Posts Tagged: Blogging
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, July 05th, 2010
When you subscribe to a blog or podcast or use portal like iGoogle the technology that brings the information to you is called RSS. It is a way of publishing information easily making it available to subscribers in a central on-line repository. Just like getting your newspaper delivered to your door, RSS delivers your online content to you.
Why take advantage of RSS? There are many reasons:
- Pull rather than push – articles come to users rather than them having to hunt them down;
- Subscribers get the latest and greatest information as its posted;
- An RSS link encourages traffic to your site;
- Users can have a bunch of sources of info in one place – much like a newspaper;
- RSS can be used internally to disseminate information too.
How to set up an RSS feed?
- First get your site set up to support RSS by adding a few short lines of code.
- Place code on your site that the RSS feed readers can find your info.
- Publicise your feed by telling the world and everyone you know in it at every opportunity.
- Add the RSS feed button to your site so visitors know you the can easily subscribe. Feedburner has widgets to support this on their site.
- Submit your feed to syndicators and search engines to make it easier for your audience to find you.
Once that’s done, your good to start publishing your own data feed over the web.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 13th, 2010
Worried that your good work could be plagiarized or that someone’s going to steal your thunder on the Internet and not reference your writing appropriately? There’s a solution to every problem and this one comes in the form of Creative Commons. An offshoot of a US non profit organization , Creative Commons was founded in 2003 with the help of the University of Ottawa Law and Technology Program and theCanadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.
The service allows you to license your work easily and at no cost. With various different license offerings based on how much freedom you want to give people to use your writing and in which forums, Creative Commons steps you through an easy process to find the right license and then you simply download some HTML to your web-site and your covered like so:
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License
People using the works are then morally and legally obliged to use them accordingly (or not at all if you so choose). Whether or not people act appropriately remains to be seen and there’s also the issue of the global reach of the Internet with different laws governing different jurisdictions but if this plagiarism is a concern for you then Creative Commons is definitely a step in the right direction to protecting your work.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, March 22nd, 2010
These days building relationships online is as important to growing your business or reputation as networking in the real world. Not only can you be more effective using social media but you can also get more done in less time.
The Internet is a great way to expand your career horizons and get to know new and influential contacts. Here are a few pointers to bear in mind when using social media to network.
1. Dont try to network in every Internet networking hub out there. Choose those where you get the biggest impact (i.e. those that your existing contacts already use, those that reflect your target audience, or those most applicable to your niche). The most popular are LinkedIn (Professional Network), Facebook (fastest growing) and Twitter but there are many networks that are industry or job specific (like Active Rain for real estate) too so take time to check them out.
2. Leverage existing on-line networks to grow new ones. I use the Out-Smarts’ Facebook Page profile to promote our Twitter account and vice versa and add more contacts in that forum
3. Promote your activity in your chosen forums by including it in business cards, profiles and on your website.
4. Use widgets. Most of the social networks allow you to widgetize a link to your profile. Add this to your site, blog etc and include widgets for other networks in your networking profiles.
5. Always remember to be professional in these forums – ask the Granny question and make sure your content is appropriate to your professional standing.
6. When you meet new contacts in the real world find then on-line and add them to your networks.
7. Trawl the friends of your friends and contacts and add those you know or those gurus in your business.
8. Dont spread yourself over to many networks or allow them to suck up your time. Schedule it into your day.
9. Join groups. Facebook and LinkedIn both offer groups. Join applicable ones and gain access to more people in your field.
10. Participate in the right forums. These should relate to your industry or market and to those of your prospects.
11. Ask and answer questions and use your status to attract new contacts.
12. Blogs can be a great way to build your network too. If you have a blog, always follow up with people who leave comments to connect with possible prospects and peers.
13. If you don’t have a blog then use blog comments as a forum to connect with influential bloggers in your industry, to build awareness of what you do and to add value for their visitors in turn.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, March 18th, 2010
Blog comments are a great way to build links back to your website and are an important component of social media marketing. I have said it before and I will say it again, links are like gold on the Internet, the more you have the higher your ranking will be. However you should never comment simply for the sake of it.
When commenting on blogs, always:
- make sure that the comment is relevant to the post
- look to add value and enhance the information contained in the post
- include your email address so that you can establish a connection and build a relationship with the blogger
- make sure the URL you link back to is correct
- comment on blogs with a page rank of 4 or higher as those links are more valuable then links from lower ranking sites
- don’t simply post “great post” or ” thanks for this” – this has no value whatsoever and simply makes your company look unprofessional
- use your real name or an appropriate nickname when posting (I often use “Outsmarts) to make it more authentic
- don’t include links in the comment body that simply link back to your site. If you do include links make sure, again, that they link to a page that is appropriate to the post
- check spelling before posting – it looks more professional. I’ve noticed that many spam comments contain poor spelling – its a tell tale sign that a firm is outsourcing their link building to cowboy SEO firms.
