1. Write news-worthy blog posts that link to major media stories and give your take on the story. Share your expertise in brief bullet-style sentences in regard to a specific media topic or story and then link that to a breaking news story. (I mean really link it, hyperlink the news story in your blog post!)

2. Put Google alerts on the blogs of the publications you most want to be covered in and make sure that at least once a week you’re posting a comment to a breaking story on their blog as well. Post authentic, honest comments that are not self-serving but add to the discussion.

3. Put Google alerts on the top two competitors/thought-leaders in your vertical and start compiling a list of publications and journalists that interview them. These are the same journalists and publications you want to make sure you’re reaching out to via social media and your blog.

BONUS! – I posted these links on my Twitter account but just in case you don’t have them. If you want to get a great free list of the media on Twitter (that takes just a bit of work to compile), you can go to the site Mediaite.com and hit their PowerGrid link and get the Twitter addresses of each person they list. (Oy vey, does it take some time? Yes! But will it save you some PR retainer fees and move you one step closer to the media? Yes!)

The new media person I’m following on Twitter is Willie Geist – http://twitter.com/williegeist1 , because I love Morning Joe and he and Mika both inspire me. Joe does too!

Now go and find the media masses!

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Let’s now look at the term bloglightenment, whichI define in this way – using your blog to enrich understanding and the spread of knowledge about your expertise, your book, your product or your market.

What it doesn’t mean is using your blog as a one way marketing conversation. I think it’s incredibly important to start defining why we’re all using the social media tools we’re using and how WE truly want to use them.

As the hype for social media usage continues to rise, so does the misuse and misapplication of these tools.

I believe you should blog the change you want to see in the world. This is the harder path to take, but ultimately it’s the more valuable one to your community and to the world.

This is not as hard as you might think it is. What bloglightenment requires is your commitment to blogging with the full intention of sharing your insight freely and openly so others can benefit from it.

Stop thinking of your blog as strictly a marketing or lead generation tool. Start using your blog to affect change in the way people relate, do business together and lift one another up.

Having been on the Web since 1996, this is the most exciting time I’ve seen because of all these tools and the very real power they bring to communicating truly on a worldwide scale.

Don’t waste one more day of your blogging content on insignificant or bait and switch marketing information. Don’t waste your community’s time by snarky blog posts. Elevate your writing and you will elevate the lives of all those who read your blog.

Take a look at your blog today and see how you can apply blog-ightenment to the content mix. Make your blog personal, meaningful and actionable.

Here are some great examples for you to look at: (Note, some include  past or current client blogs that I think are extraordinary!)

Manisha Thakor

Mark Levy

John Perkins

Toby Bloomberg

Lloyd Dangle

Mitch Ditkoff

Sam Horn

Liz Kitchens

Steve Kayser

Let these bloggers inspire you to bloglightenment! I can’t wait to read your insight!

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As a longtime journalist turned online visibility strategist I’ve seen many of my clients apply the power of their social media content to connect directly with journalists and secure media coverage.

The days of just having a traditional PR person pitching you as an expert are long passed. Unfortunately (or fortunately) the old mass pitching methods via fax, spam mail and phone do not see the uptake they once did.

When over 50% of the journalists, bloggers, and media are freelancers it’s vitally important to remember they are actively on the hunt for the next great story because that is how they will in turn get paid for a story.

That next great story could be YOU.

Over the next few weeks I’m going to share insights on how to use your content to “be the expert that shines online” to the media. I’ll also share some client wins that have come through using the processes I’m writing about.

The tips today focus around how you can use your blog content to garner media attention as well as new opportunities for contributing to larger online sites like the Huffington Post or BasilandSpice.com that feed out to many online channels.

Remember your blog content can be repurposed into all your other online channels. (Note: If you’re concerned about copyright of your blog content, then make sure you’ve registered it under the Creative Common License.)

Here are five tips you can use today to attract the media to your blog:

1. Set up google news alerts that match your expertise and and respond to at least major media article that comes through those alerts on a weekly basis. Link to the article in a blog post, and give additional insight (from your perspective) to the article’s topic. Don’t be snarky. Give actionable insight.

2. Subscribe to three enewsletters from publications that cover your topic. When you get those enewsletters make sure you read through them and see if there is a wonderful article you can cite in your own blog and again give your take on the article. Make sure to explain why it’s a useful article to your blog readership and add a couple of your own insights as well. (Extra tip: Go to the actual site the article is running on after you’ve made your blog post and comment on the article itself on the site. Always comment authentically and don’t comment just to get a link back to your site!)

3. Be a news breaker on your blog. Just like a PR person offline spends hours reading the news in your arena and trying to determine how you can comment on breaking news – you can do the same yourself and use your blog to do so. If you’re a fiction writer for instance, you might keep up with the latest sales in fiction and share your insights with your readers first!

4. Don’t leave out the local and regional! Too often we’re focused only on national blogs, media and coverage. If you start with your local coverage, articles, etc. to link to you can begin to catch the local media’s attention through your blog. Once in awhile blog “close to home” sharing some local insight or linking to your local paper. Imagine if your local paper is The Washington Post and the editor is scanning blogs for local folks to comment on business stories!

