MackCollier.com

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Five common (personal) blogging problems and how to fix them

Today and tomorrow I’ll do a two-part series covering common problems that bloggers have, with solutions for each.  Today we’ll cover personal blogging, tomorrow we’ll look at business blogging.  Here’s five common problems with personal blogs and how to fix them:

1 – How do I find the perfect photo to add to my post?  Go to Flickr.  Search for pics that have a creative commons license that allow you to use them, and give proper attribution.  BTW the pic to this post came from Flickr as do many of the amazing pics you’ll see here.

2 – How much information should I share on my personal blog?  For a personal blog, this is really up to you.  *I* would advise you to always have your picture on the front of the blog, preferably the top right corner.  An About page explaining the focus of the blog would be nice.  If the blog is highly-trafficked and gets a lot of comments, a comment policy might be a good idea as well.

3 – How do I get more comments?  I have written a ton of posts about how to get more comments.  Here are a few quick tips:

  • Ask.
  • Leave posts open-ended, with a ‘What do you think?’ type closing that invites the readers to share their opinion.
  • Comment on other blogs.  Works every time.
  • Take a definitive stand on an issue.  Switch between this and leaving posts open-ended.
  • Reward frequent commenters.  Name a ‘commenter of the week’, or add a plugin like Comment Luv.

4 – How do I get on a blogging schedule?  Oy.  This one can be tough, because it mostly comes down to a time-management issue.  One piece of advice is don’t set the blogging bar too high for yourself.  If you try to commit to a new post a day and you just can’t do it, you’ll probably lose enthusiasm for your blog pretty quickly.  But if you start out shooting for once a week, and a month into it see you can crank out 2-3 a week no problem, then you can ramp up the writing.

Another suggestion is to have a ‘series’ every week.  Like every Monday share your 5 favorite posts/articles from the last week.  Or on Friday share your favorite parenting blog with your readers.  If you add a series post once a week, then you know that you’ll have at least one post a week, and it can take a big weight off your shoulders!

5 – How the hell do I figure out what I want to write about?  Remember that a personal blog is for YOU.  It’s not for me, it’s YOUR sandbox, and if you aren’t getting enjoyment out of it, then you probably shouldn’t be blogging.  Write about what moves you.  It can be your family, politics, or your old video game collection.  And guess what?  You can always make it private so only YOU get to see it?  It can be your online diary, or it can be your online window into what’s important to you.  You can post once a day, or once a year.

So when you pick the focus of your personal blog, your only goal should be creating value and enjoyment for YOURSELF.  Then write with that in mind, and on YOUR terms.

Does this list help?  Are there some common problems with personal blogging that I missed?  Let’s discuss them in the comments!

Pic via Flickr user kevindooley

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How are your customers using social media, and why?

What demographic leads the way when it comes to reading and writing blogs?  According to a new study from iVillage and BlogHer, it’s Millenials, or those aged 18-25.  Recently, the Pew Internet and American Life Project also found that those in the 18-29 age range were 33% more likely to blog than those over the age of 30.

So if your company wants to reach millenials, would it be valuable to know that this age group could be the most prolific when it comes to both writing and reading blogs?  You’d better believe it.

This is one area that I don’t think companies devote enough attention to when crafting its social media strategies.  You need to understand how your customers are using social media, which tools they favor, and finally WHY and HOW they use these tools.  This knowledge gives you great insights into how to connect with your customers in a way that’s beneficial to both them, and you.

If millenials are blogging and reading blogs more than any other age group, why?  Why do millenials blog?  What are they trying to accomplish?  Which blogs do they read?  What type of information are they looking for?

Don’t just consider which customers you want to reach via social media, also consider how those customers are using social media to reach each other.  That could be the most important information of all.

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Try to blog yourself out of business

I was just reading DJ Waldow’s piece for Marketing Profs on how his dentist is using email marketing.  He made a special note of how well the dentist is using email to connect with his customers, but pointed out that he isn’t really using social media at all.  DJ added that:

It’s no secret social media is hot. Moreover, email plus social media is really where it’s at. Foothill could start a blog, create a Facebook page, and even manage a Twitter account. However, I’m not sold on whether this would move the needle for Foothill. It may be worth exploring, but I don’t see people getting fired up about the dentist (the way I do).

Now if Foothill DID start a blog, my advice would be that they should focus on putting themselves out of business.  What I mean by that is, they should empower their customers to take better care of their teeth, so they don’t need as much care from the dentist.  They should teach their customers how to have stronger and healthier teeth.

