Blogging Consistently

Creating Curated Content for Social Media, Email and Your Blog

April 20, 2014 By Linda Dessau

Welcome to the third and final post in a series about content curation. First we got started by organizing topics and the people sharing about those topics, then we looked at how to quickly share other people’s content with your own networks.

In the second post I noted the importance of adding your own commentary to what you’re sharing. This reminds readers of your expertise in the topic and your connection to the industry.

In this post we’ll discuss four types of content you can create by adding your own slant to someone else’s material.

1. Curated social media updates

There are tools that make it quick and easy to share content with your networks as soon as you find it (HootSuite, Buffer and the LinkedIn bookmarklet).

You may also choose to manually create new social media updates when you have a link to share. Here are some things to keep in mind when you do:

a) Use the permalink. Whether you’re recommending a blog post, article, video, social media update or another online resource, always be sure you’re using the permalink (permanent link) for the specific item, rather than the general site address. A permalink looks like this: https://www.contentmasteryguide.com/2014/03/mastering-social-media.html, while a general address looks like this: https://www.contentmasteryguide.com/blog.

b) Super-size your photos on Facebook and Google+ (*see UPDATE below). You may have noticed on these sites that some images show up full-sized and glorious, while others are displayed as a tiny thumbnail. To super-size a photo on Facebook or Google+, you must add your photo to the status update first.

Facebook share window — Before you type your comment and link, upload your photo.

c) Super-size with Buffer. Even when it’s not your post or image, you can still super-size your photo. With the Buffer browser extension, you can super-size your photos by right-clicking on a photo from the page you want to share. Select, “Buffer this image,” customize the text with your own commentary, and schedule or post the update. Voilà!

*UPDATE (September 13, 2014): Facebook is now giving more visibility to posts that contain links with thumbnail images, versus those with uploaded photos (they consider that “click-baiting“). So it’s best to put your link directly into the status update box so just the small thumbnail image is displayed.

2. Curated newsletters

Compared with social media, many marketing professionals consider email a more intimate and direct tool for reaching your audience and deepening your relationship. If you’re not sure what to include in an email newsletter, consider curated content.

a) Be a trusted filter. Mari Smith is the author of The New Relationship Marketing and Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day. In her weekly newsletter The Social Scoop, she offers her top three recommendations for blog posts about social media marketing. Since she reads and shares dozens of quality links every week, her readers anticipate and appreciate seeing which three she’ll choose, and we trust they’ll be highly useful.

b) Offer other ways to connect. If readers are enjoying the links you share, remind them to follow you on social media and on your blog to see more of the same.

c) Remember the marketing part of email marketing. Along with the valuable information you’re sharing from others, remind your readers what your company has to offer. Here are some tips about how blogging and email work together.

3. Personal messages with curated content

You know that it’s important to stay in touch with key contacts like prospective customers, referral sources and vendors, yet these people aren’t always on your newsletter list. How do you keep it all straight, and what do you say when you follow up? Curated content can help.

a) Follow up. If there’s an article you’ve read recently that relates to a recent conversation at a networking event or other meeting, send it along with a brief note explaining why you think it will be useful.

b) As it happens. As you’re browsing content in your day-to-day travels, keep your contacts in the back of your mind, along with any specific concerns you discussed. When you find something relevant, you can paste the permalink into an email, or you can share with individual connections when you find something via LinkedIn, Facebook or Google+. On mobile browsers, look for the option to share or send a link directly by email.

c) Set a schedule. Use a customer relationship management (CRM) system, your calendar or a task management system like Wunderlist to remind yourself to keep in touch. Browse the links you’ve shared recently and consider what this individual would find most helpful and relevant.

4. Curated blog posts

In between your own original posts, you may want to offer your blog readers additional insights and perspectives from other experts in your field, or related fields. This is a great way to keep your content flowing consistently, build and deepen relationships with industry leaders, and learn new ideas.

Experiment with these different styles of curated blog posts:

a) Theme post. This is the method I recommend and implement for my content curation clients. Browse the content you’ve shared in the past week or two, and look for a common theme that is aligned with your core content categories. Add an introduction to the theme, and say a few words about each link, including a brief pertinent quote.

b) Weekly or monthly round ups. Present a list of links with a brief description of each.

c) Embedded social media posts. For more interactivity and visual interest, embed one or several social media updates right into your post. You can do this with tweets, Facebook updates, YouTube and Vine videos, Google+ posts and others. Preface each with your own commentary and description.

While I’m still biased towards creating your own high-quality content, sharing other people’s content helps you round out your offerings and keep showing up where your contacts will see you.

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

Blogging for Business – 10 Most Frequently Asked Questions

March 16, 2014 By Linda Dessau

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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Click to tweet: 4 steps to get your new blog post read by prospective customers via @lindadessau
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How to Market Your Business With Blogging and Social Media

January 25, 2014 By Linda Dessau

Mindmap of business blogging topics

On a cold January evening in Barrie, Ontario, 20-25 enthusiastic business owners gathered at the Barrie Public Library for my presentation about blogging and social media, including some spirited exchanges about the good, bad and ugly of trying to market a business online.

Good: Blogging is as easy as answering your customers’ questions.
Bad: Starting a blog and then neglecting to post gives a negative impression when people visit your website.
Ugly: According to one participant, promoting your blog post effectively on social media “seems like a LOT of work!”

