Tag: content

How to Commit to a Social Media Content Strategy

To create a social media content strategy that will work for your business you can think about it in simple terms. One word. Six characters. C-o-m-m-i-t.

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Article first published as How to Commit to a Social Media Content Strategy on Technorati.

To create a social media content strategy that will work for your business you can think about it in simple terms.  One word.  Six characters.  Begins with C.

C-O-M-M-I-T

One of the most important aspects of a successful social media content strategy has to do with commitment and adhering to two key elements: 
1) create social media profiles that you won’t abandon or let the content die on the vine;  2) Nurture and grow your content.

Let’s take it step by step. Think:
 Channels, Original, Maintain, Messages, Inventory, Tone (and Voice)

Channels
Check out the social media landscape for the best fit.  Whether you decide to have presences on multiple social media channels or a select few, come to those channels with good intentions.  If you’re using social media platforms to communicate with your existing customers and people in your industry, think about what they would be interested in.  Whether it’s a link to a blog post, video, slides, infographic–put yourself in their shoes.  What benefit will this content serve your target audience? Why will they want to spend time on your page?

Original
Re-tweeting and linking to other people’s content can be highly valuable in terms of helping to spread great material but it’s good practice to set aside time to develop your own original work.  As discussed in my earlier post, Four Ways  to Make Your Blog Posts More Readable, content can be repurposed; it doesn’t always have to be created from scratch.  You can take segments from a white paper, a slide presentation, an earlier blog post and narrow it down into more concise messages.  Highlight something different this time around.  Even update how things have changed since you wrote it.  Be sure, also, to dedicate time to staying up-to-date with what’s happening in your industry and writing about it.

Continue reading “How to Commit to a Social Media Content Strategy”

Four Ways to Make Your Blog Posts More Readable

Find out four ways to make your blog posts more readable.

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Whether you’re newcomer to online writing or have been in the field for a while there are many great insights to glean from the book, Writing for the Internet: A Guide to Real Communication by Craig Baehr and Bob Schaller.  The book addresses issues applicable to writers of all types of online content, but as a blogger I found it particularly helpful to apply the messages to the writing of blog posts.

The authors point out that there are many challenges for writers of online content and that by being aware and paying attention to the readability and usability of your material, the overall experience for readers will be improved. For purposes of this post, I’m going to stay focused more specifically on four good practices for bloggers to adhere to:

1) Remember content is not limited to the written word.

Content is composed of mixed media forms, and it is the Internet writer’s challenge to make them work together seamlessly.  This means that including images, video and audio clips, and staples such as hyperlinks can all work in sync with one another within a blog post.

2) Strive to keep up with new technologies.

Strive to have a “surface awareness of the latest technologies, new trends and tools that may improve the quality of written products.” In addition, a familiarity with a variety of tools is also necessary.  What’s here today will be old technology before you know it.  Find ways to keep up and work it into your week and workload.  I recently wrote about six resources to keep up with social media that I use on a regular basis to keep up with social media.  Make a list of your go-to places and visit them regularly.

Continue reading “Four Ways to Make Your Blog Posts More Readable”

Beyond Keywords: The Search for Engaging Content and a Meaningful Brand Experience

Publish. Post. Update. By now you can probably hear those words in your sleep.

See the full post published on MyAdEngine.

Publish. Post. Update. By now you can probably hear those words in your sleep.

See my post published on MyAdEngine.

How To: Get the Most Value from Your Blog Posts

In a new post by Denise Wakeman she suggests repurposing your blog posts into different formats to “get more exposure and more value from the time you’ve initially invested in creating the content. Not to mention that you can drive more traffic back to your home base.” continue reading

Emergency "Twitter was down so I wrote my...

Article first published on Impressions through Media.

In a new post by Denise Wakeman she suggests repurposing your blog posts into different formats to “get more exposure and more value from the time you’ve initially invested in creating the content. Not to mention that you can drive more traffic back to your home base.”

What can you do with the post once its been published on your site? Denise suggests turning the content into different formats such as “reports, white papers, articles, slide shows, videos, podcasts, teleseminars, ebooks, etc.”

One place where you can repurpose your content is in your email newsletter by including a few lines in a short piece and linking back to your blog. That way you’ve not only repurposed the content but possibly have taken your non-blog reading client to your posts and demonstrated to them what they’ve been missing. Include too, a call to action to to sign-up to receive updates about your posts via rss feed or by email subscription.

Continue reading “How To: Get the Most Value from Your Blog Posts”