And yes, this might mean that this dentist loses some business if his customers start taking better care of their teeth.  But in return, he will likely GAIN far more business because he will be creating a blog that not only creates value for his customers, but helps him establish trust and expertise with current and potential customers.

Now I know what you are thinking ‘Mack, no way I would ever read a dentist’s blog!”  Most people probably wouldn’t, but if you need dental work, or have a problem with your teeth you would go to Google and search for help, right?  That’s when the dentist deciding to blog would pay off, as his blog post about ‘Ten Things You Can Do Everyday to Have a Healthier Smile’ is probably going to rank better in search results than the static websites of his non-blogging competitors.

So think about this as you blog or consider starting a blog.  Really, I am doing the exact same thing here.  I am writing content that helps businesses learn how to utilize blogs and social media for themselves, so they don’t need me.  Seems completely counter-intuitive on the surface, but the content helps businesses learn how to better use social media AND that makes them more likely to want to hire me to help them with their efforts.  So by empowering potential customers, I am actually growing my business.

If it can work for me, there’s no reason why it couldn’t work for your dentist as well!

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You don’t have to blog every day

Occasionally, I will hear from a fellow blogger interested in tips on how to write a new blog post every day.  They usually reveal that they are struggling to crank out a new post every day, and worry that they are breaking an unwritten ‘blogging rule’.

If you’re in this camp then you’re off the hook, because you don’t have to blog every single day.

I think this is a big misconception that many bloggers have.  They believe they need to have new content on their blog every single day, and if they can’t do this, they feel their blogging efforts are ‘failing’.

Now in a perfect world, you’d have 5 wonderfully valuable new posts published to your blog every week.  But if you only have the ability to write 2 good posts a week, by trying to write daily, you are going to dilute the overall quality of your blog.  Don’t do this, one of the best blogging lessons I learned early on was to keep my mouth shut if I didn’t have anything compelling to blog about.  IMO it’s better to make your readers wait another day or 2 for a good blog post, than to give them a mediocre blog post today.

So then the question becomes, how often SHOULD you blog?

First, let’s assume that you are interested in maintaining and building a readership for your blog.  So now we need to figure out how often you can comfortably blog, along with how often you’d need to have new content on your blog to build readership, and craft our posting frequency and schedule accordingly.

Let’s assume that you can comfortably write at least one new blog post a week.  WHEN you publish blog posts also plays a large role in building your blog’s readership.  A general rule of them is to publish new posts between 8 am and noon during the week, for the largest audience.  Also, readership tends to be slightly higher in the middle of the week for most blogs.

So in general, when crafting a posting schedule, start in the middle of the week, and work your way outward.  If you can only post once a week, pick a day, say Tuesday or Wednesday, and try to publish on that same day, every week.  Here’s how you could craft a blogging schedule, based on number of posts a week:

1 – Tuesday morning at 8 am.

2 – Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 8am.

3 – Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings at 8am.

4 – Monday – Thursday mornings at 8am.

5 – Monday – Friday mornings at 8am.

Now when it comes to traffic, these are general guidelines.  You should closely track your blog’s stats to see if your traffic patterns coincide.  For example, most blogs see their traffic tail off on the weekends, but if your blog enjoys a traffic spike on Sundays, then you should probably try to publish new content on that day.

Does this help?  In the end, it’s probably better if you set out to post FEWER times a week, then add more posts if you find out you can write more often you originally thought.

BTW we will be discussing this topic tonight on Twitter during #blogchat.  You can follow #blogchat here and here.  Feel free to join in!

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Ok I’m on your blog, now what?

In late 2008, after I had been offering social media consulting services for about 2 years, I had the same conversation, twice in the span of two weeks.

Both times, it was with conference organizers that were friends, that knew me.  I had just spoken at events for each, and they contacted me and told me that an attendee had reached out to them about needing help with social media consulting, and then they both asked me the exact same question:

“Is that what you do?”

I was floored!  Here were two people that were friends of mine, that knew me, and even THEY weren’t sure exactly what it was that I did.  That’s when I took a long and honest look at my blog (which was then The Viral Garden, this was about 6 months before this site launched).  I realized that there were no clear cues to the reader to tell them what I did.  Sure, there were some vague references in my bio, but readers would have to make multiple clicks to figure out who I was and what I did.  Many readers would never go to that trouble, nor should they have to.