Here is a brief summary of what I covered in the presentation, along with links where you can learn more about each topic.

Overview – Helping versus selling

I opened with the story of Marcus Sheridan of River Pools and Spas, and his incredible success with blogging and content marketing. As Marcus explained, business blogging is about helping, rather than selling, by answering actual questions from customers and prospective customers.

If you keep up with your blogging and continue to help, this will create and build a connection that can lead to a long-term relationship and a position of trust. Then when it’s time to purchase the product or service you offer, people already have a meaningful foundation from which to choose you.

For more about helping versus selling, check out Is Your Business Blog Serving Up the Right Information?

Coming up with blog post ideas

I encouraged the group to put on their “blogging antennae,” and promised that once they’d identified broad themes (categories) they wanted to write about, ideas would magically start to appear – if they paid attention.

Barrie naturopathic doctors Kerri Fullerton and Whitney Young of Rooted do a wonderful job of answering common questions about their areas of expertise. Here are just two examples on the topic of infertility, and you can visit their blog for posts about improving your mood, living gluten-free, helpful books and more:

Infertility – When Should I Worry?
Infertility – How Can Men Support Their Partners?

I asked if anyone was struggling to think of blog post topics for their business. We heard from a massage therapist, hair stylist, and sign language interpreter, and we successfully brainstormed topics for all of them.

Here is some further reading about coming up with blog post ideas:

Blogging consistently

To keep up with your blogging and avoid turning your website into an abandoned ghost town, I suggest you start with a plan, stick to your categories, and use upcoming events, holidays and promotions as a starting point.

(Just remember, blog posts should be about your customers, not about your business. So if your promotion is a sale on paint, provide tips about the hottest new decorating trends of the season.)

Break blogging up into a series of tasks so you can tackle each of them when it’s the best time for you, instead of trying to sit down and start, finish and publish a post in one sitting.

There’s no way around it – blogging takes discipline and commitment, but please be gentle with yourself in the process.

Also consider other types of posts besides full-length feature articles, such as video or audio recordings, or a review or recommendation of someone else’s content (here is how to share other people’s content without plagiarizing).

Even with these other types of posts, it’s still a good idea to provide at least 250-300 words of text to put your own slant on the topic and remind your readers of your expertise. Also, some people prefer to learn by reading and may never open your recordings.

Here is some further reading about blogging consistently:

Promoting your blog posts on social media

There are three things you need in order to share your blog posts on social media:

The permalink of your blog post – Otherwise people will have to search your website for the specific information you promised (and most won’t bother). Here’s how to find the permalink of your blog posts, or you can use a tool like Buffer.
A reason to click it – With so much competing for your reader’s attention, they have to know, “What’s in it for me if I click this link?” Here are five ways to get noticed when promoting your blog posts on Twitter and LinkedIn.
People to see it – Full-size images really draw people in, especially on Facebook and Google+. On those sites, upload your photo first, and then add your permalink to the text description. Otherwise, all people will see is a small thumbnail of the photo from your blog post. UPDATE (September 13, 2014): Facebook is now giving more visibility to posts that contain links with thumbnail images, versus those with uploaded photos (they consider that “click-baiting“). So put your link directly into the status update box so just the small thumbnail image is displayed.

Here is some further reading about growing your social media network and what/how to share on social media:

Blogging is a wonderful way to connect with new customers, give more value to returning customers, and gain visibility as an expert in your subject area. When you see blogging as a way to help, focus on a few key topics, and stick with it over time, you’ll build a rich collection of useful content to share with your networks and spread across the web.

Delectable Restaurant Blogging Tips and Help for Overwhelmed Bloggers

January 20, 2014 By Linda Dessau

Here are the most recent guest posts I have written for other sites around the web. If you want to receive all of my latest posts by email, click here to subscribe to the Blogging Tips newsletter.

Why I Wish More Restaurants Were Blogging

Hostess welcoming customer to restaurant Being social on sites like Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram or Twitter is important and valuable, but that’s the equivalent of handing out samples at a big food fair. Right after they consume your sample (your message on social media), readers are likely to encounter another interesting delicacy and may soon forget all about you. Compare that to the impact you can have when someone actually walks through your doors.

Blog posts bring readers back to your website, where you control their reading experience. Read my guest post for Brand Education Services for the five specific reasons I wish more restaurants were blogging.

http://brandeducationservices.com/2014/01/13/why-more-restaurants-blogging/

12 Most Comforting Truths to Soothe an Overwhelmed Blogger

busy business owner Have you tried blogging but didn’t get positive results so you gave up? Is an abandoned blog waving a red flag about your credibility every time a visitor lands on your website? Have you thought about blogging but it just seems too complicated?

Before you give up on the idea of blogging for your business, there are 12 soothing truths in my latest guest post at 12 Most.

[Update June 19, 2016: The 12 Most site has been taken down, so I’ve republished this post here at Content Mastery Guide: 12 Cures for Blogging Overwhelm.]

Easy Blogging Resolutions With Some Help From Freddy Krueger

January 13, 2014 By Linda Dessau

Here are the most recent guest posts I have written for other sites around the web. If you want to receive all of my latest posts by email, click here to subscribe to the Blogging Tips newsletter.

Five Blogging Resolutions You Can Actually Keep

If you’re very new to blogging for business, or you’re trying to regain your footing after an unsuccessful attempt, here are five gentle actions to try: