Tag Archives: Blog Writing

blogging Business

“The Blog is Dead! Long Live the Blog!”

May 17, 2012 – 3:38 pm

Blogging works for businessI got in a tiny tiff with a social media person yesterday as we talked about his industry and some of the fascinating changes at bay.

Although I can only paraphrase his comments here (and yes, he did give permission for me to post a rebuttal), he proclaimed the death of blogs, stating that social media channels like Pinterest have marked their death knell. The proliferation and conflation of social media and mobile has changed the way people interact with brands and brand culture. Blogs are still read, but they are most certainly doomed. I respect the guy, so I listened carefully, knowing that people may be asking the same question, finding  similar answers.

Is blogging still relevant in a world where audio, video, mobile marketing, media and social media continue to grow?

If you ask a content strategist, they will tell you “Yes!” and I would argue that blogging is now more relevant than ever.

It sounds strange to hear this, but consider that

  • Micro blogging platforms like Twitter are still somewhat limited in delivering in-depth information. They are more often used as gateways to bigger chunks of info, teasing eyes and clicks with engaging posts and awesome links elsewhere. These areas can be a challenge for brands seeking to engage buyers without looking spammy, so we tend to see them as way to build relationships more than make direct sales.
  • As so many channels compete for users, audiences are getting more and more separated (and sometimes confused) as they traverse from platform to platform. The major players like Facebook are not going anywhere soon, but lesser social media offerings rise and fall with every given week. There will be a point of fatigue. It hasnt happened yet, but it could be just around the corner. People need to congregate in places and learn from the people they wish to connect with. A well managed website with lots of content is fun to peruse. You can also bookmark and come back to it regularly, or subscribe to newsletters or RSS (or content aggregators like Zite or Flipboard). And you can do this without the worry of social media fatigue.
  • Video is highly effective for delivering information and message to visual learners, and it will always be sexier than tons of text–wherever you find it. But video is rarely seen as a medium for gathering tons of raving fans congregating and commenting and making purchases right on the spot. Granted, there are some pretty amazing exceptions to this pattern, brands that have scores of raving ambassadors, and even more customers, salivating for their next release. But this is the power of videos. They can be trafficked and digested quickly and easily, making them perfect for sharing. But how many people revisit their YouTube subscriptions to make purchases? How natural would it be for me to build a Vimeo channel expecting buyers to come soaring in? Video, in this way is best suited for impulse buying or brand building. Community, leads or relationship-building videos are hard to engineer and harder to deliver.
  • Podcasts and audio have been around for years and despite their previous popularity, they only cater to a segment of online content consumers—those with far better time management skills than me, truly. But seriously, if I struggle to make time to watch a 10 minute video, a podcast would have to be so critically important that I would drop everything to listen to it. There are only 2 types of podcasts that could hope to do that. 1) Podcasts of my friends, or 2) Podcasts that would solve a problem I am having right now that brought me to listen. Worse, these podcasts might rest on the company’s branded website, but it would be marketed through iTunes or some website library in order to capture podcast listeners where they congregate.

Mix Your Media and Bring it To Your Blog

Having a blog enables you to use any (or all) of these channels and integrate them in the combinations that work best for your current and future buyers. Having a blog allows you to experiment with platforms and media, keeping the ones that bring quality traffic, possible leads or potential loudmouths who might share your wares with others.

One of my favourite analogies for the blog/social media relationship is the outpost/home base concept.

Imagine that each of the social media platforms that you (and hopefully your customers) use are like outposts on a mountain, places to gather while you are all climbing, foraging, taking photos and getting a sense of the surroundings. Eventually, people at outposts need to head where the meals are bigger, where they can converse and share their stories an experiences and connect on a deeper level. This would be like a base camp, a shelter, a resting point.

Your base camp is your website, and particularly your blog. Here those that felt good about when meeting at those outposts can sit and get to know you, your philosophy and feed on the meatier stuff you offer them.

Blogs are critical in displaying—no, proving your character, knowledge and understanding of your industry. Anyone who doubts their strength underestimates their power in building your brand, strengthening your community of supporters, and generating leads and sales.

If I had a chance to say it, this is what I might have said to the chap I spoke with yesterday. Perhaps I should just send him a link to this page.

I’d love to know what you think about my answer!

Cheers!

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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blogging Strategy Writing

Content Curation: Build Authority and Credibility in No Time

May 9, 2012 – 6:00 am
Content Curation - Easy, Fast and Fun

Image brutally stolen from www.timslatter.com — THANKS TIM!

These last few weeks, we have been getting some funky new clients specifically looking for blog support and social media help.

They have been running into issues managing their content, and in one case, they simply didn’t feel that they had the time to commit to their blog, even with an editorial calendar in the ready.

