Interesting opinion piece by Shel Holtz that now is the time for every corporation to have a blog. Very good stats in the piece too about the SNCR report on journalists using blogs. As a recovering tech journalist I can tell you that I definitely would have loved to go right to the source (a blog) instead of reading tepid, marketing blather in press releases when a new upgrade was rolled out.
But I don’t agree that every business needs a blog. Shel does have some very good tips on corporate blogging within the post though so I encourage you to read it.
And if you do have a blog no matter what size the business you really have to understand how blogs work, how to blog effectively and how to keep your branding consistent and congruent. If it’s a blog that is just set up to push out your corporate news and your take on issues in your vertical, then you have to be doubly careful to have a good process in place to ensure your corporate identity is not muddled. (And by the way, that’s much easier said than done!)
Superb PW insight and tips for soliciting author blurbs.
Kindle 2.0 is coming soon according to Silicon Valley Insider. Again, I ask, “Is it waterproof?,” and why hasn’t some0ne at Amazon looked at the marketshare that can be gained by focusing it to moms who would love to read it in the bathtub after a long day’s work (at home or at the office!).
Loved all his stuff – sorry to see another literary giant leave us. One of his best quotes, “If men do not keep on speaking terms with children, they cease to be men, and become merely machines for eating and for earning money.”
I’m a fan of M.J. Rose and actually love her book “The Reincarnationist.” I also think she’s very smart about marketing, and I wanted to note her latest article, “Is Blogging Right for You?” for Writer’s Digest here.
She has some good insight in terms of blogging and why to blog. She also highlights Seth Godin’s blog as a blog that works, but I would say his blog works for marketing Seth (and I think Seth is great) but it is not a two-way conversation because Seth doesn’t allow commenting on his blog.
And no one has to enable comments on their blog by the way, but if you’re a book author or a fiction book author, one of the ways to engage folks is to leave your comments on. Also comment on other blogs and get the blog convo happening both ways.
Look at David Meerman Scott’s blog for a good example of convo both ways. Or Toby Bloomberg’s blog. For literary agents look at Nathan Bransford’s blog. Look at how Liz Strauss does her amazing Open Mike nights on her blog. Read B.L. Ochman’s blog. Read Jennifer Robenalt’s blog.
Or my own personal favorite blogger Steve Kayser.
Whatever you do online, always make it balanced with offline even if you make your living online. You don’t need to make it 24/7.
At the end of M.J.’s article, is basically a couple of paragraphs about bloggers who’ve died in the past couple years of heart attacks, which seems to beg the question, “Can blogging kill you?”
Guess what??? It doesn’t!
Stress kills us. Smoking kills us. Not spending enough time being crazy or having fun can slowly kill us. Greed and “not enough itis” can kill us. But blogging? I don’t think it can kill you.
But just in case here are some pointers to ensure you’re a healthy blogger!
1. Don’t spend 24/7 blogging, twittering, facebooking, or on any other online shenanigans.
2. Don’t believe that to be viable or visible online you have to incessantly be communicating.
3. Don’t be a blogging-downer. Don’t post a ton of negative things on your blog or website to build yourself up.
4. Step away from the blog and go outside once in awhile.
5. Don’t engage in flame wars.
6. Reach out to like-minded folks and revel in their spirit, blog posts and take on business, life, work etc.
7. Make peace with your inbox always being a bit too full.
8. Twittering during a movie date with your husband is not kosher.
9. Be mindful that juggling too many blogs makes Jack or Jill a dull boy or girl in real life.
10. One blog at a time, one post at a time, one reader at a time and always focus on expanding your ideas and your reader’s ideas.
Great tips piece on all things Twitter, microblogging etc. on Burrelle Luce’s site via their January newsletter. Highly recommended reading!
Superb article by John Maxwell on leadership for the new year. Very insightful. Also a great example of feeding your brand and maintaining its relevance. A good Maxwell article goes a long way across the Web. Keep that example in mind as you generate your own articles and elevate your thought leadership platform.
Great story on Writer’s Digest about author William P. Young and his book, “The Shack”, very inspiring path to publishing.
I always encourage independently published authors to enter the IPPYs (Independent Book Publisher Awards) and the deadline is soon upon us! Go to this link and enter your book.
I just read an article where the author recommended “not feeding your blog entries into Twitter because they are “typically too long,” according to the article.
Actually, you can feed your blog posts into Twitter, you should do it with some catchy phrase if the blog post is useful to your Twitter followers, and you can do this from your WordPress platform easily!
Here’s the link for the plugin – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-tools/ .
By using TwitterTools you can add the option to send the feed from your blog to Twitter. Twitter actually uses tinyurl.com to reduce the link so of course it’s not posting your whole blog post (which would be too long) it’s just posting a blurb and link to the full blog post. Why would you not want to do this? (That is a rhetorical question.:>)
Here’s a sampling of recent blog posts I’ve also shared on Twitter and what they look like: (Notice, on the ones directly from my blog it says “New blog post…”)
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buzzwords that need to be retired – love this list – http://tinyurl.com/73arv2
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New blog post: MarketingSherpa best enewsletters http://tinyurl.com/9m5rd4
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New blog post: If you pitch the press… http://tinyurl.com/ax5exj
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My recommendation is that if you have a cool insight on your blog that will help other folks (and is not an “all about me” post) that you should definitely tweet it so your followers can have the opportunity to go read it on your blog in full!
A good thing always to keep in mind as well is that even though there are a giant amount of Web 2.0 tools, only use the ones that will really be of value to you and make certain you’re not setting yourself up to be in front of the computer 24/7 just managing social media tools!
Love what St. Martin is doing – very innovative and they found a wonderful person to helm it, Suzanne Beecher of DearReader.com . Check out Read-it-First.com .
If you’re an author and you want to understand how to pitch to bloggers, I highly recommend Bulldog Reporter’s conference on this. It’s at a great and affordable price point and Brian Pittman and the speakers are a stellar roundtable. (And no, I’m not an affiliate!)
Check out more information about it here.
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