Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

Improve Your Marketing With a Learner’s Mind

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For many small business owners and entrepreneurs, a big draw of self-employment was the ability to design our own work life. We want to be in charge, yet sometimes that gets overwhelming. We may even have the occasional fantasy of showing up somewhere, punching a clock, and having someone else make all the decisions.

© Igor Mojzes - Fotolia.com
© Igor Mojzes – Fotolia.com

Luckily, there is plenty of room in between extremes. We can seek out and use guidance from those who’ve come before us, and still ultimately claim the autonomy we seek.

I recently came across three blog posts that help you get out of your head and learn from others about how to market and grow your own business.

The true purpose and power of social media

On The Digital FA, a blog geared to financial advisors, Sherry Carnahan shared a touching and potent story of her father’s business success as an electrician.

“My dad didn’t have monthly newsletters or a website to market his business,” she notes, but he was a true pro at social marketing. Sure, the media was different, but the intention and results were the same.

If you’re not getting results from your own social media marketing, maybe you’re missing the crucial relationship piece. If so, you could learn a lot from Sherry’s dad.

Read the post: What My Dad Taught Me about Social Media Marketing.

Always keep a blog post in your pocket

While I covered this topic myself in 2012, I never tire of looking for ways to draw on the wisdom and practices of intrepid journalists, whom I greatly admire.

Over at the TopRank Online Marketing blog, James Anderson shares how marketers can use a journalist’s approach to content planning. My favourite is the advice to “keep a post in your pocket.” With my own daily blogging ritual, I find it crucial to have several posts on the go.

Read the post: 4 Ways Marketers Can Learn From a Journalist’s Approach to Content Planning.

A systematic method for learning from other business bloggers

Speaking of planning, in my free Four-Step Blogging Plan guide I suggest that business bloggers look to other blogs for examples of blogging goals in action.

Other people’s blogs can be a source of inspiration and ideas, as well as a warning of things you don’t want to repeat on your own blog.

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger suggests you choose one blog every day to carefully review, and he offers a comprehensive set of questions to guide you. Though Darren’s site is meant for many different types of bloggers, his process will still definitely give you lots to think about for your business blog.

Read the post: Spend 10 Minutes Doing This Every Day and You Could Transform Your Blogging.

P.S. Which topics do your customers like to learn about? My content curation services start at just $125.00 per month, or upgrade and I’ll include a curated blog post just like this one!

Time-Strapped? Here’s How to Keep Blogging

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If you want to receive all of my latest posts by email, click here to subscribe to the Blogging Tips newsletter.

Blogging helps you gain trust with your audience by sharing free, helpful information. Yet for many business owners, it seems impossible to make time for one more thing.

In Linda’s latest guest post at SteamFeed, she offers five time-saving blogging tips that will help you:

  • Generate new blog post ideas
  • Get those ideas into writing
  • Make the best use of the time you have
  • Re-use content you’ve already written
  • Bring more people into the blogging process

http://www.steamfeed.com/startups-blog-dont-time-blog/

© Pixelbliss - Fotolia.com
© Pixelbliss – Fotolia.com

Five Daily Business Blogging Habits to Improve Your Productivity

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© grounder - Fotolia.com
© grounder – Fotolia.com

“I only write when inspiration strikes. Fortunately it strikes at nine every morning.” – William Faulkner

Four years ago I wrote about the power of a daily blogging habit, and how that doesn’t mean posting every day (which is neither appropriate nor realistic for most small business owners).

As I explained, “A daily blogging habit is a commitment to devote time to your blog. It means that no matter what day it is, you have at least one blog post that you’re working through the stages of the writing process.”

My own daily blogging habit has certainly fluctuated since then, but one thing is certain: finishing a blog post is much, much easier when I spread the task over several days.

On any given day, I may open my draft document and work on a post, write promotional messages for a post that’s finished, or complete other steps in my streamlined blogging process. Or I may simply let my mind wander towards my topics so I can do some mental blogging.

Here are the five habits I rely on to build and stick to a daily blogging routine:

  1. Schedule a blogging time

I have a recurring appointment set in my calendar. As it happens, right now it’s 9:00 a.m. every weekday, just like in Faulkner’s quote. This means I won’t schedule other work or appointments at that time, or if I do, I’ll see the conflict and reschedule my blogging time. I have a longer time block scheduled on Sunday mornings.

  1. Set up for success

I plan posts ahead of time and do the pre-work of outlining the basic ideas I want to cover (if I need to, I’ll use this time for outlining).

I eliminate distractions by closing unnecessary programs and browser windows, and turning off notifications.

I imagine my ideal readers and clients and how I want to help them. I also think about the people who graciously share my posts on Twitter (I call them my retweet heroes).

Throughout the week, I seek out and try new ideas to improve my writing and productivity.

  1. Sit with discomfort

I set my Pomodoro timer, though sometimes it’s not as much to ensure I stop and move on to my other tasks of the day, but to make sure I don’t stop writing and let myself off the hook, even if the words or ideas aren’t flowing.

  1. Go with the flow

With several posts on the go in various stages of completion, I can match my energy of the day with how I use my blogging time.

Instead of fighting with a post that’s not working, and before I decide whether to scrap it, I can work on another post or switch to a non-writing task like finding links or images.

Of course, this requires the self-honesty to acknowledge when I’m really just letting myself off the hook from writing.

  1. Allow time for all stages of the blogging process

Trying to start, finish and publish a blog post in one sitting creates way too much pressure, and is a recipe for typos, readability issues, and unfocused writing. When I sit down to finish a blog post (usually on Sunday mornings), I’m reviewing and polishing what I’ve already been drafting for several days.

(You can even give yourself permission to write a “shitty first draft,” which is writer Anne Lamott’s advice for banishing perfectionism.)