5. Stop waiting for just the right blog-bite! The longer you wait to start sharing your insight in your arena on your blog, the more the competition will outpace you. Take 30 minutes today and write up ten things you know you could effectively comment on in the news or media world. Start building some content around those on your blog.

You will succeed!

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For someone (me) who is always trying to balance the online with the offline, I feel your social media junkie pain.

You Just Might Be A Social Media Junkie if…

 1. You keep dropping a note in your collection plate at church instead of a donation. The note says, “Dear Reverend Hill – why have you not yet started a Facebook fan page for Jesus?”

2. Your wife wants you to be in therapy with her, but you’ve told her you will only do it if you can find a therapist who can dispel his/her wisdom in 140 characters or less. (length of a Twitter)

3. You’ve told your immediate and extended family that the best place for them to find out what you’re up to is on Tweetdeck. 

4. Instead of an emergency phone number on your children’s school information – you’ve posted your TwitterID account and told them that is the best way for them to reach you. (The school secretary in particular does not seem hip to the tweeting.) 

5. You volunteered for the Parent Teacher Organization group but only on a virtual level and have promised you will send tweets during the school carnival when the principal is dunked. 

6. Your Mom closed her Facebook account, because she was getting too many Fan messages from you asking her to join your Fan page. 

7. Your husband has a Google alert set up on your name and occasionally searches Google images so he can see what you looked like before you became part of your office chair. 

8. Your neighborhood bunko group has unfriended you on Facebook because they don’t much cotten to you sending status updates like, “I just kicked everyone’s butt in bunko. I’m the bunko queen and these women can’t roll a triple six if it killed them.” 

9. You tell people you and Barack Obama are very close virtually because you joined his Facebook Fan page. 

10. You found your Honors English teacher (Mrs. Whitley) on Facebook and you’re sending her blog posts to redline for you (because after all once a teacher, always a teacher.) 

11. Your husband has banned twittering, facebooking, linkedin-ing from the bedroom. 

12. Your pug starts a very high pitched noise when he sees you reach for your iPhone.

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2. Spending all your time disparaging other bloggers or your blog commenters.

3. Ranting of any kind.

4. Never asking questions of your readers.

5. Operating your blog like a clique or “inner circle” instead of openly engaging everyone who might want to chime in.

6. Not having a clear mission of what edu-focused content you want to deliver and how you want it to empower your blog visitors.

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2. Social media happens overnight and you just need a couple clever tweets to get the masses.

3. There are gurus (like Social Media Santa) that really exist and we need to be like lemmings and just do everything they say.

4. If I only post on my blog at least once a month, I know that my Google page rank will get to #10 effortlessly.

5. There is only one way to Oprah and it is only through a PR or marketing guru who wants me to listen to a ton of webinars and give them money to do so.

6. Social media can make me a celebrity – because it’s all about being a celebrity. (Hint: It’s not.)

7. I don’t have to generate useful content for my community. I only need to generate bait and switch content to get them in the door and make them buy something.

8. Social media is easy. (Hint: it’s not.)

9. Social media can cure every possible marketing pain I have.

10. Just using social media is enough, I don’t have to do any offline marketing or any other outreach.

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While it’s important to have some sort of presence on the Web, the times they are a changin, for what drives search engine mojo.

Did you know you can have a blog self-hosted on your domain that can give you the very added bonus of driving natural search engine traffic each time you post new content.

 Yes, I’ve definitely partaken of the blog Kool-aid!

 Here is a new way to look at what your site is creating for you.

Search engines love updated CONTENT and lots of it. Content is what colors the stick figure of your website and keeps the search engines coming back for more.

Think of it in terms of what search engines see. A stick figure website with no blog, no keywords, no tags, no new content, no feeds. (See Option 1 below)

Option #1 your website without a blog:

Option #2 – your website with a blog:

I think I would pick Option #2.

While you don’t have to have your entire website built on a WordPress platform – you can at least add a blog to the website so that each time you’re posting your brilliance the web crawlers are coming back to the site!

Using tags and categories for your blog posts also help you grow your search engine visibility as does linking to outside blogs! (Authentically!)

 Even if you decide to stay stick figure and not have a blog, you should still help your site along by:

 1. Submit to the ADD URL form through Google – http://www.google.com/addurl.html .

 2. Submit your site to (MSN) LIVE -

http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx . 

 3. Submit your site to Yahoo – https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit  

 Now go out there and attract those web crawlers!!

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I very rarely do not approve a comment to my blog because it’s very important to keep the communication gates open both ways and we’re all here to learn together. With that in mind, please take this lesson to heart. It is not good marketing to post a short blurb about your book in someone’s comment section of their blog. I know there are some book “marketers” and book “social media experts” who for years have touted this as a good idea. Heck, they’ve even published this suggestion in some of their own books!

However, this is never a good idea. Ever, ever, ever.

