Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

Get Local Customers From Blog to Business and a Blog Post Slideshow Example

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Ticket dispenser for busy business
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Five Ways Local Customers Get From Your Blog to Your Business

When you blog effectively, you build trust, familiarity and goodwill with prospective customers. That makes them much more open to your sales offers, and more likely to say yes if they’re the right fit. In my latest post at SteamFeed, I explain exactly how blogging makes that connection.

If you’re still wondering if blogging is worth your time, please read this!

http://www.steamfeed.com/five-ways-local-customers-get-blog-business/

How to repurpose a blog post as a slideshow (example)

Also new this week, I took one of my guest blog posts from 12 Most and repurposed it as a slideshow. By uploading it to the popular site SlideShare, I’m hoping to attract some new readers. I’m also glad to give my readers a different way to enjoy my content and absorb the ideas in a more visual format.

I was already working on the piece when I read Jay Baer’s post, Did We Just Invent a New Form of Blogging, about what he calls the “blog share.” It spurred me on to complete the slideshow and plan future ones.

Could you convert one of your blog posts the same way?

Click below to view the slideshow version of 12 Most Tedious Blogging Tasks You Can Outsource.

https://contentmasteryguide.com/outsource-your-blogging-slideshow

How Content Curation Keeps You Visible and Valuable to Your Network

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There is a lot of information out there, and the people in your network are probably feeling overwhelmed by it all. This can be an unfortunate source of stress for them, but it’s also an important opportunity for you.

What is content curation?

Content curation is the process of scouring the Internet, filtering out the junk (unfortunately there’s a lot of that), and discovering the most valuable, relevant and helpful content about a particular topic. By sharing those gems with your network, you accomplish these important objectives:

  • Build your personal brand (reputation) as an expert in the topic
  • Be more active and visible on social media
  • Enhance your relationships by being helpful

(Guess what? Those are also three of the most important goals of business blogging!)

Whether you share other people’s content on your own blog, on social media, or in other ways (we’ll cover these options in a separate post), it’s worth learning how to do it well.

Here are the three steps I recommend for getting started with content curation:

1. Define your content categories

Folders for content curation categories
© 4designersart – Fotolia.com

Just as it’s essential to create and stick to a set list of categories on your business blog, it’s also important to mindfully select the topics you will share about on social media.

Start with the problem you solve with your particular product or service. Then branch out to a few related topics. Filter all of these possibilities through the lens of what will be most valuable, interesting and relevant to your ideal customer.

For example, while I blog exclusively about business blogging and social media, on social networks I also share resources about small business, marketing, and productivity, because I know that will be helpful to my ideal customers (small business owners and marketing professionals who serve small businesses). I also share local items to support charities and businesses in Barrie (because blogging is giving).

By curating a set list of topics, you send a unified message of what your business is about. (Click to tweet)

2. Organize your content sources

Content is likely flowing to you in an abundance of formats, but there are tools that make it easier to quickly find what you need, or save something to come back to later.

In email:

You can apply labels, filters, folders or rules to group together your best sources into categories so their latest contributions are always at your fingertips. With Gmail, for example, the “Promotions” and “Social” tabs can be a treasure trove of resources you may want to share with your network.

On social media:

On Twitter, you can create a list for each of the categories you want to curate content from. As you discover new sources of people who are either creating or sharing the best articles in those topics, add their Twitter account to your list.

Once you’ve created your lists, organize them for easy viewing with the free social media dashboard Hootsuite (see: How to Spend Only 10 Minutes Per Day on Twitter).

On Facebook, you can create lists of friends who tend to share content that would be useful to your audience. You can also use interest lists to organize company pages the same way. Then when it’s time to curate (see #3 below), you can filter your view to only see the posts from people who share about particular topics.

On LinkedIn, join groups that center around the topics you’ve defined in your categories. Then you can browse discussions in these groups for links people have shared.

You certainly don’t need this level of organization in all these social networks, and some (Facebook) are more finicky than others. Experiment with the network(s) you use the most.

Outsourcing tip: Once you’ve identified your sources, curation can easily be outsourced. Ask a team member to review blog posts, social media updates, or newsletters from these people and gather up links for you to approve and post.

3. Batch your curation time with social media scheduling tools

Of course you can curate content immediately as you find it, but unfortunately that can interrupt whatever activity you were doing and take you down a rabbit hole of unproductivity. That’s one of the biggest complaints I hear from business owners who are trying to incorporate more content/social media marketing.