Can you spare 10, 15 or 30 minutes each day to make some progress on your next blog post? I guarantee it will be easier to finish if you’ve already started!

The Accidental Blog Post – How to Free Your Trapped Blog Content

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© learchitecto - Fotolia.com
© learchitecto – Fotolia.com

Charlie Gilkey shared a great concept with our BOOST coaching group the other week. He talked about how all business owners have a gold mine of “trapped content” – things we’ve already written for other purposes, then forgot about or left behind.

“How many times,” he asked us, “Have you answered a question in private that you could have answered in public?”

I liked the concept so much I used it as one of my five blogging tips for time-strapped business owners in an upcoming guest post for SteamFeed. I honed in on email, since that’s one of the main places you’re probably leaving this valuable content behind.

Let’s look more closely at the potential sources of your trapped content, how to spot it, and most importantly how to re-use it as blog posts.

Blog posts are hiding in your emails

Have you ever answered a “quick question” from a friend or family member who knows what you do in your business and asked to borrow your expertise? Did your answer take longer to write than you intended, and spanned four or five paragraphs before it was through?

Also consider the email responses you’ve written to clients, prospective clients, or blog or newsletter readers. If one person asked a question, chances are that others have wondered about or struggled with the same thing.

What you’ve already written could have the makings of a great blog post, once you fill it in with an introduction, conclusion, and other connecting thoughts.

Be proactive in mining for new content when people reach out to you by email. Even if they haven’t asked a question, when someone writes to thank or compliment you about something you’ve written, ask if there are any topics they’d like to read more about on your blog.

Social media messages disappear, but a blog post is forever

Do you find yourself with lots to say on social media but then stumped when it comes to blogging? Here are my suggestions for Facebook and LinkedIn. If you like to share quick tips and ideas on Twitter, you could compile those together around a specific theme and turn that into a blog post.

Similar to email, watch for questions people are asking. These don’t need to be directed to you personally. Search hashtags or other key phrases to find real-time questions and concerns about your topic. (Tip: How to use Hootsuite for social listening.)

What are others discussing?

Do you belong to or follow any online groups or forums? As you add your voice to those conversations, see how you could expand those thoughts into a blog post. You can also use the discussion as a jumping off point (this is one form of curated content).

For public groups, you can link to a group discussion as you would any other social media post (tip: here’s how to find the permalink of a social media post), or embed a post right onto your blog from Facebook, Google+ or Twitter.

For closed groups, you can write in general terms about the topic and your take on it, but do not quote anyone else without their explicit permission or paste any screenshots.

You can re-purpose a course, report or tutorial

As you’re creating a resource to share with current or prospective customers, consider making some or all of it available via your blog. You may be wondering, “Why would someone pay or sign up for something that’s available for free?” I addressed that concern in an earlier post.

The idea for the post you’re reading now came from my own accidental blog post. I was working on my blog planning worksheet and I realized that the section about social media promotion didn’t quite fit the style of the rest of the document. It was more of a tutorial than a worksheet.

Did I scrap it? No way! I turned it into Blog Post Promotion on Social Media – Five Key Ingredients.

Where is your own trapped content hiding? Free it up now to fill your blog with valuable content.

Blog Post Promotion on Social Media – Five Key Ingredients

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© Oleg Zhukov - Fotolia.com
© Oleg Zhukov – Fotolia.com

Sadly, readers probably aren’t visiting your blog several times a day to check for something new. You can use email to reach your audience, but what about those people who haven’t subscribed? Or those who haven’t yet discovered you?

Social media may be your answer. People are always searching for and sharing content that answers a question, solves a problem, or provides a few minutes of welcome distraction.

When someone finds, reads and shares your post, this can create or deepen a trusting relationship with that reader. As long as your blog has a clear strategy to expand on that relationship, that is how blogging leads to business.

An equally important benefit of promoting your blog posts on social media is that it gives your colleagues and fans a quick and simple way to share your content with their own networks.

Here are five key ingredients that will help you promote your posts effectively on social media:

  1. An enticing invitation to read your post

Let the prospective reader know the benefits they’ll find by clicking through to read your articles. Will your post educate, enlighten, inspire or entertain? Provide a compelling hint or quote from your post, or ask a question that brings them into the conversation.

  1. Separate messages for each social media site

Every social network has its own culture, common practices, and restrictions. A Twitter post, for example, cannot exceed 140 characters (and it’s best to go even shorter to give people room for comments).

That means if you automatically copy your Facebook posts to Twitter, they will probably be cut off partway and won’t make much sense to your Twitter followers.

I strongly recommend not automatically posting the same message to all sites, but if you can really only write one message, make sure it’s short enough for Twitter. And don’t use any hashtags or usernames that won’t translate to the other sites.

  1. Permalink

Every blog post has a unique permanent link (URL, or web address), which is different from the main link to your site or blog. Be sure this is what you use in social media posts (as well as email messages).

For example:

  1. Related hashtags

These are words you can add to your messages on Twitter, Facebook and Google+, along with the # sign, e.g., #blogging. Using hashtags can help new people discover you and your content.

Search each hashtag before using to make sure it’s relevant, and then include 1-3 hashtags per message.

  1. Usernames for tagging

Tagging people (adding their username to your message) sends them a direct notification, unless they’ve chosen to block them. Tag anyone you’ve mentioned in your post, to credit them for their ideas and show your appreciation. In return, they just may share your post with their audience.

Note that tagging works differently on each network (on LinkedIn, for example, you can only tag your connections). That is why you can’t use tagging if you automatically post the same messages across all of your networks (see #2).

Want an easy way to remember to gather these details for every blog post you write? Create a repeatable template that will prompt you to fill in the specifics – here is the publishing and promotion template I use myself.