Think of it like this. What if you decided, in an effort to get more buzz out about your book, that the best possible thing you could do is spray paint the front of someone’s home with your book title and short description?

This would actually make the homeowner feel great rancor toward you and the neighborhood (her community) wouldn’t much cotten to seeing this either. They trust the homeowner to keep her home spiffy, smart and valuable!

A blog is someone’s home. People come to it and the blog author opens his/her doors to a knowledge base that will hopefully be very educational and actionable. And FREE of marketing blather including in the comment section.

With that in mind, here is the aforementioned comment I received (I’ve edited it a bit so not to expose the commenter, so anywhere you see BOLD I’ve changed it from what it actually was.)

“Shoved to the curb and left to fend on her own at the age of 14; AUTHOR NAME eventually went on to receive a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work.

But God was not welcome nor allowed to be spoken on the job… Not able to do so, AUTHOR NAME went on to work for the Archdiocese of St. Paul/ Minneapolis for 8 years.

NAME OF BOOK is a true story of AUTHOR NAME strength & perseverance. That, combined with her strong faith is what makes this story unique and a must read!

This is AUTHOR NAME first book and is currently working on her sequel… NAME OF NEW SEQUEL.”

So here’s the thing, this comment not only violates the good mojo in terms of respecting one’s home blog turf, but also it shows these three things:

1. The author has not ever read the blog she just posted a comment to.

2. The author did not actually read the blog post she posted the comment to.

3. The author is unaware of how one should post comments to a blog.

Lessons Learned:

1. Read the blog you’re going to post a comment to.

2. If you want your book reviewed or want to drive traffic to your book site – research the sites that talk about books, book reviewing and reach out to those blog editors in person through an email pitch, not through an email pitch.

Here are some good ones to check out -

a. BergersBookReviews.com – Alice Berger’s fantastic site.

b. Bookpleasures.com - Norm Goldman’s superb site. Note, on Norm’s link that he has a quick review service, but also offers a free review service.

*I posted the two examples above without the direct contact information (emails etc.)  because I’m mean and I don’t want to share. Ok…that’s not really true. I posted them like that so you could learn how easy it is to use this little free tool called the Internet, hit those sites and get the contact information on how to pitch them books very easily from their site!

To sum up: Be your own best advocate, keep pitching and swerving and building strong lists for your book, and don’t listen to everything social media book gurus advise you to do.

And in the words of one of my favorite Monty Python songs, “Always look on the bright side of life, always look on the bright side of life.” How does that apply to marketing your book? There are thousands of blogs you can find to feature your book if you’ll just stay positive, focused and in it for the long haul.

Now go and get your book out there!

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Here are 7 questions to ask yourself about how you are running your blog marathon and how well you are utilizing this long blog-race to get your message out.

Answer them to see if you really are blogging purposefully and at the best possible level of empowering a community with your insight.

1. Do I wait until the last possible moment to blog about something or do I treat my blog as if it really can change the world and make certain I blog the change I want to see in the world?

2. Do I blog with envy or do I blog with abundance? Do I understand it’s a marathon not a sprint and I’m not a viral marketer of ideas, I’m an idea-marathoner?

3. Do I celebrate other bloggers’ successes and insights by featuring links to them on my site and my blog?

4. Do I encourage my community to run the marathon with me by blogging questions openly and know that each commenter can contribute to a greater discussion?

5. Is my blog a “have to” or a “can’t but not” blog? Do I view it as a terrible task to get through or do I see it as an immense conduit for expression and empowerment of my community?

6. Do I have a mission statement for my blog? Do I know what I want to engender with my blog content?

7. Do I understand that I’m not blogging just to gain attention, but rather to educate, inform and elevate?

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Not only will a mind map program help you improve your creativity, but it’s a fantastic blog brainstorming tool.

One of the best free tools out there to do this is Bubble.us, which lets you create a map, share a map and embed one in your blog, website or emails.

You can also choose Mindomo.com – which offers free 7 private maps.

I encourage you to look at these and incorporate them early on before you even launch your blog. There’s nothing worse than having a blog that yakkity-yaks with no direction and lacks strong content for your burgeoning community.

Speaking of yakkity-yak, make sure your blog is not solely focused on you and your yakking. In the South, the person who is yakking the most in the center of the room, usually is also the one everyone tries to avoid by the end of the night. Don’t be that blog-yakker.

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1. The more you post, the more your blog visibility grows. Posting good content keeps the search engines happy and helps drive more traffic to your blog.

2. If you’ll commit to posting on a regular schedule (at least three times a week) for 52 weeks (a year) then before you know it, you’ll have a community depending on you as a perennial resource.

3. Keywords and tags add up over a year’s worth of blog posts and they help drive search engine traffic.

4. If you’ll post for a year, you’ll have an amazing library of content that you can repackage and repurpose for an ebook or another digital offering.

5. The more you comment on other blogs and link to them in your posts, the more you’ll expand your online footprint.

6. Your blog can connect you directly with new peers, partners and potential customers.

7. Your ideas matter and who better to blog about them then you?

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