Mack Collier, Author at MackCollier.com

December 7, 2010 by Mack Collier

Death by a thousand crappy blog posts

As 2010 comes to a close, it’s a good time to take a long, hard look at your blog. That’s exactly what I am doing now, and I’m seeing a lot of areas that can and will be improved upon in 2011.

A good place to start is by first seeing what worked, and that means jumping into your site’s analytics. Which posts were the most popular this year? Which search terms sent the most traffic here? Which topics were covered in your most popular posts? Which month had the highest traffic? Why? Did one post do well, or did you have several that did better?

Here’s some problem areas I have found here, and what I want to do to improve in 2011:

1 – Get back on a regular posting pattern. The goal I always have is to have at least 2 new posts a week, sometimes 3. But the problem I keep running into is that when I am swamped with work, I get behind and let the blog go to pot. My solution will be to start writing posts ahead of time and have a few ‘in the bullpen’ that I can publish when I get too busy with work.

2 – Create more compelling content. Focus less on tools, focus more on HOW the tools are being used. Post less about what’s happening NOW, and more about what could be happening tomorrow.

3 – Don’t post as much about social media, post more about how social media impacts OTHER areas of marketing and communications, and vice versa. The usage of these tools shouldn’t be siloed, and smart companies are amplifying their existing social media efforts by working with their existing communication efforts.

4 – Put myself in timeout if I write a single post about how another blogger is doing social media wrong, or a ‘I call bullshit’ post. Seriously, these almost always suck, and have been done to death anyway. Focus the content on ideas, not people.

5 – Do more interviews with companies and people that are pushing the edges as far what’s possible with new media. Better leverage my Twitter network for contacts (good tip for all of you, do you actually know what most of your followers do and who they work for?).

6 – Focus more on how mobile marketing is impacting social media. CK was ahead of the curve here.

Those are some ideas I have for improving this blog. How do you self-critique your blog? Or do you?

December 6, 2010 by Mack Collier

Register for Marketing Profs’ Content Marketing Crash Course and Save $200!

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of Marketing Profs and their conferences and virtual events. I’ve been lucky enough to speak at several of their events, and I’ll be working with them on their latest effort, the Content Marketing Crash Course. What Marketing Profs has done is bring together over 20 Social Media and Content Marketing experts to teach 17 classes over a 2-week period. People like Ann Handley, Brian Solis, CC Chapman, Jason Falls, CK, David Merriman Scott, Jay Baer, Joe Pulizzi, Lee Odden and Steve Garfield.

And they also let me join this group. My class will be on December 15th, entitled Think Like a Rockstar: How to Build Fans and Engagement Around Your Blog. This is the blogging version of my Think Like a Rockstar presentation that’s my most popular session. Here’s what we’ll cover:

Engagement and interaction are key to a successful blog. So many companies want more participation on their blogs, but so few truly get it. What lessons can we learn from rock stars about how they convert customers into fans? How to rock stars ignite passion? And more to the point, can you take these lessons and use them to build a community around YOUR business blogging efforts?

In this session you’ll learn:

The four reasons why rock stars have fans instead of just customers
How you can apply each of these lessons to your existing business blogging efforts in order to increase interaction and engagement with your readers
Examples of blogging companies that are adopting these lessons to build fans and community on their own blogs

If you’ve ever seen me speak or train then you know the drill: I’ll show you what works, explain why it works, then give you real-world examples of blogging companies that are using these same concepts to improve their own blogging efforts. I’ll also walk you through what Rockstars do to attract fans and show you exactly how to work these same concepts into your blogging efforts to build excitement and engagement. So as soon as you log-off, you’ll have the advice and instructions you need to start improving your blogging engagement efforts!

Now here is the BEST part. If you register for this class via this link, and are a basic Marketing Profs member or even if you AREN’T a member of Marketing Profs, you’ll save $200 off the course price. So you’ll get the entire 17-part course for just $395.00. That’s a flat bargain to get a full 17 hours of expert content, for less than $400. But again, to get this discount you have to be a Marketing Profs basic member or if you aren’t a Marketing Profs member, you can also click here to register for the $395 rate.

