MackCollier.com

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We Need to Stop Marketing ‘Social Business’ If We Want to Start Selling It

social business, blueprint

You ever get the feeling you need to just drop a topic?  I am completely there when it comes to  ‘Social Business’.  Even to the point that I’m pretty sure I’ve started pissing off friends and people I respect in this space.

To set the record straight, I like what I think is the generally accepted definition of a ‘Social Business’.  Most all definitions seem to be build around the need for an increased flow of information.  External information from the customer being utilized and distributed internally so smarter business decisions can be made, and more communication from the company back to the customer.  I am a HUGE believer in the benefits that businesses will gain as a result, and I’ve been blogging about these concepts here for a while now.

But the majority of the discussion around the concept of a ‘Social Business’ has frustrated me for a while now, and I couldn’t quite place my finger on why exactly.  Then it hit me: This doesn’t feel like a discussion, it feels like marketing.  Almost every time I read a post/article about Social Business, I feel like I am reading a brochure at a car dealership.

A far more interesting discussion in my mind is to talk about exactly how a business would transition to becoming a ‘social business’.  Let’s talk about the specifics:

What happens internally?  Do we need to hire new people for newly-created positions?  If so, which ones, and what would their roles be?  How will we better connect with our customers?  Do we need to create a new infrastructure to better facilitate the flow of information internally about our customers?  And what information do we need to distribute and which departments need to get what?  Then how do we create a way to get information back to our customers?  Do we create an internal and external committee to facilitate that information flow in both directions?  How many people do we need to staff for that?

Those are the type of discussions I want to see, because I think we need more blueprints and fewer brochures if we want to speed business adoption of this process.  And granted, there’s obviously no ‘one size fits all’ solution, but we should at least have plenty of scenarios in place where we can determine more definite numbers based on a given business reality.

I think at this point the discussion is still a bit vague around Social Business because we are ‘selling’ a concept that’s not often seen ‘in the wild’.  But I think if we want to speed adoption of the concept, we need to move the discussion away from wordy definitions and more toward actual business realities.  Even if it means we need to at some point add ‘I think’ to our explanations cause we don’t have real-world examples of what our ideas being executed would look like.

And to be fair, we are seeing bits and pieces of what the larger picture could look like.  A community ideation site here, an internal socnet for employees there, a brand ambassador program in the corner, but we really don’t seem to have a view of what the whole picture could look like for an organization.

We need that.  Or at the very least we need a discussion around what it looks like.  And if we aren’t sure what it looks like, then we definitely need to have that discussion.

One of the things I loved about the blogosphere when I first joined it in 2005 was that many of us adopted a habit of asking ‘what if?’ when it came to our discussions about how companies could utilize and benefit from social media.  We threw stuff against the wall, some of it stuck, some of it didn’t.  But we all learned in the process.  We helped each other flesh out the concepts of how businesses could utilize social media, and even some of the concepts that have now been rolled into the idea of what a ‘Social Business’ is.

But I think we skipped the ‘what if?’ stage with Social Business.  It’s like we adopted our own definitions for what the concept is, then immediately started trying to sell it to companies.  Literally.

If we want to speed up understanding and adoption of the concept of a Social Business, I think we need to back up a bit and stop selling the concept, and start debating it more.  We need to stop saying ‘here’s what it is’, and instead say ‘here’s what I *think* it could look like’.

And to clear the air:  I keep railing about this topic because I believe in the concept of a ‘Social Business’.  Granted, I’m not crazy about the label, but I like the thinking.  If I didn’t, if I thought this was all bullshit soaked in snake oil, I wouldn’t waste my time.

I think we need to elevate the conversation and dialogue around the concept.  And I think in this case, we can start by offering fewer definitions for what a Social Business is, and instead more discussion of how we recognize one when we see one.  Fewer buzzwords, and more questions.

Understanding speeds adoption, and understanding comes from asking questions you don’t know the answers to.  I don’t know what the exact framework for a Social Business is.  I know what the definitions say it is at 30,000 feet, but I want to know what it looks like on the ground, in practice.  So do the companies that are being sold the concept.

What do you think a Social Business would look like?  If your company was going to start today on the road to becoming a Social Business, what changes would need to happen?

 

UPDATE: As long-time readers know, I am pretty obsessive about my blog’s stats.  ‘Social Business’ isn’t a topic I write about often, in fact this is only the 2nd post I’ve ever written about it, the 1st coming a month ago.  In the last month, search engines have sent 6,617 visitors to this blog, and 3 of them have looking for information on ‘Social Business’.