Maintaining your blog and appropriate social media channels is essential in building and maintaining your levels of traffic and reaching your online marketing goals. But your ability to gather and distribute information in an organized way could create more challenges than your efforts might solve. Time, ideas and, well, TIME are things that come up for people struggling to create original content for their followers

Content Curation: A Simple Answer

There are a few easy ways to distribute content. These may include:

  • Aggregating “Daily News” feeds (like paper.li for Twitter accounts)
  • Blog posts linking to other original web or video content
  • Links on social media channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+
  • Bits of content hosted on media platforms like Pinterest
  • RSS feeds (though they seem to be fading in use)

Content curation is a great way for you to minimize your time and efforts bringing “new” content to your audience by simply using others’ materials that your viewers would like to read, see or interact with. You are essentially pushing another author’s content within your posts.

Content Curation Is Not Content Creation

Content curation does not involve you having to do piles of writing (or having to hire someone like us to do so), so don’t mistake it for original content. You are simply pushing out someone else’s work on your site, and this provides some serious benefit to you:

  • It costs a lot less to grab and post relevant content from other resources
  • It demonstrates that you are looking at your blog as more than a promotional or sales space, more like a repository of resources for your customers and not a just a place for them to hear about your products
  • It demonstrates your brand’s industry knowledge and expertise, as well as your understanding of current and future leaders in the space.
  • It helps you reveal your passions for the subject matter, as you can provide your take on the content, the parts that are correct, the issues or the caveats within the subject.

So before your heebie jeebies kick in warning you of posting other peoples’ work in your posts, remember that crediting and providing your own take will go far in establishing your level of knowledge and uniqueness with your audience.

So go get ‘em!

Best of luck,

!d

And remember, you can always drop us a line, if you have any questions. Shy folks, feel free to comment. If you like the human touch, give a call or hit our contact page.

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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blogging Business Editing Marketing Strategy Writing

The 7 Biggest Business Blogging Barriers

April 30, 2012 – 6:36 pm
Challenges to Your Blogging Success

No flashing detour sign here...

So, this week being my birthday week, I like to spend it reflecting on my successes and challenges. It can be harrowing and humbling, but I do find it valuable.

Of our successes, the growth of our business has been joyous and exciting. The support from our clients and our network has been nothing short of amazing.

But I have one “challenge” that needs work, and I am setting the record straight, up front, for all to see.

The truth is, I haven’t been working hard enough on my blog, and it shows.

It’s not as if I don’t have enough to say. It’s not like I don’t already post blog content and social media messages for our clients. In fact, we have more blog content subscribers than ever. We find ourselves pushing 3-4 posts a day, which might seem a challenge, were it not for having a good editorial calendar to work from.

But this inconsistency on our blog has done some damage. Our traffic has dropped noticeably. The page views, the number of phone calls and email contact forms are not what they once were—even from a few weeks ago. Though we are still working hard on the more “personal” sales, we haven’t concentrated on the one thing on our website that moves people through our sales process—that magical point where they say to themselves, “We want Red Paper Clip!”

Last week, I had a conversation with a new client about their challenges with starting and running their blog. They have suffered similar consistency issues, but those were moreso focused on them not knowing what their audience wants to read.

It’s especially important for busy businesspeople to get results from every activity they perform, and blogging, when done effectively, is one of the best means of converting visitors to buyers and buyers to ambassadors.

So here is my gift to you. The seven snags that can stagnate a new or established blog. These quotes were taken from clients of ours (and our own team), so enjoy!

1. “My Writing Sucks.”

Few of us are James Joyce or Anne Rice, and frankly, the web doesn’t need them. Your posts don’t need to be perfect. They need to be relevant. They need to be clear, and they need to sound like a person is on the other end of them.

Getting some help from a professional is a definite possibility (in fact we encourage it), but technology can help if budgets or timelines are tight. Consider recording your posts using a speech to text app like Dragon Dictation. You can clean up the writing after the fact, but talking into your smartphone for 3 minutes would yield an ample sized blog post, and the art of blogging, whether spoken or written, improves with practice. More is better!

2. “I have nothing to offer an audience,” AKA: “This stuff wouldn’t interest people”.

We understand that sometimes people work in highly specialized fields. Engineering, architecture, parts manufacturing, software development…. Clients coming from these endeavours often complain that no one wants to learn the inner workings of their industry. Sadly, they couldn’t be more wrong. People are generally curious, and any opportunity to explore how things work tantalizes that curiosity. Share those human-interest insights in your business, and reveal how things come together. Just be sure that it remains focused on what your buyers want to know.

Also, building and maintaining an editorial calendar will help you to narrow the topics that matter, and keep you on top of deadlines.

3. “I’m writing regularly, but it’s not getting me results.”

Blogs are one of the easiest ways for people to find out quick information and move ahead with whatever they were doing before they clicked. This is why tips-and-tricks blogs are so bloody effective.