Now if you are a Marketing Profs PRO member, then clicking that link will get you in at $297 instead of $595. Or if you are a PRO member that has taken a MPU class previously, you’ll get in for only $237.

You can see exactly what courses are provided, and who the instructors are by clicking here. But remember if you want the special discount you need to make sure you register via this link. That will add the special ROCKSTAR code to your registration. That gets you a nice discount, and I get a cut from it as well, so it’s a win-win!

And if you do register, THANK YOU! Hope to see you at the session!

November 23, 2010 by Mack Collier

Is your opinion of the value of a Call to Action dead wrong?

The term ‘Call to Action’ has somewhat negative connotations to many bloggers. A ‘Call to Action’ is often seen as being ‘salesy’ or ‘self-promotional’, and as such, many bloggers see it as something to avoid.

I think we should instead look at a Call to Action as a way to add VALUE to a post.

That’s right, I’m saying to stop looking at Calls to Action as being ‘salesy’ but instead as a value-add. As something that your readers WANT to see.

But you create that desire for a call to action by first creating VALUABLE content for the reader. Give them a reason to want to take some next action. It can be a comment, subscribing to your blog, or contacting you about a product or service.

Here’s a couple of examples:

1 – I am on Twitter and someone links to a new study that shows the social media adoption rate for small businesses in different industries. It’s a study conducted BY this site, which I had never heard of previously. The information is valuable, so I would WANT to see a link for subscribing at the END of the post.

2 – I am Googling looking for a local business that offers satellite internet services and what type of installation fees I should expect to pay. I land on a local installer that clearly explains what the fees involved are. If this installer was CURRENTLY offering a 20% discount on services, I would WANT to know about that, and would want them to give me a way to contact them about possibly purchasing their service.

The point is, don’t think of adding a Call to Action as being ‘salesy’. Think of it as a way to add VALUE to the post. Look at the post you have created, and think about which call to action would add value to that post.

A post where you are discussing a popular or hot-button topic, could use a call to action asking for a comment.

A post that is a detailed How-To could use a call to action asking for subscribers or adding a link where you can learn more about the individual or company behind the blog.

A post that details a great new way to use Twitter, could use a call to action asking the readers to follow that person on Twitter.

A phrase I use with my clients when I am training them on content creation is this: If you have created a post that is valuable to your readers, then you have earned the right to add a relevant call to action to that post.

What do you think?

November 18, 2010 by Mack Collier

Music Marketing Madness: An Interview With @REBlogGirl

Here’s a tip for getting more content on your blog: Interview smart people. Case in point, I was checking the profiles of some of the people I follow on Twitter, and I clicked on @REBlogGirl’s profile, which says she does “Something Something at a Major Record Label.” I had to learn more, so I DMed Mary and she told she works with artists on reputation management as well as social media and mobile marketing. As we all know, I am a big music marketing nerd, so I begged Mary to let me interview her, and she was gracious enough to share the following with us:

Mack: Tell us what you do and why you are awesome.

Mary: I work with both the music and fashion industries mostly on online marketing (PPC/SEO/Email list marketing/Social Networking) and reputation management campaigns. Most of the artists I work with are from the major artist catalogues of EMI, Capitol and Interscope and my fashion clients hail from mostly luxury denim and sportswear designers. I monitor their overall influence level, the reach of their music and merchandise and then work with them and their teams to achieve the best possible results. Results for me are 1. sales, 2. brand equity 3. fan base growth and measurement. There are other metrics we track and evaluate but these are the primary 3.

Mack – One of my BIG themes is how rockstars have ‘fans’ while companies have ‘customers’. For example, we self-identify as being ‘fans’ of certain artists, but how often do we say we are a ‘fan’ of a particular company? Why does this happen, do rockstars simply do a better job of connecting with their customers and turning them into fans? What’s the secret?

Mary: You know this is such a great question because we self identify in different ways with different brands and even with different personalities and most of that is due to the ways in which those things reach us through media channels.