Pic via Flickr User Will Scullin

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Social Media Gives Companies a New and Exciting Way to Make the Same Boring Marketing Mistakes

There’s a scene in the movie Liar Liar where the movie’s main character (a lawyer played by Jim Carrey who’s been ‘cursed’ with an inability to tell a lie) is given the phone by his secretary and told that one of his clients has “knocked over another ATM, this time at knife-point.  He needs your legal advice.”

Carrey’s character grabs the phone and offers this advice: Stop breaking the law, ASSHOLE!

Recently I saw this quote from an emarketer article: “Marketers are abuzz over “Big Data” for its promise to deliver a more complete understanding of each customer, who can then be targeted with advertising tailored exactly to the individual.”

And this quote from P&G’s Head of Global Marketing on finding the ROI of Social Media: “What will revolutionize the industry, what we’re working on an industry basis, is to define EGRPs [electronic gross rating point, a measure of audience reach]. You can look at what an impression from Google, or Facebook or Twitter is actually worth.”

This is the exact problem with how 99% of companies are using and viewing Social Media: As a new channel to more effectively market to its customers.

Are you serious?

Let’s take a step back and remember what Social Media is: Tools that allow us to create and exchange digital content.  The vast majority of us use Social Media as personal communication tools.

Companies, do you not realize the significance of this?  For decades, you’ve been struggling with how to better understand your customers.  The problem has always been, how do you really know what customers think about you, your products, and who they are?  What they want, etc.  The only options available to you were highly inefficient.  Surveys, focus-groups, and other forms of feedback.  At best it can give you a small sampling of your customer base, but connecting with individual customers just doesn’t scale.

Yet with Social Media, suddenly you DO have a way to better understand your customers.  Because all the interactions they were having before in an offline setting (where you had almost no access to them) have moved online.  Now you can see what your customers are saying to each other, and about you and your products!  What’s better, you now have a way to directly connect with them and they with you!

And your key takeaway from this fundamental change in how we humans connect with each other is that you see this as a great opportunity to turn your customers into digital marketing channels?!?

Companies if you want to be successful at utilizing Social Media, here’s the most important lesson I can give you: Learn how your customers are using Social Media and for what reasons, and then work within that framework.

Recall Sunday’s post on X-Box’s Twitter account hitting 1,000,000 tweets.  X-Box was smart enough to realize that its customers are on Twitter, and complaining about the problems they are having with the console.  So instead of trying to leverage Twitter as a channel to shoot them marketing messages, the brand instead leverages Twitter as a channel to provide individualized customer service.  The customer benefits from getting personalized attention and help with their problems.  The brand benefits by deflecting calls away from its CS call centers.

This is what we call in the real-world a ‘win-win’.  But it happened because X-Box saw how their customers were using Twitter, then worked with that behavior, not against it.

Would it be awesome if your customers put aside how they want to use Social Media and instead agreed to let you use them to broadcast your marketing messages via their Social Media accounts?  Of course it would.  Right after you teach your pet unicorn how to pee rainbows, you can get to work on that.

For now, we live in a world where we ALL act in our own best interests.  That’s just as true for your customers as it is for you the company.  If you can use Social Media as a way to provide value to your customers, then you will be acting in THEIR best interests.

And you’ll get their business.  Try it and see.  Oh and if you need some social media training to get started, call me.

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Case Study: How Fed-Ex Responded to a Customer’s Viral Video…With Its Own Video

It really is the doomsday scenario for a big brand, in this case, Fed-Ex.  One customer has a horrible experience with a delivery.  A computer monitor is ‘delivered’ when the Fed-Ex driver casually tosses the monitor over the customer’s gate.

Even though the customer was at home.

And the front door was wide open.

And the customer filmed the delivery.

And yes, he posted it on YouTube.

The video has been viewed over 8 million times by now, and was seen on numerous TV stations and shows.  Now if this was your company, how would you respond?  Would you respond?

To its credit, Fed-Ex responded 2 days later with its own video.

Here’s what I love about the video and the post on Fed-Ex’s blog:

1 – Fed-Ex admitted the problem and apologized for it immediately in the video.

2 – Fed-Ex detailed what was done to correct this problem.

3 – Fed-Ex detailed what will happen moving forward.

4 – Fed-Ex responded to the customer video with its own video.  Using the same tool as its customer.