That said, we need to know what people are seeking to do when they come to visit, and at that point, you can set goals for how many of those people you want doing things. Set measurable goals that you can track and make them timely goals (consider page ranking in search, conversions, audience interaction or social media sharing). It gets easier to attract more page views and conversions if you’re setting goals, analyzing the results and making changes.

4. “I know it’s inconsistent, but I don’t always have time for it.”

Investing in your blog can be highly profitable if you do adequate research, track and measure movement and post content regularly. This last item is what we’ve struggled with recently, and frankly, it will be the last time we do so. Seeing the irregular dates and blog posts makes a website look unkempt, like having a shabby storefront. Those lovely souls who made the trek to come see our blog are suddenly unwelcomed by the sloppy site of it.

One post a week is enough to keep it looking fresh, and it is the minimum for maintaining a solid business blog, in my opinion. And yes, it’s a commitment that we’re making to our blog. :)

5. “I don’t know who’s reading it…”

One of the most important measurables to study when looking at your blog data is your actual readership. Google analytics is helpful in determining where they are and where they click, and your comments section is a great way to learn about the sites they represent, as most comment threads require readers to list their websites before they comment. Thank them for participating, check them out and add them on Facebook, Twitter and/or LinkedIn (if possible). Comments are open invitations for introduction; embrace them.

6. “People are reading our blog, but our sales/calls/inquiries aren’t really growing.”

This is a consistent problem that we see with established blogs. They have great content, and they have a following, but the inquiries are just not coming in.

At this point, it’s important to learn what people are coming to your pages to do. Are they researching possible providers of your product/service? Are they looking for tips, tricks and ways to solve their problem immediately? Are they friends or clients just popping by to support you?

More importantly, do your buyers know what you want them to do once they get to your website?

Calls to action play an important role here, and offering easy ways for people to go where they want to comes into play as well. But meeting your readers’ expectations comes first. How are you asking them to move forward? Have you enquired about what people want to see (or see more of)? Surveys, polls and other interactive touch points are useful for learning this, but be careful not to overdo it.

7. “I need to get my posts to stay out there for longer. They die the day I post them.”

I hate the thought of my posts being published only to fade into oblivion hours later. This is where social media sharing can minimize that possibility. I use Buffer  to load up my future tweets (you can use hootsuite or tweetdeck as well), and this guarantees that my posts (as well as our clients’ posts) get in front of people without annoying anyone. I also use SocialBro [link] to determine the best times to post, marking which days in the week would get the best exposure.

We also like to post comments on LinkedIn groups, on other blogs, and on popular Facebook pages. This is a great way to expose your blog to new audiences. Remember that your comments need to have perspective and not just be you shouting about your stuff on high; otherwise, you run the risk of looking like a spammer, and your credibility goes out the window. Also, for those souls with the time and chutzpa, guest blogging on relevant (and more famous) websites can bring even more eager eyes to your blog. It’s a greater investment, but guest posts immediately boost your credibility with new audiences, simplifying the equation for those ready to read your work or buy from you.

So there is my confession. At the end of my birthday week, I pledge to do more for our blog, and arrest the neglect that has plagued it these many weeks. When I consider what it’s done for us, it makes sense that I ask you to join me on this journey, and consider what things you can do to make your blog work better for you.

Oh, and remember, you can ask us anything. Just leave a comment below with your question or send us an email and we’ll get back to you.

Here’s to your blogging success!

Id

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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blogging Business Writing

The Everywhereist’s 16 Tips for Beginning Bloggers

March 19, 2012 – 6:06 pm

16 Tips for Beginning BloggersThis week, Dana Ditomaso posted a fabulous link on Twitter (if you don’t already follow her, you should now), and it led to the Everywhereist, a fun travel blog written by Geraldine, a colourful storyteller.

In this post, she lays out her 16 tips for beginning bloggers. Although she runs a travel-focused blog, her writing is great and her understanding of blogging is based in experience.

No amount of money could meet the value of that.

For people who recognize the power of business blogging, you will find Geraldine’s tips brilliant. She spares the usual, “you can do it” preciousness that plagues bloggers who try to make life easier for newbies.

For experienced bloggers, her rules may seem familiar, but they are written with a personal flare that deserves to be shared. I actually found numbers 5, 6 and 10 worthy of separate posts in their own way.

Enjoy!

If you would rather visit the website yourself, here it is. It’s pretty. And she travels a lot.

Idris

http://www.everywhereist.com/my-16-tips-for-beginning-bloggers/

————————–

My 16 Tips for Beginning Bloggers

 

I don’t profess to know very much about anything, desserts and the career of Jeff Goldblum excluded (what? I have my passions). Other than being an authority on these two very important topics, I consider myself a rather middling resource. And yet, time and again, I get emails in my inbox from new bloggers who want me to share my “wisdom” with them.