- don’t comment on numerous posts on the same site at once, again this is something spammers do and will increase the likelihood that the blogger will simply delete your comments.
Here’s an example of some blog spam that appeared on our site recenty: someone called Elva Cohoon recently posted a comment on an old post on this site called Sex and Babies for Sale on Craigslist. Her comment was about real estate, the post had nothing to do with real estate.
Normally I would simply delete comments like this but I decided post a comment in response: hopefully Elva will get the message and avoid posting spammy comments on our blog in future. The point here is that if you decide on a spam link approach, your comments can backfire. Bloggers are a fickle bunch and don’t like spam, if you don’t follow comment etiquette like the 10 tips outlined above your tactics will trip you up, your company will look unprofessional in these forums and you risk being called out in the public forum.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, March 17th, 2010
We all know how annoying spam can be but I realized recently that I hadn’t even given a thought to blog spam in months and yet when this blog was launched on our new website a few years back, it was the bain of my life.
In the first few days this blog was inundated with comments and posts that were downright disgusting and definitely not something I wanted our brand to be associated with. Christine from Bluelime Media, one of our partners and our go to expert on all things web design and WordPress, suggested the Akismet plug in. It was the very first plug in we installed and, quite frankly, the best so far.
Why, because to date our blog has been protected us from over 15,000 spammy comments. If you haven’t already installed it, do it now.
In WordPress, go to plug ins, click on add new and find and install the akismet plug in. To complete the process you will need a WordPress API number. To get this you need to sign up for an account at WordPress.com or click here – you don’t need to get a blog, just click on the “just a username” option. Once you have done this, your API appears at the top of the screen when you click on profile. Copy and paste the API into the akismet plugin details on your blog and you are done. Akismet will filter out all obvious spam and alert you to those comments that require approval.
Its a good idea to keep an eye on the comments and delete any that are irrelevant.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, February 23rd, 2010
For many companies, posting a regular blog with informative up to the minute content is a daunting task. This is especially so for small to medium sized business who may not have the resources at hand to blog effectively and consistently.
Sound familiar? If it is simply inspiration that you need then read this blog post about banishing blog writer’s fatigue. But if the thought of adding a blog to your corporate marketing arsenal makes your blood run cold, don’t despair: there are other ways that you can take advantage of the blogosphere with out having to.
Blog Learning
Blogs are a great way to keep abreast of what is going on in your industry, to learn from luminaries, peers and prospective clients as well as to keep ahead of your competitors. Use tools like Technorati to find and follow blogs that pertain to your market. If you are using blogs for this purpose, it is a good idea to bookmark or use and RSS feed reader (like Google reader) to keep track of the ones you like and to share them with others in your company.
Blog Comments
Links are like gold on the Internet, the more your site has leading back to it, the better and this is even more the case if links come from high ranking blogs. When posting comments on blogs, always make sure they are relevant and add value in relation to the post. In addition to the link love, posting comments on blogs can help you establish a relationship with the blogger or company whose post you comment on (particularly handy if you would like to do business with this company) and can spread brand awareness from the blog’s readers.
Blog PR
Blog PR or as it is sometimes called, blog outreach, is another way you can use blogs without having to have one. Popular blogs often get many thousands of visitors every day. Imagine the traffic that would bring to your site if the blog were to mention and link back to your page. Blog PR is all about enticing the rock star bloggers in your industry to blog about you, your product, service or unique story. Bloggers, like journalists with traditional PR, are on the receiving end of many attempts to get publicity every day so your message has to stand out from the crowd in order to get any attention. To be successful with blog PR you have to be highly targeted and creative.
Internal Blog
Blog technology is very versatile. Just because you don’t want the exposure an external blog might bring doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take advantage of blogs in house to disseminate information. By doing so you might discover that you do indeed have the talent or resources within the organisation to make an external blog possible. Read our post from last September to learn more about internal blog uses.
Conclusion
Blogging is often the backbone of a social media strategy but, to be successful, you don’t need to have your own blog. In fact, if blogging isn’t right for your company then embarking on a blog and then abandoning it can be really damaging. Instead, consider the options above in order to take advantage of blogs to build your online presence.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, January 11th, 2010
- Customer Service – your company could provide a blog aimed at improving customer service. Users can share their experiences of using the your company’s product or services but beware, not everyone will be positive about their experience giving you the perfect opportunity to resolve their issues and prove your customer service excellence in the blogosphere. Not only that but it provides the perfect forum to monitor customer preferences. Be ready for negative customer comments and have a plan in place to deal with these when they arise.
