Apr
30

Blogs to #FollowFriday

As so many people on my Twitter feed are involved with #FollowFriday, I tend to tune out more and more. There are only so many people I can manage to follow, and right now I am probably following most of them. So taking the suggestion of a few people who have written about implementing a new #FollowFriday for blogs, I am following suit.

I find that learning from experts and leaders in the industry are excellent ways to gain great knowledge. I am an avid learner and try to learn about as much as I can every day. I rely on my Google Reader subscriptions to provide me with the cutting edge research, case studies, and blog articles to keep me informed. I am currently subscribed to 27 blogs and sites, but have a few that I rely on on a daily basis to give me relevant, new information on the marketing, internet, high-tech and social media worlds.

Here are my top 7 blogs that act as my Internet marketing, blogging and social media bibles:

1. Problogger is my favorite resource for blogging tips and tricks. He is an inspiration to me because he runs a full blogging business and the purpose is to help other bloggers become as good as him.

2. Write to Done is similar to Problogger with the tips and ideas they give, but they write with a flare that I like.

3. The Next Web great innovative Internet technologies and developments.

4. Mashable provides excellent social media case studies, new programs, etc.

5. TechCrunch blogs about high tech gadgets and businesses on a daily basis of which to keep track.

6. Hubspot writes on best inbound marketing techniques, webinar overviews, cartoons, video blogs, and much more. I love their diversified blog style and they always provide something new and interesting to read.

7. SEOMoz is a great resource for both beginner and advanced SEOs. I am a beginner and find most of their posts easy-to-understand and informative. I end up printing off lots of their posts so that I can read into them further to help me optimize the SEO on my own site.

Another one that is a bit unrelated but nonetheless interesting and cool is Popular Science. They are always writing on new technologies, inventions, technology adoptions, etc. Some topics I have found particularly cool are NASA developments, MIT technology creations, genetics, and Google Earth case studies.

Apr
29

Information Overload or Filter Failure?

bucket
In January I wrote a blog post titled Information Overload for Generation Y discussing how there is so much information at our hands today that it seems hard to manage.

Having been on social media and the web for several more months since then, I want to expand on that topic to say that I think people of all ages are experiencing this in one way or another. However, it may not just be information overload, it may be the failure of people to filter, or know how to filter all this data.

Think about all the types of messages you are exposed to every day: e-mails, advertisements, articles you ‘must’ read, conversations with people, phone calls, text messages, billboards on the road, menu options, news stories, and so much more. It is almost unavoidable to be exposed to all of these on a daily basis (unless you lock yourself in a deserted room all day it seems).

While it is good to consume a good amount of information each day since it is necessary for work, relationships, etc., there is a way to manage it so you don’t feel overwhelmed.

On a daily basis I used to feel so overwhelmed by my Twitter feed, LinkedIn discussions, RSS news articles and blog posts, e-mails, webinars, and advertisements on TV. However I have found ways to filter each of these mediums.

Twitter: I created carefully crafted lists to help me organize what information was coming from where so I could tune into specific topics. For example, I have a list called Influential Bloggers, another for Great Entrepreneurs and another for Awesome Marketers. So instead of watching my feed pile up all the time, I can instead decide what topic I want to see tweets from and click on that list.

For LinkedIn, I cleared out groups that I did not want to be involved with anymore if they were not relevant to what I was interested in. I then set weekly e-mails for those groups that I am still in (about 15) and scan the e-mail for topics I may be interested in reading and then further pursue those links. As for the LinkedIn home feed, most of it is Twitter feed updates anyways so I usually ignore that.

My RSS feed has been something that does still overwhelm me. In order to tune down the volume of articles, I unsubscribed to a few that I found no true value in so that I could focus more of my attention on the ones that mattered most to me. I then set aside maybe an hour a day or every other day to go through the articles, saving the ones I like (Instapaper is a great way to save articles to read later) and scroll right through article titles that don’t interest me. I have learned how to easily filter out topics I am not interested. For example, I subscribe to both Mashable and TechCrunch (and if you do as well, you know the type of volume I am talking about!) so I scroll through the list of unread articles until I find keywords that interest me and then I read on. Otherwise, I scan right through irrelevant ones so that I don’t waste my time.