I, personally, find this equal parts hilarious and misguided. You might as well ask me for driving directions or financial advice (other topics of which I am uniquely unqualified to discuss). When it comes to blogging, I honestly and truly don’t know what I’m doing. I’m still figuring things out for myself. I still make tons of mistakes.

But I have kept at it for two and half long years and for six-hundred-fifty-five posts (including this one). So for those of you who are literally asking for it, here are my tips for new bloggers.

  1. Choose the right topic. Pick one that you can write about every morning, day in and day out, until the sunset of your life. Make it something for which you are passionate, something that you love, that you can distill into one sentence. I write about travel and love. Every post on this site is about one of those topics. Usually it’s about both.And I hope I’ll never run out of material.
  2. Throw perfectionism out the window. If I waited until every blog post I wrote was perfect, I’d never put anything up. Perfectionism is paralyzing. My blog is riddled with typos and misspellings and the occasional broken link. But it exists. A truly perfect blog does not.
  3. Be yourself. There is no way you can maintain a blog if you aren’t true to who you are. I get distracted by desserts. I owe up to when I screw up and get lost. And I once wrote an entire post about John Stamos and cupcakes. I’m able to keep it up because it’s who I am.I ate one of these for breakfast. And the other one five minutes later.

    Travel Blogging Master, the Everywhereist

    Be Yourself, like she does, er—is...

  4. Be consistent. This is the most valuable piece of advice I can give to anyone who is considering blogging: you must post regularly. It doesn’t have to be daily (though it’s great if you can). It doesn’t even have to be weekly. But it must be updated at roughly the same time of day, at regular intervals. It gives readers something to count on, something to keep them coming back.
  5. Find a role model. Read lots of blogs (they don’t have to be in your topic area, but it’s better if they are); find a few that you are passionate about. Analyze what you like and don’t like. Try to emulate (but don’t copy) the good, and try to improve upon the bad. (Personally, I love the Fug Girls. I want to blog just like them when I grow up.)No, I am NOT surfing reddit while high on coca tea. I AM DOING RESEARCH … while slightly high on coca tea.
  6. Don’t do it for the money, because there isn’t any. The sad truth is, most blogs aren’t very profitable – definitely not enough to live on. And if you aren’t willing to put ads on your site (presently, I am not) or do sponsored posts (nope!), then it’s hard to monetize. Save for a few freelance gigs, I’ve never made any income off my blog. Between design, development, and hosting, I’ve actually spent thousands. But I keep doing it because I love it. And because life – and my husband – have been gracious enough to let me keep doing it.
  7. Pretend you have an audience, even when you don’t. I wrote regularly, knowing that no one save for my husband and a guy named Philip were reading it. But I pretended my audience was bigger than that. I’d joke about the hate mail I was going to receive for writing a post. I’d tease them. I’d write to them, as though they were a real, living group of people. And pretty soon, that audience I kept pretending was there appeared.For years, my blog was read by these guys. And no one else.
  8. Be patient. I once got an email from a reader who wanted to know how long before she could “expect success” (which, to be fair, is totally subjective). At the time, she had been blogging for two months. She had written eight posts. I gently told her what my husband told me, years ago: it takes years to make a name for yourself in blogging. I’ve been doing it for two and half years, and I’m still a tiny little grain of sand on the beach. Sit down. Relax. And keep typing.
  9. Guest blog. It seems hypocritical of me to write this, because my blog is now closed to guest bloggers (I got too many requests from shady folks who wanted to do spammy blackhat stuff), but guest blogging is a great way to get your work out there, make some connections, and bring more traffic to your own blog. Just be sure to bring your A-game. If it’s so good you are almost sad that you can’t post it on your own blog, then it’s good enough to be on someone else’s site.
  10. Love the haters. Oscar Wilde said: “To be popular one must be a mediocrity.” If someone hates you enough to send you a letter or leave a rude comment about it, you are above mediocrity. Congratulations. You’ve made it.
  11. Add photos. It doesn’t matter how clever or brilliant your words are – you need to break up your text with the occasional image (one that you’ve taken, or one that you can legally use). You’ll likely find that photos will make your blog much richer. Or, at the very least, they’ll provide a visual sorbet for your readers.In this case, said sorbet is actually a puppy.
  12. Tell your friends about your blog. This is one of the hardest things to do, but if you expect people to read your blog, you will need to be okay with telling them about it. Iknow. It sounds tortuous, right? But I promise, it will be less embarrassing and awkward than you think. Especially if you follow rule #13.They probably won’t make fun of you, given all the dirt you have on them.
  13. Don’t write anything you wouldn’t say to someone’s face. Fortunately, for me, that’s not very limiting. But I’m kind of an asshole. I say awful things to people’s faces. Still, this is a good rule (even for non-assholes).
  14. For the love of Pete, get on Twitter. You should be on it already. If you aren’t, get on it. Talk to and follow people in your industry. Tweet to famous folks. Tweet interesting links. Tweet your own posts. Tweet like your traffic depends on it, because it does.On twitter, you can pretend that famous people care about you.
  15. Don’t be afraid to change your mind. Perhaps a mindful commenter has said something that made you see things differently. Maybe time has caused you to reflect on your earlier beliefs, and you now see the folly of your ways. Or maybe you’ve just sobered up. Whatever the case, don’t be afraid to write another post, explaining your change of heart. Admitting that you were wrong, or changing your point of a view is a sign of maturity – both as a person and as a writer.
  16. Don’t hesitate to kill your darlings. In other words, don’t be afraid to hit delete. Whether it’s a few brilliant lines that aren’t working, or an entire post that doesn’t feel right, don’t hesitate to put the whole thing in the trash. If the idea of that makes you cringe, try cutting or pasting the content into another doc for a later day. But trust me: you’ll probably just end up deleting that, too.At a second glance, you might find it was all crap, anyway.