Instead, schedule specific time in your week for checking your best content sources, exploring the web, learning new ideas, and sharing the best of what you find. By setting a time limit and a goal of curating content, you turn what could have been aimless wandering (which Alexis Grant says also has its benefits) into a purposeful marketing activity.

Tools like Buffer and Hootsuite (and there are many others) allow you to schedule social media updates in order to spread them through the week. This is a more balanced approach and ensures your social media streams will have consistent activity that provides value to your readers.

If you come across a relevant article outside of your set curation times, email it to yourself, add it to a bookmarks folder, or try the superbly simple saved.io (thanks to Belle Beth Cooper for the discovery).

Remember: Whenever you schedule content on social media, check back for reactions so you can continue the conversation. (Click to tweet)

As an important extension of creating your own original content about your area of expertise, curating content about that topic helps solidify your credibility as a valuable resource. These initial steps will get you started, and in a companion post I will offer details about how to quickly share your curated content.

Want help with your content curation? Learn more about our content curation services!

Fresh Advice for New Businesses and Bloggers

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124 Pieces of Advice You Need To Read Before You Start A Business

businessman-diving-in
© lucato – Fotolia.com

Are you thinking about making the plunge into starting your own business? Looking for some inspiration and guidance before you make that final decision to go for it all? DJ Thistle, co-founder of SteamFeed, asked the SteamFeed author community what advice they would give to someone who wanted to start their own business. I was happy to contribute my thoughts to this comprehensive piece.

http://www.steamfeed.com/124-tips-you-need-to-read-before-start-business/

10 Business Blogging Mistakes to Avoid

Ooops keyboard key
© momius – Fotolia.com

When I moved to Barrie in 2010, I launched a mission to get more Barrie businesses blogging. Since then I am thrilled to see more and more Barrie business blogs popping up (though I can’t take credit for them all). Yet, I think some are falling short of the incredible results that are possible.

In this guest post for the Barrie Chamber, I revealed 10 business blogging mistakes I see in Barrie (and beyond). If your business blog hasn’t delivered the results you were hoping for, check this list to make sure you’re not making any of these errors.

http://barriechamber.com/member-blog/10-business-blogging-mistakes-to-avoid

If you want to get the best return on your investment of blogging time, please join me for one of my upcoming business blogging workshops in Barrie.

Blogging for Business – 10 Most Frequently Asked Questions

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Business woman with questions about blogging
© Syda Productions – Fotolia.com

As a business blog writer and consultant, I hear many questions, starting with, “Can you actually make a living doing that?” With customers heading straight to the web to find solutions to their problems, online marketing is no longer an option, it’s a necessity. And that makes what I do a necessity as well.

Here are 10 answers that will help any business owner market more effectively and connect with your customers online. I’ve grouped them into the three themes of blog planning, blog writing, and blog promotion.

Blog planning

1. What is a blog? A blog is a special section of a website that you update frequently with articles, news, and stories. The newest updates appear at the top of the page, with the older ones below. Posts are also organized by category. Example: Ask the Real Estate Team (Barrie, ON).

2. Should I blog/Why should I blog? No one HAS to blog, and you shouldn’t start unless you’re committed to blogging regularly for at least six months to give it a chance to produce results for your business. Reasons TO blog:

  • Stay visible to your audience so they think of you when they need your product or service. Example: Rooted Naturopathic Medicine Clinic (Barrie, ON).
  • Demonstrate your expertise about topics related to your business. Example: Rhonda Sherwood, Wealth Advisor for Scotia McLeod (Vancouver, BC).
  • Produce original content you can share on social media, to accomplish the first two goals in a variety of settings. Example: Summit Insight (Alexandria, VA)
  • Follow up with new contacts and prospective customers with links to information you’ve already written about questions they had.

3. Where should I blog? Recommended: Integrated into your own business website (Sample: Litchfield Builders, Hamden, CT). Next best thing: A separate site with the same branding, your own domain name, and clear links back and forth from the main site (Sample: Chilis). Not recommended: Blogging on “borrowed land,” like Blogger/Blogspot, WordPress.com, or Tumblr.

4. What should I blog about? A business should blog about things that will be interesting, relevant and helpful to your ideal customers. Start with a list of categories or themes you’ll write about. This helps you stay organized, and it also helps your readers find the answers they’re looking for.