Emails are pretty much unavoidable to receive and look at. I do find the social media updates a bit annoying (such as emails when someone is following me on Twitter) but I do like to receive those so that I know who is following me and I can see if I want to follow back. I also create folders to filter different types of emails in case I need to tend to them later if I receive them when I am busy doing something else.

Webinars are great to attend, but I tend to get way too many invites to them. I try to only sign up for the ones that can teach me something brand new, not repeat something I may already know. I try to attend 1-2 a week and set aside that hour to devote to learning from it and take notes.

Advertisements, well, they will always be on TV (or at least until inbound marketing takes over). I try to just change the channel when they come on, but being in the marketing industry, I sometimes like to see what they come up with for new ads. Many people I know get up or change the channel the minute a commercial comes on, but I occasionally like to watch them. (Tune in next week when I review some of my favorite current advertisements).

So while my first blog post discussed how I felt that Generation Y is experiencing information overload, I now think that everyone is experiencing it, but it can easily be managed. My above filters took time to implement and realize but they are more than worth it. I hope you all found value in this post and can become less overwhelmed and more managed in your information consuming.

Apr
28

The Editorial Calendar: Are You Using One?

Frustrated kid

Coming up with new content can be frustrating, time consuming, aggravating and repetitive. Don’t pull your hair out over this problem anymore because there is a much easier way to manage your content.

Is your team utilizing an editorial calendar to dole out responsibilities for blog posts and other content alike? If not, you should be.

One of the major problems facing companies today, especially ones without much bandwidth to blog or produce original content, is that they find it hard to create fresh content on a regular basis. This can be from a lack of structure in content production, no set schedule of when to blog, or a low priority is put on blogging and other content development activities. When it comes down to it, management finds that it is best to focus on client deliverables, product development, advertising, etc. While these are a priority, there is a way to fit in content production without feeling a burden.

Editorial calendars are a great way for your company to dole out responsibilities and keep track of scheduled content to be produced to keep the audience engaged. These can be created on a weekly, monthly or even yearly basis to divide up when and how content will be created and published, and by whom. This document then can either be uploaded on an Intranet database for all employees to see, or emailed to everyone. This leaves no question among anyone as to when content is to be ready by and whose responsibility it is.

Editorial calendars can be quite simple to create, which is quite the contrary to what many may think. Employees should be responsible for keeping note of any blog post or content ideas as they come to them, so that when it is time to create the editorial calendar, ideas can easily be added to the sheet.

I believe it would be ideal for the team responsible for content to sit down once weekly or monthly to share and develop their ideas, plan them out on the calendar, update it regularly, and keep track of when the deliverables are complete. This way, everyone in the team is informed about what is going on and when and there is no question about content creation and publishing. In turn, audiences will be satisfied with fresh, frequent content and your company will be seen as delivering relevant, interesting information to visitors and readers to help them learn about the industry and be assured that the company is an expert.

When I am asked to be a blogger for a company as a freelance job, I ask them if they would like me to use an editorial calendar to display my topic ideas to them and when I plan to have each post ready by. Then I send it over to them for their approval and begin blogging. This process has been very well received and keeps everyone in the loop.

One great aspect of editorial calendars is that they can easily be adapted to changes and evolving trends. This means that content can be moved around when needed, and new content can also be added in on short notice. This is great for a company that has created a yearly editorial calendar. The topics that were listed to be published four months from now may in time become outdated with new technologies, trends, and events, so editorial calendars are perfect for adapting to emerging topics.

I highly recommend that you and your team begin creating an editorial calendar, if you have not done so already. They serve as an excellent blackboard for ideas and keep content organized, fresh, and updated.

In what ways does your company use an editorial calendar (or if you are a freelancer, how do you use it)? If you are not using one, why not?

Apr
27

Please Don’t Turn Off Your Cell Phones

This is a guest post by Billy MacDonald, co-founder of Siphon Marketing.

Over the past few years both social media and web browsing phones have grown from being used by only a few to becoming a part of everyday life for most. We live vicariously through social media, establishing connections that otherwise would not have been made and capitalizing on them to become great business assets. Even more so, personal devices have become an attachment to who we are and many of us feel disconnected without them. Everything that connects us to the world and those people we share our life with fits in our pocket and is readily available.