So when I started prepping this site for launch, I knew some changes had to be made.  I needed to give readers clear calls to action, and indications of who I am and what I do.  If you look at the front page of this site, notice the following:

In the nav bar at the top, you have ‘Book Mack to Speak’, ‘Need Help With Social Media?’ and ‘Need Help With Your Blog?’.  There’s also a spot for Contact Me, and on the right sidebar there’s a place to give me a call, and to request a email me for a social media marketing quote.  In other words, there are very clear calls to action for the reader, all above the fold.

As a result, since this site launched last summer, I have seen a jump in requests/questions from potential clients, it’s gone from 1 or 2 a month, to a few a week.  But I have noticed a HUGE jump in referrals from friends and people that have connected with me.  I think this is a result of more people simply knowing what it is I do.

So take some time today and really look at your blog.  Think about what you want to accomplish with the blog, and look at the calls to action you are giving your readers.  For reference, I just looked at the blog for a HUGE agency.  Not one single call to action anywhere on the blog above the fold.

You can’t blindly assume that your readers know who you are, what you do, and why they should care.  You need to assume that every person that visits your blog is there for the first time, and has no idea who you are.  You need to help them by explaining who you are and what you do, and give them a sense of direction.  This isn’t being pushy or self-promotional, it’s helping visitors figure out who you are, what your blog is about, and why they should care about either.

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Measuring what matters; tracking metrics back to your blogging goals

Think about your goal for your blogging efforts.  It could be getting more interactions, or if you have a company blog, it could be getting more sales or leads.

Now look at the metrics you are tracking to determine if your blogging efforts are working.  You should be able to draw a clear line from the metrics you are measuring, back to your goal for your blog.

For example, many people like to track the traffic their blog gets, or how many RTs their posts get.  But if your goal is to get more sales and/or leads via your blog, and the blog’s traffic isn’t coming from places where your potential customers are, how valuable is it to know what your traffic is?  Or if your goal is to get more interaction, traffic levels might not be that important.

Think about the actions you want your visitors to take (that tie back to your blogging goals), and then measure the metrics that tie back to the desired behavior.

For example, let’s look at two possible blogging goals; Getting more sales/leads, and getting more comments.

If your goal is to get more sales and leads via your blog, some of the metrics you could track would be referrals from the blog to your website (or a specific product page.  Or number of emails asking for more information about your products.  Or number of times a visitor uses your Contact Form.

If you want to get more interactions on your blog, you could track time spent on the blog, number of comments left, number of emails, and number of pageviews.  Time spent on the blog and number of pageviews suggests the amount of time people are spending interacting with your content.  If they are spending a lot of time and viewing a lot of pages and NOT commenting, that could suggest that you need clearer calls to action for encouraging comments, and I’ll talk more about calls to action on your blog later this week.

But put some thought into what actions you want your visitors to take on your blog, then make sure you are measuring the metrics that tie back to the desired behavior.

We’ll be discussing this tonite during #blogchat on Twitter starting at 8pm CT.  Please stop by!

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How to write blog posts your readers will fall in love with

One of the biggest challenges bloggers face is figuring out what the hell to write about.  And for company bloggers, this problem is magnified because many want to blog about their company and products, which doesn’t appeal to many readers.

So what do you do?  How do you create and frame content that appeals to readers, that makes them actually LOVE reading your blog?  Here’s some ideas:

1 – Focus on the bigger idea behind your products.  What this means is instead of blogging directly about your products, create blog posts that focus on how your customers USE your products, and WHY they buy them.  By doing this, you can still promote your product, but you do so INdirectly, and in the context of another topic that has more relevance to your readers.

Here’s some product examples, and how you could frame your content to focus on the Bigger Idea:

Cameras – Blog about photography and how to take better pictures

Hotels – Blog about travel and the local attractions

Crafting/Decorating products – Blog about home decorating

Organic food – Blog about healthy living

Think about WHY someone would buy your product.  Are they trying to solve a problem?  Become better at something?  Factor in the core motivations for why people buy your products, and craft your content accordingly.  This is something that so many companies miss, because they want to directly promote their products.  The end result is the content isn’t as appealing or valuable to the reader.  By shifting the focus to the Bigger Idea, then the content is more appealing and valuable and you can STILL promote your product, but in the context of a larger and more relevant topic.

Now there are certain cases where it’s ok to be more product-centric in your blog writing.  For example, if you’re a B2B company that sells massive tools that sell for several hundred thousand dollars, then potential buyers would be interested in specific product features and content.  But in general, too much self-promotion turns off readers.

