6. To Blog or Not to Blog That is the question? Why blog? How did I get started? Struggles and pitfalls? Is it worth it? ….those are also the questions.
12. Know the right measurement for your kind of business - Measure difference in awareness - Measure engagement - Measure savings
13. 5 Steps of the Buying Process Step One - Need/Want RecognitionDeciding there is, in fact, a need or a want to be filled. Step Two - Information SearchTrying to determine what's available. Step Three - EvaluationEliminating products/services/companies and deciding who's best. Step Four - PurchaseActually buying your product/service. Step Five – Post Sales SupportNow that you own it, do you need help using it, troubleshooting problems, etc.
25. YOU OWN IT!A small engaged audience is better than a huge disengaged audience.
26. If You Build It, They Will Come? In “Field of Dreams” those people had a need to come, they came because the field fulfilled something for them. What are you fulfilling?
Why blogPart of it may be personal: because you want to write down things you’re learning about so you don’t forget them.“Learning out loud” The power of imperfection invites people inYou do get more knowledgable by having to work through ideas in writingBut to really understand the opportunities inherent in blogging we have to remind ourselves how we got the word out before
News release bookSmarmy Doug Lewellyn guy
Allyis advertisementMeet once or twice with a company that only cares about you if you pay themThey come back with something that tries to reflect your brand, inaccurate, means more to them than it does to youYou put into the hands of other people your right of representationThey get to tell the world who you are and they don’t even know youBoo
American Airlines3 minute interview$11,9563,985.33 per minuteCrappy sound from the arm of an airline seatAnd no one, when they have the chance to listen to the radio on the airplane, chooses the talking!8.4 million listenersNo one can access it after the factDoes not persist as a resource over timeCompare that to bloggingI might not reach 8.4 milBut I reach my audience as a resource with content I shape, with representation I control and that comes out of ourselves – we know ourselvesI reach the audience for whom I’m relevant – it’s not about number of impressions, it’s about impressions with audiences that care about what you have to sayAnd it persists, it’s there to stay and there when they are ready to engage it (not like the radio where if it doesn’t play when they’re listening, you’ve just thrown money away, and nobody is going to go see out an ad later in the day)MUCH BETTER RETURN
A blog is a framing deviceIt helps you shape where and how you exist in the public’s imaginationBlogs/Twitter/Facebook can all be used in combination to good effect
That will be different depending on your businessBrambleBerry sells product, so she wants to measure ROI for her blog around direct impact on product movedOur sales cycle is different. We look more at awareness of our business, accurate understanding of our services and expertise, increases in lead generation, increased lead visits to the Web site, entrée into higher-level decision makers’ officesAll of those things are up
A blog addresses steps 2&3 perfectlyHaving a blog and using the techniques of link building, key word tagging and content creation well can improve your SEO placement so that when people search for information they find you. Then they can read your blog and through that process experience something of your company – your thinking, your expertise, your experience and approach – that will add substance to their evaluation process: it’s a great way for a services company like ours to deliver a “try before you buy” experience (or, as Joni says: let them taste the chocolate). I also find that Twitter is a great social media tool for framing your company in customers’ imaginations. What you tweet about (articles you’re reading, articles your company has published, new blog posts, new research that sheds light on a topic within your expertise) all teaches customers how and when to think of you.So people can Experience your business not just hear about itMake you business an authorityMake your biz a resource within you areaIn a services business like ours, it’s a way for us to give samples: samples of our thinking, experience, approach = try before you buy
A blog addresses steps 2&3 perfectlyHaving a blog and using the techniques of link building, key word tagging and content creation well can improve your SEO placement so that when people search for information they find you. Then they can read your blog and through that process experience something of your company – your thinking, your expertise, your experience and approach – that will add substance to their evaluation process: it’s a great way for a services company like ours to deliver a “try before you buy” experience (or, as Joni says: let them taste the chocolate). I also find that Twitter is a great social media tool for framing your company in customers’ imaginations. What you tweet about (articles you’re reading, articles your company has published, new blog posts, new research that sheds light on a topic within your expertise) all teaches customers how and when to think of you.So people can Experience your business not just hear about itMake you business an authorityMake your biz a resource within you areaIn a services business like ours, it’s a way for us to give samples: samples of our thinking, experience, approach = try before you buy
This is what you’re working for:Let’s Talk about SEOYou decide you want to blog, you get it up and running.Now how do you make it a destination?Link buildingNot just what you say, also how you say itIt all comes back around to being valuable and saying useful, interesting thingsThere are a lot of SEO techniques, but if you focus too much on technique, you’ll lose focus on content and purposeBe aware of techniques, but if all you can manage is to write useful informative content on a semi regular basis, you’ll still benefit considerablyContent Creation Strategy
How often should you generate contentHow long should content beWhat should nature of content beINCLUDE COMMENTS?If yes, how do you deal with them?Acknowledge every comment you canYou are hosting a conversation, you want to thank people for their contributionTheir comment is a gift to youAlso a way to increase your search engine rankingYou have to deliver VALUEsmarter, entertained, better informed, more successfulGIVEThey’ll stay if there’s something in it for them
How do you enter the conversation?Right way and wrong way?Different characters
Don’t try to be Chris Brogan or Seth GodinMost people won’t be superstarsKNOW YOUR PURPOSE What are you trying to achieve?Awareness of you?Awareness of your business service?Just try to be as helpful as you can be to the people for whom your perspective is relevantA small but engaged audience is better than a huge disengaged audience
![Ethan Yarbrough President Allyis, Inc twitter: @ethany blog: http://blog.allyis.com Email: ethany@allyis.com What We Do ,[object Object]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)