For example: Justin Beiber had a huge following on YouTube long before he signed with label and produced his first album. He was his own marketing machine. He marketed himself as a human being and as a talent through mostly cover songs. It wasn’t really his music he was showcasing at the time, it was his talent and himself. We identified with Justin himself and his talent. That made it easier for us to start identifying with his original music once he was signed and had a produced album and singles. His brand is authentic, delivered in his own words through a very personal Youtube channel.

On the other hand take someone like Britney Spears that has had the full media power and protection of labels, studios and PR teams since she was a child. She reached us through the mass media and the PR machine of a major record label. Her brand is wholly different from Justin’s we identify with her and her talent but she never really spoke to us one on one and pushed her own talent, music brand. When we think of Britney we think of her videos, her songs, her album, not her personality. We see her as a parent company to her endorsed products/merchandise (perfumes and Candies clothing lines), her albums and songs and her tours. We see her life played out through tabloids and magazines in the words of others. Her brand is very produced and managed. That’s not to say we don’t love her any less than Justin, but we see her as slightly more mysterious and question the authenticity more.

Why did I wax on about the difference between the fame machines of Justin and Britney – because they really aren’t any different from the marketing behind brands like Virgin or Pepsi. Both companies that have done great jobs at marketing themselves through personalities… When we think Virgin, we think Richard Branson. When we think Pepsi we think their long line of famous spokespeople from Michael Jackson to Britney Spears. And in those ways, we are fans of brands. We have loyalties to brands. You could never get me to switch from Coke to Pepsi or trade my Mac in for a PC. I identify those brands with personalities and ideals I cling to in the same ways I cling to the traits of artists I identify with.

We find connection and authenticity where it is presented to us. It’s the quality of marketing behind any brand that personalizes it, gives it a face and an ideal we can relate to. When you think Ford, do you think American values? When you think Disney, do you think smiling kids? When you think Jessica Simpson, do you think adorably dumb? All these brands have coupled themselves to a concept or value that resonates with people on personal levels. Good brands and good celebrities do this. There are rock stars out there that fail to differentiate themselves just like there are brands that fail at this. Consider how many pop stars you have to occasional wonder “What ever happened to?” about. Those are brands that failed to differentiate and maintain their markets.

So, in answer to the question, no, rockstars as a group are not better at authentically engaging fans. Some rockstars just know how to market better than others. Britney Spears is the Pepsi of Rockstars – she has a good product, a recognizable brand and cash in the coiffeurs to spend on the marketing necessary to launch an album or a perfume successfully.

Mack: Social Media Marketing or Mobile Marketing. Which will be bigger for artists in 2011?

Mary: Mobile’s big year is still a few years out by all accounts, but with more smart phones in the market than ever before, it shouldn’t be long before social and mobile meet to offer artists something unique. The idea of the social entertainment checkin is what everyone is talking about. Imagine being able to checkin in at a not just a location but a concert itself, or to check in on Vevo or Hulu when you watch a video or movie. The value that offers marketers, viewers (who can engage with other fans virtually and online) and simultaneously share is really very interesting. That day is not too far off, not with Facebook and Google both trying to leverage their place based applications on mobile devices.

However, the key for artists right now is to leverage their fan base with exclusive content they drip through channels like Facebook, Twitter, Vevo, mobile ads on Pandora and in app advertising that allow the distribution of exclusive content that drives sales through to their itunes, endorsement and tour properties. Mobile, at least for now, can be best leveraged for download and concert sales. Social on the other hand needs to be leveraged for engagement and the building of personal and brand equity. Small to mid sized artists need to use their social channels to engage with fans in controlled ways – over engagements creates a false sense of connectivity one cannot maintain over times, but real occasional question and answer format or thanks for retweeting are really valuable. You never want to create a false expectation that you will answer all your fans – that would be impossible but by creating a standardized format for regular engagement you can manage the expectation of your fan base. Contests and Q&A sessions are the easiest and most effective engagement tools.

Example: Katy Perry Fire Work Contest

Mack: So do you get to go touring with an artists? What are your days like?