Blog writing

5. How long and how often? While we’re hearing more now about the effectiveness of 1,000+-word blog posts, I still suggest that new business bloggers aim for 500 words for their feature articles. That being said, if you have more to say, and the additional words are purposeful and well-written, you no longer need to cut off your writing or arbitrarily divide it into multiple posts (for example, I’ll definitely need more than 500 words to answer these 10 questions!) For different types of posts (see the next answer for examples), 250-300 words is plenty.

6. Where do I find the time to blog? Blog posts don’t always have to be text-heavy or 100% original content, and these alternate types of posts can be quicker to write. For example, you can interview an expert about a topic that’s relevant to your customers, introduce or summarize a video or audio (your own or someone else’s), or review a book. (Here are some other blogging time management tips inspired by my greyhound Patch.)

7. Is it okay to copy someone’s article if I give them credit? No. Giving credit does not equal permission. You can quote one or two lines, but any more than that and you need explicit permission from the author. It’s better to just write some original commentary about why you like or recommend the content, then provide a link. (More suggestions about business blogging etiquette.)

Blog promotion

8. How do I get people to see my new blog posts?

  • Copy your post’s permalink (permanent link) from your web browser’s address bar (here is a video about how to find the permalink).
  • Paste the link into a status update box on a social media site, and then…
  • Add a brief teaser that tells the reader why they should read your post and how it will benefit them. Be consistent with the culture and norms of each network (e.g., you’re limited to 140 characters on Twitter, so don’t automatically copy the same message you’ve written for Facebook or it will be cut off and won’t make a good impression on your Twitter followers). Some titles, like this one by Debbie Ouellet (Barrie, ON), are compelling enough to use on their own (note that it already includes a question)! Your brand is a country. What’s it like to live there?
  • Email the link to someone directly if it’s a topic you discussed or you think they would enjoy/benefit from. (WiseStamp is an email signature tool that can automatically pull in the title and link of your latest blog post.)

9. How can I make my posts stand out on social media? Even with a catchy teaser, you still need to get people to notice that amidst everything else that’s constantly flowing into their social media streams. A colourful, attention-grabbing photo is the key to getting people to read even that short text, let alone click the link to read the whole post. Tip: On Facebook and Google+, upload a photo first, before you type your teaser and paste in your permalink. That way readers will see a full-sized photo rather than a thumbnail. [Update: July 17, 2015 – As of November 2014, Facebook is giving more visibility to posts that contain links with thumbnail images, versus those with uploaded photos.]

10. Where can I find photos to use legally? Just as you can’t reprint other people’s text, you also can’t automatically use other people’s photos without permission. To find photos you can share, I recommend Stock Exchange (free) – http://www.sxc.hu/, Photopin (free) – photopin.com and Fotolia (fee-based) – fotolia.com.

Thanks to the organizers and attendees of Small Business Connect in Barrie, Ontario, where I presented this information (with some technical difficulties). I’m glad to be able to deliver all the links and examples I promised!

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Mastering the 3 Cs of Social Media

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Small business owners constantly tell me that blogging and social media are just too much work. The goal of this blog and my training workshops is to pass along tips and techniques that help you make the most of your time and get the best results from your efforts.

I also want to empower you to make decisions about what and how to outsource to others. In a three-part series for SteamFeed, I interviewed social media strategist Brooke Ballard of B Squared Media about the 3 Cs of social media, and how you can automate or outsource these tasks.

I shared a description of the first article in an earlier post. Here’s a quick link in case you missed it: How to Manage the 3 Cs of Social Media, Part One

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

How to Manage the Flow of Social Media Conversation – The 3 Cs, Part Two

Excited-conversationWith so many other moving pieces to manage in a business, it can be difficult to keep up with the conversation on social media.

In the second part of my interview with Brooke Ballard of B Squared Media, we delved into how and when to outsource or automate conversation on social media. (Hint: Never automate conversation!)

http://www.steamfeed.com/manage-flow-social-media-conversation-3-cs-part-two/

How to Curate Content for Your Business on Social Media – The 3 Cs, Part Three

LibrarianIn between posting your own content and having conversations, curating content from other experts rounds out your social media marketing strategy.

To understand curation, Brooke Ballard from B Squared Media suggests you think of yourself as a librarian, not an author. Read more in Part Three of this series for SteamFeed.

http://www.steamfeed.com/curate-content-business-social-media-3-cs-part-three/