Now, having this attachment out at all times is becoming much more acceptable and even encouraged. Although many places such as movie theatres and high school classrooms understandably do not allow the use of cell phones, many other settings are becoming accustomed to people feverishly typing or searching their phones when it would previously be considered rude or unacceptable.

As human beings, we are naturally impatient. When we want something, we don’t want to wait, we want it right then and now. Real-time access and feedback is what helps our world move faster and become more efficient. This applies to both giving and receiving information. So, while at networking events, speaking engagements, sporting events, or even at the office desk, having your cell phone available and actually being able to use it allows us to connect with more people.

At recent presentations I’ve attended, tweeting and other forms of sharing have been supported even though the potential for paying less attention inevitably exists.

So, why is this accepted?

It is because not only can the people in the room join in on the conversation, but anyone else connected with those people can too. This helps expand awareness of the particular event and promotes whoever is sponsoring it.

Before, letting people tweet, text, check-in and share their thoughts would have been considered offensive because their attention would be divided. Now, although attention is still divided, it is broadcasted across various networks for others to see and in turn give their own attention to also. This expands the reach of any event where cell phone use is allowed so that others can either join in, or at the very least be made aware of other things going on where they are not physically present.

So – next time you get a little angry at someone whose eyes and hands are focused on their mobile device, don’t be angry, but be happy that they are promoting the event, and ultimately your brand, to the countless number of connections they have.

Billy MacDonald is the Co-founder and Inbound Marketing Specialist for Siphon Marketing. Siphon helps get found by prospective customers through search engines and designs and builds website which sell their products and services. Billy specializes in search engine marketing and frequently speaks and presents for groups on social media for business and search marketing. He can be found on Twitter @BillyMacDonald.

Apr
26

The Future of Work – Working From Anywhere

Whilst the world of office cubicles and desk-bound jobs is not exactly suddenly becoming a thing of the past, there has been significant grown in both work at home schemes and outsourcing by firms big and small in recent years.

Much of this growth has been down to technology, simply put – it’s now possible to be at work, without ‘being at work’ – thanks to the internet and secure file sharing technology.

Outsourcing

Whilst much attention has been focused on firms – including our very own Facebook Instant Messenger, making use of programming, graphic design and manufacturing outsourcing abroad.

There is also a growing band of mothers who work from home – “mompreneurs” or WAHM’s. Work at home mothers are an attractive alternative for firms, which will allow firms to affordably outsource in their own areas, rather than hiring or outsourcing workers in another country.

Firms may choose to pay by the hour, or by project as appropriate. Such arrangements are mutually beneficial.

The employer makes overhead expense savings (since their office space demands will be smaller), as well as pension contribution and tax savings. Moreover, they have the benefit of a fluent English speaking native, and possibly someone who knows the local area.

The outsourced agent has the benefit of being their own employer, deciding their own work hours – possibly working around their newly born nap times, or when your spouse is home. Or simply providing the benefit of working in a less stressful environment, giving you the opportunity at a time of your choosing to stretch your legs and walk your dog.

Working on the Move

The emergence of widespread wifi, internet dongles and netbooks is making working on the move much more practical. This is likely to become increasingly common. Whilst video conferencing is useful, it’s no substitute for an emergency face to face meeting with a client for example.

Working from a coffee shop is becoming increasingly common, additionally, firms such as Intel actively encouraging their sales team to make themselves available at short notice whilst they travel on the move.

Taking your own laptop with you whilst working away in regional offices helps to ensure you have the resources you need when dealing with enquiries from head office.

Working from Home

Employers are offering an increasing amount of work from home opportunities.

Such flexibility is useful during extreme weather – for example, in January 2010, during extreme weather – snow, in the United Kingdom many business were able to continue to operate through home working contingency plans whilst their employees were unable to get to work.

With global warming resulting in increasingly irregular weather, such home working contingency are likely to become a hit with businesses large and small.

Such home working opportunities are not confined to contingency plans. Indeed, western firms are increasingly using home working opportunities as part of flexible working schemes to help with the balance of work and home life, particularly with working mothers.