So that’s it: the grand total of my wisdom as it pertains to blogging. I’ll be the first to note that I only spoke to style, voice, and tone. If you are looking for something more technical, I strongly suggest you check out my husband Rand’s tips for not-just-travel bloggers and my pal John Doherty’s blog post about SEO.

And if any of my fellow bloggers have any other useful tips for beginners, please feel free to share them in the comments.

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Business Writing

Are you content with your (web) “content?”

February 22, 2012 – 2:47 pm

The worlds shortest web content blog post!

How content are you with your web content?

Ain't it the truth!

Hear ye, hear ye!

I bet you wonder why on earth I haven’t been posting for the last two weeks, okay maybe not.  ;)

BUT we’re been busy managing our clients’ work, and frankly, they will always come first.

We do have some great news, though. I was asked to post on the X5 Management website this week.

Here it is. http://x5management.com/blog/are-you-content-with-your-content/

It’s pretty good, so I recommend you pay Mike, Joseph and the X5 team a visit. Their blog is very informative and balanced.

I hope my entry fits in.

Have a great week!

Idris

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Business Writing

Wow, My Blog Sucks: 6 Ways to Get Over It and Get Better

January 29, 2012 – 9:20 pm
Your blog sucks and it's ok that your blog sucks!

Don't worry, this is just a prop! Your blog will be fine.

We’ve had a really fun-filled week. We met with a few clients of our good friends at Paper Leaf Designs, and we spoke candidly about business blogging and what it can do for them. One of them complained about their blog saying it wasn’t fresh and they thought it sucked when they looked around at others in their field. It can sometimes seem daunting or painful when people scope out top drawing business blogs with dozens of weekly entries and a warm basket of fresh comments beneath each post. I wish I had an extra 30 minutes to tell them what they really needed to hear, but time wasn’t on our side, so I asked if I could blog about it.

So here are six simple ways to get over your sucky blog.

1. No Original Content

This is by far the most dangerous play you can make on the blogging pitch. Syndicated content moves around the internet because it is created and promoted by content farms. These are the Monsantos of website content. They drown the world with drivel of low nutritioonal value. Don’t be a part of the problem. Prove yourself valueable. Use your blog to bring your expertise and understanding to your readers.

2. Self Centred and Self Promoting Blogs

I like to follow the Golden Rule of Blogging: Love thy reader as you would have them love unto your blog. Don’t get caught up with telling too much of your story and miss out on sharing your customers’ perspectives. They deserve to hear about themselves as much as they deserve to learn about who you are and why you do what you do.

3. Poor SEO and a Lack of Traffic Because of It

There are very simple steps to take to make sure that people can find you. SEO can seem like a complicated realm to navigate, but it doesn’t have to be. Label the tags for your photos and use appropriate keywords in the description and title tags for each blog post. Be sure to use links for websites you cite and link previous blog posts (that are relevant to the current post). This will go far in helping new visitors find your blog. Read our post about blog optimization here.

4. Poor Blog Organization

This is problem that we often encounter when we first visit a newly launched blog. They might have useful information, but if the blog isn’t properly organized, we can’t shop around. I simply refuse to revisit poorly set up blogs. I am far too impatient to deal with it. Keep an archive handy for people to click through, and have well managed categories, topics and search tools. Using your keywords will be a good start point for how you might want to label your content.

5. Lack of Frequency, Lack of Consistency

Frequency is the mother of relevancy. The world will only want to frequent your website if you have new content for them to digest on a regular basis. Also, people will shop through your archive, so if you don’t post consistently, you might look unreliable. Imagine if your favourite monthly magazine suddenly decided that it was too busy and published bi-monthly to take a break… Not acceptable. It’s good to treat your blog with the same reverence. Your people should matter that much. An editorial content calendar and schedule will help prevent you from such pitfalls.

