportunities to partner with them.

Often you need to actively reach out and build relationships with the people you want to work with. Start slowly and see how your relationship unfolds. When you find a good match, you’ll know.

Keep in mind that opportunities can show up in many forms: new leads, new clients, more traffic, and media attention. A pithy comment on a colleague’s blog may attract the attention of a journalist doing research on the subject.

Blog outreach is an important part of effective business blogging. The more you’re connecting outward, the more you’re going to be drawing traffic and opportunities inward. It doesn’t require a lot of your time… 20 minutes a couple of times a week to read and comment on relevant blogs can pay off big in the long run.

Action Challenge: Since I know from experience with my clients that most business bloggers don’t comment very much on other blogs, I challenge you to find three blogs in your industry that are publishing top-notch content and subscribe to get their blog updates. Read and comment on the blogs two to three times a week for the next month. Let me know what shows up for you in the way of new connections, traffic and opportunities!

Have you tried any of these approaches? What are your thoughts?  Please comment in the field below.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dip108/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

However, just because anyone can set up a blog, doesn’t mean everyone should, and many professionals and businesses start blogging without giving any thought to why, how and who will be doing the blogging.

Over 50 percent of blogs are abandoned within the first 90 days. While this isn’t really important if you’re writing a personal diary, political or celebrity blog, it is very important if you start a blog for your business and don’t keep posting on it consistently and with purpose.

When a prospect lands on a blog that hasn’t been updated in months, it’s akin to walking into a vacant store with busted windows and dust blowing in. It’s just not pretty; and it doesn’t look good for you, your business reputation and your branding.

Don’t let that happen to you. Start right, start smart and follow a few suggested guidelines. First, let’s review some basics:

What Is a Business Blog?

Because a blog is an inexpensive, fast way to build an online presence, it is an ideal way for business entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, speakers, authors and other professionals to establish their credibility and expertise.  Since your readers can post comments, you create a conversation with your audience and build rapport and trust as a result.

The very nature of a blog is perfect for the busy professional.  They are quick and easy to update.  You are creating fresh content frequently (two to three times a week is recommended minimum) that is useful to your prospects and customers and loved by search engines.  In contrast to “traditional” static website, a blog is a dynamic site that encourages your visitors to interact with you through commenting so they can get to know you better.

When you create a conversation with your audience (visitors, readers, prospects), you are establishing your credibility.  You build your network and increase the visibility of your products and services in a casual way.

A blog is an essential tool in the professional’s marketing toolbox.  Combined with a website, an ezine, database management and ecommerce system, you will have everything you need to develop and run your business globally and online.

Copyblogger.com makes it easy to find articles about the core message and there are several ways to generate leads and build a list.

Do your research. Alltop.com compiles the best blogs on hundreds of topics so you can check out your competition.

10 Steps for Starting Your Blog

Before you get to the nitty-gritty of setting up your blog, there is some pre-work to do. This will ensure you start right and put your best foot forward

1. Before you do anything else, examine the reasons why you want to publish a blog. What is the purpose for the blog? How does the blog’s purpose relate to your business purpose?

2. What are the business objectives or outcomes you want from your business blog? Some people use a blog as a lead generator to build their database. Some are looking to build a visibility platform, while others use the blog to develop content for other purposes like books, articles and programs. What do you want to get out of your blog?

3. Who is your ideal reader? Who are you writing to/for? For most businesses I’ve worked with, the ideal reader is similar to their ideal client. It’s important to know your audience so you can meet their needs and address their concerns, challenges and what they’re looking for to improve their lives.

4. How do you want your readers to feel when they read your blog? This may seem like a weird question, yet it will help you tap into the emotions of your audience. Do you want your reader to be inspired, motivated, and moved to action? Again, tapping into this will help you focus your content on serving your reader.

5. What do you want your readers to DO when they read your blog? This relates to the goals you set for your blog. If your blog is a lead generator, then you must have very clear steps for guiding your reader to subscribe to get blog updates and/or get your lead generating content.

6. How much time do you have to devote to your blog each week? This is getting to the heart of blogging. If you can’t commit to writing a lot of valuable content, then you’re doing yourself and your readers a disservice. Be honest. The most effective and successful blogs are those with fresh, new content posted at least two to three times per week. Is that reasonable for you to manage? Will you have a team of bloggers? Remember, there are many, many ways to create content. It doesn’t have to be all you all the time.

7. What’s your blog’s core message? This relates to the topic of your blog and the niche you are focused on. What do you want your readers to learn? Why should anyone read your blog, and more importantly why should they subscribe to and follow your blog? This is another key piece to get in place before you start your blog. Brian Clark, publisher of Copyblogger.com, recommends creating “cornerstone content.” This is a series of posts that articulates your core message and provides new readers with an introduction and overview of what they can expect to learn from you.

8. Create an editorial calendar. It’s no secret that content rules on a blog, so it’s helpful to have a content plan going into the game. A key element of a good blog is having a list of 7-10 keyword-rich categories. Once you determine the categories (or subtopics) of your blog, you can plan your content calendar. If you plan on posting three times per week, then plot out post ideas for each of your categories. Make a list of 5 topics for each category. Then, fill in your calendar. Five topics times ten categories and you’ve got 50 blog posts in the pipeline.

9. Do your homework. Critical to your blog’s success is knowing your competition. Who is already blogging in your niche? What are they writing about? If blogs in your niche are scarce, this may be a great opportunity to dominate the search engines with your own content. Finding great blogs will take a bit of time and research. Start at Technorati.com and search for blogs using your keywords. Next use Alltop.com and Blogs.com to find the best of the best.

10. Build your blog. Now that the research is done, you know your message and have content ready to go, it’s time to get down to business and build the blog. This is where the fun part starts and cannot be easily covered in a bullet point. Two things to think about: 1) Are you a do-it-yourselfer or will someone build the blog for you? and 2) Are you a techie or not? There are many blogging platforms each with pros and cons. If you’re a techie, you may prefer WordPress.org. If you’re not comfortable with tech stuff, then TypePad may be a better option for you.

As you can see, there’s more to business blogging than initially meets the eye. The more preparation and thought you put into your blog BEFORE you start, the more successful it will be. Once the prep work is done and the blog is built, you’ll have a powerful marketing tool for creating a highly visible web presence and attracting the right people to your business.

What else would you add to this list to prep your blog for success? Share your best blogging tips in the comments below.