Call centers are in the forefront of home working opportunities, allowing their agents to work from their homes. The employees can enjoy the perks of having an employer, like insurance and retirement funds, while they enjoy the freedom of working from home. You may be handling calls from shoppers who are ordering from a catalog, answering questions from customers, or doing market research in various fields.

Such opportunities, however, have lead to some abusing resulting in companies developing guidelines for home-based work. For example, no children or dogs creating background noise, firms wish to create the illusion that employees are still working from a traditional office environment. Since many people have broadband internet service, it makes it easier for them to work from home.

LiveOps, who hires people to work from their homes, took a poll of its agents and found out that over fifty percent are mothers with young children of school age or younger. Financial constraints of young families are eased if a mother is bringing in some income, too. Home working, whether freelancing or flexible working provides that opportunity.

Colleen Carteaux and Daniel Offer write. They are part of a Facebook Chat instant messaging team – Chit Chat for Facebook. This Facebook Download makes it possible to use Facebook chat with a traditional messenger client.

Apr
22

Press Release: Dziadul Received IMU Certification

IMU logo

    Kristin Dziadul Receives Certification in Inbound Marketing
    Certification Awarded by Inbound Marketing University Training Program

ELLINGTON – 4/22/1010 Inbound Marketing University awards the Inbound Marketing Certification to Kristin Dziadul as part of its comprehensive Internet marketing training program (http://inboundmarketing.com). 
This certification acknowledges Dziadul’s proficiency in inbound marketing principles and best practices. These principles include: blogging, search engine optimization, social media, lead conversion, lead nurturing and closed-loop analysis.

Kristin is a graduate of Western New England College, majored in Marketing Communications/Advertising. She completed her schooling ahead of schedule and has achieved many accolades in the marketing industry including the New England Direct Marketing Association (NEDMA) 2009 Scholarship award. Now focusing all of her time niching herself in the online marketing environment, she is going to begin her career path in the Boston area. While her college education provided excellent teachings in marketing and advertising, integrating these older concepts with new online campaigns has brought Kristin to a point where she is revolutionizing her original opinions of marketing. She has built up an online brand using older ideas with the newer mediums including a blog, video cast, and a network with a very large reach.

Dziadul joins an elite group of Inbound Marketing Certified Professionals. In total, 1,300 individuals have successfully passed the IMU program.

To complete the Inbound Marketing Certification, Dziadul completed 16 in-depth classes covering each facet of inbound marketing and passed a comprehensive certification exam. (View the full list of classes: http://inboundmarketing.com/university/classes)


The courses are taught by a knowledgeable faculty of professors, including New York Times’ best-selling author Chris Brogan, Google’s Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik, Internet celebrity Gary Vaynerchuk, best-selling author and international speaker David Meerman Scott, and more. (View all professors: http://www.inboundmarketing.com/university/professors)

This certification is administered by HubSpot.

About InboundMarketing.com
InboundMarketing.com is an online community and certification program for marketers. The site’s content teaches a new style of marketing that emphasizes business uses of social media, content creation and search engine optimization for marketing. InboundMarketing.com is hosted and moderated by HubSpot, Inc. Register for InboundMarketing.com at http://inboundmarketing.com/user/register.

About HubSpot
HubSpot, Inc. provides Internet marketing software that helps businesses get found online, generate more inbound leads and convert a higher percentage of those leads into paying customers. HubSpot’s software platform includes tools that allow professional marketers and business owners to manage search engine optimization, blogging and social media, as well as landing pages, lead intelligence and marketing analytics. Based in Cambridge, MA, HubSpot can be found at http://www.hubspot.com. HubSpot’s free marketing tools can be found at http://grader.com.

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Apr
22

Blur II

city blur
Last week I was reading one of Chris Brogan’s blog posts, titled Blur. Even though it was such a simple and obvious message that Chris was giving us, it really made me think.

With so much technology at our hands and so many more career and personal demands on our plates, we tend to live life in a blur. We multi-task WAY too much and stop appreciating the little things. In order to be great, we must be able to focus 100% on the task at hand. Not many can say they did something with the best of their ability with the best possible result while multi-tasking; this is almost impossible.

For example, if I was writing a blog post while checking e-mails throughout and tuning into a webinar, I could not honestly say I would be putting forth my best effort towards the post. Thankfully, I tune out almost all distractions while writing so I can put my best effort into each one, but this is just an example.