2 – Check your site stats.  Start with your search terms.  What phrases are people using to find your blog?  This tells you the type of content they are looking for!  If you see that many people are searching for the same terms and phrases, that tells you that people are interested in seeing content about these subjects.

Now also keep in mind that people that arrive at your blog via search results are probably NOT regular readers of your blog.  So don’t assume that your REGULAR readers are also interested in the same type of content.  But it’s often a good indicator.

For example, if you see that people are constantly arriving at your blog by searching for “How to start a Facebook page”, then that’s a hint that you should write a post about….wait for it….How to Start a Facebook Page.

Also, which days have the most traffic?  What time of day?  Try to schedule your posts to publish when traffic is at its highest.  A general rule of thumb is that the middle of the week, middle of the day is good.

3 – Pay attention to the posts your readers are paying attention to.  Track how many page views and comments your posts are getting.  Look at the ones that are the most popular.  Do you see that posts covering certain topics usually get more comments and views?  That’s a good hint that your readers want to read more about those topics. I did this last week in a post on pricing social media services.

4 – Respond to requests from readers for content and POINT OUT when you write a post based on reader feedback.  Occasionally, you may have a reader that comments that they really wish you would cover a particular topic on the blog.  If it makes sense to you, absolutely blog about that topic AND when you do, make sure you point out and acknowledge the reader that suggested the topic.  This is a GREAT way to create more compelling content for your blog, but it also shows your readers that you value and appreciate their opinions.  Which means they will be more likely to give you MORE suggestions for content, and if you continue to listen to them, that means you’ll be creating more valuable and relevant topics for them!

So those are some ideas for improving the quality of the content on your company blog.  In general, LISTEN to your readers, they will usually tell you what they are interested in, either directly on the blog, or you can check your stats and see which posts/topics they are paying attention to.

Pic via Flickr user Lel4nd

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How your company can save money on social media services

Here are the 8 most popular search terms yesterday for this site:

So it’s pretty obvious that companies are looking for information on how much they should expect to pay for social media services.  If that’s what you are looking for, then you should definitely check out this post on how much you can expect to pay for social media services.

After looking at those search results (and I get similar results almost every day), I decided I needed to write another post about the cost of social media services.  But this time, I wanted to talk about ways that you can LOWER the cost you pay for social media services from consultants and agencies.  While I try to charge a ‘standard’ rate as much as possible, there are a few variables that go into my pricing that I wanted you to consider when attempting to get a price on services for your own business.

1 – Have plenty of company and market research on hand before asking for prices.  If a company approaches me about creating a social media strategy for them, the first thing I am going to do is begin researching them, their company resources, skill sets, etc, as well as their market and who they want to reach via social media, and how their competitors are using social media.  Obviously, if you can have some of this information on hand, it means I will need to spend less time on research, and that means you pay less.

2 – Be able/willing to handle most/all the execution yourself.  This can be a BIG money-saver for you, but comes with the caveat that you need to be in a position where you CAN handle the execution of a social media strategy.  Not every company is, and most need at least some heavy hand-holding at the start.  But the more of the execution and content creation you are willing to perform, the less money it costs you.  Would you rather pay me $150-200 an hour to train your 4 bloggers on how to create content for your blog, or would you rather pay me $150-200 an hour to do the work of 4 bloggers?  Yeah, that choice is obvious.

3 – Connect with me, or have a friend connect us.  I am always getting referrals from friends and people I have met, and I always try to give these companies a discounted rate if I can.  And if we have  a prior relationship, even if it’s just having met at a conference or event I spoke at, I will want to give you a break on pricing if I can.

4 – Have a long-term project. I tend to discount rates if the project exceeds 3 months, simply because that will be a source of income for a longer time-period.  Also, over the life of a longer project, the amount of work required at the end of the project is usually less than the front, so that lowers the cost as well.  BTW this also applies if you hire me to speak at your event.  The hourly rate I will charge for a 1-hour session is probably double the hourly rate I would charge for an all-day training session, for example.

5 – Pick a time when business isn’t as busy.  This one is tricky and usually just comes down to pure luck.  However from my own experience, business is usually a bit lower for me from around October – March.  That’s usually when I have some ‘bandwidth’ available to take on extra clients, and can give the ones I do, a better rate.