Mary: I don’t tour with artists – I just help them manage their reputation online so fans can be engaged in positive events in their lives, their endorsed products and tour rather than on negativity. For example, should someone (not mentioning any names here) think it might be edgy to post a photo of themselves half or wholly naked on Twitter, I work to make sure those images get dispatched quickly. I also help artists and their PR teams build engaged social presences on Facebook, Myspace, YouTube and Twitter and make sure these channels work together for a common goal – to sell merchandise, tickets, downloads and albums. The real key here is to manage the expectation of the fan when it comes to engagement. Making sure an artist can communicate effectively and authentically with their fans is important and making sure the fans understand how the artist shares and how they like to engage is really critical to the success of their social profiles.

Example: Lady GaGa’s Facebook page is booming with activity. She personally shares exclusive insight into her thoughts and life and wants to truly engage with her fan base, but her page makes it clear through the content she shares she is an unbelievably busy woman. That is what manages the expectation for the fan.

Mack: What’s the next ‘big thing’ in music marketing?

Mary: While everyone has had their eye on Spotify, I think the smartest thing the music industry has done is really build out Vevo. Based on the Hulu model, Vevo has really taken off. It serves exclusive content, hosts all the artists videos in one unified label owned place and is driving in more people than Hulu! What Universal CEO, Doug Morris said last yeat at launch, still rings true today, “What we’re really doing is taking back control of everything…this is really like MTV on steroids. We’re starting with that kind of audience. But now we’re in control of it. We don’t have to go through a middleman anymore.” The premium content model is leveraging fan base against both artist brand and artist product to deliver exactly what the fan wants – the ON DEMAND ALL ACCESS PASS to their favorite artist. It’s a simple model and it is working on Vevo. I see this as the way labels and artist can survive in the face of piracy, faltering 360 Deals and crumbling recorded music sales infrastructure.

Yowza! Thanks again to @REBlogGirl (who’s secret identity is Mary McKnight) for dropping that music marketing smartitude on us. Do me a big favor and please follow Mary on Twitter, and subscribe to her blog.

November 16, 2010 by Mack Collier

The one sure-fire way to get more clicks and RTs for your blog posts

Write better headlines.

That’s no big relevation, and there’s a lot that goes into writing better headlines. I’ll refer you to someone like @Copyblogger who has written a great series on writing better headlines.

But there’s one area I wanted to focus on when it comes to headlines. I share a lot of links on Twitter because I am trying to find helpful information for my followers. Therefore, I read a LOT of blog posts from my feed reader. And honestly, a lot of time I am simply scanning the post very quickly to determine if the content could be useful for others.

One source that consistently provides excellent content is EMarketer. But EMarketer often ‘buries the lead’ when it comes to writing their headlines. The key facts or figures are often overlooked when it comes to their headlines.

Case in point, this morning I shared a link to a recent blog post the site wrote, titled “What are the benefits of email-social media integration?“. But here is what I tweeted: “54% of email marketers say adding social media improved their efforts according to @emarketer”.

Which title would you be more likely to click on:

1 – “What are the benefits of email-social media integration?”

2 – “54% of email marketers say adding social media improved their efforts”

And that post also included this graph:

Just looking at that graph, think of some of the headlines you could create for that post. Here’s a couple I can see:

“Facebook tops all other forms of social media for email marketing, new study finds”

“Over 70% of email marketers are using Facebook and Twitter”

“71% of email marketers use Twitter, only 10% say it provides best results”

What else do you see?

The point is, make sure you are hitting on the key takeaway from the post, in your headline. What too many bloggers do (and I am guilty of this as well sometimes) is we simply summarize the post, in a few words. In 4 years, this is the most popular post I have ever written at The Viral Garden. The post is about the importance of building a community around your blogging efforts, and how that can improve the quality of the content you create there. I had the post nailed, but I couldn’t figure out what I wanted the headline to be for the life of me. I could only come up with a bland one, “Why building community is important for your blog”. I realized that this title completely SUCKED. I loved the post, but the headline was horrible. I was even considering scrapping the post completely, then I decided on this headline for the post:

“The idea that ‘content is king’ in blogging is total bullshit”.

And there you go. No punches pulled, that title tells you EXACTLY what you can expect. And as a result, this post got HUNDREDS of RTs, simply because the headline grabbed your attention and made you WANT to read it. Because if you read that headline, you probably think “Amen!” or “Wait, that’s not right!”. So it’s straight, to the point, and polarizing.