While you are reading this, what else are you doing? Talking on the phone? Thinking of what you are going to be doing next? Reflecting on the meeting you just came from? We do this out of habit, not on purpose. Stop what you are doing for a second and think about your main goals and priorities for the day. Highlight in your mind which goals you would like to accomplish today, this week, this month, and even this year. Create a plan to efficiently and effectively complete them WITHOUT distractions (well, as much as possible).

After reading Chris’ post last week, I have thought of this every day. I tend to be a huge multi-tasker because I am a quick and efficient worker, however I know that it is also important to slow down a bit and truly take in and enjoy what I am doing.

While driving, take time to turn down the music, observe what is around you, focus on relaxing, and be in the moment, not a moment ahead. While writing your own blog post, be in the moment and let your writing flow, don’t rush it because you have to write a report or review right afterwards. I am sure that if we take time to reprioritize what we are doing and stop multi-tasking when possible, we will be much calmer and clearer thinkers and maybe even enjoy what we are doing on a daily basis much more.

What do you say?

Apr
21

Why Brand Communities Matter – Part 3

This is the last of a series of three posts discussing why brand communities are so important today. This post gives some more in-depth and practical tips and examples to consider before finalizing your community decisions.

Your brand community is a gift. Be thankful for it. In a community, it is never about you, your products, or your goals – it is all about the people in the community. Therefore, you must talk about consumer interests, listen to feedback, and build on the community by developing relationships.

If you are lucky enough to have people build a community around your product or brand, that is so great! Whether it is created on your site or not, you are given something very valuable to work with. This community allows you the space to have two-way conversations with key consumers, build better relationships, give away free information, and LISTEN!

The listening aspect of communities cannot be emphasized enough. Stop talking, talking, talking all day and start listening. Sometimes the best information you will hear is from others when you really stop to listen to their feedback and suggestions. When the community realizes that you truly are there to listen, they will be more apt to participate and talk to you.

The moment that you forget that you are there as a participant and start acting as the owner of the community, you are on a fast ride downhill because you have then lost their trust! This makes people feel used since you entered their turf, started talking to them, they began to trust you, and then you rudely took over.

Acknowledging participation in the community is also key, if not the most important thing. If you tell your audience, “We want to hear your ideas and take action on them” then they will know you care and are listening to their suggestions.

Before you start thinking about each social media community individually and how you will interact on each one, remember that it is not where the community is, it is about the people who gather there. It is not about the specific platform, but about the connections made on them that matters. You must go to where your target audience is on the web, not where you think they should be or where you want to be. This would be counterintuitive to providing value to the consumer.

Empower Your Community

Once your community trusts you, they will begin to look to you for their success. Since you are looking to them to succeed as well, a mutually beneficial relationship has began. To help them with their goals, provide them with tools to succeed such as third party articles, free tools, give-aways, etc. Do not instantly try to sell them your product when they express a need; give them what may be most practical at first, and then eventually tell them how your product or service can solve their problem.

Everyone is looking to solve a problem, but they do not want your blatant sales pitch because of it. In social media, people are looking to develop relationships and feel like their opinions are valued, hence the reason why they do not want to feel used by being sold to by you.

Celebrate Your Community!

Once your community is established in the appropriate platforms, introductions are made, communication and listening has started, and trust is built, it is then time to celebrate! But don’t start giving yourself a pat on the back, praise your community instead! You can do this in many ways, such as by taking pictures with customers at events and posting it to the site. By featuring your audience instead of you when celebrating the success of the community, it will only further entice participants to continue to engage with you.

So Where Does ROI Fit In?

Once you develop good, solid relationships in your communities, you will be able to influence each other much easier. For example, after talking in a friendly manner with a specific customer on a weekly basis on social media and they then express a need, you may be able to tell them how your product can solve their problem. Because they trust you, they will be much more receptive to your sell.

Communities are also a great source for lead generation, post-sale education, support and research and development for future products. Leads can be created by evaluating what purchase stage they are in and nurturing that in the community itself. You can also provide the community with valuable and original content in the form of eBooks, eNewsletters, videos, webinars, blog posts, and much more to educate them further on your product or service industry in general so they will be a more informed consumer. This may in turn speed up their purchase cycle. Feedback strongly helps with R&D since your own users are giving their input and suggestions which is one of the most valuable pieces of information you can gather from your audience.

I hope this three-part series of building effective brand communities will help you leverage your own specialized communities.

Have brand community success stories? Leave them below, I’d love to read them!

Apr
20

Why Brand Communities Matter – Part 2

Brands of any size must show their customers and leads that they are willing to engage in conversations, listen and learn from their feedback, and discover how to leverage these relationships to grow their business today.

Building effective brand communities can help your business start developing loyal support and positive buzz around your brand image.

How to Build Your Community

1. Determine which social media sites your target market is using.
2. Join those important communities and introduce yourself.
3. Start engaging in meaningful conversations in a friendly manner.
4. Always remember that if you are joining the conversation on other sites, you are the guest and must act accordingly. If they join your community on your own hosted site, then welcome each new member.
5. Do not start promoting your product or brand until your community trusts and likes you.
6. Consider setting up a ning community (ning.com) to develop a personalized brand community just for your product, allowing for a specific place for customers to come talk about your brand, and your brand only.
7. Implement channel managers to monitor the comments and feedback from consumers on each platform.
8. Analyze effectiveness of each platform and act on the results accordingly.

Existing Branded Communities

Businesses small and large are taking advantage of the immense opportunities that brand communities can provide to them. Branded websites are becoming more realtime  due to the fact the consumer has the ability to weigh in on products and services.  

Take CVS as an example. They have multiple branded communities including For All the Ways You Care. The more platforms in which you can engage with consumers in a manageable way, the more effective your communications and their loyalty will become.

Kraft Foods also has multiple online communities, including this highly targeted one, Mommy Snacks. I think this is a great way to develop very specific communities so that, for the example of Kraft, moms can go here to get coupons, snack ideas, and learn money saving tips for food.

In addition, Charles Schwab has launched an online community that is exclusive to active traders. Here, traders are able to participate in discussions on short and long-term investing topics, exchange information, ideas, and trading experiences, connect with other traders to share knowledge, and access Schwab themselves.

These three companies are just a snapshot of how brands today are actively engaging with customers online in both broad and specific ways. Online communities are not meant for every type of product or service, but if your targeted leads are online and discussing your brand or industry, it is highly recommended that you start to get involved.

In what ways has your company used online communities to actively engage in conversations with your audience?

What brands do you admire for their effective use of online communities?

Apr
19

Why Brand Communities Matter – Part 1

Think about this: Where would your company and brands be today without the undying support and buzz from your loyal customers? How could your business operate without understanding the voice of the customer?

Today, many industries have switched from basing every action on research to following the voice of the customer. What exactly does this mean, you may ask? Today, businesses have to be willing to let go a bit and let customers drive their innovation and business plan. This means that you must be listening to customers more than ever, be comfortable letting them guide you in the right direction (you are in business for them, after all) and focus on pleasing them.

When consumers know that you are taking what they want seriously, they will be very pleased, may spread the good word, and be much more likely to stay loyal. Creating a community around your brand is the perfect way to do this. You can set up your brand community right on your website, create a Ning community (on ning.com), or run it through your various social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.) and have channel managers to monitor the comments and feedback from consumers on each platform.

Before deciding which community platform to use, research must be done to find out where your target market is hanging out on the social web. They may, in fact, be using social sites you might have never initially considered. For example, you may think to use the mainstream Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, but don’t forget Google Buzz, Yammer, Yelp, and many others specific to interests, industries, fads, etc.

In each of those platforms, take customer feedback to heart. They are taking the time to give their true valuable input regarding the direction of the brand, so if you have the bandwidth you should try to thank them and bring the comments to the marketing department and even management.

Being able to let go of your complete control over the buzz and innovation around your brand and products and allowing customer input to drive part of your business is not a bad thing anymore. Although it does pose a potential risk, sometimes the customer may know more about your company and products than you do, so listening to them may reap more benefits than you could have expected. Start engaging with your target market today by developing a specialized brand community, invite their feedback, participate in discussions, and become a familiar face to them!

Stay tuned tomorrow for Part 2 of Brand Communities!

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