5 Reasons Your Business Should Be Blogging
Does your business blog?
Have you been thinking it might be time to consider a blog, but aren’t sure (a) you can pull it off and (b) it will provide value?
Keep reading. This article will help you (or someone you know) understand the value of a business blog.
Is Google the Only Reason to Blog?
I have a question for you, and it’s a serious one: If you never garnered another single visitor to your company blog through search engine optimization (SEO), would you still have one?
For many, especially execs who don’t necessarily “get it” when it comes to content marketing, the answer would be, “No way!”
But for those persons and companies that have watched the magic of blogging and its effect beyond SEO, the answer would be a resounding, “Of course!”
That’s what this article is all about. There’s much more to having a company blog than just getting more visitors to your website because Google decided to send them there.
In fact, here are 5 other powerful reasons why you should be blogging, and I look forward to hearing what you would add in the comments section at the end. 
9 Reasons Why Your Content Is Not Shared on Social Networks: New Research
Do you wonder how to get your content seen amidst a sea of information?
What if you could understand why your audience shares some information and not other? That would make your content stand out from the competition.
The Science of Sharing
30 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook each month, including blog posts, links, news stories and photo albums.
HubSpot’s Dan Zarrella has found that three things must happen to get your content shared.
First, people must be exposed to your content (be a fan on Facebook or follow you on Twitter). Second, they must be aware of your content (meaning they actually see it). Finally, they must be motivated by something in your content to share it.
Many articles have been written on how to increase your audience size and make people aware of your content, including these by Mari Smith and Denise Wakeman. This article will focus on the motivations for sharing.
Why Marketing Hurts Your Growth and What to Do About It
Have you noticed the tried-and-true forms of marketing are rapidly losing their luster? People aren’t responding. Prospects are harder to find. Customers are tuning out.
As a marketer or business owner, what in the world can you do to grow to your business? I’ve struggled with these very issues.
I’ve got good news and bad news for you. The good news: You really can rapidly grow a loyal following. The bad news: You may need to rethink the way you market your business. If you’re ready for change, keep reading.
In this article I’ll reveal a new (yet proven) method of achieving rapid growth in the social age. It’s the very model I employed to grow Social Media Examiner into one of the world’s top business blogs.
26 Ways to Use Social Media for Lead Generation
Is your business looking for leads?
As enticing as the saying is, “If you build it, they will come,” we all know that just because we build a social media presence, people don’t magically start knocking down our door.
Instead, we need to encourage people to come to our social pages and once they’re there, we have to create enough value for them to hang around. And through these repeated exchanges, casual users can become regular visitors as well as valuable leads.
In previous posts, I’ve written A-Z guides to help create the absolute best presence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs. Now let’s turn our attention to harnessing the power of those efforts for lead generation.
The Art of Enchantment: How Guy Kawasaki Will Change Your Business
I recently interviewed Guy Kawasaki, co-founder of Alltop.com and the author of the bestselling book, The Art of the Start. His latest masterpiece is called Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions.
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.
5 Twitter Tips for Building Your Business
Twitter is a great tool for conversations, building community, finding brand advocates and reading the latest news. That’s why celebrities, athletes, your competitors—and hopefully you—are on Twitter.
The growth and usage of Twitter is not surprising. Compete.com estimates approximately 21 million unique monthly visitors, and a quick search on Twitter yields a variety of conversations from music, sports, politics, events and products.
How Seth Godin Leveraged New Media To Create a Book Firestorm
I recently interviewed the world’s leading marketing expert Seth Godin, author of 11 books (many of them focused on marketing). Some of his more notable books include Permission Marketing, Purple Cow, and Tribes. His most recent bestseller is called Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
During this interview, you’ll learn how Seth employed new media to promote his latest book and his thoughts on marketing and social media. Note: Be sure to listen to the complete interview at the bottom of this article.
Mike: What exactly is a “linchpin” and how do I know if I’m one?
Seth: A linchpin is the person we can’t live without—the indispensable person who does work that matters, the person who is trying to stand out as opposed to fit in, the one who’s not easily replaceable, the low-paid cog in the giant industrial machine but, in fact, the person whom we seek out.
3 Tips for Managing a Social Media Community
Are you trying to build a community for your company or brand? Are you looking to go beyond just big numbers of Facebook fans or Twitter followers?
This article reveals three important tips you need to know to help build and manage communities.
What Is Community Management?
Previously I wrote examined the different roles for those who work with social media in business. Among the many roles, the community manager is by far the most important because he or she is on the front lines of communication. Here’s how I define community manager:
6 Powerful Social Media Persuasion Techniques
Let’s be honest, you don’t just want your voice to be added to the conversation; you want your voice to be heard, repeated, and valued—and your message to be influential. Ultimately, you’re after influence.
So what better way to understand social media than by looking at the fundamental principles of influence as taught by Dr. Robert Cialdini, professor of psychology and marketing at Arizona State University? In his seminal book, Influence, Cialdini covers six “weapons of influence” that are hardwired into our social and cognitive minds. In other words, we can’t help but behave in accordance with these laws of social interaction.
Does this sound like something useful to keep in mind during your social media engagements? Well, let’s take a look six powerful persuasion techniques:
7 Essential Design Elements for Great Business Blogs
When people hear the word design, they sometimes think only of making something look good, using colors and graphics to add interest. But on the web, and especially on a blog, design has a purpose: to grab readers when they arrive, make it easy for them to get what they want, and create trust through a consistent and professional look.
A well-designed business blog:
- Uses visual interest to make posts easy to read
- Brands your business in a consistent way
- Places useful information in places where it is easy to find
- Isn’t cluttered with things that aren’t helping you promote your business
- Makes it easy for readers to do what you want them to do
