Content Mastery Guide

Editor and Ghostwriter

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/

How to Help Local Customers Find Your Content

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In a previous post, I offered six types of blog posts that will attract local customers from your area. While writing high-quality content is the most important way to use blogging to grow your business, there are additional strategies that will ensure more people see your great work.

Set up your content for discovery and sharing

Blogging puts your business in the spotlight
© hanack – Fotolia.com

In a recent article, Jeff Korhan covered how to design your blog post content for discovery and sharing – by both people and search engines.

He explains how to use your blog post’s title (if local results are important to you, find an authentic way to include it in the title), meta description (displays when your post shows up on search engine results pages), internal and external links, and subheadings and key phrases to maximize the chance it will be found online.

For example, did you know that it’s important to feature an internal link (to another blog post or page on your website) close to the beginning of your blog post? “Internal links tell the search engines that your content is relevant to other content on your site, with the first link being especially important.”

Internal linking strategy

I asked fellow SteamFeed author and SEO professional Brent Carnduff to say more about internal links:

“An internal linking strategy really has to be considered from two perspectives – SEO and the user experience. An effective internal linking strategy can be helpful to both.

From an SEO perspective, as Jeff mentioned in his article, internal links do help the search engines crawl your site – ultimately helping them to find and index more of your webpages. In addition, they can pass along some “authority” to the page that is linked to, and the anchor text that is used can help the search engines identify what that page is about.”

(Note from Linda: Anchor text refers to the words that your visitor will actually click on to view the post you’ve linked to. Instead of simply pasting an entire link such as http://www.jeffkorhan.com/2014/02/writing-for-the-web-tips.html, you can use relevant terms (keywords) that would reinforce to Google what that page is about, e.g., Jeff’s writing tips for the web.

“At the same time, internal linking will encourage your user to stay on your website longer, and to become more engaged with your content – which increases the likelihood of them taking the next step in your funnel.”

Get listed in local directories

Though it’s not related to blog post content, when she heard I was writing about getting found by local customers, fellow SteamFeed author Suzen Petitt wanted to make sure I also told you how important it is to list your business in local search directories.

Blogging and Social Media Are Too Much Work

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

This is something I hear often from business owners, marketers and sole practitioners. They’re usually eager for any time-saving tricks that will help them blog regularly and be active on social media without taking too much precious time away from core business activities – or personal time.

I addressed this issue in two recent guest posts for other sites. If you want to receive all of my latest posts by email, click here to subscribe to the weekly Blogging Tips newsletter.

12 Most Tedious Blogging Tasks You Can Outsource

The word delegate on a bulletin board to remind you to outsource your blogging tasksEffective business blogging requires you to plan and create content that is relevant, meaningful and helpful to your audience. Behind the scenes, however, there are many other tasks that ensure your post will do its job of effectively attracting new customers for your business. Luckily, you don’t have to do all of them yourself!

In my latest guest post at 12 Most, I offer 12 blogging tasks you can take off your plate and give to someone who will actually enjoy them (like Content Mastery Guide!).

http://12most.com/2014/02/04/12-tedious-blogging-tasks-outsource/

How to Manage the 3 Cs of Social Media, Part One

RobotBeing active on social media can seem like a lot of work. Many business owners wonder how much they can automate or outsource without being robotic or fake. In Part One of a three-part series for SteamFeed.com, I interview Brooke Ballard of B Squared Media for her experience as a social media strategist.

http://www.steamfeed.com/manage-3-cs-social-media-part-one/

Altruism and Usability for Business Bloggers

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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.

In each of the Google+ posts below, you can click the Follow box to add me to your G+ circles, click the +1 box to like the post, or click the speech bubble to add a comment.

12 Most Altruistic Reasons to Keep Blogging

You can read a preview of the article in the Google+ box below.


Visit 12 Most to read the full article.

Are These Usability Mistakes Undermining Your Business Blog?

You can read a preview of the article in the Google+ box below.

Visit SteamFeed to read the full article.

Usability Tips to Keep Blog Readers Happy and Returning

Hint: Be sure to click “Read More” in the Google+ box below to see Tema’s tips for checking the readability of your blog post in MS Word.

Visit SteamFeed to read the full article.

Blogging to Inspire Creative Living

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The tagline: Fall in love with life

The motto: Inspiration for creative living

The blog: Sunday Crush [now closed]

Sunday Crush logo

Sunday Crush is a lifestyle and design blog that connects readers to resources throughout the Lake Simcoe, Southern Georgian Bay and Muskoka regions. The site includes a curated marketplace guide of shops, restaurants, boutiques, design services, resorts and recreational destinations. Sunday Crush was founded by cousins Jennifer Klementti and Jane Klementti.

I recently spoke with Jennifer about her blogging adventures, both for her professional photography business and for Sunday Crush.

Why did you start Sunday Crush?

JK: Jane and I are both immersed in the world of blogging. We’ve been reading lifestyle, design and fashion blogs for years and had often discussed ideas to create a blog together. One of our favourite things to do is go on day trips, exploring different towns in this area. We found it challenging to find information online about what to do and how to to plan our outings, so the idea for Sunday Crush was born.

We developed the site for over a year before launching in December 2012. We knew the brand and philosophy we wanted to have, and were clear about our mission to inspire creative living in our area.

We celebrate the individual style and creativity of local businesses. When you go into Bohemia in Barrie, for example, and connect with owner Jill Dyck or her staff, you take in the wonderfully creative atmosphere and just naturally want to slow down and enjoy the experience.

How does blogging help you accomplish this?

JK: We planned Sunday Crush as a blog right from the beginning. We love blogging, love sharing from a more personal rather than editorial level. What we blog about is how we live our own lives. We only share things we genuinely love, and we know that’s how we’re building trust in our readership.

What kinds of results and feedback have you seen?

JK: The businesses we’ve featured tell us that people have come in and purchased items they’ve read about on Sunday Crush. We also hear all the time from people who love learning about new people and places in their own backyard. We’re happy to help local businesses succeed and shine a global spotlight on the Simcoe, Muskoka and Southern Georgian Bay regions.

How do you keep up with blogging on a regular basis?

JK: As co-editors, Jane and I use Google Drive and produce an editorial calendar, always two months ahead of what we’re posting. We work on a yearly calendar, building seasonal themes, then break that down into monthly editorial calendars with specific topics.

Until recently we posted three times a week and the last Sunday of the month, and we have recently started posting five days a week. We try to leverage content by creating multiple posts from one photography session, interview, or visit to a place or town. That also really helps with time management. [Note from Linda: I agree – my interview with Jennifer yielded two fabulous posts!]

Where does social media fit in?

JK: Digital marketing, optimization and social media are a big part of what we’re doing to attract readers. We bring the conversation to life by connecting our readers to our advertisers via our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds in an open, honest and meaningful way. Sunday Crush will really allow businesses to engage with our readers on an entirely different level, which will in turn better serve our communities. Our Pinterest page is the top source of referral traffic to our site, because our content is so visual. For example, people have pinned our recipes hundreds of times.

What’s next for the Sunday Crush blog?

JK: We’ve got some design changes planned for this summer to make the wealth of resources in our archives much more searchable, based on feedback from our readers. We already link back to previous posts in newer posts, but we want to do everything we can to help people find all the great content we’ve already posted.

Great content, indeed! Keep up the good work, Jennifer and Jane – I’ll be relying on Sunday Crush as I plan some day trips this summer!