6 – Have a cool project.  This is also tricky, but if I really love the ideas you have, I will probably be willing to cut you a deal on price to get the work.  For example, if you are a mid-sized to large B2C company that wants to leverage social media to connect with your brand evangelists, I can almost guarantee that you will get my best rate, and that I’ll make every effort to take on that project, no matter how busy I am 😉

Anyway those are some tips for you, and are from my perspective, if you talk to another agency or consultant, they could have a completely different set of criteria.  But in general, the more work and execution you can handle yourself, the less your costs will be.  Hope this list helps!  Oh and BTW if you are interested in working with me on a social media project for your company, please email me!

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The key to building community via social media that you are totally missing

Do you have an engagement strategy built into your social media efforts?  Do you want more comments, more friends, more followers?  More interaction?

Many companies want this. If you use social media personally, you probably want this as well.  We want interaction because it tells us that we are creating something of value for others.

But in trying to get more interaction, we often ask the wrong question.  We ask “How can I get more comments on my blog?”

Instead, we should be asking “How will having more comments make this blog more valuable to my readers?”

Because when you shift your focus to what’s better for the reader, then how you approach comments changes.  Think about it, getting 15 comments to a post might be great for you.  But if those 15 comments are mostly ‘Dude, great post!’ type comments, then it strokes your ego, but really adds little for the reader.  On the other hand, if those 15 comments are all DEEP points that spark and encourage a discussion, then you are creating value for the reader via the comments.  Then a discussion is happening in the comments section, and THAT is valuable to your readers.

So when you are crafting an engagement strategy, make a list of the desired actions that you want others to take (leave comments, follow me, link to my site), then for each desired action, list the BENEFIT to that person for performing that action.

When you start viewing your engagement strategy through the lens of ‘what’s in it for them’, then the way you approach being engaging via social media will completely change.

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Planning/Hosting an upcoming Social Media conference? Don’t miss this opportunity…

Luck favors the prepared.

Last week I conducted a workshop on creating engagement and excitement around your social media efforts at the Social Media Optimization Summit in Dallas.  You can read my review of the event here. But the day before the event started, there was a tweetup scheduled in the sports bar at the Sheraton, where #OptSum was going to take place.  Myself and a few others were promoting the event on Twitter in the days leading up to the event, but on the Monday OF the tweetup, activity spiked.  Several tweets told the exact location of where the tweetup would be.

As the time for the tweetup drew near, I realized something.  Here were a buncha people on Twitter, that all have decent ‘followings’, all telling people in Dallas to come to the Sheraton for a tweetup.  If I were handling social media for The Sheraton in Dallas (and yes, the Sheraton in Dallas is on Twitter), then I would probably want to know that several people with anywhere from 5,000-25,000 followers each were promoting my business on Twitter, right?

Additionally, most of the speakers at #OptSum, were staying at the Sheraton.  So The Sheraton in Dallas had several speakers with large social media networks staying there, and had many people with large networks attending the tweetup in the hotel’s sports bar, and apparently did nothing to reach out to these people?  That seems like a pretty big missed opportunity, if you ask me.  BTW, we aren’t talking anything elaborate either, a simple hand-written note waiting in our rooms, or simply attending the tweetup and thanking everyone for coming (and promoting on Twitter), would have been nice.  These would have been very simple ways for The Sheraton to show that they appreciate us promoting their business, and by showing that appreciation, they would have given us the encouragement to CONTINUE to promote The Sheraton.

Jason Falls spoke at the Dallas Social Media Club chapter last Tuesday, and he mentioned a conversation he had with Klout’s CEO during SXSW.  Klout is a service that attempts to ‘measure’ the ‘influence’ of Twitter users, similarly to Twitter-Grader and the like.  Jason said he asked the CEO basically why he should care about Klout.  The CEO told him that they were working on ways to let companies leverage a customer’s Klout score.  For example, if an airline sees that a particular customer in coach has a high Klout score, they could upgrade their flight to first or business class if a seat was available.

I think it’s important to consider such issues as we get into the ‘conference season’.  Over the next couple of months there will be a lot of ‘power’ social media users traveling across the country.  This represents a big opportunity for hotels and tourist attractions in cities where these events will be held to reach out to these people.  A couple of years ago, Cirque Du Soleil’s social media manager Jessica Berlin invited a few hundred bloggers from Blog World Expo to attend one of Cirque’s shows in Las Vegas.  Great example of reaching out to influencers to help promote your product.

What do you think?  If you’re helping to organize an event, even a local one, are you paying attention to the chatter on social sites such as Twitter?  How could the feedback change the way you treat the event’s speakers and attendees?  Should it?