7 Tips for Making Your Blog a Content Marketing Magnet
Do you have a business blog?
Are you happy with the marketing role your blog plays?
Many businesses consider blogs “a cost of doing business,” or code for “We’re not sure what it does but we’re afraid to stop doing it.”
In this article I will explore why and how to make your blog the hub of your content marketing plan?
Why make your blog your content marketing hub?
To put a slightly different spin on what Chris Brogan says, blogs are your home base; they are at the center of your content marketing system.
Whether you’re a small business or a Fortune 100 company, blogs should be at the heart of your content marketing because blogs fuel social media, search optimization and the sales process.
The top five reasons to use a blog as your content hub are: 
6 Tips for Using Pinterest for Business
Are you wondering how Pinterest could help your business?
Pinterest is one of the hottest social media sites at the moment. Pinterest was the fastest stand alone site ever to reach 10 million monthly unique visitors.
One study shows how Pinterest has been bringing in more traffic to websites than LinkedIn, Google+ and YouTube put together.
Brands are benefiting with Pinterest in generating traffic and sales.
So if you’d like to attract a lot of traffic to your website using Pinterest, check out these 6 tips.
#1: Use Original Pictures to Drive Traffic
If you visit the Popular Section of Pinterest, you’ll see that most of the popular pictures and images in this section are original and unique. The popular images are “repinned,” “liked” and commented on the most number of times.
Screenshot of a popular page on Pinterest. The popular page consists of images that have been "repinned," "liked" and "commented" on the most.
Three Free Social Monitoring Tools Worth Exploration
We live in a world where the entire globe can have access to your name, IP address, photo and all of your public information with a simple search.
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!
Four Ways to Find Out if Your Customers Are Active With Social Media
For many companies, the conversation has shifted from “why” or “should” we do social media, to “where” and “how” social media should be done.
A major component of answering those questions effectively is understanding in which social outposts your customers are concentrated, because there really is no benefit in beating your customers to the punch. Companies should follow, not lead, their customers across the social web.
At conferences, I’m often asked something along these lines: “My boss thinks none of our customers are on Facebook, but I think they are. What do I do?”
Here are 4 ways to find out where your customers are in social media:
6 Blog Add-Ons That Spur Social Media Activity
Got a blog? Are you on Facebook or Twitter? How about your readers—are they using social networks?
Want to make it easy for readers to share your great content with their tribes? If so, keep reading as I share six social media add-ons you can effortlessly integrate into your blog today. Your immediate result: much better engagement with your readers. And by the way, I’ve used them all—many on this very site.
An aside… The key to encouraging social activity is making it easy for people to act. The less friction there is between desire and action the more likely people will share your content or reach out to you. Fortunately these six excellent tools make encouraging activity easy—and dare I say, fun!