 

Now, the original customer video and Fed-Ex’s response has been dissected on many other blogs in the last 3 months.  But I wanted to focus on the comments this post has generated.  A big reason why many companies do NOT want to use social media to make a response such as what Fed-Ex did here is because they are scared to death that it will simply draw attention to the company and make them a lightning-rod for detractors.

So far, Fed-Ex’s apology post has 181 comments, almost 120 comments more than the 2nd most commented-on post.

Here’s what I thought was interesting about the comments (and I read every freaking one to get these stats):

57% of the comments were positive.

25% of the comments were neutral.

But only 18% of the comments on this post were negative.

Does that surprise you?  It shouldn’t.  As often happens when a company responds appropriately in a crisis situation, Fed-Ex galvanized its employees and brand advocates with this post.  Remember that The Red Cross had a similar episode this time last year with its ‘rogue tweet’ about #gettingslizzard, and the organization’s timely and appropriate response rallied its brand advocates and actually sparked a rise in blood donations.

There is a very salient lesson here for companies about using social media: Participating in a conversation changes that conversation.  By creating a video response to the customer video, apologizing, and detailing exactly how the problem would be fixed, Fed-Ex changed the conversation that was currently happening around its brand.  Prior to this video, the conversation around the brand was decidedly negative and dominated by the customer’s video, because Fed-Ex hadn’t responded.

When they did, the conversation changed.  The company’s response was fast and appropriate, and that not only changed the opinion of the company from some observers, but it also served as motivation for customers and employees to come to defense of the brand.

Always remember this:  Social Media backlashes aren’t created by the initial trigger event (such as the customer’s video above), they are created by HOW the company responds.

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X-Box Support’s Twitter Account Hits One Million Tweets

microsoft, xbox, x-box, twitter

They’ve already been named Most Responsive Brand on Twitter by Guiness World Records, now it looks like X-Box has become the first major brand to crack the 1,000,000 tweets milestone.

The 18-person team churns out an average of just over 1,000 tweets per day.  And I thought my hitting 60,000 tweets after 5 years on Twitter was a big deal!

How X-Box is using Twitter is a wonderful example of the potential of the tool as a channel to deliver near real-time customer service.  Customers having an issue with their X-Box know that all it takes is a tweet to @XBoxSupport, and an answer is coming.  Usually within seconds.

There is a serious limitation to this approach though, and it’s a limitation of Twitter really.  But I’d be curious to know if Microsoft has given any thought to a way to possibly catalog the questions and answers exchanged via the X-Box account?  No doubt the team is constantly answering certain questions repeatedly, but I’m not sure how you could get around that issue.  This issue is easily solved by another tool like a user forum, but that requires customers to come to your site, whereas X-Box is using the same tool its customers are already on: Twitter.  Not sure there’s an answer to this problem, but would save both the company and its customers a lot of time if there was one.

BTW even with sending out hundreds of tweets a day, the team still has time for a sense of humor, it seems…

xbox, twitter, microsoft, support

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CMOs Say Social Media Spending Will Surge 46% in the Next Year

Catching up on feed-reading and I found a couple of articles I wanted to share.  The first was this one from Duke University that found that CMOs predict a healthy surge in Social Media spending over the next year, by 46%.  These same CMOs said that integrating social media into its existing marketing efforts is still a challenge.  More on this in a minute.

The second article came from the Wall-Street Journal, who interviewed Proctor and Gamble’s Chief of Global Marketing, Marc Pritchard.  Mr. Pritchard said that P&G is dangerously close to determining the true ROI of its social media efforts and that it involves defining “EGRPs [electronic gross rating point, a measure of audience reach]. You can look at what an impression from Google, or Facebook or Twitter is actually worth. Once we get that, we will start to get a common platform measurement…that the [Association of National Advertisers] is working on.”

There’s a reason why companies continue to struggle with finding the ROI of their Social Media efforts and in integrating them into existing Marketing efforts.  It’s because they are wanting to turn these personal communication channels into marketing channels.  They are attempting to measure their Social Media efforts through the lens of their existing marketing efforts and using the same metrics.

Social Media TODAY gives companies plenty of value that can be measured and extracted, but for most companies, it’s not the value they want.  Most companies want to turn their customers into marketers, and see Social Media as the channel in which to do this.

They are struggling with how to do this because, shockingly, most customers don’t want to be marketing mouthpieces for brands.

And yet, there are enormous opportunities for brands to leverage how their customers are using social media that many aren’t pursuing.  In the rush to figure out how to generate sales via Social Media by turning its customers into marketers, most brands are totally overlooking how their customers use Social Media can offer great potential for brands to save money.