But the key is, it isn’t boring. Think about this when you are writing your post headlines. Your post title is going to be competing with a TON of other content. You only have a few seconds to sell your post, and you do that with the title.

Does this work for you? If you are active on Twitter and promoting your content there or on LinkedIn or Facebook, you MUST improve your headline writing. You’ll get far more clicks and RTs, which will get you more referral traffic, and will help you expand your networks on those sites.

UPDATE: We discussed testing different titles as you tweet links to your posts on Twitter, and DJ Waldow made a great point: “Mack – You mention this in one of the comments, but not in the actual blog post: Test. I think that is critical. What may be a good/better headline for you doesn’t necessarily work for your followers, right? Again – I know you agree with this point, but thought it may be worth touching on in the actual post as some folks may not read the comments. It’s the same advice we give in writing subject lines for email marketing. Often – surprisingly – the “boring” subject lines get the most opens/clicks/conversions.”

November 2, 2010 by Mack Collier

#Blogchat Schedule for November

New to #Blogchat and want to figure out what the deal is with the hottest chat on Twitter? Then click here.

After a stellar October lineup we’re going to start November off with a bang with another awesome co-host!

November 7th – Darren Rowse (@ProBlogger) co-hosting on “How to Monetize Your Blog”. Darren will discuss ways we can monetize our blogging efforts, and also give us ideas for creating content that can be monetized. The topic of ‘how do I make money off my blog?’ is one that #Blogchat regulars have constantly asked about, and I wanted to make sure we could get Darren to co-host this topic, as he’s probably the best person on the planet to help us in this area! There will be a followup post here on Friday with more information about Darren’s session this Sunday, so please check back for that!

November 14th – Sponsored #Blogchat. The second #Blogchat for this month will be reserved for sponsors, however, if a suitable one hasn’t been found by the 8th (Next Monday), then well have a ‘normal’ #Blogchat. So if your company wants to pitch for sponsoring this slot, please email me with your topic ideas ASAP. If you want to learn more about how the #Blogchat sponsorships work, click here.

November 21st – Topic TBA

November 28th – OPEN MIC #Blogchat! There still seems to be a bit of confusion from some people, especially those new to #Blogchat, over exactly what the OPEN MIC nites are about. The last Sunday of every month is an OPEN MIC #Blogchat. What that means is that there is NO set topic. Everyone comes and discusses whatever blogging topic they want. It sounds like it would be complete chaos, but it’s actually a lot of fun, and these are probably the most popular #Blogchats over the last 20 months. So if you keep pitching a certain topic for #Blogchat that we aren’t covering, then come to OPEN MIC and get a conversation started around this topic!

Finally, if you aren’t already, please follow me on Twitter. As the topics for the 2nd and 3rd weeks are set, I’ll be tweeting information out on those weeks, plus I always share links to the transcripts and other info about #Blogchat. Hope to see you this Sunday!

October 28, 2010 by Mack Collier

How Social Media Saved One Company Over $100,000

There are two ways that social media initiatives can directly benefit your business:

1 – By generating revenue

2 – By lowering existing business costs

For whatever reason, most of the ‘What is the ROI of Social Media?’ discussion focuses on the first area. But the 2nd area is just as important, if not moreso when it comes to social media initiatives. I’ve talked before about how companies can and ARE reducing their costs by utilizing social media.

When I was in Atlanta last week working with NCI, Adam shared a few case studies of how NCI’s clients had benefited from using social media, and I wanted to share one of them with you.

In late 2009, The Bainbridge Companies hired NCI to provide social media services for 21 of its apartment communities. Now several months into the program, Bainbridge was already seeing nice boosts in organic traffic to their property website (67% increase in total), and also was seeing the benefits from an SEO perspective. So much so that Bainbridge decided to completely eliminate its pay-per-click advertising by the end of 2010.

This will let Bainbridge realize a cost savings of over $100,000. In addition, Bainbridge reports a higher conversion rate from the non-paid, organic traffic that’s being generated by the properties’ social media efforts.