- Market research – your blog, the comments it gets and the blog of others in your community are vital resources that you should monitored for market research purposes.
- Humanising – a blog can be used to put a face on your company familiarising customers and prospects with the people behind the brand and building trust. Company board members and staff members can contribute and in so doing make them seem more real – more approachable. See the effect company wide blogging had on Microsoft as referenced in Naked Conversations.
- Internal communication portal – a blog is a great way to communicate personnel changes, policy updates, CEO commentary and company events.
- Establish expertise – this is often the main focus of this blog i.e. to show people like you that we know what we’re talking about so that perhaps you’ll think of us us when considering your Internet marketing strategy.
- Expand Network – a blog is a great way to expand your network. Its always good blog practice to respond to those who comment on your web page and in so doing you are establishing contact and networking.
- Leads – A blog can build leads for your company but remember if you do this though that outright selling and self promotion are considered taboo in the blogosphere and will only annoy. The rule of thumb for blog posts is 20% promotional, 80% value add.
- Brand – a blog is a great way to further entrench your brand.
- Generate revenue – many successful blogs like John Chow‘s put their traffic to good advantage by promoting related products and affiliate services to them through ads that are tailored to the intended audience and earn affiliate revenues in doing so.
- Grow your base – a blog is a great way to extend your company’s reach beyond its traditional geographical base. This blog gets comments and traffic from people as far and wide as India and the UK.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, December 23rd, 2009
Another friend and colleague Katy Laan, Creative Director of Seascape Web Design suggested we link to this post with tips on how to get more guest blog posts. It is by Daniel Scoco of Daily Blog Tips. We’ll be adding our own guidelines for guest posts soon. Thanks Katy for suggesting this and Daniel for a great blog post!
The Trick I Used to Double The Number of Guest Posts
If you have a blog, you certainly like being able to feature guest posts, right? It is a situation where everyone wins. The guest blogger wins because he gets a chance to reach your audience. Your readers win because they get to read some good content and to see a different perspective on your blog. You win because you get a free piece of content and th opportunity to network with fellow bloggers.
The only problem is that receiving quality guest post submissions regularly is not that easy. If your blog is relatively new or small, in fact, it will be pretty hard to get people sending your their guest posts.
If you are in that situation, though, here is a trick you can use. When I started using it the amount of guest post submissions I was receiving on this blog doubled. Basically you need to write a post or page outlining the guidelines for guest posting on your blog. If you want to see an example of such a page check mine here.
Once you have that, simply write a message on top of every guest post that says:
This is a guest post by John Doe. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.
Obviously the “check out the guidelines here†part should be linked to your page.
It is a simple but very effective tactic to increase the number of submissions youll get. First of all because you make it explicit that you are accepting guest posts. Second because you already inform interested people about the process of submitting and getting their guest posts approved.
If you are having trouble to get the very first guest posts submitted, on the other hand, check the post How Do I Get Others to Guest Blog on My Blog? that I wrote a while ago. It gives you some tips to get started.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, December 14th, 2009
The question has come up a few times lately as to how to import your blog so that it appears on Facebook. With all the apps, tools and functionality Facebook provides, its difficult to know the right approach.
The best way is to use Facebook Notes to publish your blog RSS feed to your Page or Profile. Here are 5 easy steps that will help you to easily do this:
Import your Blog to Facebook
Step 1 – Go to your Facebook Page or Profile,
Step 2 – Click “Edit Page” right below your profile picture, your Page editor screen will appear,
Step 3 – Scroll down the applications on your page until you see Notes – click to edit,
Step 4 – On the right hand sidebar you will see the option to “Import a Blog” – click on this,
Step 5 – Where prompted, add the web or RSS feed URL of your blog then click the permission check to begin importing your blog.
If you have done this right, your blog will automatically post to your Profile or Page and to the feeds of your friends or fans. Good luck!
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, November 02nd, 2009
This year’s State of the Blogosphere report by Technorati took a different format from previous years which is why it has taken me a while to post about it.
In the report there are a number of very valuable interviews with industry leaders (like Seth Godin) that you should check out in addition to the findings of the Technorati research contained in the report. However some of the gems of information I expected based on past years reports was buried in the new format or not apparent at all:
Highlights:
Only 13% of those who responded to Technorati’s research had found no benefit in blogging with 65% saying that the blog has helped their company to be seen as a thought leader in their industry.- Only 1% of businesses update their blog less than once a month – the rest post more frequently.
- Bloggers are a highly educated and affluent group predominantly male and they listen to the radio.
- 33% of respondents had been blogging for 2-4 years.
- There is a correlation between top ranking bloggers and blog frequency.