6. You Only Suck Because You Think You Suck!

Our beloved coach, Mike Mack from X5 Management recently shared a quote from Henry Ford, and he keeps it framed on his wall. “If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” The fact is that every blog sucks, since every blog starts from the same place, the beginning. The world’s best and most heavily read blogs began with one post, and even the most seasoned blogger knows that the biggest room in their house is the room for improvement. Don’t fret about your social media promotion. Don’t frown because your post lacks comments. Don’t complain about your design or cry about not having crazy apps that make everything look more professional. It gets better if you work at it, but it takes time to master anything, especially blogging. All of those other factors will work their way in if the focus is in the right place.

Remember the Blogging Golden Rule, and if necessary, follow Mike Mack’s lead and get in up on your wall.

And since that’s such a fine idea, we’re doing it too.

Have a great week!

Idris

If you are ready to have a serious conversation about your business blog (or lack thereof), get in touch with us. We’d love to help you out!

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Business Marketing Writing

Business Blogging: 7 Quick Tips, 7 Absolute Truths

January 16, 2012 – 7:13 am
Businesses, get ahead using your blog!

"A blog-blog-blog..."

Tomorrow is going to be a great day. Mack D. Male, one of Edmonton, Alberta’s blogging elite will be hosting a seminar downtown at the Alberta Business Link. For those who can make it, there is no need to RSVP. Just show up with some business cards and GET YOUR LEARN ON.

In honour of Mr. Male’s upcoming session, I would like to share some perspective on business blogging and where the Red Paper Clip team sees it going.

Tip 1: Growth does not equal saturation

The consistent growth of business blogging over the last few years is impressive. Email marketing and social media promotion of business blogs are new but essential methods to build leads, authority and community. Their flexibility through the use of platforms and services like WordPress, MailChimp and Aweber makes it easy for even the most novice of content creators.

But the continued growth of business blogs hasn’t slowed down the readership. In fact, it continues to blossom in ways that puzzle even the craziest economists. The readership resource is far from extinguished. For new bloggers, the water’s still warm.

Tip 2: Let your data be your guide—er, DRIVER

Don’t ever let a content strategist, social media person, or anyone who has a job on the Interwebz tell you that data doesn’t matter. One of the greatest advantages of the internet is that everything is trackable. Use this to your business blog’s advantage. Track clicks through Google Analytics, search socially trending topics on Twitter trends and Google Alerts, and get a sense of what people really want to know. Your relevance to them—and your popularity—will skyrocket within a few posts.

Tip 3: Treat your business blog more like a moving magazine

We’ve entered a really interesting time in content creation and management. Today, it’s easy to post images, diagrams, client testimonials, comments, questions, videos, clickable links and audio conversations. Take advantage of these content possibilities by looking at your business blog more like a magazine and less like a sidebar newspaper column. I’ve seen industrial business blogs that look more like climbing magazines (by design, of course), and they earn a much higher yield of leads and traffic than their more conservative counterparts.

Tip 4: RSS is D-E-D: Stick to email marketing for leads and business

The fact that I have to further explain so-called Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds to new and established clients is proof that they are never going to catch on. I can’t be bothered to tome on their history (since I predict that their death knell might be in 2012), but here is a great explanation. I always suggest that companies keep their email lists close to their hearts, because it’s where some of your best leads will always come from.

Tip 5: Mobility isn’t the it-girl, but she’s about to be!

I like imagining mobile and smartphone communication like I imagine Zooey Dechanel’s  recent explosion on television. Dechanel’s been in film for a few years, and she’s been working her skills on the big screen just fine. But since earning the lead role in The New Girl, she has been surrounded by a crack team of comedy writers and producers that has really shaken the industry up. Mobile phone use is the same. We’re sitting in a perfect storm of mobile market advantages (ease, cheap prices, easy applications, ubiquity) and the world has thus responded. Keep mobile users in mind when preparing your blog topics. Avoid anything that might not translate well to mobile users, and they will continue to visit.

Tip 6: There will always be bloggers who know more, but only YOU can tell your story.

The proliferation of business blogs has created one problem: There is so damn much information out there, readers often don’t know who best to follow. Many of us in the same profession may have similar views on best practices. So how do you keep those lucky few who visit? Tell your story and keep it up top in your messaging. Readers like to connect with people more than information. Be human. Be courteous. Be professional. Be yourself.

Tip 7: Use SEO blogging best practices to stay visible.

People will read only what they can find. Using simple and effective search engine optimization practices will ensure that you rank where you need to, captivating the right audience to build those leads. Great content is invisible without good SEO. We’ve a few good articles on the matter here.