BTW one aspect that I thought was interesting was that several times during the last year, certain Bainbridge units have had to deal with severe weather issues from time to time. Since the units had a set of social media channels in place, they could communicate severe weather information to residents, who were very appreciative of these efforts. This is a classic example of how the potential of social media as an instant connection tool can improve customer satisfaction.

The arm of NCI that handled these social media initiatives for Bainbridge was Community Sherpa, and you can learn more about them here.

Just curious, has your business noticed a cost savings from using social media? If so, what areas were affected?

October 26, 2010 by Mack Collier

Something interesting is happening in Atlanta…

Last week I spent a few days providing social media training for a company that probably provides social media services for more clients than any other company in the country, if not the world.

Where was I? Well I wasn’t working with a hotshot PR firm, or a branding agency. In fact, you’ve probably never heard of the company. But they currently provide and execute social media strategies for well over a thousand clients. The company currently creates over 2,500 blog posts a week for over 1,200 clients, and adds 30-75 new ones every month. And their renewal rate for those clients is right at 90%.

I was in Atlanta training with the good people at Network Communications, Inc. NCI is the largest national publisher of local printed and online magazines for the real estate market, and my guess is they probably provide social media services for more clients than anyone else in the country, if not the world. They offer social media services to property managers, realtors, architects, interior designers, and contractors, just to name a few of their client areas.

And they’ve gone from 0 to 1,200 social media clients in just a year’s time. All while providing an extremely affordable social media solution for clients. Those clients get a blog (with 2 new posts every week), a Twitter presence, and a Facebook page, for usually $350-395 a month.

Blogging is a big part of what NCI is hanging its hat on as far as driving success via social media for its clients. And that’s why I was in Atlanta last week, to work with 60 or so of the company’s bloggers on how they can better create blog posts that help them reach their client’s objectives.

What struck me in the weeks leading up to the training sessions, and during my time with the team in Atlanta, was that the engagement level on the blogs was often non-existent. Few, if any comments, no retweets, no ‘signs of life’. In fact, I was thinking to myself that many ‘social media people’ would look at these blogs, see little to no engagement, and view them as failures.

But obviously they aren’t failing their clients, who keep jumping on board. So how does NCI create value for its clients via blogging?

“Our goal is to drive leads for clients on the web.” explains Adam Japko, the Senior VP and President of the Home & Design Area for NCI.

Customer leads for clients. This is one of the points I keep stressing to those of you that are trying to get buy-in from your boss for your social media ideas. You have to make the business case for social media. NCI is doing that. They are delivering a tangible return on their client’s investment. As a matter of fact, Adam shared a case study with me from one of their clients that I will be sharing here with you on Thursday. Let’s just say this client saw a pretty huge cost savings from letting NCI guide its social media efforts.

Now everything is not perfect sledding for NCI. What they’ve done in the last year is literally invent a business model. There’s few if any other companies that are providing social media services on such a widescale level. So NCI is having to invent the template here, and that’s created some problems for them over the last year.

One of the company’s biggest challenges was that they grew quicker than they expected. “Our volume of clients came in faster and bigger bunches than anybody would have imagined. We have hired and trained more than 70 people this year as we ramped” explains Japko. I saw that NCI is still dealing with managing the workload for workers, as well as shuffling people around and trying to find the best fit for everyone. There are clearly growing pains at work here, but they ARE growing.

And I don’t see that growth slowing down any time soon, in fact, as they continue to improve their existing business processes, the growth should only accelerate. Thanks again to Adam (who is also a wine buff with a great blog), Rick, Ed, Keith, Melissa, the bloggers, OCMs and all the good people at NCI for having me last week. I hope to make it back again soon, and thanks to my dear friend Charity Hisle, who is also one of NCI’s shining stars, for the picture to this post.

(Disclosure – NCI is a client, but did not pay me to write this post. I wrote it cause I think their business model and how they are breaking new ground in providing a low-cost social media solution to clients is pretty interesting. Plus, I enjoyed meeting all the managers and executives, as well as the bloggers and OCMs such as Amanda, Keenan, Craig, Justin, Natasha, Jo Anne, Deidre, Ashley, Lynda, Kali and the rest of the NCI team.)

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: