Posts Tagged: Blogging

Business Development — No Comments
2
Dec 09

Show Your Math

Wolfram Alpha recently released a new feature on their “computational knowledge engine” that shows each step in solving math equations. Simply write “solve” then the equation and Wolfram will take you through the problem step-by-step. It makes me wish Wolfram was around when I was struggling through statistics.

This new Wolfram feature illustrates step-by-step how you get from A to B. If you look a layer deeper, it’s about transparency. Instead of saying, “you’re fired” and leaving it at that, explaining how you arrived at your decision is critical.

Some bloggers make it their job to write about how they grow their user base. Darren Rose from ProBlogger does just that. He blogs about how newsletters and other online marketing initiatives have helped him increase his ad revenues.

How can you peel back the layers and show people how you got from A to B? Is it a blog where you review airlines from your business trips or is it helping your non-digitally savvy users fix their computer problems by showing them how to do it? It doesn’t have to be complicated or overly involved. Just telling people how to get from point A to point B is essential in helping people grow — whether it’s how to delete browser cookies to increase your processing speed or getting to 1,000 visitors to your website.

Leadership — No Comments
30
Oct 09

Everyone’s a Publisher: Why Aren’t You?

As SEO Becomes More of a Digital Asset, Content Strategy is Going to be an Industry Standard

A couple of days ago, I stumbled across Doctor David’s Blog. David writes about issues related to his field while posting personal pictures. Thinking of David’s blog, I began to think, with the influx of accessible self-publishing tools, anyone is a publisher. From doctors, to pet enthusiasts, to mechanics–there are publishers for nearly everything. As blogging becomes more and more pervasive, what does that mean for marketers?

Content Strategy: The Future of Marketing

The need for digital content writing skills are becoming increasingly important for marketers. In the quest for search referrals, brands are placing more and more emphasis on key words. To enhance SEO efforts, it’s very important to have fresh content that is consistently updated.

Unlike the infant stages of the web, a digital presence is more than a billboard-like ad. It’s about creating interesting, updated content that gives your audience a reason to return. It’s about sparking new conversations and adding to the discussion about issues facing your industry.

Content strategy is becoming evermore necessary for brands. Therefore, marketers are playing the role of publisher more and more. Before launching a branded blog or creating a newsletter, do your research. What is the market audience looking for?

Consider Seth Godin. Several years ago, marketers and brand managers were looking for an innovative, interesting and thought-provoking perspective. It was at this time that Seth Godin was about to launch from obscurity to blogging fame.

Or you might want to start your own blog to familiarize yourself with the responsibility of maintaining an online property. By knowing the ins and outs of content marketing, you can better serve your clients.

In the quest for search referrals, it’s becoming increasingly important to generate fresh, relevant and interesting website content. As marketers, there will likely be a time when you are faced with writing a blog post or giving content strategy advice to a client. Put your best foot forward by getting in the game now. It is an industry skill that is going to increase in value exponentially over the coming years. Why not take the time now and invest.

Branding — 1 Comment
12
Oct 09

Ralph Lauren and Preventing Blog Firestorms

Recently, Ad Rant published a rave, satirical review of a Ralph Lauren ad. The ad features a model that is impossibly skinny. At first, you might think this is a Dove PSA ad–commenting on the unrealistic expectations fashion brands place on impressionistic female teens–but no, Ralph Lauren is seriously trying to pawn the image as real.

To further exacerbate the situation, Ralph Lauren began suing the ad critics— sending takedown notices to bloggers who published the ad.

Unfortunately for Ralph Lauren, they wanted to pick a fight with the blogging community. And, of course they lost. The fifth link of a  Ralph Lauren Google search is titled, “Image of ultra-thin Ralph Lauren model sparks outrage on Shine.” Consequently, anyone searching for Ralph Lauren clothes will see the controversy surrounding the brand.

The Ralph Lauren mishap illustrates the power of social influencers on the web. Picking a fight with bloggers connected to hundreds of thousands of people is dangerous. If you consider the audience of the worlds top bloggers and those of brands like Ralph Lauren–bloggers will win every time.

The old way of thinking is to ignore or fight against your critics. In the digital age, however, the tables have turned. There is a level of transparency that was never possible in a pre-digital world (e.g. the takedown notices were published on numerous blogs). To save face, it’s crucial to listen to your audience and work with influencers to rectify any problems before the flare up into a blogosphere firestorm.

Marketing — No Comments
10
Oct 09

Full Disclosure: FTC and Blogger Endorsements

In an interview, would you ever tell your potential boss you want “to get paid as much as possible?” Believe it or not, some people do. Yes, everyone would like to be compensated fairly. However, fair pay is implied. Who wants to be underpaid?

If it were up to the FTC, everyone would have to say they wanted to get paid as much as possible. Well, maybe not to that extend, but it is that thinking that is driving new regulations concerning disclosure rules for bloggers. This new regulation would force bloggers fully-disclose their affiliations with companies with whom they write about.

Already, the blogosphere is driven by honesty and transparency. Consider Chris Brogan’s experiment with content endorsing. Though he fully disclosed that he was paid to write a blog post for Kmart, the blogosphere was up in arms.

It comes down to: the FTC is trying to solve a problem that does not exist. Any spammers are very easy to detect and any brand that endorses deceptful practices stands to lose value. It’s like the worn-out maxim: if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.

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