So for those of you in Edmonton, I look forward to meeting you at the Business Link seminar tomorrow!

Bests,

Idris

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Business Strategy Writing

Write Optimized Blog Posts in One Hour

December 19, 2011 – 10:32 am
Write optimized Blog Posts: Four Tips

"This wouldn't be a bad time to think about my blog... where's my notepad?"

I know we tend to go on and on about blogging and content optimization, but it’s so hard for us not to! Blogs are great for providing fresh, relevant content and they can dramatically improve your  search rankings, customer base, community and brand.

But blogs can be brutal for busy people, and the time required to build an effective blog can seem daunting. For those few who take the plunge, coming up with strong, strategic blogs that speak to your audience and fulfill your website goals becomes too much to bear. Stale, dusty or rusty business blogs are commonplace.

It’s not a novel. It’s a blog.

What most people don’t realize is that blog writing isn’t like writing fiction. As most professional writers will tell you, web writing is more design, planning and adjusting than it is idea generation, language or prose .

And since most people don’t have a handle on the tricks that we use to stay on top of our blogs, here are some short tips that you can use today that will get you writing optimized blog posts in an hour, not an afternoon.

Keep a notepad (or maybe an iPad)

Having a way to talk about what you know is critical to writing good content, especially for blogs. I always find that my best ideas come at those times when I am finishing up with a client or am just hanging out with friends. Keep a notebook handy so you can record your thoughts, other people’s questions or opinions. You can tighten these ideas later, but building the list is a huge advantage. Flip through it once a week to…

Write in mind before writing on the page

Give yourself time to create a picture for how you want your blog to be structured. The more time you spend on this, the stronger the flow of your blog will be, and the shorter the time you will need to assemble your ideas as you…

Outline the blog

Create a short list of the central parts of your blog post. You’ll need an introduction, a few short points and way to get out quickly that hits the spot. Take those elements and simply fill them in. Remember that Google, as well as readers, love short, snappy content with headlines, sub headlines and lists. No need to wax poetic. Simply state what’s on order and finish up, but…

Remember the most important trick: Put Your Reader First

Putting the reader first to most means keeping the blog focused on the reader’s frame of mind. We agree, but just as important is thinking about how your reader will find your post. Think about the search terms they use and how they could fit in the blog content, headlines and subheads. Be sure not to neglect your blog tags, meta information and image tags (if you are using WordPress or other blog content platforms, this is easy to do). We’re big fans of Yoast SEO for WordPress for helping us to manage meta information (get it here).

It’s like we always tell people (who will listen): Writing is a process that gets better as you practice and refine your process. The writing becomes easier, faster, and normally better. We’ve seen blogs improve their ranking with a dozen posts of optimized blog content, and there is no reason why any business cannot have a successful blog. By using these 4 tips and following through on them, you’ll build a solid, optimized blog archive that will help the right people find you and make the right decisions on your website.

If time is an issue for you making your blog or website content work, please visit our Contact Page, fill our the form, and we’ll get in touch with you.

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Marketing Writing

Optimize Your Old Blog Posts: Don’t Forget!

December 12, 2011 – 6:56 pm
Your Old Blog Posts Can Be Great SEO Opportunities

This should be on every "exit."

We’re having a lot of fun right now.

We’re working with X5 Management on their blog and website. They are an outstanding team. And as we have been working with them on their website content, blog strategy and blog writing, their understanding and skills have grown at a rapid rate. (We highly recommend you visit their site and enjoy their offerings on taking business to the next level.)

When we work with our clients, we tell them that their improvements in creating content is a great thing. It doesn’t matter what level anyone begins at, progress is a wonderful thing.

But when it comes to your blog, what should you be doing with your old blog posts? You know, the ones you might have thought were fine at the time, but you may be afraid to revisit for fear of wanting to alter them altogether.

Don’t Agonize, Optimize!

Ouch! But seriously, you don’t have to go there.

One consideration worth examining involves revisits and possibly a few edits, but rest assured, you won’t have to make faces about your writing.

Instead, you can optimize your old blog posts using a few tricks for SEO (search engine optimization). Cleaning your posts up for search saves you having to do any heavy content editing while still giving you a leg up in marketing your blog to your community and beyond.

It’s possible that your blog posts haven’t really been optimized at all. Not to worry, you need not focus on every post—just the ones that get the most traction.

If you are familiar with Google Analytics, try running it through your posts and track the ones with the most views. This will give you your to-do list.

You might want to go through the blog posts that you feel are the strongest posts, the ones you want shared and found. Add these to your list, but put them at the TOP.

Next, find out what these posts are optimized for by running Wordle. This forms the keywords into a tag cloud. The largest words in the cloud are the most often used terms or phrases.

Run those terms through your keyword tool (if you don’t have one, try Google’s Keyword Research Tool) to find other terms that will fit well in the post. Build a short list and keep it handy.