For example, in 2008 Pitney Bowes created a User Forum for its customers so that they could help them with their customer service issues, and in turn, they could help each other.  By February of 2010, the company determined that at least $300,000 worth of calls to CS centers had been averted thanks to the user forum.

That’s a very basic example and it works cause Pitney Bowes in this case accepted how its customers were creating online content, instead of trying to force their customers’ actions with Social Media into a preconceived marketing funnel.

Social Media ROI, Customer service, Customer research

The issue isn’t that most companies don’t understand Social Media, it’s that they don’t understand their customers.

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Suck it Up, Buttercup: The World Does Not Owe You a Like or a ReTweet

“I won’t write those types of posts, they are beneath me”

“I don’t have all day to spend on Twitter, I have a real job”

“There’s no way he writes his own posts, can’t be”

“Did you hear what she charges to keynote? No way she deserves that much!”

“Yeah if I didn’t have any work to do I could probably spend all day on Facebook too”

 

The last four months of 2011 were my busiest ever since I started consulting on social media marketing in 2006.  I spoke at several major events, and did three Live #Blogchats in September alone.  In addition, I had regular consulting work for my clients plus a few other projects that were ongoing.

I was hella busy, but it was also the happiest I’ve been in years.  But around August of last year I made a choice which I now regret greatly.  I knew the last few months of the year were going to be insanely busy, so I decided to spend more time on my work and presentations, and less time on my blog and Twitter.

Big mistake.  While my work and speaking was very well received, not posting as often here or on Twitter meant my visibility suffered.  Referrals shrank, as did speaking and other opportunities.

But it was my choice.  Even if it was the wrong one, I have to own it and learn from it.  So after things calmed down a bit after Blog World last November, I began to realize that things were calming down TOO much.  That was when I decided that I needed to rededicate myself to my blogging efforts and time spent on Twitter in 2012.

So I got back in the swing of things in January then really kicked it up a notch last month.  Now, traffic is up, and I’m getting more referrals and work requests, even interviews.

The truth is, if I had my way I wouldn’t blog here everyday.  I’d write maybe a post a week, if that.  It wouldn’t be ‘5 Steps to….’ or ‘3 Reasons why…’, it would likely be ‘here’s what I think’.

But I don’t do that because I know that this blog is a tool I am using to build my business.  We are all responsible for our own actions.  This blog was in a bit of a tailspin in late 2011, and I own that, just as I am responsible for why it’s now doing better.

My point is that there comes a time when we all need to stop worrying about what everyone else is doing or saying, and accept that we are the masters of our own path.  ‘I don’t have time for that…’ is an excuse.  You have the same 24 hours in this day that I do.  We both decide WHAT we will spend our time on, and we both own the results.  Whether they be good or bad.

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” – Thomas Edison

If you don’t have as many blog readers or Twitter followers or BUSINESS as you want, you can either find a scapegoat, or you can roll up your sleeves and do something about it.

UPDATE: I had some fun with my pal Chris Brogan in the picture above, so I wanted to include one of his videos which really ties into the theme of this post:

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Two Critical Components of Successful Social Media Marketing That We Often Overlook

Successful Social Media MarketingBuilding and Sustaining Momentum.

Monday was the biggest traffic day for this blog in over a month with almost 1,000 visitors.  I really wanted to write a killer post yesterday that would build off the momentum created on Monday, and maybe even result in a bigger day on Tuesday.

But I couldn’t do it.  I hit a bit of a writer’s block, and instead wrote a bit of a ranty post based around the rumors that CNN might by Mashable.  While that’s a topic that was interesting to me, I knew it wasn’t going to be an incredibly successful post, and it wasn’t.

Yet the interesting part is this: Traffic on Tuesday was up about 33% over the previous Tuesday.  Why?  Because of the momentum I had built here on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Here’s the Top 10 posts here yesterday, ranked by pageviews:

Building blog traffic, social media marketing

Note that Monday’s post accounted for 21.6% of the pageviews here on Tuesday.  Also note that the TWO posts I wrote here yesterday didn’t have a third of the pageviews of Monday’s post.

Thankfully, Monday’s post on optimizing your blog posts for search engines AND social media sites was still popular yesterday, so much so that it was the most popular post here for the 2nd day in a row.  And it might make it 3 days in a row today.  But the point is that the momentum created by the popularity of Monday’s post was able to carry this blog yesterday, when neither of the posts I published were very popular, based on pageviews.

