Gail Helmer's Social Media and Web Marketing Blog » website http://www.gailhelmer.com Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:35:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 4 Steps to Integrate Social Media Into Your Business http://www.gailhelmer.com/2009/09/14/4-steps-to-integrate-social-media-into-your-business/ http://www.gailhelmer.com/2009/09/14/4-steps-to-integrate-social-media-into-your-business/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:38:27 +0000 Gail Helmer http://www.gailhelmer.com/?p=23

better_faster_cheaper
Series Step 1 – Content Creation
Once upon a time, for you to launch your company website, all you needed to do was simply send out a press release, add the url to your stationery, add some meta-tags for the search engines, and people would “surf” their way to your page one ranking of your dentistry practice. Well that page one ranking was crowded ten years ago and no search engine optimizing (SEO) is going to increase it and one more “new dentistry website” is not news. No, this is not about dentists only, just an example, this is about every business, and every business website.
How do you get attention, drive traffic to your website, and make noise amongst the roar of social media, and billions of other web 2.0 websites? The single greatest point of entry to social media, and the most powerful web tool today is in content creation and the blog.
Companies that had the highest levels of social-media activity increased their revenue by as much as 18% over the past year. – Engagementdb

Start a blog

In traditional terms, you could say a blog is similar to writing an article. But unlike articles that were reserved for published journalists and professional writers, the blog is open to everyone. You, and your company are unique. Your knowledge, expertise, experiences and interests are unique to you and your company, and sharing that information is the essence of what blogging is all about.

Blogging is a great tool because it allows you to accomplish many marketing objectives in a more personal way. After nearly 20 years as a marketing professional, 12 years on the internet, I had to unlearn the methods of traditional marketing and embrace the way of social media marketing. It is no longer about the 4 P’s; product, place, price and promotion. It is about the introduction of the fifth P, which is people. Engaging, connecting, interacting and building relationship with people personally online.
Search Engines Love Blogs
Search engines love blogs because the content on blogs are fresh, updated frequently, with relevant keyword-rich content, and when it is hosted on your domain, it dramatically improves your chances of ranking well in the search engines. (We will get into this more in our Step 2 – Distribution.)
Need to Blog – Blog Incessantly
You need to create a blogging strategy. Determine what is the subject or theme of your blog. Remember it is about sharing knowledge and experience, not selling. If you are unfamiliar with what a blog looks like (you are looking at one now), or how they function, I suggest you take a look at a few blogs in your particular industry. You can also check out my favorite bloggers and company’s that do this very well.
My Personal Favorite Blogs
Each of these blogs keeps consistent theme in their subject, and a committment to their posting schedule.
  • Chris Guillebeau blogs about non-conformity and making a difference in the world.
  • I really enjoy Seth Godin because every blog inspires a new marketing idea.
  • Alltop is an aggregator of every blog on the web, on every subject imaginable.
It is your knowledge and experience in a specific, and niche market that makes a very excellent and well trafficked blog.
Put together a blog schedule. Post often
The quickest way to failure is to not have a plan. Plan your blog posts, determine your publishing schedule, and stick to it. Consistency, continuity, dedication, commitment are the esssential keys to building a following. Everyone starts off with an awesome first blog, you can create great buzz, generate some traffic, but all the work will go away if you can’t keep the blog alive.
Here is a useful bloggers schedule/worksheet. It is dated 2006, but you can adjust the dates to suit yourself.
Publish your schedule on your blog, let your readers know when to expect content. Everyone has a different schedule, but do not even consider publishing +1,000 word blogs daily unless you are sharing blogging duties with someone. Consider publishing epic blogs a couple times of week, with smaller simpler blogs that point out other posts, make an observation or answer questions. Another consideration is for you to bank, or store up, a series of blogs first before you ever launch the blog. This publishing strategy allows you to start your blog with a consistent schedule, and not have the pressure of coming up with content quickly once you have gone live.
Blogging Software
The simplest and most straight forward way to start blogging is with these free, easy to use, blogging software platforms. A quick search of blog software will turn up dozens of options, but these are the most popular:

Have thoughts, or an experience you would like share, please feel free to comment.

]]> http://www.gailhelmer.com/2009/09/14/4-steps-to-integrate-social-media-into-your-business/feed/ 3 4 Reasons You Need Fresh Content http://www.gailhelmer.com/2009/06/11/4-reasons-why-you-want-to-have-fresh-content/ http://www.gailhelmer.com/2009/06/11/4-reasons-why-you-want-to-have-fresh-content/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:27:59 +0000 Gail Helmer http://www.gailhelmer.com/?p=14

Why would you want “fresh” content on your website?

1. Fresh Beats Static: Fresh content, that is to say new, timely content, lets casual visitors to your website know that you are an active on-going business. For example, if you had to choose between two vendors, and all you had to base your decision on was the information on their websites, which company would you choose: the company with the static information that could’ve been written ten years ago? or the company with news and information updates from the last week on their website? Chances are you’ll go with the company that has the new info on their website.

2. Search Engines Like Fresh Content: Search engines, like Google and Yahoo, give higher rankings to websites that have more frequent content additions. And, as everyone knows, the higher your website ranks on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), the greater the number of people who will potentially view your website, and thus increase your chances of making a sale or getting a new client.

3. Fresh Content Attracts Return Visits: If the regularly-updated information on your website is useful to your potential customers, they will learn to return to your website again and again for more information goodness. Once again, it’s all about numbers: the more times you can get a person to return to your website, the greater the likelihood he or she will become a new customer or repeat customer.

4. Fresh Content Keeps Everything Fresh: The habit of posting fresh content on your website ensures that your website will never get stale or just plain wrong in those other, not so frequented, but equally important areas like the “Contact” page or “About Us” page. Today’s businesses are not static: Phone numbers change, new people get hired, and product lines and services get expanded or deleted. If any of these things are mentioned on your website, your habit of posting fresh content will ensure you catch these discrepancies when they occur.

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