Have a look at the post and make sure those terms end up in the content in your titles. Make sure those terms use title tags H1 and H2, and they are not just bolded body content. Make sure the best keywords or phrases end up in your image tags and your URL, too.

Five Fast Blog Optimization Tips

Once you get through the content, you might want to do a little housekeeping for those few blogs that are lacking:

  • Images: Put images in place if there aren’t any on your post (don’t forget the tags).
  • Check for your call to action. If it’s not getting any traction, replace it with something new. If there isn’t one there, well, get cracking.
  • It’s obvious that if you had social share buttons set up on your website, those buttons will appear on all blog posts. But if there are posts that don’t have likes or “+1’s,” make sure you do so to your own posts.
  • Add links in the blog content that connect related blog posts to each other. This is one of the most under completed SEO techniques, and it reflects well in search.
  • If you don’t already have one, add a related posts plugin to your blog (for WordPress, the Related Post Plugin is one of the standards). This will increase traffic and help to elevate those older posts.

Yes, it might still seem like extra work and effort to make any of these changes to those pieces that are parts of your website’s past. But remember: You shouldn’t worry about doing it all in one swoop. Any adjustment you make to them will make a difference to the algorithms that rule the web.

Also, it saves you having to make any heavy edits to your already-posted content—because none of us have that kind of time!

If time is an issue for you making your blog or website a success, please visit our Contact Page, fill our the form, and we’ll get in touch with you.

Idris

Idris Fashan

Idris Fashan is a content strategist, percussionist, writer, marketer, vegan, political junkie and cat lover. He used to love walks on the beach, but being a Prairie boy now, he's gotten used to freshwater. He is also the Managing Partner at Red Paper Clip.

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Business Marketing Strategy Writing

Who is Lululemon?

November 15, 2011 – 1:32 am
Lululemon "Who is John Gault?" bag

Photo credit goes to Rick Marazzani at MindPosts

Recently, Lululemon began distributing shopping bags with “Who is John Galt?” printed on the sides, following up with a blog post explaining the company’s decision. Unsurprisingly, this has put Lululemon at the center of controversy as some identify with the message and others paint it in a less favourable light, as a libertarian message endorsed by a company that sells a lifestyle based on conscientiousness and harmony.

I’m not here to discuss Ayn Rand’s politics. Instead, what interests me in all this is whether Lululemon is really all that off base in using such a loaded and controversial literary symbol.

What Were They Thinking?

In its blog post, Lululemon explained itself by saying that it’s John Galt’s pursuit of greatness over mediocrity that is behind its latest marketing inspiration.

Fair enough. No little kid responds to, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” with, “I want to be mediocre!” And hey, the notion that we can all be whatever we want to be and rise up above circumstance with the right mindset is soothing, kind of like a comfy pair of yoga pants and a cup of hot herbal tea, no?

What’s contentious here is the philosophy of how such greatness is achieved. According to Rand, it’s by acting in self-interest and having a government that stays well out of your way. It’s political.

Using politics in your marketing is ballsy, and those behind the campaign had to have known this would earn the company some enemies.

Or has it?

Who Wears Lululemon?

Something tells me that the people passing Lululemon’s blog post around on Twitter and Facebook and talking about how disgusting this all is aren’t regular Lululemon customers. Lululemon lost the love of the leftist and hippie yoga crowds long ago with its pricing, upscale locales, sweatshop labour allegations, and ubiquitous presence on the bodies of well-to-do so-called “yuppies” and “yummy mummies” in line for an extra-hot skinny latté at Starbucks.

And it is those bodies that Lululemon is marketing to.

Chances are, if you’re the type to have a hate-on for Ayn Rand, you’re not—and never have been—Lululemon’s target market.

The reason so many people are upset at Lululemon’s “Who is John Galt?” campaign isn’t because their much-loved athletic wear provider is a turncoat. It’s because it further reinforces what they already know Lululemon to be: A corporate retailer that has found its niche in high-end, fashionable athletic attire and that aims to profit off of the latest trend in all things yoga, pilates, and dance.

Those Who Try To Please Everyone Please No One

Fact is, Ayn Rand, or at least Lululemon’s interpretation of John Galt, likely resonates with those who are able and willing to spend $100 on a pair of stretch pants. There’s nothing disingenuous about Lululemon’s marketing here. People are strongly divided on the issue, to be sure, but those on the side of Lululemon are exactly the ones Lululemon sought to appeal to.

When it comes to everyone else, well…

No love lost, right?

 

Having not looked at Lululemon’s market research and having not consulted them on their choice of words, I can of course only guess at the company’s motives and provide distant assumptions about the campaign’s effectiveness. However, if you’d like to see how you can use the written word to connect with your best people, contact us to arrange for a free consultation.

Geneve

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