There is something to be said for building and sustaining momentum with your social media efforts.  I think this is probably more evident on our blogs than anywhere else.  Most of us know what it’s like to go a few days, or maybe even a few weeks without posting regularly.  Life gets in the way, business gets in the way.  We lose interest and inspiration.

Then we get to a point where we are ready to ‘get back in the saddle’.  The problem is, we’ve lost our momentum.  3 months ago when we were blogging 3 times a week like clockwork, we were getting comments on every post and traffic was steady or increasing every day.

Now, our audience has left us.  We’ve lost the momentum our blog had, and it really is like starting all over.  But that’s ok, because we’ll get it back.  For the next two weeks we’ll again post 3 new posts a week, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

Heading into that 3rd week, our traffic will be up sharply, and our commenters will be back.  We’re starting to get several emails a day about our products again, whereas for the past few weeks they had fallen to 1 or 2 a week.  Hmmmm….

My problem in the past has always been that I build momentum here, and then I reach a point where I tell myself ‘Ok, now the blog is humming along, I need to turn my attention to something else…’  And that’s when the wheels fall off.  Race your winners, and rest your losers.

Are you building momentum with your social media efforts? And if you are, how are you going to sustain that momentum?

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Think Like a Rockstar (VIDEO)

I’m thrilled to share the following video from my Think Like a Rockstar talk at Bazaarvoice’s World Headquarters in Austin back in January.  This isn’t the complete presentation, it’s right at 9 mins, but I think it’s the best 9 mins 😉  This video gets to the heart of why I think Rockstars do such a better job of marketing than most companies do, and it all starts with their approach and who they are targeting (Hint: Most companies and marketers are doing it wrong).

And here’s the slides from this presentation:

Think Like A Rockstar

Thanks again to my friends at Bazaarvoice for filming the presentation, I hope you enjoy both the video and the deck!

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Social Media and the ‘Nobility’ of Making Money

Social Media, making moneyThe big rumor this week is that CNN is in talks to buy Mashable.  I had to chuckle when I read some of the comments:

“Nooooooooooooooo! Keep Mashable independent!”

“IMO, this would make Mashable much less awesome instantly. I would probably begin to question it’s objectivity much more; one of the things that makes it great. No thanks.”

“Cashmore, what a fitting name.”

“Mashable will be mashed. CNN is fine, but they will certainly take the excitement and independence out of Mashable and just make it another site to find info you can get a thousand other places. A waste of money for CNN, but the Mashable owners can go straight to the bank.”

The Social Media space, for whatever reason, gets extremely jealous and snippy whenever there’s ANY talk of someone making money off their efforts.

For example, I’m thinking of two ‘thought leaders’ in this space.  Their identities really don’t matter.  What’s interesting to me is that these two people have a lot of similarities:

  • They are both avid content creators, covering similar topics, Social Media for business, Social Business, etc.
  • They both speak multiple times a month, all over the world.
  • They both work with similar clients (from what I can tell)
  • They make comparable incomes (from what I can tell)

Any yet, one of these people is routinely criticized in this space, and the other almost never is.  Even though they both create the same type of content, and do the same type of work for the same type of clients while speaking on the same type of topics at the same type of events.

The difference is:  One person is an independent consultant and the other is employed by a large company.  So while the consultant is frequently selling their services and publicizing products and services they are offering for sale, the other person doesn’t do that because they get a salary from their employer.

It seems that when we publicly talk about making money, even if it’s just to offer something for sale, that people go crazy.  No one seemed to mind the millions that Mashable has likely been making all along in ad sales, sponsorships, etc, but as soon as there’s a public rumor that CNN might buy them, the haters come out of the woodwork.

Why does this happen?  I suppose it’s human nature but it still aggravates me every time I see someone complaining about the money someone is making or that they think someone is making.

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How to Write Better Blog Posts That Both Google and Twitter Will Love

writing better blog posts, google, twitter, how to get more retweetsThere is a definite art form to writing blog posts that can give you both the short-term gain of being shareable on Social Media sites, and the long-term gain of ranking well with search engines.  Mainly, because you’re trying to reach two different audiences at the same time.  Content that’s shared on Social Media sites typically has a lifespan of a few minutes at best as it is quickly replaced on the person’s timeline/stream with additional items.  But with search engines, content is cataloged and then retrieved later when a relevant search is made.

So let’s think about the differences in those audiences, and how we reach each:

1 – Social Media sites – Blog post title needs to be catchy and attention-grabbing.  An interesting photo that grabs attention also helps for content shared on Facebook and Plus.  But the idea is, how can you grab the person’s attention for even a few seconds so you can convince them to click your link?

2 – Search Engine – Here, we need to write content that’s consistent with the search query.  You can already see a potential conflict with writing for Social Media sites in that we need that catchy, attention-grabbing title and blog post, but both also have to be CONSISTENT with the content of the blog post.  IOW, if we have a cute and sparkly title, but the blog post is crap/inconsistent with blog post title, it not only won’t be Liked, RTed and +1ed, it won’t rank well in search results either.

So we need to write a blog post that has both a catchy title that immediately grabs your attention PLUS one that will include content consistent with the blog post title that will also rank well in search engines.  Whew, glad we didn’t make it tough on ourselves 😉

Let’s tackle the blog post title first.  As I’ve blogged about before, when writing blog post titles the cardinal sin you can make is to simply summarize the post.  I think a lot of bloggers do that because they view the blog post title as an almost ‘throwaway’ item.  But the reality is, if your blog post title stinks, it kills the chance that anyone will click to read the post.

For example, let’s say you wanted to write a post about a recent study you had done on what type of tweets get retweeted on Twitter.  Let’s also say your research determined that there were 5 specific ways to increase the number of RTs you get.

So if we wanted to write a blog post title that simply summarized the blog post, we might go with ‘How to Get More Retweets’.  Because that’s a summary in the post in just a few words.

But Dan Zarrella actually did the study.  Look at the blog post title he chose: [Infographic]: 5 Scientifically Proven Ways to Get More ReTweets.  Isn’t that a great title?  Here’s what I like about the title:

1 – It makes a specific claim that the blog post backs up.  Dan’s research found 5 specific ways to get RTs, so that’s in the title.  Instantly makes it clickable.

2 – It solves a problem.  Want to know how to get more RTs?  Here’s 5 proven ways to do so.  This makes the blog post not only more clickable on social media sites, but also it helps with search engine results.  Now the one caveat to this approach is that by including an infographic, Dan isn’t including many words in the post, so that might hurt its ability to rank in search results versus a blog post someone else writes on how to get more retweets.

3 – It has the shiny word INFOGRAPHIC in the title!  This doesn’t really help with search engines, but does make the blog post do better when shared on social media sites.

 

Now I had to do a bit of revising to the title for this post.  Originally, I was going to go with ‘How to Write Posts That Google and Twitter Will Love’.  That’s ok, but then I realized that it wasn’t specific enough, and it was leaning a bit toward simply summarizing.  So I changed it to ‘How to Write BETTER BLOG Posts That Google and Twitter Will Love’.

Why the change?  Think about it, what are most people more likely to search for ‘how do I write better blog posts’ or ‘how do I write posts’?  So by adding ‘better’ and ‘blog’ to posts, I make the title more descriptive, and more search-friendly.

But I also need to make sure that the content of the post actually backs up the title, plus it helps if the same terms in the title, are in the post.  Note how many times the phrase ‘blog post’ is in this post?  Several times, and especially near the beginning of this blog post (see there it is again!).  That’s a cue to Google that the content of the blog post is consistent with the title.

So if you are wanting to optimize your blog posts for both search engines and social media, keep these tips in mind:

1 – Pick a catchy blog post title that’s also relevant to the blog post.  You want something that immediately grabs the attention of the reader because on social media sites, you’ll probably only have a few seconds to grab the reader’s attention before they move onto the next tweet.

2 – Focus on relevant keywords and phrases in the blog post title as well as the blog post itself.  Note that the term ‘blog post’ is in the title as well as the post, several times.  That’s a keyword phrase that I am focusing on because I want this blog post to rank well when someone searches for this term.

3 – Putting ‘Twitter’ in your blog post title gets you more retweets.  Dan proved this in his blog post linked above 😉

 

UPDATE: To prove the point that Social Media traffic (especially Twitter) can be fleeting, 20 mins ago Dan Zarrella RTed this post, and within 5 minutes there were 60 people online here, according to Google Analytics. That’s a record for this blog.  15 mins later, that number had fallen all the way to 8.

Traffic from Twitter is fleeting, if you are only optimizing your posts to grab traffic from Twitter, you can get a short-term bang, but you might miss the long-term views.  It’s best to optimize for both Search and Social.

NOTHER UPDATE: I just did a Google search for the exact phrase ‘How to Write Better Blog Posts’.  This post was published about 5 hours ago, and already it’s the #3 result on the internet for this term, out of over 50,000.  Not too shabby and with Dan’s RTing example above shows that this post is doing well for both Search and Social.

How to write better blog posts